Margaret Drabble on Certainty

"When nothing is sure, everything is possible."  (Margaret Drabble)

Uplifting.

Churchill on Success and Failure

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

The Wisdom of Dr. Seuss

"Today you are you, that is truer than true.
 There is no one alive who is youer than you."  (Dr. Seuss)

Fun stuff.

Confucius Says

"It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop." (Confucius)

Guess we can exempt eating from this.

Socrates on Ignorance

"I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance."  (Socrates)

(The more you learn, the more you realize how much you don't know.)

Seng Ts'an

"When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity, your very effort fills you with activity." (Seng Ts'an)

Actor, Ralph Fiennes on Success

"Success?  It is all about being able to extend love to people.  Not in a big, capital-letter sense, but in the everyday.  Little by little, gesture by gesture, word by word."  (Ralph Fiennes)

I love this notion.

From Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde is one of my favourite playwrights.  His writing is insightful, pithy, witty and charming, and usually involves satire about the human condition and social mores of the time which tend to transcend time.  According to him:  "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go."

I like it!

Sir Winston Churchill

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." (Sir Winston Churchill)

Amusing truth.

Einstein

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." (Albert Einstein)

Ha. Ha.

Romans, Verse 5

"...suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us..."

Hope is essential in life.  There is much hope behind another expression:  "this too shall pass" from an old proverb.  I use this expression frequently.  For me, it inspires hope that as time moves forward, whatever difficulties I am currently facing shall pass (even though how I choose to use the expression does not utilize the full interpretation of the proverb.)

Hobbes

"Without the Arts, man would be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short."  (Thomas Hobbes)


For decades, this has remained my favourite quotation.

Freud on Maturity

Sigmund Freud once said that the two hallmarks of a healthy maturity are the capacities to love and to work. 

I agree with this, but disagree with many of the other things Freud has come up with...

Rod McKuen

"...Sometimes the distance that you keep is as difficult for me to bear as proximity would be to anyone I didn't care for." (Rod McKuen)

Thomas Paine: Sublime and Ridiculous

The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately.  One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again.
(Thomas Paine)


In case any of you are wondering, sublime means: of high moral, aesthetic, intellectual, or spiritual value; noble; exalted; inspiring deep veneration, awe, or uplifting emotion because of its beauty, nobility, grandeur, or immensity.  (Thefreedictionary.com)

Miles and Johnson on Character

"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him."
(James D. Miles)  and "The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good." (Samuel Johnson)

Help those less fortunate...

Goethe: Commitment

"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 favour all manner of unforseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.  Whatever you can do or dream you can do, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."  (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

Another From Emerson

"What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you."
(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Emerson: Be Yourself

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”  (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

That's for sure.

Herbert Hoover: On War

"Older men declare war.  But it is the youth that must fight and die.  And it is youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow, and the triumphs that follow the aftermath of war."

Enough said.

Albert Einstein

"Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted."  (Albert Einstein)

One of my favourite sentiments.

On Marriage

"Seems that the thought of marriage fills him with an impending sense of doom."  (Spoken by Nathan Fillion's character, Richard Castle, on the CTV crime drama, Castle.)

Mere Shadow

"I'm a mere shadow of my former self." 
(Anonymous)

On Character

"People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously.  This is how character is built."
(Eleanor Roosevelt)

Weakness of Attitude

According to Albert Einstein, "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character". 

True, indeed.