Age

“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.”  ~William Shakespeare

Travel

“There are two kinds of travel: first class and with children.”  ~ Robert Benchley

Home

“Maybe you had to leave in order to miss a place; maybe you had to travel to figure out how beloved your starting point was.”  ~ Jodi Picoult

Foreign Lands

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.”  ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Travel

“I travel light. But not at the same speed.
”  ~ Jarod Kintz

Modesty

“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.”  ~ Gustave Flaubert

Assumptions

Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in. -Alan Alda, actor and director (b. 1936)

Travel

“I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.”  ― Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer Abroad

Compassion

He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise. -Voltaire

Thought & Opinion

Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. -John F. Kennedy

Truth

It is one thing to show a man that he is in error; it is another to make him see the truth. ~ John Locke

Direction

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. ~ Lao Tzu

on Twitter

Collectively, the people I follow on Twitter — book nerds, science nerds, journalists, the uncategorizably interesting — come pretty close to my dream community. They also function as by far the best news source I’ve ever used: more panoptic, more in-depth, more likely to teach me something, much more timely, cumulatively more self-correcting and sophisticated. ~ Kathryn Schulz, Author

Beauty

Sometimes people are beautiful, not in looks, not in what they say, just in what they are. ~Markus Zusak, Australian author

Reform

It came to me that reform should begin at home, and since that day I have not had time to remake the world. -Will Durant, historian (1885-1981)

Freedom

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. -Abraham Lincoln

Dreamers

Humanity also needs dreamers, for whom the disinterested development of an enterprise is so captivating that it becomes impossible for them to devote their care to their own material profit. Without doubt, these dreamers do not deserve wealth, because they do not desire it. Even so, a well-organized society should assure to such workers the efficient means of accomplishing their task, in a life freed from material care and freely consecrated to research. -Marie Curie, scientist, Nobel laureate (1867-1934)

Reputation

Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is. -Margaret Mitchell, novelist (1900-1949)

Action

Things may come to those who wait,  but only the things left by those who hustle. ~Abraham Lincoln

Revitalising

You can’t reach for anything new if your hands are still full of yesterday’s junk.  ~ Louise Smith

Just start

You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. ~Zig Ziglar

Eyes are the window to the world

"When the eyes say one thing, and the tongue another,  a practiced man relies on the language of the first."  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Action vs Intention

Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions ~ Anon

Success Habits

The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don't like to do. - Thomas Edison

Dreams and limits

You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get. ~Michael Phelps, Olympian swimmer

Goals

When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps. -Confucius

Effort

If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful after all. -Michelangelo

Ease

What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence. -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)

Jonas Salk on Patents

Journalist Ed Murrow: "Who owns the patent on this vaccine?" Jonas Salk: "Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?" -Jonas Salk, medical researcher and developer of polio vaccine (1914-1995)

Understanding

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart. -Nelson Mandela, activist, South African president, Nobel laureate (b. 1918)

Forgiveness

Forgiveness will never fail to free you. - Jerrold Mundis

Great authors

What I like in a good author isn't what he says, but what he whispers. -Logan Pearsall Smith, essayist (1865-1946)

Language

You can never understand one language until you understand at least two. -Ronald Searle, artist (1920-2011)

Books

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. -Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman

Past & Future

Every saint has a past and every sinner a future. -Oscar Wilde, writer

Saying no

It is kindness immediately to refuse what you intend to deny. -Publilius Syrus, writer (c. 1st century BCE)

Corruption

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. -Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher

Possibility

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. ~Arthur C. Clarke

Choice

You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you’re going to live. Now. ~Joan Baez

Priority

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. ~Steve Jobs

Mind

The human mind is our fundamental resource. -John F. Kennedy

Judging

We judge ourselves by our intentions, and other by their behaviour - Stephen R Covey

Life

One day, you’re 17 and you’re planning for someday. And then quietly, without you ever really noticing, someday is today. And then someday is yesterday. And this is your life.” John Green

The Human Mind

Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world." -Albert Einstein

The English Language

Standard English is a convenient abstraction, like the average man. -George Leslie Brook, English professor, author (1910-1987)

Life

A profound unmitigated loneliness is the only truth of life. -R.K. Narayan, writer (1906-2001)

Life

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. -Crowfoot, Native American warrior and orator

Manners

Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use. -Emily Post, author and columnist (1872-1960)

Dissent

The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity -- much less dissent. -Gore Vidal, author (1925-2012)

Waiting

If you wait, all that happens is you get older.  ~Larry McMurtry

Team playing

Sometimes a player’s greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team. ~Scottie Pippen

Blossom

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

Decisions

"We should make decisions in life with our hearts, not our brains. Not only in music, but in daily life." ~ André Rieu

Music

The best music is essentially there to provide you something to face the world with. -Bruce Springsteen, musician (b. 1949)

Battle

No battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools. -William Faulkner, novelist (1897-1962)

Self-importance

Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm but the harm does not interest them. -T.S. Eliot, poet (1888-1965)

Travel

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)

Habits

The second half of a man's life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half." —Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Force

Force without wisdom falls of its own weight. -Horace, poet and satirist (65-8 BCE)

Words

There is no doubt that I have lots of words inside me; but at moments, like rush-hour traffic at the mouth of a tunnel, they jam. -John Updike, author

Speech of the soul

"Speech is the mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so he is." ~ Publilius Syrus

Habit

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. ~ Jim Ryun, athlete

Change

We can’t be afraid of change. You may feel very secure in the pond that you are in, but if you never venture out of it, you will never know that there is such a thing as an ocean, a sea. Holding onto something that is good for you now, may be the very reason why you don’t have something better. ~ C. JoyBell C

Progress

What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books. -Sigmund Freud, neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis (1856-1939)

Reputation

Who has not for the sake of his reputation sacrificed himself? -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)

Limits

"There are no limits. There are only plateaus,  and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." —Bruce Lee:

Character

Speech is the mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so he is." -Publilius Syrus: Latin writer of maxims

Learning

Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You’ve got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it. ~Ray Bradbury

Past Present & future

If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past. Spinoza

Running

You can out-distance that which is running after you, but not what is running inside you. -Rwandan proverb

Loneliness

If you are lonely when you're alone, you are in bad company. Jean-Paul Sartre

Wealth

For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them. ~ Seneca

Open-minded

The less open-minded someone is, the more open-mouthed they tend to be. ~ Nicole Azavedo

Loyalty

It's impossible to be loyal to your family, your friends, your country, and your principles, all at the same time. -Mignon McLaughlin, journalist and author (1913-1983)

Gratitude

I am thankful for all of those who said NO to me. Its because of them I’m doing it myself. ~ Albert Einstein

Question

Questions show the mind's range, and answers its subtlety. -Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

Conscience

A quiet conscience sleeps in thunder. -English proverb

Question

A timid question will always receive a confident answer. -Henry Lytton Bulwer, diplomat and author (1801-1872)

Opinion

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common. -John Locke, philosopher (1632-1704)

Life

Destroying species is like tearing pages out of an unread book, written in a language humans hardly know how to read, about the place where they live. -Holmes Rolston III, professor of philosophy (b. 1932)

Light

"No one lights a lamp in order to hide it behind the door:  the purpose of light is to create more light,
to open people's eyes, to reveal the marvels around." —Paulo Coelho

Reflection

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting. -Edmund Burke, statesman and writer (1729-1797)

Insanity

Insanity in individuals is something rare -- but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs, it is the rule. -Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)

Compliments

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer. -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)

Words

The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone. -Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist and novelist (1811-1896)

Ideas

An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it. -Don Marquis, humorist and poet (1878-1937)

on Defending

They defend their errors as if they were defending their inheritance. -Edmund Burke, statesman and writer (1729-1797)

Ambition

It's good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven't lost the things that money can't buy. -George H. Lorimer, editor (1868-1937)

Cleverness

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions. -Naguib Mahfouz, writer, Nobel laureate (1911-2006)

Words

Our expression and our words never coincide, which is why the animals don't understand us. -Malcolm De Chazal, writer and painter (1902-1981)

Happiness

Happiness is not something ready made.  It comes from your own actions. ~ Dalai Lama

Trouble

If you are always dwelling in trouble, change your address. ~ American proverb

Ambition

There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher. -Henry van Dyke, poet (1852-1933)

Faith

Most institutions demand unqualified faith; but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue. -Robert King Merton, sociologist (1910-2003)

Fear

We must not be frightened nor cajoled into accepting evil as deliverance from evil. We must go on struggling to be human, though monsters of abstractions police and threaten us. -Robert Hayden, poet and educator (1913-1980)

Life & understanding

As I grow to understand life less and less, I learn to live it more and more. -Jules Renard, writer (1864-1910)

Thoughts

The fingers of your thoughts are molding your face ceaselessly. -Charles Reznikoff, poet (1894-1976)

Virtue & Wisdom

Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it. ~David Star Jordan

Accomplishment

I am only one, but I am one.  I cannot do everything, but I can do something.  And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.  ~Edward Everett Hale

Language

One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper patterns at the right moment. -Hart Crane, poet (1899-1932)

Perceptions

Don't judge men's wealth or godliness by their Sunday appearance. -Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790)

Patriot

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind. -Voltaire, philosopher (1694-1778)

Rest

How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward. -Spanish proverb

Thoughts

There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life. -Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592)

Vocation

Vocations which we wanted to pursue, but didn't, bleed, like colors, on the whole of our existence. -Honore de Balzac, novelist (1799-1850)

Speech

Lower your voice and strengthen your argument. -Lebanese proverb

Literature

Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once. -Cyril Connolly, critic and editor (1903-1974)

Conquering fear

Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. ~George Addair, real-estate developer

Wisdom

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds. ~ Francis Bacon, English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator and author

Law

Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed. -Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790)

Telephone & computer

I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone. -- Bjarne Stroustrup

Happiness

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. -Ernest Hemingway, author and journalist, Nobel laureate (1899-1961)

Life's measurements

You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

Extra mile

There are no traffic jams along the extra mile. ~Roger Staubach

Pursuit

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.  ~Benjamin Franklin

Language

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. -George Orwell, writer (1903-1950)

Fanaticism

When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kind of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt. -Robert M. Pirsig, author and philosopher (b. 1928)

Vanity

Nothing so soothes our vanity as a display of greater vanity in others; it makes us vain, in fact, of our modesty. -Louis Kronenberger, writer (1904-1980)

Solitude

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude. -Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963)

Action

The arrow has to draw back to fly ahead. -Proverb

Courage

You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.  ~Christopher Columbus

Freedom

"In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved." ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt: the 32nd President of the United States

Insanity

Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage. -Ray Bradbury, writer (1920-2012)

Freedom

The most certain test by which we can judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities. -Lord Acton (John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton), historian (1834-1902)

Achievement

Don't mistake movement for achievement. It's easy to get faked out by being busy. The question is: Busy doing what? ~ Jim Rohn

Now

Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time of which you have any control: now. ~Denis Waitley

Debt

"Debt is like any other trap, easy enough to get into, but hard enough to get out of." —Henry Wheeler Shaw: American humorist

Heroism

A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.  ~Christopher Reeve

Entrepreneurship

"If you don't build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs." -Dhirubhai Ambani, entrepreneur

Ideas

To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

Comfort

We do not err because truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because this is more comfortable. -Alexander Solzhenitsyn, novelist, Nobel laureate (1918-2008)

Saints & Communists

When I feed the hungry, they call me a saint. When I ask why people are hungry, they call me a communist. -Helder Camara, archbishop (1909-1999)

Self Image

Our self image, strongly held, essentially determines what we become.  ~Maxwell Maltz

Plan, Purpose, Idea

Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought. - Napoleon Hill
(consider what television does to your thoughts)

Endurance

What is to give light must endure burning. -Viktor Frankl, author, neurologist and psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor (1905-1997)

Possessions

Since my house burned down / I now own a better view / of the rising moon. -Mizuta Masahide, poet and samurai (1657-1723)

Choices

We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong.  The amount of work is the same.  ~Carlos Castaneda

Desire

"The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit." —Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poet

Perseverance

"The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don't like to do." —Albert E.N. Gray, Author

Letting go

 Some people think it's holding on that makes one strong- sometimes it's letting go. ~Anon

Destiny

"Your habits become your values,  Your values become your destiny." —Mahatma Gandhi

Freedom

A hungry man is not a free man. -Adlai Stevenson, statesman (1900-1965)

Justice

The big thieves hang the little ones. -Czech proverb

Possessions

Every increased possession loads us with new weariness. -John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900)

Conviction

Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies. -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)

Knowledge & Ignorance

The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents, and the oceans was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge. -Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, professor, attorney, and writer (1914-2004)

Sanity

Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you. -Carl Jung, psychiatrist (1875-1961)

Writing

If you write to impress it will always be bad, but if you write to express it will be good. -Thornton Wilder, writer (1897-1975)

Perseverence

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." Thomas Edison

Fatherhood

The words a father speaks to his children in the privacy of the home are not overheard at the time, but, as in whispering galleries, they will be clearly heard at the end and by posterity. -Jean Paul Richter, writer (1763-1825)

Change

Although the connections are not always obvious, personal change is inseparable from social and political change. -Harriet Lerner, psychologist

Destiny

I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve. -Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965)

Effort

Let us do our best, even if it gets us nowhere.  Henry Miller, author

Destination

The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive.” Bill Watterson

Action conquers fear

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. ~Dale Carnegie (1888 - 1955)

Citizen of the world

We are on the cusp of this time where I can say, "I speak as a citizen of the world" without others saying, "God, what a nut." -Lawrence Lessig, professor and activist, also the man behind Creative Commons, which allows you to browse the Net without breaking the law (b. 1961)

PS: On the 31st of May, probably as you're reading this, I have become a naturalized citizen of Australia.

Freedom & Criticism

Without the freedom to criticize, there is no true praise. -Pierre Beaumarchais, playwright (1732-1799)

Compassion

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice that produces beggars needs restructuring. -Martin Luther King, Jr., civil-rights leader (1929-1968)

Silence

May my silences become more accurate. -Theodore Roethke, poet (1908-1963)

Freedom

Without the freedom to criticize, there is no true praise. -Pierre Beaumarchais, playwright (1732-1799)

Forgetting stuff.

We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. Joan Didion, author (1934 -)

Action

Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give us the determination to make the right things happen.  ~Horace Mann (1796 - 1859)

Follow the leader

Seek not to follow in the footsteps of men of old; seek what they sought. -Matsuo Basho, poet (1644-1694)

Language

You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

Relevance

"The question is not Will you succeed? but rather, Will you matter?" - Seth Godin

Forgiveness

Life is an adventure in forgiveness. -Norman Cousins, author and editor (1915-1990)

Change

People change and forget to tell each other. -Lillian Hellman, playwright (1905-1984)

Words

Words -- so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them. -Nathaniel Hawthorne, writer (1804-1864)

Caring

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. -Leo Buscaglia, author (1924-1998)

Hope & Possibilities

“When I was nine, I wanted to be an astronaut but at that time there weren't any Canadian astronauts. You had to be American or Soviet. So many things will be possible in your lifetimes.” - Chris Hadfield, Astronaut.

Welcome back @Cdr_Hadfield you've single handedly made space sexy again!

Illusion

What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness. -Leo Tolstoy, novelist and philosopher (1828-1910) 

Teacher

Teachers should prepare the student for the student's future, not for the teacher's past. ~ Richard Hamming

Adversity

"Sometimes adversity is what you need to face in order to become successful." — Zig Ziglar

Thinking Expert

An expert is a man who has stopped thinking because ‘he knows.’" ~ Frank Lloyd Wright

Wants

Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

Happiness

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, or worn. It is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace & gratitude. ~Denis Waitley

Creation

Life isn't about finding yourself. It's about creating yourself. - George Bernard Shaw

Persistence

Forget all the reasons it won’t work and believe the one reason that it will.  ~Unknown

Misfortune

All misfortune is but a stepping stone to fortune.  - Henry David Thoreau

Morality & Certainty

Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure." -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

Joy

To relieve a full bladder is one of the great human joys. - Henry Miller

Worrying

Do not give any time to your past, you can’t change what happened 5 minutes ago. ~Jan Ruhe

Truth

Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold. -Leo Tolstoy, novelist and philosopher (1828-1910)

A good teacher

Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher. -Japanese proverb

Words

No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous. -Henry Brooks Adams, historian (1838-1918)

Man and the World..

The world, we are told, was made especially for man -- a presumption not supported by all the facts... Why should man value himself as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation? -John Muir, naturalist and explorer (1838-1914)

Expert

In my experience, the hallmark of an expert is his ability to say “I don't know”. - Sridhar Parthasarathy.

Light

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. ~Edith Wharton

Right vs wrong

The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it. ~Norman Schwarzkopf

Action

Never confuse movement with action. ~Ernest Hemingway

Life

There are many ways to lose your life. Death is only one of them.
You are not dead - just buried alive - some days are like that. ~ Robert Fulghum

Words

A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a single stone at an object, takes up a handful and throws at it in hopes he may hit. -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)

Crime & Punishment

It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them. -Cesare Beccaria, philosopher and politician (1738-1794)

Scrutiny

The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best -- and therefore never scrutinize or question. -Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist, biologist, author (1941-2002)

A Superior Man

A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions. -Confucius, philosopher and teacher (c. 551-478 BCE)

Shaping reality with words

I AM:
Two of the most powerful words; for what you put after them shapes your reality.

Help

Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day. ~Sally Koch

Spirit

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. -Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965)

Unique

"Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else."

Future

Nobody gets to live life backward. Look ahead, that is where your future lies. ~Esther Lederer - (Better known as Ann Landers)

Progress

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. - George Bernard Shaw

Happiness

"What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience." —Adam Smith, Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political economy

Light

There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.  ~Leonard Cohen

Success

Your success in life will be in direct proportion to what you do after you do what you are expected to do. ~Brian Tracy

Property

The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society.  From how many crimes, wars and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not anyone have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows, "Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody."  ~Jean Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality

Friends

We take care of our health, we lay up money, we make our roof tight and our clothing sufficient, but who provides wisely that he shall not be wanting the best property of all - friends?  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Preoccupations

It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly.  ~Bertrand Russell, Principles of Social Reconstruction, 1917

More on House Ownership

And when the farmer has got his house, he may not be the richer but the poorer for it, and it be the house that has got him. ~ Henry David Thoreau

House Ownership

Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed by them.  ~Henry David Thoreau

Voice in the head

Make sure your worst enemy is not living between your own two ears. ~ Anon

True Life

"Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake." ~ Henry David Thoreau

Happiness

Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect. It means you have decided to look beyond the imperfections. ~Gerard Way

on Working Hard

A man may be very industrious, and yet not spend his time well. There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of life getting his living. -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)

Talent vs Character

Talent develops in tranquillity, character in the full current of human life. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (1749-1832)

Flattery

What really flatters a man is that you think him worth flattering. -George Bernard Shaw, writer, Nobel laureate (1856-1950) 

Meanings

Words differently arranged have different meanings, and meanings differently arranged have a different effect. -Blaise Pascal 

Faith

Sometimes your only available transportation is a leap of faith.
~Margaret Shepherd

Action

Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. ~ Will Rogers, Humorist & Actor

Friends

You become like the 5 people you spend the most time with. Choose carefully. ~ Anon

Life's miracles

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. —Albert Einstein

Learning from Mistakes

More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren't so busy denying them. ~ Harold J Smith

Voice

A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible.  Powerlessness and silence go together." — Margaret Atwood: Canadian poet

Action and study

Action without study is fatal. Study without action is futile. ~Mary Ritter Beard

Contempt

Contempt is the weapon of the weak and a defense against one's own despised and unwanted feelings. -Alice Miller, psychologist and author (1923-2010)

War

Wars damage the civilian society as much as they damage the enemy. Soldiers never get over it. -Paul Fussell, historian, author, and professor (1924-2012)

Friends

It is not so much our friends' help that helps us as the confident knowledge that they will help us. -Epicurus, philosopher (c. 341-270 BCE)

Action

"Don't wait. The time will never be just right."— Napoleon Hill

Wisdom & Patience

Wisdom evolves from seeing things as they are and patience comes from accepting things as they are.- Allan Lokos

Living honorably

It is impossible to live pleasurably without living prudently, honorably, and justly; or to live prudently, honorably, and justly, without living pleasurably. -Epicurus, philosopher (c. 341-270 BCE)

Perseverence

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway."

—Earl Nightingale:

Clarity

We should not write so that it is possible for the reader to understand us, but so that it is impossible for him to misunderstand us. -Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus), rhetorician (c. 35-100)

Growth

If only I may grow: firmer, simpler, -- quieter, warmer. -Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary General of the United Nations, Nobel laureate (1905-1961)

Character

You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.~Malcolm Forbes

Ideas

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. -Linus Pauling, chemist, peace activist, author, educator; Nobel Prize in chemistry, Nobel Peace Prize (1901-1994)

Money & Wisdom

"A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart."— Jonathan Swift:

Ready for success

"We must be the epitome — the embodiment — of success.
We must radiate success before it will come to us.
We must first become mentally, from an attitude standpoint, the people we wish to become"

—Earl Nightingale:

Advancement

Every advance in civilization has been denounced as unnatural while it was recent. -Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel prize in literature (1872-1970)

Reading

To read fast is as bad as to eat in a hurry. -Vilhelm Ekelund, poet (1880-1949)

Opinions

It is more often from pride than from ignorance that we are so obstinately opposed to current opinions; we find the first places taken, and we do not want to be the last. -Francois De La Rochefoucauld, moralist (1613-1680)

Success

Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom. ~George S. Patton

The Unknown

"Embrace what you don't know, especially in the beginning because what you don't know can become your greatest asset. It ensures that you will be doing things absolutely differently from everybody else."— Sara Blakely, entrepreneur

Valentines Day

Sometimes it’s better to put love into hugs than to put it into words. ~Author Unknown

Belief

Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known. -Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592)

Encouragement

Never cut what you can untie. -Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

Newspapers

Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock. -Ben Hecht, screenwriter, playwright, novelist, director, and producer (1894-1964)

Confidence

Confidence doesn’t come out of nowhere. It’s a result of something…hours and days and weeks and years of constant work and dedication. ~Roger Staubach

Impossibility

It always seems impossible until it's done.  ~Nelson Mandela

Fear

"Do what you fear most and you control fear." — Tom Hopkins

Words

Your own words are the bricks and mortar of the dreams you want to realize. Your words are the greatest power you have. The words you choose and their use establish the life you experience. ~Sonia Choquette

A reason to win

Yesterday's video quote did not display due to technical difficulties. I'm sorry. Watch the video here "The only disability in life is a bad attitude".

Beauty Ideas

Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers and are famous preservers of youthful looks. -Charles Dickens, novelist (1812-1870)

Making Music

Remember the music is not in the piano. ~Clement Mok, Designer & author

Language

"If you talk to a man in a language he understands,  that goes to his head.
If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." — Nelson Mandela

The human heart

Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the human heart can hold. -Zelda Fitzgerald, novelist (1900-1948)

Work

In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it; they must not do too much of it; and they must have a sense of success in it. -John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900)

Life

When you're young you think life is a sprint.
When you're older you see it's a marathon.
And when you're mature you see it's a relay race. - attrib.. Doc Searls

Accomplishment

"Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use." — Earl Nightingale

Value

If you really do put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price. ~Anonymous

Perspective

It is difficult to see the picture when you are inside of the frame. ~ Anonymous

Dental Health

Some tortures are physical / And some are mental, / But the one that is both / Is dental. -Ogden Nash, poet (1902-1971)

Reading

In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends imprisoned by an enchanter in paper and leathern boxes. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

Life plans

If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you will fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much. ~ Jim Rohn

Perseverance

If you're going through hell, keep going ~ Winston Churchill

Injustice

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. -Elie Wiesel, writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1928)

Light

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow ~ Helen Keller

Light

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.  ~ Edith Wharton

Light

There are two kinds of light -- the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures. -James Thurber, writer and cartoonist (1894-1961)

Dictionary

Dictionary: The universe in alphabetical order. -Anatole France, novelist, essayist, Nobel laureate (1844-1924)

Habits

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. ~ Jim Rohn

Goals

You do not always have to know when you are going to get to your goal, or how you are going to get to your goal, but you do need to take the next step.  ~Peggy McColl

Medicine

Walking is man's best medicine. -Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine (460-377 BCE)

Vanity

We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don't care for. -Marie Ebner von Eschenbach, writer (1830-1916)

Tact

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves. -Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the US (1809-1865) 

Decisions

If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time. -Chinese proverb

Party Season Advice

Deep breaths are very helpful at shallow parties. - Barbara Walters

Youthful advice

If you are young and you drink a great deal it will spoil your health, slow your mind, make you fat - in other words, turn you into an adult. - PJ O'Rourke, Comedian

New Year Resolutions

New Year's Day:  Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions.  Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.  ~Mark Twain