A. A. Milne on Hidden Treasures

Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.

Christopher Robin to Winnie the Pooh

A. A. Milne

Source: signals.com

Christmas Song Wisdom: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Have yourself a merry little Christmas.
Let your heart be light.
Next year all our troubles
Will be out of sight.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas.
Make the Yule-tide gay.
From now on our troubles
Will be miles away.

Here we are as in olden days,
Happy golden days of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Will be near to us once more.

Someday soon we all will be together
If the Fates allow.
Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow.
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

Words and Music by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane
  with a nod to Judy Garland
from Meet Me In St. Louis, 1944
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
EMI Publishing
ASCAP

Source: reelclassics.com

Christmas Song Wisdom: Sleigh Ride

Sleigh Ride

Just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ringting tingleing, too,
Come on, it's lovely weather for a Sleigh Ride together with you,
Outside the snow is falling and friends are calling "Yoo Hoo,"
Come on, it's lovely weather for a Sleigh Ride together with you.

Giddy-yap, giddy-yap,giddy-yap, let's go,
Let's look at the show,
We're riding in a wonderland of snow.
Giddy-yap, giddy-yap, giddy-yap, it's grand,
Just holding your hand,
We're gliding along with a song of a wintery fairyland,

Our cheeks are nice and rosy, and comfy cozy are we,
We're snuggled up together like two birds of a feather would be.
Let's take that road before us and sing a chorus or two,
Come on, it's lovely weather for a Sleigh Ride together with you.

INTERLUDE

There's a birthday party at the home of Farmer Gray,
It'll be the perfect ending of a perfect day,
We'll be singing the songs we love to sing without a single stop,
At the fireplace while we watch the chestnuts pop.
Pop! Pop! Pop!

There's a happy feeling nothing in the world can buy,
When they pass around the coffee and the pumpkin pie,
It'll nearly be like a picture print by Currier and Ives,
These wonderful things are the things we remember all thru our lives!

Just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ringting tingleing, too,
Come on, it's lovely weather for a Sleigh Ride together with you,
Outside the snow is falling and friends are calling "Yoo Hoo,"
Come on, it's lovely weather for a Sleigh Ride together with you.

Leroy Anderson, Music
Mitchell Parish, Lyrics
First Performed in 1948
Lyrics Added in 1950
ASCAP, Alfred Music Publishing


Source: leroyanderson.com

Movie Wisdom: His Kind of Woman

Mark Cardigan (Vincent Price): [to Milner (Robert Mitchum) and Lenore] Well, what did you think of the picture?

Lenore Brent (Jane Russell): [Sarcasm] Oh, it was fine. It was just a little long - about an hour and a half.

After an advance screening of actor Mark Cardigan's new swashbuckling film.

His Kind of Woman, 1951
Written by Frank Fenton, Jack Leonard, Gerald Drayson Adams, Earl Felton
RKO Pictures

Source: imdb.com

Movie Wisdom: His Kind of Woman

Dan Milner (Robert Mitchum): Well, you see how it is: fools get away with the impossible.

Lenore Brent (Jane Russell): That's because they're the only ones who try it.

His Kind of Woman, 1951
Written by Frank Fenton, Jack Leonard, Gerald Drayson Adams, Earl Felton
RKO Pictures

Source: imdb.com

John Lennon on Love

There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.

John Lennon

Source: goodreads.com

To honor everyone touched by the events on December 14, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut.

Albert Schweitzer on Connection

Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.

Albert Schweitzer

Source: goodreads.com

Barack Obama on Rising

In Taylor we see the best of America -- a spirit that says, when we get knocked down, we rise again. When times are tough, we come together. When one of us falters, we lift them up. In this country we take care of our own –- especially our veterans who have served so bravely and sacrificed so selflessly in our name. And we carry on, knowing that our best days always lie ahead.

Recognizing Petty Officer Taylor Morris who lost both legs, an arm, and a hand in Afghanistan. At the time of the explosion, even though he was bleeding out, Morris warned off those coming to his aid to keep them from being injured until the area could be secured from explosives. Morris has been working on his recovery and with prosthetics has been able to walk again (and dance with his wife). He did not attend the Veteran's Day address because he was out kayaking with his wife Danielle.

Barack Obama
2012 Veteran's Day Address
Arlington National Cemetery

Read and view President Obama's address by clicking on this link to Huffington Post.

John Greenleaf Whittier on Power

To-day, alike are great and small,
The nameless and the known;
My palace is the people's hall,
The ballot-box my throne!

John Greeleaf Whittier
written in the 19th century

Source: The Old Farmer's Almanac Companion Newsletter, November 6, 2012

James Garfield on Voting

Now more than ever the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption.

James Garfield
A Century of Congress
Published in Atlantic, July 1877

Source: register-herald.com

Chuck Pagano on Resilience

You refused to live in the circumstances.  You decided consciously, as a team and family, to live in the vision.

Coach Chuck Pagano
Indianapolis Colts
Postgame speech after the Colts beat the Miami Dolphins
November 4, 2012

Chuck Pagano is undergoing treatment for leukemia. ChuckStrong.

Source: usatoday.com

William Biamonte on Resolution

Come hell or high water, and we got both of them, people will be voting on Tuesday.

William Biamonte
Democratic Commissioner for the Nassau County Board of Elections

Source: cnn.com

Bob Marley on Friendship

The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.

Bob Marley

Source: goodreads.com

Movie Wisdom: Judgment at Nuremberg

A country isn't a rock. And it isn't an extension of one's self. 'It's what it stands for, when standing for something is the most difficult!' Before the people of the world - let it now be noted in our decision here that this is what 'we' stand for: 'justice, truth... and the value of a single human being!'

Spenser Tracy as Judge Dan Haywood

Judgment at Nuremberg, 1961
Written by Abby Mann,
with uncredited contributor Montgomery Clift
Roxlon Films/United Artists

Source: imdb.com

Barack Obama on Critical Thought

You mention the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets. We have these things called aircraft carriers and planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines. It's not a game of 'Battleship' where we're counting ships, it's 'What are our capabilities?'

Barack Obama
to Mitt Romney
October 22, 2012, Presidential debate

Source: huffingtonpost.com

Bruce Springsteen on American Reslience

We’re still living through very hard times but justice, equality and real freedom are not always a tide rushing in. They are more often a slow march, inch by inch, day after long day.

Bruce Springsteen
from A Message from Bruce
October 17, 2012 

Read the entire message, click here.

Mike Greenberg on Perspective

This is how negative I am - the glass isn't half-full, the glass isn't half-empty - it's a dribble glass and it's cracked.

Mike Greenberg
Mike and Mike in the Morning, October 1, 2012
ESPN

Laurence Boldt on Heroism

The hero, in living her own life, in being true to herself; radiates a light by which others may see their own way.

Laurence G. Boldt

Source: bellaonline.com

For late Columbus Police Detective Marcia "Jody" Frederick, thank you and farewell.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross on Opinion

The opinion which other people have of you is their problem, not yours.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Source: wisdomquotes.com

Aristotle on Motivation

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire. 

Aristotle
Selected Works

Source: goodreads.com

John Edward on Self-Reliance

Don't look outside yourself for what you already have.

John Edward
Infinite Quest
©2010, John Edward, Sterling Ethos, p. 6

Rodney Dangerfield on Chemistry

Oh, we were doomed from the start, I'm an earth sign, she's a water sign; together, we made... mud.

Thornton Melon (Rodney Dangerfield) talking to Dr. Diane Turner (Sally Kellerman) about his failed marriage.

Back to School, 1986 
Writers: Rodney Dangerfield, Greg Fields, Dennis Snee, Steven Kampmann, Peter Torokvei, Harold Ramis, Rich Eustis, Will Porter
MGM Studios

Jean Cocteau on Cats

I love cats because I enjoy my home, and little by little they become its visible soul.

Jean Cocteau

Source: goodreads.com

Bill Clinton on Reality

Look, economics is not ideology, it's hard work.

Bill Clinton
to Jon Stewart
The Daily Show, Thursday, September 20, 2012
Comedy Central

Source: thedailyshow.com

Vince Lombardi on Achievement

Football is a great deal like life in that it teaches that work, sacrifice, perseverance, competitive drive, selflessness and respect for authority is the price that each and every one of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.

Vince Lombardi

Source: vincelombardi.com

Welcome Coach Meyer. Go Bucks!!!

Groucho Marx on Mnemonics

My favourite poem is the one that starts 'Thirty days hath September' because it actually tells you something.

Groucho Marx

Source: thinkexist.com

Barack Obama on Perspective

This seat's taken.

Barack Obama

In response to Clint Eastwood's empty chair speech at the 2012 RNC Convention in Tampa, Florida.

Source: twitter.com/barackobama

Frasier Wisdom

Frasier (Kelsey Grammer): I, for one, happen to believe in the kindness of strangers.
Roz (Peri Gilpin): Well, I believe in the strangeness of strangers.

Roz's unheeded advice as she tries to keep Frasier from inviting listeners to feel free to approach him in public

Fraiser
Season 3, Episode 11 The Friend, 1996
Writers David Angell, Peter Casey, David Lee
Grub Street Productions

Source: wikiquote.org

Urban Meyer on Setting Reachable Goals

Right now, we’re going to do the best we can to help them be less stupid.

Urban Meyer

On two Ohio State football players coming back from suspension after being arrested for obstructing official business when they urinated on a building and fled from police.

Source: thelantern.com and cbssports.com

Nikita Khrushchev on Common Ground

Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.

Nikita Khrushchev

Source: quotegarden.com

Leonard Bernstein on Ideals

A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future.

Leonard Bernstein
The New York Times, 30 October 1988

Source: quotegarden.com

Alexis de Tocqueville on Political Parties

There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.

Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville lived in the first half of the 19th century.

Source: quotegarden.com

Will Rogers on Distraction

The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces.

Will Rogers

Source: goodreads.com

Phyllis Diller on Housekeeping

If your house is really a mess and a stranger comes to the door, greet them with, “Who could have done this? We have no enemies.”

Phyllis Diller

Source: thedailybeast.com

My lifelong housekeeping resource and inspiration. Thank you and farewell.

Neil Armstrong on Accomplishment

I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks, but for the ledger of our daily work.

Neil Armstrong

Source: brainyquote.com

Thank you and farewell.

The Daily Show Wisdom

Are you kidding? NBC -- the network that, to commemorate 9/11, actually re-runs 9/11 -- you wouldn't air a six minute tribute to the rest of the world's terrorist victims? Because the world's most overexposed land-based mammal had a chance to speak to the world's most overexposed water-based mammal.

Questioning NBC's decision not to air a tribute to the 52 lives lost in the 2005 London subway bombings during the Olympics opening ceremony, instead cutting to a Ryan Seacrest interview with swimmer Michael Phelps.

Jon Stewart
The Daily Show
Monday, July 30, 2012
Comedy Central
Click to view.

Click to View the Tribute we missed.

Charles Lummis on Resilience

I am bigger than anything that can happen to me.

Charles F. Lummis


To honor Rodney King. Thank you and farewell.

Emily Post on Real 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

Source: goodreads.com

DeMaurice Williams on Authenticity

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but nobody is entitled to their own facts.

DeMaurice Williams
Executive Director, NFL Players Association

To Mike Greenberg on Mike and Mike, ESPN
regarding a NFLPA salary cap lawsuit
Friday, May 25, 2012

e.e. cummings on Authenticity

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. 

e.e. cummings

Source: quotegarden.com

Mary Oliver on Unconditional Love

To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.

Mary Oliver, poet

For the Wendy puppy, thank you and farewell.

Source: wisdomquotes.com

Helen Steiner Rice on True Love

A mother's love is patient and forgiving when all others are forsaking, it never fails or falters, even though the heart is breaking.

Helen Steiner Rice

In remembrance of my Mom.

Source: thinkexist.com

Deng Ming-Dao on Struggle

Struggle

Life acquires meaning
When we face that conflict
Between our desires
And reality.

We have differing personalities vying for predominance in our lives. Some come out at just the right moment.  At other times, our aspirations and our fondest hopes find little support in our environment.  Only a few can truly say that they are living their lives exactly according to their desires. For the majority of us, life is a series of conflicts between our inner ideas and our outer constrictions. How will we test ourselves against the flexing of external circumstances?

Goals are important.  Forebearance is also important. But the very process of struggle is equally essential.  Rice must undergo the hardship of pounding in order to become white. Steel must endure the forge to become strong.  Adversity is the tempering of one's mettle. Without it we cannot know any true meaning in our accomplishment.  Of course, when things happen without struggle, it does not mean that we did not deserve it.

A musician may compose a brilliant piece in an afternoon.  An artist will dash off a masterpiece in a single sitting.  A writer will write significant passages as if they were dictated. Each might say, "It happened so fast!"  But in reality it took all of them years of dedication and struggle to come to that moment of climax.  Thus even the virtuoso performance is the tip of a lifetime of struggle, and the gem of meaning is set in the metal of long perseverance.

Deng Ming-Dao
365 Tao
No. 130, Northern Hemisphere, May 10
Copyright 1992

Maurice Sendak on Resilience

Certainly we want to protect our children from new and painful experiences that are beyond their emotional comprehension and that intensify anxiety; and to a point we can prevent premature exposure to such experiences. That is obvious. But what is just as obvious — and what is too often overlooked — is the fact that from their earliest years children live on familiar terms with disrupting emotions, fear and anxiety are an intrinsic part of their everyday lives, they continually cope with frustrations as best they can. And it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming Wild Things.

Maurice Sendak

Thank you and farewell.

Source: goodreads.com

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Change

Nothing that is can pause or stay;
The moon will wax, the moon will wane,
The mist and cloud will turn to rain,
The rain to mist and cloud again,
Tomorrow be today.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Source: quotegarden.com

P.G. Wodehouse on Human Nature

It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.

P.G. Wodehouse
The Man Upstairs and Other Stories

Source: goodreads.com

Pam Brown on Friendship

In loneliness, in sickness, in confusion-the mere knowledge of friendship makes it possible to endure, even if the friend is powerless to help. It is enough that they exist. Friendship is not diminished by distance or time, by imprisonment or war, by suffering or silence. It is in these things that it roots most deeply. It is from these things that it flowers.

Pam Brown
Poet

Source: goodreads.com

Robert Kiyosaki on Toughness

A lot of people are afraid to tell the truth, to say no. That's where toughness comes into play. Toughness is not being a bully. It's having a backbone.

Robert Kiyosaki

Source: thinkexist.com

Mary Parker Follett on Conflict

There are three ways of dealing with difference: domination, compromise, and integration. By domination only one side gets what it wants; by compromise neither side gets what it wants; by integration we find a way by which both sides may get what they wish.


Mary Parker Follett

Source: wisdomquotes.com

Pema Chodron on Messages

Feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we're holding back. They teach us to perk up and lean in when we feel we'd rather collapse and back away. They're like messengers that show us, with terrifying clarity, exactly where we're stuck. This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it's with us wherever we are.

Pema Chodron

Source: wisdomquotes.com

Marshal Rosenberg on Anger

Every criticism, judgment, diagnosis, and expression of anger is the tragic expression of an unmet need.

Marshall Rosenberg, psychologist

Source:  wisdomquotes.com

Thomas Haliburton on Anger

When a man is wrong and won't admit it, he always gets angry.

Thomas C. Haliburton
Writer, lived 1796 - 1865


Source: wisdomquotes.com

Helen Keller on Remembrance

What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, For all that we love deeply becomes a part of us.

Helen Keller

Remembering Sam and all pets past and present.

Beryl Markham on Leaving

I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesteryears are buried deep, leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance.

Beryl Markham, West With the Night
 
Source: goodreads.com

David Locke on Enthusiasm

I'm not well and I care too much.

David Locke
Voice of the NBA Utah Jazz
On ESPN's Mike and Mike
Regarding his incoherent (but hilarious) play-by-play during the Jazz/Memphis Grizzlies game on April 14, 2012.

Francis Bacon on Doing

Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake.

Francis Bacon

Source: tinybuddha.com

Nathaniel Branden on Assertion

The practice of assertiveness: being authentic in our dealings with others; treating our values and persons with decent respect in social contexts; refusing to fake the reality of who we are or what we esteem in order to avoid disapproval; the willingness to stand up for ourselves and our ideas in appropriate ways in appropriate contexts.

Nathaniel Branden

Source: selfesteemawareness.com

Maya Angelou on Impressions

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Maya Angelou

Source: thinkexist.com

Napoleon Hill on Action

Don't wait. The time will never be just right.

Napoleon Hill

Source: thinkexist.com

Thomas Jefferson on Economics

If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them, will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

Thomas Jefferson

Source: The Tao of Abundance
by Laurence G. Boldt
©1999 Laurence G. Boldt, p. 162
Penguin Compass

Flavia Weedn on Perseverence

If one dream should fall and break into a thousand pieces, never be afraid to pick one of those pieces up and begin again.

Flavia Weedn
Flavia and the Dream Maker, © Flavia.com

Source: quotegarden.com

Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil on Growing Up

Shades of Gray

When the world and I were young just yesterday.
Life was such a simple game a child could play.
It was easy then to tell
Right from wrong
Easy then to tell
Weak from strong,
When a man should stand and fight
Or just go along.

But today there is no day or night
Today there is no dark or light
Today there is no black or white
Only shades of gray.

I remember when the answers seemed so clear,
We had never lived with doubt or tasted fear.

It was easy then to tell
Truth from lies
Selling out
From compromise
Who to love and who to hate
The foolish from the wise.

But today there is no day or night
Today there is no dark or light
Today there is no black or white
Only shades of gray.

It was easy then to know
What was fair
When to keep
And when to share
How much to protect your heart
And how much to care.

But today there is no day or night
Today there is no dark or light
Today there is no black or white
Only shades of gray.

Farewell and thank you, Davy Jones.

From Monkees Headquarters
Words and Music by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil
Copyright 1966 by Screen Gems-EMI Music Inc.
6920 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90028
All Rights Reserved
Lyrics from reprint of 1966 sheet music

Source: monkees.net

Chuang Tzu on Destiny

Obey your own destiny; it is often very difficult, but it is the only means of attaining serenity.

Chuang Tzu


Source:  The Tao of Abundance
by Laurence G. Boldt
©1999 Laurence G. Boldt, p. 143
Penguin Compass

Leo Burnett on Honesty

Regardless of the moral issue, dishonesty in advertising has proved very unprofitable.

Leo Burnett


Source: thinkexist.com

Leo Burnett on Communication

Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.


Leo Burnett


Source: thinkexist.com

Advertising Wisdom

It’s halftime. Both teams are in their locker room discussing what they can do to win this game in the second half.

It’s halftime in America, too. People are out of work and they’re hurting. And they’re all wondering what they’re going to do to make a comeback. And we’re all scared, because this isn’t a game.

The people of Detroit know a little something about this. They almost lost everything. But we all pulled together, now Motor City is fighting again.

I’ve seen a lot of tough eras, a lot of downturns in my life. And, times when we didn’t understand each other. It seems like we’ve lost our heart at times. When the fog of division, discord, and blame made it hard to see what lies ahead.

But after those trials, we all rallied around what was right, and acted as one. Because that’s what we do. We find a way through tough times, and if we can’t find a way, then we’ll make one.

All that matters now is what’s ahead. How do we come from behind? How do we come together? And, how do we win?

Detroit’s showing us it can be done. And, what’s true about them is true about all of us.

This country can’t be knocked out with one punch. We get right back up again and when we do the world is going to hear the roar of our engines

Yeah, it’s halftime America. And, our second half is about to begin.
 
Chrysler Commercial featuring Clint Eastwood
Aired February 6, 2012
Weiden+Kennedy, written by Kevin Jones, Smith Henderson and Matthew Dickman
 
   
Source: Detroit Free Press