The Little Things


It really is the little things
That mean the most of all...
The "let me help you with that" things
That may seem very small
The "I'll be glad to do it" things
That make your cares much lighter,
The "laugh with me, it's funny" things
That make your outlook brighter...

The "never mind the trouble" things,
The "yes, I understand,"
The interest and encouragement
In everything you've planned
It really is the little things,
The friendly word or smile,
That add such happiness to life
And make it more worth while.

--Mary Dawson Hughes

God says to me with kind of a smile,
"Hey how would you like to be God awhile
And steer the world?"
"Okay," says I, "I'll give it a try.
Where do I set?
How much do I get?
What time is lunch?
When can I quit?"
"Gimme back that wheel," says God,
"I don't think you're quite ready yet.

To Be Happy

to be happy
help
help someone
help someone who needs it
help someone who needs it badly
help someone who needs it badly and you know there will be no return
help someone who is not related to you
help someone who is not your close friend
help someone who does not expect you to
help when it is not your duty
help in whatever way you can
help
and you will be happy

--author unknown

THE PEAK

(Ted Hibbard, American Poet and Cartoonist


It towers far above the world
remote but reachable
safe and secure
among the clouds

We come here to share
our thoughts
our dreams
our poems
our cares
in short --
our lives

We know there are spirits here
who will listen
give comfort
pat us on the back
dry our tears
(or even give advice
if we should ask)

Thank God
for the Peak

Sometimes
it can seem like
the closest thing
to Heaven
here on Earth

A Plea To The Lord
Rosemary Ammar
I woke up on Monday and looked up at the sky
With a pain in my heart and tears in my eyes
I said “Lord, please help me, I don't know what to do.
I lost my job, I need some help, I have no one but you."

The Lord looked down upon me with sadness in his eyes.
“The world is in a sorry state and I apologize.
For all the pain it's caused you, there's just one thing I'll say:
“It’s okay to cry my child, but don't forget to pray.”

I woke up on Tuesday and looked up at the sky
With a pain in my heart and tears in my eyes
I said “Lord please help me, I don’t know what to do.
The food is scarce, the kids are sick, I have no one but you.

The week dragged by thru Saturday and things seemed worse each day.
I remembered what the Lord said: “It’s okay to cry, but pray”
So I cried and prayed, I cried and prayed, with no relief in sight.
And I went to bed exhausted but couldn't sleep that night.

I woke up on Sunday and looked up at the sky
With pain in my heart and tears in my eyes
I said “Lord I’ve had enough and I’m about to break
I think I might just end it all, for everybody’s sake."

“I’ve not deserted you my child, I’ve counted every tear
Your burdens, although heavy, are not more than you can bear
Soon the sun will warm your face and make you smile again
So rest a little easier and trust in me till then.”

Then the Lord reached down and held me in his arms
With a gentle hand he wiped my tears and spoke these words so calm
“My child I love you dearly and have heard you pray your best
But there is no crying on Sunday, it is the day of rest.

I’ve heard you cry, I’ve heard you pray and I will not desert you
Your faith in Me will get you through these tragedies that hurt you.
So rest today and worry not and leave the rest to me
If you do that, I can promise you, the best is yet to be."

Golf Chat

Three old men on the golf course,
(Each had trouble hearing well)
Were playing a round on a breezy day,
When one blew over and fell.

"Windy, isn't it?" said one of them,
While helping the other to rise.
"No, it's Thursday," said the second man.
And they walked off to exercise.

The third man had listened intently;
Now he chimed in, with good cheer;
As he followed the others, he called out,
"So am I. Let's have a beer!"

By Joanna Fuchs
[edit: www.poemsource.com has asked us to remove the link to their site -TBNet]

The wisest mind has something yet to learn. -

--George Santayana

"Our happiness depends on the habit of mind we cultivate. So practice happy thinking every day. Cultivate the merry heart, develop the happiness habit, and life will become a continual feast."

--Norman Vincent Peale

"We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance."

--Harrison Ford

"We hold in our hands, the most precious gift of all: Freedom. The freedom to express our art. Our love. The freedom to be who we want to be. We are not going to give that freedom away and no one shall take it from us!"

--Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider

For the rest of my life I'm going to trust that God is always at work in all things, and give thanks long before my simplest prayers are answered.

Nancy Parker Brummett
Inspirational Author and Speaker

"The proud man can learn humility, but he will be proud of it."

Mignon McLaughlin

If you wish the world to become loving
and compassionate, become loving and compassionate yourself. If you wish to diminish fear in the world, diminish your own. These are the gifts that you can give.

Gary Zukav
Spiritual Teacher and Author

"In any contest between power and patience, bet on patience."

W.B. Prescott

There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head. "Well," she said, "I think I'll braid my hair today." So she did and she had a wonderful day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and saw that she had only two hairs on her head. "Hmmm..," she said, "I think I'll part my hair down the middle today." So she did and she had a grand day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that she had only one hair on her head. "Well," she said, "Today I'm going to wear my hair in a pony tail." So she did, and she had a fun, fun day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn't a single hair on her head. "YAY!" she exclaimed. "I don't have to fix my hair today!"

Author Unknown

"The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it."

Thucydides

If you awake every morning with the thought that something wonderful will happen in your life today, you'll often find that you are right.

Nancy Sathre-Vogel
American Mom, Author and Motivational Speaker

"Imagination is the eye of the soul."

Joseph Joubert

"Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads."

Erica Jong

Listen to the mustn'ts, child.
Listen to the don'ts.
Listen to the shouldn'ts,
the impossibles, the won'ts.
Listen to the never haves,
then listen close to me...
Anything can happen, child.
Anything can be.

Shel Silverstein
American Poet, Cartoonist and Children's Author

You've done well.
You've made great stuff happen,
and you will make more great stuff happen.
You've been scared and you overcame.
You've been knocked down and you rose.
And you've been lost, or so you thought,
only to discover it was just the calm before
another storm of creativity, love, and fun.

Mike Dooley (Slightly Adapted)
Inspirational Author, Speaker

"Happiness is not pleasure, it is victory."

Zig Ziglar

"To discover in ourselves what makes life worth living is risky business, for it means that once we know we must seek it. It also means that without it life will be valueless."

Marsha Sinetar

"To love what you do and feel that it matters - how could anything be more fun?"

Catherine Graham

"When thou sees an eagle, thou sees a portion of genius; lift up thy head!"

William Blake

Only a powerful soul can offer love. Only a powerful soul can afford to be humble. If we are weak, then we become selfish. If we are empty, we take; but if we are filled, we automatically give to all. That is our nature.

Dadi Prakashmani
Indian Peace Activist and Spiritual Leader

"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try."

--Beverly Sills

Fear is not
our enemy.
It is merely
a compass
pointing us
to the areas
where we need
to grow.

Steve Pavlina
Motivational Author and Speaker

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal."

Henry Ford

"Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night."

Edgar Allan Poe

"Never spend your money before you have it."

Thomas Jefferson

"All I can say about life is, Oh God, enjoy it!"

Bob Newhart

"When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary."

William Wrigley, Jr.

All of us are gifted;
some just open our packages
earlier than others.

Author Unknown

"An angry man is again angry with himself when he returns to reason."

Publilius Syrus

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

Anais Nin

Live your life as if you were already the outstanding person that you intend to be sometime in the future.

Brian Tracy
Inspirational Author and Speaker

Every challenge we face adds to the suspense, adds to the mystery, adds to the chaos, adds to the possibilities, adds to the romance, adds to the adventure, adds to the joy.

Mike Dooley

"So many fail because they don't get started - they don't go. They don't overcome inertia. They don't begin."

W. Clement Stone

"It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire, and many things to fear."

Francis Bacon

The truth is that there is only one terminal dignity - love. And the story of a love is not important - what is important is that one is capable of love. It is perhaps the only glimpse we are permitted of eternity.

Helen Hayes, 1900-1993
American Stage and Film Actress

"Energy is the essence of life. Every day you decide how you're going to use it by knowing what you want and what it takes to reach that goal, and by maintaining focus."

Oprah Winfrey

"Friendship is love with understanding."

Ancient Proverb

The service we render to others is really the rent we pay for our room on this earth. It is obvious that man is himself a traveler; that the purpose of this world is not 'to have and to hold' but 'to give and to serve.'

Sir Wilfred Grenfell, 1865-1940
English Medical Missionary

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect."

Mark Twain

"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything."

Mark Twain

"Do you want my one-word secret of happiness - It's growth - mental, financial, you name it."

Harold S. Geneen

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit"

Aristotle

The only way to get love is to be lovable. It's very irritating if you have a lot of money. You'd like to think you could write a check: I'll buy a million dollars' worth of love.' But it doesn't work that way. The more you give love away, the more you get.

Warren Buffett
American Business Magnate and Philanthropist

"A weak man has doubts before a decision, a strong man has them afterwards."

Karl Kraus

"Advice is like castor oil, easy enough to give but dreadful uneasy to take."

Josh Billings

"To love what you do and feel that it matters - how could anything be more fun?"

Catherine Graham

"The human spirit needs to accomplish, to achieve, to triumph to be happy."

Ben Stein

You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.

Thomas Merton, 1915-1968

Let's just be fabulously where we are and who we are. You be you and I'll be me... and let's trust the future to tomorrow. Let the stars keep track of us. Let us ride our own orbits and trust that they will meet. May our reunion be not a finding but a sweet collision of destinies!

Jerry Spinelli
American Author and Children's Novelist

"Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared."

Eddie Rickenbacher

Simply give others a bit of yourself;
a thoughtful act,
a helpful idea,
a word of appreciation,
a lift over a rough spot,
a sense of understanding,
a timely suggestion.
You take something out of your mind,
garnished in kindness out of your heart,
and put it into the other person's mind and heart.

Charles H. Burr

"Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart; and you'll never walk alone; you'll never walk alone."

Oscar Hammerstein II

"Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed."

Thomas Jefferson

"One can acquire everything in solitude except character."

Marie Henri Beyle

I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten... but I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough.

Nicholas Sparks
American Novelist and Screenwriter

"Welcome every morning with a smile. Look on the new day as another special gift from your Creator, another golden opportunity to complete what you were unable to finish yesterday. Be a self-starter. Let your first hour set the theme of success and positive action that is certain to echo through your entire day. Today will never happen again. Don't waste it with a false start or no start at all. You were not born to fail."

Og Mandino

Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.

Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862

"You must give some time to your fellow men. Even if it's a little thing, do something for others - something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it."

Albert Schweitzer

"Falling into the deepest valley is nothing to fear. It just means that you are in the perfect position to climb the World's highest mountain."

Carl F Hughes

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

"What you have outside you counts less than what you have inside you."

B. C. Forbes

When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.

Paulo Coelho

"When you arise in the morning,think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love...."

Marcus Aurelius

"Good instincts tell you what to do long before your head has figured it out."

Michael Burke

I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer. They don't teach you how to know what's going on in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing.

Neil Gaiman
English Author and Comic Book Writer

"Only one thing has to change for us to know happiness in our lives: where we focus our attention."

Greg Anderson

Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker.
Failure is delay, not defeat.
It is a temporary detour, not a dead end.

Denis Waitley
American Author and Motivational Speaker

"Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul."

Henry Ward Beecher

"The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action."

John Dewey

I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.

Audrey Hepburn, 1921-1993
British Actress and Humanitarian

"Live your life and forget your age."

Norman Vincent Peale

"The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next."

Matthew Arnold

"Don't hate, it's too big a burden to bear."

Martin Luther King, Sr.

Often, the very most spiritual thing one can do, is get busy. Physically busy.

Hoeing, chopping, planting. Connecting, moving, grooving. Dipping, swirling, twirling.

(Especially dipping, swirling, and twirling. ;-)

Mike Dooley
Inspirational Author and Speaker

"Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can only be felt if you don't set any condition."

Arthur Rubinstein

"Good habits result from resisting temptation."

Ancient Proverb

You think this is just another day in your life. It's not just another day - it's the one day that is given to you, today. It's given to you, it's a gift. It's the only gift that you have right now, and the only appropriate response is gratefulness. If you do nothing else but to cultivate that response to the great gift that this unique day is, if you learn to respond as if it were the first day in your life, and the very last day, then you would have spent this day very well.

Louie Schwartzberg
American Director and Producer

"The greatest thing a man can do in this world is to make the most possible out of the stuff that has been given him. This is success, and there is no other."

Orison Swett Marden

"Anyone entrusted with power will abuse it if not also animated with the love of truth and virtue, no matter whether he be a prince, or one of the people."

Jean de la Fontaine

"The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential... these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence."

Eddie Robinson

"There is a tremendous power in positive thinking. When you expect the best, you literally create a thought field that magnetizes that which you desire. Like attracts like."

Douglas Bloch

There is so much good in the worst of us,
And so much bad in the best of us,
That it hardly behooves any of us
To talk about the rest of us.

Edward Wallis Hoch, 1849-1925
17th Governor of the State of Kansas

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Few people even scratch the surface, much less exhaust the contemplation of their own experience."

Randolph Bourne

"Success isn't permanent, and failure isn't fatal."

Mike Ditka

The journey in between
what you once were
and who you are now becoming
is where the dance of life
really takes place.

Barbara De Angelis
American Author and Personal Growth Adviser

"Whenever anyone has offended me,
I try to raise my soul so high
that the offense cannot reach it."

Rene Descartes, 1596-1650
French Philosopher and Mathematician

“Though we can't always see it at the time,
if we look upon events with some perspective,
we see things always happen for our best interests.
We are always being guided in a way
better than we know ourselves."

Swami Satchidananda
Indian Author, Spiritual Teacher

If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you won't.
If you like to win, but don't think you can,
It's almost a cinch that you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you've lost,
For out in the world you'll find
Success begins with a person's will;
It's all in the state of mind.

For many a game is lost
Before even a step is run
And many a coward fails
Before his work is begun.

Think big and your deed will grow;
Think small and you will fall behind.
Think that you can and you will;
It's all in the state of mind.

If you think that you are out-classed, you are;
You've got to think high to rise.
You've got to be sure of yourself
Before you can win the prize.

Life's battles don't always go
To the strongest or fastest man
But sooner or later the person who wins
Is the person who thinks she can."

Author Unknown

"We have no more right to put our discordant states of mind into the lives of those around us and rob them of their sunshine and brightness than we have to enter their houses and steal their silverware."

Julia Moss Seton

"Love the moment, and the energy of that moment will spread beyond all boundaries."

Corita Kent

Another plan I have is World Peace through Formal Introductions. The idea is that everyone in the world would be required to meet everyone else in the world, formally, at least once. You'd have to look the person in the eye, shake hands, repeat their name, and try to remember one outstanding physical characteristic. My theory is, if you knew everyone in the world personally, you'd be less inclined to fight them in a war: 'Who??? The Malaysians??? Are you kidding??? I know those people!!!'"

George Carlin
American Comedian

Why do you permit a mere word to stand in your way? Forget the word 'difficult' and take your next step.

Vernon Howard, 1918-1992
American Author and Spiritual Teacher

A friendship can weather most things and thrive in thin soil; but it needs a little mulch of letters and phone calls and small, silly presents every so often - just to save it from drying out completely.

Pam Brown
Australian Poet

"The most unhappy of all men is he who believes himself to be so."

David Hume

"My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions, but in the fewness of my wants."

J. Brotherton

"When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world."

George Washington Carver

"We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided."

Alexander Hamilton

"We believe at once in evil, we only believe in good upon reflection. Is this not sad?"

Madame Dorothee Deluzy

"If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory."

William Hazlitt

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

Aristotle

"Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself."

Henry Miller

"An effort made for the happiness of others lifts us above ourselves."

Lydia M. Child

The words 'I am...' are potent words; be careful what you hitch them to. The thing you're claiming has a way of reaching back and claiming you."

A. L. Kitselman

How simple it is to see
that all the worry in the world
cannot control the future.
How simple it is to see
that we can only be happy now.
And that there will never be a time
when it is not now."

Gerald Jampolsky, MD

"And above all things, never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning."

Anthony Trollope

"Whatever God's dream about man may be, it seems certain it cannot come true unless man cooperates."

Stella Terrill Mann

Expect to have hope rekindled.
Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways.
The dry seasons in life do not last.
The spring rains will come again."

Sarah Ban Breathnach
Inspirational Author

MY BROTHER

If you ever think you are better than another:
Say to yourself, 'this is my brother' (or sister)
And wish them a beautiful life.

If you ever find yourself envying another:
Say to yourself, 'this is my brother' (or sister)
And wish them a beautiful life.

If you have uncomfortable thoughts toward another: Say to yourself, 'this is my brother' (or sister)
And wish them a beautiful life.

Eventually, these unhelpful thoughts will fade away.
And the whole world will become your family.

Ron Atchison
The Mayor of Inspiration Peak

"The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat oneself."

Gamaliel Bailey

"A wise man learns by the mistakes of others, a fool by his own."

Latin Proverb

"A great attitude does much more than turn on the lights in our worlds; it seems to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before the change."

Earl Nightingale

"Don't be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid."

John Keats

"What happens to a man is less significant than what happens within him."

Louis L. Mann

"The great art of giving consists in this: the gift should cost very little and yet be greatly coveted, so that it may be the more highly appreciated."

Baltasar Gracian

Perhaps you have been told
that you are as weak as your weakest link.
This is but half the truth.
You are also as strong as your strongest link.

Kahlil Gibran (Adapted)
Lebanese Poet, Artist and Philosopher

Remember, we are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not. Our actions and states of mind matter because we are so deeply interconnected. Working on our own consciousness is the most important thing that we are doing at any moment, and being love is the supreme creative act.

Ram Dass

American Professor and Spiritual Teacher

"It's never crowded along the extra mile."

Wayne Dyer

"The years in your life are less important than the life in your years."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We will either find a way, or make one."

Hannibal

"I feel that the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more."

Dr. Jonas Salk

"To the timid and hesitating everything is impossible because it seems so."

Walter Scott

"There isn't much better in this life than finding a way to spend a few hours in conversation with people you respect and love. You have to carve this time out of your life because you aren't really living without it."

Real Live Preacher

The truth is, part of me is every age. I'm a three-year-old, I'm a five-year-old, I'm a thirty-seven-year-old, I'm a fifty-year-old. I've been through all of them, and I know what it's like. I delight in being a child when it's appropriate to be a child. I delight in being a wise old man when it's appropriate to be a wise old man. Think of all I can be! I am every age, up to my own.

Mitch Albom
American Author of Tuesdays With Morrie

"Our grand business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand."

Thomas Carlyle

"The small courtesies sweeten life; the greater ennoble it."

Christian Nestell Bovee

Whatever else you do or forbear,
impose upon yourself the task of happiness;
and now and then abandon yourself
to the joy of laughter.
And however much you condemn the evil in the world,
remember that the world is not all evil;
that somewhere children are at play,
as you yourself in the old days;
that women still find joy in the stalwart hearts of men;
And that men, treading with restless feet their many paths,
may yet find refuge from the storms of the world
in the cheerful house of love."

Max Ehrmann, 1872-1945
American Lawyer, Philosopher and Poet

"Observe your enemies, for they first find out your faults."

Antisthenes

We can be told the truth about many things
but they do not have any value
until we realize them by ourselves.
There are no shortcuts.
Each step of the way has to be walked.

Nahsti

"It's not that some people have willpower and some don't. It's that some people are ready to change and others are not."

James Gordon, M.D.

"Never take the advice of someone who has not had your kind of trouble."

Sidney J. Harris

Plan the celebration now.
Sweep the floor.
Clean the slate.
Pick a date.
Rearrange the furniture,
pick some flowers,
go out on a limb.
Not necessarily because the finish line has been reached...
but because this is how you reach it.

Mike Dooley (Slightly Adapted)

If there are a hundred steps
In thy path to success
And ye have not reached it
In ninety-nine of them
Do not conclude
That the journey is a failure.
Press on and up...
the prizes are generally at the end of an effort,
not at its beginning...
and not to go on
is to miss them.
Be valiant... have faith in yourself.
Success belongs to him
who dares to win it."

George S. Forest

"Who dares nothing, need hope for nothing."

Johann von Schiller

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Thomas Edison

"Contentment is not the fulfilment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have."

Anonymous

"... as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or we grow weak, and at last some crisis shows us what we have become."

Bishop Westcott

There comes a moment when you realize that virtually anything is possible - that nothing is too good to be true."

Kobi Yamada
Inspirational Author

"Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age."

Jeanne Moreau

"There is a space between man's imagination and man's attainment that may only be traversed by his longing."

Khalil Gibran

So stop waiting until you finish school,
until you go back to school,
until you lose ten pounds, until you gain ten pounds,
until you have kids, until your kids leave the house,
until you start work, until you retire,
until you get married, until you get divorced,
until Friday night, until Sunday morning,
until you get a new car or home,
until your car or home is paid off,
until spring, until summer, until fall, until winter,
until the first or fifteenth, until your song comes on,
until you've had a drink, until you've sobered up,
until you die, until you are born again
to decide that there is no better time
than right now to be happy."

Author Unknown

"By learning you will teach; by teaching you will understand."

Latin Proverb

"Our bodies are our gardens to which our wills are gardeners."

William Shakespeare

"Adventure is not outside man; it is within."

David Grayson

"Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny."

Kim Hubbard

"No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals."

Brian Tracy

"Count your blessings.
Once you realize how valuable you are
and how much you have going for you,
the smiles will return, the sun will break out,
the music will play, and you will finally be able to move forward
with the life that God intended for you
with grace, strength, courage, and confidence."

Og Mandino
Inspirational Author and Speaker

"He who controls the past commands the future. He who commands the future conquers the past."

--George Orwell

"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body."

Sir Richard Steele

"Peace, like charity, begins at home."

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Anyone can slay a dragon, he told me, but try waking up every morning & loving the world all over again. That's what takes a real hero."

Brian Andreas
American Artist and Storyteller

"If we just worry about the big picture, we are powerless. So my secret is to start right away doing whatever little work I can do. I try to give joy to one person in the morning, and remove the suffering of one person in the afternoon. If you and your friends do not despise the small work, a million people will remove a lot of suffering. That is the secret. Start right now."

Sister Chän Khöng
Vietnamese Nun and Peace Activist

"Flattery is from the teeth out. Sincere appreciation is from the heart out."

Dale Carnegie

"If we have the opportunity to be generous with our hearts, ourselves, we have no idea of the depth and breadth of love's reach."

Margaret Cho

"Appearances often are deceiving."

Aesop

"What can anyone give you that is greater than this precious little instant known as 'now'?"

Author Unknown

"When you do the best you can, you never know what miracle is wrought in your life, or in the life of another."

"When you do the best you can, you never know what miracle is wrought in your life, or in the life of another."

Helen Keller

"See everything: overlook a great deal: correct a little."

Pope John XXII

"The human spirit needs to accomplish, to achieve, to triumph to be happy."

Ben Stein

NAME WARNING

On a street, where the speed is limited to 30 mph the police stops a driver.
"Not only have you been driving too fast, you've been passing cars where it is not allowed. Your lights don't work, your tires all completely worn out. This is surely going to cost you a lot. What's your name?"

"Schtrathewisizeski Vocgefastilongchinic."
"Well, I'll let you go this time but don't do it again."

"If there was ever a time to dare, to make a difference, to embark on something worth doing, It is now. Not for any grand cause, necessarily... but for something that tugs at your heart, something that's your inspiration, something that's your dream."

Author Unknown

"To get joy we must give it and to keep joy, we must scatter it."

Unknown

"The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it."

Alan Saporta

"The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact than a drunken man is happier than a sober one."

George Bernard Shaw

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them."

"Time heals what reason cannot."

Seneca

"Time heals what reason cannot."

Seneca

"Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you."

Spanish Proverb

"Time is infinitely more precious than money, and there is nothing common between them. You cannot accumulate time; you cannot borrow time; you can never tell how much time you have left in the Bank of Life. Time is life...."

Israel Davidson

"Nurture your mind with great thoughts."

Benjamin Disraeli

"If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain."

Emily Dickinson

The only thing that you can carry with you on your travels is your heart. Fill your heart with good things and good things will follow you for the rest of your life."

Scott Murray

"He is able who thinks he is able."


Buddha

"Happiness comes from spiritual wealth, not material wealth. Happiness comes from giving not getting.If we try hard to bring happiness to others we cannot stop it from coming to us also."

Unknown

"Happiness includes chiefly the idea of satisfaction after full honest effort. No one can possibly be satisfied and no one can be happy who feels that in some paramount affairs he failed to take up the challenge of life."

Arnold Bennett

The most important part of vehicle maintenance is clean windows - so if you are broken down, you can still enjoy the beauty of the view."

Dan Eldon, 1970-1993
Artist and Photojournalist

"That which is striking and beautiful is not always good; but that which is good is always beautiful."

Ninon De L'Enclos

The best day of your life is the one
on which you decide your life is your own.
No apologies or excuses.
No one to lean on, rely on, or blame.
The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey -
and you alone are responsible for the quality of it.
This is the day your life really begins."

Anon

"You are the only person on earth who can use your ability."

Zig Ziglar

Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.

Mark Victor Hansen
Inspirational Speaker and Author

There are two things
a person should never be angry about:
what they can help,
and what they cannot.

Plato, 428-348 B.C.
Classical Greek Philosopher and Mathematician

"Anger and intolerance are the twin enemies of correct understanding."

Mahatma Gandhi

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

Robert Francis Kennedy

"Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice."

Baruch Spinoza

God hath not promised
Skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways
All our lives through;
God hath not promised Sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow,
Peace without pain.

But God hath promised
Strength for the day,
Rest for the labour,
Light for the way,
Grace for the trials,
Help from above,
Unfailing sympathy,
Undying love.


Annie Johnson Flint, 1866-1932
American Teacher and Poet

"There is work that is work and there is play that is play; there is play that is work and work that is play. And in only one of these lies happiness."

Gelett Burgess

"To profit from good advice requires more wisdom than to give it."

John Churton Collins

"No man is free who is not a master of himself."

Epictetus

"Love doesn't sit there like a stone, it has to be made, like bread: remade all the time, made new."

Og Mandino

Be brave enough to live life creatively.
You have to leave the city of your comfort
and go into the wilderness of your intuition.
You can't get there by bus, only by hard work
and risk and by not quite knowing what you're doing.
What you'll discover will be wonderful.
What you'll discover will be yourself.

Alan Alda
American Actor, Director and Author

"I'm very pleased with each advancing year. It stems back to when I was forty. I was a bit upset about reaching that milestone, but an older friend consoled me. 'Don't complain about growing old - many, many people do not have that privilege.'"

Earl Warren

"Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance."

Brian Tracy

Watch your way then, as a cautious traveler; and don't be gazing at that mountain or river in the distance, and saying, "How shall I ever get over them?"

Just keep to the present little inch that is before you.

The mountain and the river can only be passed in the same way; and, when you come to them, you will come to the light and strength that belong to them.

Mary Ann Kelty, 1789-1873 (Adapted)
English Author and Poet

"Imagination is the secret reservoir of the riches of the human race."

Maude L. Frandsen

"The best things in life are never rationed. Friendship, loyalty, love do not require coupons"

George T. Hewitt

"Pray as if everything depended upon God and work as if everything depended upon man."

Francis Cardinal Spellman

"If you instill in your child a love of the outdoors and an appreciation of nature, you will have given him a treasure no one can take away."

Ted Trueblood

"It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow."

Robert H. Goddard

Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success. Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success. Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream.

Lao Tzu

"It takes a long time to bring excellence to maturity."

Publilius Syrus

Each morning is the open door to a new world - new vistas, new aims, new plans, new things... and whether one is twenty, forty, sixty or eighty; whether one has succeeded, failed or just muddled along - life begins each morning.

L. M. Hodges

"For all that has been - Thanks!
To all that shall be - Yes!"

Dag Hammarskjold, 1905-1961
Swedish Diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize Recipient

"Most human beings have an absolute and infinite capacity for taking things for granted."

Aldous Huxley

THE SMILE VIRUS

Smiling is infectious,
you catch it like the flu,
When someone smiled at me today,
I started smiling too.

I passed around the corner
and someone saw my grin
When he smiled I realized
I'd passed it on to him .

I thought about that smile
then I realized its worth,
A single smile, just like mine
could travel round the earth.

So, if you feel a smile begin,
don't leave it undetected
Let's start an epidemic quick,
and get the world infected!


--Author unknown

CHARIOT OF THE SUN

Each man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him. But a day comes when he begins to care that he does not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes well. He has changed his market-cart into a chariot of the sun.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882
American Essayist, Poet and Philosopher

"When someone does something good, applaud! You will make two people happy."

Samuel Goldwyn

"When you come to the edge of all the light you have and must take a step into the darkness of the unknown, believe that one of two things will happen. Either there will be something solid for you to stand on or you will be taught to fly."

Patrick Overt

"All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire."

Aristotle

"One of the most wonderful things in nature is a glance of the eye; it transcends speech; it is the bodily symbol of identity."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If it is peace you want, seek to change yourself, not other people. It is easier to protect yourself with slippers than to carpet the whole earth."

Anthony De Mello

"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

"Confidence is the hinge on the door to success."

Mary O'Hare Dumas

"He who is of calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden."

Plato

You wander from room to room
Hunting for the diamond necklace
That is already around your neck!"

Jalal-Uddin Rumi, 1207-1273
Beloved Persian Poet

The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence. No, not at all. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass where ever you may be.

Robert Fulghum

I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost more than 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot - and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life...

And that is why I succeed. "

Michael Jordan
American Basketball Legend

"If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it."

Herodotus

"Success is never final and failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts."

Jules Ellinger

"Too often we give our children answers to remember rather than problems to solve."

Roger Lewin

"If you have built castles in the sky, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them."

Henry David Thoreau

"Though we can't always see it at the time,
if we look upon events with some perspective,
we see things always happen for our best interests.
We are always being guided in a way
better than we know ourselves."

Swami Satchidananda

There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will have truly defeated age.

Sophia Loren
Italian Actress and Film Star

"A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take."

Cardinal Mermillod

"If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory."

William Hazlitt

"Be humble for you are made of earth.
Be noble for you are made of stars."

Serbian Proverb

Right from the moment of our birth, we are under the care and kindness of our parents, and then later on in our life when we are oppressed by sickness and become old, we are again dependent on the kindness of others. Since at the beginning and end of our lives we are so dependent on others' kindness, how can it be in the middle that we would neglect kindness towards others?

Tenzin Gyatso

"I have learned that if you must leave a place
That you have lived in and loved,
And where all of your yesterdays are buried deep -
Leave it any way except slow;
Leave it the fastest way you can.
Never turn back and believe that an hour you remember
Is a better hour because it is dead.
Past years seem safe ones, vanquished ones,
While the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance.
The cloud clears though, as you enter it.
I have learned this, but like everyone,
I learned it late."

Beryl Markham, 1902-1986
English-born Author, Aviator and Race Horse Trainer

"Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart."

Pablo Casals

"It is not God's will merely that we should be happy, but that we should make ourselves happy"

Immanuel Kant

The chief beauty about time
is that you cannot waste it in advance.
The next year, the next day, the next hour
are lying ready for you,
as perfect, as unspoiled,
as if you had never wasted or misapplied
a single moment in all your life.
You can turn over a new leaf every hour
if you choose."

Arnold Bennett , 1867-1931
British Novelist

"Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing."

Denis Waitley

Your work is not to drag the world kicking and screaming into a new awareness. Your job is to simply do your work... sacredly, secretly, and silently... and those with 'eyes to see and ears to hear', will respond.

Author Unknown

Not only is another world possible, she is on her way.
On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing."

Arundhati Roy
Indian Author and Social Activist

"The race of mankind would perish did they cease to aid each other. We cannot exist without mutual help. All therefore that need aid have a right to ask it from their fellow-men; and no one who has the power of granting can refuse it without guilt."

Unknown

"When we focus on abundance, our life feels abundant; when we focus on lack, our life feels lacking. It is simply a matter of focus."

--Susan Jeffers

"To resist the frigidity of old age one must combine the body, the mind and the heart - and to keep them in parallel vigour one must exercise, study and love."

Karl von Bonstetten

Live simply.
Love generously.
Care deeply.
Speak kindly.
Leave the rest to God.

Author Unknown

Find a quiet place and listen. It should be very quiet. The only sound you should hear is your heart beating. Listen. Peer deep down inside your heart. Do you see someone that holds a special place in your heart? Maybe they have always been there when you needed them; maybe they offered words of encouragement; taught you a lesson; comforted you when you were sick; praised you on your accomplishments. Make this their [blessed] day.You have the POWER to spread happiness today. A quick note or a kind word is all it takes to bring a smile and lasting memory to someone very special."

Gary Harrington

"The most authentic thing about us
Is our capacity to create, to overcome,
To endure, to transform, to love,
And to be greater than our suffering."

Ben Okri
Nigerian Poet and Novelist

"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."

Les Brown

"A tulip doesn't strive to impress anyone. It doesn't struggle to be different than a rose. It doesn't have to. It is different. And there's room in the garden for every flower."

Marianne Williamson

Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain,
but most of the happiness and growth occurs
while you're climbing it.

Author Unknown

"If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don't be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning Good morning at total strangers."

Maya Angelou

If there are a hundred steps in thy path to success and ye have not reached it in ninety-nine of them, do not conclude that the journey is a failure. Press on and up, the prizes are generally at the end of an effort not at its beginning. And not to go on is to miss them. Be valiant, have faith in yourself. Success belongs to him who dares to win it.

Author Unknown

"Stride forward with a firm, steady step knowing with a deep, certain inner knowing that you will reach every goal you set yourselves, that you will achieve every aim."

Eileen Caddy

"Let the world know you as you are, not as you think you should be, because sooner or later, if you are posing, you will forget the pose, and then where are you?"

Fanny Brice

"After the verb 'to Love,' 'to Help' is the most beautiful verb in the world."

Bertha von Suttner

"Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error."

General Peyton C. March

"Dreams are the touchstones of our character."

Henry David Thoreau

If you can recognize the need for improvement,
things are already improving."

Author Unknown

"He who does not have the courage to speak up for his rights cannot earn the respect of others."

Rena G. Torres

"I change myself, I change the world."

Gloria Anzaldua

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."

Abraham Lincoln

"It takes a great man to be a good listener."

Calvin Coolidge

"A wise man learns by the mistakes of others, a fool by his own."

Latin Proverb

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

George Moore

"Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It was not reasoned into him, and cannot be reasoned out."

Sydney Smith

"Get the facts, or the facts will get you. And when you get them, get them right, or they will get you wrong."

Dr. Thomas Fuller

Pretend to be the person you want to be.
One day you'll realize you are no longer pretending.

Author Unknown
But Very Much Appreciated!

"When the soul is full of peace and joy, outward surroundings and circumstances are of comparatively little account."

Hannah Whitall Smith

"The journey to happiness involves finding the courage to go down into ourselves and take responsibility for what's there: all of it."

Richard Rohr

"Every man is the architect of his own fortune."

Sallust

"No iron chain, or outward force of any kind, can ever compel the soul of a person to believe or to disbelieve."

Thomas Carlyle

"The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves."

Carl Jung

"Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole!"

Mclandburgh Wilson

Lord, I don't ask for a faith
that would move yonder mountain.
I can take enough dynamite and move
it if it needs movin'. I pray, Lord,
for enough faith to move me."

Norman Allen

"Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy."

Abraham Heschel

Love is the one treasure that multiplies by division. It is the one gift that grows bigger the more you take from it. It is the one business in which it pays to be an absolute spendthrift. You can give it away, throw it away, empty your pockets, shake the basket, turn the glass upside down, and tomorrow you will have more than ever."

Author Unknown

"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One is roots; the other, wings."

Hodding Carte

When things go wrong as they sometimes will;
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill;
When the funds are low, and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but have to sigh;
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but do not quit.

Success is failure turned inside out;
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;
And you can never tell how close you are
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit-
It's when things go wrong that you must not quit.

"Don't Quit," Author Unknown

"It is those who concentrate on but one thing at a time who advance in this world. The great man or woman is the one who never steps outside his or her specialty or foolishly dissipates his or her individuality."

Og Mandino

"It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated."

Alec Bourne

"Practice is the best of all instructors."

Publilius Syrus

"There are admirable potentialities in every human being. Believe in your strength and your youth. Learn to repeat endlessly to yourself, 'It all depends on me.'"

Andre Gide

"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

Albert Einstein

"The last of the human freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances."

Viktor E. Frankl

Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable.

Theodore N. Vail, 1845-1920
American Businessman

"Re-examine all you have been told... dismiss what insults your soul."

Walt Whitman, 1819-1892
American Poet and Author

"I do not want to die... until I have faithfully made the most of my talent and cultivated the seed that was placed in me until the last small twig has grown."

Kathe Kollwitz

If you don't believe in miracles
perhaps you've forgotten
that you are one.

Author Unknown

"Have confidence that if you have done a little thing well, you can do a bigger thing well too."

Storey

"If you have a dream, give it a chance to happen."

Richard de Vos

"Not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."

George Sala

"Friendship is always a sweet responsibility; never an opportunity."

Kahlil Gibran

"Strive for excellence, not perfection."

H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Dreaming is wonderful, goal setting is crucial, but action is supreme. To make something great happen you must get busy and make it happen. Take that action step today that will put you on your path to achievement.

Greg Werner

"Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best."

Henry Van Dyke

"From the withered tree, a flower blooms."

Zen Saying

Let us take care of the children,
for they have a long way to go.
Let us take care of the elders,
for they have come a long way.
Let us take care of those in between,
for they are doing the work."

Traditional African Prayer

Doubt sees the obstacles
faith sees the way.
Doubt sees the darkest night
Faith sees the day.
Doubt dreads to take a step
Faith soars on high.
Doubt questions 'who believes?'
Faith answers, 'I.' "

Author Unknown

One Moment at a Time

Live one moment at a time and that moment for God. Don't think of a holy life for that will drown you by its' immensity, but remember that a holy life is a series of holy moments.

Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy."

Guillaume Apollinaire, 1880-1918
French Poet

DON’T QUIT

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow--
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor's cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out--
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.
- Author unknown

"There are two worlds; the world that we can measure with line and rule, and the world that we feel with our hearts and imagination."

--Anon

"I see possibilities in everything. For everything that's taken away, something of greater value has been given."

- Michael J. Fox

"The age of a woman doesn't mean a thing. The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles."

Sigmund Z. Engel

'Now' is the operative word. Everything you put in your way is just a method of putting off the hour when you could actually be doing your dream. You don't need endless time and perfect conditions. Do it now. Do it today. Do it for twenty minutes and watch your heart start beating.

Sam Ewing
American Author and Humorist

There are no limits.
There are only plateaus,
and you must not stay there,
you must go beyond them.

Bruce Lee, 1940-1973
American Actor, Poet, Philosopher and Martial Artist

"True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise; it arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions."

Joseph Addison

"There is a real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment."

Norman Vincent Peale

"To discover in ourselves what makes life worth living is risky business, for it means that once we know we must seek it. It also means that without it life will be valueless."

Marsha Sinetar

When we count our many blessings;
it isn't hard to see
that life's most valued treasures
are the treasures that are free.
For it isn't what we own or buy
that signifies our wealth.
It's the special gifts that have no price;
our family, friends and health.

Author Unknown

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual... O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment. "

Henry David Thoreau
American Author and Naturalist

"To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge."

Benjamin Disraeli

"Mistakes are their own instructors."

Horace

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power."

Alan Cohen
Inspirational Author

"Peace, like charity, begins at home."

Franklin D. Roosevelt

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working;
and just so you learn to love God and man by loving. Begin as a mere apprentice and the very power of love will lead you on to become a master of the art.

St. Francis De Sales
17th Century Bishop of Geneva

"The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous."

Shana Alexander

"Consider how much more you often suffer from your anger and grief, than from those very things for which you are angry and grieved."

Marcus Antonius

Relate with others, but relate with yourself also.
Love others, but love yourself also.
Go out! - the world is beautiful, adventurous;
it is a challenge, it enriches.
Go out fearlessly - there is nothing to lose,
there is everything to gain."

Osho, 1931-1990
Indian Philosopher, Spiritual Teacher

You have much more power
when you are working
for the right thing
than when you are working
against the wrong thing.

Peace Pilgrim, 1908-1981
American Peace Hero

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."

George S. Patton

"We all of us need assistance. Those who sustain others themselves want to be sustained."

Maurice Hulst

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Mark Twain

"Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision."

Ayn Rand

"It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge."

Daniel J. Boorstin

"Self-conceit may lead to self-destruction."

Aesop

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance."

Confucius

"As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
German Playwright and Philosopher

"I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time."

Anna Freud

"All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child."

Madame Marie Curie

"The scars you acquire while exercising courage will never make you feel inferior."

D.A. Battista

"Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure."

George E. Woodberry

"If you make it plain you like people, it's hard for them to resist liking you back."

Lois McMaster Bujold

"You must give some time to your fellow men. Even if it's a little thing, do something for others - something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it."

Albert Schweitzer

hat do I mean by loving ourselves properly? I mean first of all, desiring to live, accepting life as a very great gift and a great good, not because of what it gives us, but because of what it enables us to give to others.

Thomas Merton

American Author, Monk and Mystic

What do I mean by loving ourselves properly? I mean first of all, desiring to live, accepting life as a very great gift and a great good, not because of what it gives us, but because of what it enables us to give to others.

Thomas Merton

American Author, Monk and Mystic

"The most authentic thing about us
Is our capacity to create, to overcome,
To endure, to transform, to love,
And to be greater than our suffering.

Ben Okri
Nigerian Poet and Novelist

"May all beings, everywhere, be happy and free. And may the thoughts and actions of my own life contribute, in some way, to that happiness and to that freedom for all."

Ancient Sanskrit Mantra

"An eye can threaten like a loaded and levelled gun, or it can insult like hissing or kicking; or, in its altered mood, by beams of kindness, it can make the heart dance for joy."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Every morning is a fresh beginning. Every day is the world made new. Today is a new day. Today is my world made new. I have lived all my life up to this moment, to come to this day. This moment - this day - is as good as any moment in all eternity. I shall make of this day - each moment of this day - a heaven on earth. This is my day of opportunity."

Dan Custer

"A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions."

Oliver Wendell Holmes

"And I said to the one who stood at the gate of the year, 'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the Unknown.'

And he replied, 'Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.'"

Minnie Haskins

"Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly."

Albert Einstein

Another fresh new year is here…
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest…
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!

I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!

William Arthur Ward, 1921-1994
American Author and Poet

Life I am the new year.
I am an unspoiled page in your book of time.
I am your next chance at the art of living.
I am your opportunity to practice
what you have learned about life
during the last twelve months.

All that you sought
and didn't find is hidden in me,
waiting for you to search it out
with more determination.

All the good that you tried for
and didn't achieve
is mine to grant
when you have fewer conflicting desires.

All that you dreamed but didn't dare to do,
all that you hoped but did not will,
all the faith that you claimed but did not have --
these slumber lightly,
waiting to be awakened
by the touch of a strong purpose.

I am your opportunity
to renew your allegiance to Him who said,
'behold, I make all things new.'
I am the new year."

Author Unknown

"It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well."

Rene Descartes

Do not wait until the conditions are perfect
to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.

Alan Cohen
Inspirational Author, Speaker and Teacher

"Said a disappointed visitor, 'Why has my stay here yielded no fruit?'

'Could it be because you lacked the courage to shake the tree?' said the Master benignly."

Anthony de Mello, SJ
Jesuit Priest, Teacher and Author

Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love. And whatever your beliefs, honor your Creator, not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high, but by doing what you can to make grace happen.

Bradley Whitford
American Actor

"Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars."

Henry Van Dyke, 1852-1933
American Pastor, Professor and Ambassador

"I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, quality, and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, other-centered men can build up."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
American Spiritual and Civil Rights Leader

Tolerance implies a respect for another person, not because he is wrong or even because he is right, but because he is human.

John Cogley, 1916-1976
American Journalist