attrib. ABRAHAM LINCOLN

A day in your life without a laugh is a day in your life lost

KATHERINE MANSEFIELD

I have made it a rule of my 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.

LAO-TZU

Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity,
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires.

CICERO

If you aspire to the highest place, it is no disgrace to stop at the second, or even the third, place.

MAHATMA GANDHI

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

JANE AUSTEN

Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong?

THOMAS JEFFERSON

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.

AESOP

It is easy to be brave from a safe distance.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

A man in a passion rides a mad horse

Gaelic Saying

An làmb a bheir, ‘s i a gheibh.
The hand that gives is the hand that gets.

ECCLESIASTES

The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.

LAO-TZU

He who knows other men is learned.
He who knows himself is enlightened.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.

DANIEL H. BURNHAM

Make no little plans - they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans - aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistence. 

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.

CONFUCIUS

Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life.

ANON

Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear.

GOETHE

Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least. 

Chinese Proverb

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will avoid one hundred days of sorrow.

HELEN KELLER

Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.

WILLIAM BLAKE

Cruelty has a human heart,
And Jealousy a human face,
Terror the human form divine,
And secrecy the human dress.

BUDDHA

Anger will never disappear so long as thoughts of resentment are cherished in the mind. Anger will disappear just as soon as thoughts of resentment are forgotten.

An Apache Blessing

May the sun bring you new energy by day, may the moon softly restore you by night, may the rain wash away your worries, may the breeze blow new strength into your being, may you walk gently through the world and know its beauty all the days of your life.

SPIKE MILLIGAN

Money can't buy friends, but you can get a better class of enemy.

TERENCE*

There is nothing so easy but that it becomes difficult when you do it with reluctance.

*Terence 195-159 BC, Roman dramatist

CHARLES CALEB COLTON

He that thinks himself the happiest man really is so, but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.

WILLIAM CONGREVE

I am always of the opinion with the learned, if they speak first.

DESCARTES

Common sense is the best distributed commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it.

ANON

More powerful than the will to win is the courage to begin.

HENRY FORD

Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right.

The DALAI LAMA

It is under the greatest adversity that there exists the greatest potential for doing good, both for oneself and others.

ANON

Instead of giving myself reasons why I can't, I give myself reasons why I can.

NORA ROBERTS

If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place.

T.S. ELIOT

If you haven't the strength to impose your own terms upon life, you must accept the terms it offers you.

GOETHE

Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.

BLAISE PASCAL

Most of the evils of life arise from man’s inability to sit still in a room.

MOTHER TERESA

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

Gaelic Saying

Cha tèid nì sam bith san dòrn dùinte.
Nothing can get into a closed fist.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.

SAMUEL JOHNSON

Courage is the greatest of all the virtues. If you haven't courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.

MUSO KOKUSHI

It is better to practice a little than talk a lot.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Love is flower like. Friendship is like a sheltering tree.

ANON

Who never wept knows laughter but a jest,
Who never failed no victory has sought,
Who never suffered never lived his best,
Who never doubted, never really thought.

BUDDHA

To meditate is to listen
with a receptive heart.

JOSEPH ADDISON

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.

Zen Saying

Only when you can be extremely pliable and soft can you be extremely hard and strong.

JOSEPH DISPENZA

Every time we leave home and go to another place, we open up the possibility of having something wonderful happen to us. When we move out of the familiar here and now, we set in motion a series of events which, taken together, bring about changes in the very depths of our being.

SIDNEY LOVETT

Every now and again take a good look at something not made with hands - a mountain, a star, the turn of a stream. There will come to you wisdom and patience and solace and, above all, the assurance that you are not alone in the world.

DALAI LAMA

When we feel love and kindness towards others, it helps us develop inner happiness and peace.

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.

JEROME KERN

Look for the silver lining
When e'er a cloud appears in the blue.
Remember somewhere the sun is shining,
And so the right thing to do,
Is make it shine for you.

A heart, full of joy and gladness,
Will always banish sadness and strife.
So always look for the silver lining,
And try to find the sunny side of life.

(a popular song in the 1930s)

ARISTOTLE

In all things of nature there is something of the marvellous.

MATSUO BASHO

Who mourns makes grief his master.
Who drinks makes pleasure his master.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Finish each day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in,
forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day,
begin it well and serenely
and with too high a spirit
to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

BABA RAM DASS

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

FRANCOIS de la ROCHEFOUCAULD

When we are unable to find tranquillity within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

I never think about the future. It comes soon enough.

ELBERT HUBBARD

Don’t take life too seriously - you’ll never get out of it alive.

ANON

If you want something very badly, let it go free.
If it comes back to you, it’s yours forever.
If it doesn’t, it was never yours to start with.

LAO-TSU

See the small and develop clear vision.
Practice yielding and develop strength.
Use the outer light to return to the inner light and save yourself from harm.

Gaelic Saying

Is fheàrr teine beag a gharas na teine mòr a loisgeas.
The little fire that warms is better than the big fire that burns.

ALBERT CAMUS

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

BUDDHA

This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace.
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech,
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied,
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways,
Peaceful and calm, and wise and skilful,
Not proud and demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end, Each changing place with that which goes before In sequent toil all forwards do contend.

JEROME K. JEROME

I like work. It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.

ANNE HERBERT

Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.

Italian Rhyme

Chi va piano
Va lontano
E va sano.
He who travels slowly goes far and goes safely.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

MOLIERE

I assure you, an educated fool is more foolish than an uneducated one.

EPICTETUS

To accuse others for one’s own misfortunes is a sign of lack of education.
To accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun.
To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.

ANON

FOR HIM
We men have many faults,
Poor women have but two.
There’s nothing good they say,
There’s nothing good they do.
.
FOR HER
Women’s faults are many,
Men have only two.
Everything they say
And everything they do.

ANDRE GIDE

Believe those who are seeking the truth.
Doubt those who find it.

THICH NHAT HANH

People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong.
Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?

GEORGE ELIOT

Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning. But give me the man who has pluck to fight when he’s sure of losing. There are many victories worse than defeat.

THOMAS A KEMPIS

We would have much peace if we would not busy ourselves with the sayings and doings of others.

Gaelic Saying

Chan ann leis a’chiad bhuille thuiteas a’chraobh.
(It is not with the first stroke that the tree falls.)

WINSTON CHURCHILL

Saving is a very fine thing, especially when your parents have done it for you.

BUDDHA

There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts. It is a sword that kills.

ALFRED Lord TENNYSON

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.

SOREN KIERKEGAARD

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

LAO- TZU

For knowledge add a little every day
For wisdom erase a little every day

ANON

Life owes me nothing.
One clear morn
Is boon enough
For being born;
And be it ninety years or ten,
No need for me to question when,
While life is mine,
I’ll find it good
And greet each hour
With gratitude.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Wink at small faults. Remember, thou hast great ones.

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

There is only one difference between a long life and a good dinner. In the dinner the sweets come last.

CZESLAW MILOSZ

I would prefer to be able to say, “I am satiated,
What is given to taste in this life, I have tasted.“
But I am like someone in a window who draws aside a curtain
To look at a feast he does not comprehend.
[Czeslaw Milosz 1911-2004, Polish-American poet and writer, Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980]

GOETHE

To think is easy.
To act is hard.
But the hardest thing in the world
is to act in accordance with your thinking.

German Rhyme

Morgen, morgen nur nicht heute
Sagan alle faule Leute.
Tomorrow, tomorrow but not today
All the lazy people say.

MOLIERE

The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.

Once upon a time............

A student asked Buddha, "Are you the Messiah?"
"No" was the answer.
“Are you a healer?"
"No". "Are you a teacher?" "No”.
"Then what are you?" "I am awake", Buddha replied.

BENJAMIN MAYS

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.

CONFUCIUS

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.

ELMER G. LETTERMAN

A man may fall many times, but he won't be a failure until he says that someone pushed him.

Latin Proverb

He who sins when drunk will have to atone for it when sober.

St PAUL

Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

JAMES THURBER

There is no exception to the rule that every rule has an exception.

OSHO

Don’t seek, don’t search, don’t ask, don’t knock, don’t demand - just relax. If you relax, it comes. If you relax, it is there. If you relax, you start vibrating with it.

LILY TOMLIN

For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.

CHARLES READE

Never a day passes over the earth, but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great words and suffer noble sorrows.