Wisdom of life

The impossible is often the untried. -Jim Goodwin
Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Failure is often that early morning hour of darkness that precedes the dawning of the day of success.  
Live your life as an exclamation, not an explanation.  
Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is a little like expecting the bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian. -Dennis Wholey
Uncertainty and mystery are energies of life. Don't let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity. -R. I. Fitzhenry
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. -Leo Tolstoy
Always hold your head up, but be careful to keep your nose at a friendly level. -Max L. Forman
If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.  
Yesterday is a canceled check; tomorrow is a promissory note; today is the only cash you have. Spend it wisely.  
The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. -Albert Einstein
Problems are only opportunities in work clothes. -Henry J. Kaiser
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses. -Ziggy
The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything. Except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesman-like habits, supplies their demands. -Oscar Wilde
We are not in a position in which we have nothing to work with. We already have capacities, talents, direction, missions, callings. -Abraham Maslow
Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believed. -William Blake
Don't you hate it when life doesn't follow the manuals?  
Once you have flown, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward; for there you have been, there you long to return. -Da Vinci
Devils can be driven out of the heart by the touch of hand on hand, or mouth on mouth. -Tennessee Williams
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. -Ralph Waldo Emerson (Circles)
No matter how old a mother is she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement. -Florida Scott-Maxwell
When you hire people that are smarter than you are, you prove you are smarter than they are. -R. H. Grant
Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?  
Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after. -Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than the arguments of its opposers. -William Penn
Education ... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading. -G.M. Trevelyan
Nothing is so strong as gentleness, and nothing is so gentle as true strength. -Ralph Sockman
The game of life is a game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later with astounding accuracy. -Florence Scovel Shinn
A child becomes an adult when he realises that he has a right not only to be right but also to be wrong. -Thomas Szasz
Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction. -Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Jumping to conclusions can be a bad exercise.  
It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing. -Gertrude Stein
The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there. -Robert M. Pirsig
Experience is what you get when you were expecting something else.  
Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. -Douglas Adams [Last Chance to See]
Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?  
No great man ever complains of want of opportunity. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you judge, investigate. -Seneca
A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a joke or worried to death by a frown on the right person's brow. -Charles Brower
You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. -Mark Twain
Swing hard, in case they throw the ball where you're swinging. -Duke Snider
He who foresees calamities suffers them twice over.  
There is one thing stronger that all the armies in the world; and that is an idea whose time has come.  
My friends, no matter how rough the road may be, we can and we will never, never surrender to what is right. -Dan Quayle
Don't mistake pleasure for happiness. They're a different breed of dog. -Josh Billings
The worst of all deceptions is self-deception. -Plato
I never said it was possible. I only said it was true. -Charles Richet, Nobel Laureate in Physiology
May you live all the days of your life. -Jonathan Swift
It's not a matter of where you stand but in what direction you're headed.  
The only time you don't fail is the last time you try anything--and it works. -William Strong
We can pay our debt to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves. -John Buchan (1875-1940) Scottish author
The whole point of getting things done is knowing what to leave undone. -Stella, Lady Reading
What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence. -Samuel Johnson
When professors want your opinion, they'll give it to you.  
No wonder nobody comes here--it's too crowded. -Yogi Berra
To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour. -Robert L. Stevenson
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Industry is the soul of business and the keystone of prosperity. -Charles Dickens
You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however. -Richard Bach
There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. -Nelson Mandela [A Long Walk to Freedom]
Conscience is the inner voice warning us that someone may be looking. -H.L. Mencken
In every man's heart there is a secret nerve that answers to the vibrations of beauty. -Christopher Morley
Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body. -Seneca
Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thought is the labour of the intellect, reverie is its pleasure. -Victor Hugo
We learn from history that we do not learn anything from history.  
This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us. -Western Union internal memo, 1876
Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else.  
It's not a matter of where you stand but in what direction you're headed.  
Most of us are just about as happy as we make up our minds to be. -Abraham Lincoln (1809-65)
The trouble with doing nothing is that you never know when you are finished.  
Money often costs too much. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Contempt is the weapon of the weak and a defense against one's own despised and unwanted feelings. -Alice Miller
If you are having trouble keeping your head above water, you probably aren't on your toes. -Liguorian
If you want anything done well, do it yourself. This is why most people laugh at their own jokes. -Bob Edwards
Support the strong, give courage to the timid, remind the indifferent, and warn the opposed. -Whitney M. Young
Continue to be yourself because in the end that's what people will remember about you.  
Man's mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions. -Oliver Wendell Holmes
The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. -Thomas Jefferson
To communicate is the beginning of understanding. -AT&T
Be nice to people on your way up because you'll need them on your way down. -W. Migner