Glutton for Insight

I have a mad passion for quotes (which have unfortunately gotten a wee bastardized due to the over saturation of the internetz). Even if they're attributed to the wrong person, or are grammatically incorrect, they can still inspire and I'd like to share with you some of my favorites + welcome you to share some of yours as well.

I'll begin with 2 quotes that the Ancient Greeks attribute as being the most important rules to govern your life:

Do your work.  Plato

Know thyself and nothing too much.  Plutarch

And so it goes:

TRAVEL

Nothing so liberalizes a man and expands the kindly instincts that nature put in him as travel and contact with many kinds of people.  Mark Twain

Step out into the world and give of yourself to help others. Do not give to make yourself feel better about yourself, but do it for God can not be there alone.  Bhagavad Gita

You'll break the worry habit the day you decide you can meet and master the worst that can happen to you.  Arnold Glasow

FACING DOWN FEAR

The enemy is a very good teacher.  The Dalai Lama

Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.  William James

The person who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before they decide, never decides.  Henri-Frédéric Amiel

No one to blame! That was why most people led lives they hated, with people they hated. How wonderful to have someone to blame! How wonderful to live with one's nemesis! You may be miserable, but you feel forever in the right. You may be fragmented, but you feel absolved of all the blame for it. Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.  Erica Jong

A little boy was asked how he learned how to skate. "By getting up every time I fell down," he answered.  David Seabury

If you wish success in life, make perserverance your bosom friend.  Joseph Addison

Don't watch the clock; do what it does. Don't stop.  Sam Levenson

Facing it, always facing it; that's the way to get through it. Face it!  Joseph Conrad

Opportunity's favorite disguise is trouble.  Frank Tyger

The most precus thing in life is its uncertainty.  Yoshida Kenkō

INSPIRATION + SPIRIT

Our deepest fear is not that we are
inadequate, our deepest fear is that we
are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that
most frightens us. We ask ourselves,

“Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?” Actually, who
are you NOT to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing
small does NOT serve the world. There
is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel insecure
around you.

We were born to manifest the glory
that is within us. And as we let our
light shine we unconsciously give other
people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own
fear, our presence automatically
liberates others.  Nelson Mandela

Don’t worry about what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and do that. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.  Howard Thurman

Sow a Thought, Reap an Act,
Sow an Act, Reap a Habit,
Sow a Habit, Reap a Character,
Sow a Character, Reap a Destiny.
  Anonymous

Inspirations never go in for long engagements; they demand immediate marriage into action.  Brendan Francis Behan

It is only when I dally with what I am about, look back and aside, instead of keeping my eyes straight forward, that I feel these cold sinkings of the heart.  Walter Scott

STRENGTH

Pray not for a lighter burden, but for broader shoulders.  Jewish Proverb

CHANGE

Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gives one identity, the end of safety. And at such a moment, unable to see and not daring to imagine what the future will now bring, one clings to what one knew, or thought one knew; to what one possessed or dreamed one possessed. Yet it is only when someone is able, without bitterness or self pity, to surrender a dream they have long cherished or a privilege they have long possessed that they are set free--they have to set themselves free--for higher dreams, for greater privileges.  .James Baldwin