Oprah Magazine on Words to Live By

Read an excerpt from 'Words That Matter'

ByABC News via logo
April 12, 2009, 5:43 PM

April 12, 2010 — -- In honor of the 10th anniversary of Oprah magazine, the editors compiled inspirational quotes from people such luminaries as Virgil, Martin Luther King Jr. and Cecil Beaton to create "Words That Matter."

Check out an excerpt of the book below, then head to the "GMA" Library for other great reads.

Dreaming Big, Becoming Brave

"Be daring, be different, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers..." — Cecil Beaton, photographer

"Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how...We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark." — Agnes de Mille, dancer

"Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome." — Arthur Ashe, tennis champion

"Years ago I was in the parking lot across the street from Spago, I could see the stars with their Oscars going into the after party. I said to myself, 'I want to do that one day' . . . After I got the Oscar and walked offstage, I said to Kevin [Kline], 'Did that just happen?' It felt like I fell asleep in the mail room and I was going to wake up and find out it was all a dream."—Denzel Washington, actor

"My mother and father were poor, and when I turned pro, I started making money . . . I wasn't thinking of being the greatest. But I knew I had a chance. And when I won at the Olympics, that sealed it: I was the champ." —Muhammad Ali, former heavyweight champion boxer

"Nothing really worth having is easy to get. The hard-fought battles, the goals won with sacrifice, are the ones that matter."—Aisha Tyler, actress and comedian

"Fortune helps those who dare." —Virgil, poet

"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last you create what you will." —George Bernard Shaw, playwright

Connecting: Love, Sex, Friendship and Family

"All intimacy is rare—that's what makes it precious." —Amy Bloom, author

"Being a good husband is like being a good stand-up comic—you need ten years before you can even call yourself a beginner." —Jerry Seinfeld, comedian