Davy Jones on Attitude

Change the way you look at things and the things you look at will change.

Davy Jones


Source: biography: Davy Jones

Barack Obama on Resilience

Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you.

Barack Obama
The President’s Speech to America’s Students
September 8, 2009


Click here to President Obama's Speech.

Fable Wisdom on Critical Thought

One day Chicken Little was walking in the woods when — KERPLUNK — an acorn fell on her head. "Oh my goodness!" said Chicken Little. "The sky is falling! I must go and tell the king."

From the fable: The Remarkable Story of Chicken Little

Published records of this story date back to the early 1800s

Harriet Tubman on Vision

Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.

Harriet Tubman


Source: wisdomquotes.com

Matt Berry, Chris Case and Allison M. Gibson on Compassion

There's always someone suffering worse than you... doesn't mean your pain doesn't count.

(A dinner guest at a homeless shelter who looked a lot like Santa (Victor Raider-Wexler) to a lonely Reba (Reba McIntire).)

Reba, Cookies for Santa, 2002
Script by Matt Berry, Chris Case and Allison M. Gibson
Twentieth Century Fox Television

Astrid Alauda on Stress Management

Don't let your mind bully your body into believing it must carry the burden of its worries.

Astrid Alauda
(the author of Pippi Longstocking)


Source: quotegarden.com

Harry Emerson Fosdick on The Journey

No one can get inner peace by pouncing on it.

Harry Emerson Fosdick


Source: quotegarden.com

Rodney Dangerfield on Ambiguity

Diane (Sally Kellerman): Actually, I'd like to join you, but I have class tonight.
Thornton Melon (Rodney Dangerfield): Oh. How 'bout tomorrow night?
Diane: I have class then, too.
Thornton Melon: I'll tell you what, then. Why don't you call me some time when you have no class?
Diane: [laughs] Alright. Maybe I will.

Thornton Mellon (Dangerfield) doing his best to ask Lit Professor Dr. Diane Turner (Kellerman) on a date.

Back to School, 1986
Screenplay by Steve Kampmann, Harold Ramis, Peter Torokvei, and William Porter
Paper Clip Productions


Source: imdb.com

Og Mandino on Forward Motion

I will act now. I will act now. I will act now. Henceforth, I will repeat these words each hour, each day, everyday, until the words become as much a habit as my breathing, and the action which follows becomes as instinctive as the blinking of my eyelids. With these words I can condition my mind to perform every action necessary for my success. I will act now. I will repeat these words again and again and again. I will walk where failures fear to walk. I will work when failures seek rest. I will act now for now is all I have. Tomorrow is the day reserved for the labor of the lazy. I am not lazy. Tomorrow is the day when the failure will succeed. I am not a failure. I will act now. Success will not wait. If I delay, success will become wed to another and lost to me forever. This is the time. This is the place. I am the person.

Og Mandino


Source: thinkexist.com

Barack Obama on Reslience

So on this day, we commemorate a tragedy that befell our people. But we also remember that with every tragedy comes the chance of renewal. It is a quintessentially American notion – that adversity can give birth to hope, and that the lessons of the past hold the key to a better future.

Barack Obama
Weekly Address, August 29, 2009
Remembering Hurricane Katrina, 2005


Source: whitehouse.gov

Franklin Delano Roosevelt on Critical Thought

A few timid people who fear progress will try to give you new and strange names for what we are doing. Sometimes they will call it ‘Fascism,’ sometimes ‘Communism,’ sometimes ‘Regimentation,’ sometimes ‘Socialism.’ But in so doing, they are trying to make very complex and theoretical something that is really very simple and very practical.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Discussing Social Security on June 28, 1934.

Source: Applesauce column (All politics is applesauce. Will Rogers) by Pat Cunningham, Rockford (Illinois) Register Star

Caroline Kennedy on Setting Standards

Now Teddy has become a part of history and we have become the ones that have to do all the things he would have done for us, for each other, and for our country.

Caroline Kennedy
at the Sen. Edward Kennedy memorial, August 28, 2009

Isak Dinesen on Chemistry

The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea.

Isak Dinesen (Karen Blicksen)


Source: quotegarden.com

Tony Robbins on Strategy

Don't think about how to do it; see the result.

Tony Robbins


From a video interview with tony Robbins, Frank Kern, and John Reese

Isaac Asimov on Perspective

I am not a speed reader. I am a speed understander.

Isaac Asimov


Thanks to Kare Anderson.