Unexamined

"The unexamined life is not worth living."  - Plato -

Good

"Whatever you are, be a good one."  - Abraham Lincoln -

Breakthrough

"You have to take what people think is wrong or even foolish and make the breakthroughs of tomorrow." – John Kheir, MD -

Success

"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill -

Goal

"We are kept from our goal, not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal."  - Robert Brault -

Childhood

"There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again."  - Elizabeth Lawrence -

Community

"A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm."  - Henrik Ibsen -

Command

"An army of lions commanded by a deer will never be an army of lions."  - Napoleon Bonaparte -

Indispensable

"If you feel that you are indispensable, put your fingers in a glass of water, withdraw it, and note the hole you have left."  - Author unknown -

Failure

"Develop success from failures.  Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success." - Dale Carnegie -

Experience

"Experience is pure gold. Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want."  - Ann Landers -

Gift back

"Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God."  - Leo Buscaglia -

Light

"The issue is now clear. It is between light and darkness and everyone must choose his side."  - G. K. Chesterton -

Unexplainable

"What is there beyond knowing that keeps

calling to me?  I can't

 

turn in any direction

but it's there.  I don't mean

 

the leaves' grip and shine or even the thrush's

silk song, but the far-off

 

fires, for example,

of the stars, heaven's slowly turning

 

theater of light, or the wind

playful with its breath;

 

or time that's always rushing forward,

or standing still

 

in the same — what shall I say –

moment.

What I know

I could put into a pack

 

as if it were bread and cheese, and carry it

on one shoulder,

 

important and honorable, but so small!

While everything else continues, unexplained

 

and unexplainable.

 

….mostly I just stand in the dark field,

in the middle of the world, breathing in and out…

- Mary Oliver from "What is there beyond knowing" -

Mastery

"Mastery is not a function of I.Q. or natural talent or wealthy parents who can send you to the best school, but rather the result of going through a learning process, fueled by the desire to grow and the persistence to push past any obstacles."  — Robert Greene -

Attention

"Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are."  - Jose Ortega y Gasset -

Past

"It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory."  - F. Scott Fitzgerald -

Dust

"The dust motes float

and swerve in the sunbeam,

as lively as worlds,

and I remember my brother

when we were boys:

"We may be living on an atom

in somebody's wallpaper."  - Wendell Berry "Dust" -

Failure

"I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost more than 300 games, and 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. Throughout my life and career I've failed and failed and failed again. And, that's why I succeed." -  Michael Jordan -

Small

"Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs." - Henry Ford -

Useless

"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all."  - Peter Drucker -

Present moment

"This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away… to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing."  - Master Yoda -

Suffer

"No matter how hard you pursue pleasure and success, there are times when you fail. No matter how fast you flee, there are times when pain catches up with you. And in between those times, life is so boring you could scream. Our minds are full of opinions and criticisms. We have built walls all around ourselves and we are trapped within the prison of our own likes and dislikes. We suffer."  - Mahathera -

Important

"Most of the trouble in this world is caused by people wanting to be important".  - T.S. Eliot -

Student

"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear."  - a Buddhist proverb -

Water

"Thousands have lived without love, not one without water" - W.H. Auden -

Trust

"Trust yourself to do what you really feel like doing, and what you feel like doing will change. Don't, and it will plague you."  - David Allen -

Wait

"I said to my mind, be still, and wait without hope

For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love

For love would be love of the wrong thing; yet there is faith

But the faith and the hope and the love are all in the waiting.

Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:

So the darkness shall be light, and the stillness the dancing.  - T. S. Eliot, from "East Coker"  The Four Quartets -

Learn

"I do things I do not know how to do in order to learn how to do them."  - Picasso -

Puck

"A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."  - Wayne Gretzky -

Better

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.  It's not."  - Dr. Seuss -

Information

"In a hunting society, children play with bows and arrows. In an information society, children play with information"  - Henry Jenkins -

Sorrow

"Someone I loved once gave me

A box full of darkness.

It took me years to understand

That this, too, was a gift."  - Mary Oliver, "The Uses of Sorrow"-

Small

"To make us feel small in the right way is a function of art; men can only make us feel small in the wrong way." - E. M. Forster -

Sorrowful

"When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight."  - Kahlil Gibran -

Love

"Love cures people - both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it."  - Dr. Karl Augustus Menninger -.

Troubles

"Before you go to bed, give your troubles to God...He'll be up all night anyway."  - Mary C. Crowley -

Wilderness

"This is the wilderness time,
 when every path is obscure
 and thorns have grown around the words of hope.
 
This is the time of stone, not bread,
 when even the sunrise feels uncertain
 and everything tastes of bitterness.
 
This is the time of ashes and dust,
 when darkness clothes our dreams
 and no star shines a guiding light.
 
This is the time of treading life,
 waiting for the swells to subside and for the chaos to clear.
 
Be the wings of our strength, O God,
 in this time of wilderness waiting."

 – Keri Wehlander from "600 Blessings and Prayers from around the world" compiled by Geoffrey Duncan -

Exercise

"The only exercise I take is walking behind the coffins of friends who took exercise." - Peter O'Toole -

Sojoumer

"I alternate between thinking of the planet as home
 - dear and familiar stone hearth and garden -
 and as a hard land of exile in which we are all sojourners."  -  Annie Dillard from Teaching a Stone To Talk -

Move

"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward." - Martin Luther King Jr. -

Wrong

"If you are not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original."  - Sir Ken Robinson -

Grace

"Experiencing the present purely is being emptied and hollow;
you catch grace as a man fills his cup under a waterfall."  - Annie Dillard -

Happiness

"Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have."  - Rabbi H. Schachtel -

History

"Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it."  - Edmund Burke -

Courage

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."  - Winston Churchill -

Book

"A book is like a garden carried in your pocket."  - Chinese Proverb -

Medicine

"A good night sleep, or a ten minute bawl, or a pint of chocolate ice cream, or all three together, is good medicine."  - Ray Bradbury -

Heart

"If seeds in the black earth can turn into such beautiful roses, what might not the heart of man become in its long journey toward the stars?"  - G.K. Chesterton -

Sacred

"I believe in nothing, everything is sacred. I believe in everything, nothing is sacred."  - Tom Robbins -

Poet enough

"If your everyday life seems poor to you, do not accuse it; accuse yourself, tell yourself you are not poet enough to summon up its riches; since for the creator there is no poverty and no poor or unimportant place."  - Rainer Maria Rilke -

Days

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."  - Annie Dillard -

Feel

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."  - Maya Angelou -

Craftsman

"If you want to love what you do, abandon the passion mindset ("what can the world offer me?") and instead adopt the craftsman mindset ("what can I offer the world?")."  - Cal Newport -

Progress

"All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem." - Martin Luther King -

Change

"Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced."  - James Baldwin -

Now

"And so you have a life that you are living only now, now and now and now, gone before you can speak of it, and you must be thankful for living day by day, moment by moment … a life in the breath and pulse and living light of the present…"  - Wendell Berry -

Hope

"Hope is a renewable option: If you run out of it at the end of the day, you get to start over in the morning."  - Barbara Kingsolver -

Think

"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you are right."  – Henry Ford -

Knowledge

"Knowledge is learning something every day.  Wisdom is letting go of something every day."  - a Zen proverb -

 

Courtesy: Rajendrettan at FB

Adversity

"Remember the goodness of God in the frost of adversity."  - Charles Spurgeon -

Future

"The future's already here. It's just not evenly distributed yet."  - William Gibson -

Times

"I sit beside the fire and think
 Of all that I have seen
 Of meadow flowers and butterflies
 In summers that have been

Of yellow leaves and gossamer
 In autumns that there were
 With morning mist and silver sun
 And wind upon my hair

I sit beside the fire and think
 Of how the world will be
 When winter comes without a spring
 That I shall ever see

For still there are so many things
 That I have never seen
 In every wood in every spring
 There is a different green

I sit beside the fire and think
 Of people long ago
 And people that will see a world
 That I shall never know

But all the while I sit and think
 Of times there were before
 I listen for returning feet
 And voices at the door."

- J.R.R. Tolkien -

Service

"Do what you love in the service of people who love what you do."  - Steve Farber -

Prayer

"Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us."  - Socrates -

Learn

"Young cat, if you keep your eyes open enough, oh, the stuff you would learn! The most wonderful stuff!"  - Dr. Seuss -

Drop

"Individually, we are one drop.  Together, we are an ocean."  - Ryunosuke Sataro -

Turnings

"There are no wrong turnings.  Only paths we had not known we were meant to walk."  - Devin di Tigana -

Searching

"As long as one keeps searching, the answers come."  - Joan Baez -

Looking

"There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after."  - J.R.R. Tolkien -

New year

"The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul." - G.K. Chesterton -
 

Inaction

" Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind."  - Leonardo da Vinci -

Patience

Have patience.  "He who can have patience can have what he will."  - Author unknown -

Help

"When a man realizes he can call others in to help him do a job better than he can do alone, he has taken a big step in his life."  - Andrew Carnegie -

Time

"Does thou love life, then do not squander time,

For that is the stuff that life is made of."  - Sir Walter Scott -

Singleness

"Singleness of purpose is one of the

chief essentials for success in life."  - John D. Rockefeller, Jr. -

Idle

"I call that man idle

who might be better employed."  - Socrates -

Notion

"but they shortly found out

That the Captain they

Trusted so well

Had only one notion for

Crossing the ocean

And that was to tingle his Bell."  - Lewis Carroll, in The Hunting of the Snark -

Life

"To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life."  - T.S. Eliot -

Passion

"Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you."  - Oprah Winfrey -

People

"You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot please all of the people all of the time."  - Author unknown -

Yawn

"A yawn may not be polite, but at least it is an honest opinion."  - Voltaire -

Simple

"The best explanation is the simplest one."  - Occam's Razor -

As usual

"If you want to succeed in business, avoid "business as usual."  - Author unknown -

Leap

"Leap and the net will appear." - John Burroughs -

Progress

"Hesitating to act because the whole vision might not be achieved, or because others do not yet share it, is an attitude that only hinders progress."  - Mahatma Gandhi -

Reclaim

"Wherever you are today, reclaim your power in it.  Make your situation better by repairing broken relationships, building more respect, finding your voice, growing your skills, and becoming more competent."  - Kathy Caprino -

Teacher

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."  - Albert Einstein -

Ribbon

"A soldier will give you his life for a bit of colored ribbon."  - Napoleon -

Small things

"You've got to think about the big things while you're doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction."  - Alvin Toffler -

World

"The swan, like the soul of the poet,

By the dull world is ill understood."  - Heinrich Heine -

Let it go

"To live in this world

You must be able

To do three things:

To love what is mortal;

To hold it

Against your bones knowing

Your own life depends on it;

And, when the time comes to let it go,

To let it go."  - Mary Oliver -

Bell

"I had been my whole life a bell, and never knew it until at that moment I was lifted and struck."  - Annie Dillard -

Yourself

"To find yourself, think for yourself."  - Socrates -

Stay

"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."  - Albert Einstein -

Movement

"The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble."  - Blaise Pascal -

Become

 "You will become like the five people you associate with the most - this can be either a blessing or a curse." - Billy Cox -

Computer

"A computer does not substitute for judgment any more than a pencil substitutes for literacy. But writing without a pencil is no particular advantage."  - Robert S. McNamara -

Small

"Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones."  - Churchill -

Humble

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble."  - Helen Keller -

Never

"Resolved, never to do anything which I would be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life."  - Jonathan Edwards -

Calm

"Never did sun more beautifully steep

In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;

Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!

The river glideth at his own sweet will:

Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;

And all that mighty heart is lying still!."  - William Wordsworth -

Knowledge

"Be curious always!  For knowledge will not acquire you: you must acquire it."  - Sudie Back -

Now

"I want it now, Daddy"

Patience

"A man watches his pear-tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe pear at length falls into his lap!"  - Abraham Lincoln -

Exploration

"We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive at where we started

And know the place for the first time."  - T. S. Eliot -

Children

"Many things can wait. Children cannot. Today their bones are being formed, their blood is being made, their senses are being developed. To them we cannot say "tomorrow." Their name is today."  - Gabriela Mistral, a Chilean teacher -

Success

"There are no secrets to success.  It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure"  - Colin Powell -

Attention

"The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself."  - Henry Miller -

Home

"There are two ways of getting home; and one of them is to stay there."  - G. K. Chesterton -

Change

"To seldom speak is the essence of nature. Why the winds and storm do not last whole day? Because the earth that manifests the winds and storm is constantly changing."  - Laozi Tao Te Chin, 4th Century BC -

Enquiry

"We learn together in teams. This involves a shift from a spirit of advocacy to a spirit of enquiry.  - Peter Senge -

You

"The best camera is the one that's with you."  - Chase Jarvis -

Vote

"Those who cast the votes decide nothing.  Those who count the votes decide everything."  - Joseph Stalin -

Involve

"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn."  - Benjamin Franklin -

Friends, happy teachers day!

Gone

"You don't know what you got till it's gone."  - Joni Mitchell from They Paved Paradise -

Faith

"In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't."  - Blaise Pascal -

Standard

"Aspire to decency.  Practice civility toward one another. Admire and emulate ethical behavior wherever you find it. Apply a rigid standard of morality to your lives; and if, periodically, you fail ­ as you surely will, adjust your lives, not the standards."  - Ted Koppel -

Be simple

"I will bow and be simple

I will bow and be free

I will bow and be humble

Yea, bow like the willow tree

I will bow, this is the token

I will wear the easy yoke

I will bow and be broken

Yea, I'll fall upon the rock."  - a Skaker Hymn, 1840s-

Boring

"Life is too short to work at a boring company."  - Author unknown -

Heaven

"Every spirit builds itself a house, and beyond its house a world, and beyond its world a heaven."  - Ralph Waldo Emerson -

Unreasonable

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists to adapt the world to himself.  Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable."  - George Bernard Shaw -

Create

"What I can not create, I do not understand."  - Richard Feynman -

Measure

"Measure twice, cut once."   - A wise carpenter - 

Leaf

"Walk around feeling like a leaf.  Know you could tumble any second.  Then decide what to do with your time."  - Naomi Shihab Nye -

Thin

"I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread."  - J R R Tolkien -

Encourage

"Curious that we spend more time congratulating people who have succeeded than encouraging people who have not."  - Neil deGrasse -

Cooperation

"The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation."  - Bertrand Russell -

Live for

"If you want to identify me, 

ask me not where I live, 

or what I like to eat, 

or how I comb my hair, 

but ask me what I am living for, 

in detail, 

ask me what I think is keeping me 

from living fully 

for the thing I want to live for."  - Thomas Merton -

Action

"Action is the foundational key to all success."  - Pablo Picasso -

Alterations

"Time is a dressmaker specializing in alterations."  - Faith Baldwin -

Trust

"Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great."  - Ralph Waldo Emerson -

Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed."  - Blaise Pascal -

Delightful

"Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage, it can be delightful. - George Bernard Shaw -

Bicycle

"Life is like a ten speed bicycle.  Most of us have gears we never use."  - Charles M. Schultz -

Learning

"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty."  - Henry Ford -

Needs

"A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it."  - Kathleen Norris -

Enlightened

"He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened."  - Lao Tzu -

Learn

"There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation.  The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves."  - Will Rogers -

Error

"An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it."  - MK Gandhi -

Reveal

"Authority, power or wealth do not change a man, they only reveal him."  - Imam Ali -

Interrupt

"We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God."  - Dietrich Bonhoeffer -

Reasons

"There are a thousand thousand reasons to live this life, every one of them sufficient."  - Marilynne Robinson -

Forever

"Last forever!' Who has n't prayed that prayer? You were lucky to get it in the first place. The present is a freely given canvas. That it is constantly being ripped apart and washed downstream goes without saying."  - Annie Dillard -

You

"Morning without you is a dwindled dawn."  - Emily Dickinson -

Quiet

"Surely there is something in the unruffled calm of nature that overawes our little anxieties and doubts: the sight of the deep-blue sky, and the clustering stars above seem to impart a quiet to the mind."  - Jonathan Edwards -

Do it

"The realms of time are narrow,

Neither is yesterday important,

Nor is tomorrow.

Do it today, at this instant,

Or you will come to sorrow -

For time is something you can't

Beg, steal or borrow."  - Author unknown -

Quiet

"You need not do anything.

Remain sitting at your table and listen.

You need not even listen, just wait.

You need not even wait,

just learn to be quiet, still and solitary.

And the world will freely offer itself to you unmasked.

It has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet." - Franz Kafka -

Trail

"Do not go where the path may lead.  Go instead where there is no path, and leave a trail."  - Ralph Waldo Emerson -

Pain

"The pain I feel now is the happiness I had before. That's the deal."  - C.S. Lewis -

Flow

"Something of God flows into us from the blue of the sky, the taste of honey, the delicious embrace of water whether cold or hot, and even from sleep itself."  - C.S. Lewis -

Heaven

"Every spirit builds itself a house,

and beyond its house a world,

and beyond its world a heaven."  - Ralph Waldo Emerson -

Destiny

"Watch your thoughts; they become words

Watch your words; they become actions

Watch your actions; they become habits

Watch your habits; they become character

Watch your character; it becomes your destiny"  - Frank Outlaw -

Suffering

"I'm not sure God wants us to be happy. I think he wants us to love, and be loved. But we are like children, thinking our toys will make us happy and the whole world is our nursery. Something must drive us out of that nursery and into the lives of others, and that something is suffering."  - C. S. Lewis -

Underestimate

"If you don't underestimate me, I won't underestimate you."  - Bob Dylan -

Happiness

"Happiness is to be found along the way, not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it is too late. Today, this hour, this minute is the day, the hour, the minute for each of us to sense the fact that life is good, with all of its trials and troubles, and perhaps more interesting because of them."  - Robert R. Updegraff -

Counts

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."  - Albert Einstein -

Laugh

"Laugh till you weep. Weep till there's nothing left but to laugh at your weeping. In the end it's all one."  - Frederick Buechner -

Innovation

"If failure is not an option, neither is success. Innovation is just repeated failure til you come up with something that works."  - Seth Godin -

Light

"The issue is now clear. It is between light and darkness and everyone must choose his side."  - G.K. Chesterton -

Kind

"What this world needs is a new kind of army - the army of the kind."  - Cleveland Amory -

Purpose

"The primary purpose of life is in being in the 'NOW'".  - Eckhart Tolle -

Teacher

"Ideal teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross, then having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their own." - Nikos Kazantzakis -

Difference

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."  - William James -

Friends

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."  - Martin Luther King Jr. -

Failure

"Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently."  - Henry Ford -

Alone

"…good things happen to the human spirit when it is left alone."  - John Taylor Gatto -

Freedom

"Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom."  - Albert Einstein -

Play

"Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold."  - Joseph Chilton Pearce -

Education

"Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself." — John Dewey -

Lives

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."  - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -

Change

"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent."  - Martin Luther King, Jr. -

Right

"On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it popular?" But Conscience asks the question "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right."  -  Martin Luther King, Jr. -

Hope

"Spring seems far off, impossible, but it is coming. Already there is dusk instead of darkness at five in the afternoon; already hope is stirring at the edges of the day."  - Kathleen Norris -

Drops

"Little drops of water wear down big stones."  - Russian Proverb -

Grass

"When elephants fight, it's the grass that suffers."  - an African proverb -

Wisdom

"You cannot transmit wisdom and insight to another person.  The seed is already there.  A good teacher touches the seed, allowing it to wake up, to sprout, and to grow."  Thich Nhat Hanh -

Education

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."  - Albert Einstein -

Quality

"It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity."  - Mahatma Gandhi -

Quality

"Quality means doing it right when no one else is looking."  - Henry Ford -

Distraction

"Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries."  - Blaise Pascal -

Doubt

"There is no harm in doubt and skepticism; for it is through these that new discoveries are made."  - Richard Feynman -

Time

"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once."  - Albert Einstein -

Positive Difference

"Success cannot be measured in wealth, fame or power, but by whether you have made a positive difference for others."  - Richard Branson -

Happy

"What is the meaning of life? To be happy and useful."  - Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama -

Wait

"If you don't like the weather, just wait a minute."  - an old saying -

Life

"The unexamined life is not worth living."  - Socrates -

Butterfly

"How does one become a butterfly?" she asked. "You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar."  - Trina Paulus -

Happiness

"Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."  - Nathaniel Hawthorne -

Happiness

"Where your pleasure is, there is your treasure; Where your treasure is, there is your heart; Where your heart is, there is your happiness."  - Augustine -

Sow

"It's what you sow that multiplies, not what you keep in the barn."  - Adrian Rogers -

Longing

"It was when I was happiest that I longed most...The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing...to find the place where all the beauty came from."  - C.S. Lewis -

Live

"What do we live for; if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?"  - T S Eliot -

Truth

"Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth."  - Sir Isaac Newton -

Overflow

"When the heart is full of joy, it always allows its joy to escape. It is like the fountain in the marketplace; whenever it is full it runs away in streams, and so soon as it ceases to overflow, you may be quite sure that it has ceased to be full. The only full heart is the overflowing heart."  - Charles Spurgeon -

Punishment

"When God wants to punish you, he gives you what you ask for!"  - an old saying - 

Love

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."  - Jimi Hendrix -

Education

"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence."  - Robert Frost -

Life

"What is the meaning of life? To be happy and useful."  - Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama -

Play

"Play is the highest form of research."  - Albert Einstein -

Tomorrow

"If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow."  - John Dewy -

Freedom

"The only purpose of education is freedom; the only method is experience."  - Leo Tolstoy -

Power of hoping

"Youth is the period in which a man can be hopeless. The end of every episode is the end of the world. 

But the power of hoping through everything, the knowledge that the soul survives its adventures, that great inspiration comes to the middle-aged."  - G.K. Chesterton -

Hope

"To love means loving the unlovable. 

To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. 

Faith means believing the unbelievable. 

Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless."  - G.K. Chesterton -

Haste

"Make haste slowly"  - Benjamin Franklin -

Regret

"Things without all remedy should be without regard; what's done is done."  - Lady Macbeth -

Spiritual life

"Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of spiritual life."  - Simone Weil -

Blessing

"I don't want you to just sit down at the table.

I don't want you to just eat and be content.

I want you to walk out into the fields

Where the water is shining and the rice has risen.

I want you to stand there far from this white tablecloth.

I want you to fill your hands with mud, like a blessing."  - Mary Oliver -

Human

"My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together."  - Desmond Tutu -  

Traveling

"Traveling makes one modest – you see what a tiny place you occupy in the world."  - Gustave Flaubert -

Experience

"The only purpose of education is Freedom, the only method is experience" - Leo Tolstoy -

Titles

"It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles."  - Niccolo Macchiavelli -

Important

"The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous."  - Margot Fonteyn -

Heart

"Stay far from timid. Only make moves if your heart's in it."  - Notorious B.I.G. -

Chance

"Chance favors the connected mind."  - Steve Johnson -

Education

"Education is not the filling of a pail (bucket), but the lighting of a fire."  - William Butler Yeats -

Together

"If you want to run fast, run alone; if you want to run far, run together."  - an African proverb -

Food

"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well."  - Virgina Woolf -

Opportunity

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is often dressed in overalls and looks like work."  - Thomas Alva Edison -

Voyage

"The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."  - Marcel Proust - 

Act

"A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle."  - Kahlil Gibran -

Alfafa

"Camels can be loaded with gold but they eat only alfafa."  - an Arabic saying -

(Alfalfa is a flowering plant in the pea family)

Wisdom

"Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you have preferred to talk."  - Doug Larson -

Equal

"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish."  - Albert Einstein -

Life

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years."  - Abraham Lincoln -

God

"I believe in God as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."  - C. S. Lewis -

Stupid

" Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing it is always from the noblest motive."  - Oscar Wilde -

Humanity

"Where there is love of humanity there will be love of the profession."  - Hippocrates -

Let go

"Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain. The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life. What is it you would let go of today?"  - Mary Manin Morrissey - 

Happiness

"When it's over and you look in the mirror, did you do the best that you were capable of? If so, the score does not matter. But if you find that you did your best you were capable of, you will find it to your liking." - John Wooden -

Shadows

"You can only come to the morning through the shadows."  - J.R.R. Tolkien -

Today

"Yesterday is a dream, tomorrow but a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore to this day."  - Sanskrit Proverb -

Good

"Do a Good Turn Daily." - Slogan of the Boy Scouts -

Universe

"I can't believe that God plays dice with the universe."  - Albert Einstein -

Great

"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 -

Young

"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young."  - Henry Ford -

Wait

"Do not wait; the time will never be just right."  - Napoleon Hill -

Adversity

"For a wise person, there is nothing to be called bad.  Any adversity of life provides a step for his growth, provided he knows how to utilize it."  - Sri Budha - 

Creative

"A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others." - Ayn Rand -

Learning

"Learning is not attained by chance; it must be sought for with ardour and attended to with diligence"  - Abigail Adams -

Old

"A comfortable old age is the reward of a well-spent youth. Instead of its bringing sad and melancholy prospects of decay, it would give us hopes of eternal youth in a better world."  - Maurice Chevalier -

Work

"In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it."  - Marianne Williamson -

Risk

"You have to risk going too far to discover just how far you can really go." - T.S. Eliot -

Found this at Archetype in Action here.

Let it come

"Let it come, as it will, and don't be afraid. God does not leave us comfortless, so let evening come."  - Jane Kenyon - 

Activities

"Do not wish evil for others.  Do not speak ill of others.  Do not obstruct anyone's activities."  - Guru Nanak -

Good morning

What do you mean? Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good on this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?  - J. R. R. Tolkien from The Hobbit -

Day

"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."  - E.B. White -

Happiness

"Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."  - Nathaniel Hawthorne -

Strength

"Strength does not come from physical capacity.  It comes from an indomitable will."  - Mahatma Gandhi -

Discovery

"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought."  - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi -

Think

"I cannot teach anybody anything.  I can only make them think."  - Socrates -

Serve

"I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve."  - Albert Schweitzer -

Better

"I cannot make my days longer so I strive to make them better."  - Henry David Thoreau -

Idea

"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple.  But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas."  - George Bernard Shaw -

Smile

"I will never understand all the good that a simple smile can accomplish."  - Mother Theresa -

Children

"If your plan is for one year plant rice. If your plan is for ten years plant trees. If your plan is for one hundred years educate children."  - Confucius -

Genius

"Everyone is a genius... But if you judge a fish on it's ability to climb a tree, it will live it's whole life believing that it is stupid."  - Albert Einstein -

Education

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." – William Butler Yeats -

Hell

"If you are going through hell, keep going." - Sir Winston Churchill -

Want

"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."  - Henry Ford -

Master

"If you want to be a master at anything, study what the masters have done before you. Learn to do what they have done. Have the courage to do it. And, you can be a master just like them."  - Author unknown -

Go

"It does not matter how slow you go so long as you do not stop."  - Confucius -

Mistakes

"A lot of good things in my life came from half of my mistakes." - Radney Foste, song writer -

Customers

"You have to treat your employees like your customers. When you treat them right they will treat your outside customers right."  - Herb Kelleher -

Illiterate

"The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn."- Alvin Toffler -

Difference

"At the end of your life, you are going to want to know that you made some kind of difference."  - Susan Sarandon, actress -

Shadow

"Now morning being come, he looked back, not out of desire to return, but to see, by the light of the day, what hazards he had gone through in the dark. So he saw more perfectly the ditch that was on the one hand, and the mire that was on the other; also how narrow the way was which led betwixt them both; also now he saw the hobgoblins, and satyrs, and dragons of the pit, but all afar off, (for after break of day, they came not nigh;) yet they were discovered to him, according to that which is written, 'He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow...' "  - John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress -

Mind

"The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of larger ideas, never returns to its original size."  - Oliver Wendell Holmes -

Community

"A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the hel- m."  Henrik Ibsen, Playwright -

Happy

"A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?"  - Albert Einstein -

Genius

"Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each." - Plato -

Help

"One of the most beautiful compensations in life is that no man can help another without helping himself."  - Ralph Waldo Emerson -

Good

"You can have it good, you can have it fast, or you can have it cheap - but you can't have all three."  - An old saying -

Forgiveness

"The weak can never forgive.   Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."  - Mahatma Gandhi -

God

"God feeds the birds but He doesn't throw it into the nest." - Author unknown -

People

"People are either wind in your sails or an anchor on your tail."  - Joe Charbonneau -

Skill

"Knowledge is not skill.  Knowledge plus ten thousand times is skill."  - Shinichi Suzuki -

Focus

"Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives."  - Anthony Robbins -

Success

"Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming."  - John Wooden -

Good

"Whatever you are, be a good one." - Abraham Lincoln -

To have succeeded

To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by
a healthy child, a garden patch
or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed
easier because you have lived;

This is to have succeeded.
 
- Ralph Waldo Emerson -

Funny

"If my life wasn't funny it would just be true and that is unacceptable"  - Carrie Fisher -

Stand for something

"Give us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for because unless we stand for something we shall fall for anything"  - Peter Marshall -

Ithaca

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
Pray that the road is long,
Full of adventure, full of knowledge.
...The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
The angry Poseidon - do not fear them
You will never find such as these on your path
If your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
Emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
The fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,
If you do not carry them within your soul,
If your heart does not set them up before you.

Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many, when,
With such pleasure, with such joy
You will enter ports seen for the first time;
Stop at Phoenician markets,
And purchase fine merchandise,
Mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
And sensual perfumes of all kinds,
As many sensual perfumes as you can;
Visit many Egyptian cities,
To learn and learn from scholars.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
And to anchor at the island when you are old,
Rich with all you have gained on the way,
Not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would never have set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.
And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
You must already have understood what Ithacas mean.

- Author unknown -

Going to be all right

How should I not be glad to contemplate
the clouds clearing beyond the dormer window
and a high tide reflected on the ceiling?
There will be dying, there will be dying,
but there is no need to go into that.
The poems flow from the hand unbidden
and the hidden source is the watchful heart.
The sun rises in spite of everything
and the far cities are beautiful and bright.
I lie here in a riot of sunlight
watching the day break and the clouds flying.
Everything is going to be all right.

- Derek Mahon -

Do

"I'm always doing things I can't do. That's how I get to do them" - Pablo Picasso -

Worthwhile work

"Far and away the best prize that Life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."  - Theodore Roosevelt -

Live - Learn

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow.  Learn as if you were to live forever."  - Mahatma Gandhi -

What we do

"What we think or what we know or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do."
- John Ruskin -

Problems

"When life's problems seem overwhelming, look around and see what other people are coping with.  You may consider yourself fortunate."  - Ann Landers -

Source: www.google.com

The Serenity Prayer

"God, give us the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish one from the other."  - Reinhold Niebuhr -

Children

"Great changes in the destiny of mankind begin in the minds of little children."  - Herbert Read -

Gifted

"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves.  We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained."  - Marie Curie -

Values

"If you organize your life around one of the higher values all the rest will come to you because all the higher values commune with each other".  - Plato -

Matters somehow

"Every piece of the universe, even the tiniest little snow crystal, matters somehow. I have a place in the pattern, and so do you…"  - T A Barron -

Thinking of you this holiday season!

Kind regards, vkn
http://inspiringwords.blogspot.com

Appreciation

"There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread."  - Mother Teresa -

Enemies

"I will destroy my enemies by converting them to friends."  - Maimonides -
 

Be thankful

"Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough."  - Oprah Winfrey -

Student

"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear."  - A Buddhist saying -

Strength

"The reason that the lion does not fear the hyena is not because he knows that he is the King of the jungle but because he is aware of his own strengths."  - Mr. Paulo Coelho -

Perfection

"Nothing is invented and perfected at the same time."  - Author unknown -

Kind Gods

"The noblest work of man is to create kind Gods."  - Robert Ingersoll-

Learning

"A young man who graduated yesterday and stops learning today will become uneducated tomorrow."  - Author unknown -

Habit

"Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time." - Mark Twain -

Living simply

"Look at the world around you. It supplies all your bodily needs. It feasts your eyes with its beauty. And its glory reflects the glory of God, so it feasts your soul also. Look at the plants and the trees. Can you count all the different species? Can you describe al the different shapes of the leaves, the color and fragrances of the flowers? Look, too, at the animals
and the insects. Are you not enthralled by their different sizes and shapes, by the different colors and textures of their skin and fur, by the different ways in which they move about and gather food? And the wonder why God has created all this. Has he created the marvelous universe just to supply our needs and to feast our eyes and souls? or is there some other purpose in it all? The answer is that he has created all things--for their own sake. Each creature has its own purpose and destiny, which God in his infinite wisdom
and love has planned. Do not try to understand God's plans; the human mind is hardly better than that of an ant in discerning the ways of God. Simply accept all his plans and rejoice in them."  - Chrysostom, On Living Simply-

Society

"The test of a good society is that the great majority are engaged in the basic arts, and only a few in the arts of luxury. When large numbers are engaged in producing luxuries for the rich, that society has become corrupt."  - Chrysostom, On Living Simply -

Try

When the world says, "Give up," hope whispers, "Try it one more time."

Hang on

"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on." - Franklin D. Roosevelt -

Success

"Success is what you attract by the person you become."  - Jim Rohn -

Awareness

"Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness." - James Thurber -

Life

Michalangelo was once asked, "How do you produce statues that are so full of life?"

"The rough marble already contains the statues," Michalangelo said, "it is just a matter of extracting them."

Mistake

"If you don't make mistakes, you're not working on hard enough problems. And that's a big mistake." – Frank Wilczek, Nobel prize winner in Physics -

Effort

"Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit."  - Napoleon Hill -

Task

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble."  - Helen Keller -

Luck

"I feel that luck is preparation meeting opportunity."  - Oprah Winfrey -

Trying

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."  - Dale Carnegie -

Competitor

"The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time."  - Henry Ford -

Seed

"Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit."  - Napoleon Hill -

Future

"We can not change the future; but we can help shape it."  - Unknown author -

Pencil

"A blunt pencil is better than a sharp mind." - Unknown Author -

Us

"I don't know "us" and I don't think that we know "us" either, because - whoever we are - we have not met before."  - W.R. Bion -

Love

"To love and be loved is the greatest happiness of existence."  - Sydney Smith -

Childhood

"It is never too late to have a happy childhood."  - Tim Robbins -

Astound

"If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves." - Thomas Edison -

Dream

"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." - Edgar Allan Poe -

Smile

"A smile is the light in the window of your face that tells people you're at home."  - Author Unknown -

To pray

"Lord, help me to notice everything You want me to see today."  - Author unknown -

Weave

"Weave in faith and God will find the thread."  - Author unknown -