quoteflections

Purpose and Passion

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Thu, 23 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. ~ Carl Jung

Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. ~ Helen Keller

This is our purpose: to make as meaningful as possible this life that has been bestowed upon us; to live in such a way that we may be proud of ourselves; to act in such a way that some part of us lives on. ~ Oswald Spengler

The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose. ~ William Cowper

With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion. ~ Edgar Allan Poe

Quotes about purpose, life

An Attitude of the Heart

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak and another to hear. ~ H.D. Thoreau

If you spend more time asking appropriate questions rather than giving answers or opinions, your listening skills will increase. ~ Brian Koslow

Listening is the only way to entertain some folks. ~ Kin Hubbard

The older I grow the more I listen to people who don’t talk much. ~ Germain G. Glien

Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery. ~ Dr. Joyce Brothers

Listening is an attitude of the heart, a genuine desire to be with another which both attracts and heals. ~ J. Isham

Quotes about listening, life

Life is Fun or Suffering?

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Fun is a good thing but only when it spoils nothing better. ~ George Santayana

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun. ~ Katharine Hepburn

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing. ~ Dale Carnegie

The world is a funny paper read backwards. And that way it isn't so funny. ~ Tennessee Williams

The making of fun where no real occasion for fun exists is essentially what comedy is about. ~ David L. Hall

Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise. ~ George Orwell

Quotes about fun, life

The Best of Our Nature

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Mon, 20 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Intimacy is being seen and known as the person you truly are. ~ Amy Bloom

Man's life would be wretched and confined if it were to miss the candid intimacy developed by mutual trust and esteem. ~ Edwin Dummer

Our most intimate friend is not the one to whom we show the worst, but the best of our nature. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

His voice was as intimate as the rustle of sheets. ~ Dorothy Parker

Be polite to all, but intimate with few. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Communication leads to community, that is, understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing. ~ Rollo May

Quotes about intimacy, life

That's All that Matters

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Sat, 18 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Laughter has no foreign accent. ~ Paul B. Lowney

There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt. ~ Erma Bombeck

Laughter is the shortest distance between two people. ~ Victor Borge

Tell the truth. Sing with passion. Work with laughter. Love with heart. 'Cause that's all that matters in the end. ~ Kris Kristofferson

We look before and after,
And pine for what is not;
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell
Of saddest thought. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Quotes about laughter, life

A Bizarre Sensation

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Thu, 16 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we're alive - to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are. ~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Man is a make-believe animal: he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part. ~ William Hazlitt

Why not be oneself? That is the whole secret of a successful appearance. If one is a greyhound, why try to look like a Pekingese? ~ Dame Edith Sitwell

Appearances are often deceiving. ~ Aesop

A bizarre sensation pervades a relationship of pretense. No truth seems true. A simple morning's greeting and response appear loaded with innuendo and fraught with implications. Each nicety becomes more sterile and each withdrawal more permanent. ~ Maya Angelou

Quotes about pretense, life

Believe in Yourself

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Wed, 15 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Just keep coming home to yourself. You are the one you’ve been waiting for. ~ Byron Katie

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy. ~ Norman Vincent Peale

Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself. ~ Harvey Fierstein

It is very important to generate a good attitude, a good heart, as much as possible. From this, happiness in both the short term and the long term for both yourself and others will come. ~ Dalai Lama

When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself. ~ Tecumseh

Quotes about yourself, life

Your Better Days

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Tue, 14 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Imagine that yes is the only living thing. ~ e. e. cummings

Forever is composed of nows. ~ Emily Dickinson

The future is no place to place your better days. ~ Dave Matthews

We steal if we touch tomorrow. It is God's. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time. ~ Abraham Lincoln

Quotes about living, life

What Sets Us Apart

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Mon, 13 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Existence is a party. You join after it's started and you leave before it's finished. ~ Elsa Maxwell

It is while you are patiently toiling at the little tasks of life that the meaning and shape of the great whole of life dawn on you. ~ Phillips Brooks

I believe that we are here on the planet Earth to live, grow up and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom. ~ Rosa Parks

Wonder is what sets us apart from other life forms. No other species wonders about the meaning of existence or the complexity of the universe or themselves. ~ Herbert W. Boyer

When one has great gifts, what answer to the meaning of existence should one require beyond the right to exercise them? ~ W. H. Auden

Quotes about existence, life

Into Fullness of Being

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Fri, 10 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring. ~ Oscar Wilde

Wisdom is your perspective on life, your sense of balance, your understanding of how the various parts and principles apply and relate to each other. It embraces judgment, discernment, comprehension. It is a gestalt or oneness, an integrated wholeness. ~ Stephen R. Covey

There are some people who have the quality of richness and joy in them and they communicate it to everything they touch. It is first of all a physical quality; then it is a quality of the spirit. ~ Thomas Wolfe

The living self has one purpose only: to come into its own fullness of being, as a tree comes into full blossom, or a bird into spring beauty, or a tiger into luster. ~ D.H. Lawrence

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. ~ Melody Beattie

Quotes about wholeness, life

This Grotesque Folly

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Thu, 09 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Folly is the direct pursuit of happiness and beauty . ~ George Bernard Shaw

The most exquisite folly is made of wisdom too fine spun. ~ Benjamin Franklin

I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom. ~ Anatole France

There is no greater folly in the world than for a man to despair. ~ Miguel de Cervantes

No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. ~ Winston Churchill

Why was the human race created? Or at least why wasn't something creditable created in place of it? God had His opportunity. He could have made a reputation. But no, He must commit this grotesque folly -- a lark which must have cost Him a regret or two when He came to think it over and observe effects. ~ Mark Twain

Quotes about folly, life

Must Pass Through Fire

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

One must marry one's feelings to one's beliefs and ideas. That is probably the only way to achieve a measure of harmony in one's life. ~ Etty Hilsum

Living with integrity means: Not settling for less than what you know you deserve in your relationships. Asking for what you want and need from others. Speaking your truth, even though it might create conflict or tension. Behaving in ways that are in harmony with your personal values. Making choices based on what you believe, and not what others believe. ~ Barbara De Angelis

The hidden harmony is better than the obvious. ~ Pablo Picasso

What is all wisdom save a collection of platitudes. Take fifty of our current proverbial sayings-- they are so trite, so threadbare. None the less they embody the concentrated experience of the race, and the man who orders his life according to their teachings cannot be far wrong. Has any man ever attained to inner harmony by pondering the experience of others? Not since the world began! He must pass through fire. ~ Norman Douglas

Quotes about harmony, life

Teaching My Blood Whispers

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Tue, 07 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. ~ Albert Einstein

Instinct is the nose of the mind. ~ Madame De Girardin

Good instincts usually tell you what to do long before your head has figured it out. ~ Michael Burke

There can be as much value in the blink of an eye as in months of rational analysis. ~ Malcolm Gladwell

I have been and still am a seeker, but I have ceased to question stars and books; I have begun to listen to the teaching my blood whispers to me. ~ Hermann Hesse

Quotes about instinct, life

Something Incredible is Waiting

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Mon, 06 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

We never live; we are always in the expectation of living. ~ Voltaire

Waiting is a form of passive persistence. ~ Ogwo David Emenike

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. ~ Carl Sagan

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. ~ E. M. Forster

The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. ~ Bertrand Russell

Quotes about waiting, life

If We Opened Our Hearts More

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Sat, 04 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Man only likes to count his troubles; he doesn't calculate his happiness. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Trouble creates a capacity to handle it....meet it as a friend, for you'll see a lot of it and had better be on speaking terms with it. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight. ~ Benjamin Franklin

I have never known any distress that an hour’s reading did not relieve. ~ Montesquieu

I believe much trouble would be saved if we opened our hearts more. ~ Chief Joseph

Quotes about trouble, life

Get Up and Do Something

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Fri, 03 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way. ~ Abraham Lincoln

The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope. ~ Barack Obama

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. ~ Mother Teresa

The man who thinks he can and the man who thinks he can't are both right. Which one are you? ~ Henry Ford

If plan A doesn't work, the alphabet has 25 more letters - 204 if you're in Japan. ~ Claire Cook

Quotes about determination, life

Let It Produce Joy

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Thu, 02 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. ~ Mark Twain

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out. ~ Anton Chekhov

Go forth into the busy world and love it. Interest yourself in its life, mingle kindly with its joys and sorrows. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every man dies. Not every man lives. ~ William Ross Wallace

-Do anything, but let it produce joy.
-The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. ~ Walt Whitman

Quotes about living, life

The Hard Part

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

One determined person can make a significant difference; a small group of determined people can change the course of history. ~ Sonia Johnson

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. ~ Margaret Mead

No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it. ~ H. E. Luccock

Gettin' good players is easy. Gettin' em to play together is the hard part. ~ Casey Stengel

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent. ~ John Donne

Quotes about team work, life

We Can Only Be Alive When...

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Appreciation is the vessel for future blessings. ~Michael Berg

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is not made up of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years, but of moments. You must experience each one before you can appreciate it. ~ Sarah Breathnach

All that we behold is full of blessings. ~ William Wordsworth

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. ~ Thornton Wilder

Quotes about gratitude, appreciation

The Final Test of Maturity

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Courage is grace under pressure. ~ Ernest Hemingway

Courage is a kind of salvation. ~ Plato

Optimism is the foundation of courage. ~ Nicholas Murray Butler

Courage is a peculiar kind of fear. ~ Charles Kennedy

To live with fear and not be afraid is the final test of maturity. ~ Edward Weeks

Quotes about courage, life

Bring Your Own Sunshine

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Dare to reach out your hand into the darkness to pull another hand into the light. ~ Norman B. Rice

Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. ~ Anthony J. D'Angelo

We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own. ~ Ben Sweetland

Quotes about light, life

A Form of Exploration

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced - even a proverb is not a proverb till your life has illustrated it. ~John Keats

Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing. ~ Oscar Wilde

How many things have to happen to you before something occurs to you? ~ Robert Frost

The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. ~ Henry Ford

In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration. ~ Ansel Adams

Quotes about experience, life

Breaking the Bridge

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.   ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.   ~Audrey Hepburn

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.   ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.   ~Mark Twain

He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass. ~George Herbert

Quotes about forgiveness, life

The Things that Make Me

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference.   ~ Jane Goodall

I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions. ~ Augusten Burroughs

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.   ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

It's hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world.   ~ Dolly Parton

The things that make me different are the things that make me. ~ A. A. Milne

Quotes about individuality, life

Everything Else is Secondary

noreply@blogger.com (Paul C) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Winning is important to me, but what brings me real joy is the experience of being fully engaged in whatever I'm doing. ~Phil Jackson

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. ~ Steve Jobs

Paul and I, we never thought that we would make much money out of the thing. We just loved writing software. ~Bill Gates

The secret of joy in work is contained in one word – excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it. ~Pearl S. Buck

Love what you do and do what you love. Don't listen to anyone else who tells you not to do it. You do what you want, what you love. Imagination should be the center of your life. ~ Ray Bradbury

Quotes about doing what you love, life