Unless you have prepared yourself to profit by your chance, the opportunity will only make you ridiculous. A great occasion is valuable to you just in proportion as you have educated yourself to make use of it. – Orison Swett Marden

Lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us, footprints on the sands of time. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

What is most important for democracy is not that great fortunes should not exist, but that great fortunes should not remain in the same hands. In that way there are rich men, but they do not form a class. – Alexis de Tocqueville