Daily Inspiration - Daily Quotes

THINK about new ideas, rather than either blindly rejecting or accepting them

2026-08-14T00:30:00.000-04:00

What is my purpose in sending these Daily Quotes and Inspirations, as I have been doing since 2008?
Some of these messages are intended to provide a small measure of comfort, but most of these messages are intended to challenge my readers to deeper thinking.

Short quotations/aphorisms are by their nature incomplete, and almost always present only one side of an issue. Long-time readers will also notice that I often present quotations that contradict each other - for example, some exhort the reader to work harder/smarter while others encourage placing a relatively low priority on work.

My hope is that these daily messages will get you thinking about new ideas. Let's take these aphorisms as a spur for inquiry. Let those ideas with which you disagree start you thinking, talking and questioning, but also let the comfortable, familiar, and inspiring quotes become a source of questioning. Remember that our comfortable inspiring quotes are also never 100% true in all situations. Open Minds - Open Hearts. Thank you for reading these daily messages.
Read more about this at Inspirational/Motivational Quotes - Spur for Inquiry

Beware of false knowledge;
it is more dangerous than ignorance.
- George Bernard Shaw

Look for what is,
and not for what you think should be.
- Albert Einstein [paraphrase]

What is a scientist after all?
It is a curious man looking through a keyhole,
the keyhole of nature, trying to know what's going on.
- Jacques Yves Cousteau

Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.
- Harry S. Truman

All truths are easy to understand
once they are discovered;
the point is to discover them.
- Galileo Galilei

Do not limit yourself to either analysis or emotion.
Look deeply into the DNA of its seeds,
AND appreciate the intoxicating grandeur of the forest.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Be a Seeker

Lifelong Learning

Inquiry

Conscious Learning

Discovery

Ask Deeper Questions

2026-08-13T00:30:00.000-04:00

Let no one think that flexibility
and a predisposition to compromise
is a sign of weakness or a sell-out.
- Paul Kagame

The boldness of asking deep questions may require
unforeseen flexibility if we are to accept the answers.
- Brian Greene

Those who can see value only in tradition,...
deny man's ability to adapt to changing circumstances.
- Stephen Bayley

In science the important thing is to modify and change
one's ideas as science advances.
- Herbert Spencer

Be resolute in your goals, but flexible in your tactics.
There are times that call for repetition and perseverance;
and there are times that require new ways of thinking and doing.
The challenge is knowing one from the other.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: I choose to adapt to the circumstances in which I find myself

New Ideas

Practice makes perfect - sometimes

Be Flexible

Life is Complex. Don't Expect Easy Answers

2026-08-12T00:30:00.000-04:00

Willingly accept the complexity and the contradictions of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You didn't get stamped out of a mold. You aren't a "black person" or a "white person," a "fat person" or a "skinny person," a "bad person" or a "good person." You are a highly complex human being with emotions, beliefs, capabilities. Each day you face challenges to your health, relationships, finances, and world-view -- and every day you respond to those challenges in ways which are unique to you.

Honor and love all of your unique self. Never diminish yourself with self-applied labels or categorizations.

Actions are always more complex and nuanced than they seem.
We have to be willing to wrestle with paradox in pursuing understanding.
- Harold Evans

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize
how little we understand about life,
ourselves, and the world around us.
- Socrates

For every complex problem,
there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
- H. L. Mencken

I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma,
a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own
mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
- Umberto Eco

Further reading: All Life is Paradox

Lessons from Life

Stand Rapt in Awe

Review Your Daily Habits. Are They Supporting You?

2026-08-11T00:30:00.000-04:00

Is today the day to stop doing what doesn't inspire you, but has become a habit?

Is today the day to begin new projects and a new way of life that truly inspires you?

Are your habits moving you toward your life goals?
Or are they keeping you stuck in place?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make,
both consciously and unconsciously.
If you can control the process of choosing,
you can take control of all aspects of your life.
You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself.
- Robert Foster Bennett

The freedom we are looking for is the freedom to be ourselves,
to express ourselves. But if we look at our lives we will see that
most of the time we do things just to please others ...
The worst part is that most of us are not even aware that we are not free.
-Don Miguel Ruiz

Bad habits are like a comfortable bed,
easy to get into, but hard to get out of.
- Anonymous

Correcting bad habits cannot be done by forbidding or punishment.
- Robert Baden-Powell (the founder of scouting)

Further reading: Are You a Prisoner?

5 Secrets For Breaking Your Bad Habits

Our Habits

Running in Circles

Self Discipline

Habits - Like Water to a Fish

Renew Your Connection With Nature

2026-08-10T00:30:00.000-04:00

The primal rhythmic power
and resonant sound of waves on the shore
are like the earth's heartbeat,
and become our connection with the body of nature.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Everything has rhythm. everything dances.
- Maya Angelou

To discover joy is to return
to a state of oneness with the universe.
- Peggy Jenkins

Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers,
the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters,
and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.
- John Lubbock

Further reading: The Beat of the Universe

Set Your Rhythm

Today is Your Day

Unity with Spirit and All Creation

Choosing Compassion Toward ALL is Heroic

2026-08-09T00:30:00.000-04:00

To go against the dominant thinking of your friends,
of most of the people you see every day,
is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.
- Theodore H. White

The opposite of courage in our society
is not cowardice, it is conformity.
- Rollo May

Life is a sum of all your choices.
- Albert Camus

Today's affirmation
I CHOOSE with Open Mind and Open Heart.
I renounce all assumptions and expectations.
I thoughtfully consider all possibilities.
I CHOOSE with courage, awareness, consciousness, and compassion toward all.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Trouble with Conformity

Make Decisions

Embrace Change

Do What You Know Is Right

Try Being Outrageous

Punishment Seldom Achieves the Intended Result

2026-08-08T00:30:00.000-04:00

It is an open question whether any behavior
based on fear of eternal punishment
can be regarded as ethical
or should be regarded as merely cowardly.
- Margaret Mead

To be admirable, morality must be its own reward.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Power is of two kinds.
One is obtained by the fear of punishment
and the other by acts of love
Power based on love
is a thousand times more effective and permanent
then the one derived from fear of punishment.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Punishment cannot heal spirits, can only break them.
- Barbara Deming

If people are good only because they fear punishment,
and hope for reward,
then we are a sorry lot indeed.
- Albert Einstein

Correcting bad habits cannot be done
by forbidding or punishment.
- Robert Baden-Powell (the founder of scouting)

Today's project:
Meaningful and joyful lives are lived by adhering to one's personal value system - one's principles. Today, write your six to eight most important values on an index card, and refer to that card as you go about your life today.

Further reading: Anger is Its Own Punishment

Finding Peace in Forgiveness

Revenge, the Deadliest Sin?

Courage and Perseverance

2026-08-07T00:30:00.000-04:00

When you get into a tight place
and everything goes against you,
till it seems you cannot hold on a minute longer,
never give up then, for that is just
the place and time the tide will turn.
- Harriet Beecher Stowe

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman,
before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
- John Quincy Adams

Obstacles are those frightful things you see
when you take your eyes off your goals.
- Henry Ford

Stand up to your obstacles
and do something about them.
You will find that they haven't
half the strength you think they have.
- Norman Vincent Peale

Today's affirmation:
Even when I am afraid or unsure,
I choose to move in the direction of my goal.
Whenever I fall, I stand up,
brush myself off, and keep moving.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Photo: Talking to relatives across the Berlin Wall 1961.

Further reading: Beyond Failure

Keep Moving

Choose to Soar

Wanting is Not Enough

There is More to SEEING than Merely Looking

2026-08-06T00:30:00.000-04:00

Look closely... See with new eyes...
Don't just pass by what is familiar without a thought.
Pay attention and look closely.
There is beauty - there is discovery -
there in a whole new world hiding
beneath the face of the familiar.
Your Close Attention Will Be Richly Repaid.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Reason, observation, and experience;
the holy trinity of science.
- Robert Green Ingersoll

The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass,
it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.
- Henry Miller

You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one.
Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own.
It's just a matter of paying attention to this miracle.
- Paulo Coelho

The more you look, the more you see.
- Robert M. Pirsig

Further reading: Where Are You Going, and Why?

Have Eyes for Beauty

Stay Alert for Opportunities

Trust Yourself - Only You Can Live Your Life

2026-08-05T00:30:00.000-04:00

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
...
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;
...
- Rudyard Kipling

Confidence comes not from always being right
but from not fearing to be wrong.
- Peter T. Mcintyre

Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.
- Vince Lombardi

Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it...
that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear.
- Dale Carnegie

Trust yourself. Only you can live your life.
Only you can taste your victories.
Only you can suffer the sting of your defeats.
Make your own choices, and accept your own consequences -
for better or worse.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Stand Tall and Proud

Have Confidence in Yourself

Feeling Tired?

Blaze Your Own Trail

Great Futures Won't Happen Without Open Minds

2026-08-04T00:30:00.000-04:00

Let today be a day to break with convention,
to try out new ideas and ways of living.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I don't need other people to have an open mind.
The crucial question is "Is my mind open?"
- Byron Katie

Every really new idea looks crazy at first.
- Alfred North Whitehead

Minds are like parachutes.
They only function when they are open.
- James Dewar

The human mind, once stretched by a new idea,
never returns to its original dimensions.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Every time you tear a leaf off a calendar,
you present a new place for new ideas and progress.
- Charles Kettering

Few new truths have ever won their way
against the resistance of established ideas
save by being overstated.
- Isaiah Berlin

Further reading: Cultivate Awareness

New Ideas

The Art of Seeing

You are the Window

Honor Your Roots

Gratitude is a Source of Joy

2026-08-03T00:30:00.000-04:00

There Is Peace In A Life Of Constant Gratitude.
Have Gratitude for the Smallest Blessings,
for the crust of bread and the cool drink of water.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The way to happiness is what I call Zero-Based Gratitude.
Each day be happy and grateful for what you have,
independent of yesterday and of other people.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The struggle ends when the gratitude begins.
- Neale Donald Walsch

Appreciation is the highest form of prayer,
for it acknowledges the presence of good
wherever you shine the light of your thankful thoughts.
- Alan Cohen

Gratitude is the Path to Joyful Living.
[my phrasing of a widely shared concept]

Today's affirmation:
I give thanks for all of life.
I Find Peace in Gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Appreciate Your Blessings

Give Thanks for the Commonplace

Praise and Celebrate Your Life

Life is Mostly a Matter of Introspection

2026-08-02T00:30:00.000-04:00

The world in which we live and work,
is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations.
- Earl Nightingale

Everyone is a mirror image of yourself -
your own thinking coming back at you.
- Byron Katie

A person experiences life as
something separated from the rest -
a kind of optical delusion of consciousness.
Our task must be to free ourselves
from this self-imposed prison,
and through compassion,
to find the reality of Oneness.
- Albert Einstein

Life is for each of us
a solitary cell
whose walls are mirrors.
- Eugene O'Neill (paraphrase)

Once we are destined to live out our lives
in the prison of our mind,
our duty is to furnish it well.
- Peter Ustinov

Further reading: Are You a Prisoner?

Life is a Mirror

s Being a Reflection

How We See Things

Avoid Battles, Especially With Yourself

2026-08-01T00:30:00.000-04:00

We carry our worst enemies within us.
- Charles Spurgeon

It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe,
that lures him to evil ways.
- The Buddha

Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles,
but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.
- Norman Vincent Peale

Life is way too short to spend another day at war with yourself.
- Anonymous

Today's affirmation:
I lay aside the battles within my own mind,
and grant myself peace.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Your Own Worst Enemy

Still Your Mind

Create Peace Within Yourself

Manage Your Wayward Mind

LOOK, Don't Just Assume What You Will See

2026-07-31T00:30:00.000-04:00

Change what you see,
by changing how you see.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
- Henry David Thoreau

A flower is a weed seen through joyful eyes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Call a plant beautiful, and it becomes a flower.
Call it ugly, and it becomes a weed.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We don't see things as they are,
we see things as we are.
- Anais Nin

It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.
- Helen Keller

Look for the Unexpected in the Commonplace.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

What we see depends mainly on what we look for.
- John Lubbock

We never see what we are not ready to see.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further Reading: What I Know - What I Don't Know

Appreciate the Basics

2026-07-30T00:30:00.000-04:00

Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into.
- Wayne W. Dyer

Our journey into consciousness of wealth begins with the realization
that we have already arrived!
- Michael Bernard Beckwith

Appreciate again and again, freshly and naively,
the basic goods of life, with awe,
pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy,
however stale these experiences may have become to others.
- Abraham Maslow

A Table Grace of Thanksgiving:
We gather today in gratitude for the bounty of the land,
the joyful company around this table,
and all the other blessings of this life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: A List of Gratitudes - a Thanksgiving

Thank You God

Gratitude: Virtue and Joy

Let Each Day be a Thanksgiving

Begin, Take Action

2026-07-29T00:30:00.000-04:00

Today... maybe I can take one step
on that profoundly complex path to peace.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
- Lao Tzu (Chinese Proverb)

The first step towards the solution
of any problem is optimism.
- John Baines

A little simplification would be
the first step toward rational living.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Believe in yourself,
in your vision for your future
and in your ability to take a small step
each day toward achieving your vision.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Edge of All You Know

The Jump is So Frightening - Mary Anne Radmacher

How to Create a Great Future

Boldly Sail the Storms of Life

Trust Proven Facts and Critical Analysis

2026-07-28T00:30:00.000-04:00

The only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason.
- Terry Goodkind

The ultimate authority must always rest
with the individual's own reason and critical analysis.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

If we would guide by the light of reason
we must let our minds be bold.
- Louis D. Brandeis

True virtue is life under the direction of reason.
- Baruch Spinoza

Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic,
for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt.
- Robert Lindner

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking.
There is an almost universal quest
for easy answers and half-baked solutions.
Nothing pains some people more than having to think.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

No statement should be believed [solely] because it is made by an authority.
- Robert A. Heinlein

Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.
- Publius Cornelius Tacitus

Further reading: Practice Conscious Awareness

Re-Examine All You Think You Know

Trust Your Own Advice

Grow Your Own Happiness

2026-07-27T00:30:00.000-04:00

The foolish seek happiness in the distance;
the wise grow it under their own feet.
- J. Robert Oppenheimer (paraphrase)

Do the small things of life with a relaxed awareness.
When you are eating, eat totally -
chew totally, taste totally, smell totally.
Touch your bread, feel the texture.
Smell the bread, smell the flavor.
Chew it, let it dissolve into your being.
- Osho

Happiness is to be Found in Small Things, Close to Home.
...
Pay attention to rainbows, and snowflakes,
butterflies and the songs of birds,
the crash of storm-driven waves
and the mirror-surface of a quiet pond.
Let the depths of nature become a part of your innermost being.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

It is wisest and best to fix our attention on the beautiful and the good,
and dwell as little as possible on the evil and the false.
- Richard Cecil

Further reading: Cultivate Awareness

The Power of Focus

Manage Your Wayward Mind

Life is Beautiful

Make Your Every Action Admirable

2026-07-26T00:30:00.000-04:00

Every decision you make - every decision - is not a decision about what to do.
It’s a decision about Who You Are.
When you see this, when you understand it, everything changes.
You begin to see life in a new way.
All events, occurrences, and situations turn into opportunities
to do what you came here to do.
- Neale Donald Walsch

Tell me who admires and loves you, and I will tell you who you are.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Try not to become a person of success,
but rather try to become a person of value.
- Albert Einstein

Face the facts of being what you are,
for that is what changes what you are.
- Soren Kierkegaard

It's not in the DOing, it's in the BEing.
Whatever you do or don't do in your lifetime,
your greatest contribution
to current and future generations
will be the happiness and joy
you generated and radiated to those around you.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.
- Joseph Campbell

Further reading: Your Answers

Harmony

I have a Dream...

What We Are

Rattlesnake of the Mind

Renew Your Body, Your Mind, Your Emotions

2026-07-25T00:30:00.000-04:00

First renew your own body, mind and emotions;
be kind, compassionate, and gentle with yourself.
Then use your regenerated strength and commitment
to be of service to the less fortunate.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Don't forget to love yourself.
- Soren Kierkegaard

Be gentle first with yourself -
if you wish to be gentle with others.
- Lama Yeshe

In my own deepening understanding of myself
I find my capacity to serve others is deepened as well.
The better I am at self-care
the more genuinely nurturing of others I am able to be.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Affirmation: Today, I will be gentle with myself.

Further reading: Love Yourself

Renew Yourself

Keep Your Head

Feel Good About Yourself

Make Time For Yourself

An Opportunity to Learn and Grow

2026-07-24T00:30:00.000-04:00

The less I take the difficulties of my life as personal affront,
and the more I use them as an opportunity to learn and grow...
the easier I sleep at night.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Neither Religion Nor Science Suggests that Life is "Supposed to be Fair"
...
Life is NOT "Supposed to be Fair."
Know that there is no single way that life is "supposed" to be.
Demanding that life meet our expectations
is a sure fire recipe for a miserable existence.
Life is a game with no rules.
Life just happens to us regardless of our best intentions.
Our only path to happiness lies in being open
to receiving whatever life throws at us -
with Gratitude. Have NO Expectations of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

"Why?" is the most useless question in the universe.
The only question with any meaning is "What?"
Asking "Why is this happening?" can only disempower you.
Asking "What do I want to make of this?" does exactly the opposite.
- Neale Donald Walsch

Nature is relentless and unchangeable,
and it is indifferent as to whether its hidden reasons
and actions are understandable to man or not.
- Galileo Galilei

Further reading: My thoughts on "Life is not supposed to be fair."

You Are Not A Victim

Choose What You Emphasize

Complaining Only Makes You Miserable

Break Your Cycle of Self-Inflicted Suffering

Enjoy the Day You Have Been Given

2026-07-23T00:30:00.000-04:00

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass...
It's about learning how to dance in the rain.
- Vivian Greene

When the tempest rages, when the thunders roar,
and the lightnings blaze around us,
it is then that the truly brave man stands firm at his post.
- Luther Martin

If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm,
you'll never enjoy the sunshine.
- Morris West

Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life.
The evening beam that smiles the clouds away,
and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.
- Lord Byron

Is today a day to gather strength from the storm -
a day to to learn life lessons for the next battle?
Or is today a day to sit by the fire and watch the storm rage outside?
Either way, the storm is just life.
Give thanks for all of Life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Move On and Let Go

Zero-Based Gratitude

Celebrating Rainbows and Butterflies - the Small Miracles of Our Life

Expand What is Possible

2026-07-22T00:30:00.000-04:00

Ask not why it happened, but what you are going to do about it.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask "Why?"
I dream of things that never were, and ask "Why not?"
- Robert F. Kennedy paraphrase of George Bernard Shaw

When faith and hope fail, as they do sometimes,
we must try charity, which is love in action.
We must speculate no more on our duty,
but simply do it.
When we have done it, however blindly,
perhaps Heaven will show us why.
- Dinah Maria Mulock

Always question WHY you are doing something.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Your Attitude is Your Window

Moving Forward

An Unknowable Future

Explore. Dream. Discover.

Why?

We Come This Way But Once

Set an Example of Fairness, Caring and Integrity

2026-07-21T00:30:00.000-04:00

Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.
- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

You can easily judge the character of others
by how they treat those who can
do nothing for them or to them.
- Malcolm S. Forbes

Live so that when your children think of fairness,
caring and integrity, they think of you.
- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

That's all a man can hope for during his lifetime -
to set an example -
and when he is dead,
to be an inspiration for history.
- William McKinley

Today's affirmation:
I choose to live a life of gratitude and joy,
inspiring others to follow my example.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How To Know What To Do

Who You Are

The Value Of Honor

Intentional Living