Today marks the anniversary of the death of Anwar el-Sadat who was President of Egypt from 1970, until radical extremists assassinated him during the Armed Forces Day parade.
Here are a few quotes from this Nobel Peace Prize winner (He shared the prize with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.)
I was brought up to believe that how I saw myself was more important than how others saw me.
Fear is, I believe, a most effective tool in destroying the soul of an individual - and the soul of a people.
There is no happiness for people at the expense of other people.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
St. Francis of Assisi
Today is the anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi, my favorite Christian mystic. In his honor, I would like to share some of my favorite quotes from St. Francis:
It is not fitting, when one is in God's service, to have a gloomy face or a chilling look.
No one is to be called an enemy, all are your benefactors, and no one does you harm. You have no enemy except yourselves.
Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.
While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.
All the darkness in the world can't extinguish the light from a single candle.
He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.
A real friend is someone who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.
Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that have received--only what you have given.
I am especially fond of the first quote, I think you can tell a lot about a person's spiritual development by how easily and frequently they laugh.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Constitution Day
Today we celebrate the signing of the Constitution of the United States, and the beginning of the greatest experiment in democracy the world had ever seen. So I would like to post some quotes from Thomas Jefferson, one of my favorites among the Founding Fathers.
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.
Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.
I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.
I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.
It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.
That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.
Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.
I think the state of the country would be much improved if we had a government and society based more on these ideas. Think about what you can do to make a difference. Speak up, let your Senators and Representatives know how you feel. Too many people sit by and allow the loud minorities to control all the discussions. Time for all good people to speak up. Become a part of the government by raising your voice!
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.
Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.
I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.
I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.
It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.
That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.
Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.
I think the state of the country would be much improved if we had a government and society based more on these ideas. Think about what you can do to make a difference. Speak up, let your Senators and Representatives know how you feel. Too many people sit by and allow the loud minorities to control all the discussions. Time for all good people to speak up. Become a part of the government by raising your voice!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Some Quotes from One of My Favorite Thinkers
When I was in college, I was required to take an English class, which for the most part, I hated. Too much of the class was taken up in reading authors who were boring (to be kind) and irrelevant. The one bright part of the class was a book we were required to purchase, and read excerpts from, which was the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Included in the volume were selections from his journals, which were not required for the class, but I found them fascinating, and still have a notebook filled with quotes copied from that book. (If you have never read his essay Compensation, it is worth the time to read it, the style is a bit archaic, but it is well worth reading in its entirety, you can find it here.)
Here are some of my favorite quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
A man is what he thinks about all day long.
All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
Always do what you are afraid to do.
An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.
As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.
As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey.
Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.
Every artist was first an amateur.
Every experiment, by multitudes or by individuals, that has a sensual and selfish aim, will fail.
Every man is a consumer, and ought to be a producer. He is by constitution expensive, and needs to be rich.
Every man I meet is in some way my superior.
Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.
For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.
If you would lift me up you must be on higher ground.
Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.
Make yourself necessary to somebody.
Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
A man is what he thinks about all day long.
All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
Always do what you are afraid to do.
An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.
As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.
As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey.
Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.
Every artist was first an amateur.
Every experiment, by multitudes or by individuals, that has a sensual and selfish aim, will fail.
Every man is a consumer, and ought to be a producer. He is by constitution expensive, and needs to be rich.
Every man I meet is in some way my superior.
Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.
For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.
If you would lift me up you must be on higher ground.
Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.
Make yourself necessary to somebody.
Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Some of My Favorite Quotes About Love
Tomorrow is February 14, Valentine's Day, so I thought I'd share some of my favorite quotes about love.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery:
Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.
Carl Jung:
Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.
Elbert Hubbard:
The love we give away is the only love we keep.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning:
I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out.
Euripides:
He is not a lover who does not love forever.
Felix Adler:
Love is the expansion of two natures in such fashion that each include the other, each is enriched by the other.
Gary Zukav:
Eventually you will come to understand that love heals everything, and love is all there is.
George Sand:
There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.
Henry David Thoreau:
Love must be as much a light as it is a flame.
There is no remedy for love but to love more.
Henry Miller:
The one thing we can never get enough of is love. And the one thing we can never give enough of is love.
Incredible String Band:
You get brighter every day, and every time I see you, scattered brightness in your way, and you taught me how to love you.
Kahlil Gibran:
Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.
Oscar Wilde:
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.
Rainer Maria Rilke:
For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of our tasks; the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.
Rumi: (Rumi is one of my favorite sources for inspiration.)
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
Come out of the circle of time
And into the circle of love.
Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absent-minded.
Someone sober will worry about events going badly.
Let the lover be.
Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama:
We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without human affection.
Ursula K. Le Guin:
Love doesn't sit there like a stone. It has to made like bread; remade all the time, made new.
William Shakespeare:
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery:
Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.
Carl Jung:
Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.
Elbert Hubbard:
The love we give away is the only love we keep.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning:
I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out.
Euripides:
He is not a lover who does not love forever.
Felix Adler:
Love is the expansion of two natures in such fashion that each include the other, each is enriched by the other.
Gary Zukav:
Eventually you will come to understand that love heals everything, and love is all there is.
George Sand:
There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.
Henry David Thoreau:
Love must be as much a light as it is a flame.
There is no remedy for love but to love more.
Henry Miller:
The one thing we can never get enough of is love. And the one thing we can never give enough of is love.
Incredible String Band:
You get brighter every day, and every time I see you, scattered brightness in your way, and you taught me how to love you.
Kahlil Gibran:
Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.
Oscar Wilde:
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.
Rainer Maria Rilke:
For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of our tasks; the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.
Rumi: (Rumi is one of my favorite sources for inspiration.)
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
Come out of the circle of time
And into the circle of love.
Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absent-minded.
Someone sober will worry about events going badly.
Let the lover be.
Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama:
We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without human affection.
Ursula K. Le Guin:
Love doesn't sit there like a stone. It has to made like bread; remade all the time, made new.
William Shakespeare:
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Lewis Carrol's Birthday
In 1832, in Daresbury, Cheshire, England, Lewis Carroll was born. (His real name was Charles Dodgson, Lewis Carroll was his pen name.)
He is perhaps best known for writing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
, but he was also an accomplished mathematician and photographer.
His poem "Jabberwocky", which appeared in Through the Looking Glass (and What Alice Found There), is one of my personal favorites, and always makes me smile.
Tim Burton is about to release a film version of Alice in Wonderland, you can see the official trailer here. It's due for release March 5, 2010, and stars Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. I saw a preview of the Imax 3-D version, and plan to see it in Imax 3-D when it comes out. I will post a review here after I see it.
He is perhaps best known for writing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
, but he was also an accomplished mathematician and photographer.His poem "Jabberwocky", which appeared in Through the Looking Glass (and What Alice Found There), is one of my personal favorites, and always makes me smile.
Tim Burton is about to release a film version of Alice in Wonderland, you can see the official trailer here. It's due for release March 5, 2010, and stars Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. I saw a preview of the Imax 3-D version, and plan to see it in Imax 3-D when it comes out. I will post a review here after I see it.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Perfect Kindness
I was reading Bob Burg's blog today, he wrote a post about thoughtfulness. One of the comments reminded me of one of my favorite sayings, "Perfect kindness acts without thinking of kindness."
I added a comment to Bob's blog, but wanted to talk a little more about thoughtfulness and kindness. There is such a pervasive sense of doom and gloom everywhere I go, at least partly caused by all the bad news in the traditional media.
This blog is one of my responses to the pervasive darkness, one small thing I do to try and add some brightness to the world. Hopefully, it helps brighten your day a little, and brings you a smile or a laugh when you need it.
Out in the "real" world, being thoughtful of other people, even in small ways, can make a big difference. Just a kind word, or a smile, can often make the difference between someone having a good day or a bad day. (I also read about some research that demonstrated that people witnessing an act of kindness, without any active participation on their part, are positively affected, and their brains produce more feel good endorphins, as do the people actively
involved .) So, if you act kindly towards another person, not only will you feel better, and make them feel better, everyone who sees the act will also benefit. A small act of kindness can have a very large ripple effect.
So, be extra nice to someone today. And smile!
I added a comment to Bob's blog, but wanted to talk a little more about thoughtfulness and kindness. There is such a pervasive sense of doom and gloom everywhere I go, at least partly caused by all the bad news in the traditional media.
This blog is one of my responses to the pervasive darkness, one small thing I do to try and add some brightness to the world. Hopefully, it helps brighten your day a little, and brings you a smile or a laugh when you need it.
Out in the "real" world, being thoughtful of other people, even in small ways, can make a big difference. Just a kind word, or a smile, can often make the difference between someone having a good day or a bad day. (I also read about some research that demonstrated that people witnessing an act of kindness, without any active participation on their part, are positively affected, and their brains produce more feel good endorphins, as do the people actively
involved .) So, if you act kindly towards another person, not only will you feel better, and make them feel better, everyone who sees the act will also benefit. A small act of kindness can have a very large ripple effect.
So, be extra nice to someone today. And smile!
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