There are no absolutes for something as relative as a human life.
My trouble is I analyze life instead of living it.
When Gayle (my wife) gets sick I feel resentful, then angry, then nothing at all. I feel resentful: she's making a demand on me I can't fulfill; she's using up my precious time; she's making a messy situation. Then I feel angry because I think I shouldn't be resentful when someone's sick. Then I resign myself and my emotions shut down altogether. But in the middle of this I pause long enough to look into myself, I find that these negative feelings seem to be going on on the surface and deeper within me are more positive, loving feelings. They are hard for me to stay in contact with in the circumstances and I lose them for certain if I try to act more sympathetic than I feel.
It is equally useless for me to be disgruntled about having had the thought I just had as it is for me to criticize myself for something I did last year. Okay, that is what I just thought - now this is what I am thinking.
Both my body and my emotions were given to me and it is as futile for me to condemn myself for feeling scared, insecure, selfish or revengeful as it is for me to get mad at myself for the size of my feet. I am not responsible for my feelings, but for what I do with them.
Most decisions, probably all, have already been made on some deeper level and my going through a reasoning process to arrive at them seems atleast redundant. The question "What do I want to do?" may just be a fearful reaction to the subconscious decision I have already made.
I notice that when I am bored, I think I am bored with my surroundings but I am really tired of my thoughts. It is trite, repititive, unobserved thinking that is producing the discontent.Adapting a quiet awareness,a kind of listening attitude, usually freshens my mind and brings the situation I am in to life.
The criticism that hurts the most is the one which echoes my own self condemnation.
I have two principal ways of discovering the areas where I fail to see myself. The first is acknowledging the qualities in others that irritate me. The second is recognizing the comments that make me defensive.
I notice that sometimes I think "I ought to do so and so" in order to cover up my desire to do it.
I can get more directly at what I am really feeling if I can think "I" instead of "you" - stop talking to myself in the third person. The third person postulates an audience and so imposes a social "should".
Simply because they haven't paid their rent, Lorso tried to get Mac and Jim convicted of a felony. I feel disgust for him. I consider him a sissy and a weakling. He seems like something that should be stepped on. But if he had shot them, what would I have felt? Probably not anger, but a gangster in my place might have felt anger. If Lorso had cannibalized them, I would not have felt anger at all, but shock, amazement and possibly even a kind of pity for him.
The principle seems to be: IT IS A 'FAULT' IF I AM ALSO CAPABLE OF IT, A 'DISEASE' IF I AM NOT.
If I feel aversion toward someone, if I find myself ignoring or turning away from someone in a group, I am probably avoiding within myself what this person represents that is true about me.
There is no such thing as 'best' in a world of individuals.
I talk because I feel, and I talk to you because I want you to know how I feel.
Know what you want, AND GET IT....Sushmita Sen, Miss Universe 1993
Being defeated is a temporary condition...Giving up is what makes it permanent
Great people are ordinary people with extra-ordinary determination
Tough times never last, tough people do
To achieve great things we must not only work hard but also dream, not only plan but also believe
A great man is judged by the way he treats lesser men
Do not wait for fortune to smile on you, prepare yourself with knowledge
Success always comes to those who dare and act, it seldom goes to the timid
ALFRED BERNHARD NOBEL (who instituted the Nobel Prize) to his sister-in-law:
What a contrast between us! You live a warm and glowing life, surrounded by loved ones whom you care for and who care for you; you are anchored in contentment. I drift about without rudder or compass, a wreck on the sea of life; I have no memories to cheer me, no pleasant illusions of the future to comfort me, or about me to satisfy my vanity. I have no family to furnish the only kind of survival that concerns us, no friends for the wholesome development of my affections, or enemies for my malice.
"This was a strong man", the journalist said, "The earth moved before him when he walked, men loved him and feared him, women trembled at the power in his loins, people sought his favours. And now there is no one here that remembers him. You were right...THE DEAD ARE ALONE"
Ah...but a man's reach should exceed his grasp...or what's heaven for?
Of Alexander the Great:
He died in Babylon in June 323 B.C. in the thirty third year of his life. Into thirteen years, he had compressed the energies of many lifetimes.
Why, that's a baby, Mister Ben. You know...They wets, they cries, they eats, they sleeps....Then they grows up and they breaks yo' heart.
Today we will do the difficult things, tomorrow the impossible ones, and the day after that we will perform miracles.
Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people
Every child in the world looks upon his mother and sees the most beautiful woman in the world, even though many mothers are not beautiful. Do you know why this is so ? The child looks with love and sees love returned. Love is what makes beauty.
I want you to see what is real courage. Courage isn't a man with a gun in his hand. It is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.
AND THERE IS A CATSKILL EAGLE IN SOME SOULS THAT CAN ALIKE DIVE DOWN INTO THE BLACKENED GORGES, AND SOAR OUT OF THEM AGAIN AND BECOME INVISIBLE IN THE SUNNY SPACES. AND EVEN IF HE FOREVER FLIES IN THE GORGE, THAT GORGE IS IN THE MOUNTAINS; SO THAT IN HIS LOWEST SWOOP THE MOUNTAIN EAGLE IS STILL HIGHER THAN THE OTHER BIRDS UPON THE PLAIN, EVEN THOUGH THEY SOAR.
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