Today I escaped from the crush of circumstances, or better put, I threw them out, for the crush wasn’t from outside me but in my own assumptions.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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Escape from the crush of circumstances →
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield →
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
~ Alfred Lord Tennyson
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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Key to success →
I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
~ Bill Cosby
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Beauty and Strength →
No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training … what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which is body is capable.
~ Socrates
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Give it a try →
“It’s impossible,” said pride.
~ unknown
“It’s risky,” said experience.
“It’s pointless,” said reason.
“Give it a try,” whispered the heart.
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On the shortness of life →
Relax the straitened limits of the time which is allotted me. Show me that the good in life does not depend upon life’s length, but upon the use we make of it; also, that it is possible, or rather usual, for a man who has lived long to have lived too little. Say to me when I lie down to sleep: “You may not wake again!” And when I have waked: “You may not go to sleep again!” Say to me when I go forth from my house: “You may not return!” And when I return: “You may never go forth again!” You are mistaken if you think that only on an ocean voyage there is a very slight space between life and death. No, the distance between is just as narrow everywhere. It is not everywhere that death shows himself so near at hand; yet everywhere he is as near at hand.
~ Seneca
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Never give up →
You just can’t beat a person who never gives up.
~ Babe Ruth
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Imagine where you will be →
Three weeks from now, I will be harvesting my crops.
~ Maximus, in Gladiator, (2000 film)
Imagine where you will be, and it will be so.
If you find yourself alone, riding in the green fields
with the sun on your face, do not be troubled.
For you are in Elysium, and you’re already dead!
Brothers, what we do in life… echoes in eternity.
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Not going to stay →
The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.
~ unknown
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A responsibility to light →
Feel all the things. Feel the hard things. The inexplicable things, the things that make you disavow humanity’s capacity for redemption. Feel all the maddening paradoxes. Feel overwhelmed, crazy. Feel uncertain. Feel angry. Feel afraid. Feel powerless. Feel frozen. And then FOCUS.
~ Wendy MacNaughton, and Courtney Martin
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