Salvador Dalí never lacked self-confidence. His flamboyant style and eccentricities were fundamental to his public persona, and he often declared himself the greatest artist of modern times. “Every morning upon awakening,” he famously said, “I experience a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dalí, and I ask myself, wonderstruck, what prodigious thing will he do today.” His public image often distracted from the fact that he was an artist of incredible talent, and Dalí talked about art and life in a very meaningful manner. While never self-effacing, he admitted that, like anyone, he made mistakes. “Never try to correct them,” he wrote. “On the contrary: Rationalize them, understand them thoroughly. After that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them.” 

Publius Vergilius Maro, better known as Virgil, was an ancient Roman poet and a true heavyweight when it comes to quotability. His three major poems — the “Eclogues,” the “Georgics,” and the epic “Aeneid” — gave us many popular phrases, including “time flies,” “love conquers all,” and “fortune favors the bold.” His most famous poem, the “Aeneid,” tells the tale of Aeneas, a Trojan who escaped the fall of Troy before — to cut a very long story short — making his way to Italy to ultimately become the ancestor of the Romans. Aeneas speaks the line, “Endure, and keep yourselves for days of happiness,” in an effort to encourage his men after a series of encounters with monsters, whirlpools, and storms. Like so many of Virgil’s lines, it’s a beautiful and timeless sentiment, a call to hold out hope and persist in the face of challenges.