Man unfit for friendship are like waterfowl,
which abandons a pond after it's empty or frozen, 
Man fit for friendship are like the waterlilies,
they remain to share both prosperity and adversity
-- taken from "the wisdom of ancient India"
sent in by Darmadi (tensin@bdg.centrin.net.id)

"Pooh hasn't much Brain, but he never comes to any harm. He does silly 
things and they turn out right."
 -- Piglet 

The trouble is that if you don't risk anything you can risk
even more.
-- Erica Jong

The one thing that does not abide by majority rule is a
person's conscience.
-- Harper Lee

"The best way to sell yourself to others is first to sell the
others to yourself. Check yourself against this list of obstacles to a
pleasing personality: interrupting others; sarcasm; vanity; being a poor
listener; insincere flattery; finding fault; challenging others without
good cause; giving unsolicited advice; complaining; attitude of
superiority; envy of others' success; poor posture and dress. 
-- Napoleon Hill

"Get rid of imagined guilt. You did the best you could at the
time, all things considered. If you made mistakes, learn to accept that
we are all imperfect. Only hindsight is 20-20. If you are convinced that
you have real guilt, consider professional or spiritual counseling (with
a competent and trustworthy counselor). If you believe in God a
pastor can help you believe also in God's forgiveness. 
-- Amy Hillyard Jensen

"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must
write if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. 
What one can be, one must be."
-- Abraham Maslow

"Always remember that striving and struggle precede success,
even in the dictionary." 
--Sarah Ban Breathnach

It hurts. Sometimes more than we can bear. 
If we could live without passion maybe we would know some kind of peace. But we would be hallow--empty rooms, shuddered and dank. But
without passion, we'd be truly dead.
-- Sent in by Angel 
nefertina@hotmail.com

Congratulations! Today is your day. 
You're off to great places! You're off and away! 
--Theodor S. Geisel (Dr. Seuss) from "Oh, the Places You'll Go!"
-- Sent in by Christine Marie Perry
TraviesaDT@cs.com

"Research has determined that people who are immediately liked
by everyone share certain characteristics that can be emulated: they tend
to smile more and greet people more warmly. They use people's names at
least two or three times in the first couple of minutes. For the first
couple of minutes they usually carry the conversation, but after that
they become listeners -- and interested listeners. They send out the
messages: "I like you, I respect you, I'm interested in you, 
I'm glad I met you and whatever you say has great interest to me." 
-- John T. Molloy

"Experience is an asset of which no worker can be cheated, no
matter how selfish or greedy his immediate employer may be." 
-- Napoleon Hill

"Never feel sorry for yourself -- it has a deadly effect on
spiritual well-being. Recognize all problems, no matter how difficult, 
as opportunities for spiritual growth, and make the most of these
opportunities." 
-- Mildred Norman

The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming
back.  That's real glory.  That's the essence of it.
-- Vince Lombardi

"Be glad of life, because it gives you the chance to love and
to work and to play and to look up at the stars."
-- Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933)
American Clergyman, Educator, and Author

"The death of fear is in doing what you fear to do."
-- Sequichie Comingdeer 

The future is made of the same stuff as the present.
-- Simone Weil

If you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and
the evil remains; If you pursue good with labor, the labor
passes away but the good remains.
-- Cicero

"Don't let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is
had to begin where he was." 
-- Richard L. Evans

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude
on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts.... We cannot
change our past .. .we cannot change the fact that people will act in a
certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that
life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it.
And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes." 
-- Charles Swindoll

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a
kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of
caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." 
-- Leo Buscaglia

In the final analysis there is no solution to man's progress
but the day's honest work, the day's honest decisions, the day's
generous utterances and the day's good deed.
-- Clare Booth Luce

"Remember to be gentle with yourself and others. We are all
children of chance, and none can say why some fields will
blossom while others lay brown beneath the August sun. Care for
those around you. Look past your differences. Their dreams are
no less than yours, their choices in life no more easily made.
And give. Give in any way you can, of whatever you possess. To
give is to love. To withhold is to wither. Care less for your
harvest than for how it is shared, and your life will have
meaning and your heart will have peace." 
--Kent Nerburn,
LETTERS TO MY SON

"To have striven, to have made an effort, to have been true to
certain ideals -- this alone is worth the struggle. We are here to add
what we can to, not to get what we can from, life."
-- Sir William Osler, 1849-1919
Canadian Physician, Medical Historian

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you
will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the
adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I
want to know if you have touched the center of your sorrow, if you have
been opened by life's betrayals, or have become shriveled and closed
from fear of further pain! I want to know if you can sit with pain,
mine and your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it. I
want to know if you can be with JOY, mine or your own: if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and
toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, or to
remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself:
if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. I
want to know if you can be faithful and therefore trustworthy. I want
to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty everyday, and if
you can source your life from its presence. I want to know if you can
live with failure, yours or mine, and still stand on the edge of a lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon.

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money
you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief
and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be
done for the children.

It doesn't interest me who you are, or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and
not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have
studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else
falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you
truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

-- From the book "The Invitation," written by Oriah Mountain
Dreamer Mountain Dreamer is a teacher and author currently living with
her two sons in Toronto, Canada

Blessed is he who carries within himself a God, an ideal, and
obeys it.
-- Louis Pasteur

Champion the right to be yourself.  Dare to be different and
to set your own pattern:  Live your own life, and follow your
own star. 
-- Lin Yutang

We are not separate from spirit.
We are in it
-- Plotinus

Cherish you vision, Cherish your ideals,
Cherish the music that stirs in your heart,
The beauty that forms in your mind,
The loveliness that drapes
you purest thoughts.
If you remain true to them,
your world will at last be built
-- James Allen

My hands are small, i know.
But they're not yours,
they are my own.
I am never broken.
Poverty stole your golden shoes,
but it didn't steal your laughter
-- Jewel Kilcher

The wind blows cold when
you reach the top
-- Jewel Kilcher

We are loved beyond our ability
to comprehend
-- unknown

"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

"If the power to do hard work is not talent, it is the best
possible substitute for it. Ambition by itself never gets anywhere until
it forms a partnership with work." 
-- James Garfield

"Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days
in the year as we make use of. One man gets only a week's value out of a
year while another man gets a full year's value out of the week." 
-- Charles Richards

"The only time you mustn't fail is the last time you try." 
-- Charles F. Kettering

No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of
the continent a part of man. 
-- John Donne

To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbearable sorrow,
To run where the brave dare not go.

To right the unrightable wrong,
To love pure and chaste from afar,
To try when your arms are too weary,
To reach the unreachable star!

-- Lyrics from "The Impossible Dream (The Quest)" 
by Joe Darion

Doctors and scientists said that breaking the four-minute mile
was impossible, that one would die in the attempt.  Thus, when I
got up from the track after collapsing at the finish line,
I figured I was dead.
-- Roger Bannister, after becoming the first person to break 
the four minute mile, 1952

"A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with
the bricks that others throw at him or her." 
-- David McClure Brinkley

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out
how far they can go. 
-- T. S Elliot

A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives
in a hostile world: everyone you meet is your mirror. 
-- Keyes, Ken Jr.

"Like an ability or a muscle, hearing your inner wisdom is
strengthened by doing it." 
-- Robbie Gass (The Artist's Way by Julie Cameron)

"Nine-tenths of wisdom is appreciation. Go find somebody's hand
and squeeze it, while there's time." 
-- Dale Dauten

"Success is never ending, failure is never final." 
-- Dr Robert Schuller

I was not only proud of what he did in the pool, but I was
proud of the way he handled himself out of the pool.  The measure of a true
champion is not how they win.  It’s how they handle defeat.
- Gary Hall Sr. An Olympic silver medallist in swimming, the
quote above is about his son, Gary Hall Jr., who won two gold medals but
finished second in a third race in the Atlanta Olympic games.

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under
trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water,
or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a
waste of time.
-- Sir J Lubbock

"If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love
affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business, 
because we'd be cynical. Well, that's nonsense. 
You've got to jump off cliffs
all the time and build your wings on the way down." 
-- Ray Bradbury

"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge -- that
myth is more potent than history. I believe that dreams are
more powerful than facts -- That hope always triumphs over
experience -- That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I
believe that love is stronger than death."
-- Robert Fulghum

Today, life is so much more convenient than when I was young.
We didn’t have TV. We seldom saw an airplane. A lot has changed, but there is one thing in 62 years that I have not seen.  I have not seen anyone find a convenient or
easy way to succeed at something or to win.
 -- Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz

THE FINAL ANALYSIS

People are often unreasonable,
Illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind,
People may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful,
You will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank,
People may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building,
Someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
They may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

he good you do today,
People will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
And it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis,
It is between you and God;
It never was between you and them anyway.

-- Author Unknown

I am only one,
But still I am one. 
I cannot do everything, 
But still I can do something; 
And because I cannot do everything 
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
-- Edward Everett Hale

If you see the whole thing, it seems it's always beautiful.
Planets, lives..
But up close a world's all dirt and rocks, and day to day,
life's a hard job.You get tired; you lose the pattern.
-- Ursula Le Guin

The life that conquers is the life that moves with a steady
resolution and persistence toward a predetermined goal. Those who succeed are those who have thoroughly learned the immense importance 
of plan in life, and the tragic brevity of time.
--W.J. Davison

Trials, temptations, disappointments -- all these are helps
instead of hindrances, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the
fibre of a character, but strengthen it. Every conquered temptation
represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit
makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.
--James Buckham

"The truth is that all of us attain the greatest success and
happiness possible in this life whenever we use our native capacities to
their greatest extent." 
-- Smiley Blanton

I always dream up there with the stars. If  I don't dream I
will make it, I won't even come close. 
-- Henry Kaiser

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, 
no wind is favorable. 
-- Seneca

"The fact remains that the overwhelming majority of people who
have become wealthy have become so thanks to work they found 
profoundly absorbing. The long term study of people who eventually became wealthy clearly reveals that their "luck" arose from accidental dedication they had to an arena they enjoyed." 
--  Srully D. Blotnick (Writer, author)

"Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by
another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those 
who have rekindled this light." 
-- Albert Schweitzer (philosopher, physician, musician,Nobel)

"Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for
everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step
toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation." 
-- Brian Tracy

By the time it came to the edge of the Forest, the stream had grown up, 
so that it was almost a river, and, being grown-up, 
it did not run and jump and sparkle along as it used to do 
when it was younger, but moved slowly. For it knew now where 
it was going, and it said to itself, "There is no hurry. We shall get there some day."
-- Benjamin Hoff, "The Tao Of Pooh"

The one resolution, which was in my mind long before it took
the form of a resolution, is the key-note of my life.  It is this,
always to regard as mere impertinences of fate the handicaps
which were placed upon my life almost at the beginning.  I
resolved that they should not crush or dwarf my soul, but
rather be made to blossom, like Aaron's rod,  with flowers.
--Helen Keller

"There isn't enough darkness in all the world to snuff out the
light of one little candle." 
-- Anonymous

Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs,
even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits
who neither enjoy much nor suffer much . . . in the grey twilight
that knows not victory nor defeat.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

There is a homely adage which runs: "Speak softly and carry a
big stick; you will go far.''
-- Theodore Roosevelt

Our minds are finite, and yet even in those circumstances of
finitude, we are surrounded by possibilities that are infinite,
and the purpose of human life is to grasp as much as we can out
of that infinitude. 
-- Alfred North Whitehead 

If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be
displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with
yourself there you have remained. 
Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing.
-- Saint Augustine
(354-430) Roman religious figure, philosopher

You are told a lot about your education, but some beautiful,
sacred memory, preserved since childhood, is perhaps the best
education of all.
If a man carries many such memories into life with him, he is
saved for the rest of his days.
-- Fyodor Dostoyevsky
(1821-1881) Russian novelist

Where is hell?
Hell is neither here nor there.
Hell is inside our own body and mind.
Due to our desires that cannot be fulfilled
and due to longings and greed that cannot be satisfied,
we generate the fires of greedy desire and resentful anger
which burn our own body and mind.
-- Buddha

"Courage, it would seem, is nothing less than the  power to
overcome danger, misfortune, fear, injustice, while continuing to affirm
inwardly that life with all  its sorrows is good; that everything is
meaningful even if in a sense beyond our understanding; and that 
there is always tomorrow." 
-- Dorothy Thompson

"Never say anything to hurt anyone. Moreover . . . refrain from
double talk, from shrewd and canny remarks that  are designed to
advance our interests at someone's disadvantage. We are to turn our back
upon evil, and in every way possible, do good, help people and bring
blessings into their lives." 
-- Norman  Vincent Peale

Don't listen to anyone who tells you that you can't do this or
that. That’s nonsense. Make up your mind, you'll never use crutches
or a stick, then have a go at everything. Go to school, join in all
the games you can. Go anywhere you want to.  But never, never let them
persuade you that things are too difficult or impossible.

-- Sir Douglas Bader (1910-1982), British fighter pilot who
lost both legs in a flying accident, but still fought in World War Two.
He was knighted for his work with the disabled, and the quote above is
from his talk to a 14-year-old boy who had lost a leg after a car
accident.

Man is condemned to be free;
because once thrown into the world, 
he is responsible for everything he does.

--Jean-Paul Sartre

"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

"We have a mental block inside us that stops us from earning
more than  we think we are worth. 
If we want to earn more in reality, we
have to upgrade our self-concept." 
-- Brian Tracy