STEPHEN COVEY

Begin with the end in mind.

DIOGENES

We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.

Chinese proverb

Even a great feast has a last course

ALBERT SCHWEITZER

Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly, even if they roll a few stones upon it.

RICHARD NELSON BOLLES

One of the saddest lines in the world is - oh come now, be realistic. The best parts of this world were not fashioned by those who were realistic. They were fashioned by those who dared to look hard at their wishes and gave them horses to ride.

ANAIS NIN

I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and moulding my life, is too much of a daily event for me.

OPRAH WINFREY

Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right.

LORD TENNYSON

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow;
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true

ANON

A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.

ANON

Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits.

THICH NHAT HANH

From time to time, to remind ourselves to relax, and to be peaceful, we may wish to set aside some time for a retreat, a day of mindfulness, when we walk slowly, smile, drink tea with a friend, and enjoy being together as if we are the happiest people on earth.

ROBERT LYND

Were I a philosopher, I should write a philosophy of toys, showing that nothing else in life need to be taken seriously, and that Christmas Day in the company of children is one of the few occasions on which men become entirely alive.

SHIRLEY TEMPLE

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when my mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for my autograph.

HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.

BURTON HILLIS

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree - the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.

OREN ARNOLD

Christmas gift suggestions -
to your enemy, forgiveness.
to an opponent, tolerance.
to a friend, your heart.
to a customer, service.
to all, charity.
to every child, a good example.
to yourself, respect.

CALVIN COOLIDGE

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.

NORMAN COUSINS

There ain’t much fun in medicine, but there’s a whole lot of medicine in fun.

MILTON GARLAND

Don't worry about anything. Worrying never solved anything. All it does is distort your mind.

THE DALAI LAMA

Today, more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense of Universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life.

EDWARD R. MURROW

Difficulty is an excuse history never accepts.

Today's post is the one thousandth on this blog

To mark the occasion I’m publishing again my special favourite -

“You will find meaning in life only if you create it. It is not lying there somewhere behind the bushes, so you can go and you search a little bit and find it. It is not there like a rock that you will find. It is a poetry to be composed, it is a song to be sung, it is a dance to be danced.” (written by the Indian mystic OSHO 1931-1990)

from FragrantHeart.com

The best time of my life is right now.

St FRANCIS of ASSISI

Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

BAIZHANG

Cling to nothing; crave for nothing

MARCUS AURELIUS

Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind, for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.

African Proverb

When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.

WOODROW WILSON

Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.

FRANZ SCHUBERT

Let us take men as they are, not as they ought to be.

GILDA RADNER

Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity.

BUDDHA

There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth - not going all the way and not starting.

ANON

Only those who do nothing make no mistakes.

AUGUSTUS HARE

Half the failures of this world arise from pulling in one's horse as he is leaping.

DALE CARNEGIE

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon, instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.

From the Dhammapada

Better than a thousand
Hollow words
Is one word that brings peace.

[according to tradition, the 423 verses that make up the Dhammapada were spoken by the Buddha on different occasions]

BARBARA DE ANGELIS

Love is a force more formidable than any other.  It is invisible, it cannot be seen or measured, yet it is powerful enough to transform you in a moment and offer you more joy than any material possession could.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one often comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't.

DIOGENES

It was a favourite expression of Theophrastus that time was the most valuable thing that a man could spend.

ALBERT SCHWEITZER

Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf.

ANON

Sow a thought and you reap an action.
Sow an act and you reap a habit.
Sow a habit and you reap a character.
Sow a character and you reap a destiny.

[attributed to many sources]

SOCRATES

Let him that would move the world first move himself.

JIM RYUN

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.

JAMES EARL JONES

One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter.

Buddhist Saying

Do not speak, unless it improves on silence.

St TERESA of AVILA

The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.
 

EDWARD R. MURROW

To be persuasive, we must be believable.
To be believable, we must be credible.
To be credible, we must be truthful.
   

Gaelic Saying

Cha bhi fios aire math an tobair gus an tràigh e.
(The value of the well is not known until it goes dry.)

JAMES ALLEN

The greatest achievements were at first and for a time dreams. The oak sleeps in the acorn.

ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within.

Swedish Proverb

Fear less, hope more.
Whine less, breathe more.
Talk less, say more.
Hate less, love more,
And all good things are yours.

BOB HOPE

I have seen what a laugh can do.  It can transform almost unbearable tears into something bearable, even hopeful.

DAVID O. McKAY

Find a purpose in life so big it will challenge every capacity to be at your best. 

HEDA BEJAR

The fragrance always remains in the hand that gives the rose.

PLATO

At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet.

EUGENE O’NEILL

I have had my dance with Folly, nor do I shirk the blame,
I have sipped the so-called Wine of Life and paid the price of shame,
But I know that I shall find surcease, the rest my spirit craves,
Where the rainbows play in the flying spray,
'Mid the keen salt kiss of the waves.

BUDDHA

Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike. Each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

African Proverb

When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER

No longer forward nor behind
I look in hope or fear,
But, grateful, take the good I find,
The best of now and here.

CONFUCIUS

Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.

The DALAI LAMA

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.

GOETHE

Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity. The soul must see through these eyes alone, and if they are dim, the whole world is clouded.

ANON

When the game is over, the king and the pawn go back into the same box.

HERMAN MELVILLE

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibres connect us with others; and along those fibres, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.

MAHATMA GANDHI

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.

EMILY DICKENSON

The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.

BUDDHA

Hatred does not cease through hatred at any time. Hatred ceases through love. This is an unalterable law.

W. S. GILBERT

Life’s a pudding full of plums,
Care’s a canker that benumbs.
Wherefore waste our elocution
On impossible solution?
Life’s a pleasant institution.
Let us take it as it comes.

ECCLESIASTICUS

Have regard for your name, since it will remain for you longer than a great store of gold.

Chinese Proverb

We count our miseries carefully, and accept our blessings without much thought.

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.