Lao Tzu: "Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner."

Be gentle with yourself on hard days. You're doing your best.

I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.

If you really want things in life to happen, you have to make them happen yourself. You can't sit around and hope that somebody will help you, you have to make your own future and not think that your destiny is just going to happen.