Fun Monday - Quotable quotes and words that inspire.

This is Robin's assignment for us all - ...please share words that inspire and motivate you--brief or bloviatory, silly or serious, from great world leaders to last night's Comedy Central...from a Hallmark greeting card to your favorite book. Choose one, choose many; let the quotes stand on their own or tell where you first read or heard them and how they affected you. There's a lot of leeway with how this topic can be handled.

Now, I have a confession, I love quotes, not the Hallmark sort, more the historical type.

Here's some simple ones:

"Be always sure you are right, then go ahead."-Davy Crockett 1786-1836

"Being there (America) was like being in heaven without going to all the bother and expense of dying." - P. G. Wodehouse 1881-1975, an Englishman

"I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks." – Daniel Boone 1734-1820

And you gotta love Feynman:

"Physics is like sex ... it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it." - Richard Feynman 1918-1988

Then there's Marx:

"Marriage is a wonderful institution. That is, if you like living in an institution."

"I never forget a face, but in your case, I'll make an exception."

"I don't care to belong to any club that will have me as a member."

-Groucho Marx 1890-1977

The profound:

"Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven." -Rabindranath Tagore, poet, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941)

"In every child who is born under no matter what circumstances and of no matter what parents, the potentiality of the human race is born again, and in him, too, once more, and each of us, our terrific responsibility toward human life: toward the utmost idea of goodness, of the horror of terrorism, and of God." -James Agee, author 1909-1955

"The safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts." -C. S. Lewis 1898-1963

The literary:

"I have studied it often, but I never could discover the plot." -Mark Twain, author and humorist, on dictionary (1835-1910)

A closed mind is like a closed book: just a block of wood. -Chinese Proverb

"When I feel inclined to read poetry, I take down my dictionary. The poetry of words is quite as beautiful as the poetry of sentences. The author may arrange the gems effectively, but their shape and lustre have been given by the attrition of ages." -Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., writer and physician (1809-1894)

"Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing."

and

"Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." - E. L. Doctorow writer 1931-