Sole heir

 "You never enjoy the world aright till the sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens and crowned with the stars, and perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world, and more than so, because men are in it who are everyone sole heirs as well as you."  - Cp Traherne - 

Roots and wings

 

"There Are Two Lasting Bequests We Can Give Our Children: Roots and Wings."  - Author Unknown -

Roots to know where home is, and wings to fly off and practice what has been taught them.  The youth of our country has the opportunity to go forward in many fields, which will be a trying challenge.  The wings will teach a child how to soar into wider and still wider worlds of understanding.

Humble

“If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are.” - Mother Teresa -

Task

No task is too big when done together by all. - a Hawaiian proverb -

Future

"The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land."  - Abraham Lincoln -

Life

"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 these."  - George Washington Carver -

Do

"Doesn't matter what you do, or how you do it, your neighbors are going to talk about you anyway."  - Felder Rushing -

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 -

Cherish

"Cherish all your happy moments: they make a fine cushion for old age."  - Christopher Morley -

Destination

"It matters not which way the wind blows, I can adjust my sails to reach my destination." - Author unknown -

Friendship

"The treasure of friendship is your richest possession, because it goes with you beyond this life."  - Swami Yoganandaji -

Mind

"The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled."  - Plutarch -

Exploration

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time..."  - T S Eliot in The Four Quartets -

Try

"God does not require us to succeed, he only asks us to try."  - Mother Teresa -

Future

"There are two futures, the future of desire and the future of fate, and man's reason has never learnt to separate them." - JD Bernal -

Happy

"Learn how to be happy with what you have while you pursue what you want"  - Jim Rohn -

Everything

"Try to learn something about everything and everything about something."  - Thomas H. Huxley -

Decision

"Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen." - Ralph Waldo Emerson -

Self-education

"Traditional education will make you a living, self-education will make you a fortune."  - Jim Rohn -

Choose

"We can not choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them."  - Epictetus -

Disturb

"People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them."  - Epictetus -

Waterfall

"A strong person and a waterfall always channel their own path."  - Author unknown -

Civil

"Be civil to all, sociable to many, familiar with few, friend to one, enemy to none."  - Benjamin Franklin -

Beginner's mind

"A beginner's mind takes you where you need to go" - a traditional Zen saying -

God

"You may call God love, you may call God goodness, but the name for God is compassion." - Meister Eckhart -

Family

"All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." - Leo Tolstoy -

Fall

"When we fall utterly, something gathers us up. But our falling must be without reservation, without expectation, without hope, though not hopeless. You can't plan that kind of falling. When you abandon yourself utterly to life, the river will flow, and the log jam will free. Impossible is another word for grace. Who would've thought it, life takes another turn, and you are gathered up into a whole different way of seeing and being." - Roger Housden -

Mysterious

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." - Albert Einstein -

Useless

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

Feel

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."  - Maya Angelou -

Simplicity

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."  - Steve Jobs -

Chance

"Do you want to spend the rest of the life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world."  - Steve Jobs & John Sculley -

Convince

"A person can have the greatest idea in the world.  But if the person can't convince enough other people, it doesn't matter."  - Gregory Berns -

Can do

"All powers are within you, you can do anything and everything." - Swami Vivekananda -

Communication

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."  - George Bernard Shaw -

Simplicity

"Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough."  - Charles Dudley Warner -

Change

"Nothing changes, until you do." - Lazaris -

Simplicity

"Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means."  — Dr. Koichi Kawana -

Purpose

"The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don't like to do. They don't like doing them either necessarily. But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose."  - E M Gray -

Discipline

"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments."  - Jim Rohn -

I've learned

"I've learned.... That the best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person.

I've learned.... That when you're in love, it shows.

I've learned.... That just one person saying to me, "You've made my day!" makes my day.

I've learned.... That having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world.

I've learned.... That being kind is more important than being right.

I've learned.... That you should never say no to a gift from a child.

I've learned.... That I can always pray for someone when I don't have the strength to help him in some other way.

I've learned.... That no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.

I've learned.... That sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.

I've learned.... That simple walks with my father around the block on summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult.

I've learned.... That life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

I've learned.... That we should be glad God doesn't give us everything we ask for.

I've learned.... That money doesn't buy class.

I've learned.... That it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.

I've learned... That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.

I've learned.... That the Lord didn't do it all in one day. What makes me think I can?

I've learned.... That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.
 
I've learned.... That when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you.

I've learned.... That love, not time, heals all wounds.

I've learned.... That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.

I've learned.... That everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile.

I've learned.... That there's nothing sweeter than sleeping with your babies and feeling their breath on your cheeks.

I've learned.... That no one is perfect until you fall in love with them.

I've learned.... That life is tough, but I'm tougher.

I've learned.... That opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss.

I've learned.... That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.

I've learned.... That I wish I could have told my Dad that I love him one more time before he passed away.

I've learned.... That one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomorrow he may have to eat them.

I've learned.... That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.

I've learned.... That I can't choose how I feel, but I can choose what I do about it.

I've learned.... That when your newly born grandchild holds your little finger in his little fist, that you're hooked for life.

I've learned.... That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.

I've learned ... That it is best to give advice in only two circumstances; when it is requested and when it is a life threatening situation.

I've learned.... That the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done."

- Andy Rooney -

Common sense

"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense."  - Buddha -

Kind

"Three things in life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. The third is to be kind."  - Henry James -

People

"When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity." - Dale Carnegie -

Hostility

"If we could read the secret histories of our enemies, we would find in each man's life a sorrow and a suffering enough to disarm all hostility."  - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow -

True work

"Be perfectly resigned, perfectly unconcerned; then alone can you do any true work. No eyes can see the real forces; we can only see the results. Put out self, forget it; just let God work, it is HIS business." - Swami Vivekananda -

I was right

"I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference." - Abraham Lincoln -

Fight one more round

"FIght one more round. When your feet are so tired that you have to shuffle back to the center of the ring, fight one more round. When your arms are so tired that you can hardly lift your hands to come on guard, fight one more round. When your nose is bleeding and your eyes are black and you are so tired you wish your opponent would crack you one in the jaw and put you to sleep, fight one more round - remembering that the man who always fights one more round is never whipped." - James J. Corbett -

Choice

"Every man builds his world in his own image. He has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice." - Ayn Rand -

Discovery

"The most poignant discovery in science comes when one suddenly sees the truth that was open to view all the time." - Raymond A. Dart -

Work

"I you love what you do, you will never work another day in your life." - Confucius -

Belief

"People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success." - Norman Vincent Peale -

Homage

"The reason why rivers and seas receive the homage of a hundred mountain streams is that they keep below them. Thus they are able to reign over all the mountain streams. So the sage, wishing to be above men, putteth himself below them; wishing to be before them, he putteth himself behind them. Thus, though his place be above men, they do not feel his weight; though his place be before them, they do not count it an injury." - Lao Tsze, a Chinese sage -

Soft

"He who treads softly goes far." - Chinese proverb -

Nothing

"One thing only I know and that is that I know nothing." - Socrates -

Argument

"It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man by argument." - William G. McAdoo -

Credit

"You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit." - Harry S. Truman -

My influence

"My life shall touch a dozen lives
Before this day is done
Leave countless marks of good or ill,
E'er sets the evening sun.

This the wish I always wish,
The prayer I always pray;
Lord may my life help others lives
It touches by the way."

- Author unknown -

The Student's Prayer

"Don't impose on me what you know,
I want to explore the unknown
And be the source of my own discoveries.
Let the known be my liberation, not my slavery.
The world of your truth can be my limitation;
Your wisdom my negation.
Don't instruct me; let's walk together.
Let my riches begin where yours ends.
Show me so that I can stand
On your shoulders.
Reveal yourself so that I can be
Something different.
You believe that every human being
Can love and create.
I understand, then, your fear
When I ask you to live according to your wisdom.
You will not know who I am
By listening to yourself.
Don't instruct me; let me be.
Your failure is that I be identical to you."

- Umberto Maturana's son - [Former Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam wrote about it in The Hindu newspaper today, Nov 12, 2009: came across this poem in a book Spiritual Intelligence, The Ultimate Intelligence by Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall]

Customer

"A Customer is the most important visitor on our premises,
He is not dependent on us; we are dependent on him,
He is not an interruption on our work; He is the purpose of it,
He is not an outsider on our business; He is a part of it,
We are not doing him a favor by Serving him; He is giving us an opportunity to do so."

- Mahatma Gandhi -

Love

"And in the end, the love you take,
Is equal to the love you made."

- Gil Tran and the Beatles -

Leaders

"Leaders are leaders only as long as they have the respect and loyalty of their followers." - Hans Selye -

Wanted:

"A miracle worker who can do more with less, pacify rival groups, endure chronic second guessing, tolerate low levels of support, process large volumes of paper, and work double shifts. He or she will have carte blanche to innovate, but cannot spend much money, replace any personnel, or upset any constituency." - Michael Fullan -

Leadership

"Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it." - Marian Anderson -

Happiness

"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise man grows it under his feet." - James Openhelm -

Within

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." - Ralph Waldo Emerson -

Mystery of life

"The mystery of life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced." - Aart van der Leew -

Sayings

"Sayings remain meaningless until they are embodied in habits." - Kahil Gibran -

Peace of mind

"For material progress and physical well being, peace of mind is of utmost importance." - Dalai Lama -

Be

"If you want to be happy, be." - Leo Tolstoy -

Give

"We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers." - Seneca -

Aim of education

"The great aim of education is not knowledge but action." - Herbert Spencer -

Education

"Education is the ability to meet life's situations." - Dr. John G. Hibben -

Power

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." - Abraham Lincoln -

God's trust

"God won't trust you with a lot unless you demonstrate he can trust you with a little." - Charles Stanley -

Strength

"The remedy for weakness is not brooding over weakness, but thinking of strength." - Swami Vivekananda -

For the next generation

There was an elderly person planting some acorns. A man passing by asked, "Old man, look at your age. Do you think you will live long enough to see the oak trees?" And the man replied, "All the trees that have given me shade and fruits - did I plant all of them? There are people coming behind me too." - Author unknown -

Footprints

"Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us,
Footprints on the sands of time."

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow -

Stand

"Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides." - Margaret Thatcher -

Begin it

"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it; boldness has genius, power and magic in it”. - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe -

Success

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

Unknown

"In detachment lies the wisdom of uncertainty. In the wisdom of uncertainty lies the freedom from our past, from the known, which is the prison of past conditioning. And, in our willingness to step into the unknown, the field of all possibilities, we surrender ourselves to the creative mind that orchestrates the dance of the universe." - Author unknown -

Thanks Gillean for sharing this.

Let go

"Keep that which is good and decent in your life. Let go the rest." - Author unknown -

Thanks Gillean for sharing - saw it written on a bulletin board at a homeopathic physician's office.

Yearn

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea." - Antoine De Saint-Exupery -

Common sense

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 18." - Einstein -

Light

"It's better to light the candle than curse the darkness." - Eleanor Roosevelt -

Tomorrow

"If you wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes. If you don't wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes." - Senegalese proverb -

Journey

"The journey is the reward." - Tao proverb -

Joy

"Every season brings its own joy." - Spanish proverb -

Choice

"Beyond the age of information is the age of choices." - Charles Eames -

If

"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 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 away to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
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!

- Rudyard Kipling -

Tyrant

"The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within." - Mahatma Gandhi -

Give the best

"Look at the sky.  We are not alone.  The whole universe is friendly to us and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work."  - Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam -

Values

“If we aren’t willing to pay a price for our values, then we should ask ourselves whether we truly believe in them at all.”  - Barack H. Obama -

Glory

“Glory is not a conceit.  It is not a decoration by valour.  Glory belongs to the act of being constant to something greater than yourself, to a cause, to your principles, to the people on whom you rely and who rely on you in return.”  - John McCain -

Challenge

“Challenge is the core and mainspring of all human action.  If there’s an ocean, we cross it.  If there’s a disease, we cure it.  If there’s is a wrong, we right it.  If there’s a record, we break it.  And if there is a mountain, we climb it.”  - James Ullman -

Involved Teacher

“You can teach to a wall, but when you help someone learn, you have to get involved with the whole person.”  - Guy Doud -

Possible

“When a distinguished and elderly scientist says something is possible, he is almost certainly correct; when he says something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.”  - Arthur C. Clarke -

Teach

“I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they learn.”  - Einstein –

Not too late

“Courage, my friend, it’s not too late to make the world a better place.”  - Tommy Douglas -

Success

“Success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.”  - Stephen Leacock -

Purpose

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose.”  - George Bernard Shaw -

Education

“Education is what survives when what has been learned is forgotten.”  - Author unknown -

Learners

“I don’t divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures... I divide the world into the learners and non-learners.”  - Benjamin Barber -

Hope

“What Oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life.”  - Emil Brunner -

Future

"The future is carved out of the present moment. Tomorrow's harvest depends upon today's ploughing and sowing."  - Swami Chinmayananda -

Thinking

”The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”  - Albert Einstein -

Begin

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -

Knowledge

"In the pursuit of quality, there is no substitute for knowledge.” - Deming -

Resistance

"We have met the enemy, and he is us." - Pogo -

Change

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself” - Leo Tolstoy -

Knowledge

"There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance." - Socrates -

Today.. now!

"A year from now you may wish you had started today." - Carolyn Lamb -

Fail greatly

"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." - JFK -

Bare feet

"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair." - Kahlil Gibran -

Relativity

"When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute - and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity." - Albert Einstein -

Time

"So much of our time is preparation, so much is routine, and so much retrospect, that the path of each man's genius contracts itself to a very few hours." - Ralph Waldo Emerson -

Overlook

"The art of being wise is knowing where to overlook." - William James -

Yellow Ribbon

"No amount of money will induce someone to lay down their life, but they will gladly do so for a bit of yellow ribbon." - Napoleon -

Yellow Ribbon

"No amount of money will induce someone to lay down their life, but they will gladly do so for a bit of yellow ribbon." - Napoleon -

A part of the main

"No man is an island entire of himself, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main..." - John Donne -

Thanks

"If I can see much farther, it's because I am standing on the shoulders of giants." - Sir Isaac Newton -

Design future

"The best way to predict the future is to help design it." - Peter Drucker -

Insanity

"The definition of insanity is doing something the same way... while expecting a different result." - Albert Einstein -

Doing right things

"People and their managers are working so hard to be sure things are done right, that they have hardly have time to decide if they are doing the right things." - Steven Covey -

To be

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” - George Eliot -

Persistence

"Energy and persistence conquer all things." - Benjamin Franklin -

Destiny

"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved." - William Jennings Bryan -

Self-confidence

"The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear and get a record of successful experiences behind you." - William Jennings Bryan -

Time

Time is
Too slow for those who want,
Too swift for those who fear,
Too long for those who grieve,
Too short for those who rejoice,
But for those who love,
Time is not.
- Henry Van Dyke -

Pliable

"Only when you can be extremely pliable and soft can you be extremely hard and strong." - Zen proverb -

Potter and Clay

"There was a couple who used to go to England to shop in the beautiful stores. They both liked antiques and pottery and especially teacups. This was their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. One day in this beautiful shop they saw a beautiful teacup. They said, "May we see that? We've never seen one quite so beautiful." As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke.

"You don't understand," it said. "I haven't always been a teacup. There was a time when I was red and I was clay. "My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over and I yelled out, "let me alone", but he only smiled, "Not yet."

"Then I was placed on a spinning wheel," the teacup said, "and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. Stop it! I'm getting dizzy!" I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, 'Not yet”.

Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I wondered why he wanted to burn me, and I yelled and knocked at the door. I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as He shook his head, "Not yet”.

Finally the door opened, he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. "There, that's better," I said. And he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. "Stop it, stop it!" I cried. He only nodded, "Not yet."

Then suddenly he put me back into the oven, not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. All the time I could see him through the opening nodding his head saying, "Not yet."

Then I knew there wasn't any hope. I would never make it. I was ready to give up. But the door opened and he took me out and placed me on the shelf. One hour later he handed me a mirror and said, "Look at yourself." And I did. I said, "That's not me; that couldn't be me. It's beautiful. I'm beautiful.”
"I want you to remember, then," he said, "I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I had left you alone, you'd have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I knew it hurt and was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked.

I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn't done that, you never would have hardened; you would not have had any color in your life. And if I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't survive for very long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. You are what I had in mind when I first began with you."

Do something wonderful

"Don't be encumbered by history, just go out and do something wonderful." - Robert Noyce -

Curiosity

"You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives." - Anonymous -

Do your best

Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life
of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and
realities of your existence;
The bliss of growth
The glory of action
Splendor of achievement,
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision,
But today well lived,
makes every yesterday a
dream of happiness
And tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore to this day!
Such is the salutation to the dawn.

- Kalidasa in Shakuntalam -

Live

"You better live every day like it's your last because one day you're going to be right." - Ray Charles -

Ingenuity

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." - George S. Patton US general (1885 - 1945) -

Life

"Life is what happens while we’re busy making other plans." - John Lennon -

Problem

"A problem well described is half solved." - John Dewey -

Longing

"If you want to build a boat, do not instruct the men to saw wood, stitch the sails, prepare the tools and organize the work, but make them long for setting sail and travel to distant lands." - Antoine De Saint Exupery -

Pull and Push

"Pull the string, and it will follow whereever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all." - Dwight D. Eisenhower -

Learning

"Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself." - Chinese Proverb -

Freedom

"It is far better for a man to go wrong in freedom than to go right in chains." - Thomas Huxley -

Freedom

"It is far better for a man to go wrong in freedom than to go right in chains." - Thomas Huxley -

Simplicity

"One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity." - Bruce Lee -

Reality

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." - Albert Einstein -

Power

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." - Abraham Lincoln -

Leadership

“Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.” - Gen. Colin Powell -

Heaven

"I do not want a kingdom, or heaven; what I want is to remove the trouble of the oppressed, the poor, and the needy." - Mahatma Gandhi -

Counsel

“He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both.” - Francis Bacon -

Education

"Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today." - Malcolm X -

Future

"The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is." - C S Lewis -

Thought

"Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think." - Benjamin Disraeli -

Life

"The tragedy of life is not death, but what we let die inside of us while we live." - Norman Cousins -

The one who hinders your growth!

“One day all the employees reached the office and they saw a big notice on the door on which was written: 'Yesterday the person who has been hindering your growth in this company passed away. We invite you to join the funeral in the room that has been prepared in the gym'.

In the beginning, they all got sad for the death of one of their colleagues, but after a while they started getting curious to know who was that man who hindered the growth of his colleagues and the company itself. The excitement in the gym was such that security agents were ordered to control the crowd within the room.

The more people reached the coffin, the more the excitement heated up. Everyone thought: 'Who is this guy who was hindering my progress? Well, at least he died!'. One by one the thrilled employees got closer to the coffin, and when they looked inside it they suddenly became speechless. They stood nearby the coffin, shocked and in silence, as if someone had touched the deepest part of their soul. There was a mirror inside the coffin: everyone who looked inside it could see himself.

There was also a sign next to the mirror that said: ‘There is only one person who is capable to set limits to your growth: it is YOU’.

You are the only person who can revolutionize your life.
You are the only person who can influence your happiness, your realization and your success.
You are the only person who can help yourself.
Your life does not change when your boss changes, when your friends change, when your parents change, when your partner changes, when your company changes.
Your life changes when YOU change, when you go beyond your limiting beliefs, when you realize that you are the only one responsible for your life.

'The most important relationship you can have is the one you have with yourself'” - Author unknown -