The End of 2013 Is Nigh: 10 Inspirational Quotes for Attorneys

With 2013 coming to a close, you may be reflecting upon your dreams and disappointments, your ambitions and your inertia. Nothing nourishes such reflection quite like inspirational quotes.

Here are 10 inspirational quotes for attorneys and law students:

1. On making a career change: "If you focus on the risks, they'll multiply in your mind and eventually paralyze you. You want to focus on the task, instead, on doing what needs to be done." -- Barry Eisler, lawyer/novelist.
2. On fear: "If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try." -- Seth Godin, author/entrepreneur.
3. On failure: "When s**t brings you down, just say 'f**k it', and eat yourself some motherfu**ing candy." -- David Sedaris, humorist/author, "Me Talk Pretty One Day."
4. On success: "Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again." -- Nelson Mandela.
5. On work-life balance: "The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day." -- David Foster Wallace, "This Is Water."
6. On women in the workplace: "When faced with sexism, or ageism, or lookism, or even really aggressive Buddhism, ask yourself the following question: 'Is this person in between me and what I want to do?' If the answer is no, ignore it and move on. Your energy is better used doing your work and outpacing people that way. Then, when you're in charge, don't hire the people who were jerky to you." -- Tina Fey, "Bossypants."
7. On goals: "Goals are dreams with deadlines." -- Diana Scharf Hunt, author and time-management expert.
8. On libations: "We were not a hugging people. In terms of emotional comfort it was our belief that no amount of physical contact could match the healing powers of a well made cocktail." -- David Sedaris, "Naked."
9. On playing it safe: "There is no passion to be found playing small -- in settling for a life that is less than you are capable of living." -- Nelson Mandela.
10. On 2014: "The past is always tense, the future perfect." -- Zadie Smith, novelist.

As the late writer Arthur Ward once said, "Today's patience can transform yesterday's discouragements into tomorrow's discoveries. Today's purposes can turn yesterday's defeats into tomorrow's determination."

Happy (almost) New Year!

Related Resources:

• It's the Climb: Goal Setting for Law School (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)
• Top 3 New Year's Resolutions for BigLaw Associates (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)
• What's Going to Kill You? If Not Work, Is it the Loneliness? (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)
• New Year's Resolutions for Small Firm Lawyers (FindLaw's Strategist)