Some words to think about when you're discouraged:

"Get a day job." - said by a publisher to J.K. Rowling after she had already encountered 12 rejections of her novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which spawned a series that has gone on to sell over 450 million copies.

"It is so badly written." - Said by a rejecting publisher about Dan Brown's novel The DaVinci Code, which has sold 80 million copies.

"Too different from other juveniles on the market to warrant its selling." - From a rejection slip sent to Dr. Seuss, who has racked up 300 million in sales and become the ninth best selling fiction author of all time.

"I recommend that it be buried under a stone for a thousand years." - Said by a potential publisher about Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita which has sold 50 million copies.

"The girl doesn't, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the 'curiosity' level." - From one of 15 rejections of the Diary of Anne Frank, which has sold over 25 million copies and long after it's first printing still speaks to girls around the world.

If these superstars collect that many crushing failures, it's only natural that we will collect a few too.

Preparedness

"Those who prepared for all the emergencies of life beforehand may equip themselves at the expense of joy." - E. M. Forster

"When you have to go to the bathroom, it's too lat...

"When you have to go to the bathroom, it's too late to build a latrine." - Chagdud Rinpoche

Mistakes

"A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." - George Bernard Shaw

"Nothing will content him who is not content with ...

"Nothing will content him who is not content with little." - Greek proverb

Owning our Power

"Bad companions or not, no one can force us to do anything without our consent. Every day may bring dozens of invitations to cynicism, negativity, self-pity, stinking thinking - but we can turn them down. If we accept, however, we have only ourselves to blame

... We are the ones with both the bad habits that need to be overcome and the power to overcome them. It is we, not anyone else, who hold the key to all that power." - Ernie Larsen and Carol Hegarty