Joan Rivers, who passed away at the age of 81 Thursday, made us laugh for decades, below are some of her words.

1.Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is God's gift, that's why we call it the present.


2.I enjoy life when things are happening. I don't care if it's good things or bad things. That means you're alive. Things are happening.

3.I've had so much plastic surgery, when I die they will donate my body to Tupperware.


4.I've learned from my dealings with Johnny Carson that no matter what kind of friendship you think you have with people you're working with, when the chips are down, it's all about business.

5.Don't tell your kids you had an easy birth or they won't respect you. For years I used to wake up my daughter and say, 'Melissa you ripped me to shreds. Now go back to sleep.'.
Life is very tough. If you don't laugh, it's tough.

6.I've learned from doing my own show with Fox that people are not your partners if they're signing the checks. Whoever signs your paycheck is the boss - no matter what they tell you.
A man can sleep around, no questions asked, but if a woman makes nineteen or twenty mistakes she's a tramp.

7.My obstetrician was so dumb that when I gave birth he forgot to cut the cord. For a year that kid followed me everywhere. It was like having a dog on a leash.


8.I've learned you don't always listen to your agents and managers. Sometimes they know nothing.

9.I didn't want to do 'Fashion Police' because I thought, 'This is stupid, this is beneath me, who wants to talk about fashion?' It has taken off. We are the number one show in England on E! Who knew?

10.Acting is my true love. I would like to have been a serious actor, and I plan to in the next life. I'm gonna be Meryl Streep Rivers.

11.Comediennes are the lucky ones, because if you're funny, you can be 125 years old and they will still accept you.

12.Every comedian is furious. Age makes me angry. I'm unhappy at not being able to open packages anymore.

13. I'm angry that libraries have gone.

14.I hate children on planes. I'm very shallow, so they tend to be little things. To be honest, I think I was probably angry the day I was born, you know, about diapers or something.

Poet, activist, memoirist, actress, and professor — Maya Angelou, one of the great American voices of the past century, has died at age 86.Angelou became a household name in 1993, when she delivered an inaugural poem, "On the Pulse of Morning," at Bill Clinton's swearing-in, the first writer to serve in such capacity since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961.

• Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

• Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

• One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

• I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.

• If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.

•  I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

• All great achievements require time.

• I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side, be an advocate for myself and others like me.

• I'm grateful to intelligent people. That doesn't mean educated. That doesn't mean intellectual. I mean really intelligent. What black old people used to call 'mother wit' means intelligence that you had in your mother's womb. That's what you rely on. You know what's right to do.

• My life has been one great big joke, a dance that's walked a song that's spoke, I laugh so hard I almost choke when I think about myself.

1. ''Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.''
2. ''The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.''
3. ''Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.
4. "What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.''
5. ''If you want to conquer fear, don't sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.''
6. ''Learning is the beginning of wealth. Learning is the beginning of health. Learning is the beginning of spirituality. Searching and learning is where the miracle process all begins.''
7. ''If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.''
8. ''Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.''
9. ''I've worked too hard and too long to let anything stand in the way of my goals. I will not let my teammates down and I will not let myself down.''
10. ''The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.''
11. ''Set your sights high, the higher the better. Expect the most wonderful things to happen, not in the future but right now. Realize that nothing is too good. Allow absolutely nothing to hamper you or hold you up in any way."
12. "No matter how many goals you have achieved, you must set your sights on a higher one."
13. "There is nothing deep down inside us except what we have put there ourselves."
14. "Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it."
15. "The weeds keep multiplying in our garden, which is our mind ruled by fear. Rip them out and call them by name."
16. "You can't expect to hit the jackpot if you don't put a few nickels in the machine."
17. When you fail you learn from the mistakes you made and it motivates you to work even harder."
18. "I'd rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed."
19. "The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential... these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence."
20. "I don't believe you have to be better than everybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be."
21. "If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much."
22. "Always continue the climb. It is possible for you to do whatever you choose, if you first get to know who you are and are willing to work with a power that is greater than ourselves to do it."
23. "Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy
24. "A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.

25."I really believe that everyone has a talent, ability, or skill that he can mine to support himself and to succeed in life. "