"Have you plans for the infamous EVE?... I've got my herring... And some
Scotch. I will be at home, of course, but can't think of anywhere else
I'd rather be than in the comfort of my nest".
-- Nicomar

"If we could ride a great glimmering ball back to Times Square a century ago, we might see ourselves in the men and women who gathered there on New Year’s Eve of 1907... Notwithstanding how they dressed or wore their hair, their lives were superficially similar to ours. They took the subway to work and lived in homes lighted by electricity. They talked on telephones, went to the movies and listened to music on their new Victrolas. They worried about their weight and wondered whether Christmas was becoming commercialized... And on Dec. 31, 1907, for the first time, they did something that hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers will do on Monday night: They celebrated the passing of ’07 into ’08 by watching an illuminated sphere falling from the sky."
-- Jim Rasenberger, When an Auld Acquaintance Was Brand-New, The New York Times.

“The evolution of knowledge is toward simplicity, not complexity.”
-- L. Ron Hubbard

"You are the person you have discovered yourself to be. And there is no limit to what you can discover... The more you live and experience and accomplish, the more fully you evolve. Every moment is an opportunity to add strength and effectiveness to your life".
-- Ralph Marston

"OK, so naughty or nice, it's done. Over. Finished. On to the next".
-- Cindy Adams

"The eighth point of the Scout Law. It states: A Scout is Cheerful. He smiles whenever he can. His obedience to orders is prompt and cheery. He never shirks nor grumbles at hardships."
-- The Boy Scout Encyclopedia, 1952.

"A happy life is just a string of happy moments. But most people don't allow the happy moment, because they're so busy trying to get a happy life".
-- Abraham-Hicks

"Feel the power and the freshness of your now... You send out your rocket of desire of what you do want, and now you stand in a fresh new place; you want in a fresh way that you have never wanted before. And that's what life is".
-- Abraham-Hicks

"Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending".
-- Carl Bard

“Never regret yesterday. Life is in you today, and you make your tomorrow.”
-- L. Ron Hubbard

"All lives take courage to lead. All lives".
-- Fortune Cookie

"I like work: It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours."
-- Jerome K. Jerome

"Relationships are forever. They are eternal. Not just permanent in this
lifetime. Once you establish a relationship, it is an eternal
relationship".
-- Abraham-Hicks

"My life is as an artist, not an entertainer. I don't consider myself an entertainer, but I can do that thing when I want to".
-- Dan Fogelberg, 1951-2007

"Life is a lot like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the
end, the faster it goes.
-- Andy Rooney

"A human being, like a business, makes profits and suffers losses. For a human being, however, the ultimate currency is not money, nor is it any external measure, such as fame, fortune, or power. The ultimate currency for a human being is happiness."
-- Tal Ben-Shahar, Happiest

"An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day."
-- Irv Kupcinet

"Laughter is by definition healthy."
-- Doris Lessing, Nobel Prize in Literature recipient

"Imagine that you are one hundred and ten years old... Take fifteen minutes to give yourself advice on how to find more happiness in your life, starting at this point. Do the exercise in writing. As much as possible, ritualize the advice. If, for instance, your older self advises you to spend more time with your family, commit to an additional weekly or bi-weekly family outing... Return to this exercise regularly - look at what you wrote, add to it, and ask yourself whether you have taken the advice of your inner sage."
-- Tal Ben-Shahar, Happier, Fifth Meditation: Imagine.

"Do more than merely getting through this day. Jump into it fully with vigor and enthusiasm... Do more than merely getting through your work. Find real joy in making a difference... When the purpose behind each day is just to get it over with, that dismal purpose can begin to take over your whole life. By contrast, when you put a little bit of joy and positive purpose into each moment, you get a whole lot of great and wonderful things filling your world..."
-- Ralph Marston

"Don't give advice unless you're asked."
-- Amy Alcott

"There are lots of temptations and there are plenty of excuses. Keep in mind, though, that you are in control of you... To reach the destination you have chosen, you must follow the path that will take you there. And while diversions and distractions will constantly come along, remember that you are in control of you... Your thoughts, your words and your actions are precisely the ones you choose. They can take you anywhere you would like to go... Though many things are out of your control, you are always in control of you. You can respond, you can adjust, you can persist and you can move in the direction of your dreams, no matter what the outside factors may be. You are in control of you. Your decisions in each and every moment determine the quality of life that you live. It is a heavy responsibility and a magnificent opportunity. You are in control of you, and you will always go right where your actions take you."
-- Ralph Marston

"To give without any reward, or any notice, has a special quality of its own."
-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh,writer and aviation pioneer

"If A is success in life, then A equals X plus Y plus Z. Work is X; Y is play; and Z is keeping your mouth shut."
-- Albert Einstein

"A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you've been taking."
-- Earl Wilson

"Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm."
-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge 

"Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response."
-- Mildred Barthel

"What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the
striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is
not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential
meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him."
-- Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one."
-- George Bernard Shaw

"Organized people are too lazy to look for things."
-- Unknown

"Integrity is not a 90 percent thing, not a 95 percent thing; either you have it or you don't."
-- Peter Scotese, as quoted by DAAve.

"Listening is such a simple act. It requires us to be present, and that takes practice, but we don't have to do anything else. We don't have to advise, or coach or sound wise. We just have to be willing to sit there and listen."
-- Margaret J. Wheatley, writer and management consultant

"When it comes to getting things done, we need fewer architects and more bricklayers."
-- Colleen C. Barrett, president of Southwest Airlines

"The happiness that is genuinely satisfying is accompanied by the
fullest exercise of our faculties and the fullest realization of the
world in which we live."
-- Bertrand Russell

"When you think you can change someone, you end up failing because you
don't have the power to change another person. You will always have the
power to change yourself, when you figure out that something is not
right. With another person, you can't figure that out. I know I can't
change my mom, a boyfriend, or even a friend, but I can change myself."
-- Leah from Oregon, in The Forum

"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. All is well. You can't get it wrong. You never get it done".
-- Abraham-Hicks

"What has happened before has brought you to where you are. Yet the past has no control over where you can go from here.

Your past history does not create your future. The choices you make right now are what create the substance of that future.

Learn from your mistakes, but do not agonize over them. There is nothing you can do to change the fact that they happened, yet there is much you can do to move positively beyond them.

When you dwell on the past it holds you prisoner. When you let it go, that allows you to go anywhere you now choose.

People change, circumstances change, and you can change too. With each moment comes the opportunity to shake off the old assumptions and limitations, to give new purpose and meaning to life.

Give new energy, new effort, new commitment and determination to this day that you have the good fortune to be living. See the bright future that can be, and you will make it so."

-- Ralph Marston

"You are the creator of your own reality, and so you are not in
jeopardy. You do not need to control the behavior of others in order for
you to thrive. Your attention to things that you think they do that
keeps you from your thriving is, in fact, what keeps you from your
thriving... It is not what they do to you; it's what you do to you in
fear of what you think that they will do to you".
-- Abraham-Hicks

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
-- Jimi Hendrix

"My Twelve Commandments


1. Be Gretchen [Myself].
2. Let it go.
3. Act as I would feel.
4. Do it now.
5. Be polite and be fair.
6. Enjoy the process.
7. Spend out.
8. Identify the problem.
9. Lighten up.
10. Do what ought to be done.
11. No calculation.
12. There is only love.

-- The Happiness Project

"Rather than asking myself whether I am happy or not, a more helpful
question is, 'How can I become happier."... We need to recognize that
happiness is an unlimited resource and then focus on ways in which we
can attain more of it. Becoming happier is a lifelong pursuit."
-- Tal Ben-Shahar

"Please, don't squeeze the Charmin."
-- Dick Wilson, 1916-2007, as Mr. Whipple.

"Sometimes, I am called upon to accept unpleasant realities. I may wish to avoid disappointments, but I find the only way to serenity is to become willing to accept the things I cannot change. Acceptance gives me choices."
-- Courage to Change.

"Peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart."
-- Unknown.

"Consider the little mouse, how sagacious an animal it is which never entrusts his life to one hole only. "
-- Plautus

"we can not change the cards we're dealt, just how we play the hand."
-- dr. randy pausch

"The most successful people are those who are good at Plan B."
-- James Yorke, as quoted by DAAve.

"What is urgent is rarely important. What is important is rarely urgent."
-- Courage to Change

"The man who says he is willing to meet you halfway is usually a poor judge of distance".
-- Laurence J. Peter

"As the holidays approach, it's so essential to prepare yourself - body, mind and soul - for the faster pace of the coming six weeks. This is the time to take extra special care. While you're giving to others, make this the time to give to yourself as well...

"If you were going to make this the best holiday season ever, how would you do it? It won't happen for most people, because most people won't have that as their #1 intention. And it's unlikely that you'll have the life-changing holidays that you could have if you don't create a powerful intent."

-- Debbie Ford

"The opposite of talking isn't listening. The opposite of talking is waiting".
-- Fran Lebowitz

"Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be".
-- William Hazlitt

"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. All is well. You can't get it wrong. You never get it done".
-- Abraham-Hicks

"Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing."
-- Harriet Braiker

"Listen as though you have no opinion".
-- Sign at Northwest Unity, as per Scott.

"The obstacles you encounter are not preventing you from reaching your dreams. They're merely blocking one particular path that you mistakenly assume is the only way to reach those dreams".
-- Ralph Marston

"We are supposed to forgive everyone; everyone includes ourselves."
-- Denis Waitley, as quoted by dAAve

"One of the secrets of a long and fruitful life is to forgive everybody everything every night before you go to bed."
-- Bernard Baruch, as quoted by dAAve

"What's the quickest way out of a negative attitude? Have something ready and waiting that you can immediately and genuinely appreciate.

"How do you find the hidden value in any situation? Look for something to truly appreciate.

"When you seek to find things to appreciate, what you'll discover are hidden treasures upon which you can build great value. Look for what you can appreciate, and you'll find positive, powerful tools that will pull you forward.

"Get in the habit of starting each day by thinking of something for which you can be thankful. Then, whenever you catch yourself falling into a negative thought pattern, you'll already have something positive toward which you can redirect your thoughts.

"Each time you meet a new person, make it a point to find something, at the very outset of the relationship, that you can sincerely appreciate. Every time you find yourself in a new place or situation, look first for what you can appreciate about it.

"Find something to appreciate, and your effectiveness will increase dramatically. Find something to appreciate, and you'll uncover real treasure".

-- Ralph Marston

"To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness."
-- Robert Muller, as quoted by dAAve.

"Find the best in everybody. You may have to wait a long time. Sometimes
years, but people will show you their good side".
-- Professor Randy Pausch

"I just love the anticipation when my alarm clock goes off in the morning. Something surprising happens every single day without fail. I claim the day as MINE, and I choose joy for the theme. Believe me, I know that sounds corny, but it works for me".
-- Pam

"i am grateful and thankful that when I type my gratitude list, I have the keys to happiness at my fingertips"
-- DAAVE

"You're never going to get to any final place. And so, we want to remind you to relax and start having fun on the way".
-- Abraham-Hicks

"Never lose the child-like wonder... It's just too important. It's what drives us."
-- dr. randy pausch

"When everyone is somebody, then no one's anybody".
-- WS Gilbert

"Continuous effort -- not strength or intelligence -- is the key to unlocking our potential."
-- Liane Cordes

"Live your questions now, and perhaps even without knowing it, you will live along some distant day into your answers."
–- Rainer Maria Rilke

"Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things. The brick walls are there to stop the people that don't want it badly enough."
-- professor randy pausch

"To have his path made clear for him is the aspiration of every human being in our beclouded and tempestuous existence."
– Joseph Conrad

"It is important to expect nothing, to take every experience, including the negative ones, as merely steps on the path, and to proceed."
-- Ram Dass

"Chance favors the prepared mind. Never forget it."
-- Howard Dean, as quoted in today's New York Times.

"By recognizing the divine in others, I am acknowledging the divine in myself..."
-- John Holland

"When you put conditions on enjoyment, it turns into just another chore. Let go, and sincerely enjoy the miracle that is your life as it comes to you in each moment. If you become overly attached to specific results, you set yourself up for disappointment and disillusionment. Be ambitious, yet do not be your ambition"...
-- Ralph Marston

"I choose to be in places and situations and with people where I feel good about myself. I deserve to feel good and I trust that my heart will tell me where to go".
-- Ruth Fishel, as quoted by Scott

"Sometimes we need to look hard at a person and remember that he is doing the best he can. He's just trying to find his way. That's all".
-- Ernest Thompson, as quoted by Scott.

"Happiness comes when you believe in what you are doing, know what you are doing, and love what you are doing."
-- Brian Tracy, as posted by DAAve

"To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves".
-- Will Durant

"When we're denying or suppressing our soul's dream, that energy is turned inward. Not good! When we're not playing a game that's big enough for us, we're suffocating (i.e., suffering -- are you suffering in some area of your life?). The soul has so much power. And if we hold it in, that energy will turn into toxicity. This is when we get stuck in patterns of behavior, obsessions, compulsions, and self-sabotage. But when we're up to bigger things, we just handle whatever we need to handle in order to make room for the bigger vision".
-- Debbie Ford

"There can never be too much kindness in the world. Create some more today, and find real joy in its warm glow".
-- Ralph Marston

"It is the Law that any difficulties that can come to you at any time, no matter what they are, must be exactly what you need most at the moment, to enable you to take the next step forward by overcoming them. The only real misfortune, the only real tragedy, comes when we suffer without learning the lesson."
-- Emmet Fox

"Silence can be as different as sounds."
-- Elizabeth Bowen

"Life finds its purpose and fulfillment in the expansion of happiness."
–- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

"It is a funny thing about life: If you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it".
-- Somerset Maugham

"It's not about how to achieve your dreams, it's about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself, the dreams will come to you. "
-- Professor Randy Pausch

"The happiest people I know are those who have learned to live beyond their own special interests by discovering the rewards that come from giving of themselves".
-- Winfield C. Dunn, as quoted by DAAve.

"i do believe in karma. i believe in paybacks. you get people to help you by telling the truth, being earnest. i'll take an earnest person over a hip person everyday because hip is short-term, earnest is longterm."
-- professor randy pausch

"Don’t complain. Just work harder".
-- Randy Pausch

"I choose to be in places and situations and with people where I feel good about myself. I deserve to feel good and I trust that my heart will tell me where to go".
-- Ruth Fishel

"Today can just be marvelous..........marvelous I say. All I have to do is jump into it with a grateful heart and some willingness to do the work. Hey.....what a coincidence...I have BOTH."
-- Pam, Sobriety is Exhausting

"Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired."
-- Jules Renard

"Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means."
-- Albert Einstein

"There's always room at the top."
-- Daniel Webster

"There are two kinds of people: those who do the work, and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there".
-- Indira Gandhi

"Look for the ridiculous in everything, and you will find it."
-- Jules Renard

"We have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible."
-- Oscar Wilde, as quoted by CityGirl15

"Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility".
-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement,
in the thrill of creative effort.
The human spirit needs to accomplish,
to achieve, to triumph to be happy.

Happiness does not come from doing easy work,
but from the afterglow of satisfaction
that comes after the achievement
of a difficult task that demands your best.

Your personal growth itself contains the seed of happiness.
You cannot pursue happiness by itself.
There is no happiness except in the realization
that you have accomplished something.

Happiness thrives in activity.
It's a running river, not a stagnant pond..."

-- Max Steingart, YourDailyMotivation.com

"I used to spend so much time reacting and responding to everyone else that my life had no direction. Other people's lives, problems, and wants set the course for my life. Once I realized it was okay for me to think about and identify what I wanted, remarkable things began to take place in my life".
-- Anonymous

"Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true."
-- Leon J. Suenes

“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.”
-- Gilda Radner

"I can't wait to hit the shower and get this day started. I can make it ordinary or I can make it great. I choose my actions and re-actions today. Your moods and behavior are yours......I don't have to take them on at all. Damn, that took years to learn!"
-- Pam, Sobriety is Exhausting

"Your ability to imagine will help the next logical steps come to you faster. Work the bugs out in your imagination. You don't have to build little things and bigger things. You can do it all in your mind. We're not talking about the next logical action step. Use your imagination until your big dream feels so familiar that the manifestation is the next logical step."
-- Abraham-Hicks

"Today I am grateful and thankful that doing the next right thing rarely involves feeling guilty afterwards."
-- Dave, Higher Powered blog.

"I am only one, but I am still one; I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do".
-- Edward Everett Hale

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle".
-- Philo

"Anything can happen, if you let it."
-- Mary Poppins

"People say that money isn't the key to happiness but I always figured
if you have enough money, you can have a key made."
-- Joan Rivers, on the board at Giorgio's restaurant.

"Hope is a waking dream".
-- Aristotle

"It may be that those who do most, dream most".
-- Stephen Leacock

"It wasn't enough to be positive, focused and fearless, I had to take action! Musicians say that the hardest part of practicing is taking the instrument out of the case. To begin is to be half done!"
-- Joey Reiman

"First keep the peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others".
-- Thomas a Kempis

"The main event has never been the manifestation; the main event has always been the way you feel moment by moment, because that's what life is."
-- Abraham-Hicks

"To find your own way is to follow your bliss. This involves analysis, watching yourself and seeing where real deep bliss is--not the quick little excitement, but the real deep, life-filling bliss".
-- Joseph Campbell

"We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world".
-- Buddha

"We are all broken and wounded in this world. Some choose to grow strong at the broken places".
-- Harold J. Duarte-Bernhardt

"Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what you have".
-- Doris Mortman

"Your thoughts are what frighten you. Choose to change them, and the fear is gone. Your thoughts are what cause you to be frustrated, angry, disappointed, impatient and uncomfortable. And your thoughts can also take you far away from all those things. For your thoughts can transform anger into forgiveness, disappointment into determination, discomfort into inspiration, and fear into love. The choice is always yours".
-- Ralph Marston, The Daily Motivator

"The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world".
-- Marianne Williamson

"Now is the time for all good men to come to".
-- Walt Kelly

"In the midst of change, we find seeds for the future."
-- LLC, on the board at Giorgio's this morning..

"A word to the wise ain't necessary; it's the stupid ones who need the advice."
-- Bill Cosby

"Failure is not the only punishment for laziness; there is also the success of others."
-- Jules Renard

"Change your thoughts and change your world!"
-- Norman Vincent Peale

"We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend."
-- Robert Louis Stevenson

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

"We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it".
-- Abraham Lincoln

"Humor is just another defense against the universe."
-- Mel Brooks

"Those who can, do. Those who can do more, TEACH!"
-- Teacherken on Daily Kos.

"It is far easier to prepare for a storm when the skies are still clear. By the time dark clouds appear on the horizon, your options are drastically more limited and much less effective".
-- Ralph Marston, as quoted by Scott.

"If you're strong enough, there are no precedents."
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald,

"Don't accept rides from strange men, and remember that all men are strange".
-- Robin Morgan

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

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man be perfected without trials.
-- Danish Proverb, on the chalkboard at Giorgio's Grill this morning.

"The world is a great book; he who never stirs from home, reads only a page".
-- Saint Augustine, as quoted by dAAve.

"If the Phone Doesn't Ring, It's Me"
- Jimmy Buffet

"When it is all too much, when the news is so bad meditation itself feels useless, and a single life feels too small a stone to offer on the altar of peace, find a human sunrise. Find those people who are committed to changing our scary reality. Human sunrises are happening all over the earth, at every moment. People gathering, people working to change the intolerable, people coming in their robes and sandals or in their rags and bare feet, and they are singing, or not, and they are chanting, or not. But they are working to bring peace, light, compassion to the infinitely frightening downhill slide of human life".
-- Alice Walker

"Be loyal to what you love, be true to the earth, fight your enemies with passion and laughter".
-- Edward Abbey

"Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop."
-- Ovid

"Everything I ever touched is gone. Except 'Wheel' and 'Jeopardy!'"
-- Merv Griffin 1925-2007, as told to Phil Rosenthal.

(Image from Chicago Tribune)

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step".
-- Tao

"Has it ever occurred to you when you see something you don’t like to call it something else? Lately as I use my victim consciousness less and less I seem to recognize things differently in my life.

"It is my new thought that we have “made up” everything in our lives so far. So why not make up something else if we don’t like what we made up already? It may seem illogical and irrational at first, but when you think about it, it makes sense. I think none of this stuff we’re experiencing is real, except that perhaps it is a real experience, and that is why we have called it to us…to experience it.

"Accountability seems to be something lacking in our thought process today. I don’t mean that to justify anyone’s outrage over what has been done to them. This isn’t for you to continue to be upset because someone hurt you and they haven’t owned up to it yet. I’m writing this to give you the opportunity to become accountable for creating your life and all of the events that have taken place in it. I suggested this to someone recently and they asked me why they would do such terrible things to themselves. I told them that “Why?” isn’t important. The only real answer to that is you did it so that you could experience it and you made up everyone who participated in it.

"Here is the reprieve, because you have made up everything so far, you can make up something else and you will find yourself with people who are different and ready to participate in the new experiences with you.

"But we must take accountability for our lives. I don’t call it blame; I call it accountability. When you are accountable for your life, you are in charge of your life. That stuff you have been calling bad, call it an event. That stuff you are afraid of, admit you made up the fear. Every time you feel yourself resisting the future, remember you’ve just left the present. Admit that you are good on a regular basis. Admit that God is good on a regular basis. Admit that your life is good on a regular basis. Why not? It beats calling it something else".

-- Reverend Shawn Moninger

"We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming".
-- Wernher von Braun

"Never be afraid to sit awhile and think."
-- Lorraine Hansberry

“If you want better answers, ask yourself better questions.”
--Tony Robbins

"Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it".
-- Michel de Montaigne

"You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose."
-- Gandhi

" Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is?"
-- Fortune Cookie

"It is not so important to know everything as to appreciate what we learn."
-- Hannah More

"The 'Net is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it".
-- William Gibson

"I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something".
-- Jackie Mason

"I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence."
-- Frederick Douglass

"Why love if losing hurts so much? We love to know that we are not alone."
-- C. S. Lewis

"Humility is the embarrassment you feel when you tell people how wonderful you are".
-- Laurence J. Peter

"Live your life as an exclamation, not an explanation."
-- Life's Little Instruction Book

"I never came upon any of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking".
-- Albert Einstein

"It is every man's obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it."
-- Albert Einstein

"Many people are wanting to fan your flames of discomfort, because they
believe that "you're either with us or against us; if you don't stand in
the same disgust and horror that we are all standing, then you are not
with us." It's hard for people to understand that you can not agree with
them -- and not be against them. That you could be for something without
being against something else."
-- Abraham-Hicks

"If you want an average successful life, it doesn’t take much planning. Just stay out of trouble, go to school, and apply for jobs you might like. But if you want something extraordinary, you have two paths:

1. Become the best at one specific thing.
2. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.

The first strategy is difficult to the point of near impossibility. Few people will ever play in the NBA or make a platinum album. I don’t recommend anyone even try.

The second strategy is fairly easy. Everyone has at least a few areas in which they could be in the top 25% with some effort. In my case, I can draw better than most people, but I’m hardly an artist. And I’m not any funnier than the average standup comedian who never makes it big, but I’m funnier than most people. The magic is that few people can draw well and write jokes. It’s the combination of the two that makes what I do so rare. And when you add in my business background, suddenly I had a topic that few cartoonists could hope to understand without living it.

I always advise young people to become good public speakers (top 25%). Anyone can do it with practice. If you add that talent to any other, suddenly you’re the boss of the people who have only one skill. Or get a degree in business on top of your engineering degree, law degree, medical degree, science degree, or whatever. Suddenly you’re in charge, or maybe you’re starting your own company using your combined knowledge.

Capitalism rewards things that are both rare and valuable. You make yourself rare by combining two or more “pretty goods” until no one else has your mix. I didn’t spend much time with the script supervisor, but it was obvious that her verbal/writing skills were in the top tier as well as her people skills. I’m guessing she also has a high attention to detail, and perhaps a few other skills in the mix. Probably none of those skills are best in the world, but together they make a strong package. Apparently she’s been in high demand for decades.

At least one of the skills in your mixture should involve communication, either written or verbal. And it could be as simple as learning how to sell more effectively than 75% of the world. That’s one. Now add to that whatever your passion is, and you have two, because that’s the thing you’ll easily put enough energy into to reach the top 25%. If you have an aptitude for a third skill, perhaps business or public speaking, develop that too.

It sounds like generic advice, but you’d be hard pressed to find any successful person who didn’t have about three skills in the top 25%.

What are your three?"

-- Scott Adams, on his Dilbert Blog.

"Fear not for the future, weep not for the past."
-- Percy Bysshe Shelley,English poet

"As children, we lived our lives using the more the creative “right” side of our brain. As we got older, we had a tendency to pull away from our right side and rely more on the intellectual “left” side of our brain. Layers upon layers of life’s issues begin to attach to us, and slowly we can no longer feel our spirit as we once did. This week try doing something creative, such as taking a class where you can sketch, draw, write, paint, color, sing, or do whatever works for you. Wake up your spirit as you get back in the flow of using your creative and intuitive side once again".
-- John Holland

"When others start telling us their problems, too many of us respond instantly with what we believe would be best. Quick responses or quick fixes are not always the best way, since that person may only be venting or expressing their thoughts. Sometimes we must recognize when it’s right to be silent. Sometimes that soul needs to go through what it is they’re experiencing currently in their life. Who are we to pull them from that souls lesson? Use your intuition wisely for a more considered response — if one is really needed".
-- John Holland

"I want my funeral to be a real happy time. I want everybody laughing and remembering how crazy I was."
-- Tammy Faye Bakker, 1942-2007, as told to Larry King, and quoted in her obituary in today's New York Times.

"Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated."
-- Coretta Scott King

"I think the one lesson I have learned is that there is no substitute for paying attention."
-- Diane Sawyer

"When someone does something good, applaud! You will make two people happy."
-- Samuel Goldwyn

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."
-- Jack London

"Whether or not you write well, write bravely."
-- Bill Stout

"A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself."
-- Josh Billings

"Do you have a purpose? Do you have a calling? Do you have a vocation?...I want to suggest to you that whether or not you have a job, everyone has a vocation, and that vocation is to live a life that is worth living. The best advice I can give is that which St. Paul gives us in Romans 12, where he says to the likes of you, who all look alike from here, ''Be not conformed to this world.'' Do not join the throng. Don't get lost in the crowd. Don't be a part of the cookie-manufactured college generation, but stake out for yourselves some extraordinary, maybe even eccentric, piece and place of the world, and make it your own".
-- Rev. Peter J. Gomes 

"Lesson No. 1: You cannot plan the rest of your life". 
-- John Grisham 

"I was a songwriter, I was struggling, and I loved it. I wanted to be the greatest songwriter. I was writing about everything -- everything I saw. But I was not making money, and I finally agreed with everyone I ever talked to who knew me, who said, ''Boy, you need to get a job -- a real one.'' So I got a job on the Ford assembly line. And every day I watched how a bare metal frame rolling down the line would come off the other end a spanking brand-new car. Wow, I thought. What a great idea. Maybe I can do the same thing with my music -- create a place where a kid off the street can walk in one door an unknown and come out another door a star. That little thought that came to me while running up and down that assembly line at Ford Motor Company became a reality you now know as Motown."
-- Berry Gordy

"It has been a wonderful life. I feel like a jug into which wine is
poured until it overflows."
-- Lady Bird Johnson, 1912-2007

"Inspiration comes forth from within. It's what the light burning within
you is about, as opposed to motivation, which is doing it because if you
don't do it, there will be negative repercussions. Motivation is making
myself do something that I don't really want to do. Inspiration is
having the clear picture of what I am wanting -- and letting Universal
forces come into play to get the outcome".
-- Abraham-Hicks

"A dream becomes a goal when action is taken toward its achievement".
-- Bo Bennett

"The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart - this you will build your life by, and this you will become".
-- James Allen

"I am an optimist. I am short, and short people can only see the glass as half full. So optimize who you are and what you are. Optimize your experiences and what you have learned. Optimize others. Optimize your opportunities. Seize them and do meaningful things".  -- Shirley Ann Jackson

"We all have things that oftentimes we're upset about, or ashamed of, or
feel guilty over, and so many people carry these enormous burdens
around. One of the great gifts of faith is to let it go."
-- Hillary Rodham Clinton

"Every time you say, 'I appreciate that. I really like that. I applaud that. I acknowledge the value in that.' Every time you do that, you spend some of your Energy, and it is the spending of the Energy that creates a vacuum, so to speak, or an attraction, so to speak, that draws more and more and more and more".
-- Abraham-Hicks

"If you want your life to be a magnificent story, then begin by
realizing that you are the author and every day you have the opportunity
to write a new page."
-- Mark Houlahan, on the chalkboard at Giorgio's Grill this morning.

"This is a working day in the rest of the world, and, for that matter, a working day in the middle of the working week. The Fourth of July, a day that is central to our sense of our own history, will pass uncapitalized around the rest of the globe. It’s a local holiday, after all, nevermind how large our idea of local may be.

"But the idea of freedom is not local. It is universal. Even in these very difficult times, four years deep into a war that has turned much of the world against this country, when some political leaders seek to arrogate the idea of freedom as their own political preserve, the universal freedom described in the Declaration of Independence remains a fundamental truth.

"Our own domestic history has made it clear how deeply acculturated that original idea of freedom really was, but also how difficult it has been, and still is, to win political and economic freedom for every American. The desire for freedom is part of human nature. But what matters as much as the principle of freedom is the practice of it.

"Ideas have a way of recommending themselves by the behavior of the men and women who hold them, and this is no less true of nations. The question isn’t simply whether we can project our ideal of freedom around the world. The question is whether, by who we are and how we behave, we can make the freedom that animates us compelling to others.

"The country looks inward on the Fourth of July — not in introspection, but in an easy, comfortable sense of historical gratification. Yet this is a good day to look outward as well.

"It is a day to ask how good a job — from the world’s perspective — we are doing living up to the principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, whether we have done enough to make those sonorous old rights seem like more than a limited case in a limited argument. The answer is more equivocal than we like to believe. But the ideal is one that must drive us all."

-- Editorial, The New York Times.

"The bridge from challenge to reality is built with inspiration."
-- Deb Siber

"Maturity begins to grow when you can sense your concern for others outweighing your concern for yourself." 
-- John Macnaughton

"The tragedy of life does not lie, young folk, in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It is not a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not a disaster to not be able to capture your ideals, but it is a disaster to have no ideals to capture. It is not a disgrace to not be able to reach all the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for".
-- Tavis Smiley

" Part of noticing intuitive signs, signals, and those gentle nudges is becoming more conscious of what you’re doing in your everyday life. This week, if you’re having a cup of tea, then just drink your tea. If you’re enjoying a meal, then just eat your meal. If you’re walking, just walk. Appreciate, focus, and be in the moment. By doing so, you’ll remain in the powerful present, and that way, your intuition has a better chance of getting your attention".
-- John Holland

"It is never too late -- in fiction or in life -- to revise."
-- Nancy Thayer 

"The bridge from challenge to reality is built with inspiration."
-- Deb Siber, on the chalkboard at Giorgio's Country Grill this morning.

"When you come to the end of all the light you know, and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: Either you will be given something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly."
-- Edward Teller

"Your happiness is the most significant contribution that you could make. In your reaching for happiness, you are opening a vortex which makes you an avenue for the Well-being to flow through you. And anything that is your object of attention under those conditions, benefits by the infusion of your Well-being".
-- Abraham-Hicks

"Whatever you're thinking about is literally like planning a future event. When you're worrying, you are planning. When you're appreciating you are planning...What are you planning?"
-- Abraham-Hicks

"You can't hold a man down without staying down with him." -- Booker T. Washington,

"Determination is the wake-up call to the human will."
-- Fortune Cookie

“Like a shark that forces water through its gills to breathe, I believed that if I kept moving, I could stay cool.” -- Anderson Cooper, Details Magazine (Sept. ‘03)

"The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You don't blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the President. You realize that you control your own destiny."
-- Albert Ellis

"Give a man a mask and he'll tell you the truth."
-- Oscar Wilde

"No man is a failure who is enjoying life."
-- William Feather

"I have discovered photography. Now I can kill myself. I have nothing else to learn."
-- Pablo Picasso

"Courage is being scared to death - But saddling up anyway."
-- John Wayne, on the board at Giorgio's this morning.

"The most effective way to do it, is to do it."
-- Amelia Earhart

"If you don't like the way the world is, you can change it. Just do it one step at a time."
-- Marian Wright Edelman

"I made the decision. I'm accountable."
-- Janet Reno

"Before beginning a hunt, it is wise to ask someone what you are looking for before you begin looking for it."
-- Winnie the Pooh, as quoted today by dAAve.

"Those old habits don't have to be erased, they just become replaced by a new habit that is more in vibrational harmony with who you are and what you want".
-- Abraham-Hicks

"Contrary to general belief, I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first".
-- Peter Ustinov

"Defeat is not defeat unless accepted as reality in your own mind."
-- Bruce Lee, (on the board at Giorgio's this morning).

"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered."
-- Nelson Mandela

"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

"The mind is its own kind of dance floor. What this generation could do from our rocking chairs could literally rock the world. Having slowed down physically, we’re in a better space to rev up psychically. We are shifting from the outer to the inner not in order to begin our demise, but to reseed and regreen the consciousness of the planet. And that is what is happening now: we are going slower in order to go deeper in order to go faster in the direction of urgently needed change. The conscious midlife is not an end but a new beginning."
-- Marianne Williamson

"I cannot give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody."
-- Herbert B. Swope 

"There are three positive words that can help you anytime you’re feeling stressed or disconnected from your intuition. They are: “FIND YOUR CENTER.” When you say or think these three words, it immediately draws you back to your inner self. You’ll find yourself back at that place of calmness where your intuition has a clearer channel to communicate with you. Try repeating these words frequently throughout the day and you’ll remain in check with yourself as well as your spirit."
-- John Holland

"Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again."
-- Joseph Campbell 

"Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves".
-- James M. Barrie

"If I knew I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself".
-- Mickey Mantle

"The Universe does not know whether the vibration that you're offering is because of something you're observing or something you're remembering or something that you are imagining. It just receives the vibration and answers it with things that match it".
-- Abraham-Hicks.

"It's never crowded along the extra mile".
-- Wayne Dyer

"Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy."
-- Anne Frank 

"No is a complete sentence."
-- Unknown

"since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see
reality"
-- nikos kazantzakis, on the chalkboard at giorgio's grill this morning.

"Never face facts; if you do, you'll never get up in the morning".
-- Marlo Thomas

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear -- not absence of fear."
-- Mark Twain

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized
anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't."
-- Eleanor Roosevelt

"You cannot run away from yourself. You're always right behind you".
-- fortune cookie

"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity."
--Dorothy Parker

"Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts."
-- Daniel Patrick Moynihan

"Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a
butterfly."
-- Proverb, on the chalkboard at Giorgio's Grill this morning.

"Is there life before death?"
-- Graffito

"Priorities are not written in granite. They need to be flexible and change as we do…It takes peace of mind and clarity to recognize and reorder meaningful, personal priorities. Maybe that is why so many of us procrastinate."
-- Sarah Ban Breathnach

"I think hell's a real place where real people spend a real eternity".
-- Jerry Falwell, 1933-2007

"You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing."
-- Michael Pritchard

"Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world".
-- Lily Tomlin

"Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?"
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld