What is your motto which most closely sums up what you and your life is about?

“What if a demon were to creep after you one night, in your loneliest loneliness, and say, ‘This life which you live must be lived by you once again and innumerable times more; and every pain and joy and thought and sigh must come again to you, all in the same sequence. The eternal hourglass will again and again be turned and you with it, dust of the dust!’ Would you throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse that demon? Or would you answer, ‘Never have I heard anything more divine’?”
~Nietzsche

Or, as Lord Dunsany put it…

“Then said Fate to Chance: “Let us play our old game again.” And they played it again together, using the gods as pieces, as they had played it oft before. So that those things which have been shall all be again, and under the same bank in the same land a sudden glare of sunlight on the same spring day shall bring the same daffodil to bloom once more and the same child shall pick it, and not regretted shall be the billion years that fell between.

And the same old faces shall be seen again, yet not bereaved of their familiar haunts. And you and I shall in a garden meet again upon an afternoon in summer when the sun stands midway between his zenith and the sea, where we met oft before. For Fate and Chance play but one game together with every move the same, and they play it oft to while eternity away.”

Do the best you can.

Every breathing day is a chance. Don’t f*#ck it up.

Never give up.

La-dee-da!

Just be glad to be.

or

You must have a plan. If you don’t have a plan, you will become part of somebody else’s plan.

If you wanna fly you gotta give up the shit that weighs you down.

“Protect your landbase; you can’t have sex without it.” – Derrick Jensen

“Dismantle Globally, Renew Locally.” – also Jensen

Search daily for something, just anything, that’s positive and you’ll probably find something.

When somebody tells you nothing is impossible, ask him to dribble a football.

“Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.”

Mary Poppins

“Walk your talk”

vs.

“I do the best by me while doing the least harm to others as I make my way.”

For every joy there is a price to be paid.

C’est la vie.

Every experience can teach me something. And no learning is ever a waste: sooner or later, I’ll use everything I know.

It’s easier to get forgiveness than permission.

@lillycoyote, is that really what you live by? It says do anything you want, no matter what rules you break or whom you injure, and then just say you’re sorry afterward. How does that work for you, in practice?

“I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul”
“What can you do to better yourself today?”
and: “Your opponent got better today, did you?”

No my darling @Jeruba, don’t worry, I am made of better stuff than that. I was just joking; being a little glib. I would have resisted the urge to be whimsical if I had known it would cause you concern about my moral and ethical compass, my friend.

@lillycoyote That is my FIL’s actual life motto. Sad to say he believes living passive aggressively hurts no one

<Whew> I wasn’t amazed that someone said that, @lillycoyote, but I was amazed that it was you.

I’m not going to leave you hanging @Jeruba. Here are a couple of my real mottos:

Choose your battles. There are more than enough jackasses, morons, thieves, liars and people who are just no damn good in the world; enough minor injustices and small snubs to keep you angry and bitter and riled up 24 hours a day, 7 days a week if you let it. Don’t sweat the small stuff, but it’s not all small stuff; learn to tell the difference. Fight the good fights; let the rest of it go.

And this one, from my father:

Don’t wallow in regret; don’t ruminate over past mistakes. Learn from them if you can, but chances are you did the best you could with the information and the abilities you had at the time. That’s all anyone can ask or expect.

Hold on and enjoy the ride!

The way to do is to be- Lao Tzu

Do be do be do- Frank Sinatra

Wasn’t me.

And @Jeruba, if you need more assurance that your friendship and faith in me has not been misplaced here is another of my mottos:

“Before you speak, think – Is it necessary? Is it true? Is it kind? Will it hurt anyone? Will it improve on the silence?”

Sri Sathya Sai Baba

I like to quote the original so it can’t be so easily dismissed as some naive bit of nonsense your mother said to you when you were a kid.

Will it improve on the silence?

That is the key phrase, the central issue to consider, before any of us speak, I think.

Don’t let yesterday take up to much of today.

I’ve got a few:

Question Authority.

Never complain; never explain.

Any day that I can get out of bed in the morning is a great day. I temper that with: Any day that I have to get out of bed in the morning, well, how good can that be, really?