“To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a little better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition, to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

Attributed, perhaps wrongly, to R.W. Emerson. A similar quotation was written in 1905 by a Bessie Stanley, and the development of the above quote (and its attribution to Emerson) is a mystery to me. But I love it anyway.