"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. "
— Thomas A. Edison

"Certainty of death, small chance of success... well, what're we waiting for?

(From The Lord of the Rings screenplay by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens; incorrectly attributed to JRR Tolkien)"
— J.R.R. Tolkien

"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."
— J.R.R. Tolkien (The Fellowship of the Ring)

"Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration."
— Thomas A. Edison

"Negative results are just what I want. They’re just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t."
— Thomas A. Edison

"The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak becomes a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong."
— Thomas Carlyle

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."
— Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey)