Personal Growth

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace
there may be in silence.  As far as possible without surrender be on good
terms with all persons.  Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and
listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexatious to the
spirit.  If you compare yourself with others, you may become bitter or
vain, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a
real possession in the changing fortunes of time.  Exercise caution
in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery.  But let
this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high
ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.  Especially, do not feign affection.  Neither be
cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering
the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden
misfortune.  But do not distress yourself with imaginings.  Many fears are
born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be
gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the
stars; you have a right to be here.  And whether or not it is clear to
you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to
be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of
life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a
beautiful world.  Be cheerful.  Strive to be happy.

-- Max Ehrmann
(sent by Patrick McCourt at MCCOUP9@bor1.sd01.k12.id.us)
 

SUCCESS
If you think you are beaten, you are
 If you think you dare not, you don't
 If you like to win, but you think you can't
 It is almost certain you won't
 If you think you'll lose, you're lost
 For out of the world we find
Success begins with a fellow's will
 It's all in the state of mind
If you think you are outclassed, you are,
 You've got to think high to rise,
You've got to be sure of yourself before
 You can ever win a prize
 Life's battle don't always go
  To the stronger or faster man,
 But soon or late, the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can!
-- Unknown

The sign of intelligent people is their ability to control
emotions by the application of reason.
-- Marya Mannes, "More in Anger", 1958

I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we
stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of
heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes
against it, -- but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at
anchor.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes,
"The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,"
1891

Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves.
-- Nietzsche, "Twilight of the Idols", 1888

Seek always for the answer within. Be not influenced by
those around you, by their thoughts or their words.
 -- Eileen Caddy

It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.
-- Dolores Ibarruri, (1885-1989) Spanish politician

The real winners in life are the people who look at every
situation with an expectation that they can make it work or
make it better.
-- Barbara Pletcher

Human reason has only to will more strongly than fate,
and she is fate.
-- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain," 1924

Opinions that are well rooted should grow and
change like a healthy tree.
-- Irving Batcheller

Sometimes on the way to our dreams,
We get lost and find an even better one!"
--- Author Unknown
-- Contributed by Martha Gil --- Virginia

" Try and fail, but don't fail to try."
--- Stephen Kaggwa --- Uganda, Kampala

" Adventure isn't hanging on a rope off the side of a  mountain.
Adventure is an attitude that we must apply.
To the day to day obstacles of life -
Facing new challenges, seizing new opportunities,
Testing our resources against the unknown and in the process,
Discovering our own unique potentional. "
--- Written by John Amatt,
Organizer and participant in Canada's first successful
expedition To the summit of Mt Everest.
--- Sent by Lucy --- from Sydney, Australia

" Where you end up isn't the most important thing.
It's the road you take to get you there.
The road you take is what you'll look back on
And call your life.
Not reaching success isn't the end of the world.
Not trying to reach it is."
--- Tim Wiley
--- Sent in by Astra --- Melbourne, Australia

" Believe in yourself and in your dream
Though impossible things may seem,
Someday, somehow, you'll get through
To the goal you have in view.
Mountains fall and seas divide
Before the one who in his stride
Takes a hard road day by day,
Sweeping obstacles away.
Believe in yourself and in your plan,
Say not - I cannot - but, I can.
The prizes of life we fail to win
Because we doubt the power within."
--- Anonymous --- Sent in by Sue --- Australia

" Is God Real? Is God There?

God is like
The wind and air
You can not see it
But you know it's there;
God is-love,peace and life
Through your darkest hours
He is the light;
Though fear and shame
May haunt you too
Gods love will
Be forever with you;
As sure as the wind blows
And you breathe air
You may not see him,but
God is there..."
--- By Joe Stevens Jr. --- Louisiana

" If you want 1 year of prosperity, grow grain.
If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees.
If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people."
--- Old Chinese Proverb

" Courage is not the towering oak
That sees storms come and go;
It is the fragile blossom
That opens in the snow."
--- Alice Mackenzie Swaim
--- Sent in by Amy Yates --- Texas

Doubt vs. Faith
" Doubt sees the obstacles
Faith sees the way.
Doubt sees the darkest night.
Faith sees the day.
Doubt dreads to take a step.
Faith soars on high.
Doubt questions,'Who believes'?
Faith answers,'I'."
-- Author Unknown
Contributed by Karen VanDyke,Illinois

" The right time was at the crossroads
With a future in his plans
The wrong time reapproaches
With right time's suitcase in hand
The right time asks, how 's the journey?
The wrong time said the "whether" turned me around.
The right time, shakes his head,
Shakes his hand and leaves
Before the sun goes down."
-- Ty Higgins --- Georgia

" I can't is a coward,
I'll try is a soldier,
I will is a King."
-- My Mom --- Contributed by Bill Strong --- Florida

 Did is a word of achievement
Won't is a word of defeat
Might is a word of bereavement
Can't is a word of defeat
Ought is a word of duty
Try is a word each hour
Will is a word of beauty
Can is a word of power."
-- Gerard Hargraves

" I have a dream that my 4 children will one day live in a nation
Where they will not be judged by the color of their skin
But by the content of their character."
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
-- Contributed by Katie Durbin

" Many people chase after success.
Other pursue money.
But I think the happiest people on earth
Are the one's who have found significance.
The real question of life must be
What has significance for you?"
-- Derek Lantzsch

" If you listen you will hear
If you look you will see
If you touch you will feel
If you try you will be."
-- Becky Stanford --- Texas

" If one advances confidently in the direction of their dreams,
And endeavours to lead a life which they have imagined,
They will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."
-- Henry David Thoreau
-- Sent in by Sue --- Australia

" Opportunity knocks at the strangest times,
It's not the time that matters
But how you answer the door."
-- Steve Gray --- Geelong, Australia

" The difficulties we experience
Always illuminate the lessons we need most."
-- Author Unknown
-- Submitted by Toby Dingle --- Virginia

" Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday."
-- Unknown --- Contributed by Jordan

" Lord grant that I might always desire more than I can accomplish."
-- Michelangelo
-- Sent in by Joslin --- Colorado

" Fate only takes you so far.
The rest is up to you. "
-- From Can't Hardly Wait
-- Submitted by Angie Gill, Oregon

" When you come to the end of everything you know
And are faced with the darkness of the unknown,
Faith is knowing one of two things will happen.
Either there will be something solid for you to stand on,
Or you will be taught how to fly."
-- Barbara J. Winter
-- Contributed by Jamie Smelley

" Those who hear not the music. . .
think the dancers mad."
-- Author Unknown
-- Submitted by Kari Scarlett -- Alberta, Canada

" You must live in the present,
launch yourself on every wave,
find your eternity in each moment.
Fools stand on
their island opportunities and
look toward another land.
There is no other land,
this is no other life but this."
-- Henry David Thoreau
-- Contributed by Robyn Mauza, British Columbia, Canada

" Never say you don't have enough time...
You have exactly the same number of hours per day
That were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo,
Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson
And Albert Einstein."
-- Author Unknown
-- Contributed by Fran Sawyer, Florida

" No birth certificate is issued when friendship is born.
There is nothing tangible.
There is just a feeling that your life is
different and that your capacity to love and care has
miraculously been enlarged with out any effort on your part.
It's like having a tiny apartment and somebody moves in with you.
But instead of becoming cramped and crowded, the space expands,
and you discover rooms you never knew you had
until your friend moved in with you."
-- Steve Tesich
-- Contributed by Gary Harrington, Michigan

" We stare into the fire of life, the flame of the soul,
Yet we stand, so far away,
Basking in the eternal energy that flows from within it,
We stand back, too scared to approach the flames."
-- Kevin R. Hutson

" Life Is A Challenge - Meet It!
Life Is A Song - Sing It!
Life Is A Dream - Realize It!
Life Is A Game - Play It!
Life Is Love - Enjoy It!"
-- Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba

" Like the number of apples
Contained within a single apple seed
Each opportunity that we seize
Contains an untold number of benefits."
-- By Rick Irving, Texas

" The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand,
Nor the kindly smile nor the joy of companionship;
It is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one,
When they discover that someone else believes in them
And is willing to trust them."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

" All things are possible until they are proved impossible.
And even the impossible may only be so, as of now."
-- Pearl S. Buck

" For every sixty seconds of anger,
You lose one minute of happiness."
-- Author unknown
-- Contributed by AW,  New Jersey

" Truth hurts -
Not the running after;
The running from."
-- Contributed by Sandy --- New Jersey

" If you look at what you have in life,
You'll always have more.
If you look at what you don't have in life,
You'll never have enough."
-- Oprah Winfrey

" Don't let yesterday take up too much of today."
-- Will Rogers

" Preparation is not the enemy of success, but a dear friend.
Be good to yourself and the favor will return."
-- Samuel Cunningham

" You've got to sing like nobody's listening,
You've got to love like you'll never get hurt,
You've got to dance like nobody's watching,
You've got to live like it's Heaven on Earth."
-- Unknown
-- Contributed by Adelheid, Cleveland

" I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge
That myth is more potent than history
That dreams are more powerful than facts
That hope always triumphs over experience
That laughter is the only cure for grief
And I believe that love is stronger than death."
-- Robert Fulgham

" Life is learning - from our mistakes as well as our successes.
The only real mistake in life one said,
Is the mistake not learned from. "
-- Unknown

" HOW DO YOU MEASURE SUCCESS?
             To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and
the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and
endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others:
To leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child,
a redeemed social condition, or a job well done;
To know that even one other life has breathed because you lived.
-- This is to have succeeded."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You can complain because roses have thorns,
Or you can rejoice because thorns have roses."
-- Ziggy

"Children are the dreams we send to
a future that we will never see."
-- Author unknown
-- Contributed by Tracy Hunter

"A mind is like a canvas:
The more open your mind,
The more colors you can use."
-- Ehren Goossens

"Lot's of people want to ride with you in the limo,
But what you want is someone who
will take the bus with you,
When the limo breaks down."
-- Contributed by Darryl Bevan

"Take time to work, it is the price of success.
Take time to think, it is the source of power.
Take time to play, it is the secret of perpetual youth.
Take time to read, it is the foundation of wisdom.
Take time to be friendly, it is the road to happiness.
Take time to dream, it is hitching your wagon to a star.
Take time to love & be loved, it is the privilege of the gods.
Take time to look around, it is too short a day to be selfish.
Take time to laugh, it is the music of the soul."
-- Old English Prayer

The starting point of all achievement is desire.
Keep this constantly in mind.
Weak desire brings weak results,
Just as a small amount of fire
makes a small amount of heat."
-- Napoleon Hill

"Experience is what you get when
you don't get what you want."
-- Anonymous

"Learn to get in touch with silence within yourself,
And know that everything in this life has purpose.
There are no mistakes,
No coincidences,
All events are blessings given to us to learn from."
-- Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

"The past is history,
The future is a mystery,
Today is a gift, that's why we call it the Present."
-- Unknown

"You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it."
-- Margaret Thatcher

"If winning (success) was easy,
Then everybody would be doing it.
It's the hard that makes it great!"
-- From the movie "A League of Their Own"
-- Compliments of Mike Heath

"The impossible is often the untried."
-- John Goodwin

"Eighty percent of success is showing up."
-- Woody Allen

"The difference between a successful person and
others is not a lack of strength,
not a lack of knowledge,
but rather in a lack of will."
-- Vincent T. Lombardi

"The person who sends out positive thoughts
activates the world around him positively
and draws back to himself positive results."
-- Norman Vincent Peale

"When we die and go to Heaven,
our Maker is not going to say,
"Why didn't you discover the cure for such and such?"
The only thing we're going to be asked at
that precious moment is
"Why didn't you become you? "
-- Wiesel

"Far away there in the sunshine are
my highest aspirations.
I may not reach them,
but I can look up and see their beauty,
believe in them,
and try to follow where they lead."
-- Louisa May Alcott

"As human beings,
we are endowed with freedom of choice
and we cannot shuffle off our responsibility
upon the shoulders of God or nature."
We must shoulder it ourselves."
It is up to us."
-- Toynbee

To make a man happy,
fill his hands with work, his heart with
affection, his mind with purpose,
his memory with useful knowledge,
his future with hope, and his stomach with food.
-- Frederick E. Crane

" If you know yourself well,
And know your enemy well,
You will win the battle almost 100 percent."
-- Chinese proverb

" Those who want to succeed will find a way,
Those who don`t will find an excuse!"
-- Leo Aguila

" Wasting your time in anxious worry
over what you may not have
Is a good way to waste
what you need to get it."
-- Guy Finley, 'Freedom From the Ties That Bind.'

" People say it's an overnight success.
They never realize
the countless sleepless nights,
the years of frustration,
the pain that had to be constantly endured,
and the anxiety that had to be experienced
for failing so many times
until that success,
that seemed to have happened overnight,
is finally achieved!"
-- Pete Zafra

" The more I've thought about it over the years,
the more I've concluded that
what really leads to outstanding consultants, and
I think then outstanding performance in almost
anything you can think of,
is the willingness to really take risks.
Take risks with your thinking,
to take risks in how far you're trying to push the client,
and not to be conservative and too cautious.
I had a conversation with a colleague recently
who was learning how to ski.
He said that, in the course of his ski week,
he concluded that,
if you weren't falling, you weren't learning,
and I think that's, you know, a general rule of life.
You've got to take risks and be willing to fail."
-- Fred Gluck, Managing Director, McKinsey & Co.

" Life is like water.
Cow drinks water and makes milk.
Snake drinks water and makes poison."
-- Grandmaster Wonik Yi

" Great people are created by
great mistakes that are learned from,
Not from great successes that are gloated upon."
-- Elmer Clark

"Procrastination is the thief of time"
-- Edward Young 1683-1765

"Nobody ever drowned in sweat!"
-- Kelly Marshall - Tennis Pro

" The only place you find success before work,
is in a dictionary."
-- Unknown

" An army of sheep led by a lion
Could easily defeat an army of lions led by a sheep.."
-- Arab Proverb

" Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it."
-- Winston Churchill

" It does not matter
how many times you get knocked down,
But how many times you get up."
-- Vincent Lombardi

" THE FOUR TO ONE RULE:
For every criticism you make
of someone's job performance,
Make sure you give the person
four compliments."
-- Bob Ottaviani

" Opportunity is missed by most people,
Because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."
-- Thomas Edison

" On the Plains of Hesitation,
Lie the blackened bones of the countless millions,
Who at the dawn of victory,
Sat down to rest,
And resting died."
-- Contributed by George

" The player who knows how will usually draw.
The player who knows why will usually win.
Good players give their best in every match,
Every game, every move.
The master knows exactly the right moment to do nothing.
The popular player loses without an alibi,
Wins with grace, and draws with a smile."
-- Tom Wiswell, quoted in
Victor Niederhoffer, Education of a Speculator

" There are only 2 rules for success:
1. Never tell everything you know.
2.    -
-- Contributed by Junior

" We are not just our behavior,
we are the person managing our behavior.
Being honest with people eventually works.
Goals begin behaviors.
Consequences maintain behavior."
-- Blanchard and Johnson

" Half the job is getting started
The other half is completing it."
-- Matthew Jay Butler

" Success is; knowing what your doing,
loving what your doing,
and believing what your doing. "
-- Napoleon Hill

"The three A's to ultimate fulfillment:
Acknowledge, Apply, Attain."
-- Della Harbin

" No man walks with dignity whose step is rushed."
-- Anonymous

" Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.
Small people always do that,
But the really great make you feel that you, too, are great."
-- Mark Twain

" An error is not a mistake
until you refuse to correct it."
-- Contributed by Denise Polin

" Commitment, Determination,
and Fearless Drive"
-- from CBS on Saturn Commercial with the Winter Olympics

" A ship should not sail on a single anchor,
nor life on a single hope."
-- Epictetus

" Scientifically a bee is too fat to fly.
It's not aerodynamic enough and it's wings are too short.
But why does it still fly you ask?
Because nobody told him he couldn't."
-- Contributed by Q.A.

"Efforts and courage are not enough
without purpose and direction."
-- John F. Kennedy

"Do not follow where the path my lead.
Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
-- George Bernard Shaw

The greatest enemy of excellence is good.
-- Zig Ziglar's Top Performance

"Only the mediocre are always at their best."
-- Jean Giraudoux

"Show class, have pride, and display character.
If you do, winning will take care of itself."
-- Coach Paul (Bear) Bryant

"A winner never quits and
a quitter never wins!"
-- Author unknown

You don't need to blow out another candle,
To let your own candle shine
--  Edward Rajaratnam

"I don't know what my future holds,
but I know who holds my future."
-- Anonymous

"Be thankful for problems...
or idiots would have your job."
-- Author unknown

"We are here to add what we can to life,
Not to get what we can from life."
-- William Osler

"Conquering others requires force.
Conquering oneself requires strength."
-- Lao Tzu

"The best way to make your dreams come true
is to wake up."
-- J.M. Power

"It is our special duty,
that if anyone needs our help,
We should give him such help to our utmost powers."
-- Cicero

Before you criticize a man,
You must walk a mile in the mans shoes.
If he is still bothered by what you say,
It is okay,
Because you will be a mile away
And you will have his shoes.
-- Contributed by Jeffrey N. Pappas

"As a final boost
before giving up on a difficult task,
Imagine it being successfully completed
by your worst enemy."
-- Author unknown

"Nothing makes a person more productive
than the last minute."
-- Contributed by Jeff Pappas

"Do not let others influence your ideas or decisions.
In 5 years it is you, and not them,
Who will be living with the choices that you made."
-- Sarah Brklacich

"If you want to gather honey,
Don't kick over the beehive."
-- Dale Carnegie,
How To Win Friends And Influence People

"If you begin the day with love in your heart,
Peace in your nerves,
And truth in your mind,
You not only benefit by their presence
But also bring them to others,
To your family and friends, and to all those
Whose destiny draws across your path that day."
-- Unknown

"The only safe ship in a storm is leadership."
-- Nadine Bent

"Let us never negotiate out of fear.
But let us never fear to negotiate."
-- John F. Kennedy

"You can get everything in life that you want,
If you will help enough other people get what they want."
-- Zig Ziglar

"The meeting of preparation with opportunity
Generates the offspring we call luck."
-- Anthony Robbins

"You can stand tall without standing on someone.
You can be a victor without having victims."
-- Harriet Woods

"The biggest things are often the easiest to do,
Because there is so little competition."
-- William Van Horne

"Excellent firms don't believe in excellence -
Only in constant improvement and constant change."
--Tom Peters, In search of Excellence

"No legacy is so rich as honesty."
-- William Shakespeare

"You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist."
-- Golda Meir

"Unless you try to do something
beyond what you have mastered,
You will never grow."
-- C.R. Lawton

"The next best thing to knowing something
is knowing where to find it."
-- Samuel Johnson

"If someone says can't,
that shows you what to do."
-- John Cage

"Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard,
Than anybody else expects of you.
Never excuse yourself."
-- Henry Ward Beecher

"We make a living by what we get,
but we make a life by what we give."
-- forgotten

"Better three hours too soon,
than one minute too late."
-- Shakespeare

"People expect a certain reaction from a business,
And when you pleasantly exceed those expectations,
You've somehow passed an important psychological threshold."
-- Richard Thalheimer, The Sharper Image

Laughter is day, and sobriety is night; a smile is
the twilight that hovers gently between both, more
bewitching than either.
-- Henry Ward Beecher

Two things fill the mind with ever
new and increasing wonder and awe,
the more often and the more seriously reflection
concentrates upon them:
the starry heaven above me and the
moral law within me.
-- Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), German philosopher