A few words of wisdom for the start of 2018.

Perhaps the luck is in finding the four leaf clover and have to make your own luck rather than find it in a field. – Terry Kruse

Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right. – Henry Ford

Creativity is intelligence having fun. – Albert Einstein

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. – Walt Disney

For every reason it’s not possible, there are hundreds of people who have faced the same circumstances and succeeded. – Jack Canfield

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty. – Winston Churchill

You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. – Zig Ziglar

If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you. – Steve Jobs

Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out. – John Wooden

Nothing is impossible, the word itself says “I’m possible”! — Audrey Hepburn

If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough. —Oprah Winfrey

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Wishing is not enough; we must do. – Johann Worfgang

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. – William Arthur Ward

I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. —Jimmy Dean

Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. — Les Brown

Do or do not. There is no try. —Yoda

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbour, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover. —Mark Twain

Change your thoughts and you change your world. — Norman Vincent Peale

I would rather die of passion than of boredom. — Vincent van Gogh

If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on. — Sheryl Sandberg

Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture the heart. — Ancient Indian Proverb

When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us. — Helen Keller

If you count all your assets, you always show a profit. – Robert Quillen

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. – Robert Brault

Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity… it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. – Melody Beattie

The world has enough beautiful mountains and meadows, spectacular skies and serene lakes. It has enough lush forests, flowered fields, and sandy beaches. It has plenty of stars and the promise of a new sunrise and sunset every day. What the world needs more of is people to appreciate and enjoy it. – Michael Josephson

Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves, and spend without fear of bankruptcy. –  Fred De Witt Van Amburgh

The way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement. – Charles Schwab

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. – Epictetus

At times, our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. –  Albert Schweitzer

You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around. – Willie Nelson

Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out. – John Wooden

Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude. – A.A. Milne

Forget yesterday – it has already forgotten you. Don’t sweat tomorrow –  you haven’t even met. Instead, open your eyes and your heart to a truly precious gift today. – Steve Maraboli

Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well. – Voltaire

We should certainly count our blessings, but we should also make our blessings count. – Neal A. Maxwell

The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you. – John E. Southard

Gratitude also opens your eyes to the limitless potential of the universe, while dissatisfaction closes your eyes to it. – Stephen Richards

In life, one has a choice to take one of two paths: to wait for some special day – or to celebrate each special day. – Rasheed Ogunlaru

This a wonderful day. I’ve never seen this one before. – Maya Angelou

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. – Melody Beattie

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. ― William Arthur Ward

Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves, and spend without fear of bankruptcy. – Fred De Witt Van Amburgh

Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings. — William Arthur Ward

If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to get.— Frank A. Clark

Some people grumble that roses have thorns; I am grateful that thorns have roses. —  Alphonse Karr

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. — Albert Einstein

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. – Andy Warhol

and for the artist in me..

Inspiration does exist but it must find you working. – Pablo Picasso 

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. – Thomas Merton

Art is the only way to run away without leaving home. – Twyla Tharp

A Good artist has less time than ideas. – Martin Kippenberger

The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity. – Alberto Giacometti 

The longer you look at an object, the more abstract it becomes, and, ironically, the more real. – Lucian Freud 

If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all. – Michelangelo 

To send light into the darkness of men’s hearts – such is the duty of the artist. – Schumann 

It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to, the feeling for the things themselves, for reality, is more important than the feeling for pictures. – Vincent Van Gogh 

Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it. – Andy Warhol

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream. – Vincent Van Gogh

The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable. – Robert Henri 

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures. –  Henry Ward Beecher