Ken Robinson on Education

The fact is that given the challenges we face, education doesn't need to be reformed -- it needs to be transformed. The key to this transformation is not to standardize education, but to personalize it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions.

Ken Robinson
The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

Source: goodreads.com

James Michener on the Art of Living

The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both.

James Michener

Source: Tony Robbins on facebook

Jennifer Hudson on Humility

It's not just how good you are, it's how good you are to work with.

Advice to Project Runway winner, Dimitry Sholokhov

Jennifer Hudson
Guest Judge on Project Runway
2012, Finale Part II
Lifetime Network

Martin Luther King, Jr. on Free Will

As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation - either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Source: goodreads.com

Jon Carson on America

In a nation of 300 million people – each with their own set of deeply held beliefs – democracy can be noisy and controversial.  And that's a good thing.  Free and open debate is what makes this country work, and many people around the world risk their lives every day for the liberties we often take for granted. But as much as we value a healthy debate, we don't let that debate tear us apart.

Jon Carson
Director of the Office of Public Engagement
The White House
January 13, 2013

Source: huffingtonpost.com

Ray Bradbury on Living

Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there.

It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.

Ray Bradbury
Farenheit 451

Source: goodreads.com

Albert Einstein on Change

The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.

Albert Einstein

Source: goodreads.com

Abraham Lincoln on A Good Life

Rules of Living

Don't worry, eat three square meals a day, say your prayers, be courteous to your creditors, keep your digestion good, steer clear of biliousness, exercise, go slow and go easy. May be there are other things that your special case requires to make you happy, but my friend, these, I reckon, will give you a good life.

Abraham Lincoln

Source: goodreads.com with a nod to The Olde Farmstead

Joe Biden on Focus

I want to make it clear that we are not going to get caught up in the notion that unless we can do everything we're going to do nothing.

Joe Biden

Source: huffingtonpost.com

James Thurber on Cats

I am not a cat man, but a dog man, and all felines can tell this at a glance - a sharp, vindictive glance.

James Thurber

Source: goodreads.com

TV Wisdom: Castle

Joanne (Catarina Scorsone): How do you get over it?

Beckett (Stana Katic): You don't. But one day you'll wake up and you'll find that you don't mind carrying it around with you. At least, that's as far as I've come.

On moving forward after their mothers passed.

Castle
Home is Where the Heart Stops, 2009
Season 1, Episode 7
Created by Andrew W. Marlowe
Written by Will Beall
Source: dustjackets.wetpaint.com

Mike Greenberg on To Do Lists

Wake up.
Be awesome.
Go to sleep.

Mike Greenberg (to Mike Golic)
Mike and Mike, ESPN
Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Colbert Report Wisdom

What do you put on a trillion dollar coin? On the tail side obviously a bald eagle breathing fire while making love to the American flag. What is on the heads? Obama? Boehner? I'll tell what you it should be, those Charmin bears -- because when you pull an idea like this out of your ass, you're going to need something soft.

On the idea of minting a platinum trillion dollar coin to bypass Congress and pay the nation's debts.

Stephen Colbert
The Colbert Report
January 7, 2013
Comedy Central

Watch Stephen say this!

Source: The Colbert Report on facebook

Song Lyric Wisdom: Home

Home

Hold on, to me as we go
As we roll down this unfamiliar road
And although this wave is stringing us along
Just know you're not alone
Cause I'm going to make this place your home

Settle down, it'll all be clear
Don't pay no mind to the demons
They fill you with fear
The trouble it might drag you down
If you get lost, you can always be found

Just know you're not alone
Cause I'm going to make this place your home

Settle down, it'll all be clear
Don't pay no mind to the demons
They fill you with fear
The trouble it might drag you down
If you get lost, you can always be found

Just know you're not alone
Cause I'm going to make this place your home

Words and Music by Drew Pearson and Greg Holden
©2012, Downtown Music Publishing, LLC
Tie & Razor Music Publishing

Source: lyricsmode.com

TV Wisdom: Perry Mason

Nothing is black and white, even hate.

Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) to Sheriff Norris (Barton MacLane)

Story by Sam Elkin
Teleplay by Seeleg Lester 
Characters created by Erle Stanley Gardner
The Case of the Violent Village
Season 3, Episode 11
First aired January 2, 1960

Zora Neale Hurston on Self-Esteem

Sometimes, I feel discriminated against but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me.

Zora Neale Hurston

Source: Andrew Weil on facebook

Franklin Delano Roosevelt on Obstacles

I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Source: Travis Smiley on Facebook

Deng Ming-Dao on Emerging

What under and rain at night.
Growth comes with a shock.
Expression and duration
Appear in the first moment.

Things cannot remaining in stillness forever. Winter storms may destroy some things, but they also prepare the way for life. If things are swept away, it is appropriate. There must be an opportunity for new living things to emerge and begin their own cycle.

All growth comes with a shock. When the sprout breaks its casing and forces its way to the surface of the earth, it is the climax to a long and deep accumulation of life force. We may think that it came up suddenly, that in actuality, it emerged as the product of unseen and subtle cycles.

When the seedling appears, it carries with it the complete pattern for its growth, perhaps even the makings of an enormous tree. Although time and the right conditions are necessary, neither of those factors adds anything to the inherent nature of the seedling. It completely embodies its destiny. Therefore, the growth and character of the plant – and it's very life – are all present at the moment of emerging.

Deng Ming-Dao
365 Tao, 6 Emerging
Harper San Francisco, ©1992 by Deng Ming-Dao