A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.

-- English proverb

"If you think you're outclassed, you are,
You've got to think high to rise.
You've got to be sure of yourself,
Before you can win the prize."

(Author unknown)

"The nearest way to glory -- a short cut, as it were -- is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be - quoted in Cicero, 44 BC."
-- Socrates (469-399 BC)

"A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying that he is wiser today than he was yesterday."

-- Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English Poet

"Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile."
~ Albert Einstein

"Assume a virtue, if you have it not."

~ William Shakespeare

"We frail humans are at one time capable of the greatest good and, at the same time, capable of the greatest evil. Change will only come about when each of us takes up the daily struggle ourselves to be more forgiving, compassionate, loving, and above all joyful in the knowledge that, by some miracle of grace, we can change as those around us can change too."
~ Mairead Maguire

"One only sees well with the heart."

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, in "the Little Prince"

"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy."

Albert Einstein

"What ought one to say then as each hardship comes? I was practising for this, I was training for this."

-- Epictetus (55-135 AD) Greek Philosopher

“There are those …who enter the world in

such poverty that they are deprived of both

the means and the motivation to improve

their lot. Unless they can be touched with

the spark which ignites the spirit of

individual enterprise and determination,

they will only sink back into renewed

apathy, degradation and despair. It is for

us, who are more fortunate, to provide that

spark.”

(Aga Khan, India 1983)

"The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart - this you will build your life by, and this you will become."

-- James Lane Allen (1849-1925)

A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.

~ Albert Einstein

"An inconvenience is an unrecognized opportunity."

~ Confucious


"More of me comes out when I improvise."

~ Edward Hopper

"We have thrown away the most valuable asset we had -- the individual's right to oppose both flag and country when he believed them to be in the wrong.

We have thrown it away; and with it, all that was really respectable about that grotesque and laughable word, Patriotism."

~ Howard Zinn

"Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind."

Albert Einstein

“The purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others.”

~ Albert Schweitzer

"Dominate yourself, or someone else will."

Robert Genn

"My life flows when I'm in my art."

(Jean De Muzio)

"I've seen extreme bravery from the least likely of people. Life is about the moments when it's all gone wrong. That's when we define ourselves."

-- Bear Grylls

"The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention."

-- Duguet

"I am convinced that the world is not a mere bog in which men and women trample themselves and die. Something magnificent is taking place here amidst the cruelties and tragedies, and the supreme challenge to intelligence is that of making the noblest and best inour curious heritage prevail."

-- C.A. Beard

"Any fool can know. The point is to understand."

~ Albert Eienstein

"A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
~ Albert Einstein

“The Further I go, the sorrier I am about how little I know: it is this that bothers me the most.”

(Claude Monet)

Goethe: "Boldness has genius, power and magic. Engage, and the mind grows heated. Begin, and the work will be completed."

"It is good to dream, but it is better to dream and work. Faith is mighty, but action with faith is mightier."

-- Thomas Robert Gaines

"How difficult it is to be simple."
(Vincent van Gogh)

"Brevity is the sister of talent."
(Anton Chekhov)

"Less is more."
(Robert Browning)

thanks Robert Genn!

"Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away."
~ Elvis Presley

" Maturity is achieved when a person postpones immediate pleasures for long-term values."

-- Joshua L. Liebman

"Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts."

~ Albert Einstein

"We have a duty and responsibility as human beings to try and make our world more tolerable and to relieve the suffering of others."

~ Dr. James Orbinski

"What is now proved was once only imagined."

-- William Blake (1757-1827) English Poet

"Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."

~ Albert Einstein

"Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half sorrow."

-- Swedish proverb

"Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom."

Hannah Arendt

"For where'er the sun does shine, And where'er the rain does fall, Babes should never hunger there, Nor poverty the mind appall."
- William Blake (1757–1827)

"A wonderful painting is the result of the feeling in your fingers. If you have the feeling of the thickness of the ink in your brush, the painting is already there before you paint. When you dip your brush into the ink you already know the result of your drawing, or else you cannot paint. So before you do something, "being" is there, the result is there. Even though you look as if you were sitting quietly, all your activity, past and present, is included, and the result of your sitting is also already there."

- D.T. Suzuki...

" It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."

-- Chinese proverb

" Everyone who has ever taken a shower has had an idea. It's the
person who gets out of the shower, dries off, and does something
about it that makes a difference."

-- Nolan Bushnell

" If you have the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed."

-- David Viscott

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an
invincible summer."

-- Albert Camus (1913-1960) French Writer

"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree..."

~ Albert Einstein

"Accept no one's definition of your life, but define yourself."

-- Harvey Fierstein

"To create one's own world in any of the arts takes courage."
~ Georgia O'Keefe

"I am now quite cured of society, be it country or town. A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself."
(Emily Bronte)

"Every child comes with the message that God is not yet tired of the man."
(Rabindranath Tagore)

"Put out the trash and wash the car. Those who do so are performing miracles. Miracles are feats no one can successfully explain. Miracles are everything you do."
--David K. Reynolds

"Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself."

-- Abraham Joshua Heschel 1907-1972

"Being defeated is often only a temporary condition. Giving up is what
makes it permanent."
-- Marilyn vos Savant 1946-

"Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly."
Langston Hughes

"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance
of things, but their inward significance, and this, and not the
external manner and detail, is true reality."
(Aristotle)

"Angels whisper when we walk."
(Raymond Inmon)

"Girls must be encouraged to get on (after college), to make a life
plan. It has been shown that girls with this kind of commitment are
less eager to rush into early marriage....Most of them marry, of
course, but on a much more mature basis. their marriages then are not
an escape but a commitment shared by two people that becomes part of
their commitment to themselves and society."
~ Betty Friedan

"Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft
might win by fearing to attempt."
(William Shakespeare)

"I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed."
~Jonathan Swift
(1667-1745)

'There is enough for all. The earth is a generous mother; she will provide in plentiful abundance food for all her children if they will but cultivate her soil in justice and in peace.'
~ Mr. Bourke Cockran

"I had a feeling once about Mathematics - that I saw it all. Depth beyond depth was revealed to me - the Byss and Abyss. But it was after dinner and I let it go."
— Winston Churchill

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

"ask the wind,
the wave,
a star,
the clock,
all that which flees,
all that which groans,
all that which rolls,
all that which sings,
all that which speaks,
ask them what time it is;
and the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird
the clock will reply:
it is time to get drunk!;
get drunk,
and never pause for rest!
with wine,
with poetry,
or with virtue,
as you choose!"

-- Baudelaire

"It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows great enthusiasms, great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
~ Theodore Roosevelt

"The true Axis of evil is the genius of our marketing people combined with the stupidity of our people."
~ Bill Maher

"Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies — "God damn it, you've got to be kind."
~ Kurt Vonnegut

"Stand in your own light. Make it shine.
- Fortune Cookie

“The colour of truth is gray.”

" People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar."
~ Thich Nhat Hanh

"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels.
Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass."

Maya Angelou

"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence."
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“The basic difference between being assertive and being aggressive is how our words and behaviours affect the rights and well being of others.”
- Sharon Anthony Bower, author

"God is hiding in the world. Our task is to let the divine emerge from
our deeds."
- Abraham Joshua Heschel

"All creatures bring into this world the memory of justice."
- J. M. Coetzee

"First say to yourself what you would be, and then do what you have to do."
~ Epiticus

"Be proud to be a Size Hero, not a size zero!"
~ Gok Wan

"Time on your hands, your self on your mind."
~ English Saying

"Life is not holding a good hand; Life is playing a poor hand well."
-- Danish proverb

"Not the owner of many possessions will you be right to call happy: he
more rightly deserves the name of happy who knows how to use the Gods'
gifts wisely and to put up with rough poverty, and who fears dishonor
more than death."
-- Horace (65-8 BC)

"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the
winds long to play with your hair."
- Kahlil Gibran

"I must learn to love the fool in me - the one who feels too much,
talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often,
lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and
breaks promises, laughs and cries. It alone protects me against that
utterly self-controlled, masterful tyrant who I also harbor and who
would rob me of human aliveness, humility, and dignity but for my
fool."
~ Theodore I. Rubin

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy that is translated
through you into action. And because there is only one you in all time,
this expression is unique. If you block it, it will never exist through
any other medium - the world will not have it. It is not your business
to determine how good it is, now how valuable, nor how it compares with
other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and
directly, to keep the channel open."
- Martha Graham

"Class is an aura of confidence that is being sure without being cocky.
Class has nothing to do with money. Class never runs scared. It is
self-discipline and self-knowledge. It's the sure footedness that comes
with having proved you can meet life."
-- Ann Landers

"Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame."
-- Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English Poet

"Nothing is ever lost by courtesy. It is the cheapest of pleasures,
costs nothing, and conveys much."
-- Erastus Wiman

"Judgement comes from experience, and great judgement comes from bad
experience."
-- Robert Packwood

"Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional
glance towards the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful
scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point."
-- Harold B. Melchart

"The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice
what we are for what we could become."
-- Charles Du Bos

"The world of achievement has always belonged to the optimist."
-- J. Harold Wilkins

"Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must first
be overcome.
-- Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

"If you have not often felt the joy of doing a kind act, you have
neglected much, and most of all yourself.
-- A. Neilen

"May we see that we could have been born as each other."
~ Vickram Seth, in "Two Lives: a Memoir"

"If They Give You Lined Paper, Write Sideways"
- Daniel Quinn

"A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to
blame someone else."
-- John Burroughs

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done
without hope and confidence."
-- Helen Keller

"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."
-- Beverly Sills

"As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey."
-- Thomas A. Edison

"The height of your accomplishments will equal the depth of your
convictions."
-- William F. Scolavino

"I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be
honorable, to be compassionate. It is, after all, to matter: to count,
to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at
all."
-- Leo C. Rosten (1908-1977) American Writer

"To be alive, to be able to see, to walk,...it's all a miracle."
-- Arthur Rubinstein (1887-1982) Polish Pianist

"To live at this time is an inestimable privilege, and a sacred
obligation devolves upon you to make right use of your opportunities."
-- Grenville Kleiser

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

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved with it as he who
helps to perpetuate it.  He who accepts evil without protesting against
it is really cooperating with it. "
~ Martin Luther King Jr.

"Courage to start and willingness to keep everlasting at it are the
requisites for success."
-- Alonzo Newton Benn

"I searched through rebellion, drugs, diets, mysticism, religions,
intellectualism and much more, only to begin to find...that truth is
basically simple - and feels good, clean and right."
-- Chick Corea

"Life leaps like a geyser for those willing to drill through the rock
of inertia."
-- Alexis Carrel

"It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject tohalf
the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for
fear of what might happen."
-- Herodotus (485 - 425BC) Greek Historian

"I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh
try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere
behind the morning."
-- J.B. Priestly (1894-1984) English Author

"Attitude determines altitude."
-- Unknown

"I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship."
— Louisa May Alcott

"Remember that if the opportunities for great deeds should never come,
the opportunities for good deeds are renewed day by day. The thing for
us to long for is the goodness, not the glory."
-- F.W. Faber

"Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls aren't there to
keep us out. The brick walls are there to show us how badly we want
things."
-Randy Pausch

"Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach
them, but I can look up and see the beauty, believe in them and try to
follow where they lead."
-- Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)

"Courage is the greatest of all the virtues. Because if you haven't
courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.
-- Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

"Decide on what you think is right, and stick to it."
-- George Eliot (1819-1880)

"First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to
do."
-- Epictetus (55-135 AD) Greek Philosopher

"Blessed is he who carries within himself a God, an ideal, and obeys
it."
-- Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)

"The trouble is that once you see it, you can't unsee it, and once
you've seen it, keeping quiet and saying nothing, becomes as political
an act as speaking out. There's no innocence. Either way you are
accountable".
- Arundhati Roy

"Babe Ruth hit more home runs than anyone; he also struck out more
often than anyone."
-- Anonymous

"He who cares wins."

"I run great risk of failing. It may be that I shall encounter ruin
where I look for reputation and a career of honor. The chances are
perhaps more in favour of ruin than of success. But, whatever may be
the chances, I shall go on as long as any means of carrying on the
fight are at my disposal."
-- Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) English Novelist

"The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be
in reality what we would appear to be."
-- Socrates (469-399 BC)

"No man or woman of the humblest sort can really be strong, gentle and
good, without the world being better for it, without somebody being
helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness."
-- Phillips Brooks (1835-1893)

"A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong,
which is but saying that he is wiser today than he was yesterday."
-- Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

"When the art is forgotten, there is no hope."
~Balkrishna Vaidya, artist, in "Painted Nation"

"Good friendships are fragile things and require as much care as any
other fragile and precious thing."
-- Randolph S. Bourne (1886-1918)

"When we accept tough jobs as a challenge to our ability and wade into
them with joy and enthusiasm, miracles can happen."
-- Arland Gilbert

"Don't bother about genius. Don't worry about being clever. Trust to
hard work, perseverance and determination."
-- Sir Frederick Treves (1853-1923) English Surgeon

"To say yes, you have to sweat and roll up your sleeves and plunge both
hands into life up to the elbows."
-- Jean Anouilh

"Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person."
-- Mother Teresa (1910-1997)

"Money is a "way of keeping score in life," says T. Boone Pickens. But
that is just for those who like playing the game. The real goal is to
live with grace and dignity. You can do that with a small amount of
money...or not do it with a fortune."
-- Bill Bonner, financial journalist

"Overcoming Poverty is Not a Gesture of Charity, it is an Act of Justice"
~ Nelson Mandela

"I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore there be any
kindness I can show...let me do it now."
- William Penn

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single minute before
starting to improve the world.'
- Anne Frank

"No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted."
- Aesop

"A little kindness from person to person is better than a vast love for
all humankind."
- Richard Dehmel

"Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but
manifestations of strength and resolution."
- Kahlil Gibran