Quotes from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

1. It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.

2. To realize one's destiny is a person's only obligation.

3. We have to take advantage when luck is on our side, and do as much to help it as its doing to help us. Its called the principle of favorability. Or beginners luck.

4. A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at such speed. It feels an impulsion ... this is the place to go now. But the sky knows the reasons and the patterns behind all clouds, and you will know, too, when you lift yourself high enough to see beyond the horizons.

5. What's the world's greatest lie? It's this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate.

6. When you want something with all your heart, that's when you are closest to the Soul of the World. It's always a positive force.

7. I don't live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living now.

8. In his pursuit of the dream, he was being constantly subjected to tests of his persistence and courage. So he could not be hasty, nor impatient. If he pushed forward impulsively, he would fail to see the signs and omens left by God along his path.

9. There is only one way to learn. It's through action. Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey.

10. The wise men understood that this natural world is only an image and a copy of paradise. The existence of this world is simply a guarantee that there exists a world that is perfect. God created the world so that, through its visible objects, men could understand his spiritual teachings and the marvels of this wisdom.

11. People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don't deserve them, or that they'll be unable to achieve them.

12. Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity.

13. When you are loved, you can do anything in creation. When you are loved, there's no need at all to understand what's happening, because everything happens within you.

14. It was my fear of failure that first kept me from attempting the master work. Now, I'm beginning what I could have started ten years ago. But I'm happy at least that I didn't wait twenty years.

15. When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.

One Ship Sails East

One ship sails East,
And another West,
By the self-same winds that blow,
'Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
That tells the way we go.

Like the winds of the sea
Are the waves of time,
As we journey along through life,
'Tis the set of the soul,
That determines the goal,
And not the calm or the strife.

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox
















(photo by Ken R. Young)


Swedish translation:

Ett skepp seglar österut,
Och ett annat västerut,
I samma vind som blåsar,
Det är seglens uppsättning,
Inte vindens riktning,
Som bestämmer hur det seglar.

Liksom havets vindar,
Är tidens vågor,
När igenom livet vi går,
Det är själens uppsättning,
Inte lungn eller strid,
Som bestämmer vart vi når.

- översatt av Ken R. Young


See also One Ship Sails East: A Journal For Positive Thinking


For more inspiration on sailing, see also:http://positivethinkersjournal.blogspot.com/2012/04/learning-how-to-sail-my-ship.html
and
http://positivethinkersjournal.blogspot.com/2011/08/sail-on.html

Henry David Thoreau Quotes

1. All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one... characteristic we must posses if we are to face the future as finishers.

2. An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.

3. As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.

4. As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.

5. Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?

6. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.

7. Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

8. Friends... they cherish one another's hopes. They are kind to one another's dreams.

9. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

10. Goodness is the only investment that never fails.

11. Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.

12. If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.

13. If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.

14. Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.

15. In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high.

16. It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are... than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise.

17. It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

18. It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.

19. It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

20. Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.

21. Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.

22. Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.

23. None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.

24. Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.

25. Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify.

26. Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.

27. Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

28. Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces.

29. The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.

30. The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.

31. There is no remedy for love but to love more.

32. There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.

33. Truths and roses have thorns about them.

34. We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.

35. What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us. What you get by achieving your goals is to as important as what you become by achieving your goals.

36. You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.

37. He is the best sailor who can steer within the fewest points of the wind, and exact a motive power out of the greatest obstacles.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Quotes

1. A man may fulfill the object of his existence by asking a question he cannot answer, and attempting a task he cannot achieve.

2. But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold.

3. Every calling is great when greatly pursued.

4. Happiness consists in activity. It is running steam, not a stagnant pool.

5. Have the courage to act instead of react.

6. He has half the deed done who has made a beginning.

7. If I were dying my last words would be: Have faith and pursue the unknown end.

8. It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living.

9. Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness.

10. One's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.

11. The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.

12. The mode by which the inevitable comes to pass is effort.

13. The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a great deal longer.

14. Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing.

15. To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.

16. To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind, and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor.

17. Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.

18. We do not quit playing because we grow old, we grow old because we quit playing.

19. A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience.

Maya Angelou Quotes

1. I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

2. Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

3. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

4. If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.

5. I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.

6. I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way s/he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

7. You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.

8. We are here to love each other. That is why you are alive. That is what life is for.

9. Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue.

10. Nothing can dim the light that shines from within.

11. We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

12. I have no modesty.  Modesty is a learned behavior.  But I do pray for humility, because humility comes from the inside out.

13. Love recognizes no barriers.  It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.

14. If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.

15. Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.

16. When the great American poet, the late Maya Angelou, reflected on her life and learnings she said, "I've learned that...

1. no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.
2. you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.
3. regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life.
4. making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life.'
5. life sometimes gives you a second chance.
6. you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back.
7. whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.
8. even when I have pains, I don't have to be one.
9. every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.
10. I still have a lot to learn.
11. people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

Booker T. Washington Quotes

1. Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. 

2. Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him. 

3. Character is power. Character, not circumstances, makes the man. 

4. There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple and useful life. 

5. Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work. 

6. The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what a man or woman is able to do that counts. 

7. If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. 

8. I believe that any man's life will be filled with constant and unexpected encouragement, if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day, and as nearly as possible reaching the high water mark of pure and useful living.

Og Mandino Quotes

1. Never neglect the little things. Never skimp on that extra effort, that additional few minutes, that soft word of praise or thanks, that delivery of the very best that you can do. It does not matter what others think, it is of prime importance, however, what you think about you. You can never do your best, which should always be your trademark, if you are cutting corners and shirking responsibilities. You are special. Act it. Never neglect the little things.

2. Live this day as if it will be your last. Remember that you will only find ''tomorrow'' on the calendars of fools. Forget yesterday's defeats and ignore the problems of tomorrow. This is it. Doomsday. All you have. Make it the best day of your year. The saddest words you can ever utter are, ''If I had my life to live over again. ''Take the baton, now. Run with it! This is your day!

3. Count your blessings. Once you realize how valuable you are and how much you have going for you, the smiles will return, the sun will break out, the music will play, and you will finally be able to move forward the life that God intended for you with grace, strength, courage, and confidence.

4. Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.

5. Remember that you cannot build your pyramid in twenty-four hours. Be patient. Never allow your day to become so cluttered that you neglect your most important goal / to do the best you can, enjoy this day, and rest satisfied with what you have accomplished.

6. Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.

7. Each day is a special gift from God, and while life may not always be fair, you must never allow the pains, hurdles, and handicaps of the moment to poison your attitude and plans for yourself and your future. You can never win when you wear the ugly cloak of self-pity, and the sour sound of whining will certainly frighten away any opportunity for success.

8. Whenever you make a mistake or get knocked down by life, don't look back at it too long. Mistakes are life's way of teaching you. Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals. No one wins them all, and your failures, when they happen, are just part of your growth. Shake off your blunders. How will you know your limits without an occasional failure? Never quit. Your turn will come.

9. Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat and worry with laughter at your predicaments, thus freeing your mind to think clearly toward the solution that is certain to come. Never take yourself too seriously.

10. Welcome every morning with a smile. Look on the new day as another special gift from your Creator, another golden opportunity to complete what you were unable to finish yesterday. Be a self-starter. Let your first hour set the theme of success and positive action that is certain to echo through your entire day. Today will never happen again. Don't waste it with a false start or no start at all. You were not born to fail.

11. Build this day on a foundation of pleasant thoughts. Never fret at any imperfections that you fear may impede your progress. Remind yourself, as often as necessary, that you are a creature of God and have the power to achieve any dream by lifting up your thoughts. You can fly when you decide that you can. Never consider yourself defeated again. Let the vision in your heart be in your life's blueprint. Smile!

12. The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them. Even the most tedious chore will become endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task, no matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to fulfilling your dreams.

13. Always reward your long hours of labor and toil in the very best way, surrounded by your family. Nurture their love carefully, remembering that your children need models, not critics, and your own progress will hasten when you constantly strive to present your best side to your children. And even if you have failed at all else in the eyes of the world, if you have a loving family, you are a success.”

14. Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along. This applies to play as well as work. A day merely survived is no cause for celebration. You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine. No more busy work. No more hiding from success. Leave time, leave space, to grow.

15. Every memorable act in the history of the world is a triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it because it gives any challenge or any occupation, no mater how frightening or difficult, a new meaning. Without enthusiasm you are doomed to a life of mediocrity but with it you can accomplish miracles.

16. Search for the seed of good in every adversity. Master that principle and you will own a precious shield that will guard you well through all the darkest valleys you must traverse. Stars may be seen from the bottom of a deep well, when they cannot be discerned from the mountaintop. So will you learn things in adversity that you would never have discovered without trouble. There is always a seed of good. Find it and prosper.

17. Sound character provides the power with which a person may ride the emergencies of life instead of being overwhelmed by them.

18. The weakest living creature, by concentrating his powers on a single object, can accomplish good results while the strongest, by dispersing his effort over many chores, may fail to accomplish anything. Drops of water, by continually falling, hone their passage through the hardest of rocks but the hasty torrent rushes over it with hideous uproar and leaves no trace behind.

19. The great difference between those who succeed and those who fail does not consist in the amount of work done by each but in the amount of intelligent work.

20. Treasure the love you receive above all. It will survive long after your good health has vanished.

21. Never allow anyone to rain on your parade and thus cast a pall of gloom and defeat on the entire day. Remember that no talent, no self-denial, no brains, no character, are required to set up in the fault-finding business. Nothing external can have any power over you unless you permit it. Your time is too precious to be sacrificed in wasted days combating the menial forces of hate, jealously, and envy. Guard your fragile life carefully. Only God can shape a flower, but any foolish child can pull it to pieces.

Norman Vincent Peale "The Power of Positive Thinking"

1. Anybody can do just about anything with himself that he really wants to and makes up his mind to do. We are capable of greater things than we realize.

2. People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success.

3. Our happiness depends on the habit of mind we cultivate. So practice happy thinking every day. Cultivate the merry heart, develop the happiness habit, and life will become a continual feast.

4. Watch your manner of speech if you wish to develop a peaceful state of mind. Start each day by affirming peaceful, contented and happy attitudes and your days will tend to be pleasant and successful.

5. Drop the idea that you are Atlas carrying the world on your shoulders. The world would go on even without you. Don't take yourself so seriously.

6. The life of inner peace, being harmonious and without stress, is the easiest type of existence.

7. You can have peace of mind, improved health and an ever-increasing flow of energy. Life can be full of joy and satisfaction.

8. It is of practical value to learn to like yourself. Since you must spend so much time with yourself you might as well get some satisfaction out of the relationship.

9. Change your thoughts and you change your world.

10. The person who sends out positive thoughts activates the world around him positively and draws back to himself positive results.

11. Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.

12. Never talk defeat. Use words like hope, belief, faith, victory.

13. Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure.

14. Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven't half the strength you think they have.

15. Imagination is the true magic carpet.

16. Be humble, be big in mind and soul, be kindly; you will like yourself that way and so will other people.

17. It's always too early to quit.

18. If you have zest and enthusiasm you attract zest and enthusiasm. Life does give back in kind.

19. If you paint in your mind a picture of bright and happy expectations, you put yourself into a condition conducive to your goal.

20. There is real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment.

21. The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have.

Confucius Says:

1. A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions. 

 2. By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest. 

 3. Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. 

 4. I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. 

 5. If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself. 

 6. If you shoot for the stars and hit the moon, it's OK. But you've got to shoot for something. A lot of people don't even shoot. 

 7. It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. 

 8. Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. 

 9. Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. 

 10. Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure. 

 11. The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools. 

 12. The more man meditates upon good thoughts, the better will be his world and the world at large. 

 13. The object of the superior man is truth. 

 14. The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home. 

 15. The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action. 

 16. The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort. 

 17. The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential... these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence. 

 18. There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is limitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest. 

 19. They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom. 

 20. To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it. 

 21. Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors. 

 22. When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps. 

 23. Wherever you go, go with all your heart. 

 24. Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.

Walt Whitman Quotes

1. A great city is that which has the greatest men and women.

2. A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.

3. After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on - have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear - what remains? Nature remains.

4. All faults may be forgiven of him who has perfect candor.

5. Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune.

6. I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.

7. I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.

8. I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends.

9. If any thing is sacred, the human body is sacred.

10. Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.

11. Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.

12. Oh while I live, to be the ruler of life, not a slave, to meet life as a powerful conqueror, and nothing exterior to me will ever take command of me.

13. Simplicity is the glory of expression.

14. The future is no more uncertain than the present.

15. The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people.

16. The great city is that which has the greatest man or woman: if it be a few ragged huts, it is still the greatest city in the whole world.

17. To me, every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle.

18. We convince by our presence.

19. When I give, I give myself.

20. Whoever degrades another degrades me, And whatever is done or said returns at last to me.

Presidential Quotes

John Adams
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.

John Quincy Adams
Patience and perseverance have a magical effect, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.

The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality.

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

Martin Van Buren
It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn't.

George Bush, Sr.
Any definition of success or of a successful life must include service to others.

Stand up for something. Give something back. Take on big challenges. A person derives an inner pride by doing something with their lives and contributing to something bigger than oneself.

I don't feel the compulsion to be the glamour, one shot, smart comment kind of guy. I think experience, steadiness, knowing how to interact with people is the way to get things done better.

George W. Bush
Recognizing and confronting our history is important. Transcending our history is essential. We are not limited by what we have done, or what we have left undone. We are limited only by what we are willing to do.

In the final analysis, there is no overcoming without faith be it drugs or alcohol or poverty or selfishness or flawed social policy.

I don't need a poll or a focus group to know what I believe.

I'm living proof you can get a C average and still succeed.

Jimmy Carter
We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.

You can do what you have to do, and sometimes you can do it even better than you think you can.

Bill Clinton
If you live long enough, you'll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you'll be a better person. It's how you handle adversity, not how it affects you. The main thing is never quit, never quit, never quit.

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Worry is a word that I don’t allow myself to use.

We succeed only as we identify in life, or in war, or in anything else, a single overriding objective, and make all other considerations bend to that one objective.

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

Men grow in stature only as they daily rededicate themselves to a noble faith.

Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.

Our real problem, then, is not our strength today; it is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow.

When you appeal to force, one thing you must never do is lose.

The Bible is endorsed by the ages. Our civilization is built upon its words.

If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom.

Gerald Ford
To me, success is not something to be measured in power or fortune or fame. I believe a life of service to others is a successful life.

James Garfield
I have had many troubles in my life, but the worst of them never came.

The men who succeed best in public life are those who take the risk of standing by their own convictions.

Things don’t turn up in this world until someone turns them up.

Alexander Hamilton
Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.

Warren G. Harding
Ambition is a commendable attribute without which no man succeeds. Only inconsiderate ambition imperils.

Andrew Jackson
One man with courage makes a majority.

Thomas Jefferson
I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation which give happiness.

Peace, prosperity, liberty and morals have an intimate connection.

The order of nature [is] that individual happiness shall be inseparable from the practice of virtue.

Without virtue, happiness cannot be.

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.

The moral sense [is] the first excellence of well organized man.

The greatest honor of a man is in doing good to his fellow men, not in destroying them.

A conviction that we are right accomplishes half the difficulty of correcting wrong.

I have ever deemed it more honorable and more profitable, too, to set a good example than to follow a bad one.

I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

He does best in God's great world who does his best in his own little world.

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly.

When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, count a hundred.

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.

In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.

Lyndon B. Johnson
Men who have worked together to reach the stars are not likely to descend together into the depths of war and desolation.

You ain't learnin' nothin' when you're talkin'.

Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.

John F. Kennedy
The only unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable.

You know nothing for sure...except the fact that you know nothing for sure.

We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes.

Once you say you are going to settle for second, that's what happens to you.

When written in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.

In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than in mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.

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

Abraham Lincoln
Determine the thing that can and shall be done, and then we shall find a way.

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.

He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.

I don't like that man very much.....I'm going to have to get to know him better.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be new views.

If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe.

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.

The better part of one's life consists of friendships.

Die when I may, I want it said of me that I plucked a weed and planted a flower
wherever I thought a flower would grow.

My concern is not whether God is on our side; my great concern is to be on God's side.

When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.

I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.

It is better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and resolve all doubt.

With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.

Were it not for my little jokes, I could not bear the burdens of this office.

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.

The difference between history's boldest accomplishments and its most staggering failures is often, simply, the diligent will to persevere.

And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.

It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him.

James Monroe
A little flattery will support a man through great fatigue

Richard Nixon
What kind of nation we will be, what kind of world we will live in, whether we shape the future in the image of our hopes, is ours to determine by our actions and our choices.

Ronald Reagan
No arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.

There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits on the human capacity for intelligence, imagination and wonder.

Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere.

Trust, but verify.

Within the covers of the Bible are all the answers for all the problems men face.

The very key to our success has been our ability, foremost among nations, to preserve our lasting values by making change work for us rather than against us.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own mind.

Lives of nations are determined not by the count of years, but by the lifetime of the human spirit.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits.

It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.

When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

Teddy Roosevelt
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the great twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

Your attitude about who you are and what you have is a very little thing that makes a very big difference.

Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.

There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.

Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, "Certainly I can!" and get busy and find out how to do it.

Of course the all important thing to keep in mind is that if we have not both strength and virtue we shall fail.

I think there is only one quality worse than hardness of heart, and that is softness of head.

Do what you can with what you have where you are.

I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do. That is character!

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.

It is hard to fail, but it is worse to never have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort.

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.

Get action. Do things; be sane, don’t fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action.

It is impossible to win the great prizes of life without running risks.

Pray not for lighter burdens but for stronger backs.

Harry S. Truman
Leadership is the ability to get people to do what they don't want to do and like it.

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.

George Washington
Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation, for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company.

The consideration that human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected will always continue to prompt me to promote the former by inculcating the practice of the latter.

I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education which I received from my mother.

To err is natural; to rectify error is glory.

Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire--conscience.

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

There is no higher religion than human service. To work for the common good is the greatest creed.

We came to America, either ourselves or in the persons of our ancestors, to better the ideals of men, to make them see finer things than they had seen before, to get rid of things that divide, and to make sure of the things that unite.

The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people.

We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true.

All things come to him who waits - provided he knows what he is waiting for.

Calvin Coolidge
One of the first lessons a president has to learn is that every word he says weighs a ton.

Winston Churchill Sayings

1. Continuous efforts not strength or intelligence is the key to unlocking our potential.

2. If you're going through hell, keep going.

3. In my belief, you cannot deal with the most serious things in the world unless you also understand the most amusing.

4. Never give in! Never give in! Never, never, never. Never, in anything great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.

5. The price of greatness is responsibility.

6. We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.

7. Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.

8. Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

9. A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

Dalai Lama Sayings

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

3. Follow the three Rs: Respect for self, respect for others, responsibility for all your actions.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

6. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.

7. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.

8. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

9. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

10. The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well being becomes.

11. It is far more useful to be aware of a single shortcoming in ourselves than it is to be aware of a thousand in somebody else. For when the fault is our own, we are in a position to correct it.

Miscellaneous Quotes

These are miscellaneous quotes that have yet to be categorized and posted under specific topics:

No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. You find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They are always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means—the only complete realist. - C. S. Lewis

Faith - Your three best doctors are faith, time and patience. - Unknown

The future belongs to those who live intensely in the present. - Unknown

Good - Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation, for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company. - George Washington

Greatness is not in where you stand, but in what direction you are moving. - Unknown

Growth is the only evidence of life. - John Henry Cardinal Newman

Home ought to be our clearinghouse, from which we go forth lessoned and disciplined, and ready for life. - Kathleen Norris

Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future. - Charles F. Kettering

Nature - Accuse not Nature, she hath done her part; Do thou but thine. - John Milton

Peace - Nobody can bring you peace but yourself. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Perception - Look at everything as though you were seeing it for the first time or the last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory. - Betty Smith

Perfect - The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection. - Goethe

Perserv - Whatever course you have chosen for yourself, it will not be a chore but an adventure if you bring to it a sense of the glory of striving.... - David Sarnoff

Persevere - The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well. - The Olympic Creed

Pray devoutly, but hammer stoutly. - Sir William G. Benham

Preparation - Some people are making such thorough preparation for rainy days that they aren't enjoying today's sunshine. - William Feather

Prep - To keep a lamp burning we have to keep putting oil in it. - Mother Teresa

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. - Abraham Lincoln

Progress always involves risk. You can't steal second base and keep your foot on first. - Frederick B. Wilcox

Purpose - Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose - a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye. - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Men, like nails, lose their usefulness when they lose direction and begin to bend.
- Walter Savage Landor

Risk - Monotony is the awful reward of the careful. - A.G. Buckham

Risk - If you let your fear of consequence prevent you from following your deepest instinct, your life will be safe, expedient and thin. - Katherine B. Hatahway

Self-Confid - A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle. - Benjamin Franklin

Confidence and certainty will get you further than anything will. - Brian Koslow

Self Mastery - Self-reverence, self-knowledge and self-control. These three alone lead to sovereign power. - Lord Tennyson

You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them. - Michael Jordan

Serve - We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men. - Herman Melville

Strength - We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same. - Carlos Castenada

We strengthen our spirits in moments of both abject joy and numbing disappointment. - John Bingham

Strength - To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it. - Mother Teresa

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. - Albert Schweitzer

 
What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Success - If at first you don't succeed you're running about average. - M. H. Alderson

Teach - A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. - Henry Brooks Adam

thoughts - Your morning thoughts may determine your conduct for the day. Optimistic thought will make your day bright and productive, wile pessimistic thinking will make it dull and wasteful. - William M. Peck

Time - A day is a span of time no one is wealthy enough to waste. - Unknown

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity. - Henry David Thoreau

Today - Each day the world is born anew for him who takes it rightly. - James Russell Lowell

One today is worth two tomorrows. - Benjamin Franklin

Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake. - Marie Beyon Ray

Travel - To travel hopefully is better than to arrive. - Sir James Jeans

Vision - Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn't mean he lacks vision. - Stevie Wonder

Work - Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work. - Mark Twain

Worry is a word that I don't allow myself to use. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

If pleasures are greatest in anticipation, just remember that this is also true of trouble. - Elbert Hubbard

wealth The real measure of your wealth is how much you'd be worth if you lost all your money. - Unknown

The only disability in life is a bad attitude. - Scott Hamilton

It's so hard when I have to, and so easy when I want to. - Annie Gottlier

If you take responsibility for yourself you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams. - Les Brown

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. - Lao Tzu

Quality means doing it right when no one is looking. - Henry Ford

I believe there's an inner power that makes winners or losers. And the winners are the ones who really listen to the truth of their hearts. - Sylvester Stallone

If we are ever in doubt about what to do, it is a good rule to ask ourselves what we shall wish on the morrow that we had done. - John Lubbock

There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds. - Gilbert K. Chesterton

Who dares nothing, need hope for nothing. - Johann Friedrich Von Schiller

The greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. – Epictitus

With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown. - Chinese proverb

I make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes. - Sara Teasdale

If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it; every arrow that flies feels the attraction of earth. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom. - Angus Grossart

The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra. - Jimmy Johnson

All problems become smaller if you don't dodge them but confront them. - William F. Halsey

Don't look where you fall, but where you slipped. - African Proverb

Be curious always! For knowledge will not acquire you; you must acquire it. - Sudie Back

Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why. - Bernard Baruch

Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind. - Samuel Johnson

It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are. - Roy Disney

The best angle from which to approach any problem is the try-angle. – Unknown

When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened. - Billy Graham

Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. - Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.

No one is perfect... that's why pencils have erasers. – Unknown

If you learn from a defeat, you haven’t really lost. - Zig Ziglar

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

Go the extra mile. It's never crowded. – Unknown

The valleys of discouragement make more beautiful the peaks of achievement. – Gordon B. Hinckley

God gave us two ends - one to sit on and one to think with. Success depends on which one you use. Head you win, tail you lose. - Author Unknown

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. - Robert F. Kennedy

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

Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today. - James Dean

There is no other solution to man’s progress but the day’s honest work, the day’s honest decisions, the day’s generous utterances and the day’s good deed. - Clare Booth Luce

Retreat, hell! We're just advancing in another direction. - Oliver Prince Smith

Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. - Unknown

If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself. - Benjamin Franklin

Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance. - Samuel Johnson

Self improv Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. - William Faulkner

To improve the golden moment of opportunity, and catch the good that is within our reach, is the great art of life. - Samuel Johnson

positive He who forecasts all perils will never sail the sea. - Unknown

Energy and persistence conquer all things. - Benjamin Franklin

There is nothing greater than enthusiasm. - Henry Moore

My enthusiasms... constitute my reserves, my unexploited resources, perhaps my future. - E. M. Cioran

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them – every day begin the task anew. - Saint Francis de Sales

Dream the impossible dream, but know the difference between nobility and futility. – Wes Curtis

Progress always involves risk; you can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first base. - Frederick Wilcox

Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy. – Guillaume Apollinaire

The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
– Theodore M. Hesburgh

The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs. - Vance Havner

The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well. - Joe Ancis

persist It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop. - Confucius

Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. - Henry James

Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability. - Sam Keen

Worry Quotes

1. Worry is interest paid on trouble before it come due. - Dean William Ralph Inge

2. Worry is the misuse of imagination. - Unknown

3. Don't Worry. Be Happy. - Bobby McFerin

4. Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow. - Swedish proverb

5. Worry is the anticipation the outcome will be bad. Hope is the anticipation the outcome will be good. Faith is the anticipation that whatever the outcome, it will be for my own good. - Unknown

6. Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight. - Horace

7. Worry is like a rocking chair, it keeps us busy but gets us nowhere. - Unknown

8. It isn’t as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don’t worry. - Gordon B. Hinckley

9. If you have a problem and it has a solution, then don't worry about it because it will be solved. If the problem doesn't have a solution, then it can't be fixed so why worry about it. - Unknown

10. Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles - it empties today of its strength. - Corrie Ten Boom

11. Often we allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. We lose many irreplaceable hours brooding over grievances that, in a year's time, will be forgotten by us and by everybody. No, let us devote our life to worthwhile actions and feelings, to great thoughts, real affections and enduring undertakings. - Andre Maurois

12. Ask yourself this question: "Will this matter a year from now?"
- Richard Carlson Ph.D., "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff"

13. Don't hurry, don't worry. You're only here for a short visit. So be sure to stop and smell the flowers. - Walter Hagen

14. Anxiety never successfully bridged any chasm. - Ruffini

15. Sometimes you gotta stop worrying, wondering and doubting. Have faith that things will work out. Maybe not how you planned. But how they were meant to be. - Unknown

16. If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today. - E. Joseph Cossman

17. Anxiety is experiencing failure in advance. Tell yourself enough vivid stories about the worst possible outcome of your work and you'll soon come to believe them. Worry is not preparation, and anxiety doesn't make you better. - Seth Godin

18. There are people who are always anticipating trouble, and in this way they manage to enjoy many sorrows that never really happen to them. - Josh Billings

19. If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment. - Marcus Aurelius

20. Enjoy the journey, enjoy every moment, and quit worrying about winning and losing. - Matt Biondi

21. I don't understand worry. If you worry about the worst and the worst doesn't happen, you wasted your energy. If you don't worry about the worst and the worst does happen, you saved yourself extra time of worry. - Paul Hunter

Work Quotes

1. Work will win when wishy-washy wishing won’t. -Thomas S. Monson

2. The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it. - John Ruskin

3. Everything cometh to him who waiteth, so long as he who waiteth worketh like hell while he waiteth. - Allen Drury

4. The fruit derived from labor is the sweetest of all pleasures. - Marquis de Vauvenargues

5. The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work. - Harry Golden

6. Let us realize that the privilege to work is a gift, that power to work is a blessing, that love of work is success. - David O. McKay

7. Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work. - Robert Orben

8. The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work. - Richard Bach

9. There are no short cuts to any place worth going. - Unknown

10. The first sign of a nervous breakdown is when you start thinking your work is terribly important. - Milo Bloom

11. There is no substitute for hard work. - Thomas Edison

12. I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living. -John D. Rockefeller

13. Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it. - Buddha

14. If at first you don't succeed try hard work. - William Feather

15. The world is moved not only by the mighty shoves of the heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker. - Helen Keller

16. Work has to include our deepest values and passion and feeling and commitments or it's not work, it's just a job. - Mathew Fox

17. The things I've done in my life have required a lot of years of work before they took off. - Steve Jobs

18. I believe in hard work. It keeps the wrinkles out of the mind and spirit. - Helena Rubinstein

19. Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

20. The only place you'll find success before work is in the dictionary. - May B. Smith

21. The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous. - Margot Fonteyn

22. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. - Henry David Thoreau

23. The only way to enjoy anything in this life is to earn it first. - Ginger Rogers

24. Elbow grease is the best polish. - English proverb

25. The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work. - Oprah Winfrey

26. Never grow a wishbone where your backbone ought to be. - Dorothy Parker

27. Nobody’s a natural. You work hard to get good and then work hard to get better. - Paul Coffey

28. In the long run, doing work that's important leads to more happiness than doing work that's merely profitable. - Seth Godin

29. I know you’ve heard it a thousand times before. But it’s true - hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don’t love something, then don’t do it. - Ray Bradbury

30. There is no fatigue so wearisome as that which comes from lack of work. - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Wisdom Quotes

1. Disappointment is the nurse of wisdom. - Sir Bayle Roche

2. The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. - William James

3. Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit. - Elbert Hubbard

4. Wise are those who learn that the bottom line doesn’t always have to be their top priority. - William Arthur Ward

5. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom. - Bertrand Russell

6. We are made wise not by our recollection of the past, but by our responsibility for our future. - George Bernard Shaw

7. A smart person knows what to say. A wise person knows whether or not to say it. - Unknown

8. We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take from us or spare us. - Unknown

9. By three methods we may learn wisdom: first by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the most bitter. - Confucius

10. The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart. - Benjamin Franklin

11. A wise man knows his own ignorance, a fool thinks he knows everything. In one thing men of all ages are alike, they have believed obstinately in themselves. - C. Simmons

12. It is wise to direct your anger towards problems - not people; to focus your energies on answers - not excuses. - William Arthur Ward

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

14. To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

15. A single conversation across the table with a wise man is worth a month’s study of books. - Chinese Proverb

Winning Quotes

1. Winning isn't everything. Wanting to win is. - Catfish Hunter, baseball pitcher

2. You can't expect to win unless you know why you lose. - Benjamin Lipson

3. Spectators don’t score goals. Points are not even scored while defending the goal. To win the game, someone has to do the skating, endure the bumping and jostling and ‘high-sticking’, out maneuver the defenders, swing the stick, and score the goal. – Unknown

Vision Quotes

1. Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. - Ayn Rand

2. Where there is no vision the people perish. – Proverbs 29:18

3. The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but has no vision. - Helen Keller

4. A vision without a task is but a dream. A task without a vision is drudgery. A vision and a task are the hope of the world. - Quote on a church wall in Sussex, England

5. Vision without action is a daydream. Action with without vision is a nightmare. - Japanese Proverb

6. The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs. - Vance Havner

7. Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens. - Carl Jung

8. Vision looks inward and becomes duty.

    Vision looks outward and becomes aspiration. 

    Vision looks upward and becomes faith.

    - Stephen S. Wise 

9. Learn to see, and then you’ll know there is no end to the new worlds of our vision. - Carlos Castaneda

10. We lift ourselves by our thought. We climb upon our vision of ourselves. If you want to enlarge your life, you must first enlarge your thought of it and of yourself. Hold the ideal of yourself as you long to be, always everywhere. - Orison Swett Marden

11. In visualizing, or making a mental picture you are not endeavoring to change the laws of nature. You are fulfilling them. - Genevieve Behrend

Variety Quotes

1. Variety’s the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavour. - William Cowper

2. The variety of all things forms a pleasure. - Euripides

3. The best way to keep good acts in memory is to refresh them with new. - Cato The Elder

4. No pleasure endures unseasoned by variety. - Publilius Syrus

5. Variety is the soul of pleasure. - Aphra Behn

6. We need a variety of input and influence and voices. You cannot get all the answers to life and business from one person or from one source. - Jim Rohn

7. The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety. - William Somerset Maugham

8. Sour, sweet, bitter, pungent, all must be tasted. - Chinese Proverb

9. I take it to be a principle rule of life, not to be too much addicted to any one thing. - Terence

10. Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety. - Francis Bacon

11. Variety is the condition of harmony. - Thomas Carlyle

12. If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. - John Fitzgerald Kennedy

13. For variety of mere nothings gives more pleasure than uniformity of something. - Jean Paul Richter

Vacation Quotes

1. A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you’ve been taking. - Earl Wilson

2. No man needs a vacation so much as the person who has just had one. - Elbert Hubbard

3. A good vacation is over when you begin to yearn for your work. - Morris Fishbein

4. A vacation is like love – anticipated with pleasure, experienced with discomfort, and remembered with nostalgia. - Unknown

5.A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in. - Robert Orben

6. To get away from one’s working environment is, in a sense, to get away from one’s self; and this is often the chief advantage of travel and change. - Charles Horton Cooley

7. Laughter is an instant vacation. - Milton Berle

8. If you come home as happy as you leave, you have had a good vacation. - Unknown

9. A vacation is a sunburn at premium prices. - Hal Chadwicke

10. A vacation should be just long enough that your boss misses you, and not long enough for him to discover how well he can get along without you. - Unknown

11. Every man who possibly can should force himself to a holiday of a full month in a year, whether he feels like taking it or not. - William James

12. It isn’t how much time you spend somewhere that makes it memorable: it’s how you spend the time. - David Brenner

13. When in doubt, go on vacation! - Unknown

Understanding Quotes

1. Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. - Carl Gustav Jung

2. He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words. -Elbert Hubbard

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

4. Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand. - Chinese Proverb

5. It is a common fault never to be satisfied with our fortune, nor dissatisfied with our understanding. - La Rochefoucauld

6. Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving. - Dale Carnegie

7. Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

8. Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery. - Joanne Kathleen Rowling

9. The one who understands does not speak; the one who speaks does not understand. -Chinese Proverb

10. If you want to truly understand something, try to change it. - Kurt Lewin

12. Of all men’s miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing. - Herodotus

13. Understanding is a two-way street. - Eleanor Roosevelt

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

15. We do not know one millionth of one percent about anything. - Thomas A. Edison

16. A single moment of understanding can flood a whole life with meaning. - Unknown

17. Man is always inclined to be intolerant towards the thing, or person, he hasn’t taken the time adequately to understand. - Robert R. Brown

18. It is well for one to know more than he says. - Plautus

19. Whatever you cannot understand, you cannot possess. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

20. Seek first to understand and then to be understood. - Stephen R. Covey

21. It is understanding that gives us an ability to have peace. When we understand the other fellow’s viewpoint, and he understands ours, then we can sit down and work out our differences. - Harry S. Truman

22. No law or ordinance is mightier than understanding. - Plato

23. The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your days. - Lao Tzu

24. Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. - Marie Curie

25. Remember that other people may be totally wrong. But they don't think so. Don't condemn them. Any fool can do that. Try to understand them. Only wise, tolerant, exceptional people even try to do that. - Dale Carnegie

Truth Quotes

1. By listening, one will learn truths. By hearing, one will only learn half truths. - Chinese Fortune

2. The first and last thing required of genius is the love of truth. – Goethe

3. There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home. - Unknown

4. So we must allow the other to speak back to us, not in conformity to what we want to hear, but in fidelity to the other's truth. The truth we are seeking, the truth that seeks us, lies ultimately in the community of being where we not only know, but are known. - Parker J. Palmer

5. All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them. - Galileo Galilei

6. Truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it. - Pearl Buck

7. A man who lies to himself and believes his own lies becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and in order to divert himself, having no love in him, he yields to his impulses, indulging in the lowest form of pleasure, and behaves, in the end, like an animal, in satisfying his vices. It all comes from lying...lying to others and lying to yourself. - Fyodor Dostoesvsky

8. Truth is truth, where'er tis found,
    On Christian or on heathen ground.
    - Unknown

9. Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now - always. - Albert Schweitzer

10. There is nothing so powerful as truth - and often nothing so strange. - Daniel Webster

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An Excerpt from Absolute Truth, by Spencer W. Kimball:

There are absolute truths and relative truths. The rules of dietetics have changed many times in my lifetime. Many scientific findings have changed from year to year. The scientists taught for decades that the world was once a nebulous, molten mass cast off from the sun, and later many scientists said it once was a whirl of dust which solidified. There are many ideas advanced to the world that have been changed to meet the needs of the truth as it has been discovered. There are relative truths, and there are also absolute truths which are the same yesterday, today, and forever—never changing.

These absolute truths are not altered by the opinions of men. As science has expanded our understanding of the physical world, certain accepted ideas of science have had to be abandoned in the interest of truth. Some of these seeming truths were stoutly maintained for centuries. The sincere searching of science often rests only on the threshold of truth, whereas revealed facts give us certain absolute truths as a beginning point so we may come to understand the nature of man and the purpose of his life.

The earth is spherical. If all the four billion people in the world think it flat, they are in error. That is an absolute truth, and all the arguing in the world will not change it. Weights will not suspend themselves in the air, but when released will fall earthward. The law of gravity is an absolute truth. It never varies. Greater laws can overcome lesser ones, but that does not change their undeniable truth.

We learn about these absolute truths by being taught by the Spirit. These truths are "independent" in their spiritual sphere and are to be discovered spiritually, though they may be confirmed by experience and intellect (see D&C 93:30). The great prophet Jacob said that "the Spirit speaketh the truth. . . . Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be." (Jacob 4:13). We needed to be taught in order to understand life and who we really are.

God, our Heavenly Father—Elohim—lives. That is an absolute truth. All four billion of the children of men on the earth might be ignorant of him and his attributes and his powers, but he still lives. All the people on the earth might deny him and disbelieve, but he lives in spite of them. They may have their own opinions, but he still lives, and his form, powers, and attributes do not change according to men's opinions. In short, opinion alone has no power in the matter of an absolute truth. He still lives. And Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Almighty, the Creator, the Master of the only true way of life—the gospel of Jesus Christ. The intellectual may rationalize him out of existence and the unbeliever may scoff, but Christ still lives and guides the destinies of his people. That is an absolute truth; there is no gainsaying.

The watchmaker in Switzerland, with materials at hand, made the watch that was found in the sand in a California desert. The people who found the watch had never been to Switzerland, nor seen the watchmaker, nor seen the watch made. The watchmaker still existed, no matter the extent of their ignorance or experience. If the watch had a tongue, it might even lie and say, "There is no watchmaker." That would not alter the truth.

If men are really humble, they will realize that they discover, but do not create, truth.

Trust Quotes

1. Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

2. Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him. - Booker T. Washington

3. You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough. - Frank Crane

Travel Quotes

1. The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see. - Gilbert K. Chesterton

2. The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. - St. Augustine

3. I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine. - Caskie Stinnet

4. Outer travel at best only reflects the inner journey...before you can find what you're looking for in the world, you have to find it within. - Dan Millman

5. One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. - Henry Miller

6. Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen. - Benjamin Disraeli

7. We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment. - Hilaire Beloc

8. Through travel I first became aware of the outside world; it was through travel that I found my own introspective way into becoming a part of it. - Eudora Welty

9. No matter what happens, travel gives you a story to tell. - Jewish Proverb

10. A wise man travels to discover himself. - James Russell Lowell

11. Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind. - Seneca

12. On every side of us are men who hunt perpetually for their personal North-West Passage, too often sacrificing health, strength and life itself to the search; and who shall say they are not happier in their vain but hopeful quest than wiser, duller folk who sit at home, venturing nothing. - Kenneth Rogers

13. A traveller am I, and a navigator, and every day I discover a new region within my soul. - Kahlil Gibran

14. Only the traveling is good which reveals to me the value of home and enables me to enjoy it better. - Henry David Thoreau

15. I might have been born in a hovel but I am determined to travel with the wind and the stars. - Jacqueline Cochran

16. Travel can be one of the most rewarding forms of introspection. - Lawrence Durrell

17. Not all who wander are lost. - Unknown

18. Few things are more enjoyable than lingering over the atlas and plotting a trip. – J. Maarten Troost

19. 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

20. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. – Helen Keller

21. For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move. – Robert Louis Stevenson

22. Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home. – Matsuo Basho

23. Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe. – Anatole France

24. I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list. – Susan Sontag

25. Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

26. All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware. – Martin Buber

27. I can’t think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything. – Bill Bryson

28. Adventure may hurt you but monotony will kill you. – Unknown

29. Travel makes one modest, you see what a tiny place you occupy in the world. – Gustave Flaubert

31. Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. – Henry David Thoreau

32. Surely of all the wonders in the world, the horizon is the greatest. – Frey Stark

33. I urge you to travel. As far and as much as possible. Work ridiculous shifts to save your money. Go without the latest iPhone. Throw yourself out of your comfort zone. Find out how other people live and realize that the world is a much bigger place than the town you live in. And when you come home, home may still be the same, and yes, you may go back to the same old job, but something in your mind will have changed. And trust me, that changes everything. - Unknown

34. To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. - Aldous Huxley

35. Travel isn’t just the experiences we have when we leave our homeland, it’s the experiences we bring back with us which change us in ways we could have never imagined. - Chris Mitchell

36.  To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the most pleasant sensations in the world. You are surrounded by adventure. - Freya Stark

37. Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life — and travel — leaves marks on you. Most of the time, those marks — on your body or on your heart — are beautiful. Often though, they hurt. - Anthony Bourdain

38. If you're going to be on the roads of this world, the best burden you can carry is wisdom. - Hávamál

39. Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind. – Seneca

40. One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. – Henry Miller

41. We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us. - Unknown

42. Travel is never a matter of money but of courage. – Paulo Coelho 

43. Wherever you go, go with all your heart. – Confucius

44. With age, comes wisdom. With travel, comes understanding. – Sandra Lake

45. I want to see the world. Follow a map to its edges and keep going. Forgo the plans. Trust my instincts. Let curiosity be my guide. I want to change hemispheres. Sleep with unfamiliar stars. And let the journey unfold before me. - Unknown

See more travel quotes at Anthony Bourdain's Best Travel Quotes