aphorisms

Carpe Diem

Discontent is the penalty we pay for being ungrateful for what we have.

Watch you thoughts; they become words
Watch your words, they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; they become destiny.

Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds you down or polishes you up depends on what you are made of.

Temper is what gets most of us into trouble. Pride is what keeps us there.

The good news is that we’re still present to hear the bad news.

Goals are dreams with deadlines.

Dwight Eisenhower use to demonstrate the art of leadership with a simple piece of string. He’d put it on the table and say, Pull it, and it will follow you anywhere you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.

Life is too short to drink bad wine.

Love, like everything else in life is a risk.

Never send a ferret to do a weasel’s job.

Life is what happens while you’re standing still.

For thou hadst come from a kingdom of beauty, Thy trees have thorns and thy bushes blooms, Thy beauty is in thine own soul.

The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between political parties, but right through every human heart.

You can’t think your way into better living, you have to live your way into better thinking.

Share your wisdom, not your prejudices.

On the plains of hesitation, lie the broken bones of men who on the brink of victory rested and rested died!

Philosophy is the self-serving rationalization of a weak mind, unable to deal with the unknown and not having the wherewithal to figure it out.

Success is a journey… not a destination!

It is better to burn out than to fade away.

Be you. Nobody else can be.

Sometimes it takes an old friend to remind you who you are… and someone who you just met to show you what you can be.

Victory is what happens when ten thousand hours of training meet up with one moment of opportunity.

You can’t set sail for new seas if you’re afraid to lose sight of the shore.

My candle burns at both ends it will not last the night but, ah my friends and oh my foes, it casts a lovely light.

You have to choose happiness; It doesn’t chose you.

Luck is the residue of preparation.

You were once wild here, don’t let them tame you. – Isadora Duncan

Someone, somewhere, sometime is gonna love you for who you are.

Its good to have friends in both heaven and hell –George Herbert

One spark can set hundreds on fire.

Sorrow looks down. Worry looks back. Faith looks up.

Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted, counts.

Happiness is wanting what you have, not having what you want.

If you are not living on the edge, you’re taking too much room.

I am what I like about others.

That which you cannot give away, you do not possess. It possesses you.

You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.

You have to learn from the failures of others, you could not possibly live long enough to make them all yourself.

If you fail to try, you fail to succeed.

g’nothi s’auton – Know thy self- inscription on the wall of the temple at Delphi

Honey, I can upstage you with out even being on the stage.
–Tallulah Bankhead

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

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.
–Thomas Edison

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly: what is essential is invisible to the eye.
— Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The times might have changed, but people haven’t
— Carol Brady (Brady Bunch)

If you are not a part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
— JFK

Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except the best.
— Henry Van Dyke

If you were happy every day of your life, you wouldn’t be a human being. You’d be a game show host.
— from the movie Heathers

He who cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself.
— George Herbert

A man should never be ashamed to own he has been wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.
–Alexander Pope

Deal with the faults of others as gently as with your own.
–Henrichs

Late to Bed, Early to Rise; Work like Hell, and You’ll be Wise.
— Hyman G. Rickover, Father of the U.S. Nuclear Navy

Who you are speaks so loudly, I can’t hear what you’re saying.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you want to keep on getting what you’re getting, keep on doing what you’re doing.

When nothing is sure, everything is possible.
— Margret Drabble

I’m an idealist. I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on my way.
— Carl Sandburg

Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.
— James Dean

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength
While loving someone deeply gives you courage
— Lao Tzu

When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
–Yogi Berra

We are not Human Beings having a spiritual experience. We are Spiritual Beings having a human experience.
— Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

When choosing between two evils, I always take the one I haven’t tried before.
— Mae West

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
–Thomas Edison

Always listen to the experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done and why. Then do it.
— Robert Heinlein

If you build it, they will come.
— From the movie, Field of Dreams

There is no security on this earth, there is only opportunity.
— Gen. Douglas MacArthur

Do the thing you’re afraid to do and the death of fear is certain.
–Emerson

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
— Oscar Wilde

Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living; the world owes you nothing; it was here first.
— Mark Twain

Success is a matter of luck. Ask any failure.
–Earl Wilson

I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.
— Stephen Leacock