David Brin

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

As we advance in life we learn the limits of our abilities.

The achievement of one goal should be the starting point of another.

The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them.

There is safety in small beginnings and there is unlimited capital in the experience gained by growing.

In the 80s, when I was a little girl, this whole Midtown area was a different world. These are the streets that I walked, and learned my lessons on, and heard the music, and witnessed disenfranchised people, and people who just had dreams and hopes. Every pimp, every prostitute, every drug dealer, every Broadway dreamer wishing they could be a writer, or a musician, or an actor.

When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work.

I attribute whatever I may have been able to accomplish in life far more to my wife than to anything else and to everything else put together. But I cannot flatter myself that I found her because I was a ‘good picker’, I believe profoundly that we are guided, led, in such momentous matters.

When you get emotional, slow your thoughts down, and listen attentively (write it down). That way, you’ll be able to hear what you are thinking. You do this becoming very still and very quiet, and recording your thoughts. These high-speed thoughts and internal reactions always precede your feelings and emotions. Trust me, you did tell yourself something if you now feel anger, mad, anxious, frustrated, sad or depressed. From now on, whenever you get upset, listen ever so carefully, to what you are telling yourself.

To cease smoking is the easiest thing I ever did; I ought to know because I’ve done it a thousand times.

It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.

Everything in life I’ve worked hard for; what makes you think I’d do you different?

The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.

But to do for the world more than the world does for you, that is Success.

It is difference of opinion that makes horse races.