Wislawa Szymborska - book of events

"Every beginning, after all, is nothing but a sequel, and the book of events is always open in the middle." ~Wislawa Szymborska

Patrick Henry

"Give me liberty or give me death." ~Patrick Henry, US Statesman

Robert Olen Butler - impulses

"What ennobles us humans is that we can act against our own impulses when we know they're wrong. We can do the thing we don't want to do out of love for another person." ~Robert Olen Butler

Heinrich Heine - silence

"Silence is the essential condition of happiness."~Heinrich Heine

Maguid Maruhom - life

"A life with a direction can always meet lots of storms. As long as you did not create your problems, live and learn to be happy with them. A boat that does not leave the harbor is always safe, but it doesn't get anywhere." ~Maguid Maruhom

Susan Deborah - minds

"Our minds do not like paradoxes. We want things to be clear, so we can maintain our illusions of safety. Certainty breeds tremendous smugness." ~Susan Deborah

Gene Parker - true disciples

"True Disciples of Jesus Christ rejoice when they see God at work. Whether it is answered prayer, a miracle, the repentance and calling of a person or any divine work that glorifies God. Genuine believers spontaneously celebrate, as angels do, when they see God's activity." ~Gene Parker

Dr. Louis J. Camuti - animlas

"Love of animals is a universal impulse, a common ground on which all of us may meet. By loving and understanding animals, perhaps we humans shall come to understand each other."
~Dr. Louis J. Camuti

Quotes on Drama

"Drama is life with the dull bits cut out." ~Alfred Hitchcock

"God doesn't get rid of the drama in your life. He just gets rid of the cheap drama." -Marianne Williamson

Dale Carnegie - road

Echo Point, Katoomba NSW
May 2011

"The royal road to a man's heart is to talk to him about the things he treasures most." ~Dale Carnegie

Stephen Shore - Photography

Oberon Plateau
May 2011

Photography is inherently an analytic discipline. Where a painter starts with a blank canvas and builds a picture, a photographer starts with the messiness of the world and selects a picture." ~Stephen Shore

Aaron Copland - music

Rayoma
Music from Heaven
Market Place CBD
26 November 2012

"To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable." ~Aaron Copland

Rainer Maria Rilke - dreams

"I live not in dreams but in contemplation of a reality that is perhaps the future."
~Rainer Maria Rilke

Robert Jones - beauty

"Beauty comes from the expression and character in your face—not just its symmetry."
~Robert Jones

Ben Jonson - argument

"Nay, if he take you in hand, sir, with an argument, He'll bray you in a mortar."
~Ben Jonson on Argument

Viktor E. Frankl - remembrance

"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the people who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a person but one thing: the last of the human freedoms--to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." ~Viktor E. Frankl

Joseph J. Sweere - gift

"The greatest gift you can give others is your best you—your healthiest you." ~Joseph J. Sweere

Iyanla Vanzant - experience

"Everything we experience—no matter how unpleasant—comes into our lives to teach us something." ~Iyanla Vanzant

Nikos Kazantzakis - needs

"A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free."
~Nikos Kazantzakis on Needs

Mehmet Oz - right thing

"To achieve your goals, make the right thing to do the easy thing to do." ~Dr. Mehmet Oz

G. C. Lichtenberg - book

"A book is a mirror: If an ass peers into it, you can't expect an apostle to look out."
~G. C. Lichtenberg on Books

Walter Winchell - gossip

"Gossip is the art of saying nothing in such a way that leaves practically nothing unsaid." ~Walter Winchell on Gossip

Doris Day - animals

"The more that people live with animals, the more they know how precious they are and what they do to enhance our lives." ~Doris Day, Actress, Animal Activist.

Bob Greene - life you deserve

"Care deeply for yourself, and have the wherewithal to do what it takes to make yourself happy. Go out and claim the life you deserve!" ~Bob Greene

George Santayana - vanity

"The highest form of vanity is love of fame." ~George Santayana

Samuel Butler - honor

"Honor is like a widow, won With brisk attempt and putting on.” ~Samuel Butler on Honor

Robert Louis Stevenson - Positive Attitude

More than 100 years ago, author Robert Louis Stevenson offered the following tips for maintaining a positive attitude. They still apply today.

Make up your mind to be happy. Learn to find pleasure in simple things.

Make the best of your circumstances. No one has everything, and everyone has something of sorrow intermingled with gladness of life. The trick is to make the laughter outweigh the tears.

Don't take yourself too seriously. Don't think that somehow you should be protected from misfortune that befalls other people.

You can't please everybody. Don't let criticism worry you.

Don't let your neighbor set your standards. Be yourself.

Do the things you enjoy doing but stay out of debt.

Never borrow trouble. Imaginary things are harder to bear than real ones.

Since hate poisons the soul, do not cherish jealousy, enmity, grudges. Avoid people who make you unhappy.

Have many interests. If you can't travel, read about new places.

Don't hold postmortems. Don't spend your time brooding over sorrows or mistakes. Don't be one who never gets over things.

Do what you can for those less fortunate than yourself.

Keep busy at something. A busy person never has time to be unhappy.

~Robert Louis Stevenson

Richard Henry Stoddard - flowers

“We grow like flowers, and bear desire, The odor of the human flowers.” ~Richard Henry Stoddard

Frederic Chopin - Apathy

“Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on.” ~Frederic Chopin on Apathy

Anne Glusker - state of mind

"When we enter a state of mindful attention, the present moment, the now, eases open. And when it does, life pours in." ~Anne Glusker

Haruki Murakami - touchstone

"No matter how much time passes, no matter what takes place in the interim, there are some things we can never assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away. They remain with us forever, like a touchstone." ~Haruki Murakami

Rev. Ed Bacon - transformation

"Open your heart and you will be amazed at the transformations taking place all around you." ~Rev. Ed Bacon

Susan Orlean - possibility

"The reason it matters to care passionately about something is that it whittles the world down to a more manageable size. It makes the world seem not huge and empty but full of possibility." ~Susan Orlean

Atul Gawande - small steps

"We always hope for the easy fix: the one simple change that will erase a problem in a stroke. But few things in life work this way. Instead, success requires making a hundred small steps go right—one after the other, no slipups, no goofs, everyone pitching in." ~Atul Gawande

Indira Gandhi - prosperity

"We have believed - and we do believe now - that freedom is indivisible, that peace is indivisible, that economic prosperity is indivisible" ~Indira Gandhi

Martha Graham - learn by practice

"I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same." ~Martha Graham

Irwin Edman - myths

"It is a myth, not a mandate, a fable not a logic, and symbol rather than a reason by which men are moved." ~Irwin Edman

William Pollard - opportunity

"It is the responsibility of leadership to provide opportunity, and the responsibility of individuals to contribute." ~William Pollard

Proverbs - words

"Fine words butter no parsnips." ~Proverb

Winston Churchill -life

"Without a measureless and perpetual uncertainty, the drama of human life would be destroyed." ~Winston Churchill

Martha Beck Quotes

"Instead of hiding your loneliness, bring it into the light. Honor it. Treat it. Heal it. You'll find that it returns the favor." ~Martha Beck

"Somewhere in there, among the worries, questions, advice and advertising jingles, lives your intuition, your true 'inner voice.' You can hear it to the extent that you give it your attention." ~Martha Beck

Katherine Mansfield - a sailor

"It's rather nice to think of oneself as a sailor bending over the map of one's mind and deciding where to go and how to go. The great thing to remember is we can do whatever we wish to do provided our wish is strong enough." ~Katherine Mansfield

Edward J. Phelps - no mistakes

"The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything." ~Edward J. Phelps

Amy Shearn - tiny miracles

"When you really consider the everyday things around you, they start to seem like tiny miracles." ~Amy Shearn

Leigh Newman Quotes

"Resisting and avoiding pain sucks energy—and time...The more you let yourself feel those minute-and-a-half hells, the quicker you’ll start feeling those minute-and-a-half happinesses." ~Leigh Newman

"There are still things out there in the universe to contemplate and spend our lives chasing." ~Leigh Newman

Franz Kafka - book

"A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us." ~Franz Kafka

Shirley Conran - Maturity

"You're never too old to grow up." ~Shirley Conran on Maturity

Julie Morgenstern - belongings

"No matter what, you'll have the chance to enjoy your belongings, instead of feeling lost under them." ~Julie Morgenstern

Michelle Stacey - activity

"If we looked at eating as an activity to relish rather than as an invitation to gluttony, we’d all be not only healthier but happier." ~Michelle Stacey

Leon Trotsky - Struggle

"In a serious struggle there is no worse cruelty than to be magnanimous at an inopportune time." ~Leon Trotsky on Struggle

Artie Hoffman Inspirations

"Don't change your true colors of who you are to keep in the expectations and comfort zone of others. Maybe the reason why you may not be happy is because you're trying too hard to fit into someone else way of thinking and by nature that's not who you are...." ~Artie Hoffman

"God determines who walks into your life....it's up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let go." ~Artie Hoffman

"If you want better results to happen in your life. You can't keep repeating past pattern habits and expect different and better results. You need to be able to focus and be committed to step out of your comfort zone and do what it takes to create the success you always dreamed of and be committed to follow through to the end of any tasks until you see the results you've been looking for." ~Artie Hoffman

"Just because you might think differently or be different from others, doesn't make you wrong. Stay focused on your own individuality and dare to express your own uniqueness. If others can't accept it or adjust to whom you really are, then it's up to you whether you allow yourself to have them share in your life..." ~Artie Hoffman

"Making a difference in our lives might have nothing to do with education, wealth or power, but everything to do with love, kindness and serving others." ~Artie Hoffman

"Pay attention to the rhythm of your own soul in life and start doing things for yourself in a way that makes you happy and not according to what other people think you should be." ~Artie Hoffman

"Your life is meant to live in happiness. Your life's purpose is not to try to meet up to other peoples expectations but your own." ~Artie Hoffman

Sarah Hepola change

"Change is not a bolt of lightning that arrives with a zap. It is a bridge built brick by brick, every day, with sweat and humility and slips. It is hard work, and slow work, but it can be thrilling to watch it take shape." ~Sarah Hepola

Anne Frank - heavens and nature

"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens and nature." ~Anne Frank

Andrew Mellen - the way you live

"Being organized isn't about getting rid of everything you own or trying to become a different person; it's about living the way you want to live, but better." ~Andrew Mellen

Socrates - true wisdom

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” ~Socrates

Dietrich Bonhoeffer - postage stamp

“Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there.” ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Michael F. Roizen and Dr. Mehmet Oz Quotes

"Knowing your body gives you the power to change it, maintain it, decorate it, and strengthen it." ~Michael F. Roizen and Dr. Mehmet Oz

Pierre Corneille - happiness

“Happiness seems made to be shared. [Fr., Le bonheur semble fait pour etre partage.]”
~Pierre Corneille on Happiness

Toni Bark - things happen

"Things don't just come your way and happen, you make them happen." ~Toni Bark, MD

George Colman - nature

“All argument will vanish before one touch of nature.” ~George Colman

Robert Frost Quotes

"A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age." ~Robert Frost

“Nothing Gold Can Stay” ~Robert Frost

Thought for Today - Live In Balance

"Live in balance between the head and the heart by filling your feelings with wisdom and your decisions with love." ~Thought for Today

Leah C Dancel - sky

"I walked safely home in the company of beautiful white cloudy night and some timid stars." ~Leah C Dancel

Michael F. Staley - challenge

"There is no Challenge more challenging than the challenge to improve yourself." ~ Michael F. Staley

Brian Carter - wellness

“Even people who aren't sick may not have optimal wellness.” ~Brian Carter

Positive Thoughts

"Our life is simply a reflection of our actions." ~Positive Thoughts

"The means create the ends - and the ends will be great if the means is LOVE." ~Positive Thoughts

"The world is full of beauty when your heart is full of love." ~Positive Thoughts

"Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Today is a blank canvas upon which you have the delightful opportunity to create. At this moment you are standing at the beginning of an impressive adventure, with the very real and present opportunity to shape the upcoming years into the happiest ones ever."

"Unconditional love takes you beyond the illusions of space and time and helps you bring whomever you love into your presence . That doesn't mean the physical aspect of the person appears;  rather, unconditional love flows between you and that person and connects your heart and soul with theirs."

"You are inspiration-packed, wisdom-infused, made with love, and blessed with joy. And so is everyone else. To be free all you have to do is make yourself wholly available to what is already inside you. Real healing is giving up your resistance to your Unconditioned Self."

"Your life is not a coincidence. It's a reflection of you!" ~Positive Thoughts

Gabrielle Leblanc - experience

"The way we pay attention to the world can make a huge difference in the way we experience it." ~Gabrielle Leblanc

William Hazlitt

“Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.” ~William Hazlitt

Paul Klee - single day

"A single day is enough to make us a little larger." ~Paul Klee

Charles Churchill - sons of men

“Amongst the sons of men how few are known Who dare be just to merit not their own.”
~Charles Churchill

Two Different Things

"Heart is the seat of life, not of hurt, nor fear, nor sorrow", whoever said this. One of those saying I read long ago from a pharmaceutical coronary products leaflet or medical brochure. More than thirty years ago, the words I quote above has instilled well in my memory. To myself I asked, "do I really have an understanding heart?" Am I really a genuine compassionate being? I don't want to be harsh to my ownself, but I am hoping I have. Where do we really exercise our true compassion and for whom as to whom? ~Leah C. Dancel

Below is a re-post from the Positive Thoughts.

An Understanding Heart.

What we hold in our hearts for others is the way we'll act toward them. A hard heart makes for hard judgments; a compassionate heart understands the humanity of the one we presume to judge.

Compassion for the other comes out of our ability to accept ourselves. Until we realize both our own weaknesses and our own privileges, we can never tolerate lack of status and depth of weakness in the other.

The self-righteous hate themselves for their own weaknesses and so they despise them in others. That's why those who claim to be virtuous fall so much further, so much harder, than others when they fall. A touch of compassion for others along the way would surely soften the fall, as fall we shall--sooner or later.

Compassion is the ability to understand how difficult it is for people to be the best of what they want to be at all times.

Life buffets us at our best. That's why the hand of one who understands our efforts, our errors, becomes the bridge that carries us over the failures of life. . . .

"My feeling is that there is nothing in life but refraining from hurting others, and confronting those that are sad," Olive Schreiner wrote. The idea deserves thought. Imagine a world where "rugged individualism" and "natural corrections in the market place" gave way to "refraining from hurting the others and comforting those who are sad." National compassion would surely mean no more street people. No more children with nowhere to go. No more hungry people in the richest country in the world. More welfare for the poor as well as for the rich.

Compassion is the virtue that opens heaven to us. It is what makes us most like God. Everyone suffers in life. Compassion is that quality in another that makes it possible for us to survive it.

Compassion makes no distinction between friends and enemies, neighbors and outsiders, compatriots and foreigners. Compassion is the gate to human community.

Compassion is not sympathy. Compassion is mercy. It is a commitment to take responsibility for the suffering of others. . . .

It's one thing to do good; it's another thing to be good. It's possible, perhaps, to do good simply out of principle, but it's impossible to really be good that way--not if goodness is a quality of the heart and not simply an exercise of the will. ~Joan Chittister.

Maya Angelou - events

"You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them." ~Maya Angelou

Libbie Fudim - judgment

“We may not return the affection of those who like us, but we always respect their good judgment.” ~Libbie Fudim on Affection

Ann Patchett - kindness

"Show kindness whenever possible. Show it to the people in front of you, the people coming up behind you, and the people with whom you are running neck and neck. It will vastly improve the quality of your own life, the lives of others, and the state of the world." ~Ann Patchett

Kent Nerburn - presence of light

"We are not saints; we are not heroes. Our lives are lived in the quiet corners of the ordinary. We build tiny hearth fires, sometimes barely strong enough to give off warmth. But to the person lost in the darkness, our tiny flame may be the road to safety, the path to salvation.

It is not given to us to know who is lost in the darkness that surrounds us or even if our light is seen. We can only know that against even the smallest of lights, darkness cannot stand. A sailor lost at sea can be guided home by a single candle. A person lost in a wood can be led to safety by a flickering flame. It is not an issue of quality or intensity or purity. It is simply an issue of the presence of light." ~Kent Nerburn from "Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace."

Source: Positive Thoughts

George Linnaeus Banks - goodness

“Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.” ~George Linnaeus Banks on Goodness

Nora Ephron - believer

"I'm very much a believer in knowing what it is that you love doing so you can do a great deal of it." ~Nora Ephron

Debbie Ford - act of courage

"The greatest act of courage is to be and to own all of who you are—without apology, without excuses, without masks to cover the truth of who you are." ~Debbie Ford

Bobbi Brown - beautiful

"How I feel about myself is more important than how I look. Feeling confident, being comfortable in your skin—that's what really makes you beautiful." ~Bobbi Brown

Abhi - beautiful

"No matter what people say, you will ALWAYS be beautiful." ~Abhi

Leontyne Price - Luxury

“The ultimate of being successful is the luxury of giving yourself the time to do what you want to do.” ~Leontyne Price on Luxury

Anon - Fear

"Fear is the mind killer

I will face my fear.
I will let the fear pass through me

And only I will remain."

~Anon~

Jim Valvano - gift

"My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me." ~Jim Valvano

Cheryl Strayed Quotes

"But I wasn't here to keep myself from having to say I am not afraid. I'd come, I realized, to stare that fear down, to stare everything down, really...I couldn't do that while tagging along with someone else." ~Cheryl Strayed

"I'd walk and think about my entire life. I'd find my strength again, far from everything that had made my life ridiculous." ~Cheryl Strayed

"I only felt that inspite of all the things I'd done wrong, in getting myself here, I'd done right." ~Cheryl Strayed

"I walked all those miles, I learned all those lessons. It’s as if my new life was the gift I got at the end of a long struggle." ~Cheryl Strayed

"Of all the things I'd been skeptical about, I didn't feel skeptical about this: the wilderness had a clarity that includied me." ~Cheryl Strayed

"Perhaps being amidst the undesecrated beauty of the wilderness meant I too could be undesecrated, regardless of what I'd lost of what had been taken from me." ~Cheryl Strayed

"Uncertain as I was as I pushed forward, I felt right in my pushing, as if the effort itself meant something." ~Cheryl Strayed

Lisa Kogan - life

"Life is joy and sorrow, hand in hand. And that, my friend, is about all I know." ~Lisa Kogan

Lily Dancel - lion

"You are as tough as a warrior and loving as a lion". ~Lily Dancel (a letter to her mother)

Martin Buber - people

"When two people relate to each other authentically and humanly, God is the electricity that surges between them." ~Martin Buber

Ruth Fishell - mind

"Everything that is created, begins in the mind." ~Ruth Fishell

Ernest Renan - asking for the impossible

“When people complain of life, it is almost always because they have asked impossible things of it.” ~Ernest Renan

John Lyly - honesty

“The true measure of life is not length, but honesty.” ~John Lyly

Marcel Proust - regret

"There is no man, however wise, who has not at some period of his youth said things, or lived in a way the consciousness of which is so unpleasant to him in later life that he would gladly, if he could, expunge it from his memory." ~Marcel Proust (1871–1922), French novelist

Swami Beyondananda - photography

“Life is like photography. You use the negative to develop.” ~Swami Beyondananda

Marie Curie - life

“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.” ~Marie Curie

Marguerite Gardiner - honey and vinegar

“Love-matches are made by people who are content, for a month of honey, to condemn themselves to a life of vinegar.” ~Countess of (Marguerite Gardiner) Blessington