RETURN TO STEVE LONG FAVORITE QUOTES (ALL TYPES)

To be honest, one must be inconsistent.   … H.G. Wells

By a small sample, we may judge the whole piece…Cervantes

Statistics are no substitute for judgment… Henry Clay

Computers are fast, reliable, stupid and rigid… Richard J. Harris

Knowledge is power, but enthusiasm pulls the switch…. Ivern Ball

Unless you start, you will never arrive

Imagination is more important than information….. Albert Einstein

We can do no great things, only small things with great love…. Mother Teresa

No one really knows enough to be a pessimist…… Norman Cousins

A friend hears the song in my heart and sings it when my memory fails

The computer can do more work faster than a human because it doesn’t have to answer the phone [, text Messages, Facebook, tweets or email] …. Joey Adams [bracketed items added by Steve Long]

Question authority, but raise your hand first….. Bob Thaves

Be cautious, opportunity does the knocking for temptation too….. Al Batt

Type III Error: Answering the wrong question precisely.

“The only constant is change.” …. Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, is quoted as saying “change is the only constant in life.” This saying has also been translated to “the only constant is change.”

If I do anything to be sorry for, I’ll be forgiven

You can’t help hurting and being hurt, but misery is optional.

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

One of the nice things about problems is that a good many of them do not exist except in our imaginations….. Steve Allen

Goals determine what you’re going to be….. Julius Erving

We find comfort among those who agree with us – growth among those who don’t….. Frank A. Clark

Books serve to show men that those original thoughts of his aren’t so original after all…..Abraham Lincoln

A man never stands so high as when he stoops to help a child…. Ted Williams – “The Splendid Splinter”

If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else….. Yogi Berra

Seize the Day!!!   – from the movie “Dead Poets Society”

Captivated by the universe we can measure, we often slip into thinking it is the whole universe…. NY Times Editorial 11/16/86

The Ideal Manager’s Role: Good management equals unified differences based on respect….. Ichak Adizes – UCLA Business School

Failure is an attitude, not an outcome

Hope is faith on tiptoe – Seitz sermon Metaphor for life is living in a concentration camp.

Recognize the “Secret of the Spring” … Peter Marshall. Sermon by Craig Seitz (old man who sustained the town spring until fired, then spring became polluted).

Make sure you generate a reasonable number of mistakes….Fletcher Byrom’s 9th Commandment.   “be creative”… In Search of Excellence

He lived as if he would die tomorrow, he worked as if he would live forever… epitaph of WV politician and government worker Henry G. Davis

One must learn by doing the thing, for although you know it, you have no certainty until you try….. Sophocles

To impact the culture, simply transform the moment…. Peter Block “Empowered Manager”

If we don’t hang together, we’ll certainly hang separately….. Benjamin Franklin

The salvation of man is through love and in love… Victor Frankl (thinking of his wife while in concentration camp) Mans Search for Meaning

He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how…. Nietzsche quoted by Frankl

Thinking leads to thanking… five grains of corn in Plymouth times was all there was.

We ought to be careful not to do for a fellow what we intended only to help him do…. Frank A. Clark

The greatest success is not in never failing, but in rising every time you fail….. Vince Lombardi

We are, I think, in the right road of improvement, for we are making experiments….. Benjamin Franklin

Get your mind off yourself….. Norman Vincent Peale re. Jealously

Chance favors the prepared mind…. Louis Pasteur

One today is worth two tomorrows; never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today …. Benjamin Franklin

Most of my best ideas belonged to other people who never bothered to develop them…. Thomas Edison

The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it…. Samuel Johnson

A leader knows what’s best to do; a manager knows merely how best to do it…. Ken Adelman

Short words are best, and old words when short are best of all…. Winston Churchill as quoted by Al Davies in MWPC sermon

Always take an emergency leisurely… Chinese proverb

The great man is he who does not lose his child’s heart …. Mencius

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm …. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Keep cool; it will all be over 100 years hence…. Ralph Waldo Emerson

I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom…. Anatole France

Never, never, never, never give up…. Winston Churchill

The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it…. Harry Emerson Fosdick

Four steps to achievement: plan purposefully, prepare prayerfully, proceed positively, pursue persistently…. William A. Ward d. 1959

Act as if it were impossible to fail …. Dorothea Brande d. 1948

Once harm has been done, even a fool understands it…. Homer

There is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving… Henry Drummond d. 1897

Do things for others and you’ll find your self-consciousness evaporating like morning dew on a Missouri cornfield in July…. Dale Carnegie

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give…. Kahlil Gibran d. 1931

To go against one’s conscience is neither safe nor right. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise…. Martin Luther d. 1546

A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds…. Anon

The world belongs to the energetic…. Ralph Waldo Emerson d. 1882

If you want a quality, act as if you already had it. Try the “as if” technique …. William James d. 1910

A man can stand a lot as long as he can stand himself…. Axel Munthe

Most people don’t plan to fail; they fail to plan…. John L. Beckley

I have found that if you love life, life will love you back…. Arthur Rubenstein

I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after…. Ernest Hemingway d. 1961

Positive thinking is the key to success in business, education, pro football, anything that you can mention. I go out there thinking that I am going to complete every pass…. Ron Jaworski

Learning isn’t a means to an end; it is an end in itself…. Robert Heinlein

Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one…. Malcolm Forbes d. 1990

One’s best asset is a sympathetic spouse …. Euripides d. 406 B.C.

Don’t look back. Something may be gaining on you…. Satchel Paige

When a man dies, if he can pass enthusiasm along to his children, he has left them an estate of incalculable value…. Thomas Edison d. 1931

The Chinese symbols for the word crisis are “danger” and “opportunity”.

Life is like the game of tennis, the player who serves well seldom loses.

Love is a spendthrift, it leaves its arithmetic at home – Paul Sherer

“What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make our end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” T.S. Elliott

He who lives without discipline dies without honor – Icelandic proverb

“There are two things to aim at in life: first to get what you want and, after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.” Logan Pearsall Smith

“It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without hurting himself.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Vagueness and procrastination are ever a comfort to the frail in spirit.” John Updike

“If you are too careful, you are so occupied in being careful that you are sure to stumble over something.” Gertrude Stein

“The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.” B.B. King

“True power is knowing that you can, but you don’t.” Juliet Alicia Jarvis

“May we be enabled to say ‘No’ to sin and ‘Yes’ to the sinner” Dietrich Bonhoeffer in “The Cost of Discipleship”

“Life is like a ten-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.” Charles M. Schulz (of ‘Peanuts’ fame)

What you do speaks so loudly … I cannot hear what you say — Ralph Waldo Emerson

One can never consent to creep when one has the potential to soar — Helen Keller (from Cliff)

Mark Twain on FEAR: I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.

He is well paid who is well satisfied — Shakespeare

Nobody is in business for fun, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be fun in business — Leo Burnett

The best way to cope with change is to help create it. — Bob Dole

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. — Abe Lincoln

Nothing happens unless first, a dream. — Carl Sandberg

For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root. — Thoreau (from “Seven Habits” re. Paradigm shifts)

How can we remember our ignorance, which our growth requires, when we are using our knowledge all the time. — Thoreau

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. — Booker T. Washington

The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention. — Richard Moss, M.D.

He who sings, frightens away his ills. — Cervantes

My father always told me ‘ Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life’. – Jim Fox

My dad always showed me “Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” — Steve Long

Don’t wait for someone to motivate you. What if he doesn’t show up? — Jim Rohn

How we feel is most often a choice. — David Burns, M.D.

Don’t climb the ladder of success only to find it is leaning against the wrong wall. — Bernie Siegel

“I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.”   Abraham Lincoln

Dance as if no one’s watching, sing as if no one’s listening, and live every day as if it were your last.   -Irish Proverb

“It is the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive.” C. W. Leadbeater (discussed with Lee Davis at breakfast on 12/18/03)

God loves an idle rainbow no less than laboring seas. Ralph Hodgson “Reason has Moons”

“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant that I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” Mark Twain

“The child is in me still ……… and sometimes not so still.” Fred Rogers – TV’s ‘Mr. Rogers’

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming.” Theodore Roosevelt, 1910

He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help. —Abraham Lincoln

“I think not how sad it will be when you are gone, but rather how empty it would have been had you never come.” — from Nanie Gamble to Mom Long on Dad’s death in 8/02   (favorite card is “Plan of the Master Weaver – Hallmark 10290 02802)

Though tragedy, heartache, and sorrow abound

And many a hardship in life will be found,

I’ll put all my trust in the Savior of light,

For He can bring hope in the darkest of night. —D. De Haan

A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds. Anonymous

“He realized the fastest way to change Is to laugh at your own folly – then you can let go and quickly move on.” Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson – p. 70

Real success is finding your life’s work in the work that you love. David McCullough, author of Truman.

Make the second effort your second nature.   Harvey Mackey

Getting well may be less a matter of fighting illness than of counter-balancing it with the healthy aspects of our lives. Marc Ian Barasch

“Families, churches, business, and governments become sick by refusing to face painful realities.” M. Scott Peck

“We must always change, renew, regenerate ourselves; otherwise we harden.” Johann von Goethe

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything. Plato

“I’m not happy, I’m cheerful. There’s a difference. A happy woman has no cares at all. A cheerful woman has cares but has learned how to deal with them.” Beverly Sills, American opera singer.

“Not in his goals, but in his transitions, man is great.” Emerson

“They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge.”
— Thomas Brackett Reed

“His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.” — Mae West

“Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint on it you can.” — Danny Kaye (1913-1987), entertainer

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” Plato (427-327 B.C.)

“Character is doing what’s right when nobody’s looking.” J.C. Watts Jr., politician

“I would not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.” Frances Willard (1839-1898), Educator

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.” — Oscar Wilde

”He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.” — Oscar Wilde

“Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.” — Mark Twain

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”   – Winston Churchill

“I don’t like money actually, but it quiets my nerves.”   – Joe Louis

“People see only what they are prepared to see.”   – Ralph Waldo Emerson

”Talk’s cheap. Let’s go play.” – Johnny Unitas, who gave this pep talk before every football game, according to former teammate Bill Curry.

“Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” — Thomas Alva Edison

“Beware the leader who bangs the drum of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor.  For patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword.  It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind.” Julius Caesar, born in Rome around 100 B.C..

“Life is short and we have not much time for gladdening the hearts of those who travel this way with us. Oh, be swift to love, make haste to be kind.” Henri Fredrick Amiel (slight alteration per Martin Marty in Leonard Sweet’s book Soul Salsa.)

Every now and then go away, even briefly, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer; since to remain constantly at work will cause you to lose power. — Leonardo da Vinci

And in the end it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” -Abraham Lincoln

Future, n. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness assured.   [Taken from Ambrose Bierce’s “Devil’s Dictionary.”]

“A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.”  — Herm Albright

I have been saying for many years that we are using the word ‘guru’ only because ‘charlatan’ is too long to fit into a headline. ” Peter Drucker

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”  Peter Drucker

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” Peter Drucker

“We cannot take our eyes off innovation as our core growth engine and growth strategy.” Banner at AG Lafley talk on his book “Game-Changer” held on 4/8/08 at Merchantile Library.

“Tell me about {pee wee football, singing,…}” Bob Lawson

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, most of which have never happened.   – Mark Twain

I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today.   – William Allen White

“I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.” George Bernard Shaw

“If I were a doctor and were asked for my advice,” theologian and philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once said, “I should reply: Create silence.”

“We must be doing what we want the world to be.” Mohandas Gandhi

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will pass an invisible boundary; new universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings.” Henry David Thoreau

ACS quote:  CANCER IS SO LIMITED
It cannot cripple love – It cannot shatter hope – It cannot corrode faith – It cannot destroy peace – It cannot destroy confidence – It cannot kill friendship – It cannot suppress memories – It cannot silence courage – It cannot invade the soul

“All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.” – Anatole France (1844-1924)

“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” Dr. Seuss

“Not all who wander are lost.”   J.R.R Tolkein

Take time to work, it is the price of success.

Take time to think, it is the source of power.

Take time to play, it is the secret of perpetual youth.

Take time to read, it is the foundation of wisdom.

Take time to be friendly, it is the road to happiness.

Take time to dream, it is hitching your wagon to a star.

Take time to love and be loved, it is the privilege of the gods.

Take time to look around, it is too short a day to be selfish.

Take time to laugh, it is the music of the soul.

     ~ attributed to “Old English Prayer” (from Dick Yund)

“Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.” James Matthew Barrie

“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.” Mark Twain

“The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.” Mark Twain [good one, especially since this concept shows up in What Got You Here Won’t Get You There!]

“the greatest geniuses sometimes accomplish more when they work less.” Leonardo Da Vinci, while working on The Last Supper, he would spend days painting from dawn until dusk; then without warning, he would take a break for a day or two. The duke who contracted his services was not amused, preferring that Leonardo would “never lay down his brush.”

“Building a better you is the first step to building a better America.” Zig Ziglar

“Have fun with virtually all that life provides – after all, it beats the alternative!” Steve Long

“My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectation.” Michael J. Fox in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future” p. 85

Death in 5 stages: Denial: This isn’t happening. Anger: It’s not fair. Bargaining: What can I do to get out of this? Depression: I can’t, it’s hopeless. Acceptance: What do I do now? — Michael J. Fox in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future” p. 86, describing how Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in On Death and Dying broke down the process of death into five stages and how it affected him knowing he had Parkinsons Disease.

“The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.” Mark Twain (too funny – in 9/2010 when I added this one, both Twain and taking a deep breath before speaking – from What Got You Here Won’t Get You There – have been part of my thinking already!)

“I would trade the disease (cancer), but wouldn’t trade the experience.” Dick Yund at MWPC men’s retreat, 9/2010

“We’re just tools in God’s toolbox.” One of Dr. Lemming’s oncology practice partners, while talking with Dick Yund about next steps with the cancer efforts.

“It’s never too soon to do a kindness, for too soon may be too late.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“When we tug at a single thing in nature, we find it attached to the rest of the world.” – John Muir

Every lived moment has an eternal significance and already constitutes a fulfilled life. For fulfilled life is not measured by the number of years that have been lived through, or spent in one way or another. It is measured according to the depth of lived experience. Jurgen Moltmann in “In the End – The Beginning: the Life of Hope” (Shared with me by Joan Sigmund)

Somehow, not only for Christmas but all the long year through, the joy you give to others is the joy that comes back to you.—John Greenleaf Whittier

“The internet is more disruptive than electricity because it replaces economics of scarcity with economics of abundance” Eric Schmidt of Google

“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been” Ice Hockey star Wayne Gretsky

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” Plutarch (1^st century Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist)

“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” Mark Twain

“If the world comes to an end, I want to be in Cincinnati. Everything comes there ten years later.” Mark Twain

We cannot love issues, but we can love people and the love of people reveals to us the way to deal with issues. — Henri Nouwen

“A change of activity is a form of rest.” – Sanjay Gupta’s mother, the first female engineer at Ford

“The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The meaning of life is to give your gift away.” From 1: How Many People Does It Take to Make a Difference by Zadra and Yamada

“The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it.” Edward R. Murrow

“We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it, and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.” Edward R. Murrow

“This instrument {referencing television} can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference.” Edward R. Murrow

“Because if they are right, and this instrument [referencing television] is good for nothing but to entertain, amuse and insulate, then the tube is flickering now and we will soon see that the whole struggle is lost.This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference.” — Edward R. Murrow

Five Ways to Well-Being are:

• Connecting with people
• Being physically active
• Taking notice of the world around you
• Learning new things
• Giving to others

Page 209 in The Great Disruption

“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviors. Keep your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values.
Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.” – Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

“Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being .” Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

“Go out into the world today and love the people you meet. Let your presence light new light in the hearts of people.” —Mother Teresa

“I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I have a big bat. I’m all already you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!” – Dr. Seuss

“The reason we have two ears and only one mouth is that we may listen the more and talk the less.” Zeno of Citium (circa 300 B.C.)

“A person with a clear purpose will make progress on even the toughest road. A person with no purpose will make no progress on even the smoothest road” -Thomas Carlyle

“A good listener is usually thinking about something else.” Kin Hubbard

“I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.” Edith Sitwell

“Every day I pray for three things, Courage, Strength and Grace. The Courage to face what each day brings. The Strength to endure it. And the Grace to make it look easy.” – Pam Gibson [Written by Tim Gibson on Facebook when Dick Yund was dealing with cancer: when my late wife, Pam was fighting breast cancer, someone asked her what she prayed for, fully expecting the answer to be “healing”. Instead, she said this:]

“I must be willing to give up what I am in order to become what I will be.” Albert Einstein

“We must be the change we want to see in the world” Ghandi

“We’ve all heard commentary about challenges of relationships with in-laws, and you’ve likely heard the term out-law: those marrying into the family.     What’s the difference between in-laws and out-laws???… One is wanted!” as told by Jeff Kane to MWPC during his Centennial sermon time

“I am still determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may be, for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not upon our circumstances.” Martha Washington, quoted in “Listening is an Act of Love,” p. 31

“It all works out in the end…if it’s not working out, it’s not the end” Rough quote of a line from Marigold Hotel movie

“What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.” French writer Colette

“Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” Robert Brault

“My mind works in idleness. To do nothing is often my most profitable way,” author Virginia Woolf

“Enough is abundance to the wise.” Euripides

“Dance as though no one is watching you,
Love as though you have never been hurt before,
Sing as though no one can hear you,
Live as though heaven is on earth…” -souza

“Age sometimes has very little to do with how old a person is … The “young ones” all have three things in common: a sense of purpose for their lives; a commitment to concentrate on what’s right instead of what’s wrong; and, an environment full of outside interests.” Barbara Johnson

“While Daring Greatly” — It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit goes to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place will never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.     Anonymous (posted on Dick Yund’s wall)

It is not so much what is poured into the student, but what is planted that really counts. Anonymous

“If we work upon marble, it will perish; if on brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples, they will crumble into dust; but if we work on immortal minds, and imbue them with principles, with the just fear of God and love of our fellow men, we will engrave on those tablets something that will brighten to all eternity.” Noah Webster (1758 – 1843), American lexicographer

“Sometimes the greatest gift is acceptance, the greatest comfort is in letting go.” Brenda Young in her December 2012 Guideposts article on “The Return of Big Jon” (little boy with leukemia and Big Jon doll)

“Often we need not so much to be taught as to be reminded.” – C. S. Lewis

“The least strained and most natural ways of the soul are the most beautiful; the best occupations are the least forced.” -Montaigne

“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.” ― Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History

“Technology is a good servant, but a bad master.” From a Gretchen Rubin newsletter

“Even the heart rests between beats”

“Leading in most cases is less about commanding and much more about discerning, energizing and sometimes guiding.” Steve Long, in preparing comments for a talk in Jack Gedeon’s leadership class

“You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred.” Woody Allen

“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.” – -Abraham Maslow

“My mind works in idleness. To do nothing is often my most profitable way.” Virginia Woolf

“To suck out all the marrow of life” by Thoreau (quoted in Dead Poets Society)

“Let us not use bombs and guns to overcome the world. Let us use love and compassion. Peace begins with a smile.” Mother Teresa

“Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.” –Maya Angelou, poet

“There is no remedy for love but to love more” Henry David Thoreau

“Whatever you are, be a good one.” Abraham Lincoln

“Make each day your masterpiece.” Joshua Wooden, father of John Wooden (UCLA basketball coach)

“I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.” George Bernard Shaw

“The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is, on the contrary, born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else — we are the busiest people in the world.” Eric Hoffer, American longshoreman philosopher

This bright new year is given me, to live each day with zest, to daily grow and try to be my highest and my best! –William Arthur Ward, author

This new day is given me, to live it fully with zest, to daily grow and learn to be, my highest and my best! – Steve Long’s ‘daily take’ on William Arthur Ward’s quote from above

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” ― Oscar Wilde

“Our great business in life is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand” – Thomas Carlyle

“Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for living in someone’s skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me unless there is peace and joy finally for you too.” – Frederick Buechner in Beyond Words

The greatest achievements were at first and for a time dreams. The oak sleeps in the acorn. –James Allen, author

“This bureaucracy may kill me…why continue role at senior level?” Steve Long in a Franklin Planner entry on January 29, 1997.

“We live on the flat, on the level, and yet – and so – we aspire. Groundlings, we can sometimes reach as far as the gods. Some soar with art, others with religion; most with love. But when we soar, we can also crash. There are few soft landings. We may find ourselves bouncing across the ground with leg-fracturing force, dragged towards some foreign railway line. Every love story is a potential grief story. If not at first, then later. If not for one, then for the other. Sometimes, for both. {NEW PARAGRAPH} So why do we constantly aspire to love? Because love is the meeting point of truth and magic. Truth, as in photography; magic, as in ballooning.” Julian Barnes in the book Levels of Life

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”- Mahatma Gandhi

“Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are your own fears.” – Rudyard Kipling, writer

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit. –Helen Keller, author, political activist and lecturer

“What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes part of us.” – Helen Keller

Happiness is a habit. Cultivate it. – E. Hubbard

“Baseball is a game where a curve is an optical illusion, a screwball can be a pitch or a person, stealing is legal and you can spit anywhere except in the umpire’s eye or on the ball.” – Jim Murray

The prevailing view in our culture is that as you close out your fortieth year or so, you enter a period of aging and decline. To pair age with growth seems to be a contradiction in terms. This is a myth I refuse to believe, and I want to help you shatter it as well. – Bob Buford in the book Halftime on p. 21

“I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.” George Bernard Shaw

“People who control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy.” Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Work only with those who are receptive to what you are trying to do. You only have a limited amount of time. Trying to convince people to do what they really don’t want to do uses four times the amount of energy required to help someone conceive or implement their own ideas. – Bob Buford in the book Halftime on p. 134

I learned long ago to build on my own strength and natural giftedness and to depend on others with complementary strengths to make the work I’m doing complete. – Bob Buford in the book Halftime on p. 140

“If you’re not pleased with your child’s output, try changing the input – especially from you.” – Zig Ziglar in his book Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World on p.6

“Lectures often confuse our kids, but the example we set is crystal clear.” – Zig Ziglar in his book Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World on p.70

“Humor Helps — Try It.” – Zig Ziglar in his book Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World on p.89

“A child’s attitudes about life and others are developed by how parents speak to salesclerks at the store, over the telephone to a neighbor, and to their friends at a social gathering.” – Zig Ziglar in his book Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World on p.81

“Do not be in a hurry — spending a few extra minutes with your child reading, talking, sharing and praying together will make a difference in your child’s life and your relationship with your child.” – Zig Ziglar in his book Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World on p.92

“You and your children must forget the mistakes of the past and concentrate on building a better future.” – Zig Ziglar in his book Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World on p.111

“Your child can stand a lot if he can stand himself.” – Zig Ziglar in his book Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World on p.175

“You are not well-dressed until you put on a smile.” – Zig Ziglar in his book Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World on p.192

“Forgiveness is tough, dangerous and exciting. Tough because of human nature, dangerous because it forces us to take responsibility for future progress, exciting because it frees us to become our best self.” – Zig Ziglar in his book Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World on p.286

“Knowing how to benefit from failure is the key to success.” – Zig Ziglar in his book Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World on p.314

“Studies by … showed that hugging relieves many physical and emotional problems and can help people live longer, maintain health, relieve stress and promote sleep.” – Zig Ziglar in his book Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World on p.324

“Right-minded huggin’ is healthy for mind, body and spirit!” Steve Long

“The truth is Mitch,” he said, “Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.” Quote by Morrie Schwartz on page 82 in the book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom (my favorite quote in the entire book!)

As our great poet Auden said “love each other or perish”. Love each other or perish – I wrote it down. Love each other or perish – Morrie said. It’s good – no? And it’s so true. Without love we are birds with broken wings.” – page 82 in the book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

“Death ends a life, not a relationship.” – Morrie Schwartz (page 174 in Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom)

“After all these months, lying there, unable to move a leg or a foot — how could he find perfection in such an average day? Then I realized this was the whole point.” – page 176 in the book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

“But if professor Morrie Schwartz taught me anything at all, it was this: there is no such thing as “too late” in life. He was changing until the day he said good-bye.” – page 190 in the book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

“Worry is the darkroom in which negatives can develop.” –Wanda E. Brunstetter, author

“That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of.” – C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity

“In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility”  – Eleanor Roosevelt

“He’s lost the will to drive” – Paul Klotz commenting on a driver with bothersome tendencies

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity. ― Carl Jung

“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” ― Dr. Seuss

“Happiness isn’t on the road to anything…happiness is the road” – Bob Dylan’s grandmother

“It has become appallingly clear that our technology has surpassed our humanity.” – Albert Einstein

“Whoever’s approval you seek, you become prisoner, so choose your jailors with care and deliberation.” Taoism and Sufism saying quoted on page 196 in Spiritual Gems of Islam

“Blessed are the flexible for they will never be bent out of shape”

“The miracle is not that you do this work, but that you are happy to do it!” ~Mother Teresa

“Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier.” – Albert Schweitzer, theologian, philosopher and physician

“You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.” – Zig Ziglar

“Death must not be feared. Death, in time, comes to all men.” – Gen. George S. Patton Jr.

“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish. ” – John Quincy Adams

“Reinforce boundaries between professional work and personal life. It is very hard to switch from the riveting force of apocalyptic predictions at work to home, where the problems are petty by comparison.” – Leading activist Gillian Caldwell (went public with her “climate trauma,” as she called it, quitting the group she helped build and posting an article called “16 Tips for Avoiding Climate Burnout,” in which she suggests compartmentalization)

“Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.” – Helen Keller (1880-1968) in the book The Open Door

“Money can’t buy happiness but it keeps the kids in touch!”

“anyone who wants to understand a poet must go to the poet’s country.” J. W. von Goethe

“Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space.” Orson Scott Card in Alvin Journeyman

A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depends on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the measure as I have received and am still receiving.” — Albert Einstein

“Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.” — Elon Musk

“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” –Mark Twain

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.” ― Dr. Seuss

“Comparison is the thief of joy” – Theodore Roosevelt

“Somehow, not only for Christmas but all the long year through, the joy you give to others is the joy that comes back to you.” – John Greenleaf Whittier, poet

“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.” – Henry David Thoreau in Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” Martin Luther King Jr.

“When the going gets tough, the smart get … laughing.” Joel Goodman

“Grieving is not forgetting. Nor is it drowning in tears. Healthy grieving results in an ability to remember the importance of our loss, but with a newfound sense of peace, rather than pain.Grief includes sadness and pain, and it also includes meaning and purpose and appreciation of life.” – June Huelskamp (LlSW-S) in an MWPC Beacon article

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Angers leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” – Yoda, Jedi Master in Star Wars

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein

“You don’t have to see eye to eye to walk hand in hand” – Rick Warren

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” – Mark Twain

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”- Harper Lee

“Flowers grow out of dark moments.” – Sister Mary Corita Kent, artist and educator

“It’s nice to be nice to the nice.” – – Frank Burns, M*A*S*H

The pain then is part of the happiness now.” Joy Lewis (wife of C.S. Lewis) in the movie Shadowlands

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched.  They must be felt with the heart. ~ Helen Keller

“Carstensen gave her hypothesis the impenetrable name ‘socio-emotional selectivity theory.’ The simpler way to say it is that perspective matters… When, as the researchers put it, ‘life’s fragility is primed,’ people’s goals and motives in their everyday lives shift completely. It’s perspective, not age, that matters most.” – Atul Gawande in Being Mortal p. 98-99

“I’ve heard Swedish doctors call it a ‘breakpoint discussion,’ a series of conversations to sort out when they need to switch from fighting for time to fighting for the other things that people value — being with family or traveling or enjoying ice cream.” – Atul Gawande in Being Mortal p. 185

“We are running up against the difficulty of maintaining a coherent philosophical distinction between giving people the right to stop external or artificial processes that prolong their lives and giving them the right to stop the natural, internal processes that do so.” – Atul Gawande in Being Mortal p. 244 [the more I read this one, the more it resonates!]

“Technological society has forgotten what scholars call the ‘dying role’ and its importance to people as life approaches its end. People want to share memories, pass on wisdoms and keepsakes, settle relationships, establish their legacies, make peace with God, and ensure that those who are left behind will be okay. They want to end their stories on their own terms. This role is, observers argue, among life’s most important, for both the dying and those left behind. And if it is, the way we deny people this role, out of obtuseness and neglect, is cause for everlasting shame. Over and over, we in medicine inflict deep gouges at the end of people’s lives and then stand oblivious to the harm done. – Atul Gawande in Being Mortal p. 249 [this is a strong advocacy for what we are talking about at Long Memories, in particular with the Binder of a Lifetime (BoaL)!]

“Even if you are on the right track, you won’t get anywhere if you are standing still.” – Will Rogers

“It’s love, not biology, that binds us. In the end, unconditional love, trust and support are what make a family.” – Ashley Rhodes-Courter in her August 2016 Guideposts article “A Question of Trust.”

Passive inactivity, because you have not been given specific instructions to do this or to do that, is a serious deficiency.” – George C. Marshall

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Humankind – be both!

“Grief never ends, but it changes. It is a passage, not a place to stay. Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of faith. It is the price of love.” – Author unknown

“The secret of reading is to close the book.” Dr. Eugen Kullmann (talking with Bryan Doerries, as quoted in Guideposts article of 9/2016)

“If I were a doctor and were asked for my advice, I should reply: Create silence.” – – theologian and philosopher Soren Kierkegaard as quoted in Halftime by Bob Buford, page 64

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.  He will pass an invisible boundary; new universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings.” Henry David Thoreau

“This time should be more than devotions, though it ought to include prayer and Bible reading.  Leave time for absolute silence, for deliberately looking at your life to see that it is in balance.  This is probably the most vital activity for me in terms of staying in control.” Bob Buford on page 133 in the book Halftime
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“A beautiful irony for readers: to fully enjoy reading a book, one most close it” – Steve Long, based on Dr. Eugen Kullmann quote above

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” – widely attributed to Edmund Burke (with some controversy over whether it should be...)

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

“Worry is a thin stream of fear that trickles through the mind, which, if encouraged, will cut a channel so wide that all other thoughts will be drained out.” – Author Unknown

You don’t have to agree on anything to be kind to one another ~ sign at local church

“If your arms are wrapped around the past, you can’t embrace the future”  ~ unknown source

““At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed … had I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, today, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder” ~ Frederick Douglass

“Not everything that is faced can be changed,” James Baldwin reminds us, “But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

“The prescription for the cure rests with an accurate diagnosis of the disease.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. 1967

Kindness and love are highly contagious

We are rich only through what we give, and poor only through what we refuse. ~ Anne-Sophie Swetchine

To keep a lamp burning we have to keep putting oil in it. ~ Mother Teresa

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile. ~ Albert Einstein

We know that  helping others is the best way – probably the only way to achieve a better future for ourselves. ~ Harry S. Truman

I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

“Flannery O’Connor said that anyone who survived childhood has enough material to write for the rest of his or her life.” ~ quoted in Anne Lamott’s book Bird by Bird

“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” ~ Victor Hugo