Work, Drills, Excuses

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

School is a drill for the battle of life. If you fail in the drill you will fail in the battle.
~ Karl G. Maeser

Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.
~ Dr. George Washington Carver

Success, Exploration, Choice

The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn't like to do.
~ Thomas Edison

Close observation of children at play suggests that they find out about the world in the same way as scientists find out about new phenomena and test new ideas. Young children may not be able to verbalize new ideas forming in their heads, but they may still apply similar processes to scientists.  During this exploration, all the senses are used to observe and draw conclusions about objects and events through simple, if crude, scientific investigations.
~ Judith Roden, Lecturer, Canterbury Christ Church University College

You have freedom of choice, but not freedom from choice.
~ Wendell Jones

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

Envy, Problems, Success

Envy is an insult to oneself.
~ Yevgeny Yevtushenko

The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.
~ Theodore Isaac Rubin

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.
~ Maya Angelou

Rebellious patriots, Tradition, Invention

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.
~ Barbara Ehrenreich

A love for tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril.
~ Winston S. Churchill

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father.
~ Roger von Oech, President, Creative Think

Enemies, Others, Fun

When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.
~ African Proverb

Those who spend their time worrying about what people think of them wouldn't worry if they knew how rarely other people think of them.
~ Eleanor Roosevelt

The activities that are the easiest, cheapest, and most fun to do--such as singing, playing games, reading, storytelling, and just talking and listening-are also the best for child development.
~ Professor Jerome Singer, Yale University
(...no matter how old you are ~k)

Living, Pigs, Be Kind

Everything that lives, Lives not alone, nor for itself.
~ William Blake

I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
~ Winston Churchill

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
~ Plato

Discovery, Ambition, Progress

Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.
~ Albert Szent–Gyorgyi de Nagyraolt

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.
~ C. Archie Danielson

Progress depends on people knowing they'll be able to profit from their ideas.
~ Deborah Neville

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

Build the future, Creativity, Silence

We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.
~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.
~ Carl Jung, Psychologist

A man who lives right, and is right, has more power in his silence than another has by his words.
~ Phillips Brooks

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

Planning, Winning, Walking

Good plans shape good decisions. That's why good planning helps to make elusive dreams come true.
~ Lester R. Bittel The Nine Master Keys of Management

If it doesn't matter who wins, then how come they keep score?
~ Vincent Lombardi

Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.
~ Steven Wright (1955 - )

Fear, Money, Virtue

Fear is something to be moved through, not something to be turned from.
~ Peter McWilliams

When it is a question of money, everyone is of the same religion.
~ Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, 18th-century French author, wit and philosopher

Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it.
~ David Starr Jordan

"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

Change, Logic, Respect

In the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.
~ Barack Obama

If the world were a logical place, men would ride side saddle.
~ Rita Mae Brown

I worked in a pet store and people would ask how big I would get.
~ Rodney Dangerfield

Work, Excuses, Patriotism

Measure not the work until the day's out and the labor done.
~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)

It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.
~ George Washington (1732 - 1799), letter to his niece Harriet Washington

The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously.
~ Julian Barnes (Flaubert's Parrot)

fear, parental warnings, enthusiasm

Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed.
~ Michael Pritchard

We are the people our parents warned us about.
~ Jimmy Buffett

Play keeps us vital and alive. It gives us an enthusiasm for life that is irreplaceable. Without it, life just doesn't taste good.
~ Lucia Capocchione, art therapist, author

What's so great about Christmas!

I remember when people used to say things like 'Merry Christmas' to
each other. Everybody said 'Merry Christmas, hey, Merry Christmas to
you, Mr. Lowenstein.' You know why? Cuz it wasn't about a religion, it
was about something as a culture that we thought was so valuable, that
we would all do it together, even if I disagreed with the religion
behind it, because it was good for ALL of us instead of just ME.
~Brad Stine

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