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

Difficulties, Truth, Money

Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.
~ William Ellery Channing

Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

The hand that gives is among the hand that takes. Money has no fatherland, financiers are without patriotism and without decency, their sole object is gain.
~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Gratitude, Obligation

Silent gratitude isn't very much use to anyone.
~ Gertrude Stein

For today and its blessings, I owe the world an attitude of gratitude.
~ Clarence E. Hodges

To oppose corruption in government is the highest obligation of patriotism.
~ G. Edward Griffin

Giving Thanks

The depth and the willingness with which we serve is a direct reflection of our gratitude.
~ Gordon T. Watts

It's a sign of mediocrity when you demonstrate gratitude with moderation.
~ Roberto Benigni

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.
~ William Arthur Ward

Originality, Progress, Presentation

Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear but forgetting where you heard it.
~ Laurence J. Peter

Lead, follow or get out of the way!
~ George S. Patton

A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently.
~ Saint Augustine of Hippo

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

Play, Patriotism, Genius

It is becoming increasingly clear through research on the brain as well as in other areas of study, that childhood needs play. Play acts as a forward feed mechanism into courageous, creative, rigorous thinking in adulthood.
~ Tina Bruce, Professor, London Metropolitan University

You'll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.
~ George Bernard Shaw

Talent does what it can; genius does what it must.
~ Robert Bulwer-Lytton

Patriotism, Adjournment, Research

There are two kinds of patriotism - monarchical patriotism and republican patriotism. In the one case the government and the king may rightfully furnish you their notions of patriotism; in the other, neither the government nor the entire nation is privileged to dictate to any individual what the form of his patriotism shall be. The gospel of the monarchical patriotism is: "The King can do no wrong." We have adopted it with all its servility, with an unimportant change in the wording: "Our country, right or wrong!" We have thrown away the most valuable asset we had - the individual's right to oppose both flag and country when he (just he, by himself) believed them to be in the wrong. We have thrown it away; and with it all that was really respectable about that grotesque and laughable word, Patriotism. ~
Mark Twain

F.M. Cornford put it so well: Motions for adjournment, made less than fifteen minutes before tea-time or at any subsequent moment, are always carried.

Copy from one, it's plagiarism; copy from two, it's research. ~ Wilson Mizner

Discontent, Riches, Attention

Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress.
~ Thomas Alva Edison

The quest for riches darkens the sense of right and wrong.
~ Antiphanes, ancient Greek dramatist

If you're not confused, you're not paying attention.
~ Tom Peters

Learning, Moving out, Living today

It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.
~ Leo Buscaglia

Human beings are the only creatures that allow their children to come back home.
~ Bill William Henry Cosby

All of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon - instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.
~ Dale Carnegie

My country owes me, Required of men, Play to remember

My country owes me nothing. It gave me, as it gives every boy and girl, a chance. It gave me schooling, independence of action, opportunity for service and honor.
~ Herbert Hoover

A civilization is built on what is required of men, not on that which is provided for them.
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

When kids play, they remember. They may not be aware they are learning, but they sure are aware they are having fun. When you have a good belly laugh with your siblings or parents or friends, that stays with you. And the great thing is that is comes so naturally .. .if we only let it.
~ Rebecca Krook, play facilitator for kids with disabilities

Wonder, Innovation, Happiness

Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
~ Robert Fulghum

The company's most urgent task is to learn to welcome, beg for, demand - innovation from everyone.
~ Tom Peters

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

Simplicity, Mythology, Patriots

A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.
~ Groucho Marx

Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to
believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
~ Douglas Adams

Patriots always talk of dying for their country but never of killing
for their country.
~ Bertrand Russell

Man enough, Unreasonable, Depression

My old man says when it's time to be counted, the important thing is
to be man enough to stand up.
~ Robert A. Heinlein (Between Planets)

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all
progress depends on the unreasonable man.
~ George Bernard Shaw

A new study shows that licking the sweat off a frog can cure
depression. The down side is, the minute you stop licking, the frog
gets depressed again.
~ Jay Leno

Hunger, certain Patriots, Uniqueness

The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.
~ Mother Teresa

Still another danger is represented by those who, paying lip service to democracy and the common welfare, in their insatiable greed for money and the power which money gives, do not hesitate surreptitiously to evade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic extortion. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection. They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead.
~ Henry A. Wallace

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

Leaders, Cleanliness

The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the
language of the visionary and the idealist.
~ Eric Hoffer

Never neglect details. When everyone's mind is dulled or distracted,
the leader must be doubly vigilant.
~ Colin Powell

Cleanliness becomes more important when godliness is unlikely.
~ P. J. O'Rourke

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

Play, Patriotic grace, Kindness...

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.
~ Plato, Greek philosopher

What we need most right now, at this moment, is a kind of patriotic grace - a grace that takes the long view, apprehends the moment we're in, comes up with ways of dealing with it, and eschews the politically cheap and manipulative. That admits affection and respect. That encourages them. That acknowledges that the small things that divide us are not worthy of the moment; that agrees that the things that can be done to ease the stresses we feel as a nation should be encouraged, while those that encourage our cohesion as a nation should be supported.
~ Peggy Noonan (Patriotic Grace: What It Is and Why We Need It Now)

If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
~ Jerry Seinfeld

Attention, Living, Happiness

If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent.
~ Isaac Newton

We are always getting ready to live, but never living.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The two foes of human happiness are pain and boredom.
~ Arthur Schopenhauer

Coaching, and Bureaucracy

Probably my best quality as a coach is that I ask a lot of challenging questions and let the person come up with the answer.
~ Phil Dixon

Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status.
~ Dr. Laurence J. Peter