There is nothing wrong with America that the faith, love of freedom, intelligence, and energy of her citizens cannot cure.
~ Dwight Eisenhower
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Quotes
A long long time ago I began collecting inspirational quotes and aphorisms which became my collection of quotes.
Mastery
One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.
~ Leonardo da Vinci
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Only virtuous people
Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.
~ Ben Franklin
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One heel nailed in
Ambition has one heel nailed in well, though she stretch her fingers to touch the heavens.
~ Lao Tzu
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Things worth the writing
If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing.
~ Ben Franklin
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If you must
Never lie, steal, cheat, or drink. But if you must lie, lie in the arms of the one you love. If you must steal, steal away from bad company. If you must cheat, cheat death. And if you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away
~ Will Smith
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Words not deeds
A man of words and not of deeds, is like a garden full of weeds.
~ Ben Franklin
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Someone else holding the remote
Living life without a plan is like watching televisions with someone else holding the remote control.
~ Peter Turla
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Live immediately
Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: It snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future. The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today. You are arranging what lies in Fortune’s control, and abandoning what lies in yours. What are you looking at? To what goal are you straining? The whole future lies in uncertainty: Live immediately.
~ Seneca
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Don’t over-fill; Don’t over-sharpen
Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.
~ Lao Tzu
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Albert Camus on the Three Antidotes to the Absurdity of Life
In a world whose absurdity appears to be so impenetrable, we simply must reach a greater degree of understanding among men, a greater sincerity. We must achieve this or perish. To do so, certain conditions must be fulfilled: men must be frank (falsehood confuses things), free (communication is impossible with slaves). Finally, they must feel a certain justice around them.
~ Albert Camus from, https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/07/24/albert-camus-interview-absurd/
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Not mine
Not my circus.
~ Polish proverb
Not my monkeys.
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Fear is not real
Fear is not real. The only place that fear can exist is in our thoughts of the future. It is a product of our imagination, causing us to fear things that do not at present and may not ever exist. That is near insanity. Do not misunderstand me danger is very real but fear is a choice.
~ Will Smith
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If today were the last day
I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” and whenever the answer has been “no” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
~ Steve Jobs
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Escape from the crush of circumstances
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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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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