When I was teaching high school, I used to write a quote on the blackboard every morning for my students to contemplate.  Of course, many of the kids ignored them (after making sure they wouldn’t be tested over them).  Some students copied them down, but most just read them and made an occasional comment.
The quotes ranged from being profoundly philosophical to mildly humorous, but always thought provoking.  Every year, at least one or two students would ask where I got them.  The truth is that I’ve been collecting them my entire life.  I still do.  Whether I hear something in a church service or read something in a book that impacts me, I jot it down on whatever I have handy and take it home to my “quotes” file.   Here are some of my personal favorites.  I hope they cramp your cranium a little bit.
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
“Attitude is everything.”   “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.”   “Make your ambition match your vision.”
“All music is only a sweet striving to express character.”   “God is only as small as you make him.”   “Life is meant to live, not prepare to live.”
“Some days you’re the pigeon, and some days you’re the statue.”
“The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it’s the same problem you had last year.”  “I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.”   “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams;  live the life you have imagined.”   “Bloom where you are planted.”   “Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.  I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.”
These quotes came from great thinkers like Thoreau, Louisa Alcott, Eleanor Roosevelt and others.  I don’t know how many of my students have remembered any of them over the years  (some of those kids couldn’t retain anything but water).  But if at least one of them was challenged by some tidbit of wisdom I wrote on that board, it was well worth the effort.  And it was very gratifying when one of those students ended her valedictory address with one of the quotes from my old blackboard.   “Shoot for the moon.  Even if you miss, you’ll be among the stars.”  Great advice for all of us.
Thanks for giving me a moment of your time.