Tag Archives: quotes

The 09/27/13 Joy Jar

27 Sep

Moi began the ‘Joy Jar’ experiment almost a year ago. It will end on Christmas Day because Christmas represents rebirth and renewal. The experiment was about being grateful for something each day and just being grateful for each day. So far, it has been a success. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is strength.

We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face… we must do that which we think we cannot.
Eleanor Roosevelt

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
Helen Keller

Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.
Albert Einstein

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.
Khalil Gibran

Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.
Winston Churchill

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.
John F. Kennedy

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.
Ernest Hemingway

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.
Leonardo da Vinci

Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.
Hermann Hesse

Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.
Leo Buscaglia

We can be tired, weary and emotionally distraught, but after spending time alone with God, we find that He injects into our bodies energy, power and strength.
Charles Stanley

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The 09/26/13 Joy Jar

26 Sep

As one matures and realizes the value of life, one is grateful to be looking at this side of the dirt. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is being grateful to be alive.

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.
Robert Frost

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
Buddha

Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you too.
Will Smith

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
George Bernard Shaw

Life is a song – sing it. Life is a game – play it. Life is a challenge – meet it. Life is a dream – realize it. Life is a sacrifice – offer it. Life is love – enjoy it.
Sai Baba

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me’.
Erma Bombeck

Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.
William James

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

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
Confucius

Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor.
Sholom Aleichem

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
John F. Kennedy

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 your life you will have been all of these.
George Washington Carver

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

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.
Albert Einstein

My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.
Cary Grant

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.
Lao Tzu

I have a simple philosophy: Fill what’s empty. Empty what’s full. Scratch where it itches.
Alice Roosevelt Longworth

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The 09/20/13 Joy Jar

21 Sep

Stephen Wunker posted a great Forbes article, Asking the Right Question:

We are trained to be solution-finders. In school, we are given questions and graded on the quality of our solutions. As we develop in our careers, management examines the solutions that we propose, not the questions that we have asked. For annual reviews, “performance” is usually defined as creating and implementing solutions rather than finding the best problems to tackle. We become wonderfully efficient at solving problems, even if they are the wrong ones to solve. Few kudos come from asking the right question.
Yet the right question is often the key to breakthrough business success. With a properly-framed question, finding an elegant answer becomes almost straightforward.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenwunker/2012/12/15/asking-the-right-question/

Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is a wish that moi always asks the right question.

The Heart of Innovation blog posted, 15 Great Quotes on the Importance of Asking the Right Question:

As an innovation consultant and a facilitator of the creative process, I continue to be astounded by how few organizations have any kind of process is place to PAUSE, reflect, and make sure they are coming up with the right questions. Apparently, I’m not alone…

1. “It’s not that they can’t see the solution. They can’t see the problem.” – G.K. Chesterton

2. “There are no right answers to wrong questions.” – Ursula K. Le Guin

3. “We thought that we had the answers, it was the questions we had wrong.” – Bono

4. “Ask the right questions if you’re going to find the right answers.” – Vanessa Redgrave

5. “Asking the right questions takes as much skill as giving the right answers.” – Robert Half

6. “What people think of as the moment of discovery is really the discovery of the question.” – Jonas Salk

7. “What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.” – Werner Heisenberg

8. “The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions.” – Antony Jay

9. “In school, we’re rewarded for having the answer, not for asking a good question.” – Richard Saul Wurman

10. “In all affairs, it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.” – Bertrand Russell

11. “Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.” – Pablo Picasso

12. “Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.” – Voltaire

13. “We hear only those questions for which we are in a position to find answers.” – Friedrich Nietszche

14. “My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions.” – Peter Drucker

15. “He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.” – Chinese proverb

Thanks to Val Vadeboncoeur for locating these great quotes
http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/archives/2012/02/1_its_not_that.shtml

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The 09/13/13 Joy Jar

14 Sep

The summer of 2013 in Seattle has just been grand. So, even though everyone knows that seasons change, the weather report of cooler and rainier weather next week means that Autumn is just around the corner. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is the approach of Autumn.

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
Albert Camus

“You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen. When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person died for no reason.”
Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

“I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.”
Henry David Thoreau

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.”
George Eliot

“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.”
Lauren DeStefano, Wither

“No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face.”
John Donne

“Aprils have never meant much to me, autumns seem that season of beginning, spring.”
Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s

“Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.”
Nora Ephron

“At no other time (than autumn) does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is in no way inferior to the smell of the sea, bitter where it borders on taste, and more honeysweet where you feel it touching the first sounds. Containing depth within itself, darkness, something of the grave almost.”
Rainer Maria Rilke

“Autumn…the year’s last, loveliest smile.”
William Cullen Bryant

“I loved autumn, the one season of the year that God seemed to have put there just for the beauty of it.”
Lee Maynard

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The 09/11/13 Joy Jar

11 Sep

On one of the sacred days in the history of America, moi reflects about what it is she loves about this country, there are many things. BUT, what she loves most is the incredible spirit and resilience of Americans. WE MUST NEVER FORGET 9/11, but we can never lose our spirit.

“Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.”

George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

We must NEVER FORGET.

In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.
Albert Schweitzer

Life, Time, Thankful Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.
Calvin Coolidge

Peace, Time, Christmas 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

Religion, Mind, Humble I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.
Khalil Gibran

Love, Religion, Church Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hate, Him, Violence If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Death, Free, Pay Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.
Abraham Lincoln

Men, Liberty, Destroy Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.
Mahatma Gandhi

True, Violence, Growth O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil.
William Shakespeare

Wine, Devil, Call Man can never be a woman’s equal in the spirit of selfless service with which nature has endowed her.
Mahatma Gandhi

Nature, Woman, Service The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.
Oscar Wilde

Critical, Creates, Imitates The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.
Thomas Jefferson

Government, Wish, Alive A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.
Thomas Jefferson

Coward, Quarrels, Exposed The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart.
Mahatma Gandhi

Change, Heart, Democracy Humans are amphibians – half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time.
C. S. Lewis

Time, Half, Animal I have worshipped woman as the living embodiment of the spirit of service and sacrifice.
Mahatma Gandhi

Woman, Sacrifice, Living The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.
Thomas Jefferson

Country, Military, Force Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy.
Mahatma Gandhi

Joy, Service, Nor No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.
Helen Keller

Human, Stars, Secret There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.
Ronald Reagan

Mind, Human, Progress Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
Khalil Gibran

Friendship, Purpose, Save There are four questions of value in life, Don Octavio. What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for and what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same. Only love.
Lord Byron

Life, Love, Living Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.
Khalil Gibran

Life, Liberty, Body I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.
John Steinbeck

Great, Teacher, Mind A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Good, Friends, Writer Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nature, Colors, Wears Every spirit makes its house, and we can give a shrewd guess from the house to the inhabitant.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Give, Makes, House It says nothing against the ripeness of a spirit that it has a few worms.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Against, Few, Says Once spirit was God, then it became man, and now it is even becoming mob.
Friedrich Nietzsche

God, Once, Becoming Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.
Plato

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/spirit.html#fBQr5mDAUZEi9dDp.99

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The 09/10/13 Joy Jar

9 Sep

People may ask what is the greatest gift one can receive? Moi would point them to the great King Solomon:

2 Chronicles 1
New International Version (NIV)
Solomon Asks for Wisdom
1 Solomon son of David established himself firmly over his kingdom, for the LORD his God was with him and made him exceedingly great.
2 Then Solomon spoke to all Israel—to the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, to the judges and to all the leaders in Israel, the heads of families— 3 and Solomon and the whole assembly went to the high place at Gibeon, for God’s tent of meeting was there, which Moses the LORD’s servant had made in the wilderness. 4 Now David had brought up the ark of God from Kiriath Jearim to the place he had prepared for it, because he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem. 5 But the bronze altar that Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made was in Gibeon in front of the tabernacle of the LORD; so Solomon and the assembly inquired of him there. 6 Solomon went up to the bronze altar before the LORD in the tent of meeting and offered a thousand burnt offerings on it.
7 That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”
8 Solomon answered God, “You have shown great kindness to David my father and have made me king in his place. 9 Now, LORD God, let your promise to my father David be confirmed, for you have made me king over a people who are as numerous as the dust of the earth. 10 Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?” http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Chronicles+1&version=NIV

Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is moi’s request for wisdom.

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

May, Path, Leave

Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.
Aldous Huxley

Experience, Happens For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.
Audrey Hepburn

Good, Knowledge, Alone If you’re trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I’ve had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
Michael Jordan

Work, Give, Trying By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
Confucius

Experience, May, Learn The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
Socrates

True, Knowing We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.
Swami Vivekananda

Travel, Care, Words A wise man is superior to any insults which can be put upon him, and the best reply to unseemly behavior is patience and moderation.
Moliere

Best, Patience, Wise A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.
Nelson Mandela

Good, Heart, Head

Wisdom begins in wonder.
Socrates

Wonder, Begins The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.
Khalil Gibran

Teacher, Wise, Mind If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.
Nelson Mandela

Heart, Him, Talk A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.
John C. Maxwell

Smart, Strong, Mistakes Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
Albert Einstein

Reality, Illusion, Persistent Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
Thomas Jefferson

Book, Honesty, Chapter

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.
William Arthur Ward

Change, Wind, Pessimist I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done.
Lucille Ball

Done, Regret, Rather It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.
Henry David Thoreau

Matters Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.
Jim Rohn

Between, Discipline, Goals A fool flatters himself, a wise man flatters the fool.
Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

Wise, Fool, Himself Winners never quit and quitters never win.
Vince Lombardi

Win, Winners, Quit Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.
George Bernard Shaw

Knowledge, Ignorance, Dangerous Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nature, Patience, Her When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.
Confucius

Cannot, Action, Goals Silence is a source of great strength.
Lao Tzu

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_wisdom.html#XmGc2kgD9GZrt9wA.99

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The 09/05/13 Joy Jar

5 Sep

Moi is over three quarters through the ‘Joy Jar’ exercise of finding something to be grateful for every day. What moi saw when she looked at a tape measure recently was not only measurements which relate to things, but it was a metaphor about measuring, a life. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is thinking about how a life measures in terms of quality.

“We shall see but little way if we require to understand what we see. How few things can a man measure with the tape of his understanding! How many greater things might he be seeing in the meanwhile!”
Henry David Thoreau

I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.
Abraham Lincoln

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.
William Shakespeare

Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it.
David Star Jordan, The Philosophy of Despair

Character is much easier kept than recovered.
Thomas Paine

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
Buddha

Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.
Albert Einstein

Character is higher than intellect.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater one.
Chinese Proverb

A man has to live with himself, and he should see to it that he always has good company.
Charles Evans Hughes

Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.
Aristotle

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The 08/30/13 Joy Jar

30 Aug

This is the beginning of the Labor Day weekend and it gives moi a chance to reflect on the meaning of work. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is work that sustains life and provides meaning.

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

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.
Vince Lombardi

It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.
Benjamin Franklin

It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.
Benjamin Franklin

I think the person who takes a job in order to live – that is to say, for the money – has turned himself into a slave.
Joseph Campbell

Nothing will work unless you do.
Maya Angelou

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The 08/23/13 Joy Jar

23 Aug

There comes a point in every life when one is either comfortable in their own skin or they are not. The great thing about the ‘Joy Jar’ exercise is that it forces moi to reflect each day about gratitude and what moi is thankful for. In the process, moi is learning to be comfortable in her own skin. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar” is being comfortable in one’s own skin.

Try to be like the turtle – at ease in your own shell.
Bill Copeland

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

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.
Jim Rohn

To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.
Buddha

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.
Abraham Lincoln

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.
Dr. Seuss

It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.
Thomas Sowell

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

“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.”
Mark Twain

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The 08/18/13 Joy Jar

18 Aug

Moi is three quarters through the ‘Joy Jar’ project. She began the project when the Mayan end of the world thingie went up in smoke. The goal was to find something every day to be grateful for. Some days were easier than others. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is perseverance.

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”
Maya Angelou

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

“It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required.”
Winston Churchill

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
Thomas A. Edison

“I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.”
Abraham Lincoln

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.”
Abraham Lincoln

“When you get to the end of your rope. Tie a knot and hang on.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.
Marie Curie

Of all that is good, sublimity is supreme. Succeeding is the coming together of all that is beautiful. Furtherance is the agreement of all that is just. Perseverance is the foundation of all actions.
Lao Tzu

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
Nelson Mandela

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