Shonda Rhimes

You can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them.

You are what you think about all day long.

When it comes to money, the only skill most people know is to work hard.

In God we trust; all others bring data.

I’m competitive, and I love to create challenges for myself. Maybe that’s not always a good thing. It can make life complicated.

For all the hard times and tough challenges I faced during different periods of my life, I think I was lucky or blessed or both. When things looked bleak, a good guide would appear to set me straight. Someone once asked me about the villains who got in my way, the bad guys who wanted to trip me up or take me out. I don’t remember any. Maybe it’s my nature to remember the good and forget the bad, or maybe it’s my destiny to lock onto the righteous for help.

If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants.

We must become bigger than we have been: more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the human community.

There are no guarantees, but being ready sure beats being taken by surprise.

And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here.

A habit is like a cable: we weave a thread of it everyday, and at last we cannot break it – so we must form good, positive, and productive habits.

I’ve never been terribly interested in why people give, because their motivation is rarely what it seems to be, and it’s almost never true altruism.

When you encourage others, you in the process are encouraged because you’re making a commitment and difference in that person’s life. Encouragement really does make a difference.

If you eat a frog first thing in the morning, the rest of your day will be wonderful.

Don’t become a wandering generality. Be a meaningful specific.

Put all excuses aside and remember this: You are capable.