You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things – to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.
~ Edmund Hillary
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Quotes
A long long time ago I began collecting inspirational quotes and aphorisms which became my collection of quotes.
Take measure. Make waves.
The real damage is done by those millions who want to ‘survive.’ The honest men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don’t want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those with no sides and no causes. Those who won’t take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those who don’t like to make waves—or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honour, truth, and principles are only literature. Those who live small, mate small, die small. It’s the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you’ll keep it under control. If you don’t make any noise, the bogeyman won’t find you. But it’s all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does. I choose my own way to burn.
~ unknown
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Aside: This quote is often attributed to Sophie Scholl. But that is disputed.
Notice when you are happy
And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.
~ Kurt Vonnegut
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People need to travel
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.
~ Mark Twain
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In struggle there is magic
Western culture has things a little backwards right now. We think that if we had every comfort available to us, we’d be happy. We equate comfort with happiness. And now we’re so comfortable we’re miserable. There’s no struggle in our lives. No sense of adventure. We get in a car, we get in an elevator, it all comes easy. What I’ve found is that I’m never more alive than when I’m pushing and I’m in pain, and I’m struggling for high achievement, and in that struggle I think there’s a magic.
~ Dean Karnazes
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Ever notice how drinking’s like war?
Ever notice how drinking’s like war?
~ Moxy Früvous, from The Drinking Song
Cup o troops oe’r the guns
Til the end of our health
A campaign ‘gainst myself
Armed with bourbons and scotches and rums
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Road to freedom
All know the way.
~ Bodhidharma
Few actually walk it.
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Part of a whole
A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
~ Albert Einstein
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Self-confidence
The quickest way to self-confidence is to do exactly what you are afraid to do.
~ unknown
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Absorb what is useful
Because of styles, people are separated. Research your own experience, absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is essentially your own.
~ Bruce Lee
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How good?
Be so good they can’t ignore you.
Said during an interview on the Charlie Rose show after being asked his advice for aspiring performers:
Nobody ever takes note of [my advice], because it’s not the answer they wanted to hear. What they want to hear is, “Here’s how you get an agent, here’s how you write a script,” … but I always say, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.'”
~ Steve Martin
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Grow up?
Now you understand why Peter Pan didn’t want to grow up.
~ unknown
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It’s just a ride
The world is like a ride at an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think that it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills, and it’s very brightly coloured, and it’s very loud and it’s fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question – is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us. They say ‘Hey! Don’t worry, don’t be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride.’ And we… kill those people.
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Be soft!
Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe the world to be a beautiful place.
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Be water
Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.
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Do you have a question?
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.
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Precendence
Dead last finish is greater than did not finish, which trumps did not start.
~ unknown
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Be kind
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
~ Plato
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Did not finish
Never throw in the towel. Use it to wipe the sweat from your brow. Then keep going.
~ unknown
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Did not start
The hardest part of any journey is believing you are able to begin it.
~ unknown
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