law, reputation and optimism

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.
~ Martin Luther King Jr.

You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.
~ Henry Ford

The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser - in case you thought optimism was dead.
~ Robert Brault