#1272 To make a new beginning

Each age has deemed the new born year
The fittest time for festal cheer.  ~ Walter Scott

The merry year is born
Like the bright berry from the naked thorn.  ~ Hartley Coleridge

I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the year's.  ~ Henry Moore

He who breaks a resolution is a weakling;
He who makes one is a fool. ~ F. M. Knowles

For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.  ~ T. S. Eliot

Quotes for the new year 2014

- What do you enjoy about New Year's Eve and New Year's Day?
- What resolutions would you like to make or not?
- What new beginning awaits you?

#1271 May your arms never tire

May Light always surround you;
Hope kindle and rebound you.
May your Hurts turn to Healing;
Your Heart embrace Feeling.
May Wounds become Wisdom;
Every Kindness a Prism.
May Laughter infect you;
Your Passion resurrect you.
May Goodness inspire
your Deepest Desires.
Through all that you Reach For,
May your arms Never Tire.     ~D.Simone

May brooks and trees and singing hills
Join in the chorus too.
And every gentle wind that blows
Send happiness to you.  ~ Irish blessing

Quote inspiration for new year 

- What light surrounds you?
- Where can you direct some kindness and understanding?
- For what do your arms reach?

#1270 The Life in your Years

It's better to burn out than to fade away.  ~ Neil Young

Slowly, with many lost days, I come back to life.   ~Suzanne Collins

Love as much and as hard as you can because one day in your life near the end, you may forget how it truly feels.   ~Jeanette Michelle

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.'  ~ Erma Bombeck

In the end, it's not the years in your life that count.  It's the life in your years.  ~ Abraham Lincoln

Quotes about end

- Where are you devoting your energies?
- How much 'life' is in your years?
- How could you enrich your life?

#1269 Ornament is Organic

Clearness ornaments profound thoughts.  ~ Luc de Clapiers

Education is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and a provision in old age.  ~ Aristotle

So may the outward shows be least themselves: the world is still deceived with ornament... ~ William Shakespeare

Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.  ~ Joseph Addison

True ornament is not a matter of prettifying externals.  It is organic with the structure it adorns whether a person, a building, or a park.  ~ Frank Lloyd Wright

Quotes about ornament

- When have you experienced clearness of expression?
- To what extent is our world deceived by ornament?
- Where have you seen ornament as organic and beautiful?

#1268 Untie the ribbons

The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.  ~ Jean Anouilh

What is a true gift? One for which nothing is expected in return.  ~ Chinese Proverb

You may give gifts without caring, but you can't care without giving.  ~ Frank A. Clark

A hug is the perfect gift - one size fits all, and nobody minds if you exchange it.  ~Ivern Ball

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

Quotes about gifts


- What do you care about?
- How do you show your love?
- Where can you give a portion of yourself?

#1267 The rushing stream of life

 Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wings. Only one thing endures, and that is character.  ~Horace Greeley

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.    ~James Michener

The virtue of man ought to be measured, not by his extraordinary exertions, but by his everyday conduct.    ~Blaise Pascal

Character is the sum total of all our everyday choices.   ~Margaret Jensen

Sow an action and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.   ~William James

A talent can be cultivated in tranquility; a character only in the rushing stream of life.   ~Goethe

Quotes about character

- What is enduring about your character?
- What important choices have you made recently?
- How are you cultivating your character in the rushing stream of life?

#1266 Heroic transformation

The journey between what you once were and who you are now becoming is where the dance of life really takes place.  ~ Barbara Deangelis

A peaceful mind is a springboard to positive transformation , for by cleansing the mind we inspire the spirit and motivate the soul.   ~Micheal Teal

Religion teaches us that our lives here on earth are to be used for transformation.  ~ Huston Smith 

When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation,  we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.  ~ Joseph Campbell

Transformation of any kind always exacts a holy tussle. The newborn butterfly struggles to open its wings so it can conjure up the strength to fly. So, too, with artists, inventors, mystics, and entrepreneurs.  ~Tama Kieves

Quotes about transformation 

- Where are you now on the journey of becoming?
- How peaceful is your mind?
- To what wholesome transformation may your struggle lead?

#1265 Rapidly mature

Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.   ~Henry David Thoreau

A man who silently lives by his ethics makes a more profound argument than one who deafens us with his shouting about them.    ~Gerry Spence

Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.    ~Isaac Asimov

A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality.   ~Winston Churchill

Compassion is the basis of morality.  ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

Whenever governments adopt a moral tone - as opposed to an ethical one - you know something is wrong.    ~John Ralston Saul

Manners easily and rapidly mature into morals.    ~Horace Mann

Quotes about morals

- What are you good for?
- What essential ethics does our world need?

#1264 Never deny

Follow your honest convictions, and stay strong.   ~William Thackeray

Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.   ~Thomas Carlyle

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.   ~Blaise Pascal

Convictions, in the end, can be dangerous,but a world without them is just kind of an awful kind of gray, amorphous mass.   ~Bono

Never, for the sake of peace and quiet, deny your own experience or convictions.   ~ Dag Hammarskjold

Quotes about convictions

- What are several of your convictions?
- How can you positively nurture them in your life?

#1263 The safety valve

When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure.   ~Peter Marshall

Pressure can burst a pipe, or pressure can make a diamond.   ~Robert Horry

The only pressure I'm under is the pressure I've put on myself.   ~Mark Messier

Tears are the safety valve of the heart when too much pressure is laid on it.   ~Albert Smith

Courage is grace under pressure.   ~ Ernest Hemingway

There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.   ~ Willa Cather

Quotes about pressure

- What pressures do you face?
- How do you handle them?
- What positive steps can you take in confronting one pressure?

#1262 Starts flowing afresh

It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.

Explanation separates us from astonishment, which is the only gateway to the incomprehensible.

I read a page of Plato's great work. I can no longer understand anything, because behind the words on the page, which have their own heavenly brightness, to be sure, there shines an even brighter, an enormous, dazzling -why- that blots out everything, cancels out, destroys all meaning. All individual intelligence. When one has understood, one stops, satisfied with what one has understood. I do not understand. Understanding is far too little. To have understood is to be fixed, immobilized. It is as though one wanted to stop on one step in the middle of a staircase, or with one foot in the void and the other on the endless stair. But a mere why, a new why can set one off again, can unpetrify what was petrified and everything starts flowing afresh. How can one understand? One cannot. 

Quotes by Eugene Ionesco

- What questions do you ponder?
- To what extent have we lost the power to be astonished, to be in awe?
- What can help to restore feelings of wonder?

#1261 Not to be taken too seriously

Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling and instinct, not by rule.

Books are like imprisoned souls till someone takes them down from a shelf and frees them.

Life is like playing the violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.

If life must not be taken too seriously, then so neither must death.

Nothing is so cruel as to try and force a man beyond his natural pace.

Quotes by Samuel Butler 

- To what extent do feelings and instinct guide you through life?
- What are you learning about life?
- What is your pace through life?

#1260 The greatest thing

Why do you put your self esteem in the hands of complete strangers?  ~Helena Bonham Carter

The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself.   ~ Mark Twain

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.    ~Michel de Montaigne

Your biggest enemy is yourself- so be your best friend. 

Quotes about self esteem

- How comfortable are you with yourself?
- How can you enrich your environment?
- How can you cultivate personal satisfaction?

#1259 Hold it high

Parents need to fill
a child's bucket of self-esteem so high
that the rest of the world can't poke
enough holes to drain it dry.  ~ Alvin Price

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow; yet we forget that he is someone today.  ~ Stacia Tauscher

Try to be like the turtle- at ease in your own shell.  ~ Bill Copeland

Low self esteem is like driving through life with your hand break on.  ~ Maxwell Maltz

Never bend your head.  Hold it high.  Look the world straight in the eye.  ~ Helen Keller

Quotes about self esteem for children 

- How much self esteem did you have as a child?
- How can you nurture it within a child of your acquaintance?

#1258 Go beyond them

May I see my own limits with compassion, just as I view the limits of others.   ~Joan Halifax

My limits know me well enough to stay out of my way.    ~Ben Mitchell

Limits, like fear, is often an illusion.   ~Michael Jordan

As we advance our lives we know the limits of our abilities.   ~Henry Ford

Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.   ~ Albert Einstein

Quotes about limits

- What are several of your limits?
- When have you been pleased to go beyond them?

#1257 The grace to transform

Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.

Human existence is so fragile a thing and exposed to such dangers that I cannot love without trembling.

To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.

Love of God is pure when joy and suffering inspire an equal degree of gratitude.

Humility is attentive patience.

We must not wish for the disappearance of our troubles but for the grace to transform them.

Quotes by Simone Weil

- How generous are you with your attention?
- How patient?
- How thankful?
- What is so fragile about life? 

#1256 So soon?

Soon is not as good as now.   ~Seth Godin

I never think of the future; it comes soon enough.    ~Albert Einstein

Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon, and wise too late.   ~Benjamin Franklin

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.    ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

How did it get late so soon?    ~Dr. Seuss

Quotes about soon

- What enriching thing (for yourself or others) could you decide to do this week?
- How much should you be preoccupied with the future?
-What kindness could you show this week?

#1255 The single bright moon

One love, one heart . . .
Let’s get together and feel all right.   ~ Bob Marley

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.   ~Thomas Jefferson

All for one and one for all.   ~Alexander Dumas, The Three Musketeers 

When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.    ~Winston Churchill

 Many paths lead from the foot of the mountain, but at the peak we all gaze at the single bright moon.   ~Ikkyu, Zen poet,

Quotes about division, unity

- When did you feel 'of one heart' with someone else?
- What enemy may lurk within you?
- What are your impressions of 'the single bright moon?'

#1254 Live in a Way

Poverty is not an accident.  Like slavery and apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed by the actions of human beings.

Education is  the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

Do not judge me by my successes; judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up.

We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always right ripe to do what is right.

To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

Quotes by Nelson Mandela 1918-2013

- What steps can be taken to help reduce poverty?
- What powerful lessons and opportunities does education provide?
- How right actions could you embody?

#1253 Each others' harvest

Exhaust the little moment. Soon it dies. And be it gash or gold it will not come again in this identical guise.

Live not for Battles Won.
Live not for The-End-of-the-Song.
Live in the along.

We are each others' harvest; we are each others' business; we are each others' magnitude and bond.

It is brave to be involved
To be not fearful, to be unresolved.

Quotes by Gwendolyn Brooks

- What little moment have you enjoyed?
- How are you progressing along life's way?
- To what extent are you involved within communities, big and small?

#1252 The most pleasurable of sensations

Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.  ~Joyce Carol Oates

I read so I can live more than one life in more than one place.   ~Anne Tyler

There is no friend as loyal as a book.   ~Ernest Hemingway

We read to know that we are not alone.  ~C.S. Lewis

Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations.  ~Vladimir Nabokov

The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones.   ~Joseph Joubert

Quotes about reading

- What book swept you away?
- Why was it so pleasurable?
- What old/new books are on your list to read?

#1251 One corner of the universe

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.   ~John Muir

The universe is wider than our views of it.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

I want to put a ding in the universe.  ~ Steve Jobs

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving and that's your own self.  ~George Orwell
Quotes about the universe

- Pick out something....how is it connected to everything else?
- How should we view our universe and our part in it?
- Is there something you can improve about yourself?

#1250 The secret of banishing gloom

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.   ~Edward Abbey

Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s when you’ve had everything to do, and you’ve done it.   ~Margaret Thatcher

Forgive yourself for your faults and your mistakes and move on.   ~Les Brown

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.   ~Corrie Ten Boom

I doubt if there is among us a more useful citizen than the one who holds the secret of banishing gloom, of making tears give way to laughter, of supplanting desolation and despair with hope and courage, for hope and courage always go with a light heart.   ~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Quotes about courage, hope, and inner strength

-How winding is your trail?
-What little jobs have you completed well?
-What is the secret of banishing gloom?

#1249 To create many ripples

You have to find what sparks a light in you so that you in your own way can illuminate the world.    ~Oprah Winfrey

It may be important to great thinkers to examine the world, to explain and despise it. But I think it is only important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but to be able to regard the world and ourselves and all beings with love, admiration and respect.  ~ Herman Hesse, Siddhartha

To be ill adjusted to a deranged world is not a breakdown.   ~Jeanette Winterson

We have to heal our wounded world. The chaos, despair, and senseless destruction we see today are a result of the alienation that people feel from each other and their environment.   ~Michael Jackson

How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.   ~William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.    ~Mother Teresa

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.   ~Margaret Mead

Quotes about the world

- What sparks a light within you?
- What challenges you about the world?
- How can you go beyond alienation to make a positive contribution?

#1248 More to life

We used to build civilizations. Now we build shopping malls.  ~ Bill Bryson

Once a culture becomes entirely advertising friendly, it seizes to be a culture at all. ~ Mark Crispin Miller

We no longer live life.  We consume it.  ~ Vicki Robin

This is the postmodern desert inhabited by people who are, in effect, consuming themselves in the form of images and abstractions through which their desires, sense of identity, and memories are replicated and then sold back to them as products.  ~ Larry McCaffrey

There must be more to life than having everything.  ~ Maurice Sendak

Quotes about shopping, consumerism

- How would you define civilization?
- To what extent does society revolve around consumer culture?
- What enriches life?

#1247 Intensity clarifies

The world is wide and I will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.  ~Frances Willard

Ride the energy of your own unique spirit.  ~ |Gabrielle Roth

Momentum?  Momentum is the next day's starting pitcher.  ~ Earl Weaver

If you're coasting, you're either losing momentum or else you're headed downhill.  ~ Joan Welsh

Always work hard.  Intensity clarifies. It creates not only momentum, but also the pressure you need to feel either friction, or fulfillment.  ~ Marcus Buckingham

Quotes about momentum

-  What are some good strategies to avoid friction?
-  What is unique about your spirit?
-  How do you maintain focus in your efforts?

#1246 The enlarged horizon

Sometimes in the stillness of the quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper of the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair.

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

Often, to be free means the ability to deal with the realities of one's own situation so as not to be overcome by them.

There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.

A dream is the bearer of a new possibility, the enlarged horizon, the great hope.

Quotes by Howard Thurman

- What does your heart whisper?
- What encourages you to come alive?
- What is genuine within you?

#1245 Live out loud

May you live every day of your life.    ~Jonathan Swift

The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.    ~Walt Whitman

Become major, Paul. Live like a hero. That's what the classics teach us. Be a main character. Otherwise what is life for?    ~J. M. Coetzee

If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.   ~Emile Zola

Don't fear death, fear the un-lived life.   ~Natalie Babbitt

Quotes about living life 

- How can you live fully?
- What verse may you contribute?

#1244 Special strength

All right, every day ain't going to be the best day of your life; don't worry about that. If you stick to it, you hold the possibility open that you will have better days.  ~ Wendell Berry

Be like a postage stamp.  Stick to it until you get there.   ~Harvey Mackay

I have found out one thing, and that is, if you have a good idea, if you only stick to it, you will come out all right. ~ Cecil Rhodes

I have found that a smile and a stick will carry you through all right, and in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred it is the smile that does the trick.   ~Robert Powell

And it is true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world it is best to hold hands and stick together. ~ Robert Fulghum

Special strength comes from enduring unchangeable circumstances while holding to one's purposes.  ~Katherine Mansfield,

Quotes about stick-to-itiveness, purposefulness


-  How focused are you in making the best of each day?
-  What gives you strength?
-  What are several important purposes for your life?

#1243 That Profound Secret

The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said.    ~Peter Drucker

Humor can get in under the door while seriousness is still fumbling at the handle.  ~ G. K. Chesterton

It is the encounters with people that make life worth living.   ~ Guy de Maupasant 

When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective.  ~ Stephen R. Covey

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.  ~ Charles Dickens

Quotes about communication

- What was left unsaid in one of your conversations?
- What can you do to help enrich your conversations?

#1242 The highest appreciation

The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger--but recognize the opportunity.

The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.

Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.

We celebrate the past to awaken the future.

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

Quotes by John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated 50 years ago, Nov. 22, 1962

- What crisis have you confronted?
- What can you do for your country?
- What actions could help to express your gratitude?

#1241 Will always be in demand

Life is just an endless chain of judgements.... The more imperfect our judgement, the less perfect our success.  ~ B.C. Forbes

A man is judged by his deeds, not by his words.  ~ Russian Proverb

I'm not judging people, I'm judging their actions. It's the same type of distinction that I try to apply to myself, to judge, but not be judgmental.   ~ Jeff Melvoin

He that judges without informing himself to the utmost that he is capable, cannot acquit himself of judging amiss.    ~ John Locke

Property may be destroyed and money may lose its purchasing power; but, character, health, knowledge and good judgement will always be in demand under all conditions.  ~ Roger Babson

Quotes about judging, judgement

- In hindsight, when did you have imperfect judgement?
- What is the difference between judging and being judgmental?
- How does one cultivate good judgement?  

#1240 Write your own

Nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am - and what I need - is something I have to find out myself.

People say that if you find water rising up to your ankles, that's the time to do something about it, not when it's around your neck.

Living fire begets cold, impotent ash.

A functioning robust democracy requires a healthy, educated participatory followership, and an educated morally grounded leadership.

When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.

The impatient idealist says: 'Give me a place to stand and I shall move the earth.' But such a place does not exist. We all have to stand on the earth itself and go with her at her pace.

 If you don't like someone's story, write your own.

 Quotes by Chinua Achebe,  Nigerian novelist

- What are your needs?
- How do you cope with suffering?
- What can the earth teach us?

#1239 The most important aspects

It's an interesting combination: having a great fear of being alone, and having a desperate need for solitude and the solitary experience.  That's always been a tug of war for me.

Normal is not something to aspire to; it's something to get away from.

I  guess I've played a lot of victims, but that's what a lot of the history of women is about.

Love and respect are the most important aspects of parenting and of all relationships.

I want to be inspiring to myself, to my kids, my family, and my friends.

Quotes from Jodie Foster, birthday today, November 19, 1962, now 51

-How much do you need to balance some solitude in your life?
-How do you cultivate your uniqueness?
-What about you may encourage admiration?

#1238 A simple formula

If you do things well, do them better.  Be daring, be first, be different, be just.  ~ Anita Roddick

When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.  ~ Helen Keller

Be what you are.  This is the first step toward becoming better than you are.  ~ Julius Charles Hare

Whatever you are, be a good one.  ~ Abraham Lincoln 

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.  ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Success has a simple formula: do your best and people may like it.  ~ Sam Ewing

Quotes about doing your best

- What do you do well?
- "Be what you are."  What are your strenghts?
- What do people like about you?  How can you nurture your strength(s)?

#1237 Make it a rule

Address things now that could otherwise turn into regrets.  ~ Jane Fonda

Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, "It might have been."  ~ Kurt Vonnegut

Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

There was a long hard time when I kept far from me the remembrance of what I had thrown away when I was quite ignorant of its worth.    ~ Charles Dickens

If only.  Those must be the two saddest words in the world.  ~ Mercedes Lackey

Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it; it's only good for wallowing in.    ~Katherine Mansfield

Quotes about regret

- What should you address now?
- What do you regret?
- How can you go forward with a reasonable degree of optimism?

#1236 Stuff your eyes

Dost thou love life?  Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of.  ~ Benjamin Franklin

Information is pretty thin stuff unless mixed with experience.  ~ Clarence Day

Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds.   See the world.  It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.  ~ Ray Bradbury

Life is pretty simple.  You do stuff.  Most fails.  Some works.  You do more of what works.  If it works big, others will copy it.  Then you do something else.  The trick is doing the something else.  ~ Leonardo da Vinci

Quotes about stuff

- How much do you love life?
- What wonders have you seen?  Would like to see?
- What 'something else' would you like to do? 

#1235 Ask your heart

In the dew of little things, the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.  ~Kahlil Gibran

Be the one who nurtures and builds. Be the one who has an understanding and a forgiving heart, one who looks for the best in people. Leave people better than you found them.    ~Marvin J. Ashton

Wherever you go, go with all your heart.  ~ Confucius

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

Go to your bosom.  Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know.   ~ William Shakespeare

Quotes about the heart

- What can you nurture and build this week?
- How much heart do you carry in your relationships?
- What can your heart tell you, if you listen?

#1234 Pay attention

I don't have pet peeves like some people. I have whole kennels of irritation.

We're here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.

Normal is just a cycle on the washing machine.

It you want to be somebody, if you want to go some where, you've got to wake up and pay attention.

I am where I am because I believe in all possibilities.

I'm a big old egotistical baby and that's OK.  I can accept it.

Quotes by Whoopi Goldberg, actress, born this day, November 13, 1955

- What are your pet peeves?
- What little torches of light have you been throwing out?
- What possibilities lie before you?

#1233 The Main Thing

Work lovingly done is the secret of all order and happiness.

I invent nothing.  I rediscover.

Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.

Patience is also a form of action.

The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live.

Quotes by Auguste Rodin, French sculptor (1840-1917), birthday on this day, November 12

- How can you transform your work into loving action?
-What discoveries have you made?
-When were you moved recently?

#1232 Love the world to peace

I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, 'Mother, what was war?'   ~Eve Merriam

Lord, bid war's trumpet cease; Fold the whole earth in peace.  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

The more we sweat in peace the less we bleed in war.   ~ Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.   ~ Cynthia Ozick

Let us love the world to peace.   ~Eileen Elias Freeman

Quotes about remembrance, war, and peace

- Why should we remember on November 11?
- What memories do you have with respect to Remembrance Day?
- What do you appreciate?

#1231 Listen to the revelation

But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?    ~Albert Camus

Out of clutter find simplicity.  ~ Albert Einstein

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.  ~ Mahatma Gandhi

I am fascinated by what is beautiful, strong, healthy, what is living. I seek harmony.  ~ Leni Riefenstahl

I tried to discover, in the rumor of forests and waves, words that other men could not hear, and I pricked up my ears to listen to the revelation of their harmony.  ~Gustav Flaubert

Quotes about harmony

- How harmonious is your life?
- What causes some dissonance?
- How can you cultivate more harmony?

#1230 What's a heaven for?

At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.   ~Salvador Dali

The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.  ~ Maya Angelou

Ambition has but one reward for all: A little power, a little transient fame; A grave to rest in, and a fading name!  ~ William Winter

We have grown literally afraid to be poor. We despise anyone who elects to be poor in order to simplify and save his inner life. If he does not join the general scramble and pant with the money-making street, we deem him spiritless and lacking in ambition.  ~ William James

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?  ~ Robert Browning

Quotes about ambition

- What did you want to be when you were a child?
- How ambitious are you today?
- Why does ambition need to be tempered?

#1229 Practice and concentration

Practice makes perfect, so be careful what you practice.  ~William Henry Channing,

The formula for success is simple: practice and concentration then more practice and more concentration.  ~Babe Zaharias

Champions keep playing until they get it right.  ~ Billie Jean King

Talent is only a starting point.  ~ Irving Berlin

Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.  ~ Anton Chekov

Quotes about practice

- What do you practice?
- What additional skill could you consider to master?
- What knowledge could you put into practice?

#1228 Outlive your life

Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you.   ~Shanon L. Alder

I had an inheritance from my father,
It was the moon and the sun.
And though I roam all over the world,
The spending of it’s never done.   ~ Ernest Hemingway

Everyone must leave something behind when he dies . . . Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die . . . It doesn't matter what you do, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away.  ~ Ray Bradbury

We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.    ~David Brower

Outlive your life!  ~ Max Lucado

Quotes about inheritance, legacy

- What have you inherited from your parents?
- What stories do you remember about events in their lives?
- What might people remember about you?

#1227 The only journey

What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.  ~ Plutarch

The longest journey of any person is the journey inward.  ~ Dag Hammarskjold

The inward journey is about finding your own fullness, something that no one else can take away.  ~ Deepak Chopra

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.  ~ Aristotle

The only journey is the one within.  ~ Rainer Maria Wilke

In ourselves our safety must be sought.
By our own right hand it must be wrought.  ~ William Wordsworth

Quotes about the inward journey, self discovery 

- Why can the inward journey be so long?
- How can an understanding of self help to shape our lives?
- What positive steps can you take to enhance your life?

#1226 In touch with our inner workings

Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?

In fact, the truth of Zen is the truth of life, and life means to live, to move, to act; not merely to reflect.

Zen professes itself to be the spirit of Buddhism, but in fact it is the spirit of all religions and philosophies. When Zen is thoroughly understood, absolute peace of mind is attained, and a man lives as he ought to live. What more may we hope?

The basic idea of Zen is to come in touch with the inner workings of our being, and to do this in the most direct way possible, without resorting to anything external or superadded. Therefore, anything that has the semblance of an external authority is rejected by Zen. Absolute faith is placed in a man's own inner being. For whatever authority there is in Zen, all comes from within.  

Quotes by D. T. Suzuki

- How much do you live, move, and act?
- To what extent do you enjoy peace of mind?
- How much faith do you have in yourself?

#1225 Uniquely pottered and purposed

When I hear somebody sigh, ‘Life is hard,’ I am always tempted to ask, ‘Compared to what?  ~Sydney Harris

Try not to get lost in comparing yourself to others. Discover your gifts and let them shine.   ~ Jane Finch

Comparison is the death of joy.   ~ Mark Twain

Do not compare yourself with anybody. Compare yourself with yourself, for yourself and by yourself. We are all uniquely pottered and purposed by our creator!   ~ Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.   ~ Helen Keller

Quotes about comparing, comparison

- To what extent do you believe that life is hard?
- What are your gifts which may have the potential to shine?
- How well off do you consider yourself to be?

#1224 Scrub them off

Most of our assumptions have outlived their uselessness.  ~ Marshall McLuhan

Assess before you assume.  ~ Lyle Kwiatkowski

The strength of one's opinion should not exceed their knowledge on the matter.  ~ Eric Hirzel

Euclid taught me that without assumptions there is no proof.  Therefore, in any argument examine the assumptions.  ~ E. T. Bell

Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won't come in.  ~ Alan Alda

Quotes about assumptions

- What assumptions have outlived their usefulness?
- What assumptions of your own need some scrubbing?
- What light might come in?

#1223 The quiet voice

Clothes make a statement.  Costumes tell a story.  ~ Mason Cooley

Halloween is huge at my house and we really get into the "spirits" of things.  ~ Dee Snider

Where there is no imagination there is no horror.  ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Tis the night—the night
Of the grave's delight,
And the warlocks are at their play;
Ye think that without,
The wild winds shout,
But no, it is they—it is they.  ~ Arthur Cleveland Coxe

Halloween wraps fear in innocence,
As though it were a slightly sour sweet.
Let terror, then, be turned into a treat...   Nicholas Gordon

Quotes about Halloween

- What costume have you worn with a vivid story?
- When have you enjoyed some horror in entertainment?
- Why does Halloween engage the imagination so vividly?

#1222 Generous consent

The road to success is always under construction.  ~ Lily Tomlin

I couldn't wait for success, so I went on without it.  ~ Jonathan Winters

I've had great success being a total idiot.  ~ Jerry Lewis

Eighty percent of success is showing up.  ~ Woody Allen

You are forgiven for your happiness and your successes only if you generously consent to share them.  ~ Albert Camus

Quotes about success

- What is your current construction project?
- How can you share your successes?

#1221 The quiet voice

Let perseverance be your engine and hope your fuel.   ~H. Jackson Brown

The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.   ~Woodrow Wilson

Even in the mud and scum of things, something always, always sings.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Courage doesn't always roar, sometimes it's the quiet voice at the end of the day whispering 'I will try again tomorrow.   ~ Mary Anne Radmacher

Life keeps throwing me curve balls and I don't even own a bat. At least my dodging skills are improving.  ~ Jayleigh Cape

Quotes about perseverance, resilience

- What stream are you swimming against?
- What gives you the strength to carry on?
- How do you cope?

#1220 Should make you jump up

Ideas are like rabbits.  You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.  ~ John Steinbeck

I refuse to accept other people's ideas of happiness for me.  As if there's 'a one size fits all' standard for happiness.  ~ Kanye West

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

You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't get you anywhere.  ~ Lee Iacocca

Getting an idea should be like sitting down on a pin; it should make you jump up and do something.  ~ E. L. Simpson

Quotes about ideas

-  What idea have you acted upon?
-  Why fear some old ideas?
-  What is your idea for personal happiness?

#1219 A lovely light

Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.  ~ Anne Frank

To light a candle is to cast a shadow.  ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. ~ Edith Wharton

How far that little candle throws its beams.  So shines a good deed in a naughty world.  ~William Shakespeare

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—
It gives a lovely light!  ~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

Quotes about candles and light 

- In what sense can a candle defy the darkness?
- What challenging quality about candles does Le Guin suggest? 
- In what ways can you emanate light?

#1218 The burden of responsibility

Say what you say plainly, and then take responsibility for it.

A small act is worth a million thoughts.

A nation that has no music and no fairy tales is a tragedy. 

If my art has nothing to do with people's pain and sorrow, what is 'art' for?

The world is not changing if you don’t shoulder the burden of responsibility.

Quotes by Ai Weiwei, Chinese artist, curator, architectural designer, cultural and social commentator and activist

- For what have you taken responsibility?
- What small but significant acts have you witnessed?
- In what ways can you act?

#1217 The circle of the moon

The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils,light in your eyes,flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.  ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.~ Henry Ward Beecher

When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.  ~George Washington Carver

Many ingenious lovely things are gone
That seemed sheer miracle to the multitude,
protected from the circle of the moon
that pitches common things about.~  William Butler Yeats

Quotes about common things

- To what extent do you engage in wishful thinking?
- What common things bring you happiness?
- What common things can you do well?

#1216 The eyes only see

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself.

Homo sapiens, the only creature endowed with reason, is also the only creature to pin its existence on things unreasonable.

Genius is that which forces the inertia of humanity to learn.

Intuition is a method of feeling one's way intellectually into the inner heart of a thing to locate what is unique and inexpressible in it.

The eyes only see what the mind is prepared to comprehend.

Quotes  by Henri Bergson, French philosopher and Nobel laureate, 1927

- In what respects are you maturing?
- What geniuses come to your mind which have opened horizons?
- What have you intuitively felt?
- What are you prepared to comprehend?  

#1215 Abandon the urge

We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery.  ~ H. G. Wells

Do not all charms fly at the mere touch of cold philosophy?  There was an awful rainbow once in heaven: we know her woof, her texture; she is given in the dull catalogue of common things.  Philosophy will clip an angel's wings, conquer all mysteries by rule and line, empty the haunted air, and unweave a rainbow.
  ~ John Keats

Abandon the urge to simplify everything, to look for formulas and easy answers, and to begin to think multidimensionally, to glory in the mystery and paradoxes of life, not to be dismayed by the multitude of causes and consequences that are inherent in each experience -- to appreciate the fact that life is complex.  ~ M. Scott Peck

Quotes about life's miracles and mysteries

- To what extent does your calendar dominate your thoughts and actions?
- What mysteries have been reduced by 'cold philosophy',  by modern analytical thinking?
- Where could you begin thinking more multidimensionally?

#1214 Begin at once

In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is our duty.  ~ Joseph Addison

But what is your duty? What the day demands.  ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

How can we know ourselves? Never by reflection, but only through action. Begin at once to do your duty and immediately you will know what is inside you.  ~ Goethe

Non nobis solum nati sumus. (Not for ourselves alone are we born.)  ~ Cicero

Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles, and kindnesses, and small obligations, given habitually, are what win and preserve the heart and secure comfort.  ~ Humphrey Davy 

Quotes about duty

- What are the demands of your day?
- What should you be doing?

#1213 Five genetic needs

Today was good.  Today was fun.  Tomorrow is another one.   ~Dr. Seuss

Life is more fun if you play games.   ~Roald Dahl

I never did a day's work in my life.  It was all fun.   ~Thomas Edison

I have fun with ideas.  I play with them.  ~ Ray Bradbury

We are driven by five genetic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun.   ~William Glasser

Quotes about fun

- How do you have fun?
- How comprehensive is Glasser's five genetic needs?  Could you add one or two? 

#1212 Fail to appreciate

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.  ~ Rumi

Cleverness is not wisdom.  ~ Euripides

Which would you rather be if you had the choice--divinely beautiful or dazzlingly clever or angelically good?  ~ L. M. Montgomery,  Anne of Green Gables

Too clever is dumb.  ~ Ogden Nash

If we fail to appreciate the soul that Easternism gives us, then what we have is a disconnected,  Greco-Roman, Western, egocentric,compartmentalized, reductionist, fragmented,linear thought process that counts on cleverness.  ~ Joel Salatin

Quotes about cleverness

- Why is cleverness often seen as a vice rather than a virtue?
- What might you consider changing about yourself?
- What can we appreciate about the Eastern perspective?

#1211 The greatest sign

If you don't fail now and again, it's a sign you're playing it safe.   ~Woody Allen

The most manifest sign of wisdom is continued cheerfulness.   ~ Michel de Montaigne

The primary sign of a well-ordered mind is a man's ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.   ~Seneca

Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ''Make me feel important.''  Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.   ~Mary Kay Ash

The need to be right is the sign of a vulgar mind.   ~Albert Camus

The greatest sign of success for a teacher... is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist."    ~Maria Montessori

Quotes about signs

- How safe are you playing your life?
- How cheerful are you?
- When did you feel empowered to learn?

#1210 The noblest pleasure

Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding the third.  ~ Marge Piercy

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.  ~ Kahlil Gibran

If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things.  ~ Van Gogh

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.  ~ Leonardo da Vinci

Seek first to understand, and then to be understood. ~ Stephen Covey

Can a man who's warm understand one who's freezing?  ~ Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Quotes about understanding

- Why is understanding such a valued gift?
- What do you understand quite well which helps you to understand more things?
-  How much can we truly understand the plight of another?

#1209 The germ of happiness

To eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to death.

Many people lose the small joys in the hope for the big happiness.

Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that's where you renew your springs that never dry up.

Men and women should own the world as a mutual possession.

Growth itself contains the germ of happiness.

The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: a human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive.  He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.

Quotes by Pearl S. Buck, Nobel prize winner of Literature 1938

- What sprinkles of hope lie within you?
- What small joys may you be missing?
- What growth and creativity seek expression?

#1208 Nothing is simple

The constant happiness is curiosity.

It's just life.  You can't beat life.

I can't play bridge. I don't play tennis. All those things that people learn, and I admire, there hasn't seemed time for. But what there is time for is looking out the window.

My head was a magpie's nest lined with such bright scraps of information.

In twenty years I've never had a day when I didn't have to think about someone else's needs.  And this means the writing has to be fitted around it. 

The complexity of things- the things within things- just seems to be endless.  I mean nothing is easy, nothing is simple.

Quotes by Alice Munro, Nobel prize winner 2013 for literature.

- What Nobel prize winner of literature have you enjoyed?
- How can you nurture your curiosity?
- What is so complex about many of life's experiences?

#1207 It's not selfish

 No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.  ~Charles Dickens

 It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.  ~Mother Teresa

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.   ~Winston Churchill

 No one has ever become poor by giving.  ~Anne Frank

Giving yourself some loving attention is not selfish. It is sensible. If you feel loved and cherished--even if it is only by yourself--then you will have more love to give to others, too.   ~Penelope Quest

Quotes about giving

- When has your burdened been lightened?
- Who might need a lift around you?
- How much positive attention do you give yourself?

#1206 Broken the chains

I wear the chain I forged in life....I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.   ~Charles Dickens

Man is born free, but is everywhere in chains.   ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The melting voice through mazes running,
untwisting all the chains that tie
the hidden soul of harmony.  ~ John Milton

Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hate. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.    ~William Arthur Ward

Happy is the man who has broken the chains which hurt the mind, and has given up worrying once and for all.   ~ Ovid

Quotes about chains

- What chains have you gladly fashioned for yourself?
- From what chains do you seek release?

#1205 To have succeeded

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

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.  ~ Bill Gates

You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.  ~ Beverly Sills

If I cannot do great things,  I can do small things in a great way.  ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived—this is to have succeeded.  ~ Bessie Anderson Stanley

Quotes about success

- When have you felt empowered?
- What small things can you do in a great way?
- What could you add to Stanley's list about the qualities of success?

#1204 A divine appointment

Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?  ~ Samuel Johnson

Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate.  ~ anonymous

A person's a person no matter how small.  ~ Dr. Seuss

Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.  ~ John W. Whitehead

Every child you encounter is a divine appointment.  ~ Wess Stafford

When a child is locked in the bathroom with water running and he says he's doing nothing but the dog is barking, call 911.  ~ Erma Bombeck

Quotes about children

- What observations can you make about your childhood?
- What is the best environment for a growing child?
- What positive impact could you provide for a child?

#1203 Our splendid failure

Every noble work is at first impossible.  ~Thomas Carlyle

It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.  ~Walt Disney

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.  ~Charles R. Swindoll

I have learned to use the word “impossible” with the greatest of caution.  ~Wernher von Braun

"One can't believe impossible things," Alice said. "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.   ~Lewis Carroll

All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible.  ~William Faulkner

Quotes about the impossible 

- What startling technological advancements have occurred?
- What difficult challenges have you confronted?
- What is particularly insightful and comforting about Faulkner's quote?

#1202 Revolution of the heart

The heart has its reasons which reason knows not.  ~ Blaise Pascal

I think... if it is true that
there are as many minds as there
are heads, then there are as many
kinds of love as there are hearts.  ~ Leo Tolstoy

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall.  ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?   ~Dorothy Day

Quotes about the heart 

- What is on your heart?
- How can you achieve more calmness and serenity?
- What steps can you take to cultivate a kind and generous heart?

#1201 Both ends of the spectrum

Every season has its peaks and valleys. What you have to try to do is eliminate the Grand Canyon   ~ Andy Van Slyke

One see great things from the valley, only small things from the peak.   ~ G. K. Chesterton

All of life is peaks and valleys. Don't let the peaks get too high and the valleys too low.   ~ John Wooden

Probably nor'east to sou'west winds varying to the southard and westard and eastard and points between; high and low barometer, sweeping round from place to place; probably areas of rain, snow, heat and drought, succeeded or preceded by earth quakes.   ~ Mark Twain

I've experienced the highest of highs and lowest of lows. I think to really appreciate anything you have to be at both ends of the spectrum.  ~ John Elway

Quotes about highs and lows

- How do you cope when times are difficult?
- What message is Twain conveying in his quote?
- Why is a balanced perspective about highs and lows a good one?

365 Quotes Quest: Volume 3

I enjoyed compiling a third volume of 365 Quote Quest where I provide quotes around a theme or author and ask questions to encourage reflection and enrichment.    These entries are a product of my regular posts here and at quoteflections. 

For example, entry #834 is entitled 'Stay Involved.'

The dedicated life is the life worth living.  ~ Annie Dillard

The resolved mind hath no cares.  ~ George Herbert

Without involvement there is no commitment.  Mark it down, asterisk it, circle it, underline it.  No involvement, no commitment.  ~ Stephen R. Covey

Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.  ~ Tom Robbins

- How dedicated and resolved are you?
- How involved and flexible?
- What motivates you?

I consider each entry a meditation nugget.

You may see all three volumes available on my Author Central page at Amazon.  Volume 3 contains 264 pages, with multiple quotes for most entries.    The books are available at cost.

#1100 We are Butterflies

A power of Butterfly must be -
The Aptitude to fly
Meadows of Majesty concedes
And easy Sweeps of Sky.  ~Emily Dickinson

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.   ~Margaret Fuller

The caterpillar does all the work, but the butterfly gets all the publicity.   ~George Carlin

Butterflies are self propelled flowers.   ~R. H. Heinlein

We are all butterflies. Earth is our chrysalis.   ~LeeAnn Taylor

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.   ~Rabindranath Tagore

Quotes about butterfly

- When have you been struck by the beauty of the butterfly?
- In what ways are we all precious butterflies?

#1099 The Primeval Soil

What we play is life. ~ Louis Armstrong

Play energizes us and enlivens us. It eases our burdens. It renews our natural sense of optimism and opens us up to new possibilities.  ~Stuart Brown

Almost all creativity involves purposeful play.  ~Abraham Maslow

Children at play are not playing about. Their games should be seen as their most serious minded activity.     ~Michel de Montaigne

Now in myth and ritual the great instinctive forces of civilized life have their origin: law and order, commerce and profit, craft and art, poetry, wisdom and science. All are rooted in the primeval soil of play.   ~Johan Huizinga

Quotes about play

- What engaging play do you enjoy?
- Where lies your creativity?
- How can you encourage a child's play?

#1098 Magic on this Planet

When the well is dry, we learn the worth of water.  ~ Benjamin Franklin

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.  ~ W. H. Auden

 If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.  Loran Eisley

We need a new global culture that finds the existence of millions of thirsty people thoroughly and immediately unacceptable.  ~ Jean-Michel Cousteau

Water is critical for sustainable development, including environmental integrity and the alleviation of poverty and hunger, and is indispensable for human health and well-being.  ~ United Nations

Quotes about water

- When have you endured a drought?
- When have you experienced the magic of fresh water?
- How can you value water more?

#1097 A reality to be experienced

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

Don't forget to love yourself first.

The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.

What labels me, negates me.

Quotes by Soren Kierkegaard

- What do you understand about life by recalling your past?
- How much do you love yourself (without being narcissistic)?
- How could you be changed through prayer?
- How tempting is it for you to label others?

#1096 Be content

I need nothing. I seek nothing. I desire nothing.   ~ Milarepa

The only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing.  ~ Socrates

I love to talk about nothing. It's the only thing I know anything about.  ~ Oscar Wilde

More powerful than God, more evil than the Devil; the poor have it, the rich lack it, and if you eat it you die?  ~ Margaret Atwood

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.  ~ Lao Tzu

Quotes about nothing

- What is your opinion of Milarepa's quote?
- How content are you with the conditions of your life right now?

#1095 The truth of things

Rarely affirm, seldom deny, always distinguish.

Wonder is the desire of knowledge.

Love follows knowledge.

Most men seem to live according to sense rather than reason.

I would rather feel compassion than know the meaning of it. I would hope to act with compassion without thinking of personal gain.

The study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is.

Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.

Quotes by Thomas Aquinas

- How ready are you to distinguish rather than to affirm and deny?
- How can you cultivate your wonder and awe?
- How important for you is it to establish truths?

#1094 The highest reward

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have the eyes to see them.

There is no wealth but life.

Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become.

Every increased possession loads us with new weariness.

The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get from it, but what they become by it.

Quotes by John Ruskin

- What 'good weather' have you enjoyed recently?
- What great wealth does life offer?
- How has your work defined and shaped you?

#1093 What really matters

The forceps of our minds are clumsy forceps, and crush the truth a little in taking hold of it.

If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.

Sometimes, you have to step outside of the person you've been and remember the person you were meant to be. The person you want to be. The person you are.

Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.

Our true nationality is mankind.

What really matters is what you do with what you have.

Quotes by H. G. Wells

- When has the truth been crushed?
- What person do you want to be?
- How much are you utilizing your talents?

#1092 Whoever that is

If you want to keep your memories, you first have to live them.

Sundown, yellow moon, I replay the past
I know every scene by heart, they all went by so fast.

Every pleasure's got an edge of pain, pay your ticket and don't complain.

Chaos is a friend of mine.

All I can do is be me, whoever that is.

Quotes by Bob Dylan

- How quickly is your life progressing?
- Why might chaos be a friend?
- How well do you know yourself?

#1091 What's remarkable

One can't love humanity. One can only love people.

There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.

We'd forgive most things if we knew the facts.

Doing nothing, badly.

It is always of interest to know what strikes another human being as remarkable.

Quotes by Graham Greene

- How do you distinguish between humanity and people?
- What door opened for you as a child?
- What strikes you as remarkable?

#1090 Whitecaps on the bay

Haiku is not a shriek, a howl, a sigh, or a yawn; rather, it is the deep breath of life.    ~Santoka Taneda

In pale moonlight
the wisteria's scent
comes from far away.  ~ Yosa Buson


moonless night...
a powerful wind embraces
the ancient cedars.  ~ Matsuo Basho

Whitecaps on the bay:
A broken signboard banging
In the April wind. - Richard Wright


 - Zen is a total state of focus bringing together the body and the mind.  How does haiku help to provide this focus?
- What helps you to achieve a meditative state?

#1089 The true measure

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

For I have known them all already, known them all—
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.  ~ T. S. Eliot

God is a concept by which we measure our pain.  ~ John Lennon

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.  ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.  ~ Samuel Johnson

Measure of intelligence is the ability to change.  ~ Albert Einstein

Quotes about measure

- To what drummer, music, do you step?
- How would you measure out your life?
- What can be concluded about your life so far?

#1088 Worse than a defeat

Defeat I shall not know. It shall not touch me. I will meet it with true thinking. Resisting it will be my strengthening. But if, perchance, the day shall give to me the bitter cup, it shall sweeten in the drinking.  ~ Walter Russell

Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.  ~ Ralph Ellison

their heart grew cold
they let their wings down.  ~ Sappho

The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.  ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

There are many victories worse than a defeat.  ~ George Eliot

Quotes about defeat

- How defiant are you in the face of defeat?
- When have you been discouraged after a defeat?
- How can a victory be worse than a defeat?

#1087 Borrow it from our children

One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.  ~ Aldo Leopold

Man is a complex being: he makes deserts bloom - and lakes die.  ~ Gil Scott-Heron

Progress is measured by the speed at which we destroy the conditions that sustain life.  ~ George Monbiot

It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.  ~ Ansel Adams

Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.  ~ Jimmy Carter

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.  ~ Chief Seattle

Quotes about nature, ecology

- What wounds do you see inflicted upon nature?
- How do you cultivate a love for nature?
- What can you do to preserve nature?

#1086 A well in the desert

- Set wide the window. Let me drink the day.

- My little old dog
a heart-beat
at my feet.

 - Life is always either a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope.

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

 - Silence may be as variously shaded as speech.

 - In every heart there should be one grief that is like a well in the desert

Edith Wharton quotes

- What do you enjoy about today?
- What engaging tightrope are you walking?
- What is one grief that has been a well in the desert for you?

#1085 Dream with a V8 engine

The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.  ~ Maya Angelou

I'd rather be partly great than entirely useless.  ~ Neil Shusterman

By faithfully working eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.  ~ Robert Frost

Live for each second without hesitation.  ~ Elton John

Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine. Ain't nowhere else in the world where you can go from driving a truck to cadillac overnight.  ~ Elvis Presley

Quotes about ambition

- What heart(s) could you reach out to?
- What is your claim to partial greatness?
- What fuels your ambition?

#1084 Right where you are now

If you can't do great things, do small things in a great way.

A quitter never wins and a winner never quits.

Cherish your vision and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.

It takes half your life before you discover that life is a do-it-yourself project.

Your big opportunity might be right where you are now.

Quotes by Napoleon Hill

- What small things have you done well?
- What vision do you have for yourself?
- What big opportunity might lie before you now? 

#1083 Not enough bridges

The longer I live, the more I read, the more patiently I think, and the more anxiously I inquire, the less I seem to know...Do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly [with your God]. This is enough.  ~ John Adams

Earth provides enough for every man's needs, but not for every man's greed.  ~ Gandhi

You only live once, but if you do it right, once enough.  ~ Mae West

There is not enough time to do all the nothing we want to do.  ~ Bill Watterson 

There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of even one small candle.  ~ Robert Alden

We build too many walls and not enough bridges.  ~ Isaac Newton

Quotes about enough

- How well does John Adams sum up what is important?
- How well are you living your life?
- Where can you shine a little candle?

#1082 Fruits of many inquiries

To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries.  ~ A. C. Grayling

We read to know that we are not alone.   ~ William Nicholson

Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.  ~ Voltaire

Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul.  ~ Joyce Carol Oates

Quotes about reading

- What do you enjoy reading?
- What inquiries has reading unleashed for you?
- What shared experiences?

#1081 Taught me how to live

Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms you would never see the true beauty of their carvings. 

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.

 My patients taught me not how to die, but how to live.

Quotes by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

- What windstorms have buffeted you?
- How have they etched your character?
- What light emanates from within you?
- How do you live?

#1080 The test of our progress

Progress is a fine thing, but it has gone on long enough.  ~ Ogden Nash

 I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way.  ~ Carl Sandburg

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.  ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.  ~ Rosa Luxemburg

Progress is not an illusion; it happens, but it is slow and invariably disappointing.  ~ George Orwell

Quotes about progress

- In what aspects has progress been somewhat disappointing?
- Through what initiatives has progress helped the less fortunate?
- How can you contribute?

#1079 Imperishable quiet

Those who are willing to be vulnerable move among mysteries.

In this place of light: he dares to live
Who stops being a bird, yet beats his wings
Against the immense immeasurable emptiness of things.

A mind too active is no mind at all.

I long for the imperishable quiet at the heart
of form.

Quotes by Theodore Roethke

- What mystery have you experienced through vulnerability?
- How hopeful and persistent are you in the midst of the emptiness?
- When have you enjoyed the beauty of form?

#1078 Big with wonder

If you dream the proper dreams, and share the myths with people, they will want to grow up to be like you.  ~ Ray Bradbury

Myths and creeds are heroic struggles to comprehend the truth in the world.  ~ Ansel Adams

Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.  ~ Thomas Aquinas

A myth is a way of making sense in a senseless world. Myths are narrative patterns that give significance to our existence.  ~ Rollo May

Other people's beliefs may be myths, but not mine.  ~ Mason Cooley

Quotes about myths

- What big dreams may you share?
- What myths and creeds convey truths?
- What shapes your beliefs?

#1077 A profound effect

The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.

In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours.

Emotion is contagious.

Achievement is talent plus preparation.

We need to look at the subtle, the hidden, and the unspoken.

The values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are.

Quotes by Malcolm Gladwell

- When have you observed the tipping point in action?
- What skill(s) have you polished through thousands of hours of practice?
-  What subtlety do you need to think about?
- With what values and people do you surround yourself? 

#1076 Fear in a Handful

Watch my dust.   ~ Babe Ruth

Dust webbed the window and the showtrays. Dust darkened the toiling fingers with their vulture nails. Dust slept on dull coils of bronze and silver, lozenges of cinnabar, on rubies, leprous and winedark stones.  ~ James Joyce

Do the most difficult thing if that is what will pay you. Dust the Rust if you Must. Success never comes with ease.   ~Israelmore Ayifore

Write your injuries in dust, your benefits in marble.  ~ Benjamin Franklin

I will show you fear in a handful of dust.  ~ T. S.Eliot

(Quotes about dust.)

- Where do you show resolve?
- What benefits do you provide on your daily journey?
- What is your attitude to death?

#1075 Our true destiny

Hope is a verb with its shirtsleeves rolled up.

Our true destiny...is a world built from the bottom up by competent citizens living in solid communities, engaged in and by their places. David W. Orr

The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it.

Quotes by David Orr

- When have you been actively involved in a worthwhile cause?
- How can you contribute in a meaningful way in your community? 

#1074 Too caught up

In the end, just three things matter:

How well we have lived
How well we have loved
How well we have learned to let go.

You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf.

When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another - and ourselves.

Even Socrates, who lived a very frugal and simple life, loved to go to the market. When his students asked about this, he replied, "I love to go and see all the things I am happy without."

If your compassion does not include yourself, then it is incomplete.

Quotes by Jack Kornfield

- How well have you lived?
- How well have you loved?
- How well have you learned to let go?

#1073 Forward toward growth

Self- actualizing people must be what they can be.

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be.

What is necessary to change about a person is to change his awareness of himself.

To the man who only has a hammer in the toolkit, every problem looks like a nail.

One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.

 Quotes by Abraham Maslow

- To what extent are you what is within?
- What skills and interests have you developed?
- What are the diverse ways to solve a problem?
- Where lies growth for you?

#1072 The secret of life

I have a new philosophy.  I'm only going to dread one day at a time.

My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?
Oh yes, I'm at my happiest when I have a good idea and I'm drawing it well, and it comes out well and somebody laughs at it.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, look to tomorrow, rest this afternoon.

Sometimes you lie in bed at night, and you don't have a single thing to worry about...That always worries me!

All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.

Just remember, when you’re over the hill, you begin to pick up speed.

I think I've discovered the secret of life -- you just hang around until you get used to it.

 Quotes by Charles Schulz

- What do you dread about life?
- How much value is there to have no purpose, direction, aim, or meaning?
- When are you happiest?

#1071 Melting into music

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.

The sun shines not on us but in us.

The snow is melting into music.

The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.

Quotes by John Muir

- Where have you seen nature diminished?
- What can you do to preserve nature?
- How do you cultivate a love for nature to experience healing?

#1070 In the steps they trod

Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life.

 Let each man exercise the art he knows.

 Open your mind before your mouth.

 By words the mind is winged.

 Why, I'd like nothing better than to achieve some bold adventure, worthy of our trip.

 Your lost friends are not dead, but gone before,
  Advanced a stage or two upon that road
  Which you must travel in the steps they trod.

Quotes by Aristophanes

- What are the vital principles for living?
- What skills motivate you?
- What bold adventures have you enjoyed?
- What deceased friends/family have inspired you?

#1069 Stand there shining

I do not understand the mystery of grace -- only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us.

Gratitude, not understanding, is the secret to joy and equanimity.

I don't want something special.  I want something beautifully plain.

Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.

Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.

 Quotes by Anne Lamott

- When have you experienced the mystery and power of grace?
- What have you valued as beautifully plain?
- To what extent have you tried to be a shining lighthouse?
- What gives you the power within?

#1068 Tell that voice

The power is in the balance: we are our injuries, as much as we are our successes.

To live is to change, to acquire words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know.

Small change, small wonders-  these are the currency of my endurance and ultimately of my life.

The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.

Stop a minute, right where you are  Relax your shoulders, shake your head and spine like a dog shaking off cold water. Tell that imperious voice in your head to be still...

Quotes by Barbara Kingsolver 

- How can you try to balance your injuries and successes?
- What small change and wonders are currently accompanying your life?
-What hope can you try to live within your life?

#1067 The secret of success

To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step in knowledge.

How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.

Novelty is an essential attribute of the beautiful.

The secret of success is constancy of purpose.

We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence, and its only end.

But what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is a day.

Most people die with their music still locked up inside them.

Quotes by Benjamin Disraeli 

- What topics are you quite ignorant about?
- How reluctant are you to be critical?
- What is your underlying, driving purpose in life?

#1066 Wiser today than yesterday

May you live every day of your life.

Books, the children of the brain.

Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.

Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.

You should never be ashamed to admit you have been wrong. It only proves you are wiser today than yesterday.

Quotes by Jonathan Swift

-How rich is your life on most days?
-How would you define an enriching life?
-Why are meager expectations a good thing?

#1065 The same necessity

A house that does not have one worn, comfy chair in it is soulless.

We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.

Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is richness of self.

Routine is not a prison, but the way to freedom from time.

The garden is growth and change and that means loss as well as constant new treasures to make up for a few disasters.

It always comes back to the same necessity: go deep enough and there is a bedrock of truth, however hard.

Quotes by May Sarton

- To what extent can you be yourself?
- How much do you enjoy solitude?
- How effective is Sarton's image of life as a garden?

#1064 Struggles to the light

Life is not a spectacle or a feast; it is a predicament.

Those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.

To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.

Prejudice is a great time saver. It enables you to form opinions without bothering to get the facts.

Wisdom comes by disillusionment.

The world is not respectable; it is mortal, tormented, confused, deluded forever; but it is shot through with beauty, with love, with glints of courage and laughter; and in these, the spirit blooms timidly, and struggles to the light amid the thorns.

Quotes by George Santayana 

- In what sense is life a predicament?
- How diversified are your interests?
- What wisdom have you gained through disillusionment?

#1063 You are like fireworks

Smile, breathe and go slowly.

Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts.

Every path, every street in the world is your walking meditation path.

Be yourself. Life is precious as it is. All the elements for your happiness are already here. There is no need to run, strive, search or struggle. Just Be.

You are like fireworks. You go out into your children, your friends, your society, and the whole world.

Quotes by Thich Nhat Hanh

- How conscious are you of your breath and its power to relax and center you?
- To what extent can you meditate along the varied paths of your life?
- To what extent can you be yourself?
- What fireworks could accompany your life?

#1062 Your thinks be thanks

Life is a picnic on a precipice.

The older lives like not to be stood in rows or at right angles.

You owe it to us all to get on with what you're good at.

All that we are not stares back at what we are.

You shall love your crooked neighbour, with your crooked heart.

Let all your thinks be thanks.

Quotes by W. H. Auden

- What is so precarious about life?
- Why do seniors not like straight lines?
- Are you sharing what you're good at?
- How grateful are you?

# 1061 The secret of the ages

-so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.

- To refine, to clarify, to intensify that eternal moment in which we alone live there is but a single force the imagination.

- Mothlike in mists, scintillant in the minute brilliance of cloudless days, with broad bellying sails they glide to the wind tossing green water from their sharp prows while over them the crew crawls.

 -It is at the edge of a petal that love waits.

 -It is not what you say that matters but the manner in which you say it; there lies the secret of the ages.

Quotes by William Carlos Williams

- How do you interpret the poem of the red wheel barrow?
- What do you find beautiful about Williams' writing?
- Where do you find beauty around you?