#155 Life is...So Beautiful

I'm gonna make a chicken gumbo
Toss some sausage in the pot
I'm gonna flavor it with okra
Cheyenne pepper to make it hot.

You know life is what we make of it
So beautiful or so what
I'm gonna tell my kids a bedtime story
A play without a plot

Will it have a happy ending?
Maybe yeah, maybe not
I tell them life is what you make of it
So beautiful or so what
So beautiful or so what...

From Paul's Simon's song in his newest album 'So Beautiful or So What.'

Maxim of the Day

The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright

#154 Follow your Heart and Intuition

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. ~ Steve Jobs

Maxim of the Day

The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself. ~ Alan Alda

Lao Tzu: Path to Contentment

Lao Tzu or Laozi was a philosopher of ancient China in the 6th century BC best known as the author of Tao Te Ching, and the founder of philosophical Taoism.

Pertinent Quotes

-A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.

-The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

-Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

-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.

-When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everyone will respect you.

-At the center of your being
you have the answer;
you know who you are
and you know what you want.

-Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

-When the best leader's work is done the people say,
We did it ourselves!

Selected by quoteflections.

-Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear?

-To a mind that is still the whole universe surrenders.

-Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity,
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires.

-The flame that burns Twice as bright burns half as long.

-Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.

- The mark of a moderate man
is freedom from his own ideas:

Tolerant like the sky,
all-pervading like sunlight,
firm like a mountain,
supple like a tree in the wind,
he has no destination in view
and makes use of anything
life happens to bring his way.

Tags: best top quotes, quotations, reflections, educational, inspirational, life lessons, insights, self help, great author series

#153 Strange Phenomena Engaged my Thought

I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not understand. Why shells existed on the tops of mountains along with the imprints of coral and plants and seaweed usually found in the sea. Why the thunder lasts a longer time than which causes it and why immediately on its creation the lightning becomes visible to the eye while thunder requires time to travel. How the various circles of water form around the spot which has been struck by a stone and why a bird sustains itself in the air. These questions and other strange phenomena engaged my thought throughout my life. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

'Da Vinci grew interested in human air travel in his 30s and devoted many hours to developing his designs for flying machines. Using nature as a starting point, he studied how birds, bats and insects fly as one way of understanding aerodynamics. The sketch here is of the wings of a glider, which appears to be based on da Vinci's study of bat wings.'

Maxim of the Day

The great difficulty in education is to get experience out of ideas. ~ George Santayana

#152 Nothing Behind but a Memory

It is human life. We are blown upon the world; we float buoyantly upon the summer air a little while, complacently showing off our grace of form and our dainty iridescent colors; then we vanish with a little puff, leaving nothing behind but a memory--and sometimes not even that. I suppose that at those solemn times when we wake in the deeps of the night and reflect, there is not one of us who is not willing to confess that he is really only a soap-bubble, and as little worth the making.
- Mark Twain's Own Autobiography (North American Review, 3 May 1907)

"He blew bubbles for the children."
From ST. NICHOLAS MAGAZINE, July 1916

Maxim of the Day

Pray to God that your attachment to such transitory things as wealth, name, and creature comforts may become less and less every day. ~ Ramakrishna

#151 A Dream Deferred

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
~ Langston Hughes (1902-1967) Hughes was an African-American best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance.

Maxim of the Day

Dreams are illustrations... from the book your soul is writing about you. ~Marsha Norman

#150 The Beautiful People

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen. ~Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Maxim of the Day

Why are there men and women that while they are nigh me the sunlight expands my blood? Why when they leave me do my pennants of joy sink flat and lank? ~Walt Whitman

#149 Living Well

Living well is an art that can be developed: a love of life and ability to take great pleasure from small offerings and assurance that the world owes you nothing and that every gift is exactly that, a gift. ~ Maya Angelou

Maxim of the Day

Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it. ~ Julia Child

#148 Miracles every Hour

these are days you'll remember

never before and never since, I promise
will the whole world be warm as this
and as you feel it, you'll know it's true
that you are blessed and lucky
it's true, that you are touched by something
that will grow and bloom in you

these are days you'll remember

when May is rushing over you with desire
to be part of the miracles you see in every hour
you'll know it's true, that you are blessed and lucky
it's true, that you are touched by something
that will grow and bloom in you

these are the days
that you might fill with laughter
until you break

these days you might feel a shaft of light
make its way across your face
and when you do
you'll know how it was meant to be
see the signs and know their meaning

you'll know how it was meant to be
hear the signs and
know they're speaking to you
to you.

~ Natalie Merchant, song 'These are Days'

Additional Maxim of the Day

Maxims have been called "condensed good sense", often illuminating human experience with charming wit.

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. ~ M. Kathleen Casey

#147 How is the best way to respond?

If you want to change the way people respond to you, change the way you respond to people."~ Timothy Leary

Additional Maxim of the Day:

Maxims have been called "condensed good sense", often illuminating human experience with charming wit.

-The meaning of life is to give life meaning. ~Ken Hudgins

David Suzuki: Sage for our Fragile Earth

Dr. David Suzuki (1936- ) is a science broadcaster and environmental activist who taught genetics at the University of British Columbia for almost forty years. Since the mid 1970's, Suzuki has become known for his TV and radio series and books about nature and the environment. He is best known as host of the popular and long-running CBC TV science magazine, The Nature of Things, seen in syndication in over 40 nations.

-Ecology and economy have the same root word – "eco", and it means ‘home’. But what we have done is elevate the economy above ecology.

-With an estimated population of nine billion by 2050, we cannot continue to consume resources at the same rate and maintain our quality of life.

-Our personal consumer choices have ecological, social, and spiritual consequences. It is time to re-examine some of our deeply held notions that underlie our lifestyles.

-We live in a finite world with finite resources. Although it may sometimes seem quite big, earth is really very small – a tiny blue and green oasis of life in a cold universe.

Selected by quoteflections.

-The human brain now holds the key to our future. We have to recall the image of the planet from outer space.. a single entity in which air, water, and continents are interconnected. That is our home.

-Aboriginal people are key because they have a different sense of where we belong and how we interact with nature.

-We are consuming too much and using our environment as a toxic dump. We are the environment.

Labels: best quotes, quotations, reflections, educational, inspirational, life lessons, insights, self help, great author series

#146 Potent Qualities

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air. ~ John Quincy Adams

(A talisman is an object such as an inscribed ring or stone which is thought to have magical powers and to bring good luck.)

#145 Showing Resolve for 2012

He (she) is the most powerful who has power over self. ~ Seneca

Made any resolutions for the new year?

(I wish all of my readers a happy and fulfilling 2012.)

#144 The Past as Pedestal

To excel the past we must not allow ourselves to lose contact with it; on the contrary, we must feel it under our feet because we raised ourselves upon it. ~ Jose Ortega y Gasset

#143 Coping with Adversities

There are three modes of bearing the ills of life: by indifference, by philosophy, and by religion. ~ Charles Caleb Colton

#142 Faith and reason

Reason is the triumph of the intellect, faith of the heart. ~ James Schouler

Plato: Enlightened Perspectives

Plato (428-347 BC) was a classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. His writings helped to lay the foundation of western philosophy and science.

-Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.

-The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.

-Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination,
and life to everything.

-Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.

-Those who tell the stories rule society.

-Never discourage anyone...who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.

-Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.

-Education is teaching our children to desire the right things.

-When men speak ill of thee, live so that nobody will believe them.

-Necessity is the mother of invention.

Selected by quoteflections.

-Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.

-There are three classes of men: lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.

-Let parents then bequeath to their children not riches but the spirit of reverence.

-Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity.

-The measure of a man is what he does with power.

- Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.

- Know thyself.

- God is not the author of all things, but of good only.

Labels: best top quotes, quotations, reflections, instructional, inspirational, life lessons, insights, self help, great author series

#141 A Bit of Yourself

Simply give others a bit of yourself; a thoughtful act, a helpful idea, a word of appreciation, a lift over a rough spot, a sense of understanding, a timely suggestion. You take something out of your mind, garnished in kindness out of your heart, and put it into the other fellow's mind and heart. ~ Charles H. Burr

#140 Marvelously Intricate

Like snowflakes, the human pattern is never cast twice. We are uncommonly and marvelously intricate in thought and action. ~ Alice Childress

#139 Length and Breadth

I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well. ~ Diane Ackerman