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2003-08-07 - 4:13 p.m. Sometimes a bowl full of inspiration is as good as a bowl full of chicken noodle soup. I love my friends' pages of quotes. I thought it might be time to post my own. Don’t be irreplaceable – if you can’t be replaced, you can’t be promoted. Only the mediocre are at their best all the time. I don’t suffer from stress. I am a carrier. Needing someone is like needing a parachute. If he isn’t there the first time, chances are you won’t be needing him again. Everybody is somebody else’s weirdo. Never argue with idiots. They drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience. The more crap you put up with, the more crap you are going to get. If you don’t know what to do, walk fast and look worried. You can go anywhere you want if you look serious and carry a clipboard. Following the rules often will not get the job done. Tell me what you need, and I’ll tell you how to get along without it. Bring ideas in and entertain them royally, for one of them may be the king. When everything is coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane. When confronted with a difficult problem, you can solve it more easily by reducing it to the question, “How would Xena handle this?” To be nobody but yourself in a world which is trying it's best night and day to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle any human can fight and never stop fighting. ~E.E. Cummings If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one? ~Abraham Lincoln The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it. ~Jean-Baptist Moliere When one is trying to do something beyond his known powers it is useless to seek the approval of friends. Friends are at their best in moments of defeat. ~Henry Miller He that always gives way to others will end in having no principles of his own. ~Aesop To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.- Steve "Pre" Prefontaine The brighter you are, the more you have to learn.- Don Herold There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.- Hodding Carter People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.- W. Somerset Maugham He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.- Douglas Adams He who would go a hundred miles should consider ninety-nine as halfway. - Japanese Proverb It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves one having to bother anyone else with them.- Isabel Colegate One's real life is often the life that one does not lead.- Oscar Wilde By perseverance the snail reached the ark.- Charles Haddon Spurgeon "Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."-- Abraham Lincoln "This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day,Thou canst not then be false to any man."—Shakespeare Having children makes one no more a parent than having a piano makes you a pianist.-- Michael Levine Mourn not the dead that in the cool earth lie, but rather mourn the apathetic, throng the coward and the meek who see the world's great anguish and its wrong, and dare not speak. -- Ralph Chaplin A conference is a gathering of important people who singly can do nothing but together can decide that nothing can be done. ~Fred Allen Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. ~Henry Ford Reality is nothing but a collective hunch. ~Lily Tomlin Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is. ~Thomas Szasz The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. ~Eleanor Roosevelt One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. ~A.A. Milne For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong. ~H.L. Mencken Anyone can do any amount of work provided it isn't the work he's supposed to be doing at the moment. ~Robert Benchley All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream. ~Edgar Allan Poe Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart. ~Confucious The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. ~Niels Bohr I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. ~Thomas Jefferson Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow. ~Abraham Lincoln The world is full of willing people: some willing to work, the rest willing to let them. ~Robert Frost Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow delightful conditions, all heavenly environment; of these if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built. ~James Allen "Most people can't think, most of the remainder won't think, the small fraction who do think mostly can't do it very well. The extremely tiny fraction who think regularly, accurately, creatively, and without self-delusion- in the long run these are the only people who count..." ~Lazarus Long Be happy – it is a way of being wise. The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it. ~General H. Norman Schwarzkopf Some look at things that are and ask why. I dream of things that never were and ask why not? ~George Bernard Shaw The beginning is the most important part of the work. ~Plato Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work. ~Bette Davis Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence. Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as though you’ll die tomorrow. Nothing is more painful than regret. Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intentions, sincere effort, intelligent direction, and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives. ~Willa A. Foster Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow. ~Ronald E. Osborn You must be the change you wish to see in the world. ~Mahatma Ghandi Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher. ~Oprah Winfrey No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. ~Eleanor Roosevelt Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking. ~H. Jackson Brown, Jr. Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do which must be done, whether you like it or not. Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance, self-control, diligence, strength of will, content and a hundred other virtues which the idle never know. - Charles Kingsley Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn. - Harriet Beecher Stowe Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition. - Jacques Barzun Nothing is so strong as gentleness, and nothing is so gentle as true strength. - Ralph Sockman I'm a philosophy major. That means I can think deep thoughts about being unemployed. - Bruce Lee Among those I like, I can find no common denominator. Among those I love, I can; they all make me laugh. - Abraham Lincoln I can be changed by what happens to me, I am not reduced by it. - Maya Angelou The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. - Albert Einstein Tell me who admires you and loves you, and I will tell you who you are. - Charles Augustin Sainte-Beauve Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. - Theodore Roosevelt Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric. - Bertrand Russell If you want a place in the sun, you've got to put up with a few blisters. - Abigail Van Buren You can fool too many of the people too much of the time. - James Thurber The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense. - Tom Clancy To decide, to be at the level of choice, is to take responsibility for your life and to be in control of your life. - Abbie M. Dale Money can't buy you happiness but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery. - Spike Milligan Resolve never to retire from life. You must continually nourish yourself with the emotional and spiritual tonic of happiness. - Maxwell Maltz Whining is not only graceless, but can be dangerous. It can alert a brute that a victim is in the neighborhood. - Maya Angelou I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. - Isaac Newton Experience is the name that everyone gives to their mistakes. - Oscar Wilde Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. - George Bernard Shaw Anyone who isn't confused really doesn't understand the situation. - Edward R. Murrow The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready. - Henry David Thoreau This world is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel. - Horace Walpole A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history - with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila. - Mitch Ratliffe He who has all the money is powerless against him whom has all the loyal friends. - B.J. Westfall Life isn't a matter of milestones, but of moments.- Rose Kennedy You need wings to fly... but willpower can take you to great heights- Milton Hall Let go of your attachment to being right, and suddenly your mind is more open. You're able to benefit from the unique viewpoints of others, without being crippled by your own judgment.- Ralph Marston You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try.- Beverly Sills When people go to work, they shouldn't have to leave their hearts at home.- Betty Bender You got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there.- Yogi Berra I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.- Socrates The bend in the road isn't the end of the road unless you fail to make the turn.- Lexis Manzara Good people are people that notice good things in others.- Adam Selley It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. – Seneca I've found that worry and irritation vanish into thin air the moment I open my mind to many blessing I possess.- Dale Carnegie Opportunities multiply as they are seized.- Sun Tzu Every calling is great when greatly pursued.- Oliver Wendell Holmes What do we live for, if not to make the world less difficult for each other?- George Eliot Every one of us has within ourselves everything we will ever need to be, do, and have everything we will ever want and need.- Desari Mortensen You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.- Mark Twain Change before you have to.- Jack Welch Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.- Ralph Waldo Emerson Better to understand a little than to misunderstand a lot. - Anonymous To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring. - George Santayana Inanimate objects are classified scientifically into three categories - those that don't work, those that break down, and those that get lost. - Russell Baker We have come too far, sacrificed too much to disdain the future now. - John F. Kennedy The promises of maniacs, like those of women, are not safely relied upon. - Joseph Heller A beauty is a woman you notice; A charmer is one who notices you. - Adlai Stevenson Creativity is allowing oneself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. - Scott Adams Whoever says "Nothing is impossible" has never tried to slam a revolving door. - Willy Walker Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty. - Adair Lara After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. - Aldous Huxley The optimist sees opportunity in every danger; the pessimist sees danger in every opportunity.- Winston Churchill If a man is talking in the forest, and there is no woman there to hear him, is he still wrong?- Jenny Weber Days are scrolls; write on them only what you want remembered. - Bachya ibn Pakuda Love one another and you will be happy. It's as simple and as difficult as that.- Michael Leunig Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock. - Ben Hecht A healthy male adult bore consumes each year one and a half times his own weight in other people's patience. - John Updike Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you got. A real wise man is never proud of his wisdom. Others are proud of whatthey do not posses. - Sunil Kulkarni Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess. - Oscar Wilde Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile.- Billy Sunday The eyes are not responsible when the mind does the seeing. - Publilius Syrus I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. John Cage Honesty, sometimes plagues those who are honest enough to be honest. For in the world of today and the world of yesterday, all else is and was not expected. - Gordon Parke I'm not indecisive. Am I indecisive? - Jim Scheibel, mayor, St. Paul, MN Genius is 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration. - Thomas Edison Technology makes it possible for people to gain control over everything, except over technology.- John Tudor An honest man is one who knows he can't consume more than he has produced. - Ayn Rand A man is incomplete until he is married. After that, he is finished. - Zsa Zsa Gabor Call on God, but row away from the rocks. - Indian proverb Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh. - George Bernard Shaw Try is a failure word we use when we are not committed to the action. - Connie W. Watkins Live TV died in the late 1950s, electronic bulletin boards came along in the mid-1980s, meaning there was about a 25-year gap when it was difficult to put your foot in your mouth and have people all across the country know about it. - Mark Leeper We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. – Aristotle A person starts to live when he can live outside himself. - Albert Einstein The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it. I base my fashion sense on what doesn't itch. - Gilda Radner Joy is but the sign that creative emotion is fulfilling its purpose. - Charles Du Bos To be able to say how much love is love but little.- Petrarch Never complain; never explain. - Katherine Hepburn The second day of a diet is always easier than the first. By the second day, you're off it. - Jackie Gleason The soul is healed by being with children. - Fyodor Dostoyevski Experience teaches only the teachable. - Aldous Huxley Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over. - F. Scott Fitzgerald Always go to the bathroom when you have a chance. - King George V To be trusted is more greater than to be loved. – Shradhanand Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.- John F. Kennedy What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon be beautiful. - Sappho Gentlemen, it is better to have died a small boy than to fumble this football. - John Heisman Change is not merely necessary to life, it is life. - Alvin Toffler We are not in a position in which we have nothing to work with. We already have capacities, talents, direction, missions, and callings. - Abraham Maslow There is no gene for the human spirit If little else, the brain is an educational toy. - Tom Robbins We never know the worth of water 'til the well is dry. - English Proverb A successful marriage isn't finding the right person - it's being the right person. - Gabriel Browne When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another. - Helen Keller Mistakes are the portals of discovery. - James Joyce All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That is his. - Oscar Wilde Experience is the worst teacher; it gives the test before presenting the lesson. - Vernon Law If it is your time, love will track you down like a cruise missile. - Lynda Barry Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. - Soren Kierkegaard You can close your eyes to reality, but not to memories. - Stanislaw J. Lem A man gazing at the stars is proverbially at the mercy of the puddles in the road. - Alexander Smith For those who fight for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know. - Unknown, found written on a wall in the Middle East while in the military. I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday. - Abraham Lincoln Whenever I date a guy, I think, is this the man I want my children to spend their weekends with? - Rita Rudner A man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. He sits on a hot stove for a minute, it's longer than any hour. That is relativity. - Albert Einstein Whatever you are from nature, keep to it; never desert your own line of talent. Be what nature intended you for, and you will succeed; be anything else, and you will be ten thousands times worse than nothing. - Sydney Smith A good marriage is at least 80% good luck in finding the right person at the right time. The rest is trust. - Nanette Newman We can do no great things; only small things with great love. - Mother Teresa We seek the comfort of another. Someone to share and share the life we choose. Someone to help us through the neverending attempt to understand ourselves. And in the end, someone to comfort us along the way. - Marlin Finch Lupus Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars - Les Brown Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present. - Roger Babson Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness. - Sigmund Freud Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart. - Marcus Aurelius Your goals, minus your doubts, equal your reality. - Ralph Marston Those who do not know how to weep with their whole heart don't know how to laugh either. - Golda Meir It is never too late to be what you might have been. - George Eliot
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