Inspirational quotes

„Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.“

—  Ralph Waldo Emerson American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803 - 1882

„Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.“

—  Erica Jong Novelist, poet, memoirist, critic 1942

„Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late. “

—  Benjamin Franklin American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, a… 1706 - 1790

„If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.“

—  Dolly Parton American singer-songwriter and actress 1946

„You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.“

—  Eleanor Roosevelt American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States 1884 - 1962

Source: You Learn by Living (1960), p. 29–30
Context: You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." … You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

„Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.“

—  Ella Fitzgerald American jazz singer 1917 - 1996

„This life is what you make it. No matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you're going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends - they'll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world. As for lovers, well, they'll come and go too. And baby, I hate to say it, most of them - actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can't give up because if you give up, you'll never find your soulmate. You'll never find that half who makes you whole and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once, doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.“

—  Marilyn Monroe American actress, model, and singer 1926 - 1962

„Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.“

—  Martin Luther King, Jr. American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement 1929 - 1968

'Where Do We Go From Here?" as published in Where Do We Go from Here : Chaos or Community? (1967), p. 62; many statements in this book, or slight variants of them, were also part of his address Where Do We Go From Here?" which has a section below. A common variant appearing at least as early as 1968 has "Returning violence for violence multiplies violence..." An early version of the speech as published in A Martin Luther King Treasury (1964), p. 173, has : "Returning hate for hate multiplies hate..."
1960s
Source: A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
Context: The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. … Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

„We accept the love we think we deserve.“

—  Stephen Chbosky, book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

„The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart“

—  Helen Keller American author and political activist 1880 - 1968

Variant: The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.

„Become such as you are, having learned what that is“

—  Pindar Ancient Greek poet -517 - -437 BC

Pythian 2, line 72.
Variant translations:
Be what you know you are
Be true to thyself now that thou hast learnt what manner of man thou art
Having learned, become who you are
Original: (el) γένοι' οἷος ἐσσὶ μαθών

„Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.“

—  Emily Dickinson American poet 1830 - 1886

„Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.“

—  Peter F. Drucker American business consultant 1909 - 2005

„Life would be tragic if it weren't funny.“

—  Stephen Hawking British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author 1942 - 2018

As quoted in "The Science of Second-Guessing", The New York Times (12 December 2004)

„There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is.“

—  Albert Einstein German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity 1879 - 1955

As quoted in Journal of France and Germany (1942–1944) by Gilbert Fowler White, in excerpt published in Living with Nature's Extremes: The Life of Gilbert Fowler White (2006) by Robert E. Hinshaw, p. 62. From the context http://books.google.com/books?id=_2qfZRp9SeEC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA62#v=onepage&q&f=false it seems that White did not specify whether he had heard Einstein himself say this or whether he was repeating a quote that had been passed along by someone else, so without a primary source the validity of this quote should be considered questionable.
Some have argued that elsewhere Einstein defined a "miracle" as a type of event he did not believe was possible—Einstein on Religion by Max Jammer (1999) quotes on p. 89 from a 1931 conversation Einstein had with David Reichinstein, where Reichinstein brought up philosopher Arthur Liebert's argument that the indeterminism of quantum mechanics might allow for the possibility of miracles, and Einstein replied that Liebert's argument dealt "with a domain in which lawful rationality [determinism] does not exist. A 'miracle,' however, is an exception from lawfulness; hence, there where lawfulness does not exist, also its exception, i.e., a miracle, cannot exist." ("Dort, wo eine Gesetzmässigkeit nicht vorhanden ist, kann auch ihre Ausnahme, d.h. ein Wunder, nicht existieren." D. Reichenstein, Die Religion der Gebildeten (1941), p. 21). However, it is clear from the context that Einstein was stating only that miracles cannot exist in a domain (quantum mechanics) where lawful rationality does not exist. He did not claim that miracles could never exist in any domain. Indeed, Einstein clearly believed, as seen in many quotations above, that the universe was comprehensible and rational, but he also described this characteristic of the universe as a "miracle". In another example, he is quoted as claiming belief in a God, "Who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world."
As quoted in From Yale to Jail: The Life Story of a Moral Dissenter (1993) by David T. Dellinger, p. 418
Disputed
Variant: There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
Variant: There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

„Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.“

—  Maya Angelou, book Letter to My Daughter

Variant: Be a rainbow in somebody else's cloud.
Source: Letter to My Daughter

„Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.“

—  Walt Whitman American poet, essayist and journalist 1819 - 1892

This has become attributed to both Walt Whitman and Helen Keller, but has not been found in either of their published works, and variations of the quote are listed as a proverb commonly used in both the US and Canada in A Dictionary of American Proverbs (1992), edited by Wolfgang Mieder, Kelsie B. Harder and Stewart A. Kingsbury.
Misattributed

„Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.“

—  Michael Jordan American retired professional basketball player and businessman 1963

Variant: Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, and others make it happen.

„The power of imagination makes us infinite.“

—  John Muir Scottish-born American naturalist and author 1838 - 1914

1 September 1875, page 226
John of the Mountains, 1938
Context: How infinitely superior to our physical senses are those of the mind! The spiritual eye sees not only rivers of water but of air. It sees the crystals of the rock in rapid sympathetic motion, giving enthusiastic obedience to the sun's rays, then sinking back to rest in the night. The whole world is in motion to the center. So also sounds. We hear only woodpeckers and squirrels and the rush of turbulent streams. But imagination gives us the sweet music of tiniest insect wings, enables us to hear, all round the world, the vibration of every needle, the waving of every bole and branch, the sound of stars in circulation like particles in the blood. The Sierra canyons are full of avalanche debris — we hear them boom again, for we read past sounds from present conditions. Again we hear the earthquake rock-falls. Imagination is usually regarded as a synonym for the unreal. Yet is true imagination healthful and real, no more likely to mislead than the coarser senses. Indeed, the power of imagination makes us infinite.