Motion VS Progress

Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress.

~Alfred A. Montapert

Friendship

Oh, the comfort --
The inexpressible comfort of feeling
safe with a person,
Having neither to weigh thoughts,
Nor measure words -- but pouring them
All right out -- just as they are --
Chaff and grain together --
Certain that a faithful hand will
Take and sift them --
Keep what is worth keeping --
and with the breath of kindness
Blow the rest away.

~Dinah Maria Craik

A Leader Is Best...

A leader is best when people barely know he exists.  Not so good when people obey and acclaim him.  Worse when they despise him.  But of a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say "We did it ourselves."

~Lao-tzu

Are You A Sheep or a Lion?

I'm more afraid of any army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.

~Talleygrand

Leadership and Vision

The very essence of leadership is that you have a vision. It's got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.

~ Theodore Hesburgh

The Mousetrap

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife, who lived in his house, open a package. “What could it possibly hold?” the mouse wondered with excitement.  But soon he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

He ran out to the farmyard and the mouse yelled out a warning: “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head saying “Mr.Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.”

The mouse turned to the pig and cried to him “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!” The pig sympathized, but said “I am so very sorry, Mr.Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.”

The mouse turned to the cow and said “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!” The cow said “Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you, but it’s no skin off my back.” So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s mousetrap alone.

That night a sound was heard throughout the house – like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail had been caught in the trap. The wife bent over and the snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital where she was treated, but returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard and killed the chicken for the soup’s main ingredient. But his wife’s illness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig and made a great meal. The farmer’s wife did not get well; she died. So many  people came to her funeral that the farmer had to slaughter the cow to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse watched it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

The lesson here is that the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and you think it doesn’t concern you, think again.  Remember that when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We can work together to help one another and in the process help ourselves.

Wonder

Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.

~ St. Augustine

Maturity

The first sign of maturity is the discovery that the volume knob turns to the left.


~Author unknown but greatly appreciated

Heros vs Gentlemen

It is much easier to be a hero than a gentleman.

~Luigi Pirandello

Memories

The moment may be temporary but the memory is forever.

~Bud Meyer

What You Give Your Children

The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.

~Denis Waitley

Work

Nothing is work unless you'd rather be doing something else.

~George Halas

Relationships

It is the things in common that make relationships enjoyable, but it's the little differences that make them interesting.

~Todd Ruthman

Dreams

The best reason for having dreams is that in dreams no reasons are necessary.

~Ashleigh Brilliant

Offense

No one beneath you can offend you. No one your equal would.

~ Jan L. Wells

Be Yourself

Be yourself.  No one can ever tell you you're doing it wrong.

~James Lee Herlihy

True Friends

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.

~Elisabeth Foley

Feeling Tall

The better we feel about ourselves, the fewer times we have to knock somebody else down to feel tall.

~Odetta

Fair Play

Fair play is essentially not blaming others for anything that is wrong with us.

~Eric Hoffer

Irritations

Everything that irritates us about others can lead to an understanding of ourselves.

~Carl G. Jung

Value

What we must decide is how we are valuable rather than how valuable we are.

~Edgar Z. Friedenberg

Fences

The same fence that shuts others out shuts you in.

~Bill Copeland

Hold Fast Your Dreams!

Hold fast your dreams!
Within your heart
Keep one still, secret spot
Where dreams may go,
And, sheltered so,
May thrive and grow
Where doubt and fear are not.
O keep a place apart,
Within your heart,
For little dreams to go!

Think still of lovely things that are not true.
Let wish and magic work at will in you.
Be sometimes blind to sorrow. Make believe!
Forget the calm that lies
In disillusioned eyes.
Though we all know that we must die,
Yes you and I
May walk like gods and be
Even now at home in immortality.

We see so many ugly things—
Deceits and wrongs and quarrelings;
We know, alas! we know
How quickly fade
The color in the west,
The bloom upon the flower,
The bloom upon the breast
And youth's blind hour.
Yet keep within your heart
A place apart
Where little dreams may go,
May thrive and grow.
Hold fast—hold fast your dreams!

 

~Louise Driscoll

Self Obligation?

We visit others as a matter of social obligation.  How long has it been since we've visited with ourselves?

~Morris Adler

When We Know

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.

~Erica Jong

Age

Age does not protect you from love.  But love, to some extent, protects you from age.

~Jeanne Moreau

Essential Vision

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly;  what is essential is invisible to the eye.

~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Why Of Life

If we have our own "why" of life, we can bear almost any "how."

~Frederich Nietzsche

Wisdom

Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk.

~Doug Larson

Volume

You cannot train a horse with shouts and expect it to obey a whisper.

~Dagobert D. Runes

A Kiss

The only thing worth stealing is a kiss from a sleeping child.

~Joe Houldsworth

What You Think Of Yourself...

What you think of yourself is far more important than what others think of you.  

There will be days when people will try to tear you down. Don't let them win. Hold your head high, walk proudly, and remember when you've done the best you can do, there is nothing anyone can say to take that away from you. 

Keep the song in your heart, and memorize it well. Play it over and over; soon others will take notice and look up to you. Some may even ask you for advice. 

You have what it takes to succeed. You're a person of integrity, wisdom, and faith. If nagging doubts ever enter your mind, the kind where you question if what you're doing is right, pause for a moment, close your eyes, and just do what you need to do...believe, believe, believe.  

~Kris Ackerman