C.P. Cavafy

As you set out for Ithaca
Hope your road is a long one,
Full of adventure, full of discovery…
Keep Ithaca always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
So you’re old by the time you reach the island,
Wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
Not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.
Ithaca will give you the marvellous journey.
Without her you wouldn’t have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaca won’t have fooled you.
Wise you have become, so full of experience,
You’ll have understood by then what these Ithacas mean.

From 101 Poems to get you through the day (and night) (Harper Collins)

Anonymous

If children live with criticism
They learn to condemn

If children live with hostility
They learn to fight

If children live with shame
They learn to feel guilty

If children live with tolerance
They learn to be patient

If children live with encouragement
They learn confidence

If children live with praise
They learn to appreciate

If children live with fairness
They learn justice

If children live with security
They learn to have faith

If children live with approval
They learn to like themselves

If children live with acceptance and friendship
They learn to find love in the world

From 101 Poems to get you through the day (and night) (Harper Collins)

Nelson Mandela

‘Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness; that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves:  “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,talented fabulous?”
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of ‘the world’. 
Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking 
so that other people around you won’t feel insecure. 
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We are born to manifest the glory of ‘the world’ that is within us.
It is not just in some of us,  it is in everyone. 
And as we let our light shine, 
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, 
our presence automatically liberates others”.

Originally written by Marianne Williamson. I have used the version here with the words ‘the world’ supplemented for ‘God’ in the original.