"It is hard work to control the workings of inclination and turn the bent of nature; but that it may be done, I know from experience. God has given us, in a measure, the power to make our own fate: and when our energies seem to demand a sustenance they cannot get--when our will strains after a path we may not follow--we need neither starve from inanition, not stand still in despair: we have but to seek another nourishment for the mind, as strong as the forbidden fruit it longed to taste--and perhaps purer; and to hew out for the adventurous foot a road as direct and broad as the one Fortune has blocked up against us, if rougher than it."
- Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre 

"The biggest changes in a women's nature are brought by love; in man, by ambition."
- Rabindranath Tagore

"In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful."
- Alice Walker

"If you look closely at a tree you'll notice its knots and dead branches, just like our bodies. What we learn is that beauty and inperfection go together wonderfully."
- Matthew Fox

All things bright and beautiful....

"In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they are still beautiful."
- Alice Walker

"I think the key to life is just being a happy person, and happiness will bring you success."
- Diego Val

"The greater part of happiness depends on our dispositions, and not our circumstances."
- Martha Washington

"You need to be happy by nature, because you'll seldom have the chance to be happy by circumstance."
- Lavetta Sue Wegman

Are some people happy by nature?