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According to Oscar Wilde, we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. What does this mean to you? To me, it resonated straight away, and I thought it meant that we all find ourselves in bad positions; but while we're there it's how we look at things. There is always a brighter side. Even in the gutter you've got a nice view. All you have to do is look up.

Thomas Edison, the inventor of many devices, but most famously the motion picture camera and the light bulb once said that he has not failed. He had just found 10,000 ways that invention won't work. I love this outlook. And it is very true. You can look at your mistakes as failures, or you can view them as learning ventures. You have not failed if you have learned from the experience of going the wrong way. It's all a journey really. If we got things right immediately we would not learn a thing. And life could become pretty boring.

Mahatma Ghandi told us to be the change we wish to see in the world. A lot of us do want to change the world and make things better, or at least see things change; but most of the time feel powerless and ineffectual. But what he was trying to say is quite powerful. If we each changed ourselves in accordance with what we thought would be good for all to do, there would be a change in the world. We do have an effect on others each and every day, so let's make it a good one, and there will be a domino affect that will ricochet out into the world.

The longest serving First Lady of the United States and civil rights activist Eleanor Roosevelt said that no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. She said this during the time of the African American Civil Rights Movement, and it meant a lot to so many people during such a hard time when people were fighting for their right to be treated equally; a time when some people's views were so narrow minded and cruel. But it still rings true to this day in many other ways. What I take from this is that other people's opinions or perception of who I am or what I am worth is not up to them. That is my decision, and no one other than myself can belittle me. If you allow it, that is when it is so.

Screenwriter, novelist and Oscar nominee William Nicholson said we read to know that we are not alone. And yes, thinking about it now I see that this is true. And how wonderful is it to pick up a book that takes you into another place and introduces you to characters who allow you in to their most private places. Characters who tell you their secrets. Secrets you just happen to have yourself. You do feel less alone. Writing and reading is such a private thing. I am so grateful to whosoever wishes to share their tale.

We have so much beautiful, intelligent and enriching advice from brilliant minds who have lived throughout time available to us. And thank you to these people we now have the technology and rights or ideas that they worked so hard for in order for us to enjoy much better lives than what was available to them at the time. We should use this.

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And you are the one who'll decide where to go. - Dr Seuss

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