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

10/06/10

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. -Plato

10/05/10

If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out good, I am satisfied. -Alfred Nobel

10/04/10

A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking. -Jerry Seinfeld

09/07/10

The most wasted of days is one without laughter. -e.e. cummings

09/02/10

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together. -Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

09/01/10

Gold in its native state is but dull, unornamental stuff, and only lowborn metals excite the admiration of the ignorant with an ostentatious glitter. However, like the rest of the world, I still go on underrating men of gold and glorifying men of mica. -Mark Twain