"There is another more
subtle way in which the innocence of childhood is lost: when the child is
infected with the desire to become somebody. Contemplate the crowds of people who
are striving might and main to become, not what Nature intended them to be -
musicians, cooks, mechanics, carpenters, gardeners, inventors - but somebody:
to become successful, famous, powerful; to become something that will bring,
not quiet and self-fulfillment, but self-glorification and
self-expansion." Tony deMello SJ, 1931-87, Indian spiritual leader and
writer, from The Way to Love
"It is the weak who
are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong." (Leo Rosten,
1908-1997
"In the factory we
make cosmetics. In the store we sell hope." (Charles Revson, 1906-75,
founder of the Revlon corporation
"I forget what I was
taught, I only remember what I've learnt." (Patrick White, 1912-90,
"Once the last tree is cut and the last
river poisoned, you will find you cannot eat your money."
"My barn having burned to the ground, I can
now see the moon." (Traditional Japanese haiku verse teaching us to see
the good in all things)
"In spite of everything I still believe
that people are really good at heart." (Anne Frank, 1929-45)
"I expect to pass through this world but
once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness I can show to any
fellow human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I
shall not pass this way again." (Variously attributed to quakers Stephen
Grellet, 1773-1855, and William Penn, 1644-1718, and to Mahatma Gandhi,
1869-1948)
"There is no wealth but life"
"If 'A' is a success
in life, then A = x + y + z. Work is x; y is play, and z is keeping your mouth
shut." (Albert Einstein)
"When I am working on
a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only of how to solve the
problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it
is wrong." (Richard Buckminster Fuller, 1895-1983)
"Never pick a fight
with people who buy ink by the barrel." (attributed to Bill Clinton,
b.1946, US
42nd President, referring to the dangers of falling out with press and media
folk; the quote was originally written by Mark Twain, 1835-1910)
"If there is anything
that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether
it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves." (Carl
Jung, 1875-1961)
"We call ours a
utilitarian age, and we do not know the uses of any single thing. We have
forgotten that water can cleanse, that fire can purify, and that the Earth is
mother to us all." (Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900)
Come to
the edge, Life said.
They said: We are afraid.
Come to the edge, Life said.
They came. It pushed them...
And they flew.
"Life is without meaning.
You bring the meaning to it.
The meaning of life is
whatever you ascribe it to be.
Being alive is the meaning."
(Joseph Campbell, 1904-87)
"Keep
doing what you've been doing and you will keep getting what you've been
getting!" (Jackie B Cooper, American automotive industry trainer and
pioneer, 1939-2001) Alternatively, "If you always do what you've always
done, then you'll always get what you've always got." (used by various
speakers, notably Zig Ziglar)
"Live
with compassion. Work with compassion. Die with compassion. Meditate with
compassion. Enjoy with compassion. When problems come, experience them with
compassion." (Lama Zopa Rinpoche, born Nepal 1946, Buddhist teacher,
spiritual leader of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana
Tradition.)
"Success
- 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."
"When
every situation which life can offer is turned to the profit of spiritual
growth, no situation can really be a bad one." (Paul Brunton, 1898-1981,
writer and philosopher
"Nietzsche was the one
who did the job for me. At a certain moment in his life, the idea came to him
of what he called 'the love of your fate'. Whatever your fate is, whatever the
hell happens, you say, 'This is what I need.' It may look like a wreck, but go
at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that
moment - not discouragement - you will find the strength is there. Any disaster
that you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and
your life. What a privilege! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature
will have a chance to flow. Then, when looking back at your life, you will see
that the moments which seemed to be great failures followed by wreckage were
the incidents that shaped the life you have now. You’ll see that this is really
true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive. Even though it looks and
feels at the moment like a negative crisis, it is not. The crisis throws you
back, and when you are required to exhibit strength, it comes."
-Joseph
Campbell"Seeker of truth,
follow no path. All paths lead where truth is. Here."
- EE Cummings
"Why not go out on a
limb? That's where the fruit is."
- Will Rogers
"I shall tell you a
great secret, my friend. Do not wait for the last judgement. It takes place
every day." (Albert Camus, writer and philosopher, 1913-60
"Make your heart like
a lake, with calm, still surface, and great depths of kindness." - Lao Tzu
"Courage is not the
towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom that opens
in the snow." - Alice Mackenzie Swaim
"I would rather be
ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant
blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor,
every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The
function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to
prolong them. I shall use my time."
- Jack London
"Success is not the
result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire." (Fred
Shero, Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers hockey coach)
"Ninety per-cent of
what we worry about never happens, yet we worry and worry. What a horrible way
to go through life! What a horrible thing to do to your colon!" - Leo F
Buscaglia
"We don't see things
as they are, we see things as we are."
- Anais Nin, French-born American
writer 1903-77
"The stone age didn't
end because they ran out of stones."
"We should be careful
to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is within it - and stop there;
lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. She will never sit
down on a hot stove lid again - and that is well; but also she will never sit
down on a cold one any more."
- Mark Twain, 1835-1910
"To conquer fear is
the beginning of wisdom." - Bertrand Russell
"Character building
begins in our infancy, and continues until death."
- Eleanor Roosevelt
"No-one can make you
feel inferior without your consent."
- Eleanor Roosevelt
"A mistake is only a
mistake if you don't learn from it."
"With
every willing pair of hands comes a free brain." (Unknown, Ack KN)
"Let us
be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed."
(Mark Twain)
"Always
do the right thing. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
(Mark Twain)
"If you
tell the truth you don't have to remember anything." - Mark Twain
"No-one
ever listened themselves out of a job." (Calvin Coolidge, US
President. Ack JC)
"There is
none so blind as those who will not listen." (William Slater)
"In the midst of
winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."
(Albert Camus, 1913-1960, French author & philosopher
"The
marksman hitteth the target partly by pulling, partly by letting go. The
boatsman reacheth the landing partly by pulling, partly by letting go."
(Egyptian proverb)
"We
cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created
them." (Albert Einstein)
"The true voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes,
but in having new eyes." (Marcel Proust. Thanks Robert Vázquez Pacheco)
"Words are, of course,
the most powerful drug used by mankind." (Rudyard Kipling
"It is
amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit."
(Harry S Truman, 1884-1972, US President)
"I not
only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow." (Woodrow Wilson)
"Before you speak, ask yourself: Is it kind, is it necessary, is it
true, does it improve on the silence?" - Shirdi Sai Baba, Indian
saint
"I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the
obstacles overcome while trying to succeed." (Booker T Washington,
1856-1915)
"Most
people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a
second. Give your dreams all you've got and you'll be amazed at the energy that
comes out of you." (William James, 1842-1910, American Philosopher)
"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has
genius, power and magic in it." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German
writer, 1749-1832)
"The trouble with the
rat race is that even if you win you are still a rat."
- Lily Tomlin"Better go home and
make a net, rather than dive for fish at random." (Chinese proverb)
"If I have seen a
little further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." (Sir Isaac
Newton, 1643-1727)
"A camel is a horse
designed by a committeee." (Sir Alec Issigonis, 1906-88
"Integrity
without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is
dangerous and dreadful." (Samuel Johnson 1709- 84)
"Out of the night that
covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be,
For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not
winced nor cried aloud: Under the bludgeonings of chance my head is bloody but
unbowed.... It matters not how strait the gait, how charged with punishments
the scroll, I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul." (WE
Henley, 1849-1903)
"Everybody can get angry, that's easy. But getting angry at
the right person, with the right intensity, at the right time, for the right
reason and in the right way that's hard." (Aristotle)
"Even if you think
you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." - Will Rogers
"It's not
the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled
or how the doer of deeds might have done them better. The credit belongs to the
man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred with the sweat and dust
and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again;
who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a
worthy cause and who, at best knows the triumph of high achievement and who at
worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall
never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor
defeat." (Theodore Roosevelt, 1858-1919, 26th US President and 1906 Nobel
Peace Prize-winner.)
"Life is
like a very short visit to a toyshop between birth and death." (Desmond
Morris, 1991.)
"Whoever
in debate quotes authority uses not intellect, but memory." (Leonardo Da
Vinci)
"If you
don't agree with me it means you haven't been listening." (Sam Markewich.)
"The
world is divided into people who do things, and people who get the credit. Try,
if you can, to belong to the first class. There's far less competition."
(Dwight Morrow, 1935.)
"What is
written without effort is in general read without pleasure." (Samuel
Johnson.)
"This
report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being
read." (Sir Winston Churchill.)
"I hear
and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." (Confucius
551-479 BC)
"When you
are thirsty, it's too late to dig a well." (Japanese Proverb.)
"The best
time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining."
(John F Kennedy)
"He who
would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and
dance; one cannot fly into flying." (Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900.)
"He who
fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if
you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
(Nietzsche.)
"What does not kill us
makes us stronger." (attributed to
Friedrich Nietzsche)
"A life
spent in making mistakes is not only more honourable but more useful than a
life spent doing nothing." (George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950.)
"Managers
are people who never put off until tomorrow what they can get somebody else to
do today." (Unknown.)
"Not in doing what you like best, in liking what you do is the
secret of happiness." (Sir James Matthew Barrie)
"Learning is not
attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardour and attended to with
diligence." (Abigail Adams in 1780)
"We do not want
churches because they will teach us to quarrel about God..." (Chief
Joseph, 1840-1904, of the Nez Percé Native Americans)
"You've
got to be before you can do, and you've got to do before you can
have." (Zig Ziglar)
"Don't tell my mother
I'm in politics: she thinks I play the piano in a whorehouse." - Mark Twain
