To Make a Beginning

Each age has deemed the new born year
The fittest time for festal cheer.  ~ Walter Scott

The merry year is born
Like the bright berry from the naked thorn.  ~ Hartley Coleridge

I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the year's.  ~ Henry Moore

He who breaks a resolution is a weakling;
He who makes one is a fool. ~ F. M. Knowles

For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.  ~ T. S. Eliot

Quotes for the new year 2014

May your Arms Never Tire

May Light always surround you;
Hope kindle and rebound you.
May your Hurts turn to Healing;
Your Heart embrace Feeling.
May Wounds become Wisdom;
Every Kindness a Prism.
May Laughter infect you;
Your Passion resurrect you.
May Goodness inspire
your Deepest Desires.
Through all that you Reach For,
May your arms Never Tire.     ~D.Simone

May brooks and trees and singing hills
Join in the chorus too.
And every gentle wind that blows
Send happiness to you.  ~ Irish blessing

Quote inspiration for new year 

The Life in your Years

It's better to burn out than to fade away.  ~ Neil Young

Slowly, with many lost days, I come back to life.   ~Suzanne Collins

Love as much and as hard as you can because one day in your life near the end, you may forget how it truly feels.   ~Jeanette Michelle

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.'  ~ Erma Bombeck

In the end, it's not the years in your life that count.  It's the life in your years.  ~ Abraham Lincoln

Quotes about end

Ornament is Organic

Clearness ornaments profound thoughts.  ~ Luc de Clapiers

Education is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and a provision in old age.  ~ Aristotle

So may the outward shows be least themselves: the world is still deceived with ornament... ~ William Shakespeare

Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.  ~ Joseph Addison

True ornament is not a matter of prettifying externals.  It is organic with the structure it adorns whether a person, a building, or a park.  ~ Frank Lloyd Wright

Quotes about ornament

Untie the Ribbons

The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.  ~ Jean Anouilh
 
What is a true gift? One for which nothing is expected in return.  ~ Chinese Proverb
 
You may give gifts without caring, but you can't care without giving.  ~ Frank A. Clark

A hug is the perfect gift - one size fits all, and nobody minds if you exchange it.  ~Ivern Ball
 
Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons.  ~ Ruth Ann Schabacker

Quotes about gifts

The Rushing Stream of Life

 Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wings. Only one thing endures, and that is character.  ~Horace Greeley

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.    ~James Michener

The virtue of man ought to be measured, not by his extraordinary exertions, but by his everyday conduct.    ~Blaise Pascal

Character is the sum total of all our everyday choices.   ~Margaret Jensen

Sow an action and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.   ~William James

A talent can be cultivated in tranquility; a character only in the rushing stream of life.   ~Goethe

Quotes about character

The Shortest Day

So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, fest, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!!  ~ Susan Cooper

The hope is always here, always alive, but only your fierce caring can fan it into a fire to warm the world.  ~ Susan Cooper

Quote for the winter solstice

Heroic Transformation

The journey between what you once were and who you are now becoming is where the dance of life really takes place.  ~ Barbara Deangelis

A peaceful mind is a springboard to positive transformation , for by cleansing the mind we inspire the spirit and motivate the soul.   ~Micheal Teal

Religion teaches us that our lives here on earth are to be used for transformation.  ~ Huston Smith 

When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation,  we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.  ~ Joseph Campbell

Transformation of any kind always exacts a holy tussle. The newborn butterfly struggles to open its wings so it can conjure up the strength to fly. So, too, with artists, inventors, mystics, and entrepreneurs.  ~Tama Kieves

Quotes about transformation

Rapidly Mature

Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.   ~Henry David Thoreau

A man who silently lives by his ethics makes a more profound argument than one who deafens us with his shouting about them.    ~Gerry Spence

Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.    ~Isaac Asimov

A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality.   ~Winston Churchill

Compassion is the basis of morality.  ~ Arthur Schopenhauer 

Whenever governments adopt a moral tone - as opposed to an ethical one - you know something is wrong.    ~John Ralston Saul

Manners easily and rapidly mature into morals.    ~Horace Mann

Quotes about morals

Never Deny

Follow your honest convictions, and stay strong.   ~William Thackeray

Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.   ~Thomas Carlyle

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.   ~Blaise Pascal

Convictions, in the end, can be dangerous,but a world without them is just an awful kind of gray, amorphous mass.   ~Bono

Never, for the sake of peace and quiet, deny your own experience or convictions.   ~ Dag Hammarskjold

Quotes about convictions

The Safety Valve

When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure.   ~Peter Marshall

Pressure can burst a pipe, or pressure can make a diamond.   ~Robert Horry

The only pressure I'm under is the pressure I've put on myself.   ~Mark Messier

Tears are the safety valve of the heart when too much pressure is laid on it.   ~Albert Smith

Courage is grace under pressure.   ~ Ernest Hemingway

There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.   ~ Willa Cather  

Quotes about pressure

Starts Flowing Afresh

It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.

Explanation separates us from astonishment, which is the only gateway to the incomprehensible.

I read a page of Plato's great work. I can no longer understand anything, because behind the words on the page, which have their own heavenly brightness, to be sure, there shines an even brighter, an enormous, dazzling -why- that blots out everything, cancels out, destroys all meaning. All individual intelligence. When one has understood, one stops, satisfied with what one has understood. I do not understand. Understanding is far too little. To have understood is to be fixed, immobilized. It is as though one wanted to stop on one step in the middle of a staircase, or with one foot in the void and the other on the endless stair. But a mere why, a new why can set one off again, can unpetrify what was petrified and everything starts flowing afresh. How can one understand? One cannot. 

Quotes by Eugene Ionesco

Not to be Taken too Seriously

Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling and instinct, not by rule.

Books are like imprisoned souls till someone takes them down from a shelf and frees them.

Life is like playing the violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.

If life must not be taken too seriously, then so neither must death.

Nothing is so cruel as to try and force a man beyond his natural pace.

Quotes by Samuel Butler

The Greatest Thing

Why do you put your self esteem in the hands of complete strangers?  ~Helena Bonham Carter

The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself.   ~ Mark Twain

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.    ~Michel de Montaigne

You are your own worst enemy. If you can learn to stop expecting impossible perfection, in yourself and others, you may find the happiness that has always eluded you.  ~ Lisa Kleypas

Quotes about self esteem

Hold it High

Parents need to fill
a child's bucket of self-esteem so high
that the rest of the world can't poke
enough holes to drain it dry.  ~ Alvin Price

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow; yet we forget that he is someone today.  ~ Stacia Tauscher

Try to be like the turtle- at ease in your own shell.  ~ Bill Copeland

Low self esteem is like driving through life with your hand break on.  ~ Maxwell Maltz

Never bend your head.  Hold it high.  Look the world straight in the eye.  ~ Helen Keller 

Quotes about self esteem

Go Beyond Them

May I see my own limits with compassion, just as I view the limits of others.   ~Joan Halifax

My limits know me well enough to stay out of my way.    ~Ben Mitchell

Limits, like fear, is often an illusion.   ~Michael Jordan

As we advance our lives we know the limits of our abilities.   ~Henry Ford

Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.   ~ Albert Einstein

Quotes about limits

The Most Important Need

Love is not consolation.  It is light.

Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.

Human existence is so fragile a thing and exposed to such dangers that I cannot love without trembling.

We must not wish for the disappearance of our troubles but for the grace to transform them.

To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.

Quotes by Simone Weil

So Soon?

Soon is not as good as now.   ~Seth Godin

I never think of the future; it comes soon enough.    ~Albert Einstein

Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon, and wise too late.   ~Benjamin Franklin

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.    ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

How did it get late so soon?    ~Dr. Seuss

Quotes about soon

The Single Bright Moon

One love, one heart . . .
Let’s get together and feel all right.   ~ Bob Marley

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.   ~Thomas Jefferson

All for one and one for all.   ~Alexander Dumas, The Three Musketeers 

When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.    ~Winston Churchill

Many paths lead from the foot of the mountain, but at the peak we all gaze at the single bright moon.   ~Ikkyu, Zen poet

Quotes about division, unity

Live in a Way

Poverty is not an accident.  Like slavery and apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed by the actions of human beings.

Education is  the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

Do not judge me by my successes; judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up.

We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always right ripe to do what is right.

To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. 

Quotes by Nelson Mandela 1918-2013

Each Others' Harvest

Exhaust the little moment. Soon it dies. And be it gash or gold it will not come again in this identical guise.

Live not for Battles Won.
Live not for The-End-of-the-Song.
Live in the along.

We are each others' harvest; we are each others' business; we are each others' magnitude and bond.

It is brave to be involved
To be not fearful, to be unresolved.

Quotes by Gwendolyn Brooks

The Most Pleasurable of Sensations

Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.  ~Joyce Carol Oates

I read so I can live more than one life in more than one place.   ~Anne Tyler

There is no friend as loyal as a book.   ~Ernest Hemingway

We read to know that we are not alone.  ~C.S. Lewis

Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations.  ~Vladimir Nabokov

The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones.   ~Joseph Joubert

Quotes about reading

One Corner of the Universe

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.   ~John Muir

The universe is wider than our views of it.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

I want to put a ding in the universe.  ~ Steve Jobs

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving and that's your own self.  ~George Orwell

Quotes about the universe

The Secret of Banishing Gloom

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.   ~Edward Abbey

Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s when you’ve had everything to do, and you’ve done it.   ~Margaret Thatcher

Forgive yourself for your faults and your mistakes and move on.   ~Les Brown

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.   ~Corrie Ten Boom

I doubt if there is among us a more useful citizen than the one who holds the secret of banishing gloom, of making tears give way to laughter, of supplanting desolation and despair with hope and courage, for hope and courage always go with a light heart.   ~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Quotes about courage, hope, and inner strength

To Create Many Ripples

You have to find what sparks a light in you so that you in your own way can illuminate the world.    ~Oprah Winfrey

It may be important to great thinkers to examine the world, to explain and despise it. But I think it is only important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but to be able to regard the world and ourselves and all beings with love, admiration and respect.  ~ Herman Hesse, Siddhartha

To be ill adjusted in a deranged world is not a breakdown.   ~Jeanette Winterson

We have to heal our wounded world. The chaos, despair, and senseless destruction we see today are a result of the alienation that people feel from each other and their environment.   ~Michael Jackson

How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.   ~William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.    ~Mother Teresa

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.   ~Margaret Mead

Quotes about the world

More to Life

We used to build civilizations. Now we build shopping malls.  ~ Bill Bryson

Once a culture becomes entirely advertising friendly, it seizes to be a culture at all. ~ Mark Crispin Miller

We no longer live life.  We consume it.  ~ Vicki Robin

This is the postmodern desert inhabited by people who are, in effect, consuming themselves in the form of images and abstractions through which their desires, sense of identity, and memories are replicated and then sold back to them as products.  ~ Larry McCaffrey

There must be more to life than having everything.  ~ Maurice Sendak

Quotes about shopping, consumerism

Intensity Clarifies

The world is wide and I will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.  ~Frances Willard

Ride the energy of your own unique spirit.  ~ Gabrielle Roth

Momentum?  Momentum is the next day's starting pitcher.  ~ Earl Weaver

If you're coasting, you're either losing momentum or else you're headed downhill.  ~ Joan Welsh

Always work hard.  Intensity clarifies. It creates not only momentum, but also the pressure you need to feel either friction, or fulfillment.  ~ Marcus Buckingham

Quotes about momentum

The Enlarged Horizon

Sometimes in the stillness of the quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper of the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair.

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

Often, to be free means the ability to deal with the realities of one's own situation so as not to be overcome by them.

There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.

A dream is the bearer of a new possibility, the enlarged horizon, the great hope.

Quotes by Howard Thurman

Live out Loud

May you live every day of your life.    ~Jonathan Swift

The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.    ~Walt Whitman

Become major, Paul. Live like a hero. That's what the classics teach us. Be a main character. Otherwise what is life for?    ~J. M. Coetzee

If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.   ~Emile Zola

Don't fear death, fear the un-lived life.   ~Natalie Babbitt

Quotes about living life

Special Strength

All right, every day ain't going to be the best day of your life; don't worry about that. If you stick to it, you hold the possibility open that you will have better days.  ~ Wendell Berry

Be like a postage stamp.  Stick to it until you get there.   ~Harvey Mackay
 
I have found out one thing, and that is, if you have a good idea, if you only stick to it, you will come out all right. ~ Cecil Rhodes
 
I have found that a smile and a stick will carry you through all right, and in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred it is the smile that does the trick.   ~Robert Powell
 
And it is true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world it is best to hold hands and stick together. ~ Robert Fulghum

Special strength comes from enduring unchangeable circumstances while holding to one's purposes.  ~Katherine Mansfield

Quotes about stick-to-itiveness, purposefulness

That Profound Secret

The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said.    ~Peter Drucker

Humor can get in under the door while seriousness is still fumbling at the handle.  ~ G. K. Chesterton

It is the encounters with people that make life worth living.   ~ Guy de Maupasant 

When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective.  ~ Stephen R. Covey

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.  ~ Charles Dickens

Quotes about communication

The Highest Appreciation

The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger--but recognize the opportunity.

The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.

Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.

We celebrate the past to awaken the future.

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

Quotes by John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated 50 years ago, Nov. 22 1962

Will Always Be in Demand

Life is just an endless chain of judgements.... The more imperfect our judgement, the less perfect our success.  ~ B.C. Forbes

A man is judged by his deeds, not by his words.  ~ Russian Proverb

I'm not judging people, I'm judging their actions. It's the same type of distinction that I try to apply to myself, to judge, but not be judgmental.   ~ Jeff Melvoin

He that judges without informing himself to the utmost that he is capable, cannot acquit himself of judging amiss.    ~ John Locke
 
Property may be destroyed and money may lose its purchasing power; but, character, health, knowledge and good judgement will always be in demand under all conditions.  ~ Roger Babson

Quotes about judging, judgement

Write your Own

Nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am - and what I need - is something I have to find out myself.
 
People say that if you find water rising up to your ankles, that's the time to do something about it, not when it's around your neck.

Living fire begets cold, impotent ash.

A functioning robust democracy requires a healthy, educated participatory followership, and an educated morally grounded leadership.

When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.

The impatient idealist says: 'Give me a place to stand and I shall move the earth.' But such a place does not exist. We all have to stand on the earth itself and go with her at her pace.

 If you don't like someone's story, write your own.

 Quotes by Chinua Achebe,  Nigerian novelist

The Most Important Aspects

It's an interesting combination: having a great fear of being alone, and having a desperate need for solitude and the solitary experience.  That's always been a tug of war for me.  

Normal is not something to aspire to; it's something to get away from.

I  guess I've played a lot of victims, but that's what a lot of the history of women is about.

Love and respect are the most important aspects of parenting and of all relationships.

I want to be inspiring to myself, to my kids, my family, and my friends.

Quotes from Jodie Foster, birthday today, November 19, 1962

A Simple Formula

If you do things well, do them better.  Be daring, be first, be different, be just.  ~ Anita Roddick

When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.  ~ Helen Keller

Be what you are.  This is the first step toward becoming better than you are.  ~ Julius Charles Hare

Whatever you are, be a good one.  ~ Abraham Lincoln 

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.  ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Success has a simple formula: do your best and people may like it.  ~ Sam Ewing

Quotes about doing your best

Make it a Rule

Address things now that could otherwise turn into regrets.  ~ Jane Fonda

Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, "It might have been."  ~ Kurt Vonnegut

Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

There was a long hard time when I kept far from me the remembrance of what I had thrown away when I was quite ignorant of its worth.    ~ Charles Dickens

If only.  Those must be the two saddest words in the world.  ~ Mercedes Lackey

Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it; it's only good for wallowing in.    ~Katherine Mansfield

Quotes about regret

Stuff your Eyes

Dost thou love life?  Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of.  ~ Benjamin Franklin

Information is pretty thin stuff unless mixed with experience.  ~ Clarence Day

Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds.   See the world.  It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.  ~ Ray Bradbury

Life is pretty simple.  You do stuff.  Most fails.  Some works.  You do more of what works.  If it works big, others will copy it.  Then you do something else.  The trick is doing the something else.   ~ Tom Peters

Quotes about stuff

Ask Your Heart

In the dew of little things, the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.  ~Kahlil Gibran

Be the one who nurtures and builds. Be the one who has an understanding and a forgiving heart, one who looks for the best in people. Leave people better than you found them.    ~Marvin J. Ashton

Wherever you go, go with all your heart.  ~ Confucius

Your vision will become clear only if you can look into your heart.  Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.   ~Carl Jung

Go to your bosom.  Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know.   ~ William Shakespeare

Quotes about the heart

Pay Attention

I don't have pet peeves like some people. I have whole kennels of irritation.

We're here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.

Normal is just a cycle on the washing machine.

It you want to be somebody, if you want to go some where, you've got to wake up and pay attention.

I am where I am because I believe in all possibilities.

I'm a big old egotistical baby and that's OK.  I can accept it.

Quotes by Whoopi Goldberg, actress, born this day, November 13, 1955

The Main Thing

Work lovingly done is the secret of all order and happiness.

I invent nothing.  I rediscover.

Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.

Patience is also a form of action.

The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live.

Quotes by Auguste Rodin, French sculptor (1840-1917), birthday on this day, November 12

The artist is the confidant of nature, flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful bending of their stems and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms. Every flower has a cordial word which nature directs towards him
Read more at http://www.quoteoasis.com/authors/r/francois_auguste_rene_rodin_quotes.html#FbihiTseb7Awzuk

Love the World to Peace

I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, 'Mother, what was war?'   ~Eve Merriam
 
Lord, bid war's trumpet cease; Fold the whole earth in peace.  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes
 
The more we sweat in peace the less we bleed in war.   ~ Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.   ~ Cynthia Ozick
 
Let us love the world to peace.   ~Eileen Elias Freeman 

Quotes about remembrance, war, and peace

Listen to the Revelation

But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?    ~Albert Camus

Out of clutter find simplicity.  ~ Albert Einstein

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.  ~ Mahatma Gandhi

I am fascinated by what is beautiful, strong, healthy, what is living. I seek harmony.  ~ Leni Riefenstahl

I tried to discover, in the rumor of forests and waves, words that other men could not hear, and I pricked up my ears to listen to the revelation of their harmony.  ~Gustav Flaubert

Quotes about harmony

What's a Heaven For?

At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.   ~Salvador Dali

The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.  ~ Maya Angelou

Ambition has but one reward for all: A little power, a little transient fame; A grave to rest in, and a fading name!  ~ William Winter

We have grown literally afraid to be poor. We despise anyone who elects to be poor in order to simplify and save his inner life. If he does not join the general scramble and pant with the money-making street, we deem him spiritless and lacking in ambition.   ~ William James

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?  ~ Robert Browning 

Quotes about ambition

Practice and Concentration

Practice makes perfect, so be careful what you practice.  ~William Henry Channing

The formula for success is simple: practice and concentration then more practice and more concentration.  ~Babe Zaharias

Champions keep playing until they get it right.  ~ Billie Jean King

Talent is only a starting point.  ~ Irving Berlin

Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.  ~ Anton Chekov

Quotes about practice

Outlive your Life

Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you.   ~Shanon L. Alder

I had an inheritance from my father,
It was the moon and the sun.
And though I roam all over the world,
The spending of it’s never done.   ~ Ernest Hemingway

Everyone must leave something behind when he dies . . . Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die . . . It doesn't matter what you do, 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.  ~ Ray Bradbury

We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.    ~David Brower

Outlive your life!  ~ Max Lucado

Quotes about inheritance, legacy

The Only Journey

What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.  ~ Plutarch

The longest journey of any person is the journey inward.  ~ Dag Hammarskjold

The inward journey is about finding your own fullness, something that no one else can take away.  ~ Deepak Chopra

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.  ~ Aristotle

The only journey is the one within.  ~ Rainer Maria Wilke

In ourselves our safety must be sought.
By our own right hand it must be wrought.  ~ William Wordsworth

Quotes about the inward journey, self discovery

In Touch with our Inner Workings

Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?

In fact, the truth of Zen is the truth of life, and life means to live, to move, to act; not merely to reflect.

Zen professes itself to be the spirit of Buddhism, but in fact it is the spirit of all religions and philosophies. When Zen is thoroughly understood, absolute peace of mind is attained, and a man lives as he ought to live. What more may we hope?

The basic idea of Zen is to come in touch with the inner workings of our being, and to do this in the most direct way possible, without resorting to anything external or superadded. Therefore, anything that has the semblance of an external authority is rejected by Zen. Absolute faith is placed in a man's own inner being. For whatever authority there is in Zen, all comes from within.  

Quotes by D. T. Suzuki

Uniquely Pottered and Purposed

When I hear somebody sigh, ‘Life is hard,’ I am always tempted to ask, ‘Compared to what?  ~Sydney Harris

Try not to get lost in comparing yourself to others. Discover your gifts and let them shine.   ~ Jane Finch

Comparison is the death of joy.   ~ Mark Twain

Do not compare yourself with anybody. Compare yourself with yourself, for yourself and by yourself. We are all uniquely pottered and purposed by our creator!   ~ Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.   ~ Helen Keller

Quotes about comparing, comparison

Scrub them Off

Most of our assumptions have outlived their usefulness.  ~ Marshall McLuhan

Assess before you assume.  ~ Lyle Kwiatkowski

The strength of one's opinion should not exceed their knowledge on the matter.  ~ Eric Hirzel

Euclid taught me that without assumptions there is no proof.  Therefore, in any argument examine the assumptions.  ~ E. T. Bell

Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won't come in.  ~ Alan Alda

Quotes about assumptions

It is They

Clothes make a statement.  Costumes tell a story.  ~ Mason Cooley

Halloween is huge at my house and we really get into the "spirits" of things.  ~ Dee Snider

Where there is no imagination there is no horror.  ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Tis the night—the night
Of the grave's delight,
And the warlocks are at their play;
Ye think that without,
The wild winds shout,
But no, it is they—it is they.  ~ Arthur Cleveland Coxe

Halloween wraps fear in innocence,
As though it were a slightly sour sweet.
Let terror, then, be turned into a treat...   Nicholas Gordon

Quotes about Halloween

Generous Consent

The road to success is always under construction.  ~ Lily Tomlin

I couldn't wait for success, so I went on without it.  ~ Jonathan Winters

I've had great success being a total idiot.  ~ Jerry Lewis

Eighty percent of success is showing up.  ~ Woody Allen

You are forgiven for your happiness and your successes only if you generously consent to share them.  ~ Albert Camus

Quotes about success

The Quiet Voice

Let perseverance be your engine and hope your fuel.   ~H. Jackson Brown

The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.   ~Woodrow Wilson

Even in the mud and scum of things, something always, always sings.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Courage doesn't always roar, sometimes it's the quiet voice at the end of the day whispering 'I will try again tomorrow.'   ~ Mary Anne Radmacher

Life keeps throwing me curve balls and I don't even own a bat. At least my dodging skills are improving.  ~ Jayleigh Cape

Quotes about perseverance, resilience

Should Make you Jump Up

Ideas are like rabbits.  You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.  ~ John Steinbeck

I refuse to accept other people's ideas of happiness for me.  As if there's 'a one size fits all' standard for happiness.  ~ Kanye West 

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas.  I'm frightened of the old ones.  ~  John Cage

You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't get you anywhere.  ~ Lee Iacocca 

Getting an idea should be like sitting down on a pin; it should make you jump up and do something.  ~ E. L. Simpson

Quotes about ideas

A Lovely Light

Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.  ~ Anne Frank

To light a candle is to cast a shadow.  ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. ~ Edith Wharton

How far that little candle throws its beams.  So shines a good deed in a naughty world.  ~William Shakespeare

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—
It gives a lovely light!  ~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

Quotes about candles and light 

Burden of Responsibility

Say what you say plainly, and then take responsibility for it.

A small act is worth a million thoughts.

A nation that has no music and no fairy tales is a tragedy. 

If my art has nothing to do with people's pain and sorrow, what is 'art' for?

The world is not changing if you don’t shoulder the burden of responsibility.

Quotes by Ai Weiwei, Chinese artist, curator, architectural designer, cultural and social commentator and activist

The Circle of the Moon

The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils,light in your eyes,flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.  ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.~ Henry Ward Beecher

When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.  ~George Washington Carver

Many ingenious lovely things are gone
That seemed sheer miracle to the multitude,
protected from the circle of the moon
that pitches common things about.~  William Butler Yeats

Quotes about common things

The Eyes only See

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself.

Homo sapiens, the only creature endowed with reason, is also the only creature to pin its existence on things unreasonable.

Genius is that which forces the inertia of humanity to learn.

Intuition is a method of feeling one's way intellectually into the inner heart of a thing to locate what is unique and inexpressible in it.

The eyes only see what the mind is prepared to comprehend.

Quotes  by Henri Bergson, French philosopher and Nobel laureate, 1927

Abandon the Urge

We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery.  ~ H. G. Wells

Do not all charms fly at the mere touch of cold philosophy?  There was an awful rainbow once in heaven: we know her woof, her texture; she is given in the dull catalogue of common things.  Philosophy will clip an angel's wings, conquer all mysteries by rule and line, empty the haunted air, and unweave a rainbow.
  ~ John Keats

Abandon the urge to simplify everything, to look for formulas and easy answers, and to begin to think multidimensionally, to glory in the mystery and paradoxes of life, not to be dismayed by the multitude of causes and consequences that are inherent in each experience -- to appreciate the fact that life is complex.  ~ M. Scott Peck

Quotes about life's miracles and mysteries

Begin at Once

In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is our duty.  ~ Joseph Addison

But what is your duty? What the day demands.  ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

How can we know ourselves? Never by reflection, but only through action. Begin at once to do your duty and immediately you will know what is inside you.  ~ Goethe

Non nobis solum nati sumus. (Not for ourselves alone are we born.)  ~ Cicero

Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles, and kindnesses, and small obligations, given habitually, are what win and preserve the heart and secure comfort.  ~ Humphrey Davy  

Quotes about duty

Five Genetic Needs

Today was good.  Today was fun.  Tomorrow is another one.   ~Dr. Seuss

Life is more fun if you play games.   ~Roald Dahl

I never did a day's work in my life.  It was all fun.   ~Thomas Edison

I have fun with ideas.  I play with them.  ~ Ray Bradbury

We are driven by five genetic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun.   ~William Glasser

Quotes about fun

Fail to Appreciate

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.  ~ Rumi

Cleverness is not wisdom.  ~ Euripides

Which would you rather be if you had the choice--divinely beautiful or dazzlingly clever or angelically good?  ~ L. M. Montgomery,  Anne of Green Gables

Too clever is dumb.  ~ Ogden Nash

If we fail to appreciate the soul that Easternism gives us, then what we have is a disconnected,  Greco-Roman, Western, egocentric,compartmentalized, reductionist, fragmented,linear thought process that counts on cleverness.  ~ Joel Salatin

Quotes about cleverness

The Greatest Sign

If you don't fail now and again, it's a sign you're playing it safe.   ~Woody Allen

The most manifest sign of wisdom is continued cheerfulness.   ~ Michel de Montaigne

The primary sign of a well-ordered mind is a man's ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.   ~Seneca
 
Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ''Make me feel important.''  Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.   ~Mary Kay Ash
 
The need to be right is the sign of a vulgar mind.   ~Albert Camus
 
The greatest sign of success for a teacher... is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist."    ~Maria Montessori 

Quotes about signs

The Noblest Pleasure

Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding the third.  ~ Marge Piercy

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.  ~ Kahlil Gibran

If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things.  ~ Van Gogh

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.  ~ Leonardo da Vinci

Seek first to understand, and then to be understood. ~ Stephen Covey

Can a man who's warm understand one who's freezing?  ~ Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Quotes about understanding

The Germ of Happiness

To eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to death.

Many people lose the small joys in the hope for the big happiness.

Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that's where you renew your springs that never dry up.

Men and women should own the world as a mutual possession.

Growth itself contains the germ of happiness.

The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: a human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive.  He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.

Quotes by Pearl S. Buck, Nobel prize winner of Literature 1938

Nothing is Simple

The constant happiness is curiosity.
 
It's just life. You can't beat life.
 
I can't play bridge. I don't play tennis. All those things that people learn, and I admire, there hasn't seemed time for. But what there is time for is looking out the window.
 
My head was a magpie's nest lined with such bright scraps of information.
 
In twenty years I've never had a day when I didn't have to think about someone else's needs. And this means the writing has to be fitted around it.
 
The complexity of things- the things within things- just seems to be endless. I mean nothing is easy, nothing is simple.
 
Quotes by Alice Munro, Nobel prize winner 2013 for literature

The complexity of things - the things within things - just seems to be endless. I mean nothing is easy, nothing is simpl
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alicemunro176434.html#Zf26tpYZsbMJekjs.

The complexity of things - the things within things - just seems to be endless. I mean nothing is easy, nothing is simple
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alicemunro176434.html#Zf26tpYZsbMJekjs.99

It's not Selfish

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.  ~Charles Dickens

It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.  ~Mother Teresa

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.   ~Winston Churchill

No one has ever become poor by giving.  ~Anne Frank

Giving yourself some loving attention is not selfish. It is sensible. If you feel loved and cherished--even if it is only by yourself--then you will have more love to give to others, too.   ~Penelope Quest

Quotes about giving

Broken the Chains

I wear the chain I forged in life....I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.   ~Charles Dickens 

Man is born free, but is everywhere in chains.   ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau 

The melting voice through mazes running, 
untwisting all the chains that tie
the hidden soul of harmony.  ~ John Milton

Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hate. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.    ~William Arthur Ward
 
Happy is the man who has broken the chains which hurt the mind, and has given up worrying once and for all.   ~ Ovid

Quotes about chains

To Have Succeeded

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.  ~ Maya Angelou

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.  ~ Bill Gates

You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.  ~ Beverly Sills

If I cannot do great things,  I can do small things in a great way.  ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived—this is to have succeeded.  ~ Bessie Anderson Stanley

Quotes about success

A Divine Appointment

Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?  ~ Samuel Johnson

Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate.  ~ anonymous

A person's a person no matter how small.  ~ Dr. Seuss

Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.  ~ John W. Whitehead

Every child you encounter is a divine appointment.  ~ Wess Stafford

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

Quotes about children

Our Splendid Failure

Every noble work is at first impossible.  ~Thomas Carlyle

It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.  ~Walt Disney

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.  ~Charles R. Swindoll

I have learned to use the word “impossible” with the greatest of caution.  ~Wernher von Braun

"One can't believe impossible things," Alice said. "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.   ~Lewis Carroll

All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible.  ~William Faulkner

Quotes about the impossible

Revolution of the heart

The heart has its reasons which reason knows not.  ~ Blaise Pascal

I think... if it is true that
there are as many minds as there
are heads, then there are as many
kinds of love as there are hearts.  ~ Leo Tolstoy

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall.  ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?   ~Dorothy Day

Quotes about the heart

Both Ends of the Spectrum

Every season has its peaks and valleys. What you have to try to do is eliminate the Grand Canyon.   ~ Andy Van Slyke

One see great things from the valley, only small things from the peak.   ~ G. K. Chesterton

All of life is peaks and valleys. Don't let the peaks get too high and the valleys too low.   ~ John Wooden

Probably nor'east to sou'west winds varying to the southard and westard and eastard and points between; high and low barometer, sweeping round from place to place; probably areas of rain, snow, heat and drought, succeeded or preceded by earth quakes.   ~ Mark Twain

I've experienced the highest of highs and lowest of lows. I think to really appreciate anything you have to be at both ends of the spectrum.  ~ John Elway

Quotes about highs and lows

365 Quote Quest: Volume 3

I enjoyed compiling a third volume of 365 Quote Quest where I provide quotes around a theme or author and ask questions to encourage reflection and enrichment.    These entries are a product of my regular posts here and at 365 Quote Quest, in particular.

For example, entry #834 is entitled 'Stay Involved.'

The dedicated life is the life worth living.  ~ Annie Dillard

The resolved mind hath no cares.  ~ George Herbert

Without involvement there is no commitment.  Mark it down, asterisk it, circle it, underline it.  No involvement, no commitment.  ~ Stephen R. Covey

Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.  ~ Tom Robbins

- How dedicated and resolved are you?
- How involved and flexible?
- What motivates you?

I consider each entry a meditation nugget.

You may see all three volumes available on my Author Central page at Amazon.  Volume 3 contains 264 pages, with multiple quotes for most entries.    The books are available at cost.

We are Butterflies

A power of Butterfly must be -
The Aptitude to fly
Meadows of Majesty concedes
And easy Sweeps of Sky.  ~Emily Dickinson

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.   ~Margaret Fuller

The caterpillar does all the work, but the butterfly gets all the publicity.   ~George Carlin

Butterflies are self propelled flowers.   ~R. H. Heinlein

We are all butterflies. Earth is our chrysalis.   ~LeeAnn Taylor

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.   ~Rabindranath Tagore

Quotes about butterflies

The Primeval Soil

What we play is life. ~ Louis Armstrong

Play energizes us and enlivens us. It eases our burdens. It renews our natural sense of optimism and opens us up to new possibilities.  ~Stuart Brown

Almost all creativity involves purposeful play.   ~Abraham Maslow

Children at play are not playing about. Their games should be seen as their most serious minded activity.     ~Michel de Montaigne

Now in myth and ritual the great instinctive forces of civilized life have their origin: law and order, commerce and profit, craft and art, poetry, wisdom and science. All are rooted in the primeval soil of play.   ~Johan Huizinga

Quotes about play

Magic on this Planet

When the well is dry, we learn the worth of water.  ~ Benjamin Franklin

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.  ~ W. H. Auden

 If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.  Loran Eisley

We need a new global culture that finds the existence of millions of thirsty people thoroughly and immediately unacceptable.  ~ Jean-Michel Cousteau

Water is critical for sustainable development, including environmental integrity and the alleviation of poverty and hunger, and is indispensable for human health and well-being.  ~ United Nations

Quotes about water

A Reality to be Experienced

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

Don't forget to love yourself first.

The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.

What labels me, negates me.

Quotes by Soren Kierkegaard

Be Content

I need nothing. I seek nothing. I desire nothing.   ~ Milarepa

The only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing.  ~ Socrates

 I love to talk about nothing. It's the only thing I know anything about.  ~ Oscar Wilde

More powerful than God, more evil than the Devil; the poor have it, the rich lack it, and if you eat it you die?  ~ Margaret Atwood

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.  ~ Lao Tzu

Quotes about nothing

The Truth of Things

Rarely affirm, seldom deny, always distinguish.

Wonder is the desire of knowledge.

Love follows knowledge.

Most men seem to live according to sense rather than reason.

I would rather feel compassion than know the meaning of it. I would hope to act with compassion without thinking of personal gain.

The study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is.

Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.

Quotes by Thomas Aquinas

The Highest Reward

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have the eyes to see them.

There is no wealth but life.

Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become.

Every increased possession loads us with new weariness.

The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get from it, but what they become by it.

Quotes by John Ruskin

What Really Matters

The forceps of our minds are clumsy forceps, and crush the truth a little in taking hold of it.

If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.

Sometimes, you have to step outside of the person you've been and remember the person you were meant to be. The person you want to be. The person you are.

Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.

Our true nationality is mankind.

What really matters is what you do with what you have.

Quotes by H. G. Wells

Whoever That Is

If you want to keep your memories, you first have to live them.

Sundown, yellow moon, I replay the past
I know every scene by heart, they all went by so fast.

Every pleasure's got an edge of pain, pay your ticket and don't complain.

Chaos is a friend of mine.

All I can do is be me, whoever that is. 

Quotes by Bob Dylan

What's Remarkable

One can't love humanity. One can only love people.

There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.

We'd forgive most things if we knew the facts.

Doing nothing, badly.

It is always of interest to know what strikes another human being as remarkable.

Quotes by Graham Greene

Whitecaps on the Bay

Haiku is not a shriek, a howl, a sigh, or a yawn; rather, it is the deep breath of life.    ~Santoka Taneda

In pale moonlight
the wisteria's scent
comes from far away.  ~ Yosa Buson


moonless night...
a powerful wind embraces
the ancient cedars.  ~ Matsuo Basho

Whitecaps on the bay:
A broken signboard banging
In the April wind. - Richard Wright