Saturday, May 31, 2008

William Morris on Home

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.

William Morris, designer, lived in the 1800s

Source: brainyquote.com

Phillip Stanhope on Doing

Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well.

Phillip Stanhope, diplomat, lived in the 1700s

Source: Zen and the Art of Making a Living
by Laurence G. Boldt,
(c) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1999 Arkana/Published by The Penguin Group

James Thurber on Free Speech

Discussion in America means dissent.

James Thurber

Source: brainyquote.com

Muhammad Ali on Learning from Experience

A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.

Muhammad Ali

Source: brainyquote.com

Confucius on Vocation

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

Confucius

Source: brainyquote.com

Lao Tzu on Intuition

The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your days.

Lao Tzu


Source: nonstopenglish.com

Stephen Covey on What's Important

How many on their deathbeds wished they’d spent more time at the office - or watching TV? The answer is, No one.

Stephen Covey
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
©1989, Free Press

Mark Twain on Embracing New Ideas

To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Mark Twain

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Eleanor Roosevelt on Experience

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along."

Eleanor Roosevelt


Source: brainyquote.com

Anais Nin on Chaos

We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.

Anais Nin, writer


Source: wisdomquotes.com

Monday, May 26, 2008

Yehuda Bauer on Peace

Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.

Yehuda Bauer, Holocaust historian
inscribed at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C.

Source: San Antonio Peace Center

Bob Dylan on Heroism

I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom.

Bob Dylan


Source: nonstopenglish.com

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Carl Sandburg on Peace

Choose:
The single clenched fist lifted and ready,
Or the open hand held out and waiting.
Choose:
For we meet by one or the other.

Carl Sandburg, poet


Source: wisdomquotes.com

Arthur Ashe on Heroism

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 cost.

Arthur Ashe, tennis great and humanitarian


Source: bellaonline.com

Saturday, May 24, 2008

John Lennon on Living

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.

John Lennon


Source: brainyquote.com

Dr. Benjamin Spock on Intuition

Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.

Dr. Benjamin Spock
from Baby and Child Care
(c) 1945, updated 1998 by the Benjamin Spock Trust


Note: No, this guy had nothing to do with Star Trek , except he might have watched it on tv, like the rest of us, and he might have inspired the parents of an astronaut -- this guy was a pediatrician and a smart man who helped people become people.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Bruce Springsteen on Critical Thinking

Blind faith in your leaders, or in anything, will get you killed.

Bruce Springsteen

Source: brainyquote.com

George Eliot on Animals

Animals are such agreeable friends, they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.

George Eliot (born Mary Anne Evans), writer



Source: brainyquote.com

Thursday, May 22, 2008

James Edward Grant on Life

Sargeant Stryker (John Wayne): Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid.

Exert from The Sands of Iwo Jima, 1949
Screenplay by James Edward Grant
Distributed by Republic Pictures

Source: imdb.com

Margaret Mead on Changing the World

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

Margaret Mead, anthropologist

Source: brainyquote.com

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Warren Foster on Probability

Bugs Bunny: That's terrific, Daffy! They loved it. They want more.
Daffy Duck: [now a ghostly figure] I know, I know, but I can only do it once.

A jealous Daffy tops Bugs' audience pleasing vaudeville performance by blowing himself up.

Excerpt from Show Biz Bugs, 1957
Script by Warren Foster
Distributed by Warner Brothers

(Alternate paraphrase: It's a great trick, but you can only do it once.)

Source: imdb.com

Abraham Lincoln on The Wisdom of Silence

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

Abraham Lincoln

Source: quoteworld.org

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Lao Tzu on Response

Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.

Lao Tzu
from the Tao te Ching


Source: brainyquote.com

Frances Goodrich on Ambiguity

Nora Charles: Are you packing?

Nick Charles: Yes dear, I'm putting away this liquor.

Nick and Nora talk as they are packing to go home after a cross-country train trip. She is packing. He is mixing a drink.

Excerpt from the film After the Thin Man, 1936
Screenplay by Frances Goodrich
Distributed by MGM

Source: imdb.com

Monday, May 19, 2008

Marianne Williamson on Our Potential

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson from A Return to Love

Source: marianne.com

Steve Martin on Keeping it Simple

Dixie: What can you sit on, sleep on, and brush your teeth with?

C. D. Bales: Huh?

Dixie: It's a riddle. What can you sit on, sleep on, and brush your teeth with?

C. D. Bales: I don't know.

Dixie: A chair, a bed, and a toothbrush.

C. D. Bales: What's the point?
Dixie: The point is that sometimes the answer is so obvious, you don't even realize it. It's as plain as the nose on your face.

From the film Roxanne, 1987
Screenplay by Steve Martin
Released by Columbia Pictures

Source: imdb.com

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Mark McCormack on Customers

All things being equal, people will do business with a friend; all things being unequal, people will still do business with a friend.

Mark McCormack, Business Guru and Founder, IMG

Robert Maynard Hutchins on Seriousness

It's not so important to be serious as it is to be serious about important things. The monkey wears an expression of seriousness that would do credit to any great scholar. But the monkey is serious because he itches. 
Robert Maynard Hutchins, Educator

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Janet Rand on Risk

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool. To weep is to risk being called sentimental. To reach out to another is to risk involvement. To expose feelings is to risk showing your true self. To place your ideas and your dreams before the crowd is to risk being called naive. To love is to risk not being loved in return. To live is to risk dying. To hope is to risk despair. To try is to risk failure. But risks must be taken, because the greatest risk in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow or love. Chained by his certitude, he is a slave; he has forfeited his freedom. Only the person who risks is truly free.

Janet Rand
Appears in Living, Loving, and Learning by Leo Buscaglia

Note: All pronouns are universal in application in this blog

Leon Gordon on Our World

Rita (Barbara Stanwyck), upon seeing an old flame, after several years: "Strange world, isn't it?"

Chris, the old flame (Robert Taylor): "No. It's just the people in it."

From the film His Brother's Wife, 1936

Screenplay by Leon Gordon
Released by MGM

Source: IMDb

Friday, May 16, 2008

Ruth Cross Thomas on Perspective

Always smile until 10 o'clock, and the rest of the day will take care of itself.

Ruth Cross Thomas, my grandmother

Thich Nhat Hanh on Connection

If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there can be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and [sic] without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist.... If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there, the forest cannot grow. In fact, nothing can grow. Even we cannot grow without sunshine. And so, we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper.... And if we continue to look, we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper. And we see the wheat. We know the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper. And, the logger's father and mother are in it, too. When we look in this way, we see that without all these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist. Looking even more deeply, we can see we are in it, too. This is not difficult to see, because when we look at a sheet of paper, the sheet of paper is also part of our perception. Your mind is in here and mine is also. So we can say everything is in here with this sheet of paper. You cannot point out one thing that is not here -- time, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals, the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the river, the heat. Everything coexists with this sheet of paper.... You cannot just be by yourself alone. You have to be with every other thing.


Exert from an essay by Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese monk from Mindfulness and Meaningful Work: Explorations in Right Livlihood edited by Claude Whitmyer

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Fortune Cookie Wisdom

If the cake is bad, what good is the frosting?

Fortune Cookie from Nong's restaurant, Columbus, Ohio

Henry David Thoreau on Dreams

I learned this, at least, by my experiment, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or old laws will be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will apppear less complex , and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Henry David Thoreau from Walden or Life in the Woods, 1846, 1850

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Leo Burnett on Being Real

If you don't get noticed, you don't have anything. You just have to be noticed, but the art is in getting noticed naturally, without screaming or without tricks.

Leo Burnett, advertising visonary

Alice Roosevelt Longworth on Etiquette

If you haven’t got anything good to say about anybody... sit right here next to me.

Alice Roosevelt Longworth, author

Carrie Snow on Cooking

I prefer Hostess fruit pies to pop-up toaster tarts because they don’t require so much cooking.

Carrie Snow, comedian

Eda LeShan on a Responsible Life

Becoming responsible adults is no longer a matter of whether children hang up their pajamas or put dirty towels in the hamper, but whether they care about themselves and others -- and whether they see everyday chores as related to how we treat this planet.

Eda LeShan, psychologist and family counselor

(Thanks to wisdomquotes.com)

Fran Liebowitz on Etiquette

No animal should ever jump on the dining room furniture unless absolutely certain he can hold his own in the conversation.

Fran Liebowitz, author and occasional judge on Law & Order

Leo Burnett on Being Brave

To swear off making mistakes is easy. All you have to do is swear off having ideas.

Leo Burnett, advertising visionary

Lily Tomlin on Growing Up

I wonder what it would be like if we all became what we wanted to be when we grew up. Imagine a world filled with nothing but firemen, cowboys, nurses, and ballerinas.

Lily Tomlin, comedian, from an appearance on Saturday Night Live, 1975

Groucho Marx on Perspective

I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be.Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.

Groucho Marx, actor & comedian

Tiger Woods on Learning from Life


The greatest thing about tomorrow is, I will be better than I am today. And that's how I look at my life. I will be better as a golfer, I will be better as a person, I will be better as a father, I will be a better husband, I will be better as a friend. That's the beauty of tomorrow. There is no such thing as a setback. The lessons I learn today I will apply tomorrow, and I will be better.

Tiger Woods, golfer in Golf Digest Magazine, January 2008

Alan Alda's Golden Rule

Here's my Golden Rule for a tarnished age: Be fair with others, but keep after them until they're fair with you.

Alan Alda, actor