"The possibility of making this your best year ever exists in every moment, because having the best year of your life depends not on some outside accomplishment but on allowing the greatest expression of yourself to be unveiled. Having the best year of your life is about becoming the person you always wanted to be. It's about embracing a vision of yourself at your best and developing the qualities that will take you there."
-- Debbie Ford, The Best Year of Your Life, pg. x-xi

"i intend to manifest the genius that I showed up to be."
-- Dr. Wayne Dyer, The Power of Intention

"Anybody who can't keep his enemies in his head has too many enemies."
-- President Gerald R. Ford, 1913-2006, when he first learned that President Nixon kept an "Enemies List".


(Image from Medal of Freedom).

"As 2006 comes to a close, the forces of the universe conspire to make these last few days an unbelievably powerful time to assess where you've been, acknowledge where you are right now, and dream your most beautiful life into being. So use this week as a demarcation point and make the internal commitment to radically alter any part of your life that isn't working.

"Here's a unique perspective for accelerating your process...

"For a moment, I'd like you to imagine that you're sitting in a comfortable, plush chair in front of a large, high-definition TV screen. You have a remote control in your hand, and you are just about to tune into a particular channel. This is the station where you've spent most of your time over the past 6 - 12 months. It contains the programming - the content - that has most often captured your attention, and it directly relates to the predominant experiences, thoughts, and feelings you've had over the past year. So, with that in mind, what channel have you been watching?

"Could it be one of the following:

"The Stress Channel, The Self-Pity Channel, The Peaceful Channel, The Self-Esteem Channel, The Health and Wellness Channel, The Insecurity Channel, The Fear Channel (a very crowded one!), The Romantic Comedy Channel, The Blame & Resentment Channel, The Bliss Channel, The Having It All Channel, The Divine Connection Channel, The Gratitude Channel, or The New Beginnings Channel?

"The options are truly infinite.

"In looking back over the past several months, I can see that I've frequently surfed over to Lifetime TV and have been absolutely glued to the mellow drama found there. As grace would have it, I've also spent an inordinate amount of time on The Lucky Channel - being lavished by the divine with amazing surprises, exciting opportunities, and tremendous love. As 2006 winds down, I want to acknowledge that I am a very lucky and deeply grateful woman - a woman who also has a flair for the dramatic!

"I love this TV channel analogy because it reminds me that while it's essential that I take responsibility for where I'm focusing my attention, it's also important for me to lighten up and not take life so seriously.

"What would be possible for you if you didn't take it all so seriously? What if you approached your personal growth with a light heart? How much fun could you have transforming yourself and stepping into the highest expression of who you came here to be?

"After all, the truth is that you are, right this minute, living the greatest reality show that will ever be made. How would your life shift if you spent more time tuned into that show? It's on 24 hours a day...for the rest of your life. It's the 'You in All Your Glory Channel', and there are those in high places (if you know what I meant) who love watching every precious moment of it. So make it a great show! Have a joyous, spectacular time writing it, editing it, casting it, and directing it. And by all means, give it a great sound track!

"You see, the key to creating the best year of your life is not about the attainment of outer goals - although dreaming them up and pursuing them is a great part of the fun of life. Creating the best year of your life is about loving who you are. It's about loving ALL of who you are - the light, the dark, and every shade in between. And one of the ways you can demonstrate your love for yourself is by waking up more and more to where you are focusing your holy energy and consciously choosing the highest vibration possible.

"So I invite you to step boldly into the new year, acknowledging where you've been and choosing where you want to go next. Program your universal remote control to the channels that will move your sweet soul, heal your heart, inspire you to take action, and give you a deep sense of peace at the very center of your being.

"With love and endless blessings,

-- Debbie Ford, from her E newsletter, The Best Year of Your Life.

"It was when I found out that I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something."
-- Fortune Cookie

"Let go... And then let go some more".
-- Anonymous

"Wherever you go, and whoever you encounter, bring them a gift. The gift may be a compliment, a flower, or a prayer. Today, give something to everyone you come into contact with, and so begin the process of circulating joy, wealth and affluence in your life and in the lives of others".
-- Deepak Chopra

"Now is the time to try something new."
--Fortune Cookie

"Everybody hates me because I'm so universally liked".
-- Peter de Vries

"Bend the rod while it is still hot."
-- Fortune Cookie

"I've never met anyone (myself included) who hasn't turned little things into great big emergencies. We take our own goals so seriously that we forget to have fun along the way, and we forget to cut ourselves some slack. We take simple preferences and turn them into conditions for our own happiness. Or, we beat ourselves up if we can't meet our self-created deadlines. The first step in becoming a more peaceful person is to have the humility to admit that, in most cases, you're creating your own emergencies. Life will usually go on if things don't go according to plan. It's helpful to keep reminding yourself and repeating the sentence, 'Life isn't an emergency.'"

-- Richard Carlson, 1961-2006, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff.

"I can't think of too many factors that contribute more to our stress, anxiety, and frustration than a large ego. Therefore, easing off your ego is one of the most leveraged efforts you can make to reduce the stress at work.

"I think of the ego as that part of us that needs to stand out and be special. And while each one of us is certainly special and unique in our own way, our ego has the need to prove this to everyone. The ego is that part of us that brags, exaggerates, criticizes, and judges others (as well as ourselves). The ego is very self-centered, as if it needs to yell out, "Look at me!" Because the ego is so self-preoccupied and selfish, it encourages us to lose our compassion for and interest in others. Its sole commitment is to maintain itself.

"In addition to the obvious drawbacks, the ego is an enormous source of stress. Think about how much energy and attentiveness it takes to prove yourself, show off, and defend your actions. Consider how stressful it is to compare yourself to others and to put yourself down. Think about how draining it is to constantly be keeping score of how you're doing and to be overly concerned with what others think about you. I get tired just thinking about it!

"Easing off your ego is accomplished by intention. The first step is to have the desire to shrink your ego down to size and to see how destructive and stressful it can be. The rest is easy. All it takes is humility and patience. Begin paying attention to your thoughts and behavior. When you notice yourself in your "proving mode," gently remind yourself to back off. You can say something simple to yourself like, "Whoops, there I go again." Be sure to laugh at and be easy on yourself. Don't make letting go of your ego into yet another contest with yourself. It's not an emergency. Be patient and it will happen.

"There is a lot to be gained by easing off your ego. First and foremost, you'll feel as though a huge burden has been lifted. As I mentioned, it takes a great deal of effort to be on guard and in the proving mode. Therefore, you'll have a great deal more energy and will become more lighthearted. In addition, as you ease off your ego, you'll become much more interested in other people. You'll become a better listener and a kinder, more generous person. This will translate into people liking you even more than they already do. As you let go of the need to impress others and simply be yourself, you'll end up getting more positive attention than ever before. You won't need it, but you'll get it.

"I hope you'll give this strategy some careful consideration and gentle effort. If each of us can become more humble, sincere and generous, the world will be a much nicer place. And to top it off, none of us will be sweating the small stuff."

-- Richard Carlson, 1961-2006, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff at Work.

"Creating 2007 to Be the________Year of Your Life

Imagine this...

It's December 31st 2006. In the weeks leading up to this auspicious day, you've gone through your files, discarded old paperwork, gotten current on your bills, returned your phone calls, weeded through your email, and even backed up your computer.

You've gone through your closet and, after marveling at some of the shopping choices you've made, you decided to have a "spiritual divorce" with some of your wardrobe. It's not easy saying goodbye to what was once your favorite sexy t-shirt, but you remind yourself that every ending is really a new beginning.

You've delivered some of the important communications that you'd been delaying - like telling your mother how grateful you are for every breath she takes, letting a colleague know about a new boundary you've set for yourself at work, or placing a hand-written note in your child's coat pocket letting them know that living their dreams their own way is vitally important to the world.

On this date, you can honestly look across the landscape of your life and see that the past is where it belongs - in the past! Having tended to your unresolved issues, projects, and relationships, you are now READY! You're ready for 2007 to be the most________year of your life. It's your big, beautiful, blank canvas, and you can create it any way you want it. Perhaps you're ready for the most loving year of your life, the most successful year of your life, or maybe the most creative, financially prosperous, pleasurable, enlightening, exciting, hot, passionate, gentle, relaxing, adventurous, hopeful, healthy, or inspiring year of your life!...

...Take Action Now!

Identify Your Unfinished Business

1. What goals did you set for yourself at the beginning of 2006 that you haven't taken action on? And are these goals still important to you?

2. What relationships, projects, and issues do you need to address or resolve in order to move powerfully into 2007?

3. What relationships, projects, and issues do you need to let go of because they are no longer important to you?

4. Are there any letters, phone calls, or other communications that you need to deliver in order to be free to move forward?

5. Is there clutter in your home or office that needs to be unloaded before the New Year's Eve Ball descends from the flagpole in Times Square?

This week, make time for yourself simply to take inventory. What needs to go and what needs to stay? What have you outgrown? And where can you make room for unbelievable magic to come your way?

Sending you love and blessings",

-- Debbie Ford, The Best Year of your Life

"Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it".
-- Lou Holtz, brought forth by dAAve.

"Although we have been made to believe that if we let go we will end up with nothing, life itself reveals again and again the opposite; that letting go is the path to real freedom".
-- Sogyai Rinpoche, as quoted by Scott.

"One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others."
-- Lewis Carroll

"We all hear voices, but unfortunately we usually don't listen to them. Sometimes if we'd listen, we'd live a fuller life."
-- Dustin Hoffman

"It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis".
-- Margaret Bonnano

"Today, I am grateful for the remembrance of yesterday, the luxury of today, and the promise of tomorrow."
-- Scott W., on Attitude of Gratitude.

"If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies."
-- Moshe Dayan

"Your past is always going to be the way it was. Stop trying to change it".
-- Anonymous, via Scott.

"The longer I live the more I see that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time".
-- George Bernard Shaw

"Against logic there is no armor like ignorance".
-- Laurence J. Peter

"Are you going to come quietly, or do I have to use earplugs?"
-- Spike Milligan

"The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well."
-- Joe Ancis

"Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties".
-- Doug Larson

"Time spent debating the impossible subtracts from the time during which you can try to accomplish it."
-- Peter Pauper, at Giorgios Grill today.

"Get out of any situation that endorses negativity, causing you imbalance. People come together in relationships for growth, not for life. If a relationship sustains you, that is, if you’re both growing from it, and if it’s beautiful and it has energy, you’re together for good. If not, either fix it or ditch it. You don’t need situations that don’t support you or that lower your energy. You don’t owe anything to anyone.
The only real responsibility you have is to work on yourself to raise your energy. That will become your gift to the world. Pull back from negative situations and negative people. You don’t need to judge them or try to change them. Just allow them to follow their path. You may want to give them a little shove, but if they won’t move, you move. Never mind security; preserve your soul".
-- Stuart Wild, The Secrets of Life.

"I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up - they have no holidays".
-- Henny Youngman

"Begin with life as you find it
and make it better
... anytime is a good time do good."
-- Kobi Yamada

"A good life is not lived by chance but by choice".
-- Kobi Yamada, Live Good

"All who have meant good
work with their whole
heart have done good work."
-- Robert Louis Stevenson 

"How do you make your goals and desires come alive? Having a clear picture in your mind (of the highest good) and charging it with energy can help turn it into reality. This week visualize a goal that you have been thinking about or working on presently. See it in its final resolution. Now feel what it’s like to have a successful outcome. See it happening here and now. Maintain and charge this image as you breathe energy into it. Feel the excitement, the energy, and the joy. Let it go, trust, and release it to the universe".

-- John Holland

"No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one".
-- Elbert Hubbard

"I'm always interested in what other people think I should do. It's like watching this movie that I'm in that I had nothing to do with. But ultimately, I'll decide what I think is the best thing for me to do."
-- Hillary Rodham Clinton

"You are always molding yourselves into a better feeling place. And you will never get it done. It will never be completely finished. It will never be absolutely right. You will always have some dominant thoughts that are not a vibrational match to the newfound desire. But that is always what your work is.

"And it's time for you to just begin relaxing about it, and not make it a personal issue of your own valor, or your own value, or your own integrity. In other words, it's just, how many times have I thought this thought?"

-- abraham, abraham-hicks

"It's not the things that we possess that signify our wealth, But the blessings that are priceless like our family, friends, and health."
-- AGC, on the chalkboard at Giorgios Grill this morning.

"Manifestations come on the heels of what you've conjured in thought."
Abraham, Abraham-Hicks

"You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out he hates all the same people you do".
-- Anne Lamott, (as per dAAve)

"Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city."
-- George Burns

"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock."
-- Thomas Jefferson

"Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality".
-- Bertrand Russell

"Emotional pain is not a character defect. It is a part of life and must be attended to like all our feelings. Feelings are not facts. They are bio-feedback on how we are doing today and what needs attention inside. Feelings won't kill me, but killing my feelings will.
-- Pocket Sponsor, as per Scott

"Most people have a hard time delegating, or even wanting to delegate, because you have been justifying your existence through your hard work, and you equate success with struggle; you equate results with struggle. And so, you sort of wear your struggle like a badge of honor. And all of that is opposite of allowing the Well-being.

"The only thing that ever matters in success or achievement is your achieving the things that you want to achieve. So if you are setting standards and you're feeling uncomfortable about the standards that you've set, tweak the standards back a little bit. Ratchet it back a notch. Give yourself a break. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt. Lighten up. Be easier. Go slower. Take it easy. Have more fun. Love yourself more. Laugh more. Appreciate more".

-- Abraham, Abraham-Hicks

"Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this, that you are dreadfully like other people."
-- James Russell Lowell

"The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind".
-- Dr. Wayne Dyer

"Courage is fear that has said its prayers."
-- Unknown

"Follow an old path and you find the expected. Blaze a new trail and you have an adventure."
--Steve Haskamp

"There's a lot to be said for living alone. You get to be a real individual."
-- Edith Bouvier Beale in Grey Gardens. Book by Doug Wright.

"I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me".
-- Noel Coward

"Today we have made history... Now let us make progress."
-- Nancy Pelosi

"Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?"... Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night."
-- Charles M. Schulz

"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation".
-- Robert Kennedy

"There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing."
-- Oscar Wilde

"To solve the human equation, we need to add love, subtract hate, multiply good, and divide between truth and error."
-- Janet Coleman

"The joyfulness of a man prolongeth his days."
-- Fortune Cookie

"When you live in the shadow of insanity, the appearance of another mind that thinks and talks as yours does is something close to a blessed event."
-- Robert M. Persig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

"Doh!"
-- Homer Simpson

"In the same way, we become masters of jealousy, masters of sadness, masters of self-rejection. All of our drama and suffering is by practice. We make an agreement with ourselves and we practice that agreement until it becomes a whole mastery. The way we think, the way we feel and the way we act become so routine that we no longer need to put our attention on what we are doing. It is just by action-reaction that we become a certain way."
-- Don Miguel Ruiz, The Mastery of Love

"The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we have of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us".
-- Quentin Crisp

"Gratitude encourages intuition and abundance. This week and every day be thankful for who and what is in your life — instead of complaining about what you don’t have. Appreciate all the abundance and goodness that’s around you, whether big or small. Be thankful for your health, children, sunny days, your garden, family, best friends, or even the person who let you jump ahead in line at the bank. The more joy you begin to notice and appreciate, the easier it is for your intuition to lead you to even more happiness and prosperity."
-- John Holland

"A sad soul can kill you quicker than a germ".
-- John Steinbeck

"Just when you think you've graduated from the school of experience someone thinks up a new course."
-- Mary H. Waldrip

"As I grow older, I regret to say that a detestable habit of thinking seems to be getting a hold of me".
-- H. Rider Haggard

"There are more fools in the world than there are people."
-- Heinrich Heine

"Life is a zoo in a jungle".
-- Peter De Vries

"Time is the wisest counselor."
-- Fortune Cookie

"Always a mother."
-- Jane Wyatt, 1910-2006, on her celebrated roles as a mother on Star Trek, and Father Knows Best.


Image from DNA.

"Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances".
-- Thomas Jefferson

"A joke's a very serious thing".
-- Charles Churchill

"Every strike brings me closer to the next home run".
-- Babe Ruth


Image from Baseball Hall of Fame.

"I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision".
-- Eleanor Roosevelt


Image from USPS.

"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."
-- Terry Pratchett

"This day you will be provided with precisely what you are willing to accept. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination".
-- Ralph Marston

"What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do".
-- John Ruskin

"Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back".
-- Babe Ruth

"All ballplayers should quit when it starts to feel as if all the baselines run uphill".
-- Babe Ruth

"You change everything when you change your mind".
-- Dr. Candace Pert

"It isn't our position, but our disposition, that makes us happy."
-- Fortune Cookie

"We are all of us stars and we all deserve to twinkle"
-- Marilyn Monroe

"An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea".
-- Buddha

"There is wisdom in avoiding all thoughts that weaken you."
-- Dr. Wayne Dyer

"Confusion is always the most honest response".
-- Marty Indik

"Life is a great big canvas; Throw all the paint on it you can."
-- Danny Kaye

"Procrastination is the fear of success."
-- Fortune Cookie

"People find life entirely too time-consuming."
-- Stanislaw J. Lec

"Isn't it amazing how everything works out?"
-- Don Cummings, Writer, The Fat of the Land.


(Image from WC Ensemble)

"It is always the best policy to speak the truth--unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar".
-- Jerome K. Jerome

"Don't be a spectator; don't let life pass you by."
-- Lou Holtz,football coach

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind".
-- Dr. Seuss

"Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow."
-- Aesop

"The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind".
-- Wayne Dyer

Thanks to Higher Powered.

"The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on. It is never any use to oneself".
-- Oscar Wilde

"If you're riding ahead of the herd, look back once in a while to make sure it's still there."
-- Fortune Cookie

"All you need is deep within you waiting to unfold and reveal itself. All you have to do is be still and take time to seek for what is within, and you will surely find it".
-- Eileen Caddy

"I always give myself such very good advice, but I very seldom follow it."
-- Alice in Wonderland

"Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand".
-- Mark Twain

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it".
-- Upton Sinclair

"Conversation should touch on everything, but should concentrate on nothing."
-- Oscar Wilde

"I had an epiphany a few years ago where I was out at a celebrity party and it suddenly dawned on me that I had yet to meet a celebrity who is as smart and interesting as any of my friends".
-- Moby

"Every time we pray our horizon is altered, our attitude to things is altered, not sometimes, but every time, and the amazing thing is that we don't pray more".
-- Bill Clinton


Image from Virginia Western.

"Prosperity makes friends and adversity tries them."
-- Fortune Cookie

"I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That's deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas?"
-- Jean Kerr

"Poor George, he can't help it."
-- Ann Richards, Former Governor of Texas, 1933-2006
 

"One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say."
-- Will Durant

"All things are difficult before they are easy."
-- Dr. Thomas Fuller

"You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with."
-- Wayne Dyer

"Peace begins with a smile."
-- Fortune Cookie

"To experience the loneliness of soul is the hardest thing in the
world."
-- Brigitte Bardot

"Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons."
-- Ruth Ann Schabacker

"He who hurries cannot walk with dignity."
-- Fortune Cookie

"It's hip to be happy,
To give life a big hello,
It's hip to be happy,
To say yes when the world says no."
-- Ann Hampton Callaway, from her newest album titled Blues in the
Night.

"Paranoia is just a kind of awareness, and awareness is just a form of love."
-- Charles Manson

"In this business you either sink or swim or you don't."
-- David Smith

"I'd rather be happy than right."
-- Al-Anon Slogan

“The scoreboard said I lost today. But what the scoreboard doesn’t say is what it is I have found. Over the last 21 years, I have found loyalty. You have pulled for me on the court and also in life... I found inspiration. You have willed me to succeed, sometimes even in my lowest moments. And I’ve found generosity. You have given me your shoulders to stand on to reach for my dreams, dreams I could never have reached without you. Over the last 21 years, I have found you, and I will take you and the memory of you with me for the rest of my life.”
-- Andre Aggasi, yesterday at the U.S. Open

"People who work sitting down get paid more than people who work standing up".
-- Ogden Nash

"The price of freedom of religion, or of speech, or of the press, is that we must put up with a good deal of rubbish".
-- Robert Jackson

"To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself."
-- Albert Einstein

"There are no more hours in a bad day than in a good one!"
-- Unknown, as quoted on Higher Powered.

"You love Chinese food."
-- Fortune Cookie

"We now have to work under the assumption that every American has a tattoo. Whether we are at a formal dinner, at a professional luncheon, at a sales conference or arguing before the Supreme Court, we have to assume that everyone in the room is fully tatted up — that under each suit, dress or blouse, there is at least a set of angel wings, a barbed wire armband, a Chinese character or maybe even a fully inked body suit. We have to assume that any casual antitattoo remark will cause offense, even to those we least suspect of self-marking...

"...A study in The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology showed that about 24 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 50 have at least one tattoo, up from about 15 percent in 2003. Thirty-six percent of those between 18 and 29 have a tattoo...

"... What you get is a culture of trompe l’oeil degeneracy. People adopt socially acceptable transgressions — like tattoos — to show they are edgy, but inside they are still middle class. You run into these candy-cane grunge types: people with piercings and inkings all over their bodies who look like Sid Vicious but talk like Barry Manilow. They’ve got the alienated look — just not the anger.

"And that’s the most delightful thing about the whole tattoo fad. A cadre of fashion-forward types thought they were doing something to separate themselves from the vanilla middle classes but are now discovering that the signs etched into their skins are absolutely mainstream. They are at the beach looking across the acres of similar markings and learning there is nothing more conformist than displays of individuality, nothing more risk-free than rebellion, nothing more conservative than youth culture.

"Another generation of hipsters, laid low by the ironies of consumerism."

-- David Brooks, Non-Conformity is Skin Deep, The New York Times, August 27, 2006.

"I'm not somebody who really believes in curses, but curse this, baby!"
-- Julia Louis-Dreyfus, on breaking the Seinfeld curse and winning an
Emmy Award last night for The New Adventures of Old Christine.

"Maybe all that one can do is hope to end with the right regrets."
-- Arthur Miller

"I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

"I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

"The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shakin' hands, sayin' "How do you do?"
They're really saying "I love you"

"I hear babies cryin', I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
Yes, I think to myself, what a wonderful world

Oh yeah"

-- George Weiss and Bob Thiele, Lyricists. Recorded by Louie Armstrong.

"I see the addict as a seeker, albeit a misguided one. The addict is a person in quest of pleasure, perhaps even of a kind of trancendent experience - and I want to emphasize that this kind of seeking is extremely positive. The addict is looking in the wrong places, but he is going after something very important, and we can not afford to ignore the meaning of his search. At least initially, the addict hopes to experience something wonderful, something that transcends an unsatisfactory or even an intolerable everyday reality. There's nothing to be ashamed of in this impulse. On the contrary, it provides a foundation for true hope and real transformation."
-- Deepak Chopra, Overcoming Addictions: The Spiritual Solution.


(Image from Organic Authority)

"Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them."
-- HL Mencken

"Men live in a fantasy world. I know this because I am one, and I actually receive my mail there".
-- Scott Adams

"An authentic life is the most personal form of worship. Everyday life has become my prayer".
-- Sarah Ban Breathnach

"The trouble with facts is that there are so many of them."
-- Samuel McChord Crothers

"You've got to take the bitter with the sour."
-- Samuel Goldwyn

"If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything."
-- Mark Twain

"Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done."
-- Andy Rooney

"I know who I am. No one else knows who I am. If I was a giraffe, and someone said I was a snake, I'd think, no, actually I'm a giraffe".
-- Richard Gere


Image from Film Erlebnis.

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit".
-- Harry S. Truman

"The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity."
-- Harlan Ellison

"For those who understand, no explanation needed. For those who don't, none will do."
-- Jerry Lewis

"Your heart is a place to draw true happiness."
-- Fortune Cookie

"I'm square and I am happy that I am."
-- Mike Douglas, (aka Michael Dowd), 1925-2006.


(Image from MSNBC).

"Ninety percent of everything is crud."
-- Theodore Sturgeon, Sturgeon's Revelation

"You can't live in New York City and be the most important person in town, you just can't. There are too many other important people here."
-- Sarah Jessica Parker, in Good Housekeeping.



Image from Goddess.com.au.

"Idleness is the holiday of fools."
--Fortune Cookie

"Maybe it's just in America, but it seems that if you're passionate about something, it freaks people out. You're considered bizarre or eccentric. To me, it just means you know who you are."
-- Timothy Burton

"About the time we think we can make ends meet, somebody moves the ends."
-- Herbert Hoover

"Living hell is the best revenge".
-- Adrienne E. Gusoff

"No man remains quite what he was when he recognizes himself."
-- Thomas Mann

"It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.'"
-- Sam Levenson

"The thing is, I'm not ashamed - that's the one thing I want to say. I don't think it's wrong, I'm not devestated going through this. I'm more liberated and happy than I've been my whole life. I'm just happy."
-- Lance Bass, band member of 'N Sync on coming out as a gay man.


Image from ASCAP.

"In the end, everything is a gag."
-- Charlie Chaplin


Image from UNT.

"And screw 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.' I keep waiting for one of those guys to look at the camera and say, 'So like, this new season is going to be us prepping straight people for their weddings, but we still can't married in this country!"... Don't count on it, honey, they're rich, famous, and fabulous! Listen to your publicist!"
-- J.D. Cerna, Good Riddance to Will and Grace, The New York Blade, July
24, 2006, p. 27.

"To strive,
To seek,
To find,
And not to yield".
-- Alfred Lord Tennyson, (on the chalkboard at Giorgio's Grill this
morning).

"Conscience is a man's compass."
-- Fortune Cookie

"One thing you will probably remember well is any time you forgive and forget".
-- Franklin P. Jones

"Hear one side and you will be in the dark. Hear both and all will be clear."
-- Thomas C. Haliburton

"Fear builds walls to bar the light."
-- Baal Shem Tov

"Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip".
-- Will Rogers

"Rage is the only quality which has kept me, or anybody I have ever studied, writing columns for newspapers."
-- Jimmy Breslin

"What New York has is hipsters; I never thought I would miss them, yet there's something comforting about being able to keep up with trends by just looking at people around you."
-- Ozlem Alkan Karakus, Editor, Time Out Istanbul.

"Whenever I dwell for any length of time on my own shortcomings, they gradually begin to seem mild, harmless, rather engaging little things, not at all like the staring defects in other people's characters."
-- Margaret Halsey

"If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything."
-- Mark Twain

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."
-- Will Rogers


Image from Faded Giant.

"Unless you can interest people, you're never going to educate them."
-- Steven Goldstein, former Oprah Producer, as quoted in The New York Blade.

"Like Joseph Campbell says: 'If you're on a path and it's beaten it's not your path... It's having the initiative to say 'God, that looks somewhat treacherous over there... This might really stir up some personal stuff for me or there's an archetype there that I've been avoiding for a long, long time'... That shadow stuff, that trickster stuff, that authoritative stuff, that rebellious stuff... or that straight down the line simplicity. The answers are there from moment to moment..."
-- Robert Downey, Jr., on Inside the Actor's Studio.


Image from Deluca.

"I have no fans. You know what I got? Customers. And customers are your friends."
--Mickey Spillane, 1918-2006


Image from Interlog.

"If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time."
-- Edith Wharton

"What's another word for Thesaurus?"
-- Steven Wright

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
-- William Butler Yeats

"I've been a performer all my life. It's a very satisfactory profession. You get paid off on the spot. When they cheer, that's payment."
-- Red Buttons, (Aaron Chwatt) 1919-2006

Image from Delafont Agency.

"Ah yes, my bright tie. I like bright ties. You know, when you reach a certain age, all you've got left is bright ties and bullshit."
-- Bill Clinton, as quoted by NY Magazine's Intellegencer, at opening night of Shakespeare in the Park, by Melena Ryzik.

"I'm a feeler. As a matter of fact, I think if we had more feelers and less thinkers we'd be a hell of a lot better off - not only in the theater, either."
-- Barnard Hughes, 1915-2006.

Image from Genarians.com

"Some things have to be believed to be seen."
-- Ralph Hodgson

"Assume nothing."
-- Bumper sticker

"When all else fails, read the instructions."
-- Agnes Allen

"Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better."
-- Andre Gide

"We seem to believe it is possible to ward off death by following rules of good grooming".
-- Don Delillo

"It takes a long time to grow young".
-- Pablo Picasso

"Happy Birthday! You are young and beautiful and powerful and surrounded by great things".
-- Don Cummings

"Remember, if our founders hadn't done that brave thing 230 years ago, we'd all be helping pay Prince Charles' salary today."
-- Bob Schieffer, on Face The Nation, Sunday.

"You can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, place it in the navel of a firefly and still have room enough for three caraway seeds and a producer's heart."
-- Fred Allen

"In the circle of life
It's the wheel of fortune
It's the leap of faith
It's the band of hope
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the circle, the circle of life...

"Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with the scars"

-- The Lion King, The Circle of Life.

"If you're looking to change an outdated behavior and annoying habit,
which you'd prefer to replace with something more positive, then the
perspective needed to deal with it is present today. Get serious,
Cancer, as this is the year to advance as far as possible. If stagnating
is not an option, then changes are necessary. Do what you have to do to make it happen, even if it means taking temptation out of arm's reach."
-- Susan Miller, Astrologer, New York Daily News today.

"He knows all about art, but he doesn't know what he likes."
-- James Thurber

"NYC is home to more than 8 million people, so why is it so hard to meet someone nice?"
-- TONYpersonals.com

"Hydrate. Then exfoliate. Then moisturize, and then exercise, and then floss."
-- ellen degeneres, in her commencement address at tulane university.

"Anybody can win unless there happens to be a second entry".
-- George Ade

"I'm not wearing underwear today,
No, I'm not wearing underwear today.
Not that you probably care
Much about my underwear
Still none the less I gotta say
That I'm not wearing underwear today"
-- Avenue Q

“Let the little fairy in you fly!”
-- Rufus Wainwright


Image from Lisboacultural.pt.

"What they were saying was, they like to be entertained, and I think our shows are entertaining..."
-- Aaron Spelling, 1923-2006


Image from CBS News.

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to believe."
-- Laurence J. Peter

"It takes only one drink to get me drunk. The trouble is, I can't remember if it's the thirteenth or the fourteenth."
-- George Burns

"when you meet somebody great, tear off your brassiere (metaphorically) and scream from the nearest mountaintop. don't be coy. don't strategize. don't play hide and seek: surrender!"
-- simon doonan, my ten gay commandments in pride: the official magazine of interpride 2006.

"don't let your happiness be contigent on anyone else's approval or disapproval. Tell any detractors where they can shove their negativity. and if that doesn't work, move to a bigger town."
-- simon doonan, my ten gay commandments in pride: the official magazine of interpride 2006.

"Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy."
-- Isaac Newton

"keep your eye on the ball and your head on the game."
-- mac anderson

"Just hanging out doesn't put food in your mouth. And as you know, until I had the gastric bypass, I liked to put food in my mouth. So I knew I had to work hard."
-- Al Roker, Commencement address to Shaw University.

"The great thing about computers is that anything you imagine can now be put on the screen. The terrible thing is that anything you imagine can now be put on the screen."
-- Phil Tippet, Animatronic and F/X designer

"If you want a future darling, why don't you get a past?"
-- Eartha Kitt

"every excess becomes a vice."
-- fortune cookie

"Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it".
-- Jane Wagner

"of course i'm for gay marriage i mean for tax reasons. anybody should be able to have a kid that wants that. everybody should be able to get married if they love each other. do i personally want to walk down the aisle? no. to me, it's a corny heterosexual tradition that i can't stand going to. i want to invest in divorce and tattoo removal."
-- john waters

"Oh, I have no I.Q."
-- Carol Channing, in Hello Dollys! by Jesse Green in Sunday's New York Times.

"Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend... when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present / love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure / the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth."
-- Sarah Ban Breathnach

"In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying".
-- Bertrand Russell

"Let not the sands of time get in your lunch".
-- National Lampoon

"Nothing from nothing leaves nothing
You gotta have something, if you wanna be with me."
-- Billy Preston, 1946-2006

"To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition."
-- Samuel Johnson

"If you live to be one hundred, you've got it made. Very few people die past that age".
-- George Burns

"More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren't so busy denying them".
-- Harold J. Smith

"On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time".
-- George Orwell

"I love being in the spotlight, but there's also something to be said about having an office to go to and being responsible for the people who are on your payroll."
-- Joan Rivers

"Put all your eggs in one basket and - WATCH THAT BASKET!"
-- Mark Twain

"I don't have to do anything special. I'm in New York. Look at me, I'm in an elevator and it's in New York. I'm in a taxi, in New York. I'm in a subway and it's in New York."
-- William Hamb, Petty Officer First Class, on his shore leave during Fleet Week 2006, as quoted in The New York Times.

"Cabbage: A familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large and wise as a man's head".
-- Ambrose Bierce

"I wanted it, and it was not to be. I am not pursuing it. I have been there, and I have done that."
-- Al Gore, in Back in the Limelight, Gore Insists He's Over Politics, The New York Times, Sunday.


(Image from Top Synergy).

"Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and higher education positively fortifies it".
-- Stephen Vizinczey

"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones".
-- John Cage

"You can do one of two things: just shut up, which is something I don't find easy, or learn an awful lot very fast, which is what I tried to do."
-- Jane Fonda


(Image from USA Today).

"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes."
-- Carl Jung

"Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."
-- Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, 1921-2006, in his debate with Dan Quayle in 1988.

"I'm on my boogie board. I'm just going to keep on riding."
-- Mayor C. Ray Nagin, relected as Mayor of New Orleans.

"Inside your home, you keep mementos of your past that help or hinder your movement into the future."
-- Kathryn L. Robyn

"I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer."
-- Jim Carrey, on the chalkboard at Giorgios Country Grill this morning.

"The senator does not reflect the ideals upon which this university was founded... This invitation was a top-down decision that did not take into account the desires and interests of the student body on an occasion that is supposed to honor us above all... Senator McCain will tell us today that dissent and disagreement are our civic and moral obligation in times of crisis, and I agree... I consider this a time of crisis, and I feel obligated to speak... Senator McCain will also tell us about his strong-headed self-assuredness in his youth, which prevented him from hearing the ideas of others, and in so doing he will imply that those of us who are young are too naïve to have valid opinions... I am young, and although I don't profess to possess the wisdom that time affords us, I do know that pre-emptive war is dangerous and wrong... Osama bin Laden still has not been found, nor have those weapons of mass destruction."
-- Jean Sara Rohe, 21, at graduation cerimonies for The New School, yesterday, as quoted by The New York Times.

"I am an obsessive, and the Internet rewards obsession".
-- Arianna Huffington

"You need to claim the events of your life to make yourself yours. When you truly posess all you have been and done, which may take some time, you are fierce with reality."
-- Florida Pier Scott-Maxwell

"If you continually give, you will continually have."
-- Fortune Cookie

"On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does."
-- Will Rogers

"One must be something, in order to do something."
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"You can lead a whore to culture, but you can't make her think."
-- Dorothy Parker

"Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness."
-- Robertson Davies

"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a new door."
-- Milton Berle, on the chalkboard at Giorgios Country Grill, this morning.

"Don't ask, don't say. Everything lies in silence."
-- Fortune Cookie

"You can't think and hit at the same time."
-- Yogi Berra

"I'd like my legacy to be that Teacher's College continues to realize
its legacy, to be the great education school not only through its
research and contributions to knowledge to help us understand and
improve American education, but also to directly put those ideas ro
work."
-- Dr. Susan H. Fuhrman, newly appointed president of Columbia
University's Teacher's College.

"I ask that you not try this yourself. This is a deadly, trying test of
endurance."
-- David Blaine, Drowned Alive, at Lincoln Center last night.

"By a curious confusion, many modern critics have passed from the proposition that a masterpiece may be unpopular to the other proposition that unless it is unpopular it cannot be a masterpiece".
-- GK Chesterton

"I do know enough to know I need help."
-- Patrick J. Kennedy, Congressman

"Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation".
-- Kin Hubbard

"I don't really trust a sane person."
-- Lyle Alzado

"I wasn't kissing her, I was whispering in her mouth."
-- Chico Marx

"When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'"
-- Sydney J. Harris

"Like many natural beauties, New York is effortlessly photogenic. It has fabulous bones and hardly any bad angles."
-- Holland Cotter, Art critic for The New York Times.

"If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure?"
-- Harry Shearer

"Stay away from high tech stuff. Quill pens do not need a product support line".
-- Roger Pollack, of Eclectica.