~Quotes I like~

"Of course you're unique. Just like everybody else."

"An effective way to deal with predators is to taste terrible."

"One nice thing about egotists: they don't talk about other people." ~Lucille S. Harper

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." ~Andy McIntyre and Derek Bok

"The richest people in this world are not those who have the most... but those that need the least."

"I myself do nothing. The Holy Spirit accomplishes all through me." ~William Blake

"You can only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."

"A goal without a plan is just a wish." ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don't define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them." ~Denis Watley

"Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better." ~Andre Gide

"It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but even more to stand up to your friends." ~J. K. Rowling

"To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure." ~J. K. Rowling

"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not." ~Andre Gide

"Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts." ~Rita Mae Brown

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." ~Jack London

"If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon." ~George Aiken

"Those who control their passions do so because their passions are weak enough to be controlled." ~William Blake

"The road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom...for we never know what is enough until we know what is more than enough." ~William Blake

"The dread of criticism is the death of genius." ~William Gilmore Simms

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were." ~John F. Kennedy

"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." ~Michelangelo

"When you're just like everybody else, you've nothing to offer other than your conformity." ~Wayne Dyer

"You cannot give up your dreams. You can hide them, dig them, but they will come out at night before you fall asleep and will squeeze your stomach, melt into your heart!" ~Anticia, on DA

"If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads." ~Anatole France

"Find the seed at the bottom of your heart and bring forth a flower." ~Shigenori Kameoka

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader." ~Robert Frost

"The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work." ~Robert Frost

"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pains of stupidity." ~Frank Leahy

"Wisdom doesn't automatically come with old age. Nothing does - except wrinkles. It's true, some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place." ~Abigail Van Buren

"Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night." ~Edgar Allan Poe

"The wisest men follow their own direction." ~Euripides

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." ~Mahatma Gandhi

"Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice." ~Wayne Dyer

"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value." ~Albert Einstein

"The course of life is unpredictable... no one can write his autobiography in advance." ~Abraham Joshua Heschel

"The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them." ~Stephen King

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." ~Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles

"We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly." ~Sam Keen

"You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back." ~Barbara De Angelis

"You were born an original. Don't die a copy." ~John Mason

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do." ~Eleanor Roosevelt

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." ~Mark Twain

"Until one is committed
There is hesitancy, the chance to draw back,
Always ineffectiveness.
Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation),
There is one elementary truth,
The ignorance of which kills countless ideas
And splendid plans: That the moment one definitely commits oneself,
Then Providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one
That would never otherwise have occurred.
A whole stream of events issues from the decision
Raising in one's favor all manner
Of unforeseen incidents and meetings
And material assistance,
Which no man could have dreamt
Would have come his way.
I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets:
"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it." ~W.H. Murray, from The Scottish Himalayan Expedition

"Technique-schmechnique. You can teach a dog technique. Imblicks! It's the feeling that counts. You can't teach that." ~Mr. Schnozzle, on Doug.

"Trying to drive your life with negative emotions is like trying to drive a car with the brakes on. It's possible to move it forward, but the stress and the strain on the engine and the transmission and the running gear and the differential is inordinate, and it is negative emotions that wear us out and tire us out in life. We cannot go any further than we are at this very moment in our lives without discarding our negative emotions and getting on with the rest of our lives, and leaving them behind." ~Brian Tracy

"Write your worries in the sand, and see how long they stay there." ~Wayne Dyer

"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." ~Benjamin Franklin

"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared." ~Buddha

"If you do not change the direction in which you are going, you will end up where you are headed." ~Confucius

"When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps." ~Confucius

"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom." ~Malcom X

"It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness." ~Eleanor Roosevelt

"Don't think, feel! It is like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory." ~Bruce Lee

"Seek not the favor of the multitude; it is seldom got by honest and lawful means. But seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them." ~Immanuel Kant

"So act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world." ~Immanuel Kant

"Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war." ~Albert Einstein

"Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will." ~Ronald Reagan

"Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have." ~Davy Crockett

"If you sacrifice liberty for security, you will lose both." ~Ron Paul

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president...is morally treasonable to the American public." ~Theodore Roosevelt

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." ~Shakespeare

"A life lived in fear is a life half lived." ~Spanish Proverb

"Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present." ~Albert Camus

"The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think - rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men." ~Bill Beattie

"Much education today is monumentally ineffective.  All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants." ~John W. Gardner

"My parents told me, "Finish your dinner.  People in China and India are starving."  I tell my daughters, "Finish your homework.  People in India and China are starving for your job."  ~Thomas L. Friedman

"Education is not filling a pail but the lighting of a fire." ~William Butler Yeats

"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught." ~Oscar Wilde, "The Critic as Artist," 1890

"Worry affects the circulation and the whole nervous system. I've never known a man who died from overwork, but I've known many who have died from doubt." ~Dr. Charles Mayo

"If the problem can be solved, there is no use worrying about it. If the problem can't be solved, worrying will do no good." ~Buddhist Saying

"A cartload of worry won't pay an ounce of debt." ~Old Italian proverb

"God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites, so that you will have two wings to fly, not one." ~Rumi

"Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation." ~Rumi

"If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?" ~Rumi

"No mirror ever became iron again;
No bread ever became wheat;
No ripened grape ever became sour fruit.
Mature yourself and be secure from a change for the worse.
Become the light." ~Rumi

"We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it lives...inside ourselves." ~Albert Camus

"Security is mostly a superstition. It 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 outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." ~Helen Keller

"Our schools are much like our prisons: they disappoint us because they only do what they're designed to do, and it annoys us that they don't do something else!" ~Daniel Quinn

"I can give you a six word formula for success: 'Think things through - then follow through.'" ~Eddie Rickenbacker

"A wise man will MAKE more opportunities than he FINDS." ~Francis Bacon

"One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation." ~Arthur Ashe

"The dreams you choose to believe in come to be.
When you feel in your innermost being
that you will achieve what you set out to do,
you open the way for miracles.
Choose to believe something good can happen.
Expecting it to happen energizes your goal
and actually gives it momentum.
What you expect to happen, happens.
If you expect to succeed, you'll succeed." ~Nikita Koloff

"Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." ~Muriel Strode

"What would you do if you knew you could not fail?" ~Robert H. Schuller

"Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big." ~Daniel Burnham, Chicago architect. (1846-1912)

"Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure." ~Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi

"I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think." ~Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi

"Be like the sun for grace and mercy. Be like the night to cover others' faults. Be like running water for generosity. Be like death for rage and anger. Be like the Earth for modesty. Appear as you are. Be as you appear." ~Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi

"The ear participates, and helps arrange marriages;
the eye has already made love with what it sees.
The eye knows pleasure, delights in the body's shape:
the ear hears words that talk about all this.
When hearing takes place, character areas change;
but when you see, inner areas change.
If all you know about fire is what you have heard
see if the fire will agree to cook you!
Certain energies come only when you burn.
If you long for belief, sit down in the fire!
When the ear receives subtly; it turns into an eye.
But if words do not reach the ear in the chest, nothing happens." ~Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi (Night and Sleep)

"People buy things they do not need with money they do not have to impress people they do not even like." ~George Fooshee

"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

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams." ~Dr. Seuss

"It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages." ~Friedrich Nietzsche

"Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love." ~Mother Teresa

"Why are you trying so hard to fit in when you were born to stand out?" ~Ian Wallace

"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

"It is never too late to be what you might have been." ~George Eliot

"For Attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run their fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.
People, more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself and the other for helping others." ~Sam Levenson

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain." ~Maya Angelou

"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares." ~Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Road to Daybreak: A Spiritual Journey

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." ~Maya Angelou

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." ~Theodore Roosevelt

"Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever." ~Lance Armstrong, Every Second Counts

"A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions–as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all." ~Friedrich Nietzsche

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us." ~Helen Keller

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." ~Winston S. Churchill

"You can't live your life for other people. You've got to do what's right for you, even if it hurts some people you love." ~Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

"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

"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions." ~Dalai Lama XIV

"'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for one who believes." ~Mark 9:23