Saturday, February 28, 2009

Paul Harvey on Perspective

In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these.

Paul Harvey

Thank you, Paul Harvey and.... good day.


Source: brainyquote.com

Paul Harvey on Government

If 'pro' is the opposite of 'con' what is the opposite of 'progress'?

Paul Harvey

Source: brainyquote.com

Friday, February 27, 2009

Despair, Inc. on Irresponsibility

Irresponsibility: No single raindrop believes it is to blame for the flood.

Despair, Inc.


Source: despair.com

Thich Nhat Hanh on Karma

My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.

Thich Nhat Hanh


Source: quotegarden.com

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Alex Noble on Perspective

I am unhappy about something, and so I complain about it to myself, and to others. My friends, meaning well, give me sympathy. Their sympathy makes me feel more justified in my misery, and becomes an invitation to even greater unhappiness. I tell my unhappy story so many times that it becomes invincible, impenetrable. I take all the bricks of my grievances and build a doorless, windowless room around myself–a room without light or air. I come to believe in my unhappiness so completely that I do not hear even the words of one or two wise friends who refuse to accept my sorrows, and suggest that I stop complaining and start doing my best with whatever good is at hand.

Then, at last, I realize how ridiculous this all is, and how much time, thought, and energy I have been wasting in fruitless negativism. I know better, and resolve to take another approach. My worst failures at trying to make things better must surely be an improvement over my complaints that refuse to see beyond the problem at hand. As Rabinandrath Tagore puts it “When my eyes are filled with tears, I cannot see the stars.” I come to realize that it is a matter of perspective, that misery and complaint only open the way to more misery and complaint, whereas diligent hope and uncomplaining optimism clear out the channels of thought so that true ideas can flow freely toward whatever adjustments, corrections, and enlightenments are needed.

Alex Noble
Taking Another Approach
Christian Science Monitor
October 19, 1979

For my friend Sharon, with love.

Source: csmonitor.com

Fortune Cookie Wisdom

A purpose is the eternal condition for success.

Fortune Cookie
from Q2 Bistro

Monday, February 23, 2009

Emily Dickinson on This Life

This world is not conclusion; A sequel stands beyond, Invisible, as music, But positive, as sound.

Emily Dickinson

Source: hallmark.com

David Kohan & Max Mutchnick on Life

Nathan (Woody Harrelson): We're born, we grow, we live, we die. If we're lucky, we have family and friends who know us and love us. I never knew my dad. But it doesn't matter, because wherever we go and whatever we do, we can know that the spirit of the mother and the spirit of the father are alive in each of us. That everything good already exists within ourselves.

Will, Nathan & Jack toast the father Jack never knew.

David Kohan & Max Mutchnick
Will & Grace
Sons and Lovers, 2001
Komut Entertainment

For Sue Paugh


Source: durfee.net

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Erma Bombeck on Parenting

When a child is locked in the bathroom with water running and he says he's doing nothing but the dog is barking, call 911.

Erma Bombeck

Source: brainyquote.com

Paulo Coelho on Perspective

We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It's one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it's another to think that yours is the only path.

Paulo Coelho

Source: thinkexist.com

Leonardo Da Vinci on Common Sense

Common sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Source: thinkexist.com

Maya Angelou on Home

You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it's all right.

Maya Angelou

Source: quotegarden.com

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Bruce Lee on Achievement

If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.

Bruce Lee

Source: brainyquote.com

Richard Bach on Limitations

Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours.

Richard Bach

Source: thinkexist.com

Peter Drucker on Leadership

Leadership is not magnetic personality/that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not making friends and influencing people/that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.

Peter Drucker

Source: thinkexist.com

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Dinah Craik on Love

Oh, the comfort - the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person - having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.

Dinah Craik
A Life for a Life, 1859

Source: quotegarden.com

Ancient Wisdom

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails... And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Bible
I Corinthians 13

Friday, February 13, 2009

Albert Einstein on Love

Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.

Albert Einstein

Source: wisdomquotes.com

Ingrid Berman on Love

A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.

Ingrid Bergman

Source: stvalentinesday.org

Elizabeth Browning on Love

Love doesn't make the world go round, love is what makes the ride worthwhile.

Elizabeth Browning


Source: stvalentinesday.org

Zora Neale Hurston on Love

Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.

Zora Neale Hurston

Source: quotegarden.com


Their Eyes Are Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is a very, very good read.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Jean Nidetch on Choice

It's choice -- not chance -- that determines your destiny.

Jean Nidetch, founder Weight Watchers

Source: thinkexist.com

Anthony Bourdain on Comfort Food

Context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals in one's life.

Anthony Bourdain

Source: quotesea.com

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Henry Ward Beecher on Reality

You have come into a hard world. I know of only one easy place in it, and that is the grave.

Henry Ward Beecher

Source: quotegarden.com

Ralph Waldo Emerson on Adversity

We acquire the strength we have overcome.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Source: quotegarden.com

Friday, February 6, 2009

Goethe on Faith

Treat people as if they were, what they ought to be and you help them become what they are capable of being.

Goethe

Source: meditate.ca

Elizabeth Kenny on Perspective

He who angers you, conquers you.

Elizabeth Kenny

Source: meditate.ca

Erica Jong on Living

Take your life into your own hands, and what happens. A terrible thing, no-one to blame.

Erica Jong

Source: meditate.ca

Kurt Vonnegut on Coping Skills

Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.

Kurt Vonnegut

Source: brainyquote.com

Corazon Aquino on Patience

Faith is not simply a patience that passively suffers until the storm is past. Rather, it is a spirit that bears things - with resignations, yes, but above all, with blazing, serene hope.

Corazon Aquino


Source: thinkexist.com

Stephen Colbert on Content

What's in the new stimulus package? I'm guessing, high fructose corn syrup; that stuff is in everything.

Stephen Colbert
The Colbert Report
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Comedy Central

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Kingman Brewster, Jr. on Cool

If coolness means a capacity to stay calm and use your head in the service of ends passionately believed in, then it has my admiration.

Kingman Brewster, Jr.


Source: brainyquote.com

David Letterman on Redefinition

He's taken over from Steve McQueen. This is the new cool.

David Letterman
on President Barack Obama
Late Show with David Letterman, CBS, Worldwide Pants
February 4, 2009

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Gary Shandling on Unintentional Metaphor

I was standing on the wrong side of the elephant.

Gary Shandling

On his first appearance as host of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and figuring out where to stand during an interview with San Diego Zoo's Joan Embery and an elephant
appearing on Tavis Smiley, PBS
February 3, 2009

Gary Shandling on the Culture of Money

It's all about money and "In God We Trust" is just the spin.

Gary Shandling

On money addicts, the "bailout," and how we got here economically in 2009
appearing on Tavis Smiley, PBS
February 3, 2009

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Monday, February 2, 2009

Theodore Roosevelt on Mistakes

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt
...in 1910

Source: wisdomquotes.com

Virginia Satir on Mistakes

Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible -- the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family.

Virginia Satir, family therapy pioneer

Source: wisdomquotes.com

Bruce Springsteen on the Church of Rock

Ladies and gentlemen for the next 12 minutes we're going to bring the righteous and mighty power of the E Street Band into your beautiful home! I want you to step back from the guacamole dip. I want you to put those chicken fingers down and turn your television all the way up!

Bruce Springsteen
Half-time Intro
Super Bowl XLIII

Source: musicradar.com