November 10, 2005

My Favorite Quotes

Favorite Quotes of Robbie Bednark

This page created: 1/31/97 Last updated: 27 Oct 2005
Here are my favorite quotations that I've been collecting over the last 10 years. --Robbie Bednark

I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make a life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a person humanized or dehumanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (1749-1832) [from Judy Ford's website] {Added 27 Oct 2005}

The problem with the Course is "students" have bantered it to pieces, hoping beyond hope, that discussion of its contents actually yields anything.
--Jeanette Joy {Added 24 Oct 2005}

Be solution focused, not problem focused.
-Mike Brescia {Added 21 Oct 2005}

Stop worrying about what others think.
-Mike Brescia {Added 21 Oct 2005}

Happiness is more about serving others than about serving ourselves.
-Mike Brescia {Added 20 Oct 2005}

What leads to unhappiness is making pleasure the chief aim.
-William Shenstone [quoted by Mike Brescia] {Added 20 Oct 2005}

You can change yourself by changing your environment and changing your thoughts.
-Mike Brescia {Added 19 Oct 2005}

If you focus your thoughts on empowering outcomes and ask yourself questions that give you answers that inspire you, then you'll find that your anxiety and panic attacks will reduce.
-Mike Brescia {Added 19 Oct 2005}

Emancipation from the bondage of the soil is no freedom for the tree.
-Rabindranath Tagore, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 18 Oct 2005}

Planning is important, because it prepares your mind to be able to change if your plan doesn't work.
-Niels Malotaux {Added 14 Oct 2005}

A fool is somebody who keeps doing the same thing and expects a better result.
{Added 14 Oct 2005}

What has surprised you recently? Inspired you? Stirred your emotions? Focus on these things, and you may find that how you look at life changes.
{Added 14 Oct 2005}

In some restaurants that serve fresh fish, they put a predator in the tank with the fish. This keeps them lively and they stay fresher. People also need challenges to keep themselves healthy and happy.
-Mike Brescia {Added 14 Oct 2005}

Imagine that a few years from now, you're sitting around, you say to the person next to you, "I was watching TV about 6 years ago at home. Boy, what a night!" Breathe life into yourself instead and stop being scared of just one thing... just for today. Do what you're scared of and you'll look back afterwards and you'll see you grew right then.
-Mike Brescia {Added 14 Oct 2005}

Today is the day that you make great progress. Tomorrow is just a dream. "Right Now" is the only currency you've got.
-Mike Brescia {Added 14 Oct 2005}

Listen to people who've achieved what you want to achieve. Seek them out. If you don't know any, then find them. Read their books. Study what you need to learn.
-Mike Brescia {Added 14 Oct 2005}

When bad things happen, there is always some kind of lesson in them. Either you uncover the lesson or you don't. It's as simple as that. If you don't, then you'll continue to get P.O.'d at the most inane stuff, you'll carry on with your little grudges, you'll fight fire with fire, and your state of mind immediately after these mental episodes will prevent you from performing at your best and holding any peace in your mind.
-Mike Brescia {Added 14 Oct 2005}

What you are doing is not good. Instead of drilling one deep well, you are drilling ten shallow wells. It is the deep wells that reach water.
-(told to Huston Smith by a guru in an Indian monastery, regarding his sampling of religions) [from this article] {Added 13 Oct 2005}

How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward.
-Spanish proverb [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 13 Oct 2005}

For blocks are better cleft with wedges,
Than tools of sharp or subtle edges,
And dullest nonsense has been found
By some to be the most profound.
-Samuel Butler, poet (1612-1680) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 13 Oct 2005}

Helping others is why we were put here on earth, not to play and entertain ourselves all day. If you don't help others, you have no purpose. You don't need tremendous strength and capabilities to make yourself useful. You just need the ability to care.
-Mike Brescia {Added 13 Oct 2005}

People usually stop being enthusiastic about helping out and serving others when they feel they are under-appreciated.
-Robbie Bednark [based on a quoted by Mike Brescia {Added 13 Oct 2005}

One of the most amazing things ever said is Jesus' statement: "He that is greatest among you shall be your servant." Nobody has one chance in a billion of being thought really great after a century has passed except those who have been the servants of all.
-Harry Emerson Fosdick, D.D. [quoted on todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 13 Oct 2005}

Every human being has conflict. You need to find what's in here to resolve it... Once you have conflict, it is something solid. You need an element to dissolve it. Good is an element. It can dissolve it. Good is like water.
-Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 13 Oct 2005}

I meditate from my heart. In my meditation, I must find love, for I know love exists in my heart. The word forgive -- it does not matter what anyone has done to me or whatever has happened to me since childhood. This word "forgive" means if I meditate from my heart, I will always be able to forgive. I must forgive myself for having the negative things in me, for all the negative things I have done.... Here, this is where I stand physically. My presence with me allows me to forgive. I see all this as one. I represent my heart. I am the heart.
-Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 13 Oct 2005}

Returning to innocence seems impossible, doesn't it? The word pure requires a lot of filtering. Spiritual cultivation is like layers and layers of filtering... in the course of your life, yours is to find the purity of your own heart. Each day is important. Every day that you wake up, it is important. One day at a time. Know that you want to find the pureness of your own heart. It's there. All you have to do is see it and function from it.
-Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 13 Oct 2005}

Whenever something nice happens, write it down and look at it through a magnifying glass. See how your perspective can make things better. When something bad happens to you, write it down and look at it through binoculars "backwards".
-David Leonhardt {Added 13 Oct 2005}

Lower your voice and strengthen your argument.
-Lebanese proverb [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 11 Oct 2005}

There is a field beyond all notions of right and wrong. Come, meet me there.
-Rumi, poet and mystic (1207-1273) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 11 Oct 2005}

The paradox of our time is that we spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space.
- {Added 11 Oct 2005}

Your beliefs control your attitudes and emotions, which directly control your actions.
-Mike Brescia {Added 05 Oct 2005}

The principles you live by create the world you live in; if you change the principles you live by, you will change your world.
-Blaine Lee [quoted on todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 05 Oct 2005}

Why not use your feelings of fear as a trigger to be courageous?
-modified version of a quote from Mike Brescia on todayisyourdaytowin.com {Added 05 Oct 2005}

It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to do, and THEN do your best.
-W. Edwards Deming [seen quoted on http://home.att.net/~quotesexchange/wedwardsdeming.html] {Added 05 Oct 2005}

Mistakes are necessary to living a happy, successful life
-Mike Brescia todayisyourdaytowin.com {Added 05 Oct 2005}

Learn from the mistakes of others.
-Mike Brescia todayisyourdaytowin.com {Added 05 Oct 2005}

Do that which you fear. Be brave. Be courageous. That is where the growth and happiness is. Do this enough times, and you will find that there is nothing to fear.
-Robbie Bednark [inspired by "what goes in must come out" quote from todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 05 Oct 2005}

Life is very interesting, if you make mistakes.
-Georges Carpentier [quoted on todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 05 Oct 2005}

What goes in must come out. Read books that give you hope, watch uplifting movies, listen to relaxing music, look at beautiful art, think good thoughts, eat healthy food, do good deeds, spend time in nature, and associate with people that inspire you.
-Robbie Bednark [inspired by "what goes in must come out" quote from todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 05 Oct 2005}

Drink from good books.
-John Wooden, basketball coach [quoted on todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 05 Oct 2005}

The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the richest experiences.
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau [quoted in p. 55, "O - The Oprah Magazine", Oct 2005 {Added 04 Oct 2005}

Think in ways you've never thought before
If the phone rings, think of it as carrying a message
Larger than anything you've ever heard,
Vaster than a hundred lines of Yeats
--
Think that someone may bring
a bear to your door,
Maybe wounded and deranged;
or think that a moose
Has risen out of the lake,
and he's carrying on his antlers
A child of your own whom
you've never seen.
--
When someone knocks on the door,
think that he's about
To give you something large:
tell you you're forgiven,
Or that it's not necessary to
work all the time or that it's
Been decided that if you lie down
no one will die.
-Robert Bly, from books "Morning Poems" and "Eating the Honey of Words" [quoted on p. 63, "O - The Oprah Magazine", Sept 2005 {Added 04 Oct 2005}

The body travels more easily than the mind, and until we have limbered up our imagination, we continue to think as though we had stayed home. We have not really budged a step until we take up residence in someone else's point of view.
-John Erskine [quoted on todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 04 Oct 2005}

Self-realization internally is having a strong belief in who I am, that I have this good inside of me. Each time I function, yes, it's always good. The word God has different meanings for different people. God is small and very big. In order to see the big God, embrace the small God (points to his heart). The big one takes care of itself. Embrace the small one and say, this is God. Focus on what you need to do. Do what you need to do. It will be there.
-Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 3 Oct 2005}

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.
-Albert Einstein, quoted in [thehappyguy.com] {Added 3 Oct 2005}

Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.
-Ambrose Bierce, quoted in [thehappyguy.com] {Added 3 Oct 2005}

The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it; but it is also so clear that it is impossible to mistake it.
-Madame De Stael, writer (1766-1817) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 3 Oct 2005}

A timid question will always receive a confident answer.
-Henry Lytton Bulwer, diplomat and author (1801-1872) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 30 Sep 2005}

A quiet conscience sleeps in thunder.
-English proverb [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 30 Sep 2005}

If you cannot see light, make light. When we get stuck, we feel we cannot get out of it. But we can. You have to move yourself from here to there. You have a tremendous amount of power over yourself to move from here to there. I am responsible, and no one else is.
-Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 29 Sep 2005}

Choice is a good thing. Follow your heart and do it. Who's to say it's a right or wrong choice? It may turn out well; it may turn out not well. Every human being makes mistakes. When they make mistakes, they think they're wrong, but if you don't make mistakes, you're not human...The heart is at the center of everything. If we put our hearts into something, we give our very best. It doesn't matter if it succeeds or fails; we give our best.
-Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 29 Sep 2005}

Meditation helps us to center. It gives us the strength to be who we are.
-Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 29 Sep 2005}

The path is for us to walk. The light is for us to shine on people.
-Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 29 Sep 2005}

Christianity swept the Roman Empire, he believes, because it "suddenly and dramatically" lifted "three intolerable burdens" from humanity: guilt, fear - including the fear of death - and narrow concentration on one's own ego.
-article "Huston Smith, famed scholar on world religions, focuses anew on his own faith of Christianity" by Richard N. Ostling, AP Religion Writer [http://www2.sbsun.com/news/ci_3056356]) {Added 29 Sep 2005}

...liberal Christianity has turned religion into mere morality, leaving churches with "nothing to offer their members except rallying cries to be good. ... The authority of religion has waned along with the mystery of the sacred."
-article "Huston Smith, famed scholar on world religions, focuses anew on his own faith of Christianity" by Richard N. Ostling, AP Religion Writer [http://www2.sbsun.com/news/ci_3056356]) {Added 29 Sep 2005}

"Science is not omnicompetent, Our physical senses are not the only senses we have." As his book puts it: "No one has ever seen a thought. No one has ever seen a feeling. Yet our thoughts and feelings are where we primarily live our lives." "Discounting invisible realities" is the "modern mistake" promoted by an intolerant secularism that says only empirical, scientific knowledge is valid.
-article "Huston Smith, famed scholar on world religions, focuses anew on his own faith of Christianity" by Richard N. Ostling, AP Religion Writer [http://www2.sbsun.com/news/ci_3056356]) {Added 29 Sep 2005}

There is no end; there is only beginning. Don't think of the end, think of the beginning. Mo matter what journey you go on, take yourself along. Don't look too far; it's always there.
-Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 29 Sep 2005}

How to relax? Don't think too much; laugh at everything; don't take things too seriously.
-Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 29 Sep 2005}

See the best in people always. If you see the best in people, you bring out the best in yourself. If you see the worst in people, you bring out the worst in yourself. See the best. It is very easy to see the bad in people. But it takes so much out of you to see the good...But you want to be good. If you want to BE good, see good.
-Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 29 Sep 2005}

The only way you'll ever feel great inside your own skin and become successful at anything, especially in business, is if you decide to become of service to others. Period. Start taking an interest in other people instead of just yourself. Help out everywhere you can. You will be amazed. As if by magic you'll learn faster, your relationships will improve, your job will be more fun, money will probably cease to be a problem... in short everything will be better for you.
-Mike Brescia [todayisyourdaytowin.com]) {Added 29 Sep 2005}

Objects we ardently pursue bring little happiness when gained; most of our pleasures come from unexpected sources.
-Herbert Spencer (seen in [todayisyourdaytowin.com]) {Added 29 Sep 2005}

No matter how big your suffering, make it small. You are the only one who can make it small.
-Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 27 Sep 2005}

To learn about the unknown, learn about the unknown in you.
-Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 27 Sep 2005}

When you close your eyes, the first thing you do is to embrace yourself.
-Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 27 Sep 2005}

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.
--John Steinbeck, novelist, Nobel laureate (1902-1968) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 27 Sep 2005}

Always be light so you can be the light for someone.
-Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 23 Sep 2005}

Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
-Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 22 Sep 2005}

There was an old man who sat next to the road and greeted people who entered and exited just outside his small village. When travelers came in, often they would ask what kind of people were in the town. The man responded by asking them what the people were like in the town they just left. If the traveler said the people were terrific, the man told them that he'd find the people in this town were much the same. If the traveler said the other town had horrible people in it, the man said that they'd find the people here much the same.
-from [todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 20 Sep 2005}

People believe what they want to believe.
-Julius Caesar [quoted in interview with Huston Smith] {Added 19 Sep 2005}

... If I have no other qualities, I can succeed with love alone. Without it I will fail though I possess all the knowledge and skills in the world.
-Og Mandino, "The Greatest Salesman in the World", [todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 19 Sep 2005}

Praise is well, compliment is well, but affection-that is the last and most precious reward that any man can win, whether by character or achievement.
-Mark Twain [todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 19 Sep 2005}

Benjamin Franklin made a list of 13 virtues that he valued but did not possess. He worked on only one virtue at a time, noting when he messed up, and when he succeeded in using the virtue. He made turning himself into a person who possessed that virtue his mission and did not worry about any of the other 12 until he had mastered the first one.
-Mike Brescia [todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 19 Sep 2005}

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.
-Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 19 Sep 2005}

A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.
-John Stuart Mill, philosopher and economist (1806-1873) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 19 Sep 2005}

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.
-Edmund Burke, statesman and writer (1729-1797) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 Sep 2005}

Make one person happy each day, and in forty years you will have made 14,600 human beings happy for a little time, at least.
-Charley Willey [todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 14 Sep 2005}

Practice learning and enjoying only one thing at a time, or else the first thing will be missed, as it gets plowed over by the next one. We are always given enough time for everything we need.
-Robbie Bednark, inspired by a quote from Mike Brescia [todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 12 Sep 2005}

As statistics show, most of what is written in the world's greatest self-help and how-to books goes unread by the buyers. And the material that is read is typically not used. Most people just aren't self-disciplined enough to take a bit, study it, master it then move on to the next level. That's why universities are so valuable and so expensive... they do it right. They give you a little bit, test you and then give you some more -- building on your knowledge after you've learned the easier stuff.
-Mike Brescia [todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 12 Sep 2005}

Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible.
-George Horace Lorimar [from todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 9 Sep 2005}

A sneer is the weapon of the weak.
-James Russell Lowell, poet, editor, and diplomat (1819-1891) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 9 Sep 2005}

Good humor is tonic for the mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment.
-Grenville Kleiser [todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 6 Sep 2005}

Forgiveness does not judge. It does not say that what was done was right or wrong. It simply acknowledges that a mistake was made and it is OK.
-David Leonhardt {Added 6 Sep 2005}

You never really understand a person until you consider things from their point of view.
-Harper Lee, writer (1926- ) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 6 Sep 2005}

It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
-Thomas Paine, philosopher and writer (1737-1809) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Sep 2005}

People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
-Dave Barry, author and columnist (1947- ) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Sep 2005}

What am I willing to give up in order to reach my objective?
-Mike Brescia [todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 30 Aug 2005}

You can tell whether a person is clever by their answers. You can tell whether a person is wise by their questions.
-Naguib Mahfouz, writer (1911- ) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 29 Aug 2005}

The less justified a person is in claiming excellence for their own self, the more ready they are to claim all excellence for their nation, their religion, their race or their holy cause. A person is likely to mind their own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, they take their mind off their own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business.
-Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 29 Aug 2005}

Life cannot be classified in terms of a simple neurological ladder, with human beings at the top; it is more accurate to talk of different forms of intelligence, each with its strengths and weaknesses. This point was well demonstrated in the minutes before last December's tsunami, when tourists grabbed their digital cameras and ran after the ebbing surf, and all the 'dumb' animals made for the hills.
-B.R. Myers, author (1963- ) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 29 Aug 2005}

I met, not long ago, a young man who aspired to become a novelist. Knowing that I was in the profession, he asked me to tell him how he should set to work to realize his ambition. I did my best to explain. 'The first thing,' I said, 'is to buy quite a lot of paper, a bottle of ink, and a pen. After that you merely have to write.'
-Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 29 Aug 2005}

We should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas, and not for things themselves.
-John Locke, philosopher (1632-1704) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 29 Aug 2005}

There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher.
-Henry van Dyke, poet (1852-1933) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 19 Aug 2005}

Change is exciting. A new car. A new romance. A promotion. Pumpkin pie for breakfast. You just can't beat change.
Change is terrifying. Facing a new boss. Losing a love. Throwing out that tattered old high-school shirt.
Come to think of it, change is exactly what you want it to be: exciting or terrifying. So why not make change exciting?
-David Leonhardt {Added 16 Aug 2005}

There is only one way that I can think of to become happy, and that is to choose to be happy. Everything else is just noise and distractions, and choosing to be happy involves cutting out the noise and ignoring the distractions.
-David Leonhardt (I paraphrased his actual quote) {Added 12 Aug 2005}

Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.
- George Soros [http://en.wikiquote.org] {Added 12 Aug 2005}

As I grow to understand life less and less, I learn to live it more and more.
-Jules Renard, writer (1864-1910) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 11 Aug 2005}

Every now and then I am approached by someone who says they want to get out of a rut. Or by someone who thinks life could be better. They want me to tell them what to do. So I ask them where they want to be, and I feel a bit like the Cheshire cat:
One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. "Which road do I take?" she asked. "Where do you want to go?" was his response. "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."
-David Leonhardt {Added 11 Aug 2005}

...this neurotic momentum into the next as if the next would provide something that the moment couldn't.
- Alan Clements, from book "Natural Freedom: The Dharma Beyond Buddhism" {Added 10 Aug 2005}

They say that's just the way it is,
Some things never change.
But don't you believe them.
- Bruce Hornsby, "That's Just the Way It Is" (song) {Added 4 Aug 2005}

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, let me sow pardon.
Where there is doubt, let me sow faith.
Where there is despair, let me sow hope,
Where there is darkness, let me sow light.
And where there is sadness, let me sow joy.
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
It is in giving that we receive,
and it is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
- Saint Francis [quoted in thehappyguy.com] {Added 4 Aug 2005}

Happiness comes from spiritual wealth, not material wealth... Happiness comes from giving, not getting. If we try hard to bring happiness to others, we cannot stop it from coming to us also. To get joy, we must give it, and to keep joy, we must scatter it.
- John Templeton [ quoted in thehappyguy.com] {Added 3 Aug 2005}

Fatigue is the best pillow.
-Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 2 Aug 2005}

It is as easy to dream a book as it is hard to write one.
-Honore de Balzac, novelist (1799-1850) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 2 Aug 2005}

Illness is in part what the world has done to a victim, but in a larger part it is what the victim has done with his world.
-Karl Menninger, psychiatrist (1893-1990) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 2 Aug 2005}

Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand.
-Emily Kimbrough, author and broadcaster (1899-1989) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 2 Aug 2005}

True religion is the life we lead, not the creed we profess.
-Louis Nizer, lawyer (1902-1994) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 2 Aug 2005}

Literature encourages tolerance - bigots and fanatics seldom have any use for the arts, because they're so preoccupied with their beliefs and actions that they can't see them also as possibilities.
-Northrop Frye, writer (1912-1991) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 2 Aug 2005}

Who has not for the sake of his reputation sacrificed himself?
-Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 2 Aug 2005}

No society that feeds its children on tales of successful violence can expect them not to believe that violence in the end is rewarded.
-Margaret Mead, anthropologist (1901-1978) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 2 Aug 2005}

I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.
-James Baldwin, writer (1924-1987) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 15 Jul 2005}

The most tyrannical of governments are those which make crimes of opinions, for everyone has an inalienable right to his thoughts.
-Baruch Spinoza, philosopher (1632-1677) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 08 Jul 2005}

One day's exposure to mountains is better than cartloads of books. See how willingly Nature poses herself upon photographers' plates. No earthly chemicals are so sensitive as those of the human soul.
-John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 07 Jul 2005}

Worrying is like praying for what you don't want.
-(heard from Morgine Jurdan) {Added 07 Jul 2005}

Wherever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.
-Harry S. Truman, 33rd US president (1884-1972) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 05 Jul 2005}

If moral behavior were simply following rules, we could program a computer to be moral.
-Samuel P. Ginder, US navy captain [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 05 Jul 2005}

Those who put out the people's eyes, reproach them for their blindness.
-John Milton, poet (1608-1674) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 14 Jun 2005}

What's done to children, they will do to society.
-Karl A. Menninger, psychiatrist (1893-1990) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 15 Jun 2005}

If one
Ponders on objects of the sense, there springs
Attraction; from attraction grows desire,
Desire flames to fierce passion, passion breeds
Recklessness; then the memory--all betrayed--
Lets noble purpose go, and saps the mind,
Till purpose, mind, and humanity are all undone
-Bhagavad Gita, 2nd chapter, quoted by Mohandas "Mahatma" K. Gandhi, "The Story of My Experiments in Truth : An Autobiography", 1957. [p. 53 of "Mohandas Gandhi : Essential Writings", selected by John Dear, 2002] {Added 15 Jun 2005}

...whatever is possible for me is possible even for a child, and I have sound reasons for saying so. The instruments of the quest of truth are as simple as they are difficult. They may appear quite impossible to an arrogant person, and quite possible to an innocent child. Seekers after truth should be humbler than the dust. The world crushes the dust under its feet, but seekers after truth should so humble themselves that even the dust could crush them. Only then, and not until then, will they have a glimpse of truth.
-Mohandas "Mahatma" K. Gandhi, "The Story of My Experiments in Truth : An Autobiography", 1957. [p. 52 of "Mohandas Gandhi : Essential Writings", selected by John Dear, 2002] {Added 15 Jun 2005}

Few are altogether deaf to the preaching of pine trees. Their sermons on the mountains go to our hearts; and if people in general could be got into the woods, even for once, to hear the trees speak for themselves, all difficulties in the way of forest preservation would vanish.
-John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 14 Jun 2005}

It is easier to make a saint out of a libertine than out of a prig.
-George Santayana, philosopher (1863-1952) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 8 Jun 2005}

You can out-distance that which is running after you, but not what is running inside you.
-Rwandan Proverb [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 6 Jun 2005}

Every single human culture that had a written history had these two steps within them. The first is a repetition, and that repetition can be a prayer. The other is a disregard of other thoughts when they come to mind.
--Dr. Herbert Benson, Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, referring to study he did on benefits of meditation/prayer, quoted on TV show "Burt Wolf Travels and Traditions : The Shrine at Guadalupe Mexico City", 2004. {Added 1 Jun 2005}

You can think about a sacred place, or you can think with it.
-quoted by Burt Wolf on one of his TV shows {Added 1 Jun 2005}

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.
-Hans Hofmann, painter (1880-1966) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 31 May 2005}

I am, indeed, a king, because I know how to rule myself.
-Pietro Aretino, satirist and dramatist (1492-1556) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 31 May 2005}

Never let your zeal outrun your charity. The former is but human, the latter is divine.
-Hosea Ballou, preacher (1771-1852) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 May 2005}

Grasp the subject, the words will follow.
-Cato the Elder, statesman, soldier, and writer (234-149 BCE) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 May 2005}

A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world.
-Paul Dudley White, physician (1886-1973) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 May 2005}

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.
-Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

A stiff apology is a second insult. The injured party does not want to be compensated because they have been wronged; they want to be healed because they have been hurt.
-G.K. Chesterton, author (1874-1936) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

Many a secret that cannot be pried out by curiosity can be drawn out by indifference.
-Sydney J. Harris, journalist (1917-1986) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

The beloved of the Almighty are the rich who have the humility of the poor, and the poor who have the magnanimity of the rich.
-Saadi, poet (1184-1291) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

It is human nature to hate the person whom you have hurt.
-Publius Cornelius Tacitus, historian (c.55-c.120) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, God must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.
-Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.
-Thomas Pynchon, writer (1937- ) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

I cannot walk through the suburbs in the solitude of the night without thinking that the night pleases us because it suppresses idle details, just as our memory does.
-Jorge Luis Borges, writer (1899-1986) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
-Woody Allen, author actor, and filmmaker (1935- ) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

It is kindness immediately to refuse what you intend to deny.
-Publilius Syrus, writer (c. 1st century BCE) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

I am so convinced of the advantages of looking at mankind instead of reading about them, and of the bitter effects of staying at home with all the narrow prejudices of an Islander, that I think there should be a law amongst us to set our young men abroad for a term among the few allies our wars have left us.
-Lord Byron, poet (1788-1824) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man.
-Madame de Stael, writer (1766-1817) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

Life is short. Be swift to love! Make haste to be kind!
-Henri Frederic Amiel philosopher and writer (1821-1881) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all.
-Thomas Szasz, author, professor of psychiatry (1920- ) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

To know enough's enough
Is enough to know.
-Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching [chapter 46, "Tao Te Ching : A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way", by Lao Tzu, version by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1997] from my friend Howard Abram's quote collection {Added 5 May 2005}

You only have what you give. It's by spending yourself that you become rich... What is the point of having experience, knowledge or talent if I don't give it away? Of having stories if I don't tell them to others? Of having wealth if I don't share it?... It is in giving that I connect with others, with the world and with the divine.
-Isabelle Allende, "In Giving I Connect With Others", Apr 4, 2005, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4568464 {Added 6 Apr 2005}

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.
-Noam Chomsky, linguistics professor and political activist (1928- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the person of imagination, nature is imagination itself.
-William Blake, poet, engraver, and painter (1757-1827) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

Soon silence will have passed into legend. People have turned their backs on silence. Day after day they invent machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation. Tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster their egos.
-Jean Arp, artist and poet (1887-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

And none will hear the postman's knock
Without a quickening of the heart.
For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?
-W.H. Auden, poet (1907-1973) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

And Silence, like a poultice, comes
To heal the blows of sound.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., poet, novelist, essayist, and physician (1809-1894) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

There is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience.
-French proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
-Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

A teacher who is attempting to teach, without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn, is hammering on a cold iron.
-Horace Mann, educational reformer (1796-1859) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

In the absence of touching and being touched, people of all ages can sicken and grow touch-starved.
-Diane Ackerman, writer (1948- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border.
-Pablo Casals, cellist, conductor, and composer (1876-1973) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life - the sick, the needy and the handicapped.
-Hubert Horatio Humphrey, US Vice President (1911-1978) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

The more people are reached by mass communication, the less they communicate with each other.
-Marya Mannes, writer (1904-1990) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

Nature can provide for the needs of people; [she] can't provide for the greed of people.
-Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

There are three truths: my truth, your truth, and the truth.
-Chinese proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

Too many parents make life hard for their children by trying, too zealously, to make it easy for them.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (1749-1832) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.
-H. Jackson Brown, Jr., writer [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

Good deeds are the best prayer.
-Serbian proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this.
-Emo Phillips, comedian, actor (1956- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.
-Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

Mahatma Gandhi was once leading a large protest across India. A few days into the march, he found out that there was going to be a great deal of violence, and he abruptly announced that he was ending the march. Some of his followers and supporters said, "But Gandhiji, you can't call off this march. Many people, from all over India, left their jobs and came great distances to be on this march." Gandhi replied, "Only God knows absolute truth. I just know relative truth. My allegiance must be to truth, not consistency."
-from Mickey Lemle, "Truth and Perception", from Parabola magazine, p. 47, Nov 2003, Vol 28, No 4 {Added 31 Mar 2005}

I don't want to justify religion in terms of its benefits to us. I believe that, on balance, it does a lot of bad things, too -- a tremendous amount. But I don't think that the final justification of religion is the good it does for people. I think the final justification is that it's true, and truth takes priority over consequences. Religion helps us deal with what is most important to the human spirit: values, meaning, purpose, and quality.
-Huston Smith http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/1997/11/snell.html (Huston Smith, from interview by Marilyn Snell, "Mother Jones" magazine, Nov/Dec 1997 issue) {Added 24 Mar 2005}

It is always the secure who are humble.
-G.K. Chesterton, essayist and novelist (1874-1936) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

Patience is also a form of action.
-Auguste Rodin, sculptor (1840-1917) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them, and half as much money.
-Abigail Van Buren, advice columnist (1918- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

There's a schizoid quality to our relationship with animals, in which sentiment and brutality exist side by side. Half the dogs in America will receive Christmas presents this year, yet few of us pause to consider the miserable life of the pig -- an animal easily as intelligent as a dog -- that becomes the Christmas ham.
-Michael Pollan, professor and writer (1955- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

Being rich is having money; being wealthy is having time.
-Stephen Swid, executive [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without. It has to come from within.
-Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

Knowing ignorance is strength; ignoring knowledge is sickness.
-Lao-Tzu, philosopher (6th century BCE) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you.
-Robert Louis Stevenson, novelist, essayist, and poet (1850-1894) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter... to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring - these are some of the rewards of the simple life. -John Burroughs, naturalist and writer (1837-1921)
[Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

The most perfect technique is that which is not noticed at all.
-Pablo Casals, cellist, conductor, and composer (1876-1973) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.
-Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.
-Viktor Frankl, author, neurologist and psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor (1905-1997) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

We all love animals. Why do we call some "pets" and others "dinner?"
-k.d. lang, singer (1961- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

The world doesn't lack for good stories. The world lacks for good storytellers.
-Malcolm Gladwell, from interview by David Weich at Powell's Books web site http://www.powells.com/authors/gladwell.html {Added 22 Mar 2005}

Forgetting this familiar world of fact is a necessary step toward remembering the truths that matter. We need to go into a dark theater, shutting out bright life, and tune into the mystery of the movie. We need to go to bed, turn out the light, and have a dream that will give a hint about the theater we lived during the day. We need to shut our eyes in the church, temple, or mosque, and in that gesture of forgetting remember who we are at the deepest level.
-Thomas Moore, "Songs of Unforgetting", from Parabola magazine, p. 9, Nov 2003, Vol 28, No 4 {Added 22 Mar 2005}

A bit of perfume always clings to the hand that gives the rose.
-Chinese proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 Mar 2005}

The only devils in this world are those running around in our own hearts, and that is where all our battles should be fought.
-Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 Mar 2005}

In America, anybody can be president. That's one of the risks you take.
-Adlai Stevenson, statesman (1900-1965) [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 Mar 2005}

Everything is for the eye these days - TV, Life, Look, the movies. Nothing is just for the mind. The next generation will have eyeballs as big as cantaloupes and no brain at all.
-Fred Allen [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 Mar 2005}

A person is not old until their regrets take the place of dreams.
-Yiddish proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 Mar 2005}

The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
-Theodore M. Hesburgh, educator (1917- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 Mar 2005}

If you don't find God in the next person you meet, it is a waste of time looking for him further.
-Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 Mar 2005}

A visitor from Mars could easily pick out the civilized nations. They have the best implements of war.
-Herbert V. Prochnow, banker (1897-1998) [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 Mar 2005}

I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before;
second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life;
third, because although they took my all, it was not much;
and fourth because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed.
-Matthew Henry, minister (1662-1714) [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 Mar 2005}

People think in frames. If the facts do not fit a frame, the frame stays and the facts bounce off.
-George Lakoff {Added 18 Mar 2005}

Stand before the people you fear and speak your mind - even if your voice shakes.
-Maggie Kuhn http://www.dailycelebrations.com/080303.htm {Added 16 Mar 2005}
Author/editor: Robbie Bednark

This page created: 1/31/97 Last updated: 27 Oct 2005 [Source: http://bednark.com/quotes.html]
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Posted by robbie at November 10, 2005 12:02 PM | TrackBack

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