“Anybody can be a victim, and anybody can flog themselves. Big fucking deal. But you put one foot on a ladder and climb to the next rung. Then you've done something. Then you've made a difference. And then what happens matters. Otherwise, it's just old news, and nobody wants to hear about it.”

“Don't be like anybody else. Be different. Then you can make a contribution. Otherwise, you just echo something; you're just a reflection.”

“I don't think anybody's necessarily ready for death. You can only hope that when it approaches, you feel like you've said what you wanted to say. Nobody wants to go out in mid-sentence.”

“Will you just stand on the foot of a high mountain and look at it with admiration or climb the top and be the admired itself? Remember that anybody can be an admirer; but the difficult thing is to be the admired one!”

“At the end of the day, it's not about what you have or even what you've accomplished. It's about what you've done with those accomplishments. Its about who you've lifted up, who you've made better. It about what you've given back" (23).”

“It's not about what you've done; it's how you've experienced whatever has happened to you. Matt Lawrence in The Overachievers”