Bright Possibilities

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

- How awake are you to the possibilities of today?

Toward Achievement

Talent is only a starting point.  ~ Irving Berlin

- What are your talents?
- What else do you need to succeed?

Participate

It is brave to be involved.  ~ Gwendolyn Brooks

- In what worthwhile project might you get involved?

Nurturing play

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

- In what diverse ways do you nurture play?

Blossoming souls

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.  ~ Marcel Proust

- For whom are you grateful?
- Whom could you support and nurture?

One of your Passions

Do what you love, and you will find a way to get it out to the world.  ~ Judy Collins

- What do you love to do?

Right now

Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.  ~ Albert Camus

- What can you do to make the most of today?

A Winning Combination

Patience, persistence, and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.  ~ Napoleon Hill

- How well are you applying the three P's?

Possibility for Growth

It's never too late- in fiction or in life- to revise.  ~ Nancy Thayer

- Where lies the possibility for growth in your life?

From within

Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen.  ~ Robert Bresson

- What could you make visible for the enrichment of yourself and others?

Growth Possibilties

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.  ~ John Wooden

- Which of your talents, strengths, interests could you cultivate?

Small Ways

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.  ~ Anne Frank

- In what small ways could you help to improve the world around you?

A Little More Effort

 If the wind will not serve, take to the oars.  ~ Latin proverb

- Where could you exert a little more effort to accomplish your goals?

Interacting with Others

The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention.  ~ Richard Moss

- How can  you improve the quality of your interaction?

Living your Potential

Bloom where you are planted.  ~ Mary Engelbreit

- What can you do to blossom in the circumstances around you?

To Live By

It is not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.  ~ Roy Disney 

- What are some of your key values and principles which help to guide you?

From Day to Day

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.  ~ Annie Dillard

- What small steps can you take to transform or enrich your days?

In Every Step

Smile, breathe, and go slowly.  ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

- How can you nurture more peace in your life?

Confronting Challenges

The only way out is through.  ~ Carl Jung 

- Why is confronting challenges often the better option?

A Daily Choice

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day....Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. ~ Charles R. Swindoll

- How can you maintain a positive attitude through life's daily challenges?

Missing the Beauty

Everything has beauty, but not everyone can see.  ~ Confucius

- Where might you be missing the beauty in your life?

Time is Clay

Time is clay.  Go make something.  ~ Barbara Bach

- How well are you using your time?

(My goal is to provide 365 pivotal quotes and questions for young and old in 2015.   Care to share my  new quote quest?)

The Only Gift

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

- What authentic gifts could you offer?

Move that Body

Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person's physical, emotional, and mental states.  ~ Carol Welch

- What are you doing to enjoy the benefits of exercise?

Action is Eloquence

I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.  ~John Locke

- What do your actions reveal about your thoughts and beliefs?

World Wide View

I am not an Athenian or a Greek; I am a citizen of the world.  ~ Socrates

- Why is a global perspective needed?

How Much is Enough?

Enough is great riches.  ~ Danish proverb

- What makes your life rich?

The Best Thing

I have some problems with my life, but living is the best thing they've come up with so far. ~ Neil Simon

- What are the vital ingredients for living?

(Sharing with others my new quote quest for 2015 is appreciated!)

Decisions, decisions

 Life is the sum of all your choices.  ~ Albert Camus

-  What important choices lie ahead for you in the near term, in the long term?

Rise Above

Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone;
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in your own. ~ Adam Lindsay Gordon

- Why are courage and kindness important qualities to cultivate amidst life's difficulties?

For our Survival Kit

He who laughs, lasts!  ~ Mary Pettibone  Poole

- Why is a sense of humor a vital ingredient for life?

(Recommending this blog is appreciated!  I'm on a new quote focus for 2015.  What are 365 pivotal quotes to inspire young and old?)

Real life hero

Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story.  ~ John Barth

- What positive qualities do you possess (need) to live your life well?

(Send me a message if you have a suggested quotation for my next booklet: 365 Pivotal Quotes for Enrichment and Growth.)

Moment by moment

Doing your best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.  ~ Oprah Winfrey

-When have you excelled?
- In what areas of your life could you show a little more effort?

Storm clouds

~ He who angers you conquers you.  ~ Elizabeth Kenny

- What helps you to manage negative feelings?

Spreading Light

~Some people are so much sunshine to the square inch.  ~ Walt Whitman

- How much sunshine do you spread?

The Little Things

~Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.  ~ Peter Marshall

-What 'little' things can you do today to enrich your life and possibly others?

Forward Thinking

~To make headway, improve your head.  ~ B. C. Forbes

- What are your learning frontiers?

Deep into Nature

~Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. ~ Albert Einstein

-What insights about life have you gained through the appreciation of nature?

Every New Day

Every new day crowns us with new beginnings and glorious possibilities.  ~ Sandra Lugo

- What can you do to make this an enriching day for yourself and possibly for others?

2015: 365 Pivotal Quotes

Dear readers,

Over the last five years I have posted over 4,500 quotes for inspiration and enrichment, and published four volumes with 1,460 entries for reflection.  

Now I feel it's time to consolidate all of my contributions, and focus on a core of pivotal quotes.  As our children and grandchildren grow up, become teens and young adults, what insights can they glean from the accumulated wisdom and learning of the ages?   Also as a retired teacher I am mindful of what teenagers may learn from a core of key quotations.   Indeed, what horizons can adults and seniors still enjoy?

Thus I am tweaking my focus for 2015.  I will be posting individual quotes and provide a question or two for reflection.  Hopefully each entry will present an opportunity for personal growth and enrichment for people of all ages, but particularly for young people just making sense of the world.  By the end of the year I hope to publish my next booklet with a title something like: 365 Pivotal Quotes for Enrichment and Growth. 

Thanks for coming along with me on this quote journey.  I appreciate positive referrals to others about my quote quest for 2015.  If you wish  to provide any feedback or suggest favorite quotes, messages are welcomed.

Paul C.

365 Quote Quest, Volume#4

I am happy to introduce the publication of my fourth volume of 365 Quote Quest.  It contains 365 entries of quotes around various themes with a question or two to guide reflection and enrichment.  Consider them as daily meditation nuggets around various theme streams.

For regular readers of quoteflections these books are a product of my regular posts.  At 365 Quote Quest I use these quotes to provide reflective questions.

Since this is volume #4 the entries are numbered from #1096 to #1460.  Each entry includes about five or six quotes which deal with a specific theme.  The book contains 2,083 quotes and has 224 pages.

The themes cover a diversity of topics all dealing with an aspect about life.  In its entirety it is a chronicle of a comprehensive quote journey.

I published each of the four volumes at Create Space and they are available for purchase at Amazon. I invite you to visit my Author Central Page where you may peruse all four books.

Also quoteflections has a dedicated Facebook page.  'Like' if you wish to receive occasional updates.

Thanks for your interest and any positive endorsements!  Happy new year 2015 to all my readers!

One Great Fact

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.  ~Epictetus

Make money your god and it will plague you like the devil.  ~Henry Fielding

Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much.  ~Erich Fromm

I desire ... to leave this one great fact clearly stated. THERE IS NO WEALTH BUT LIFE.  ~John Ruskin

Quotes about wealth and life

Readers, I am taking a break for several weeks and will return in the new year.  Holiday best wishes to all.

Everything we Do

A person educated in mind and not in morals is a menace to society.  ~Juanita Kidd Stout

We pay a price when we deprive children of the exposure to the values, principles, and education they need to make them good citizens.  ~Sandra Day O'Connor

People need religion. It's a vehicle for a moral tradition. A crucial role. Nothing can take its place.  ~Irving Kristol

The recognition of the sanctity of the life of every man is the first and only basis of all morality.  ~Leo Tolstoy

The act of acting morally is behaving as if everything we do matters.  ~Gloria Steinem

Quotes about morals, ethics

Never too Late

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.  ~Albert Einstein

Find out who you are and do it on purpose.  ~Dolly Parton

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.  ~Thomas Jefferson

Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world right in the eye.  ~Helen Keller

It is never too late to be what you might have been.  ~George Eliot

Quotes about being true to yourself

There is Enough

Good, the more communicated, more abundant grows.  ~John Milton

When we give generously, with an abundance mentality, what we give away will multiply.  ~Henri Nouwen

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.  ~Oprah Winfrey

Too often we visit the well of divine abundance with a teacup instead of a bucket.  ~Elinor MacDonald

There is enough in the world for everyone's need; there is not enough for everyone's greed.  ~Mohandas Gandhi

Quotes about abundance

We Must Focus

Inspiration exists but it must find you working. ~ Pablo Picasso

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty. ~ Maya Angelou

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. ~Jack London

The first and final thing you have to do in this world is to last it and not be smashed by it. ~ Ernest Hemingway

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.  ~Aristotle Onassis

Quotes about inspiration

A Citizen of the World

I'm a stranger in a strange land.  ~ Carson McCullers

There are no strangers here;only friends you haven't met yet.  ~ William Butler Yeats

Happiness grows at our own firesides, and it's not be to picked in strangers' gardens.  ~ Douglas Jerrold

Sometimes you have to get to know someone really well to realize you're really strangers.  ~ Mary Tyler Moore

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.  ~ Francis Bacon

Quotes about strangers

A Little Courage

Make each day a story worth telling. ~ Patti Majeski

Every day brings new choices.  ~ Martha Beck

Each day is a new life. Seize it. Live it. ~ David Guy Powers

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Begin each day with a little courage, a little curiosity, and a little spring in your step. ~ Doe Zantamata

Quotes about each day

The Very Peace

The question is not what you look at, but what you see...I begin to see an object when I cease to understand it. ~ Henry David Thoreau

Shut your eyes and see.  ~ James Joyce

The precision of naming takes away from the uniqueness of seeing.  ~Pierre Bonnard 

You see it the way you see it. Nobody can see it for someone else.   ~Anette Waterbeek 

To look at any thing,
If you would know that thing,
You must look at it long:
To look at this green and say,
"I have seen spring in these
Woods," will not do - you must
Be the thing you see:
You must be the dark snakes of
Stems and ferny plumes of leaves,
You must enter in
To the small silences between
The leaves,
You must take your time
And touch the very peace
They issue from.
~John Moffitt

We are a landscape of all we have seen.  ~ Isamu Noguchi 

Quotes about seeing

Pays the Best

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.  ~Joseph Addison

A sense of curiosity is nature's original school of education.  ~Smiley Blanton

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.  ~Benjamin Franklin

Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.  ~Malcolm S. Forbes

Education is ... hanging around until you've caught on.  ~Robert Frost

Quotes about education

Across an Abyss

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.  ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

To me faith is not just a noun but also a verb.  ~Jimmy Carter

Reason is our soul's left hand,
Faith her right;
by these we reach divinity.  ~John Donne

The spiritual life is the way of walking with God instead of walking alone.  ~Elinor MacDonald

The soul can split the sky in two
And let the face of God shine through.  ~Edna St. Vincent Millay

To leap across an abyss, one is better served by faith than doubt.  ~William James

Quotes about faith

Sunshine Today

Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose.   ~Eckhart Tolle

Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.  ~Swedish proverb

Don't take tomorrow to bed with you.  ~Norman Vincent Peale

There are two kinds of worries: those you can do something about and those you can't. Don't spend any time on the latter.  ~Duke Ellington

Worry is like a rocking chair;it gives you something to do but it doesn't get you anywhere.  ~Dorothy Galyean

I always feel sorry for people who think more about a rainy day ahead than sunshine today.  ~Rae Foley

Quotes about worry

Real Power

Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved.  ~W.J. Bryant

Happiness... it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.  ~Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Just do a thing and don’t talk about it. This is the great secret of success.  ~Sarah Grand

Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment.  ~Bill Hybels

To achieve you need thought. You have to know what you are doing and that's real power.  ~Ayn Rand

Quotes about achievement

Mix a Little Foolishness

We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance.  ~Japanese proverb

If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.  ~Bertrand Russell

Only a fool expects to be happy all the time.  ~Robertson Davies

Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans: it's lovely to be silly at the right moment.  ~Horace

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.  ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Quotes about foolishness

The Deepest Feeling

We all have within us a center of stillness surrounded by silence.  ~Dag Hammarskjold

Accustomed to the veneer of noise, to the shibboleths of promotion, public relations, and market research, society is suspicious of those who value silence.  ~John Lahr

Silence fertilizes the deep place where personality grows. A life with a peaceful center can weather all storms.  ~Norman Vincent Peale

A story is told as much by silence as by speech.  ~Susan Griffin

The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence.  ~Marianne Moore

Quotes about silence

Under the Feet

So few the grains of happiness measured against all the dark
and still the scales balance. ~Jane Hirshfield

Sadness is but a wall between two gardens. ~Kahlil Gibran

Happiness: a way station between too little and too much.  ~Channing Pollock

Comparison is the thief of joy.  ~unknown

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.  ~James Oppenheim

Quotes about joy