Hard, Crossing Bridges, Impossible

Life is hard. It’s even harder if you’re stupid.
~ Anonymous

When you build bridges you can keep crossing them.
~ Rick Pitino, American basketball coach

Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible.
~ Doug Larson
(English middle-distance runner who won gold medals at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, 1902-1981)

Daring, Play, Stand

All serious daring starts from within.
~ Eudora Welty

For the main characteristic of play - whether of child or adult - is not its content but its mode. Play is an approach to action, not a form of activity.
~ Jerome Bruner, psychologist, professor

A man who can bow before God can stand before giants.
~ Unknown

Dictators, Determination, Toughness

Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.
~ Winston Churchill

If you really want to do something, you will find a way. If you don't, you will find an excuse.
~ Anonymous

Tough times never last, but tough people do.
~ Robert H. Schuller

Tainted, Couples, Freedom

That's right. 'Tain't yours, and 'tain't mine.
~ Mark Twain (when friend said that a certain rich man's money was "tainted")

The happiest couples are those who spell "us" with a capital "you."
~ Klare Provine

False freedom leaves a man free to do what he likes; true freedom, to do what he ought.
~ Anonymous

Wisdom, Practice, Deeds

Patience is the companion of wisdom.
~ Anonymous

Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning .... They have to play with what they know to be true in order to find out more, and then they can use what they learn in new forms of play.
~ Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

For Sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.
~ William Shakespeare

Undervalued, Resistance, Found

Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.
~ Malcolm Forbes

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

The easiest thing to find is fault.
~ Anonymous

Think Twice, Change the World, Happiness

Think twice before you speak, and then you may be able to say something more insulting than if you spoke right out at once.
~ Evan Esar (1899 - 1995)

We must be the change we wish to see in the world.
~ Mahatma Gandhi

The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.
~ Anonymous

One's country, Vision, Happiness

My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not its institutions or its officeholders.
~ Mark Twain

A clear vision is usually assumed and rarely communicated.
~ Unknown

A sound mind in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world.
~ John Locke

"Civil" wars, Loyalty, rob Peter

All wars are civil wars because all men are brothers... Each one owes infinitely more to the human race than to the particular country in which he was born.
~ Francois de Salignac de La Mothe- Fenelon

An ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness.
~ Elbert Green Hubbard

So long as you rob Peter to pay Paul, you'll have Paul's support.
~ Anonymous

Talent, Goals, Needs

If you have a talent, use it in every which way possible. Don't hoard it. Don't dole it out like a miser. Spend it lavishly like a millionaire intent on going broke.
~ Brendan Francis

How often I found where I should be going only by setting out for somewhere else.
~ R. Buckminster Fuller

Displayed in the Lobby of the Shreveport, LA Veterans Hospital:
I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health, that I might do great things.
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy.
I was given poverty, that I might become wise.
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need for God.
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life.
I was given Life, that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers and true needs were fulfilled.
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.
~ Unknown Civil War Veteran

Wisdom, True Patriotism, Approval

Patience is the companion of wisdom.
~ Anonymous

I confidently trust that the American people will prove themselves … too wise not to detect the false pride or the dangerous ambitions or the selfish schemes which so often hide themselves under that deceptive cry of mock patriotism: 'Our country, right or wrong!' They will not fail to recognize that our dignity, our free institutions and the peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism: 'Our country—when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right.'
~ Carl Schurz (Speeches, Correspondence And Political Papers Of Carl
Schurz V5: January 30, 1889-December 27, 1898)

If your number one goal is to make sure that everyone likes and approves of you, then you risk sacrificing your uniqueness and, therefore, your excellence.
~ Anonymous

Lending, Patriotism, Only One You

If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
~ Unknown

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it.
~ Mark Twain

There is only one you... Don't you dare change just because you're outnumbered!
~ Charles Swindoll

Leader or Manager, Excuses, Travel, Mothers

Leaders manage change. Managers control process.
~ Unknown

It's better to offer no excuse than a bad one.
~ George Washington

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
~ St. Augustine, philosopher and theologian

When your mother asks, 'Do you want a piece of advice?' it is a mere
formality. It doesn't matter if you say yes or no. You're going to
get it anyway.
~ Erma Bombeck, American humorist (1927-1996)

Dignity of Life, Determination, Beautiful Solutions

What begins with the failure to uphold the dignity of one life all too often ends with a calamity for entire nations.
~ Kofi Annan (1938-) Ghanaian diplomat - seventh secretary-general of
the United Nations (1997-2006); awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 2001

If you really want to do something, you will find a way. If you don't, you will find an excuse.
~ Anonymous

When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.
~ R. Buckminster Fuller

Cup Overflowing, Healing, Creativity

It takes a steady hand to carry a full cup.
~ Anonymous

Time heals what reason cannot.
~ Seneca (5 BC-65 AD) (Lucius Annaeus Seneca, the Younger) Roman philosopher and statesman - a respected teacher who was eventually condemned for his high moral aims.

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.
~ Erich Fromm, German-American psychologist

Work, Adventure, Encouragement

Work keeps us from three great evils, boredom, vice and need.
~ François Marie Arouet Voltaire

Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure science.
~ Edwin Hubble

Encouragement is like a premium gasoline - it helps to take knocks out
of living.
~ Anonymous

Leadership, Misunderstandings

The best is yet to come.
~ Advice

He who thinketh he leadeth and hath no one following him is only taking a walk.
~ Anonymous
[I disagree. It's not followers who define leadership. It's principles. – K]

There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it.
~ William James

change, and interrupting

However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
~ Advice

With a stop light, green means "go" and yellow means "slow down". With a banana, however, it is quite the opposite. Yellow means "go", green means "whoa, slow down" and red means "where the heck did you get that banana?"
~ Mitch Hedberg

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
~ Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

The Healer, catchphrase, and environmental attitude

GOD heals everything, not necessarily the way you would like & there may be scars.
~ Advice

This book fills a much-needed gap.
~ Moses Hadas (1900-1966) in a review

If you are going through hell, keep going.
~ Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

thinking of you, coffee, and theory vs reality

What other people think of you is none of your business.
~ Advice

The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.
~ Jan L.A. van de Snepscheut