Hello all! I've been abundantly blessed by my virtual coffee chats with so many of you in this wonderful forum on Books and Literature! (The Relationship forum is fun too, but this is where inspiration comes from... "the stuff dreams are made of" :) )

Anyway... We all have favorite quotes, quotes that have touched a chord in our hearts and minds, quotes that have influenced our decisions, inspired us to go that extra mile, give us courage to face the day, and shown us what real living is like.

Lets share these divine inspirations with our little world here - on this little posting. I'll start with one of my all-time favorites...

Being a star-gazer myself and being the proud owner of a tempestuous personal history, this is one of my favorites - it reminds me that no matter what is swirling around me at a given time, I can get through it.

"The most tempestuous wind cannot disturb the quiet of the stars."

Literary wishes and Shakespearean dreams,
HistorianChick

"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." Unknown

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LisaB4657

"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." Unknown

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Wow... that's prolific... wow.

It isn't a literary quote, but it is one I live by at work nearly everyday.

"Failure to prepare on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part." - Unknown

"Life is not about being dealt a good hand , it is about playing a bad hand well"

Danish proverb

"second thoughts make liars of us all"
"as long as there is hate, there will be people to hate"

I also like this one...

"I started out with nothing and I still have most of it left"

Unknown

Unknown...

The only people who never do anything wrong are the people who never do anything.

Quotes and sayings that I have come to reflect on, be inspired by, love to hear and fall short of, from time to time.

"I'm Sorry"

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power" Abraham Lincoln

"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing" Abraham Lincoln

"Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in" Andrew Jackson

"You can have everything in life that you want if you just give enough other people what they want" Zig Ziglar

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great" Mark Twain

"I made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it short" Blaise Pascal

"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them" Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Once a woman has forgiven her man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast" Marlene Dietrich

"Without forgiveness life is governed by an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation" Roberto Assagioli

"We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears" Francois duc de la Rochefoucauld

"Don't be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgment. Elites can become so inbred that they produce hemophiliacs who bleed to death as soon as they are nicked by the real world" Lesson from Colin Powell

"Don't be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard. Learn from the pros, observe them, seek them out as mentors and partners. But remember that even the pros may have leveled out in terms of their learning and skills. Sometimes even the pros can become complacent and lazy. Leadership does not emerge from blind obedience to anyone. Xerox's Barry Rand was right on target when he warned his people that if you have a yes-man working for you, one of you is redundant. Good leadership encourages everyone's evolution." Lesson from Colin Powell

"Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it. Too often, change is stifled by people who cling to familiar turfs and job descriptions. One reason that even large organizations wither is that managers won't challenge old, comfortable ways of doing things. But real leaders understand that, nowadays, every one of our jobs is becoming obsolete. The proper response is to obsolete our activities before someone else does. Effective leaders create a climate where people's worth is determined by their willingness to learn new skills and grab new responsibilities, thus perpetually reinventing their jobs. The most important question in performance evaluation becomes not, "How well did you perform your job since the last time we met?" but, "How much did you change it?" Lesson from Colin Powell


Just to share a few...

What about the en's classic from A Christmas Carol?

"...there is nothing in the world so irresitstably contagious as laughter and good humor."

Or, Shakespeare...

"When you do dance, I wish you
A wave o'th' sea, that you might ever do
Nothing but that;"

"If you have to ask how much something costs, you probably can't afford it." (I think it was Rockefeller but don't hold me to that.)

These are some I have passed along to my grandchildren, I don't know the origins:

Charity begins at home, with a smile and a kind word.

Be open, Be kind, Be careful and take your time.

May your words be sweet today for tomorrow you may have to eat them.

May you always have a song in your heart and harmony in your life.

A stitch in time saves nine.

Merry meet; merry part

Smile and the world smiles with you; weep and you weep alone.

Forgive, as you would hope for forgiveness

Righty tite-y; Lefty loosy.(opens and closes everything)

Try to stay closes to your family, especially grandmas.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by granmaboat

These are some I have passed along to my grandchildren, I don't know the origins:

Righty tite-y; Lefty loosy.(opens and closes everything)

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I'm embarrassed to say how often I use this. :)

Here's another favorite: "Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup."

This is not a quote but I read this at probably once, twice a week. This is something I think we all need as a gently reminder every so often. For me that... every so often... is once a week (short term memory, maybe? )

Enjoy...

To let go does not mean to stop caring, it means I can't do it for someone else.

To let go is not to cut myself off, it's the realization that I don't control another.

To let go is not to enable, but to allow learning from natural consequences.

To let go is to admit powerlessness, which means the outcome is not in my hands.

To let go is not to try to change or blame another, I can only change myself.

To let go is not to care for, but to care about.

To let go is not to fix, but to be supportive.

To let go is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being.

To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes, but to allow others to affect their own outcomes.

To let go is not to be protective, it is to permit another to face reality.

To let go is not to deny but to accept.

To let go is not to nag, scold, or argue, but to search out my own shortcomings and to correct them.

To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires but to take each day as it comes and to cherish the moment.

To let go is not to criticize and regulate anyone but to try to become what I dream I can be

To let go is not to regret the past but to grow and live for the future.

To let go is to fear less and love more.

Author Unknown

"Dance like nobody's watching; love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listening; live like it's heaven on earth."
-- Mark Twain

Was reminded of the truth of this quote today...

Here's to everyone truly living life to its fullest!

"Who is John Galt?" --Ayn Rand

If you've ever read Atlas Shrugged--that quote is a daily reminder that anyone can stand up and do what's right, and in doing so, can change the world.

Be smarter than the equiptment that you are working with

I got that from the US Army in Basic Training. LOL

"HistorianChick agrees: "Atlas Shrugged" twice in the space of a few days.... I just may have to pick that one up too. Crud. There goes my paycheck."

I got my copy really cheap on half.com - the shipping cost more than the book.

"Keep your mind ever on the Star, but let your eyes watch over your footsteps...", The Kybalion.

Knowledge is power!

Grok

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost. There is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.”

Henry David Thoreau

Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night. I miss you like hell. ~Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sometimes I wish I were a little kid again, skinned knees are easier to fix than broken hearts. ~Author Unknown

Giving up doesn't always mean you are weak; sometimes it means that you are strong enough to let go. ~Author Unknown

Have you ever been hurt and the place tries to heal a bit, and you just pull the scar off it over and over again. ~Rosa Parks

Relationships are like glass. Sometimes it's better to leave them broken than try to hurt yourself putting it back together. ~Author Unknown

Let's not forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives and we obey them without realizing it. ~Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

One's suffering disappears when one lets oneself go, when one yields - even to sadness. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Southern Mail, 1929, translated from French by Curtis Cate

When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion. ~Dale Carnegie

There are an enormous number of managers who have retired on the job. ~Peter Drucker

If I had my life to live over, I would perhaps have more actual troubles but I'd have fewer imaginary ones. ~Don Herold

I've developed a new philosophy... I only dread one day at a time. ~Charlie Brown (Charles Schulz)

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. ~Elbert Hubbard, The Note Book, 1927

Some of your hurts you have cured,
And the sharpest you still have survived,
But what torments of grief you endured
From the evil which never arrived.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Faith can move mountains, but don't be surprised if God hands you a shovel. ~Author Unknown

Once you choose hope, anything's possible. ~Christopher Reeve

The miserable have no other medicine but only hope. ~William Shakespeare

The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised. ~George F. Will, The Leveling Wind

If an optimist had his left arm chewed off by an alligator, he might say, in a pleasant and hopeful voice, "Well, this isn't too bad. I don't have my left arm anymore, but at least nobody will ever ask me whether I am right-handed or left-handed," but most of us would say something more along the lines of "Aaaaah! My arm! My arm!" ~Lemony Snicket

Always borrow money from a pessimist, he doesn't expect to be paid back. ~Author Unknown

Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you have left. ~Hubert Humphrey

Defeat is not bitter unless you swallow it. ~Joe Clark

If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm. ~Vince Lombardi

True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander. ~Charles Caleb Colton

To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it. ~Confucius

Oft expectation fails, and most oft there where most it promises. ~William Shakespeare

When you feel dog tired at night, it may be because you've growled all day long. ~Author Unknown

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. ~F. Scott Fitzgerald

The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it. ~C.C. Scott

Surrounded by people who love life, you love it too; surrounded by people who don't, you don't. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966

We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon. ~Konrad Adenauer

Why not learn to enjoy the little things - like a great book one after the next. ~Author Unknown

Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night. I miss you like hell.

~Edna St. Vincent Millay~

Funny that you should put that one in here - I took this as a banner quote not too long ago...

I have bruises and scars still on my knees to prove this hole exists. How about you? Did you get out scar free?

I do too, but not on my knees. More on my butt. LOL :)

Life goes on, even when we don't think it will, or can.

Rainer Maria Rilke quotes:

“Do not assume that she who seeks to comfort you now, lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good. Her life may also have much sadness and difficulty, that remains far beyond yours. Were it otherwise, she would never have been able to find these words.”

“I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude of the other”

“Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue, a wonderful living side by side can grow, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky.”

“It is good to be solitary, for solitude is difficult; that something is difficult must be a reason the more for us to do it”

"Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."

“Do not assume that she who seeks to comfort you now, lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good. Her life may also have much sadness and difficulty, that remains far beyond yours. Were it otherwise, she would never have been able to find these words.”

That, in its simplicity, is the essence of life. Wow. I've taken the opinion that what we go through isn't only for our own personal growth, but also for the benefit and help of others. Thanks for that great quote, mafiaangel

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HistorianChick

“Do not assume that she who seeks to comfort you now, lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good. Her life may also have much sadness and difficulty, that remains far beyond yours. Were it otherwise, she would never have been able to find these words.”

That, in its simplicity, is the essence of life. Wow. I've taken the opinion that what we go through isn't only for our own personal growth, but also for the benefit and help of others. Thanks for that great quote, mafiaangel

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I love quotes too :) Here is another, from the same person, that I forgot to post:


“...perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.”

"It's only after you've lost everything, that you are free to do anything" - Fight Club

“Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.” — Thomas Szasz

YODA: Careful you must be when sensing the future, Anakin. The fear of loss is a path to the dark side.

ANAKIN: I won’t let my visions come true, Master Yoda.

YODA: Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them, do not. Miss them, do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is.

ANAKIN: What must I do, Master?

YODA: Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.

I do not understand how anyone can live
Without one small place of enchantment to turn to.
- Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Me and my books in the same apartment, like a gherkin in its vinegar.
- Gustave Flaubert

There's no place like home,
There's no place like home,
There's no place like home.
- Frank L. Baum, The Wizard of Oz

Home is where the books are.
- Richard Burton

People who live in glass houses shouldn't.
- J. S. Singer

It is easier to pull down than to build up.
- Latin Proverb

"Apathy is a curse , but who cares?"

"there are two ways of getting home. One is to stay there, the other is to walk round the world until we come back to the same place." - GK Chesterson, The Everlasting Man

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HistorianChick

I do too, but not on my knees. More on my butt. LOL :)

Life goes on, even when we don't think it will, or can.

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Life goes on, even when you don't want it to.
Remember the old song that said, "Why do the birds go on singing?"

"There is sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief... and unspeakable love.” –Washington Irving.

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal. ~From a headstone in Ireland

If tears could build a stairway,
And memories a lane,
I'd walk right up to Heaven
And bring you home again.
~Author Unknown


Sometimes I wish I were a little kid again, skinned knees are easier to fix than broken hearts. ~Author Unknown

Giving up doesn't always mean you are weak; sometimes it means that you are strong enough to let go. ~Author Unknown

Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated. ~Lamartine

They say that time heals all wounds but all it's done so far is give me more time to think about how much I miss you. ~Ezbeth Wilder

They say marriage is a great institution , but who the hell wants to live in an institution.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pyg

"there are two ways of getting home. One is to stay there, the other is to walk round the world until we come back to the same place." - GK Chesterson, The Everlasting Man

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But Home is where the heart is. My folks called where they were from "back home" and where we lived "home".

Ah, new question: what does it take for you/me to feel "at home"?

Growing up, I moved around a LOT (OH, MI, PA, NY, IL, KY, MD, China, FL, TN) and I have found that home is not a location or a place... its family. It truly is where the heart is. For wood and stone do not a house make, but the hearts and lives of the people inside.

:) In my opinion, that is!

Hello Chick:

It's more than a quote... But, I've got the time...

I bargained for life with a penny,
And life would pay no more,
However, I begged at evening,
When I counted my scanty store.

For life is a just employer,
He gives you whatever you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why you must bear the task.

I worked for a menials hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of life,
Life would have willingly paid.

Napoleon Hill

Haste makes waste