What is your motto?

This one prompted me to think of a long train of trite phrases and clever one-liners I’ve read and heard over the years, most of them good advice and satisfying to contemplate as rules to try to live by. I have a big list from which to choose because aphorisms and quotes have long been an interest. However, all but one seem narrow and pretentious. The only one that feels right is this: “The winner is always someone who didn’t quit.”

Calvin Coolidge put it this way: Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.