Archives for March 2009

We reap what we sow. We are the makers of our own fate. None else has the blame, none has the praise.
—Swami Vivekananda (Indian Hindu Mystic)

Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him.
—Booker T. Washington (American Educator)

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass—it’s about learning how to dance in the rain
—Unknown

Time is a circus, always packing up and moving away.
—Ben Hecht

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of the nonessentials.
—Lin Yutang (Chinese Writer)

Human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue; it makes it a requirement for survival.
—Rene Dubos

Throughout his life, a wise man engages in practice of all his useful, rarely used skills, many of them outside his discipline, as a sort of duty to his better self. If he reduces the number of skills he practices and, therefore, the number of skills he retains, he will naturally drift into error from man with a hammer tendency. … Skills of a very high order can be maintained only with daily practice.
—Charlie Munger

There is in every woman’s heart a spark of heavenly fire which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.
—Washington Irving (American Author)

It’s easy to say “no!” when there’s a deeper “yes!” burning inside.
—Stephen Covey (American Management Consultant)

To repeat what others have said, requires education, to challenge it, requires brains.
—Mary Pettibone Poole

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (German Philosopher)

I recommend you to take care of the minutes, for the hours will take care of themselves.
—Earl of Chesterfield

Humor is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of man’s superiority to all that befalls him.
—Romain Gary (French Diplomat)

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)

Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
—Oliver Goldsmith (Irish Author)

For those who have seen the earth from space, and for the hundreds and perhaps thousands more who will, the experience most certainly changes your perspective. The things that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which divide us.
—Donald E. Williams

Dream not for yourself but dream for those whom you love and care for. For in every dream that this goal is realized, more dreams will follow; dreams truly meant especially for you.
—Oliver Juanir

Let each hour of the day have its allotted duty, and cultivate that power of concentration which grows with its exercise … .
—William Osler (Canadian Physician)

It is the principle of the pure in heart never to injure others, even when they themselves have been hatefully injured. Hating others, even enemies who harmed you unprovoked, assures incessant sorrow.
—Thirukkural

There will be times in life when impossibility is felt, but then there are dreams—and dreams allow us possibility.
—Jeffrey David Lang

We must dare to be happy, and dare to confess it, regarding ourselves always as the depositories, not as the authors of our own joy.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (Swiss Philosopher)

The life that conquers is the life that moves with a steady resolution and persistence toward a predetermined goal. Those who succeed are those who have thoroughly learned the immense importance of plan in life, and the tragic brevity of time.
—W. J. Davison

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (English Novelist)

It is much more comfortable to be mad and know it, than to be sane and have one’s doubts.
—G. B. Burgin

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
—Samuel Johnson (British Essayist)

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look at fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along”. You must do the think you think you cannot do.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (American First Lady)

Anxiety and distress, interrupted occasionally by pleasure, is the normal course of man’s existence.
—Joseph Wood Krutch (American Writer)

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears this is true.
—James Branch Cabell

Everyone is a genius at least once a year; a real genius has his original ideas closer together.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (German Scientist)

Now there are a couple of other things that are essential for innovation and invention that are not as fun. One of them is you have to have a willingness to fail. You have to have a willingness to be misunderstood for long periods of time.
—Jeff Bezos (American Businessman)

When there is no moon, you go by the stars.
—African Proverb

So long as millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every person a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them.
—Swami Vivekananda (Indian Hindu Mystic)

Those who gave thee a body, furnished it with weakness; but He who gave thee Soul, armed thee with resolution. Employ it, and thou art wise; be wise and thou art happy.
—Akhenaten (Egyptian Monarch)

We might remind ourselves that criticism is as inevitable as breathing, and that we should be none the worse for articulating what passes in our minds when we read a book and feel an emotion about it, for criticizing our own minds in their work of criticism.
—T. S. Eliot (American-born British Poet)

Stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders, and know that you are the creator of your own destiny. All the strength and succor you want is within yourselves. Therefore, make your own future.
—Swami Vivekananda (Indian Hindu Mystic)

When in prayer you clasp your hands, God opens His.
—German Proverb

To speak kindly does not hurt the tongue.
—Common Proverb

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
—Henry David Thoreau (American Philosopher)

Life is a language in which certain truths are conveyed to us; if we could learn them in some other way, we should not live.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (German Philosopher)

Ignore the people who tell you it won’t work, and hire people who embrace your vision.
—Michael Dell (American Businessperson)

Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.
—Bertrand A. Russell (British Philosopher)

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

Write injuries in sand, kindnesses in marble.
—French Proverb

Even the greatest fool can accomplish a task if it were after his or her heart. But the intelligent ones are those who can convert every work into one that suits their taste.
—Swami Vivekananda (Indian Hindu Mystic)

However we may receive blows, and however knocked about we may be, the Soul is there and is never injured. We are that Infinite.
—Swami Vivekananda (Indian Hindu Mystic)

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?
—Henry David Thoreau (American Philosopher)

The important thing is this: to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.
—Charles Frederic Dubois

Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties.
—Charles Spurgeon (British Baptist Preacher)