|
| If you have a personal favorite, email it to me at the address below. |
 Page 2 |
"Over and over again these days, we hear the phrase, "The world is in chaos." But "the world" is not in chaos.
I have been observing the world for a long time, and I wish to report that the world is in perfect order and always has been. In the many years during which I have been living, and admiring it, this planet has never failed to turn on its axis with exact mathematical certitude; the sun has never failed to rise and set; the blue star Arcturus has always appeared in exactly the same relationship to the constellation of the Bear....
An acorn has always produced an oak, and not an elm...and the wild ducks always wheel southward at the same time....
No, "the world" is not in chaos. Men are in chaos."
--Dorothy Thompson, The Courage To Be Happy, 1957
"Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and
with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882
"You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand."
--Woodrow Wilson, 1856-1924
A Prayer for the Children
"We pray for the children who sneak popsicles before supper, who erase holes in math workbooks, who can never find their shoes. And we pray for those who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire, who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers, who never "counted potatoes," who never go to the circus, who live in an X-rated world.
We pray for children who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of
dandelions, who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money. And we pray for those who never get dessert, who have no safe blanket to drag behind them, who watch their parents watch them die, who can't find any bread to steal, who don't have any rooms to clean up, whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser, whose monsters are real.
We pray for children who spend all their allowance before Tuesday, who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food, who like ghost stories, who shove dirty clothes under the bed, who never rinse out the tub, who get visits from the tooth fairy, who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool, who squirm in church and scream in the phone, whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.
And we pray for those whose nightmares come in the daytime, who will eat anything, who have never seen a dentist, who aren't spoiled by anybody, who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep, who live and move, but have no being. We pray for children who want to be carried and for those who must, who we never give up on and for those who don't get a second chance. For those we smother and...for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it."
"How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these."
--George Washington Carver
"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent plant. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."
--Jack London, 1876-1916
"Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, 'Grow, grow.'"
--The Talmud
"The hardest thing of all in life-- The conquest not of time and space, but of ourselves, of our stupidity and inertia, of our greediness and touchiness, of our fear and intolerant dogmatism."
Seven sins: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, politics without principle.
--Mahatma Gandhi
People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest person with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest person with the smallest mind. Think big anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack if you help them. Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you might get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you've got anyway.
"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
--Mark Twain
"Be not forgetful to entertain strangers for thereby some have
entertained angels unawares."
--Hebrews 13:2
"This is the true joy in life -- being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy."
--George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950
"Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a
moment that will never be again And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are?
We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move.
You may become a Shakespeare, a Michaelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel?
You must work, we must all work, to make the world worthy of its
children."
--Pablo Casals (1876-1973)
If I could, I'd comb the sky
and collect the stars,
quickly pile them into a basket
until it overflowed with silvery light.
And then I'd give the basket to you,
because all things precious
and beautiful
should be yours today.
--Author Unknown
"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."
--Vincent Van Gogh
"And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."
--Anais Nin
"Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously."
--G.K. Chesterton
"We attract hearts by the qualities we display; we retain them by the qualities we possess."
--Suard
"I'd rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed."
--Robert Schuller
"You will recognize your own path when you come upon it, because you will suddenly have all the energy and imagination you will ever need."
--Jerry Gillies
"Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor."
--Elizabeth I (1533-1603)
"Is your life out of harmony? Change your tune."
--from Physics: Principles with Applications
"I've never seen a monument erected to a pessimist."
--Paul Harvey
"You just can't beat the person who never gives up."
--Babe Ruth
"Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt."
--William Shakespeare
"Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest."
--Georgia O'Keeffe
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious
triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
--Theodore Roosevelt
"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts."
--Calvin Coolidge
"Risk more than others think is safe. Care more than others think is wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible."
--Cadet maxim, U.S. Military Academy, West Point
"A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his
opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties."
--Harry Truman
"They are the misfits, the crazy ones.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They are not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
The only thing you can't do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And some may see them as the crazy ones,
we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough
to think they can change the world are the ones who do."
--Author Unknown
"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, the providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now."
--Johann Wolfgang von Goeth
"Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such."
--Henry Miller
"If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven played music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well."
--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
"Nothing is so strong as gentleness, and nothing is so gentle as true strength."
--Ralph Sockman
"Carpe Diem! Rejoice while you are alive; enjoy the day; live life to the fullest; make the most of what you have. It is later than you think!"
--Horace, 65bce-08bce, Latin Poet and Satirist
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
--"If" by Rudyard Kipling
"All men are alike in their dreams, and all men are alike in the promises they make. The difference is what they do."
--Moliere (1622-1673), French Playwright
"Only a truly educated person could be driven to tears by statistics."
--George Bernard Shaw
"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult."
--Seneca
Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure. (I can’t hear you. I have a banana in my ear.)
"There is no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day."
--Alexander Woolcott
"Did you ever walk in a room and forget why you walked in? I think that's how dogs spend their lives."
--Sue Murphy
"I think that's how Chicago got started. A bunch of people in New
York said, 'Gee, I'm enjoying the crime and the poverty, but it just isn't cold enough. Let's go west."
--Richard Jeni
"I had a linguistics professor who said that it's man's ability to use language that makes him the dominant species on the planet. That may be. But I think there's one other thing that separates us from animals. We aren't afraid of vacuum cleaners."
--Jeff Stilson
"I'm not into working out. My philosophy: No pain, no pain."
--Carol Leifer
"Suppose you were an idiot... And suppose you were a member of Congress... But I repeat myself."
--Mark Twain
"Maybe there is no actual place called hell. Maybe hell is just having to listen to our grandparents breathe through their noses when they're eating sandwiches."
--Jim Carrey
"You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love."
--Henry Drummond, (1786-1860), English politician and religous leader
"Pay no attention to what the critics say; no statue has ever been erected to a critic."
--Jean Sibelius
"The child whispered, 'God, speak to me'
And a meadow lark sang.
The child did not hear.
So the child yelled, 'God, speak to me!'
And the thunder rolled across the sky
But the child did not listen.
The child looked around and said,
'God let me see you' and a star shone brightly
But the child did not notice.
And the child shouted,
'God show me a miracle!'
And a life was born but the child did not know.
So the child cried out in despair,
'Touch me God, and let me know you are here!'
Whereupon God reached down
And touched the child.
But the child brushed the butterfly away
And walked away unknowingly."
--Author Unknown
"To laugh is to risk appearing a fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk rejection.
To place your dreams before the crowd is to risk ridicule.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To go forward in the face of overwhelming odds is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.
He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or love.
Chained by his certitudes, he is a slave.
He has forfeited his freedom.
Only a person who takes risks is free."
--"The Dilemma," Author Unknown
"Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days."
--Benjamin Franklin
"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing."
--Benjamin Franklin
"One of the greatest tragedies of life is the murder of a beautiful theory by a gang of brutal facts."
--Benjamin Franklin
"It is not what we read, but what we remember, that makes us learned. It is not what we intend, but what we do, that makes us useful. It is not a few faint wishes, but a life long struggle, that makes us valiant."
--Henry Ward Beecher
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come
alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
--Harold Whitman
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 nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears,
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.
--"Invictus," by William Earnest Henley
"What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever."
--Henry Van Dyke
"Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark,
in the hopeless swamps of the approximate,
the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all.
Do not let the hero in your soul perish,
in lonely frustration for the life you deserved,
but have never been able to reach.
Check your road and the nature of your battle.
The world you desired can be won.
It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours."
--Ayn Rand, 1905-1982, Russian-American Novelist
From her book "Atlas Shrugged"
"The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is unchangeable or certain."
--JFK
"Two men look out through the same bars:
One sees the mud, and one the stars."
--Fredrick Langbridge, 1849-1923, English Clergyman and Author
"Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does
not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children."
--Kahlil Gibran
"The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed."
--Lloyd Jones
"When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so
that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice."
--Cherokee Saying
"For those who fight for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know."
--Written on a C-ration box found after the siege of Khe Sanh 1968
"Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart, don't know how to laugh, either."
--Golda Meir
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight; nothing he cares about more than his own personal safety; is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better persons than himself."
--John Stuart Mills
"The only guide to a man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculation; but with this shield, however the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honor."
--Winston Churchill
"Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that's right is to get by, and the only thing that's wrong is to get caught."
--J.C. Watts
"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am for myself alone, what am I? And if not now, when?"
--Hillel
"We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face...we must do that which we think we cannot."
--Eleanor Roosevelt
|