Quotes:

Some of my favorites


  1. "The measure of any relationship is who you get to be when you're with them". - William Hurt as Macon in the movie Accidental Tourist.

  2. "The effect you have on others, is the most valuable currency there is". - Jim Carrey

  3. "Keeping good company is the key to success". - Suzie Orman

  4. Facing adversity with compassion opens the doors for good things to happen.

  5. Be careful with your thoughts when alone, and be careful with your words when with people.

  6. "The biggest communication problem is that we don't listen to understand, we listen to reply".

  7. "We cannot change anything unless we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses." ~ Carl Jung

  8. “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ~Howard Thurman

  9. "Our choices are the road we lay for the path we take..", George Will

  10. "My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me". - Henry Ford

  11. "It's not what we don't know that gets us, but what we are sure of, that ain't true" - Mark Twain

  12. “The only terrain we are overcoming is our limited view of ourselves.” Dr Joe Dispenza

  13. To help us bring benefit to others through our words and actions, it is useful to cultivate an attitude of sympathetic joy in others’ achievements and good fortune. This attitude is a powerful antidote against envy, which is not only a source of unnecessary suffering on the individual level but also an obstacle to our ability to reach out and engage with others. - Dalai Lama

  14. The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone else. - Ayn Rand

  15. Feeling grateful or appreciative of someone or something in your life actually attracts more of the things that you appreciate and value into your life. A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues.

  16. "Success not shared is failure"

  17. Your life is not likely to be any bigger or better than you can imagine.

  18. A friend is one who knows who you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you've become, and still gently invites you to grow.

  19. Don't believe everything you think.

  20. In Chinese, the symbol for crisis is the same as for opportunity.

  21. "The most important ingredient of success, is failure." - Thomas Edison

  22. "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life."

  23. "[Everybody who knows you has developed a sense of who you are, and there is no power on earth that can ever change their mind. Their concept of you can effectively trap you by pulling you back to what they see you as when you are in their presence. That might have been a time when surrounding influences were bringing out the worst in you. You may not feel free to evolve as the unique person you are . They're perspective could keep pulling you back to who you were in their mind, in the past. In some cases this could mean that your potential may be greatly compromised]". - Don Juan (from the book Journey to Ixtlan by Carlos Castaneda)

  24. "The juicy thing about acting is that you can be whoever you want." - Jack Nicholson

  25. "He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man." - Dr. Johnson, from the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

  26. "Making music was always a series of changes and explorations for me which has nothing to do with trend, nothing to do with saleability, it was really [just] me discovering me." - Eric Clapton

  27. The more we learn, the more we realize how little we know.

  28. "I'm not a democrat or a republican; I'm an independent, but I do still believe in a two party system; one on Friday and one on Saturday".
    - A guy on the Jay Leno show.

  29. "You can never feel good about life if you don't feel good about yourself, because from the point of view of the central consciousness perspective, it's all the same"

  30. "... It is contrary to human nature, to sustain appreciation without resentment, toward capabilities that one does not possess [but that someone else does posess]." - Karen Horney

  31. "People will believe what they want to believe, as they sell out to the peer pressure that rescues them the most effectively from their sense of inadequacy".

  32. The most powerful force in the universe is gossip.

  33. "If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging"

  34. A friend is someone who has the same enemies you have. (Abraham Lincoln)

  35. The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing in the right place, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

  36. "You have to be able to listen with your heart. And it's a rare quality. Even people, I mean in everyday life, [there are] very few of them [that] I've met that know how to listen with their heart. And it could be just having a conversation at lunch where someone is -- we're just talking about the affairs of the day, and halfway through what I'm saying, they will cut in by saying oh, yeah, I know what you mean or an interruption or whatever. But there's not that many people I have met in my life that have that gift. It's not just a gift, it has to be developed. But it's a question of listening with empathy to everything and anything, and then applying that. And so even as a [guitar] player, it's necessary when playing, to be listening to the musicians around you, or whatever, or to your environment, and to incorporate that in your playing, because otherwise you can become an incredibly skilled virtuoso but with absolutely no connection to the rest of the world. I know lots of bedroom guitar players who are fantastic. I meet musicians who are really competent, but they have no capacity to play with other musicians because they don't know how to listen. It's a very, very important, and perhaps the most important thing." - Eric Clapton - 2002ish

  37. Music is what feelings sound like.

  38. "The glass is half empty if all you want to do is drink from it. It's half full if you're willing to [help] fill it."
    - Bill Cosby's Dad

  39. "One must have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star." - Nietzsche

  40. A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in on the experience. (Elbert Hubbard)

  41. Forgiveness is unlocking the door to set someone free and realizing you were the prisoner. - Max Lucado

  42. A fall will always make a wise man wiser. (ancient Chinese)

  43. "You've got to be willing to give up those things that keep you from being number one" - Bob Richards the pole vaulter (no known relation)

  44. "Be the bearer of good news" - Dale Carnegie

  45. Abraham Lincoln was once talking with a woman about how the North must treat the South. She disagreed with him, and said that she felt that we must destroy our enemies. Lincoln replied, "What, madam? Do I not destroy them when I make them my friends?"

  46. "[If you walk a mile in their shoes, you won't know how to hate them -- you will understand them too well]". - Old Native-American saying

  47. "20 years from now you'll be more disappointed with the things you didn't do, than the things you did do." - Mark Twain.

  48. "Success is failure turned inside out". - Unknown

  49. Socrates - "The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance."

  50. On the neuron level, we litterly become our interpretation of the people we look up to. The people we believe in. Who are your Mentors?

  51. "Success comes in a can. Failure comes in a can't" - The Master Wrench

  52. "A college degree is the one thing nobody can take away from you". - Robert David Richards (my uncle)

  53. Ability can take you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.

  54. "... Nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek." - Martin Luther King

  55. "It’s difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it." , Upton Sinclair

  56. He does the work of three men: Larry, Moe and Curly.

  57. "The key to happiness is self delusion" - Dogbert

  58. "The ability to inhibit the instinct to go for the short term thrill, is the modern definition of maturity." - Carrie Bradshaw.

  59. "[We're sitting on a piece of dirt that is flying through the universe at 50,000 miles per hour, filled with molten lava-- it's a miracle that anything good or meaningful EVER happens at all!!! It's completely ridiculous to ever feel like life isn't good enough. Like the opportunities life offers aren't worth the pain. We should be amazed and appreciative of what we do have]". - Alan Watts

  60. 'The most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you find someone to love the you you love, well, that's just fabulous.' Carrie Bradshaw

  61. "Know thyself." - Socrates

  62. Example isn't another way to teach, it is the only way to teach. ~ Albert Einstein

  63. "Those who will succeed in the 21st century will be masters of two things: Fueling their own hype, and seeing through the inflated claims of others". - O'Reilly

  64. "95% of Manic Depression is caused by people choosing to indulge in delusions of grandeur". - A Psychiatrist who makes $180 per hour in 1990.

  65. "[An exhibit of freedom scares the hell out of people. It makes them realize how little freedom they actually have. When you see the way most people are bought and sold in the market place, you know that freedom is an ideal to aspire to, not a reality. Being reminded of that can make them very dangerous]". - Jack Nicholson in the movie Easy Rider

  66. "...To take myself too seriously is the gentle kiss of death." - Leon Redbone

  67. "Change your personal agreements and you change your life" - from the book: The Four Agreements

  68. "It's all a matter of perspective" - Bruce Penney, MSEE

  69. “He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.” - Albert Einstein

  70. 'The best thing about a person is that which makes them unique.' - Robin Williams in the movie 'Good Will Hunting'.

  71. "If you take the time to establish the question in full detail, finding the answer often becomes a trivial matter - It's about getting the question right." an Electrical Engineer at Tektronix Inc.

  72. People ususally have very good judgement. The place people fall short is when it comes to gathering data. They get what they think is enough, and it often isn't. - A teacher at Portland Community College

  73. "[I don't think about the actual exercise, but rather what life will be like and how good I'll feel when it's done]" - Gregg Braden (The Isiah effect)

  74. "Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity." - Oprah Winfrey

  75. "You can't recover a fumble if you're not on the field" - Tim Rossiter's dad

  76. "Your feeling of remorse validates your humanity." - Anonymous

  77. "People who lack purpose are unhappy people" - Jackie Gleason

  78. "Don't offer advice to your kids until they ask for it". - Ozzie Nelson

  79. "If we're having fun, the audience is having fun". - Red Skelton

  80. "I always try to be current to me. I'm not concerned; and I try to be concerned, with other peoples points of view. It's very difficult to second-guess what the public want, and actually - to be perfectly honest - I don't much care. It's much more important that my music works to satisfy me and satisfies my principles and my concept of what it is all about. Then, if other people like it, that's fine. Otherwise, it becomes... labored. I think allowing an audience to experience the artist's vulnerability is probably the most valuable thing you can give them." - Eric Clapton

  81. "When angry, she had the rare ability to focus on the action that provoked her wrath, rather than on the person who committed it. By doing so, she avoided judging [the person], which is one reason her friendships were long and deep." - Jodie Foster talking about a friend.

  82. "Nothing will kill you quicker than unhappiness" - Phyllis Diller

  83. A ciggarette gives a wise man time to think, and a fool something to suck on.

  84. A cynic is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

  85. "Cynicism is a self fulfilling prophecy"

  86. Rule of Projects: The first 90 per cent of any project takes 90 per cent of the time, and the last 10 per cent of the project takes the other 90 per cent of the time.

  87. The Law of Diffusion: In a group of people, some of which are smoking cigarettes, the smoke will always go in the direction of the non-smoker.

  88. If Vegetarians eat vegetables, what do Humanitarians eat?

  89. If Darth Vador married Eli Fitzgerald, her new name would be Eli Vador.

  90. "I hate housework! You make the beds, you do the dishes -- and six months later you have to start all over again!" - Joan Rivers

  91. "Times are more like they are now than they've ever been before" - Former President Eisenhauer

  92. A Dutchman was explaining the red, white, and blue Netherlands flag to an American. "Our flag is symbolic of our taxes. We get red when we talk about them, white when we get our tax bills, and blue after we pay them." The American nodded. "It's the same in the USA only we see stars too!"

  93. "Looks are everything" - Jack Nicholson

  94. "Things are rarely as they seem" - Perry Mason

  95. "It isn't a rat-race unless you run with rats" - Perry Mason

  96. "Acting displaces tired misguided habits and rekindles the concept of practicing being the person you really mean to and want to be. It develops focus, creativity and the concept of living by intent rather than by reaction" - Anonymous

  97. "Communication is everything" - A marriage counselor

  98. "A person needs three things in life to be happy: Love, Something to do, and Something to look forward to". - Anonymous

  99. "Hate depends upon ignorance." - Joe White.

  100. "Inside the brain is billions of neurons, each very analogous to an whole person, looking to us (our soul or conscious self - the master neuron?) for what to believe, how to feel, a perspective, and with those beliefs and perspectives that we establish in them at the moment of their birth (neurogenesis), they try to help us answer questions and function in general in the future. Neurons are constantly being born and they take on the consciousness of the birth moment. They see things through that "lens" from then on. Beware of self-delusion or darkness by choice. It causes an accumulation of neurons that always see the bad in everything - Where you put your consciousness, how you choose to view things; that's what accumulates, that's what grows and becomes who you will be."

  101. To steal ideas from one person is called plagiarism; to steal from many is called research.

  102. The core part of the brain, with our most basic instincts, hasn't changed much in hundreds of thousands of years that we know of, according to Richard Restak, one of the worlds leading neuro-scientists. Many of our primevil instincts are optimized for the way life was in our earliest years of evolution (primitive jungle life) (and by far the majority of the time humans have existed on earth). Those "instincts" enabled us to survive as a species through all those years in that environment and up to the present. Because of the degree that life has changed, especially in the last century, many of those "survival instincts" have become not only obsolete, but a source of dysfunction. To do well in todays world, we need to understand this, and keep it in mind when we choose how to react to whatever comes along.

  103. "Diplomacy is letting the other person have it your way".

  104. "The road to hell is paved with gold"

  105. What does your unconscious mind want you to do? Is that who you want to be? What have you taught your uncoonscious mind with your interpretations? Neurogenesis is when a neuron is born and looks to the conscious self for what to believe and who to be. From there on, that neuron tries to be helpful with the rest of the 10 billion neurons.

  106. If you've been good all year, then it's your own darn fault. - Santa Claus

  107. I am the author of my life! I'm writing with a pen.... I can't erase my mistakes but I can learn from them.

  108. "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." John Renolds.

  109. "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

  110. ‘Most people who hand out advice are incapable of putting themselves in your shoes...' Paul Theroux

  111. Where Are We Going, and Why Am I In This Handbasket?!!!

  112. What is a Flowchart? Click here.