12/28/10

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done. -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

12/22/10

It is literally true, as the thankless say, that they have nothing to be thankful for. He who sits by the fire, thankless for the fire, is just as if he had no fire. Nothing is possessed save in appreciation, of which thankfulness is the indispensable ingredient. But a thankful heart hath a continual feast. -W.J. Cameron

12/21/10

Life is more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party. -Jimmy Buffett

12/17/10

If we would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection to what we want to get out of life that we give to the question of what to do with a two weeks' vacation, we would be startled at our false standards and the aimless procession of our busy days. -Dorothy Canfield Fisher

12/16/10

Heroes know that things must happen when it is time for them to happen. A quest may not simply be abandoned; unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever; a happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story. -Peter S. Beagle

12/15/10

There is something wrong in a government where they who do the most have the least. There is something wrong when honesty wears a rag, and rascality a robe; when the loving, the tender, eat a crust, while the famous sit at banquets. -Robert G. Ingersoll

12/14/10

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. -Annie Dillard

12/13/10

The great and invigorating influences in American life have been the unorthodox: the people who challenge an existing institution or way of life, or say and do things that make people think. -William O. Douglas

12/10/10

In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher. -Dalai Lama

12/09/10

One of the commonest mistakes and one of the costliest is thinking that success is due to some genius, some magic - something or other which we do not possess. Success is generally due to holding on, and failure to letting go. You decide to learn a language, study music, take a course of reading, train yourself physically. Will it be success or failure? It depends upon how much pluck and perseverance that word "decide" contains. The decision that nothing can overrule, the grip that nothing can detach will bring success. Remember the Chinese proverb, "With time and patience, the mulberry leaf becomes satin." -Maltbie Davenport Babcock

12/08/10

Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul. -Thomas Merton

12/07/10

Do not stand on a high pedestal, take five cents in your hand and say, "Here, my poor man," but be grateful that the poor man is there, so by making a gift to him you are able to help yourself. It is not the receiver that is blessed, but it is the giver. Be thankful that you are allowed to exercise your power of benevolence and mercy in the world, and thus become pure and perfect. -Swami Vivekananda

12/06/10

We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another--until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices. -Richard M. Nixon