To Stir Blood

Choose to live life on purpose, to love intentionally and to plan accordingly!  ~Wayne Cordeiro

Make big plans, but change your plans as time changes.  ~Marchant

Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.  ~Alan Lakein

You need a plan ... but don't become consumed by it. Winds change.  ~Joseph Ehrhard

Make no little plans. They have no Magic to stir Men's blood.  ~D.B. Hudson

Quotes about planning, plans

More Life

They know enough who know how to learn.   ~Henry Adams

The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.  ~B. B. King

The excitement of learning separates youth from old age. As long as you're learning you're not old.  ~Rosalyn S. Yalow

It is learning, individually and collectively, which makes us strong, gives us hope, and carries us forward.  ~Barbara Viniar

The more learning, the more life.  ~Pirkei Avot

Quotes about learning

What Can You Do?

When work, commitment, and pleasure all become one and you reach that deep well where passion lives, nothing is impossible.  ~Nancy Coey

Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes...but no plans.  ~Peter Drucker

Individual commitment to a group effort--that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.  ~Vince Lombardi

It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow.  ~Ralph Ellison

If you deny yourself commitment, what can you do with your life?  ~Harvey Fierstein

Quotes about commitment

Not to Yield

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.~Franz Kafka

I suppose real old age begins when one looks backward rather than forward.  ~Mary Sarton

In my old age there is a coming into flower. My body wanes; my mind waxes.  ~Victor Hugo

Those who love deeply never grow old; they may die of old age, but they die young.  ~Sir Arthur Wing Pinero

Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are--
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.  ~Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Ulysses)

Quotes about aging

More Vivid

Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.  ~Stephen Jobs

Advice may be wrong, but examples prove themselves.  ~Henry Wheeler Shaw

Children have more need of models than of critics.  ~Carolyn Coats

People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy. ~Oliver Goldsmith

Human models are more vivid and more persuasive than explicit moral commands.  ~Daniel J. Boorstin

Quotes about example

Fire in our Hearts

A goal properly set is halfway reached.  ~Zig Ziglar

To realize our goals, we must first imagine them fully.  ~Siew Hwa Beh

Goals are dreams with deadlines.  ~Diana Scharf Hunt

Act like you expect to get into the end zone.  ~Joe Paterno

Each of us has a fire in our hearts for something. It's our goal in life to find it and to keep it lit.  ~Mary Lou Retton

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.  ~Ursula K. LeGuin

Quotes about goals

Given with Love

There are two sides to every story and TRUTH lies somewhere in the middle.  ~Jean Gati

It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear.  ~Henry David Thoreau

The shortest distance between a human being and Truth is a story.  ~Anthony de Mello 

Truth is what stands the test of experience.  ~Albert Einstein

The truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it.  ~Pearl S. Buck

Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected.  ~Mahatma Gandhi

Quotes about truth

Write your Name

The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed-
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.  ~William Shakespeare (The Merchant of Venice)

Teach me to feel another's woe,
To hide the fault I see,
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.  ~Alexander Pope

Write your name in kindness, love and mercy on the hearts you come in contact with year by year, and you will never be forgotten.  ~Thomas Chalmers

Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge.  ~Shakespeare (Titus Andronicus)

We all need the waters of the Mercy River...for the extravagance of our lives.  ~Jonis Agee 

Quotes about mercy

Demands never Cease

Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.  ~Lou Holtz

You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.  ~Rosalynn Carter

Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability.  ~Roy L. Smith

You are the only one who can use your ability. It is an awesome responsibility.  ~Zig Ziglar

Our desires are things of the moment, often harmful even to ourselves, but our abilities are permanent, and their demands never cease.  ~Madame de Stael

Quotes about ability

For What We Have

The sea always filled her with longing, though for what she was never sure.  ~ Cornelia Funke

There is a space between man's imagination and man's attainment that may only be traversed by his longing.  ~Khalil Gibran

We look before and after,
And pine for what is not;
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell
Of saddest thought.   ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

We would give anything for what we have.  ~Tony Hoagland

Quotes about longing

The Kind of Person

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.  ~Eleanor Roosevelt

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.  ~Mahatma Gandhi

I'm not going to lie down and let trouble walk over me.  ~Ellen Glasgow

Nothing is so strong as gentleness, and nothing is so gentle as true strength.  ~Ralph Sockman

Some people strengthen others just by being the kind of people they are.  ~John M. Gardener

Quotes about strength

Fearing to Attempt

You're not obligated to win. You're obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day.  ~Marian Wright Edelman

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

Most people live and die with their music still unplayed. They never dare to try.  ~Mary Kay Ash

Anyone who doesn't make mistakes isn't trying hard enough.  ~Wess Roberts

Our doubts are traitors; and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.  ~William Shakespeare

Quotes about trying

The Most Important Things

Initiative is to success what a lighted match is to a candle.   ~Orlando Battista

Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.   ~ Victor Hugo

Hold up a mirror and ask yourself what you are capable of doing, and what you really care about. Then take the initiative - don't wait for someone else to ask you to act.   ~ Sylvia Earle

Success depends in a very large measure upon individual initiative and exertion, and cannot be achieved except by a dint of hard work.   ~ Anna Pavlova

The key is taking responsibility and initiative, deciding what your life is about and prioritizing your life around the most important things.   ~ Stephen Covey

Quotes about initiative

A Lovely Light

You don't have to blow out the other fellow's light to let your own shine.  ~Bernard Baruch

We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own.  ~Ben Sweetland

Never fear shadows. They simply mean that there's a light somewhere nearby.  ~Ruth E. Renkei

All I know to do is to light the candle that has been given to me.  ~Fred Rogers

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 light

Anchor in a Storm

No vision and you perish;
No Ideal, and you're lost;
Your heart must ever cherish
Some faith at any cost.
Some hope, some dream to cling to,
Some rainbow in the sky,
Some melody to sing to,
Some service that is high.  ~Harriet Du Autermont

Acts of courage shape human history. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.  ~Robert F. Kennedy

Don't part company with your ideals. They are anchors in a storm.  ~Arnold Glasgow

The world has always been betrayed by decent men with bad ideals.  ~Sydney J. Harris

To have striven, to have made the effort, to have been true to certain ideals - this alone is worth the struggle.  ~Sir William Osler

Quotes about ideals

My Private Measure

Commitment unlocks the doors of imagination, allows vision, and gives us the "right stuff" to turn our dreams into reality.  ~James Womack

Committing yourself is a way of finding out who you are. A person finds his identity by identifying.  ~Robert Terwilliger

My private measure of success is daily. If this were to be the last day of my life would I be content with it? To live in a harmonious balance of commitments and pleasures is what I strive for.  ~Jane Rule

It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow.  ~Ralph Ellison

When work, commitment, and pleasure all become one and you reach that deep well where passion lives, nothing is impossible.  ~Nancy Coey

Quotes about commitment

Surround Us Every Day

We are here to help one another along life’s journey.  ~William J. Bennett

In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us.  ~Flora Edwards

The winner asks, "May I help?" The loser asks, "Do you expect me to do that?"  ~William Arthur Ward

Give of your hands to serve and your hearts to love.  ~Mother Teresa

Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day.  ~Sally Koch

Quotes about helping

Join the dance

To stand still is to lose,
To move is to gain,
To change is to grow.  ~Gene E. Megiveron

Change is the end result of all true learning. ~Leo Buscaglia

The power of love and caring can change the world.  ~James Autry

When we are no longer able to change a situation … we are challenged to change ourselves.  ~Victor Frankl

The only way to make sense of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. ~ Alan W. Watts

Quotes about change

Liberates the Soul

You must give to get; you must sow the seed, before you can reap the harvest.  ~Scott Reed

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.  ~Norman MacEwen

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

If you find that life is flat,
Full of this, with none of that,
Try giving!  ~Margaret Gordon Kuhlman

Giving opens the way for receiving.  ~Florence Scovel Shinn

Among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.  ~Maya Angelou

Quotes about giving

Best Nurtured

You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with.  ~Wayne Dyer

What a lovely surprise to discover how unlonely being alone can be.  ~Ellen Burstyn

Women need real moments of solitude and self-reflection to balance out how much of ourselves we give away.  ~Barbara De Angelis

The thoughtful soul to solitude retires.  ~Omar Khayyam

Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.  ~James Russell Lowell

Talents are best nurtured in solitude: character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.  ~Goethe

Quotes about solitude

Inner Necessity

Sometimes you gotta create what you want to be a part of. ~Geri Weitzman

The principle mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new frontiers.  ~Arthur Koestler

Only when people are connected to large, universal goals are they really happy - and one result of their happiness is a rush of creative activity.  ~Joyce Carol Oates

Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.  ~Mary Lou Cook

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.  ~Carl Jung

Quotes about creativity

The Greatest Accomplishment

The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.  ~Flora Whittemore

In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do. The worst thing you can do is nothing.  ~Theodore Roosevelt

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

The greatest accomplishment began as a decision once made.  ~Michael Rawls

No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made. Destiny is made known silently.  ~Agnes de Mille

Quotes about decisions

A Little Bit of Each Other

It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.  ~Hermann Hesse

As we grow as unique persons, we learn to respect the uniqueness of others.  ~Robert H. Schuller

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of continent, a part of the main.  ~John Donne

We all take different paths in life, but no matter where we go, we take a little of each other everywhere.  ~Tim McGraw

Independence? That's middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.  ~George Bernard Shaw

Quotes about humanity

The Scales Balance

Quiet minds can't be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.  ~Robert Louis Stevenson

Learn to pause ... or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you.  ~Doug King

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

When you can't have what you want, it's time to start wanting what you have.  ~Kathleen A. Sutton

Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.  ~Denis Waitley

I believe in rainbows and all of that. But there are darker colors … and it's the shade that defines the light.   ~Tori Amos

Quotes about balance

Gives Radiance

Tomorrow lurks in us, the latency to be all that was not achieved before.  ~Loren Eiseley

When any great design thou dost intend,
Think on the means, the manner, and the end.  ~Sir John Denham

Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today.  ~Seneca

There is one thing which gives radiance to everything. It is the idea of something around the corner.  ~G. K. Chesterton

It takes little talent to see what lies under one's nose, a good deal to know in what direction to point that organ.  ~W.H. Auden

Quotes about foresight