A young cowboy from Wyoming goes off to college. Half way through the semester, he has foolishly squandered all his money. He calls home.

“Dad,” he says, “You won’t believe what modern education is developing! They actually have a program here in Laramie that will teach our dog, Ol’ Blue how to talk!”

“That’s amazing,” his Dad says. “How do I get Ol’ Blue in that program?”

“Just send him down here with $1,000″ the young cowboy says. “I’ll get him in the course.”

So, his father sends the dog and $1,000.

About two-thirds of the way through the semester, the money again runs out. The boy calls home.

“So how’s Ol’ Blue doing son?” his father asks.

“Awesome, Dad, he’s talking up a storm,” he says, “but you just won’t believe this – they’ve had such good results they have started to teach the animals how to read!”

“Read!?” says his father, “No kidding! How do we get Blue in that program?”

“Just send $2,500, I’ll get him in the class.”
The money promptly arrives. But our hero has a problem. At the end of the year, his father will find out the dog can neither talk, nor read. So he shoots the dog.

When he arrives home at the end of the year, his father is all excited. “Where’s Ol’ Blue? I just can’t wait to see him read something and talk!”

“Dad,” the boy says, “I have some grim news. Yesterday morning, just before we left to drive home, Ol’ Blue was in the living room, kicked back in the recliner, reading the Wall Street Journal, like he usually does. Then he turned to me and asked, “So, is your daddy still messing around with that little redhead who lives down the street?”

The father exclaimed, “I hope you shot that s. of a b. before he talks to your Mother!”

“I sure did, Dad!”

“That’s my boy!”

The kid went on to law school, and now serves in Washington D.C. as a  Congressman.

When communicating with dolphins and whales if you think of them and feel love in your heart at the same time, then you are in contact.

They know who you are and they totally love you and you feel that unconditional love. Somehow it’s transmitted, I receive it and I move into a world of higher consciousness because of it.

I’ve used the word telempathy; it’s a word that reflects the combination of telepathy and empathy or feelings. When I asked the dolphins once, “How do I communicate with you? Tell me how to do that, what’s needed?” what I received back from them in an image and a feeling was that you can use your mind, your intention and your thought, your directed thought saying, “I want to be with you now” or whatever your thought is. But that doesn’t work by itself. You have to add to it a feeling, a feeling of love really. When communicating with dolphins and whales if you think of them and feel love in your heart at the same time, then you are in contact.

via On The Same Wavelength | SuperConsciousness.

Rick: This same kind of communication (and I like the word telempathy) is available between us as humans as well. Dolphins typically don’t evoke the same kinds of mixed-emotions in us that other humans do, so the channel is less obscured by the noise of fears, uncertainty, and doubt.

I love this suggestion… shows like “How It’s Made” and the like introduce ways of thinking about problems and running projects that have much more real-world applicability than so much of the “knowledge” kids have to memorize and be tested upon. Read the rest as well… via Zombie » Proposals for an Educational Renaissance.

Introduce and popularize “skills survey” courses

Too much of our school curriculum is totally disconnected from the skill-sets needed to succeed in the real world. Even students who get good grades in history, art, social studies and science can graduate without a clue about how to get a job or what they even want to do with their lives.

Not every student is going to become an academic or have a liberal-arts-based career. To correct this glaring deficiency in our educational priorities, I propose that all public schools introduce a new type of required course in which students are briefly exposed to a wide variety of realistic careers and skills to help them decide what they may want to do upon graduating from high school or college. These skills-survey classes should always be not graded but instead be given on a simple pass/not-pass basis — students pass just for showing up and participating. No tests, no quizzes, no assessment — just observation.

The purpose of the class is exposure — to let students sample real-world careers, and get a taste of skills unknown to them. Even if a student doesn’t ever get a job in any of the fields covered by the course, he or she will learn how the world works. Each section can last anywhere from ten minutes, to an hour, or a week, or any level in between — just enough time to explain and demonstrate the basics. Examples of skills or careers covered by the course can include (but are not limited to):

• Retail skills, such as how to operate a cash register, order products, keep track of inventory;

• Carpentry and basic home repair;

• Basic contemporary computer skills, such as how to send an email, set up a blog or Web page, do simple programming, etc.

• Business and entrepreneurial fundamentals, such as how to identify an untapped market, found a small company, deal with government regulations, etc.

• How to effectively win an argument, or engage in an adult-level debate; a brief survey of logical fallacies;

• A visit to a hospital to learn the basics of nursing skills, and see what doctors do in real-world settings;

• Car repair; and the briefest explanation of how engines, carburetors, transmissions, etc. work;

• The basics of electrical circuitry, and what an electrician does;

• Plumbing, and how the plumbing system works;

• Gardening fundamentals, and how to grow your own food;

• Data entry (formerly known as “typing”);

• Any ideas or field trips which teachers can arrange, such as: visiting a local airport and sitting in the pilot’s seat of a small aircraft; going behind-the-scenes at a local television studio; going on a ride-along with the police or fire department; etc.

• …and so on; the options are limitless.

In each case, the exposure will necessarily be brief and very incomplete, but that’s OK; the goal is not to master every skill covered, but rather to be exposed to a wide variety of skills and careers that may spur interest for later pursuit.

I Love You!

Well, count me as someone who savored the book and laughed out loud enough in Starbucks each morning that people asked what I was reading. I work everyday with (mostly) women who are on a spiritual journey. Some have endured abuse, disrespect, serious trauma, or “just” lack of healthy physical and emotional boundaries. What is described in the book–while it covers three countries and more distinct “venues” than most people experience–aptly described what so many of us go through.

The tearing down. The reconnecting to Source, to inner guidance. The exploration of sensual pleasures with deep mindfulness. The awakening of kundalini energy. The experience of Oneness that becomes our Knowing to carry with us during all the other moments where we feel not-quite-One-with-the-Universe. The “becoming safe again” with our power and sexuality in relationship with another.

I’d give the book a 9. The movie a 2.

Why? Well, Julia Roberts was asked to portray someone who I felt had a very different energy in the book. Julia is older, Julia HAS three children, and frankly she has the mommy tattoo on her face (to quote the book).

What has bugged me the most, perhaps, is the way they portrayed both Richard and Felipe. Richard was, in her time in India as she portrayed him in the book, a man who HAD forgiven himself. He helped keep her grounded through humor and the kind of loving pokes that brought her back to her core issues over and over. The Richard of the movie was much more unhealed. Indeed, the story they spun on the roof totally changed the dynamic of that situation for Liz to one where she was being TOLD (!) by Richard to stay up there until you forgive yourself… when movie-Richard  had not forgiven himself yet! It was off. And not true to either the book or the authentic healing situation that lead her to that spiritual connection and release.

Felipe in the book was older, by 17 years if I recall. He felt to me like a confident, spiritually mature man… and like most Brazilians very comfortable and natural with sex and sexuality. Felipe COURTED her. He created safe spaces for her to be honest. He respected her boundaries, and also felt a mutual attraction bringing them together. To me he modeled the kind of man that, by 52, a man should be who has been through those life experiences and done his own work. Liz conveyed to me that she could feel his desire for her… as well as his willingness to give her space. They went from yes… to Yes… to YES… to YES YES YES!

Movie Felipe was portrayed as Liz’s age. (The actor Javier Bardem is 42, Julia Roberts almost 43). And his son (not in the book) says it is time for Dad to break his 10 year celibacy. Add to it this weird beach confrontation between them, followed by the Runaway Bride Revisited, and it didn’t leave me feeling particularly good about their relationship… when in the book the flow was far more healing, natural, and as she even said, fairytale like.

Add to that, perhaps, that in the book she refused to detail her ex-husband’s antics. It felt to me like she was honoring that neither of them were at their best in that duel. In the movie, he is portrayed as DERANGED. “My client would like to…” when he was representing HIMSELF. Perhaps that was what really happened. But jeesh, just showing that he wasn’t willing to let her go even if she gave him everything would have been enough to make it clear to the audience his hurt-vindictive state of mind.

All that said, I loved the book. Spiritual journeys are hard to capture in writing, and I certainly enjoyed following hers.

Rick

I’ve been bloggin’ long before bloggin’ was cool. I’ve used everything from RAW HTML pages, to FrontPage 2000, to Radio Userland, to Movable Type, to pMachine, to ExpressionEngine, and now… WordPress 3.0.

This website is really my place to “store” stuff I write, stuff that amuses and inspires me, stuff that irks me, and stuff that speaks to my mission to help people feel really, REALLY Good. I hope your find something that you find engaging.

My primary websites are:

www.thrivingnow.com

www.mythrivingbusiness.com

www.energytapping.info

www.taptalkradio.com

Warm smiles,
Rick@Thrivingnow.com

A balanced diet

“Food is an important part of a balanced diet.” –Fran Lebowitz

A Daring adventure or nothing

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.”  –Helen Keller

A drop of honey

“When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and true maxim that ‘a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.’ So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the great highroad to his reason, and which, once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing him of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause is really a good one.”  –Abraham Lincoln

A few scars

“It’s a shallow life that doesn’t give a person a few scars.”  –Garrison Keillor

A gift for you in its hands

“There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands.”  –Richard Bach

A glipse of heaven

“To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven.”  –Karen Sunde

A great marriage

“A great marriage is not when the ‘perfect couple’ comes together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences.”  –Dave Meurer

A little way into the impossible

“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” –Arthur C. Clarke

A mere child

“I must take issue with the term ‘a mere child,’ for it has been my invariable experience that the company of a mere child is infinitely preferable to that of a mere adult.”  –Fran Lebowitz

A million facts

“It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated.”  –Alec Bourne

A Mirror that is not supposed to lie

“Even a mirror that’s not supposed to lie reflects things in reverse.” –A Zen Harvest

A music bath

“Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water bath is to the body.”  –Oliver Wendell Holmes

A nation

“A nation is a society united by delusions about its ancestry and by common hatred of its neighbors.”  –W. R. Inge

A path with no obstacles

“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.”  –Frank A Clark

A separate life

“One should count each day a separate life.”  –Seneca

A thousand disguises

“We meet ourselves time and again in a thousand disguises on the path of life.” –Carl Jung

Accepting criticism

“If you understand who you are and respect yourself, you will not see criticism as a problem but as an opportunity to become a better person. When you feel inadequate or imperfect, the criticism is threatening and makes you feel that you have to defend yourself. When you are secure–not perfect, but secure–you can listen to the criticism and consider its value.”  –Dr. Bernie Siegel

Act a particular way

“Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way…you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.”  –Aristotle

Act as if

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” –William James

Advice to children

“I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.”  –Harry S. Truman

After silence

“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”  –Aldous Huxley

Age means nothing

“Age to me means nothing. I can’t get old; I’m working. I was old when I was twenty-one and out of work. As long as you’re working, you stay young. When I’m in front of an audience, all that love and vitality sweeps over me and I forget my age.”  –George Burns

Aim at the sun

“Aim at the sun, and you may not reach it; but your arrow will fly far higher than if aimed at an object on a level with yourself.”  –Joel Hawes

Aim for success

“Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life.”  –Dr. David M. Burns

Aim for success not perfection

“Aim for success not perfection… Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism. Confronting your fears and allowing yourself the right to be human can, paradoxically, make you a far happier and more productive person.”  –Dr. David Burns

Aim of an argument

“The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.” –Joseph Joubert

Alarm clock

“Throw out an alarming alarm clock. If the ring is loud and strident, you’re waking up to instant stress. You shouldn’t be bullied out of bed, just reminded that it’s time to start your day.”  –Sharon Gold

All of a sudden

“That’s the way things come clear. All of a sudden. And then you realize how obvious they’ve been all along.”  –Madeleine L’Engle

All the care and kindness

“Extend to each person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.”  –Og Mandino

All the other ages

“The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.”  –Madeleine L’Engle

All truth

“All truth passes through three stages: first it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third it is accepted as self-evident.” –Arthur Schopenhauer

Always 15 years older

“To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.”  –Bernard M. Baruch

Anger

“Anger is a signal, and one worth listening to.”  –Harriet Lerner

Anxiety and love

“Anxiety is love’s greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic.”  –Anais Nin

Any fool can

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius–and a lot of courage–to move in the opposite direction.”  –E. F. Schumacher

Any time one person makes an effort

“Any time one person makes an effort to contact a deeper part of him-or herself, balance his or her emotions, and deflect the stress momentum, others benefit. As more individuals learn to maintain their poise and balance and refrain from adding to the incoherence around them, they help to counterbalance the frequency of stress.”  –Doc Childre and Howard Martin

Appetite for Gossip

“In our appetite for gossip, we tend to gobble down everything before us, only to find, too late, that it is our ideals we have consumed, and we have not been enlarged by the feasts but only diminished.” –Pico Iyer

Appreciative leadership

“It could be argued that all leadership is appreciative leadership. It’s the capacity to see the best in the world around us, in our colleagues, and in the groups we are trying to lead. It’s the capacity to see the most creative and improbable opportunities in the marketplace. It’s the capacity to see with an appreciative eye the true and the good, the better and the possible.”  –David L Cooperrider

Art is a collaboration

“Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.”  –Andre Gide

As a man thinketh

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”  –Proverbs 23:7

As clothes do against the cold

“Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.”  –Leonardo da Vinci

As I breathe deeply, I feel myself thrive

“As I breathe deeply, I feel myself thrive. Thriving is as natural as breathing itself. By relaxing often, and breathing deeply—your natural thriving is enhanced.”  –Abraham

Atheist

“An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support.”  –John Buchan

Atheist

“An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support.”  –John Buchan

Atomic energy

“The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.”  –Albert Einstein

Attitude of silence

“In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in an clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.”  –Mahatma Gandhi

Background and circumstances

“Our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.” –Barbara Geraci

Bad weather?

“There’s no such thing as bad weather. There’s only the wrong clothes.”  –Billy Connolly

Balance in your life

“The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.”  –Euripides

Basic truths

“Most of the basic truths of life sound absurd at first hearing.”  –Elizabeth Goudge

Be a fountain

“Be a fountain, not a drain.”  –Rex Hudler

Be the change you seek

“Be the change you seek in your world.” –Gandhi

Be who you are

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”  –Dr. Seuss

Before death

“Is there life before death?”  –Graffito

Being punctual

“The trouble with being punctual is that nobody’s there to appreciate it.”  –Franklin P. Jones

Being selfish is fun

Being selfish is fun! Passing the feeling of it on to others is Life! –Jennifer Scotchel

Believe in yourself

“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

Better and better

“Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.”  –Emile Coue

Beware your anxiety

“Beware lest in your anxiety to avoid war you obtain a master.”  –Demosthenes

Bid war’s trumpet cease

“Lord, bid war’s trumpet cease; / Fold the whole earth in peace.” –Oliver Wendell Holmes Oliver Wendell Holmes

Big fan of dreams

“I’m a big fan of dreams. Unfortunately, dreams are our first casualty in life–people seem to give them up, quicker than anything, for a ‘reality’. “ –Kevin Costner

Bitterest tears

“When we lose one we love, our bitterest tears are called forth by the memory of hours when we loved not enough.”  –Maurice Maeterlinck

Bliss

“Follow your bliss.” –Joseph Campbell

Bliss of certainty

“No great deed, private or public, had ever been undertaken in a bliss of certainty.”  –Leon Wieseltier

Boldness

“What you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”  –Goethe

Brave and patient

“We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.”  –Helen Keller

Build health or produce disease

“As I see it every day you do one of two things: build health or produce disease in yourself.”  –Adelle Davis

Build health or…

“As I see it every day you do one of two things: build health or produce disease in yourself.”  –Adelle Davis

Bumperstickers

“Television is to news as bumperstickers are to philosophy.”  –Richard M. Nixon

Busy

“It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?”  –Henry David Thoreau

Carry the beautiful

“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.”  –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Certain of improving

“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving… and that’s your own self.”  –Aldous Huxley

Change of heart

“The most powerful agent of growth and transformation is something much more basic than any technique: a change of heart.”  –John Welwood

Changing themselves

“Some people change jobs, mates, and friends, but never think of changing themselves.”  –John C. Maxwell

Chant the beauty of the good

“Don’t waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.”  –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Chaotic currents

“Nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life, is without trouble.”  –Carl Jung

Character develops

“Talent develops in quiet places, character in the full current of human life.” –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Chasing the wrong things

“So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”  –Morrie Schwartz, in “Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Albom

Cheer yourself up

“The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.”  –Mark Twain

Cheerfulness

“Cheerfulness, it would appear, is a matter which depends fully as much on the state of things within, as on the state of things without and around us.”  –Charlotte Bronte

Chewing gum

“Television: chewing gum for the eyes. ”  –Frank Lloyd Wright

Chief value of money

“The chief value of money lies in the fact that one lives in a world in which it is overestimated.”  –H. L. Mencken

Children’s eyes

“Outings are so much more fun when we can savor them through the children’s eyes.”  –Lawana Blackwell

Choice between love and fear

“The choice between love and fear is made every moment in our hearts and minds. That is where the peace process begins. Without peace within, peace in the world is an empty wish. Like love, peace is extended. It cannot be brought from the world to the heart. It must be brought from each heart to another, and thus to all mankind.”  –Paul Ferrini

Choose a job you love

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”  –Confucius

Choose life work

“Whenever it is in any way possible, every boy and girl should choose as his life work some occupation which he should like to do anyhow, even if he did not need the money.”  –William Lyon Phelps

Choose that way…

“Everyone should carefully observe which way his heart draws him, and then choose that way with all his strength.”  –Hasidic Saying

Clear about what you want

“If you are clear about what you want, the world responds with clarity.” –Loretta Staples

Clenched fist

“You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.”  –Indira Gandhi

Client or Patient?

A client is, “One who uses a professional service.” A patient is, “A person to whom something is done.”  –Unknown

Clutter, discord, difficulty

“Out of clutter, find Simplicity. From discord, find Harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”  –Albert Einstein

Collaborators in creation

“Our duty as people is to proceed as if limits to our ability did not exist. We are collaborators in creation.” –Pierre Chardin

Common medium

“Energy is the common medium of body, mind, and soul.” –Donna Eden

Compulsive work

“I am doomed to an eternity of compulsive work. No set goal achieved satisfies. Success only breeds a new goal. The golden apple devoured has seeds. It is endless.”  –Bette Davis

Conformity

“The reward for conformity was that everyone liked you except yourself.”  –Rita Mae Brown

Conscience

“Conscience is what hurts when everything else feels so good.”  –Unknown

Conscious choice

“Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response.”  –Michael Bartel

Conscious endeavor

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.”  –Henry David Thoreau

Constructive criticism

“No one appreciates the value of constructive criticism more thoroughly than the one who’s giving it.”  –Hal Chadwick

Constructive criticism

“No one appreciates the value of constructive criticism more thoroughly than the one who’s giving it.” –Hal Chadwick

Content to simply be yourself

“When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.” –Lao-Tzu

Cost of living

“In spite of the cost of living, it’s still popular.”  –Laurence J. Peter

Courage

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”  –Anais Nin

Crack in everything

“There’s a crack in everything and that’s how the light gets in.”  –Leonard Cohen

Creating from the heart

“If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.”  –Marc Chagall

Crippled inside

“One thing you can’t hide is when you’re crippled inside.”  –John Lennon

Crisis

“The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis.’ One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger -but recognize the opportunity.”  –Richard M. Nixon

Cure for boredom

“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.”  –Ellen Parr

Cynicism

“Cynicism is not realistic and tough. It’s unrealistic and kind of cowardly because it means you don’t have to try.”  –Peggy Noonan

Dance Quotes

“Dancers aren’t made up of their technique, but their passion.” “To dance is to be out of yourself, larger, more beautiful, more powerful.” “The dancer believes that his art has something to say which cannot be expresses in words. ” “You can dance anywhere, even if only in your heart.” “You know you’re dancing when tears of pain and happiness blend in with your sweat” “Dance is your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing. It’s the rhythm of your life. It’s the expression in time and movement, in happiness, joy, sadness and envy.” “There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good.” “Dancing is like dreaming with your feet!”  –Various

Danger and opportunity

“When written in Chinese, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.”  –John F. Kennedy

Dare mighty things

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”  –Theodore Roosevelt.

Daughter dating

“Watching your daughter being collected by her date feels like handing over a million dollar Stradivarius to a gorilla.”  –Jim Bishop

Deal with the irritating details

“After all it is those who have a deep and real inner life who are best able to deal with the irritating details of outer life.” –Evelyn Underhill

Delude yourself

“The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool.” –Jane Wagner

Deny laughter

“You can’t deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.”  –Stephen King

Desire…

“Desire, ask, believe, receive.”  –Stella Terrill Mann

Desires increase

“Man is the only animal whose desires increase as they are fed; the only animal that is never satisfied.”  –Henry George

Diets

“Diets are for people who are thick and tired of it.”  –Weight watcher

Different gifts

“Through the grace of God we have different gifts. If our gift is preaching, let us preach to the limit of our vision. If it is serving others let us concentrate on our service; if it is teaching let us give all that we have to our teaching; and if our gift is stimulating the faith of others let us set ourselves to it. Let the man who is called to give, give freely; let the man in authority work with enthusiasm; and let the man who feels sympathy for his fellows in distress help them cheerfully.”  –Romans 12:6-8

Differs in opinion

“Do not think of knocking out another person’s brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago.”  –Horace Mann

Difficult undertakings

“Providence has hidden a charm in difficult undertakings which is appreciated only by those who dare to grapple with them.”  –Anne-Sophie Swetchine

Direction of your dreams

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.”  –Henry David Thoreau

Discover wisdom

“We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take us or spare us.”  –Marcel Proust

Dishonest gain

“Prefer loss to the wealth of dishonest gain; the former vexes you for a time; the latter will bring you lasting remorse.”  –Chilo

Distinction between achievement and success

“My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that ‘achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others, and that’s nice, too, but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about success.’”  –Helen Hayes

Distressed by the external

“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”  –Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Do definite good

“Do definite good; first of all to yourself, then to definite persons.”  –John Lancaster Spalding

Do foolish things

“You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.” –Colette

Do not abandon trust

“Do not abandon trust when your ego thinks things should be different than they are.” –Wayne Dyer

Do not stop

“It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.”  –Confucius

Do not wait

“Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right’. Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.”  –Napoleon Hill

Do that which I can not

“I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”  –Pablo Picasso

Do with diligence

“What we hope ever to do with ease we must learn first to do with diligence.”  –Samuel Johnson

Doctor of the Future

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest her or his patients in the care of the human frame, in proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.” –Thomas Edison

Don’t believe…

“Don’t believe everything you think!”  –Bumpersticker

Don’t go barefoot

“If you scatter thorns, don’t go barefoot.”  –Italian Proverb

Done in a spirit of love

“You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.” –Henry Drummond

Doubts of today

“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.”  –Franklin D. Roosevelt

Down the wrong road

“No matter how far you have gone on the wrong road, turn back.” –Turkish proverb

Dream for a living

“I dream for a living.” –Steven Spielberg

Dreaming

“Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.”  –William Dement

Dreams are renewable

“Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born.” –Dale E. Turner

Dressed in overalls

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”  –Thomas A. Edison

Dwell not on weariness

“Dwell not upon thy weariness, thy strength shall be according to the measure of thy desire.”  –Arab Proverb

Dysfunctional co-dependent

“To err is dysfunctional, to forgive co-dependent.”  –Berton Averre

Each moment of life

“We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery.”  –H. G. Wells

Each success

“Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.”  –Henry Kissinger

Economy of the heart

“Forgiveness is the economy of the heart…. Forgiveness saves expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.”  –Hannah More

Education

“The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.”  –Plato

Education is…

“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence.”  –Robert Frost

Elevate life through conscious endeavor

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.”  –Henry David Thoreau

Endless forgiveness

“Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.”  –Peter Ustinov

Enough money

“I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something.”  –Jackie Mason

Entertaining subject matter

“The problem is not that television presents us with entertainining subject matter, but that all subject matter is presented as entertaining.”  –Neil Postman

Enthusiasm finds opportunities

“Enthusiasm finds the opportunities, and energy makes the most of them.” –Henry Hoskins

Espresso and meditation

“I took up meditation. I like to have an espresso first just to make it more challenging.”  –Betsy Salkind

Ethics

“A distinguished physician of high professional prestige was once invited to deliver a lecture to a group of young doctors upon the subject ‘The Ethics of the Medical Profession.’ This is what he said: ‘My lecture can be boiled down into two sentences. If you are a gentleman, you will know how to conduct yourself in any situation affecting a doctor’s practice. If you are not, nothing I can say here will do you any good.’”  –Nolan B. Harmon

Even God cannot change…

“Even God cannot change the past.”  –Agathon

Even if only in your heart

“You can dance anywhere, even if only in your heart.” –Source unknown

Ever-evolving work of art

“You can make your life into a grand ever-evolving work of art. The key is your thoughts, the wondrous invisible part of you that is your spiritual soul.” –Dr. Wayne Dyer

Everyone lacks self-confidence

“Smile, for everyone lacks self-confidence and more than any other one thing a smile reassures them.” –Andre Maurois

Everything is a miracle

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” –Albert Einstein

Evil on the ground of expediency

“No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.”  –Theodore Roosevelt

Excellence and Perfection

“I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God’s business.”  –Michael J. Fox

Expecting the world to treat you fairly

“Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are good is like expecting the bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian.” –Dennis Wholey

Expensive answers

“A psychiatrist is a person who will give you expensive answers that your spouse will give you for free.”  –Unknown

Experience the mysterious

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”  –Albert Einstein

Experiment Constantly

“Experiment constantly. Enlightened trial and error outperforms the planning of flawless intellects.” –John Maloney

Eye in your heart

“You got to look at things with the eye in your heart, not with the eye in your head.”  –Lame Deer, Medicine Man of the Oglala people

Failed over and over

“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions, I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot and I missed. I have failed over and over again in my life. And that’s precisely why I succeed.”  –Michael Jordan

Failure as part of the process

“The person interested in success has to learn to view failure as a healthy, inevitable part of the process of getting to the top.” –Dr. Joyce Brothers

Failure is staying down

“You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.” –Mary Pickford

Faithfully follow what we know

“It takes great courage to faithfully follow what we know to be true.” –Sara E. Anderson

Fall… stand up

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.”  –Japanese Proverb

Fear is a drain of energy

“Fear is nothing except a drain of energy and not a power unto itself. Trust in yourself, for therein lies the true power.” –Lori Hard

Fear is the main source

“Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.”  –Bertrand Russell

Fear itself

“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself–nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”  –Franklin D. Roosevelt

Fear less, Hope more

“Fear less, hope more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Hate less, love more; And all good things are yours.” –Swedish proverb

Fearing the opinion of others

“The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.”  –Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Feeling good all over

“Laughing is the sensation of feeling good all over and showing it principally in one spot.”  –Josh Billings

Felt with the heart

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.” –Helen Keller

Fence or friends

“Do not protect yourself by a fence, but rather by your friends.”  –Czech Proverb

Fight maturity

“The purpose of life is to fight maturity.”  –Dick Werthimer

Fine persons

“The best effect of fine persons is felt after we have left their presence.”  –Ralph Waldo Emerson

First step in faith

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” –Martin Luther King Jr.

Five minutes every hour

“No matter how much pressure you feel at work, if you could find ways to relax for at least five minutes every hour, you’d be more productive.”  –Dr. Joyce Brothers

Follow intuitive feeling

“To know how to choose a path with heart is to learn how to follow intuitive feeling. Logic can tell you superficially where a path might lead to, but it cannot judge whether your heart will be in it.”  –Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.

Follow your bliss

“Follow your Bliss and doors will open where there were no doors before.” –Joseph Campbell

Following a regimen

“The one thing more difficult than following a regimen is not imposing it on others.”  –Marcel Proust

Fools and fanatics

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.”  –Bertrand Russell

Forget injuries

“Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.”  –Confucius

Forgive a friend

“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.”  –William Blake

Forgiven yourself

“If you haven’t forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others?”  –Dolores Huerta

Forgiven yourself?

“If you haven’t forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others?”  –Dolores Huerta

Formula for failure

“I can’t give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.”  –Herbert Bayard Swope

Formula for success

“Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.”  –Arthur Rubinstein

Found A Truth

“Say not, ‘I have found the truth,’ but rather, ‘I have found a truth.’”  –Kahlil Gibran

Free ourselves through forgiveness

“Applied to other people, forgiveness is a process through which we seek to free ourselves from the bondage to another person that is maintained for as long as we stand in judgment of them.”  –Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.

Freedom a bigger game than power

“Freedom is actually a bigger game than power. Power is about what you can control. Freedom is about what you can unleash.” –Harriet Rubin

Freedom vs. Power

“Freedom is actually a bigger game than power. Power is about what you can control. Freedom is about what you can unleash.” –Harriet Rubin

Friendly terms

“Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.”  –Samuel Butler

Friends who frequent

“The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.”  –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friendship lessens adversity

“Friendship makes prosperity more shining and lessens adversity by dividing and sharing it.” –Cicero

Frigidity of old age

“To resist the frigidity of old age one must combine the body, the mind and the heart -and to keep them in parallel vigor one must exercise, study and love.”  –Karl von Bonstetten

From one failure to another

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”  –Sir Winston Churchill

Full of suffering

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.”  –Helen Keller

Fun is a good habit

“Fun is about as good a habit as there is.” –Jimmy Buffett

Fun on the agenda

“Unfortunately many people do not consider fun an important item on their daily agenda. For me, that was always a high priority in whatever I was doing.”  –Chuck Yeager

Future

“Future, n. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured.”  –Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

Gain that which is worth having

“To gain that which is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else.”  –Burnadette Devlin

Garth Brooks

“The greatest conflicts are not between two people but between one person and himself.”  –Garth Brooks

Genetic heritage

“Our genetic heritage endows each of us with a series of emotional set-points that determines our temperament. But the brain circuitry involved is extraordinarily malleable; temperament is not destiny.”  –Daniel Goleman

Getting harmony

“You don’t get harmony when everybody sings the same note.” –Doug Floyd

Gift of oneself

“Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.”  –Jean Anouilh

Gifted leadership

“Gifted leadership occurs when heart and head–feeling and thought–meet. These are the two winds that allow a leader to soar.”  –Daniel Goleman

Give ‘em hell

“I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”  –Harry S. Truman

Give people the latitude to

“Give people the latitude to be themselves. You would want someone to give that to you.”  –Sara Paddison

Give some time

“You must give some time to your fellow men. Even if it’s a little thing, do something for others -something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it.”  –Albert Schweitzer

Given up control of your life

“Every moment that you spend upset, in despair, in anguish, angry or hurt because of the behaviour of anybody else in your life is a moment in which you have given up control of your life.” –Dr. Wayne Dyer

Giving makes a life

“From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.”  –Arthur Ashe

Go confidently

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”  –Henry David Thoreau

God and the Artist

“Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.”  –Andre Gide

God placed a comma

“Never put a period where God has placed a comma.”  –Gracie Allen

God’s dream about man

“Whatever God’s dream about man may be, it seems certain it cannot come true unless man cooperates.”  –Stella Terrill Mann

God’s plans

“I was expecting to be free, but God has His own plans.”  –Mother Teresa

Golden moment

“Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.”  –Henry Miller

Good morning, Lord

“Someone has said that there are only two kinds of people in the world. There are those who wake up in the morning and say, “Good Morning, Lord,” and there are those who wake up in the morning and say, “Good Lord, it’s morning.” –Unknown

Gossips

“Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you.”  –Spanish Proverb

Gratitude

“Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy.”  –Jacques Maritain

Gratitude is the rake

“Gratitude is the rake, and abundance is the field.”  –heavenletters.org

Gratitude the greatest of virtues

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”  –Marcus Tullius Cicero

Great services

“Great services are not canceled by one act or by one single error.”  –Benjamin Disraeli

Great services

“Great services are not canceled by one act or by one single error.”  –Benjamin Disraeli

Greatest gain in knowledge

“The period of greatest gain in knowledge and experience is the most difficult period in one’s life.” –Dalai Lama

Greatest science in the world

“The greatest science in the world; in heaven and on earth; is love.”  –Mother Teresa

Greatest Weapon Against Stress

“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”  –William James

Gross habits

“My problem is reconciling my net income with my gross habits.”  –Erroll Flynn

Grow happiness

“The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.”  –James Openheim

Grow in patience

“Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.”  –Leonardo da Vinci

Growth means change

“Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown.”  –George Shinn

Grudge

“It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge.”  –Unknown

Guidance of your heart

“With the guidance of your heart, you can make quality decisions and your life will be more fun. Being alive in the heart is what makes life worthwhile. When you are in touch with your heartfelt emotions, you find your true core values and enrich your life.”  –Doc Childre

Guns and bombs

“The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure. They are necessary symbols. They protect what we cherish. But they are witness to human folly.”  –Lyndon B. Johnson

Hanging onto resentment

“Hanging onto resentment is like letting someone you despise live rent-free in your head.” –Ann Landers

Happily ever after

“It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis.”  –Margaret Bonnano

Happiness and bad memory

“Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.”  –Albert Schweitzer

Happiness depends

“Happiness depends, as Nature shows, Less on exterior things than most suppose.”  –William Cowper

Happy death

“As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.”  –Leonardo da Vinci

Happy in the moment

“Be happy in the moment, that’s enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.”  –Mother Teresa

Happy in work

“In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: They must be fit for it: They must not do too much of it: And they must have a sense of success in it.”  –John Ruskin

Happy thoughts

“A happy face does not come by chance. It comes by happy thoughts.” –Anonymous

Have it all

“You can have it all. You just can’t have it all at once.”  –Oprah Winfrey

He that wrestles with us

“He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.”  –Edmund Burke

Health is more than the absence of illness

Health is more than the absence of illness. It is the active state of physical, emotional, mental and social well being. –World Health Organization

Hearing your inner wisdom

“Like an ability or a muscle, hearing your inner wisdom is strengthened by doing it.”  –Robbie Gass

Heart capacity

“Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.”  –Zelda Fitzgerald

Heart of an artist

“A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.”  –Louis Nizer

Here lies Jack Williams

“I always remember an epitaph which is in the cemetery at Tombstone, Arizona. It says: ‘Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damnedest.’ I think that is the greatest epitaph a man can have -When he gives everything that is in him to do the job he has before him. That is all you can ask of him and that is what I have tried to do.”  –Harry S. Truman

Honesty

“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”  –Thomas Jefferson

Honesty is first chapter

“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” –Thomas Jefferson

Horse sense

“Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.”  –W. C. Fields

Horses in heaven

“God forbid that I should go to any heaven in which there are no horses.” –R.B. Cunningham Graham

How far you go in life

“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.” –George Washington Carver

How high you bounce

“Success is how high you bounce after you hit bottom.” –George Patton

How much love we put in

“It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.” –Mother Teresa

How seldom they think of us

“We would worry less about what others think of us if we realized how seldom they do.” –Ethel Barrett

How we meet events…

“I am more and more convinced that our happiness or our unhappiness depends far more on the way we meet the events of life than on the nature of those events themselves.”  –Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt

How will you be polished?

“If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?” –Mevlana Rumi

How you made them feel

“People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.”  –Unknown

Human beings want to be good

“On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good and not quite all the time.” –George Orwell

Human choice

“The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.”  –George Eliot

Humility

“Life is a long lesson in humility.”  –James M. Barrie

Hunger for love

“There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.”  –Mother Teresa

I argue very well

“I argue very well. Ask any of my remaining friends. I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don’t even invite me.”  –Dave Barry

I became a scientist

“As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life -so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls.”  –M. Cartmill

I believe in God

“I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.”  –Frank Lloyd Wright

I have learned through bitter

“I have learned through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmitted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmitted into a power that can move the world.”  –Mahatma Gandhi

I think you’re better

“I think you’re better than you think you are.”  –Bill Parcells

I was in darkness

“I was in darkness, but I took three steps and found myself in paradise. The first step was a good thought, the second, a good word; and the third, a good deed.” –Nietzche

I went ahead without success

“I couldn’t wait for success, so I went ahead without it.” –Jonathan Winters

I’ll be happy when…

“The great Western disease is, ‘I’ll be happy when. . . .’ ” he says. “When I get the money. When I get a BMW. When I get this job. Well, the reality is, you never get to when. The only way to find happiness is to understand that happiness is not out there. It’s in here. And happiness is not next week. It’s now.”  –Marshall Goldsmith

I’m not fat

“I’m not fat. I am a nutritional overachiever.”  –Weight watcher

Idiotic discrimination

“In neither the purchase of goods nor the hiring of personnel, do we ever consider the religious views, the gender, the race or the sexual orientation of the persons we are dealing with. It would not only be wrong to do so, it would be idiotic. We need all of the talent we can find, and we have learned that able and trustworthy managers, employees and suppliers come from a very wide spectrum of humanity.”  –Warren Buffet

If God had wanted people to walk around naked

“If God had wanted people to walk around naked, He would have made them that way!” –Unknown and Confused Prude

If God isn’t dead yet

“If God isn’t dead, he hasn’t stopped speaking to us yet. I would hate for my kids to read letters I’d written to them YEARS ago, over and over again and never CALL!” –Rev. Suzy

If God puts you on hold

“If God puts you on hold, just don’t hang up!”  –Unknown

If you ain’t the lead dog…

“Life is like a dog-sled team. If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes.”  –Lewis Grizzard

If you could not fail?

“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”  –Dr. Robert Schuller

If you do not risk anything

“And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.” –Erica Jong

If you have a talent

“If you have a talent, use it in every which way possible. Don’t hoard it. Don’t dole it out like a miser. Spend it lavishly like a millionaire intent on going broke.”  –Brendan Francis

If you limit yourself

“If you limit yourself only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise.” –Robert Fritz

If you trust too much

“You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough.”  –Frank Crane

If your mind goes blank

“If your mind goes blank, don’t forget to turn off the sound.” –Red Green

Ignore things

“Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace.”  –Robert J. Sawyer

Illimitable superior spirit

“My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.”  –Albert Einstein

Illiterate of the 21st century

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”  –Alvin Toffler

Illustrious ancestry

“The man who has nothing to boast of but his illustrious ancestry is like the potato -the best part under ground.”  –Thomas Overbury

Imagination

“Imagination is more important than knowledge…”  –Albert Einstein

Improve the world

“The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.”  –Robert M. Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, 1974)

Improving yourself

“You will find that the mere resolve not to be useless, and the honest desire to help other people, will, in the quickest and delicatest ways, improve yourself.”  –John Ruskin

In a new way

“That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you’ve understood all your life, but in a new way.”  –Doris Lessing

In American elections there are no losers

“In American elections there are no losers, because whether or not our candidates win or lose, the next morning we wake up as Americans.” –John Kerry

In the midst of the crowd

“It is very easy in the world to live by the opinion of the world. It is very easy in solitude to be self-centered. But the finished man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the service of others

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” –Mahatma Gandhi

In touch with the silence within

“Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in this life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from.” –Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Inside myself

“Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that’s where you renew your springs that never dry up.”  –Pearl Buck

Inside their shell

“She did not talk to people as if they were strange hard shells she had to crack open to get inside. She talked as if she were already in the shell. In their very shell.”  –Marita Bonner

Inspired by some great purpose

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds; your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”  –Patanjali

Intellect

“We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.”  –Albert Einstein

Intimidated about selling

“I think people who are intimidated about selling should recategorize or reclassify their paradigm. I look at it as the most wonderful opportunity you have to build lifelong, rich, dear, multi-dimensional friendships – and in the process to discover and learn about all sorts of fascinating things about all sorts of fascinating aspects of people and life that you would not have ever known before.” –Jay Abraham

Intuitive mind

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

Invisible to the eye

“Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye.” –H. Jackson Browne, Jr.

Invite God to lead

“When you invite God to lead what happens in a relationship, the results are out of this world.”  –Rick Wilkes

It must be lived forwards

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”  –Soren Kierkegaard

It took each and every situation

“Your journey has molded you for your greater good, and it was exactly what it needed to be. Don’t think that you’ve lost time. There is no short-cutting to life. It took each and every situation you have encountered to bring you to the now. And now is right on time.” –Asha Tyson

Journal writing

“Journal writing is a voyage to the interior.”  –Christina Baldwin

Judging success

“We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles, rather than by the quality of our service relationship to humanity.”  –Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Keep in the sunlight

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

Keep yourself clean and bright

“Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.”  –George Bernard Shaw

King and the pawn

“Once the game is over, the King and the pawn go back in the same box.”  –Italian Proverb

Know how to ask

“Know how to ask. There is nothing more difficult for some people, nor for others, easier.”  –Baltasar Gracian

Know how to be

“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to be one’s own self.” –Montaigne

Know nothing

“True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing. And in knowing that you know nothing, that makes you the smartest of all.”  –Socrates

Know the truth by heart

“We know truth, not only by reason, but also by the heart.”  –Blaise Pascal

Know what a man is

“If you wish to know what a man is, place him in authority.”  –Yugoslav Proverb

Knowledge lost in information

“Where is the knowledge that is lost in information? Where is the wisdom that is lost in knowledge?” –t.s. eliot

Lasting outer peace in the world

“It is only when each individual has achieved inner peace that we will see lasting outer peace in the world.” –Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj

Laughing

“You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.”  –Michael Pritchard

Learn to live simply

“If you want to be free, learn to live simply. Use what you have and be content where you are.”  –J. Heider

Learning people

“One learns people through the heart, not the eyes or the intellect.”  –Mark Twain

Leave the past

“The farther behind I leave the past, the closer I am to forging my own character.”  –Isabelle Eberhardt

Let me sow love

“Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith.”  –Saint Francis of Assisi

Let there be!

“Every time we say, “Let there be!” in any form, something happens.”  –Stella Terrill Mann

Lies a silence

“Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better. Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as Time.”  –Thomas Carlyle

Life as something separated

“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 does not cease to be funny

“Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.”  –George Bernard Shaw

Life is about creating

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” –George Bernard Shaw

Life is serious?

“Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.”  –Brendan Gill

Life is too important

“Life is too important to take seriously.”  –Corky Siegel

Life is what we make it

“Life is what we make it. Always has been, always will be.” –Grandma Moses

Life will love you back

“If you love life, life will love you back.”  –Arthur Rubinstein

Life’s challenges

“Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.”  –Bernice Johnson Reagon

Light candles

“If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it.”  –Margaret Fuller

Like what you are doing

“You never achieve real success unless you like what you are doing.” –Dale Carnegie

Listen Completely

“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.”  –Ernest Hemingway

Listen completely

“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.”  –Ernest Hemingway

Live coal in your heart

“The hatred you’re carrying is a live coal in your heart -far more damaging to yourself than to them.”  –Lawana Blackwell

Live happily

“It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis.”  –Margaret Bonnano

Live happily ever after

“It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis.” –Margaret Bonnano

Live upon a little

“He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little.”  –Horace

Live well, laugh often, love much

“He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much.” –Bessie Anderson Stanley

Look fear in the face

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”  –Eleanor Roosevelt

Losing time

“Modern man thinks he loses something–time–when he does not do things quickly; yet he does not know what to do with the time he gains–except kill it.”  –Erich Fromm

Lot of worries in my life

“I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.”  –Mark Twain

Love & Skill

“When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.”  –John Ruskin

Love and skill

“When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.”  –John Ruskin

Love is not automatic

“Love is not automatic. It takes conscious practice and awareness, just like playing the piano or golf. However, you have ample opportunities to practice. Everyone you meet can be your practice session.”  –Doc Childre and Sara Paddison

Love the questions

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart. And try to love the questions themselves.”  –Rainer Maria Rilke

Love’s impact on our quality of life

“Love and intimacy are the root of what makes us sick and what makes us well. I am not aware of any other factor in medicine -not diet, not smoking, not exercise… not drugs, not surgery -that has a greater impact on our quality of life, incidence of illness and premature death.”  –Dean Ornish

Loving and Being Loved

“Our spiritual work is about loving and being loved, period, because the way we find some authentic and enduring sweetness and meaningfulness in life is in our commitment and devotion to cultivating authentic love and in our capacity to hold to it, no matter what. ”  –Swami Chetanananda

Lure of the distant

“The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are.” –John Burroughs

Madness

“Madness is part of all of us, all the time, and it comes and goes, waxes and wanes.” –Otto Friedrich

Magnetize towards your goals

“Goals are new, forward-moving objectives. They magnetize you towards them.”  –Mark Victor Hansen

Make new friends

“If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man should keep his friendships in constant repair.”  –Samuel Johnson

Make the best use

“Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.”  –Epictetus

Making mistakes

“Only when sleeping do we make no mistakes. Mistakes are the privilege of the active person, who can start over and put things right.”  –Ingvar Kamprad

Man’s best medicine

“Walking is man’s best medicine.”  –Hippocrates

Man’s best medicine

“Walking is man’s best medicine.”  –Hippocrates

Mandela on fear

“As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”  –Nelson Mandela

Massage as a relationship

“Massage in essence is a relationship between two people who share equally with each other in order to faciliate change. That is why it is important to find a therapist thats suits you.”  –Rick Wilkes

Matter most at the mercy of the least

“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.” –Goethe

Measure of life

“The measure of a life is not its duration, but its donation.”  –Peter Marshall

Medical Freedom

“Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an underground dictatorship. To restrict the art of healing to one class of men and deny equal privileges to others will constitute the Bastille of medical science. All such laws are un-American and despotic and have no place in a republic. The Constitution of this republic should make special privilege for medical freedom as well as religious freedom.” –Dr. Benjamin Rush, signer of the U.S. Constitution

Meet each other with a smile

“Let us make one point, that we meet each other with a smile, when it is difficult to smile. Smile at each other, make time for each other in your family.”  –Mother Teresa

Men of contrary character

“When we see men of a contrary character we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.” –Confucius

Mercy

“I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.”  –Abraham Lincoln

Midlife crisis

“Turn your midlife crisis to your own advantage by making it a time for renewal of your body and mind, rather than stand by helplessly and watch them decline.”  –Jane E. Brody

Mighty oak

“The mighty oak tree was once a little nut that held its ground.”  –Naturalist

Mind can only hold one thought

“Your mind can only hold one thought at a time. Make it a positive and constructive one.” –H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Mind has great influence

“The mind has great influence over the body, and maladies often have their origin there.”  –Moliere

Mind opened by wonder

“I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.”  –Gerry Spence

Mind power

“The mind has exactly the same power as the hands; not merely to grasp the world, but to change it.” –Colin Wilson

Miserable

“Man is only miserable so far as he thinks himself so.”  –Jacopo Sannazaro

Moral precept inconvenience

“There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.”  –Denis Diderot

More friends in two months

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”  –Dale Carnegie

More than just healthy

“My focus in my practice is to help people thrive…that is more than just being healthy. Health is the absence of disease as far as I am concerned. Maintaining health is the first step. Thriving is a process of taking control over one’s life and setting goals for growth and happiness. It is more of a spiritual journey.”  –Doc (Larry)

Most important thing in life

“Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.”  –John Wayne

Moving in the wrong direction

“Failure is God’s way of saying, ‘Excuse me, you’re moving in the wrong direction.’” –Oprah Winfrey

Musical silence

“Silence is more musical than any song.”  –Christina Rossetti

My heart is still my own

“All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is still my own.”  –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

My mother had trouble

“My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.”  –Mark Twain

Mystify a lot of folks

“When you feel in your gut what you are and then dynamically pursue it -don’t back down and don’t give up -then you’re going to mystify a lot of folks.”  –Bob Dylan