ALFRED MONTAPERT

Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress.

A.P. HERBERT

People must not do things for fun.
We are not here for fun.
There is no reference to fun in any Act of Parliament.

A.P.Herbert 1890-1971, English humorist, playwright, novelist and Member of Parliament

JOHN WOODEN

Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.

DIOGENES

Those who have virtue always in their mouths, and neglect it in practice, are like a harp, which emits a sound pleasing to others, while itself is insensible of the music.

JOSEPH ADDISON

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure but, scattered along life's pathway the good they do is inconceivable.

EDDIE CANTOR

Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast.You also miss the sense of where you are going and why.

ALBERT SCHWEITZER

A man does not have to be an angel in order to be saint.

BUDDHA

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth and faithfulness the best relationship.

ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS

How do geese know when to fly to the sun? Who tells them the seasons? How do we know when it’s time to move on? Just like the migrant birds, surely with us there is a voice within, if only we would listen to it, that tells us when to go forth into the unknown

[ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS 1926-2004 Swiss-born psychiatrist and author of “On Death and Dying”, moved to USA in 1958]

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

Reputation is only a candle of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.

ANON

My grandpa notes the world's worn cogs
And says we're going to the dogs.
His grandpa in his house of logs
Said things were going to the dogs.
His grandpa in the Flemish bogs
Said things were going to the dogs.
His grandpa in his hairy togs
Said things were going to the dogs.
But this is what I wish to state.
The dogs have had a long, long wait.

MATSUO BASHO

Seek not the paths of the ancients.
Seek that which the ancients sought.

RABINDRANATH TAGORE

I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door, or I'll make a door.

ROBERT C. EDWARDS

Never exaggerate your faults. Your friends will attend to that.

ANON

It has been found that in the worst of human degradation and suffering beauty can be found simply by changing one’s focus.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

Every calling is great when greatly pursued.

MARK TWAIN

It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it's the parts that I do understand.

Arab Proverb

Insults should be written in the sand, and praises carved in stone.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

It's easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much better at the top.

BERTRAND RUSSELL

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

DIOGENES

He has the most who is most content with the least.

BUDDHA

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

ALBERT SCHWEITZER

A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.

Gaelic Saying

Tha an lasair nad anam aig meadhan do bhith
Nas làidir 's nas motha na riaghaltas no rìgh.
(The spark in your soul at the centre of your being
Is larger and stronger than any government or king)

PAUL MEYER

Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon - must inevitably come to pass.

ARISTOTLE

One must learn by doing the thing, for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try.

GEORGE ELIOT

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.

Chinese Proverb

If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.

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.