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 -

Wonder

"Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge." - Abraham Joshua Heschel -

People

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” — Dale Carnegie -