"God pity them both! and pity us all, Who vainly the dreams of youth recall. For of all the sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: ‘It might have been.’  Maud Miller by John Greenleaf Whittier

"Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced or cried aloud. Under the bludgeoning of chance My head is bloody but unbowed."  Invictus by William Ernest Henley

"The moving finger writes, and, having writ, Moves on; nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a line, Nor all your Tears wash out a word of it." The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Edward Fitzgerald

"Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light." Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night by Dylan Thomas

"All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts." All the world’s a stage by William Shakespeare

"Life is a game of whist, From unseen sources The cards are shuffled and the hands are dealt; Blind are our efforts to control the forces That, though unseen, are no less strongly felt. I do not like the Way the cards are shuffled, But yet I like the game and want to play; And through the long night will I, unruffled, Play what I get until the break of day." Whist by Eugene Fitch Ware

"Let every game’s end find you still upon the battling line; For when the One Great Scorer comes to Mark against your name, He writes – not that you worn or lost – but how you played the game."  Alumnus Football by Grantland Rice

"Laugh and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone, For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, but has trouble enough of its own….There is room in the halls of pleasure For a long and lordly train, But one by one we must all file on Through the narrow aisles of pain."  Solitude by Ella Wheeler Wilcox