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Quote Library a b C d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z California California is a fine place to live -- if you happen to be an orange. -- Fred Allen Calling Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. --Bertrand Russell, Autobiography Causes There is no cause half so sacred as the cause of a people. There is no idea so uplifting as the idea of the service humanity. – Woodrow Wilson, 1912 Centeredness If you could once make up your mind in the fear of God never to undertake more work of any sort than you can carry on calmly, quietly, without hurry or flurry, and the instant you feel yourself growing nervous, like one out of breath would stop and take breath, you would find this simple common sense rule doing for you what no prayers or tears could ever accomplish. -- Elizabeth Prentiss Challenge There is no magic in small plans. When I consider my ministry, I think of the world. Anything less than that would not be worthy of Christ nor His will for my life. -- Henrietta Mears No word in English carries a greater possibility of terror than the little word ‘as’ in that clause (ref. To the Lord’s Prayer). – Charles Williams, A mind stretched to a new idea, never goes back to its original dimensions. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes I wish that I was where I am. -- Gertrude Stein The key to life is accepting challenges. Once someone stops doing this, he's dead. -- Bette Davis Change We must become the change we want to see. --Mahatma Gandhi Sometimes you gotta create what you want to be a part of. --Geri Weitzman Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes. --Henry David Thoreau, When the way comes to an end, then change - having changed, you pass through. -- I Ching Source: Little Zen Companion, Schiller. If you’re not part of the steamroller, you’re a part of the road. -- Gregory Rawlins If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed. -- Chinese proverb All mortals tend to turn into the thing they are pretending to be. -- C. S. Lewis Nothing endures but change. -- Heraclitus (500 BC) You are a product of your parents, but you can make changes. -- Larry Crabb, Inside Out, Colo. Springs: NavPress, 1988 Some of us change, some of us mutate. -- Joyce Davenport, in Hill Street Blues The only person who likes change is a wet baby. -- Unknown To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. -- Winston Churchill We must cut our coat according to our cloth, and adapt ourselves to changing circumstances. -- William R. Inge Things do not change; we change. -- Henry David Thoreau Change has no constituency. -- Machiavelli Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better." -- Richard Hooker Plastic moments" are those periods that overlap when the old has gone but the new has not yet arrived and when the course of history is more open to being shaped and steered than any other time. -- Peter Drucker, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, 1974 Nothing is inevitable if we are willing to contemplate what is happening. -- Marshal McLuhan When the ground starts moving, all bets are off. -- Joan Didion, journalist / playwright The only person who likes change is a wet baby. -- Roy Z-M Blitzer Afflict the comfortable. -- Carl Ally A great wind is blowing and that gives you either imagination or a headache. -- Catherine II ("The Great") Every organization has to prepare for the abandonment of everything it does. -- Peter Drucker, Harvard Business Review Awkwardness is natural. If people aren’t feeling awkward doing something new, they’re not doing something new. -- Ken Blanchard Don’t punish a learner. If you do, you’ll immobilize him. -- Ken Blanchard Poetry is very subversive. Consciousness often reaches a deeply intense level at the edges of things, questioning and undermining accepted ways of doing things. The audience resists change to the last moment, and then is grateful for it. -- A. R. Ammons Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. --Chinese Proverb Changing the World The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. --George Bernard Shaw You are a Christian only so long as you constantly pose critical question to the society you live in... so long as you stay unsatisfied with the status quo and keep saying that a new world is yet to come. -- Henri Nouwen Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be. -- Thomas a Kempis Bring in the light, and the evil goes out in a moment." -- Vivekananda Chaos Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction. -- Karl Weick, Cornell University What we imagine is order is merely the prevailing form of chaos. --Kerry Thornley, Principia Discordia, 5th edition Character What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary. -- Emerson People of character don’t allow the environment to dictate their style. -- Lucille Kallen Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light or look the world in the face. -- Marcus Aurelius The force of character is cumulative. -- Emmerson Character is what you are in the dark. -- Dwight L. Moody The proper function of a government is to make it easy for the people to do good and difficult for them to do evil. --Gladstone (paraphrased) There was never yet a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous. -- Abraham Lincoln Character is made by many acts; it may be lost by a single one. -- Unknown How can we expect a harvest of thought who have not had a seedtime of character? -- Henry David Thoreau A character is like an acrostic -- read it forward, backward, or across, it still spells the same thing. -- Emerson Important principles may and must be inflexible. -- Abraham Lincoln Self-esteem is the reputation we acquire with ourselves. -- Nathaniel Branden Waste no more time talking about great souls and how they should be. Become one yourself! -- Marcus Aurelius Character is a by-product; it is produced in the great manufacture of daily duty." -- Woodrow Wilson The measure of a man’s character is what he would do if he would never be found out." -- Lord Macaulay "Character -- the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life -- is the source from which self-respect springs." -- Joan Didion Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light or look the world in the face. -- Marcus Aurelius The history of a man is in his character. -- Goethe True success depends more on character than on intellect. -- Alfred A. Montapert Everybody ought to do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice. -- William James Quality of character doesn’t make a leader, but the lack of it flaws the entire process. -- Peter Drucker Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are. -- John Wooden Charismatics "Restless experiencialists" -- J.I. Packer -- describing many gifts and power seekers. Dyslexic/Questionable prophetic message: "Thus saith the Lord, ‘I am not in this place.’" -- Anonymous Children Children are strange possessions. We raise them so we can lose them. -- M. O. Vincent Before I got married, I had six theories about bringing up children. Now I have six children and no theories. -- John Wilmot Children are natural mimic who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners. Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said. Never play peekaboo with a child on a long plane trip. There’s no end to the game. Finally I grabbed him by the bib and said, ‘Look, it’s always going to be me!’ -- Rita Rudner Human beings are the only creatures on earth that allow their children to come back home. - unknown Children who know they are loved, know they have a purpose, and know they have a hope are prepared for anything this world wants to dish up. -- Tim Kimmel My job as a parent is a temporary responsibility with eternal consequences. -- Tim Kimmel I take my children everywhere, but they always find their way back home. -- Robert Orben Childlikeness The little I know I owe to my ignorance. There are 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 Choices You create your life with each choice you make." -- Stephen C. Paul The ability to choose puts human beings in control of their actions. -- Mildred Pitts Walter It is the ability to choose which makes us human. -- Madeleine L’Engle The advantages of a year may me lost in an hour. -- Andrew Murray The difficulty in life is the choice. --George Moore, The Bending of the Bough, [1900], act IV Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. --Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot. -- Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), What Is Man? (1906) “When you choose the lesser of two evils, always remember that it is still an evil.” — Max Lerner “He who has a choice has trouble.” — Dutch proverb “There is a point at which everything becomes simple and there is no longer any question of choice, because all you have staked will be lost if you look back. Life’s point of no return.” — Dag Hammarskjold, 20th-century Swedish diplomat, U.N. Secretary General “Life is the sum of your choices.” — Albert Camus, Nobel Prize-winning, 20th-century French "existentialist" novelist “Liberty means responsibility. That’s why most men dread it.” — George Bernard Shaw, 19th/20th-century Anglo-Irish dramatist and wit “Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling that desire.” — Epictetus, ancient Greek historian “Freedom means choosing your burden.” — Hephzibah Menuhin “In order to exist, man must rebel.” — Albert Camus, Nobel Prize-winning, 20th-century French "existentialist" novelist
Christlikeness He is asking us to be the chief bearers of His likeness in the world. As spirit He remains invisible on this planet. He relies upon us to give flesh to that spirit, to bear the very image of God. -- Paul Brand In America one sees a good deal of Christianity, but it does not address the spiritual needs of the people. Just as salty seawater cannot quench thirst, much of American religion cannot satisfy a spiritually thirsty person because it is saturated with materialism. Although America is a "Christian" nation and there are many sincere Christians in America, the majority of the people there have no faith. There, where it is so easy to have religion, where religion is offered on every side and no one is persecuted for their beliefs, life should be peaceful. Instead, there is a mad rush and hustle and bustle after money and comfort and pleasure. In India, many Christians suffer bitter persecution but continue to find happiness in their new faith. Because it is so easy to have faith in America, people do not appreciate what a comfort there is in faith. -- Excerpted from Wisdom of the Sadhu by Sadhu Sundar Singh Christmas Angels we have heard on High Tell us to go out and Buy. -- Tom Leher Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice. In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it "Christmas" and went to church; the Jews called it "Hanukkah" and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say "Merry Christmas!" or "Happy Hanukkah!" or (to the atheists) "Look out for the wall!" Remember, the greatest gift is not found in a store nor under a tree, but in the hearts of true friends. --Cindy Lew Christmas
is an awfulness that compares favorably with the great London plague
and fire of 1665-66. No one escapes the feelings of mortal dejection,
inadequacy, frustration, loneliness, guilt and pity. No one escapes
feeling used by society, by religion, by friends and relatives, by
the utterly artifical responsiblities of extending false greetings,
sending banal cards, reciprocating unsolicated gifts, going to dull
parties, putting up with acquaintances and family one avoids all the
rest of the year...in short, of being brutalized by a 'holiday' that
has lost virtually all of its original meanings and has become a merchandising
ploy for color tv set manufacturers and ravagers of the woodlands.
~ Harlan Ellison A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer. ~ Mitch Hedberg Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone. ~ Charles Schulz Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. ~ Calvin Coolidge My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that? ~ Bob Hope My first copies of Treasure Island and Huckleberry Finn still have some blue-spruce needles scattered in the pages. They smell of Christmas still. ~ Charlton Heston Something about an old-fashioned Christmas is hard to forget. ~ Hugh Downs Do give books - religious or otherwise - for Christmas. They're never fattening, never sinful, and permanently personal. ~ Lenore Hershey Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall. ~ Larry Wilde Never worry if a pet dies during the christmas holdidays, remember, you always get another as a present, then you always have only one pet that you have to care about. ~ Patrick James The Christmas holidays are always celebrated, we know this cause we all get wasted on the day!! ~ David Rowe Church
I'd also like to argue that the mainstream of Christianity throughout the last 1,500 years, and particularly evident in the last 200 years, has been for the majority of practitioners, not a practice-oriented religion, but a Sunday religion, a religion of "do what you want as long as you subscribe to the right things and you show up on Sunday to keep the institution going." It has fostered an extraordinarily limited view of human capacity. It has, in a sense, been co-opted by its own attitude and approach, by materialism. I know this is not necessarily a nice thing to say, and as I said in the beginning, I'm not asking you to agree with it. I'm just asking you to consider it." --Peter Senge, noted management guru and author of the Fifth Discipline "If [a congregation] is totally nice, that is a sure sign that something has gone wrong. For here are the foolish, weak, lowly, and despised of this world, whom God has chosen to cancel out the humanly great." -- Dallas Willard "The Divine Comedy" All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. --Thomas Paine It’s tough enough to start a church, but it is murder to turn one around. Do you know how long it will take to make a major change in the way your church operates? Anywhere from two to five years of concentrated effort, depending on the size and complexity of the organization. -- Ken Blanchard Big wind, lotta dust, no rain. -- American Indian chief after attending church. The church is the church only when it exists for others. -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer A coziness between church and state is good for the state and bad for the church. – C.K. Chesterton The kind of Christianity that speaks to a postmodern world is one that emphasizes primary truths and authentic embodiment. -Robert Webber About 96% of Americans say they believe in God. About 90% say they pray. On most weekends, four out of 10 show up at religious services. - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Christianity started out in Palestine as a fellowship. Then it moved to Greece and became a philosophy, then it went to Rome and became an institution, and then it went to Europe and became a government. Finally it came to America where we made it an enterprise. -- Richard Halverson, while he was US Senate Chaplain In America one sees a good deal of Christianity, but it does not address the spiritual needs of the people. Just as salty seawater cannot quench thirst, much of American religion cannot satisfy a spiritually thirsty person because it is saturated with materialism. Although America is a "Christian" nation and there are many sincere Christians in America, the majority of the people there have no faith. There, where it is so easy to have religion, where religion is offered on every side and no one is persecuted for their beliefs, life should be peaceful. Instead, there is a mad rush and hustle and bustle after money and comfort and pleasure. In India, many Christians suffer bitter persecution but continue to find happiness in their new faith. Because it is so easy to have faith in America, people do not appreciate what a comfort there is in faith. -- Excerpted from Wisdom of the Sadhu by Sadhu Sundar Singh "I'm still going to go there. I'm going to represent a broad movement. We will be back next year and you'll be hearing from me. You'll be hearing from the sleeping giant that is the church. I mean, what is going on with the churches? It is incredible. I tell these evangelicals in the United States there are 2,300 verses of scripture about the poor. It's the central message outside of personal redemption, the idea of dealing with the poor. And I'm asking them, where are they? Where are they on this? On a recent poll of evangelical churches, only six per cent said they wanted to do something about AIDS. It is unbelievable, the leprosy of our time if you like. But it's starting to turn; the Church is starting to wake up." -- Bono One of the catchwords in contemporary Protestantism is that religion must aid man in "becoming human" or even "truly human" -- whatever that means -- and the "model" is Christ. Take the "obvious things" about Christ as listed by a contemporary minister: There is nothing exclusively religious, much less Christian, in this description, which, with a few exceptions, might apply also to Socrates or to "Che" Guevara. I asked many socially oriented ministers why they were Christians at all. Some said through faith, and some said that Christianity gave them courage and the motivation to endure (but so do other beliefs). Some said they hardly knew and that, if another, more acceptable, ideology came along, they would embrace it. ... Arthur Herzog, The Church Trap By dividing the people of God as clergy and laymen, we have made the latter a majority of lame men. -R. Stanley Jesus promised his disciples three things -- that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble. F.R. Maltby (Do you qualify?) I cannot live in mediocrity, content with merely knowing that there is more of God to experience and explore -- and then do nothing about it. Truths that are not experienced are, in effect, more like theories than truths. Whenever God reveals truth to us He is inviting us into a divine encounter. Bill Johnson, Face to Face with God Seeing the spiritual condition of the average church in America or in the West, a new young zealot Christian willing to surrender all to be a true disciple of Christ would probably be thrown out in these churches as a demon-possessed heretic. Gary Amirault, founder, Tentmaker Ministries. Cities The Bronx? No Thonx. -- Ogden Nash A city is a large community where people are lonesome together -- Herbert Prochnow Cliches Codependency The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depend upon himself, and not other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. -- Plato Confusion The only reason some people get lost in thought is it is unfamiliar territory. Contentment Complexity Everything is very simple in war, but the simplest thing is difficult. -- Karl Von Clausewitz Commitment The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor. --Vincent T. Lombardi Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes... but no plans. --Peter Drucker I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. – Winston Churchill Individual commitment to a group effort -- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.-- Vince Lombardi It is difficult to be indifferent to a wide-awake Christian, a real live person of God. It is even more difficult to be indifferent to a whole body of Christians like this. You can hate them or you can love them, but one thing is certain. You can’t ignore them. There is something about them that won’t let you. It isn’t so much what they say or what they do. The thing that seems to haunt you is what they do. The thing that seems to haunt you is what they are. You can’t put them out of your mind any more than you can shake off your shadow. They confront you with an entirely different way of life -- a new way of thinking, a changed set of values, a higher standard of living. - Clarence Jordan What matter is not the size of the dog in the fight; but the size of the fight in the dog. -- Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant A champion is someone who has an outlook of optimism. It’s an attitude: the ability to see the opportunity in the problem... Pil Sung is a Korean word... It means "indomitable spirit." It reminds me that you can’t let your spirit get down because your body will follow. -- Jared Heyman, Eagle Scout, High School Wrestler He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. -- Jim Elliot Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. -- Thomas Jefferson In short, they face you with the kingdom of God. There is no washing of hands. These people must be crowned or crucified, for they are either mighty right or mighty wrong. -- Clarence Jordan, Koinonia Farm We -- or at least I -- shall not be able to adore God on the highest occasions if we have learned no habit of doing so on the lowest. At best, our faith and reason will tell us that He is adorable, but we shall not have found him so, not have ‘tasted and seen.’ Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are ’patches of Godlight’ in the woods of experience. -- C. S. Lewis,. Letter to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer If I do not practice one day, I know it. If I do not practice the next, the orchestra knows it. If I do not practice the third day, the whole world knows it. -- Ignac Paderewski Those who believe they believe in God but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself. -- Madeleine L’Engle Committees In every committee of twelve, one will love you and one will betray you. -- Lyle Schaller Common Sense Why buy good luggage? You only use it when you travel. – Yogi Berra Communication "What’s the point of me being on speaking terms when you’re not on listening terms!"-- Andy Capp’s wife Everything you do or say is public relations. --Unknown If a person feels he can't communicate, the least he can do is shut up about it. --Tom Lehrer Wife: "I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure that you realize that what you heard is not what I meant." - cartoon Compassion Compassion... is a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another and all involved in one another. -- Thomas Merton If you cannot free people from their wrongs and see them as the needy people they are, you enslave yourself to your own painful past and by fastening yourself to the past, you let your hate become your future. -- Lewis Smedes If we make our goal to live a life of compassion and unconditional love, then the world will indeed become a garden where all kinds of flowers can bloom and grow. -- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross I would go around and when I saw somebody who needed help, I just helped them. There are not very many people who have compassion. -- Waynan Mastra To understand how much a person is suffering look not at the cripple or the beggar or the orphan but at Bob Pierce’s face as he seeks to help them. -- Journalist who followed Bob Pierce throughout Asia I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them. -- Baruch Spinoza Compassion is suffering -- the constant willingness to share in the suffering of others. -- Hubert van Zeller Community/Fellowship We two form a majority. -- Ovid Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely." -- Thomas B. Macaulay Truly personal" experience with God versus "merely personal" is one that reflects ones spiritual life back into the community. -- Galway Kinnell, CT, 15 July, 1996, p. 23 Independence? That’s middle-class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth. -- Geo. Bernard Shaw Santa Claus has the right idea: visit people once a year. -- Victor Borge We lead by being human. We do not lead by being corporate, by being professional or by being institutional. -- Paul Hawken, founder, Smith & Hawken Together we stick; divided we’re stuck. -- Evon Hedley We are more important than you and I. -- John C. Hammond The greatest thing is to be found at one’s post as a child of God, living each day as though it were our last, but planning as though our world might last a hundred years. -- C. S. Lewis Compliments I can live for two months on one good compliment. -- Mark Twain Thomas Babington Macaulay "It is possible to be below flattery as well as above it." Compromise -- Positive To get people to understand our point of view, we must first try to understand theirs. -- Sidney Keyes Compromise -- Negative Never compromise a principle or relinquish a vital truth. -- Alfred A. Montapert Confusion If your nose runs and your feet smell, you're put together backwards. -- Steve Martin Conservatives Conservative: A liberal who got mugged the night before. -- Frank Rizzo Consistency The dedicated life is the life worth living. -- Annie Dillard The greatest thing is to be found at one’s post as a child of God, living each day as though it were our last, but planning as though our world might last a hundred years. -- C. S. Lewis I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble. -- Helen Keller Consultants It all began with Adam. He was the first man to tell a joke- or a lie. How lucky Adam was. He knew when he said a good thing, nobody had said it before. Adam was not alone in the Garden of Eden, however, and does not deserve all the credit; much is due to Eve, the first woman, and Satan, the first consultant. -- Mark Twain, Notebook, 1867 If you can't convince them, confuse them. --Harry S Truman Contemplation The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. -- Albert Einstein Contentment The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach." -- Lin Yutang To be upset over what you don’t have is to waste what you do have. -- Ken Keyes Most people don’t know what they really want -- but they’re sure they haven’t got it. -- Alfred E. Newman If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn’t have opened for anyone else. -- Joseph Campbell Contentment consists not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire; not in multiplying of wealth, but in subtracting our desires. -- Thomas Fuller To have what we want is riches, but to be able to do without is power. -- George MacDonald Our necessities are few, but our wants are endless." -- Josh Billings If I am content with little, enough is as good as a feast. -- Isaac Bickerstaff When we cannot find contentment in ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere. -- Francois de La Rochefoucald Contradictions Silence is golden... but, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. To thine own self be true, but when in Rome, do as the Romans do. It’s never too late to learn, but you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Good things come in small packages, but the bigger the better Two’s company, three’s a crowd, but the more the merrier Better safe than sorry, but nothing ventured, nothing gained Never judge a book by it’s cover, but clothes make the man Out of sight, out of mind, but absence makes the heart grow fonder Actions speak louder than words, but the pen is mightier than the sword Contributions If you want to live long, focus on making contributions. -- Hans Selye Control Convenience I’ve been trying for some time to develop a lifestyle that doesn’t require my presence. -- Gary Trudeau Conviction The problem with most leaders today is they don’t stand for anything. Leadership implies movement toward something, and convictions provide that direction. If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything." -- Don Shula The best lack all conviction, while the worse are full of passionate intensity. – W.B. Yeats Correction Before you attempt to set things right, make sure you see things right. -- Blaine N. Lee Corruption
Cost To every disadvantage there is a corresponding advantage. -- W. Clement Stone Courage Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another. -- Madonna In all your endeavors, both present and future, remember to have the courage of your convictions. -- Haywood Sullivan I am not sure I should have dared to start; but I am sure I should not have dared to stop. – Winston Churchill If you don’t make up your mind, your unmade mind will unmake you. -- E. Stanley Jones The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear. -- Herbert Agar True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever the cost. -- Arthur Ashe Courage! I have shown it for years; think you I shall lose it at the moment when my sufferings are to end? -- Marie Antoinette, moments before her death Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others. -- Aristotle Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. -- -- Schopenhauer, Life In matters of style, swim with the current. In matters of principle, stand like a rock. -- Thomas Jefferson If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live -- Martin Luther King, Jr. What we need now is endless courage. -- Katherine Porter One man with courage makes a majority. -- Andrew Jackson Fortune favors the bold. -- Virgil Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. -Sir Winston Churchill "Worrying is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere." — Unknown "Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think." — Benjamin Disraeli, 19th-century British statesman and novelist "Courage is the price life exacts for peace." — Amelia Earhart, 20th- century American aviator "Courage is being scared to death — and saddling up anyway." — John Wayne, late 20th-century actor "The mighty oak was once a little nut that stood its ground." — Unknown "Courage is like a muscle; it is strengthened by use." — Ruth Gordon "No one reaches a high position without daring." — Syrus "Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes. Silently and imperceptibly, 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 "The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear — fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants beyond everything else is safety." — H. L. Mencken, 20th-century American journalist and humorist "I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps doing them until he gets a record of successful experiences behind him." — Eleanor Roosevelt, 20th-century American stateswoman, First Lady "Life is a compromise of what your ego wants to do, what experience tells you to do, and what nerves let you do." — Bruce Crampton "The art of living lies not in eliminating but in growing with troubles." — Bernard M. Baruch, 20th-century American financier "All problems become smaller if you don’t dodge them, but confront them. Touch a thistle timidly, and it pricks you; grasp it boldly, and its spines crumble." — William S. Halsey "Fortunately for themselves and the world, nearly all men are cowards and dare not act on what they believe. Nearly all our disasters come of a few fools having the "courage of their convictions." — Coventry Patmore "It isn’t the absence of conscience or values that prevents us from being all we should be, it is simply the lack of moral courage." — Michael Josephson, late 20th-century American ethicist "To see what is right and not to do it is cowardice." — Confucius, ancient Chinese sage "One man with courage makes a majority." — Andrew Jackson, early 19th-century American military hero and U.S. president "It is better to die on one’s feet than to live on one’s knees." — Albert Camus, Nobel Prize-winning, 20th-century French "existentialist" novelist "Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once." — William Shakespeare, 16th-century English dramatist "Cowardice. . . is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination." — Ernest Hemingway, 20th-century Nobel Prize-winning American novelist "Courage easily finds its own eloquence." — Plautus "Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, we are almost impervious to fear." — William Congreve, 17th/18th-century English dramatist "The basest of all things is to be afraid." — William Faulkner, 20th-century Nobel Prize-winning American novelist "In times of stress, be bold and valiant." — Horace, Roman poet "Grief has limits, whereas apprehension has none. For we grieve only for what we know has happened, but we fear all that possibly may happen." — Pliny the Younger "Fear is an instructor of great sagacity, and the herald of all revolutions.’" — Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th-century American essayist, public philosopher and poet “The world has no room for cowards.” — Robert Louis Stevenson, 19th-century English novelist and adventurer “If you let fear of consequence prevent you from following your deepest instinct, then your life will be safe, expedient and thin.” — Katharine Butler Hathaway “Proust has pointed out that the predisposition to love creates its own objects; is this not also true of fear?” — Elizabeth Bowen “What you are afraid to do is a clear indicator of the next thing you need to do.” — Anonymous "When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic." — George Orwell, 20th-century English journalist and novelist "If we could be heroes, if just for one day." — David Bowie, 20th-century English pop music performer "One must think like a hero merely to behave like a decent human being." — May Barton "What worries you, masters you." — Haddon W. Robinson “And each man stand with his face in the light of his own drawn sword. Ready to do what a hero can.” — Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 19th-century English poet “Necessity makes even the timid brave.” — Sallust Craziness Maybe he's only a little bit crazy, like painters, or composers, or some of those men in Washington. --Mr. Shellhammer We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe. -- Goethe Madness is rare in individuals--but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule. -- Nietzsche Creativity Creative Marketing: A company that owns 16 doughnut shops and three weight loss clinics. -- Orben’s Current Comedy There is a correlation between the creative and the screwball. So we must suffer the screwball gladly.-- Kingman Brewster In creating, the only hard thing's to begin; A grass-blade's no easier to make than an oak. -- James Russell Lowell Source: Harper Book of Quotations, Harper 1993 The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists. -- Charles Dickens Source: Gilbert Keith Chesterton in Pickwick Papers No matter how old you get, if you can keep the desire to be creative, you're keeping the man-child alive. -- John Cassavetes Source: Harper Book of Quotations, Harper 1993 Few people think more than two or three times a year. I've made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week. George Bernard Shaw Source: The Art of Creative Thinking - book by Robert Olson (1986) I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's. I will not reason and compare; My business is to create. -- William Blake Source: Harper Book of Quotations, Harper 1993 A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something. Frank Capra Source: Harper Book of Quotations, Harper 1993 An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail. Dr. Edwin Land Source: The Art of Creative Thinking - book by Robert Olson (1986) I think it would be terrific if everybody were alike. -- Andy Warhol He that is good with the hammer tends to think that everything has a nail. -- Abraham Maslow Wide-awake, I can make my most fantastic dreams come true. -- Lorenz Hart Man is not an arithmetical expression; he is a mysterious and puzzling being, and his nature is extreme and contradictory all through. -- Dostoevsky Those who say they can and those that say they can’t are usually both right." -- Henry Ford Almost all really new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are first produced." -- Alfred North Whitehead Anyone who can spell a word only one way is an idiot -- W.C. Fields The soul never thinks without a picture -- Aristotle The most irritating experience an artist can have is to have his work criticized before it is finished. -- Andrew Wyeth The lion must roar. -- C. S. Lewis (i.e. we must be true to our deepest creative desires whenever possible.) Everyone is born a genius, but the process of living degeniuses them. -- Buckminster Fuller I shun father and mother and wife and brother when my genius calls me. -- Emerson Dare to be naive." -- R. Buckminster Fuller Every creative act involves a new innocence of perception, liberated from the cataract of accepted belief. -- Arthur Koestler You can never learn less, you can only learn more. -- Buckminster Fuller If I ran a school, I’d give the average grade to the one who gave me all the right answers, for being good parrots. I’d give the top grades to those who made a lot of mistakes and told me about them, and then told me why they learned from them. -- Buckminster Fuller Great minds have purposes, others have wishes. -- Washington Irving Be brave enough to live creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can’t get there by bus, but only by hard work and risk. And not by quite know what you are doing. What you’ll discover will be wonderful; what you’ll discover will be yourself." -- Alan Alda An artist who knows exactly what he is doing , in absolute detail, is a dead technician." -- Dr. Gregory Zilborg If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn’t it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, tree surgeon debarked, and dry cleaners depressed? -- Virginia Ostman High heels were invented by somebody who was kissed on the forehead." -- Christopher Morley There are but two powers in the world, the sword and the mind. In the long run, the sword is always beaten by the mind. -- Napoleon Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow that talent to the dark place where it leads." -- Erica Jong Anxiety is the essential condition of intellectual and artistic creation and everything that is finest in human history." -- Charles Frankel "The vitality of thought is in adventure. Ideas won’t keep. Something must be done about them." -- Alfred North Whitehead I never trusted a person who didn’t have more than one way to spell a word. -- Unknown Nothing is more dangerous than an idea -- when it’s the only one you have. Most advances in science come when a person for one reason or another is forced to change fields. -- Peter Borden Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in society has always been proportioned in the amount of genius, mental vigor and moral courage which it contained. That so few men now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of our time. -- John Steward Mill Anything is possible after midnight. -- Timothy Leary Genius, in truth, means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way. -- William James High heels were invented by a woman who had been kissed on the forehead. -- Christopher Morley Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist after he grows up. -- Picasso When everyone else zigs, zag. -- Tom Yobaggy "This, the task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees." -- Schopenhauer Ordinary people think merely how they will spend their time; a person of intellect tries to use it. -- Arthur Schopenhauer, Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life There are three ways to get to the top of a tree: 1) climb it; 2) sit on an acorn; or, 3) make friends with a big bird. -- Robert Maidment Only the most foolish of mice would hide in a cat’s ear. But only the wisest of cats would think to look there. -- Andrew Mercer "Nobody is bored when he is trying to make something that is beautiful, or to discover something that is true." — William Inge "Imagination is more important than knowledge." — Albert Einstein, 20th-century Swiss mathematician, physicist and public philosopher "Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour germinates no more." — Henri Amiel "It is with the heart that one sees rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." — Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince "You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created." — Albert Einstein, 20th-century Swiss mathematician, physicist and public philosopher "No problem can stand the assault of sustained thinking." — Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, 18th-century French author, wit and philosopher "Discovery is the ability to be puzzled by simple things." — Noam Chomsky, 20th-century American linguist and political activist "To swear off making mistakes is very easy. All you have to do is swear off having ideas." — Leo Burnett, 20th-century American advertising pioneer “Imagination was given to us to compensate for what we are not; a sense of humor was given to us to console us for what we are.” — Mack McGinnis "The greatest and most important problems in life are all in a certain sense insoluble. They can never be solved, but only outgrown." — Carl Jung, 20th-century Swiss founder of analytical psychology Crisis There cannot be a crisis next week. My week is already full. – Henry Kissinger In crisis the most daring course is often the safest. – Henry Kissinger Criticism Oak Park, (Illinois) my hometown, is a village of broad lawns and narrow minds. -- Ernest Hemingway Have you ever noticed? Anybody going slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac. - George Carlin I wish we might have less condemnation of error and more commendation of right. – Warren G. Harding, 1923 Do not fear when your enemies criticize you. Beware when they applaud." -- Vo Dong Giang Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger. -- Franklin P. Jones All the wrong people are against it, so it must be right. -- James Carville Right now I’m having so much trouble with D.L. Moody, that I don’t have time to criticize my friends. -- D.L. Moody If it is very painful for you to criticize your friends, you are safe doing it. But if you take the slightest pleasure in it, that is the time to hold your tongue. -- Alice Miller Cruelty Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity. -- George Bernard Shaw Culture Currency The post-modernist always rings twice. - Leonard Sweet After the nuclear apocalypse there will be only cockroaches, and Cher. Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth. -- Picasso Natives who beat drums to drive off evil spirits are objects of scorn to smart Americans who blow horns to break up traffic jams. --Mary Ellen Kelly Conundrums The best way to clean a frying pan that has burned food cemented to the bottom is to let it soak in soapy water for several days and then, when nobody is looking, throw it in the garbage. -- Dave Berry Did you get a good look at my face when I took your purse? -- thief who undertook his own defense. "If an Arkansas couple gets divorced, are they still brother and sister?" It’s not over till it’s over. -- Yogi Berra I really didn’t say everything I said. -- Yogi Berra Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics." -- Fletcher Knebel, The Cincinnati Fax News, 20 May, 1996 I want to hear it so quiet we can hear a mouse dropping. -- Gregory Ratoff, director Can a blue man sing the whites? -- Algis Juodikis The doctors X-rayed my head and found nothing. -- Dizzy Dean Smoking kills. If you’re killed, you’ve lost a very important part of your life. -- Brooke Shields A lot of people my age are dead at the present time. -- Casey Stengel, Yankees and Mets manager They’re multipurpose. Not only do they put the clips on, but they take them off. -- Pratt & Whitney spokesperson explaining why the company charged the Air Force $1,000 for a pair of pliers. It could permanently hurt a batter for a long time. -- Pete Rose, speaking about a brushback pitch That picture was taken out of context. -- Jeff Innis, New York Mets pitcher, on a bad picture taken of him. Curiosity The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity. -- Albert Einstein Children enter school as question marks and leave as periods. -- Neil Postman Cynicism A cynic is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. -- Oscar Wilde
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