"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors and let each New Year find you a better man/woman."
- Ben Franklin
Happy New Year, friend!

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."
 - C.S. Lewis

"Do not wait for leaders. Do it alone, person to person."
- Mother Teresa

"Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life."
- Golda Meir

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
 - Leonardo da Vinci

"Everyone has special talents, and it is our duty to find ours and use them well." 
- John Templeton

"I slept & dreamt that life was joy. I awoke & saw that life was service. I acted & behold, service was joy." 
- Rabindranath Tagore

“The earth laughs in flowers.” 
–e.e. cummings

"If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?"
- Mevlana Rumi

"The color black Is never tainted. It is the color of strong will."
- Sensei Eiken Shibahara (from the movie "Kuro Obi")

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again. Then quit. There's no use being a damn fool about it." 
- W.C. Fields.

You're never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you're never as bad as they say when you lose."
-Lou Holtz

"If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich."
 - Lao Tzu

"Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light." 
- Helen Keller

"Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey."
- Babs Hoffman

Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but just look at what they can do when they stick together." 
- Vesta Kelly

"We have to do the best we can. This is our sacred human responsibility."
- Albert Einstein

"You got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there."
 -Yogi Berra

"You're not obligated to win. You're obligated to keep trying to do
the best you can every day."
- Marian Wright Edelman

"When one's expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have."
 - Stephen Hawking

"Little by little, one travels far."
 - J. R. R. Tolkien

"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading."
- Lao Tzu

"Quality is not an act, it is a habit."
 - Aristotle

"We could never learn to be brave & patient, if there were only joys in the world."
 - Helen Keller

"Be bigger than the bullshit."
- Qtip

"God doesn't require us to succeed; he only requires that you try."
- Mother Teresa

"It is not true that nice guys finish last. Nice guys are winners before the game even starts."
 - Addison Walker

"Argumentative just means you stick up for yourself."
-Keke Palmer

"I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to steer my ship." 
- Louisa May Alcott

"The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off." 
- Gloria Steinem

"The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender." 
- Vince Lombardi

"Forever is composed of nows."
- Emily Dickinson

"Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one."
 -Eleanor Roosevelt

"Wisdom begins in wonder."
 -Socrates

"Just because you haven't found your talent yet doesn't mean that you don't have one."
- Kermit the Frog

"Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly." 
-Plato

"A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues."
- Cicero |

"Opportunities multiply as they are seized." 
- Sun Tzu

"Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for."
- Joseph Addison

"If you surrender to the wind, you can ride it."
-Toni Morrison

“He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.” 
- Lao Tzu

"Out of losses, you can always find blessings." 
- Heavy D.

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." 
- John Wooden

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”  
- Albert Einstein

"Four steps to achievement: Plan purposefully. Prepare prayerfully. Proceed positively. Pursue persistently." 
- William A. Ward

"Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.”
- Aristotle

"Lessons often come dressed up as detours and roadblocks."
 - Oprah Winfrey

"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer." 
~ Albert Einstein

"Enjoy the love of others, but revel in the love of yourself." 


— Aisha Tyler 

"He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life." 
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."
- John Quincy Adams

"Only those who attempt the absurd...will achieve the impossible."
- M.C. Escher

"Keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final." 
- Roger W. Babson

"Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely." 
- Auguste Rodin

"I am still learning."
- Michelangelo

"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe."
- Anatole France

"If you'll not settle for anything less than your best, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish in your lives." -
- Vince Lombardi

"Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it."
 - Bill Cosby

"Choices are the hinges of destiny."
- Pythagoras

"When you do the common things in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world."
- George Washington Carver

"Success isn't something that just happens - success is learned, success is practiced and then it is shared."
-Sparky Anderson

"Confidence comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong." 
- Peter T. McIntyre

"Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?" 
- Sun Tzu

"Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good - and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig." 
- Marcus Aurelius

"Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are." 
- Chinese Proverb

"As long as you can laugh at yourself you will never cease to be amused."
 -Anonymous

"Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind." 
- Lionel Hampton

"When a goal matters enough to a person, that person will find a way to accomplish what at first seemed impossible." 
- Nido Qubein

"When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable." 
- Walt Disney

"Thinking too well of people often allows them to be better than they otherwise would." 
- Nelson Mandela

"Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power."
- Unknown

"He is able who thinks he is able."
- Buddha

"Great things are not something accidental, but must certainly be willed."
- Vincent van Gogh

"Freedom isn't worth having if it doesn't include the freedom to make mistakes." 
- Mahatma Gandhi

"Our aspirations are our possibilities."
- Robert Browning

"The more I practice, the luckier I get."
 - Jerry Barber

"You must do the thing you think you cannot do." 
- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved."
 -Barbra Johnson

"The greatest danger to our future is apathy."
 -Jane Goodall

“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.” 
- Benjamin Spock

"The longer we dwell on our misfortunes the greater is their power to harm us." 
- Voltaire

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face."
 -Eleanor Roosevelt

"Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness." 
- Seneca

"Wherever you go, go with all your heart."
- Confucius

"Let a man lose everything else in the world but his enthusiasm and he will come through again to success."
 - H. W. Arnold

"Don't compromise yourself. You're all you've got."
-Janis Joplin

"The future depends on what you do today." 
- Gandhi

Remembering Genius

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
- Steve Jobs

"The will to succeed is important, but what's more important is the will to prepare. "
-Bobby Knight

"Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is." 
- H. Jackson Browne

"Birthin' is hard, dyin' is mean, find some lovin' 'in between." 
-Langston Hughes

"Don't count the days, make the days count."
-Muhammad Ali

"You can acquire a lot in life if you are prepared to give up a lot to get it."
- Bruce Lee

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."
- Will Smith

"Things turn out best for the people who make the best out of the way things turn out."
 - Titus Livius

"It's repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen."
- Muhammad Ali

"We become what we habitually contemplate." 
- George Russell

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress."
- Frederick Douglass”

"Consider whatever knowledge and skill you have is a common property and share it freely without compensation. Teaching means learning twice. Sharing your knowledge will not diminish your own; instead it will enrich you."
- Dr. Jinichi Tokeshi

"Follow your honest convictions and be strong."
- William Makepeace Thackeray

11:08pm

In memory if Troy Anthony Davis...

"There can be no beauty if it is paid for by human injustice."
- Tadeusz Borowski

"The time is always right to do what is right."
 -Martin Luther King Jr.

"You will not be punished for your anger. You will be punished by your anger."
 - Buddha

"I walk slowly but I never walk backward."
- Abraham Lincoln

"You accomplish victory step by step, not by leaps and bounds."
- Lyn St. James

"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make a mistake."
- Elbert Hubbard

"Be what you are. This is the first step toward becoming better than you are."
- August W. Hare

“Let the first act of every morning be to make the following resolve for the day: I shall not fear anyone on Earth. I shall fear only God. I shall not bear ill will toward anyone. I shall not submit to injustice from anyone. I shall conquer untruth by truth. And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

"It is a bad plan that admits of no modification."
- Publilius Syrus

"Before you can win, you have to believe you are worthy."
-Mike Ditka

"If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement."
- Nelson Mandela

"Find the good. It's all around you. Find it, showcase it & you'll start believing in it."
-Jesse Owens

"Success is achieved and maintained by those who try and keep trying." 
- W. Clement Stone

"There may be people that have more talent than you, but there's no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do."
 -Derek Jeter

"Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement."
- C. S. Lewis

"One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation."
 - Arthur Ashe

"The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention."
~ Oscar Wilde

"Conquer your bad habits or they will conquer you." 
- Rob Gilbert

"The future starts today, not tomorrow."
- Pope John Paul II

"Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt."
- William Shakespeare

"You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks."
— Winston Churchill

The journey is the reward."
- Chinese Proverb

"Think and wonder, wonder and think."
- Dr. Seuss

"Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine."
 - Anthony J. D'Angelo

“Insecurity will always rent the space it occupies, but confidence will own the building, and any other room it steps in.”
-Unknown

"Have patience to walk with short steps until you have wings to fly."
- St. Francis de Sales

"You got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there."
 -Yogi Berra

"As for me, all I know is that I know nothing."
- Socrates

"Nothing limits achievement like small thinking; nothing expands possibilities like unleashed imagination." 
- William Arthur Ward

"The very thing you fail at over and over again could be the passion that keeps you alive."
- unknown

"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
- T.S. Eliot

"Don't go through life, grow through life."
- Eric Butterworth

"When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too."
- Paulo Coelho

"If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one."
 - Mother Teresa

"You'll never plow the field by turning it over in your mind."

- African Proverb

"One chance is all you need."
– Jesse Owens

"Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine."
- Anthony J. D'Angelo

"Why do we close our eyes when we pray, cry, kiss, dream? Because the most beautiful things in life are not seen but felt only by heart."
- @TheNotebook (via Twitter)

"When you learn, teach. When you get, give."
- Maya Angelou

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement."
- Helen Keller

The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a [person]'s determination.
-Tommy Lasorda

"By being yourself, you put something wonderful in the world that was not there before." 
- Edwin Elliot

"A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence."
- Jim Watkins

"Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else."  
- Margaret Mead

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing." 
- Albert Einstein

"Today I will do what others won't, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can't."
- Jerry Rice

"Normal is nothing more than a cycle on a washing machine." 
-Whoopi Goldberg

"Were there no God, we would be in this glorious world with grateful hearts and no one to thank."
- Christina Rossetti

"Everywhere you go, take a smile with you." 
- Sasha Azevedo

"Every artist was first an amateur."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength."
- Corrie Ten Boom

"A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a [person] perfected without trials."
- Chinese Proverb

"Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out."
- James B. Conant

“You just can't beat the person who never gives up.”
- Babe Ruth

"Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn and you will." 
- Vernon Howard 

"One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak." 
- G. K. Chesterton

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant." 
- Robert Louis Stevenson

"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." 
- Henry Ford

"Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance."
- Samuel Johnson

"Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated."
- George Bernard 

"The truth expressed without kindness or love is as damaging as a lie."
 - Cory Booker

"Those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by others doing it."
- James Baldwin

"He who hesitates is a damned fool."
- Mae West

"Folllow your compass not your clock."
- Andrea Jung

"Where your talents and the needs of the world cross lies your calling." 
- Aristotle

Happy 93rd Birthday, Mr. Mandela!

"There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living."
 - Nelson Mandela

"Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck."
- Dalai Lama

"How far that little candle throws his beams. So shines a good deed in a weary world."
- Shakespeare

"Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle."
- Abraham Lincoln

"Some people dream of success...while others wake up and work hard for it."
- Unknown

"Some days there won't be a song in your heart. Sing anyway." 
- Emory Austin

"The only time you should look in your neighbors bowl is to make sure they have enough."
- Louis CK

"Never allow success to get to your head and never allow failure to get to your heart."
- Unknown

"If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."
- Rev. Joseph "Run" Simmons

"You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.
- Leo Aikman

"All the places you are able to reach, you reach first with your imagination."
- Ralph Marston

“Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm but because of those who look at it without doing anything.”
- Albert Einstein

"You learn the value of hard work by working hard."
- Margaret Mead

"When you tell yourself you're not talented, just know there's a moron with self-esteem making tons of money doing something you're better at."
-Erin Gibson

“The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.”
-Sven Goran Eriksson

“It takes struggle, a goal and enthusiasm to make a champion.”
- Norman Vincent Peale

"Do not let the mistakes of your past limit your goals for your future. Learn from [them] and move forward."
- Rev Al Sharpton

"You have to stand for what you believe in and sometimes you have to stand alone."
- Queen Latifah

"You must have long-term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-term failures."
- Charles C. Noble

"The biggest thing you can do today could be a small act of kindness."
- Cory Booker

"Don't compromise your self-respect. Never kiss an ass that is shitting on you."
- Unknown

"The real voyage of discovery consist not in seeking new lands, but seeing with new eyes."
- Marcel Proust

"If a [person] is not faithful to his own individuality, he cannot be loyal to anything."
-Claude McKay

A person who wants to lead the orchestra must turn their back on the crowd."
- James Crook

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."
-Thoreau

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can."
- Arthur Ashe

"The size of your next step is not important. The direction is."
- Rev. Joseph "Run" Simmons

"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others."
- Pericles

In honor of dads everywhere:
"Anyone can be a father, but it takes a special someone to be a dad."
- Anne Geddes

"In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure."
- Bill Cosby

"I have little patience for people who hate in God's name. Before you tell me how much you love God, show it two me in how much you love all His children."
- Cory Booker

"Growth, in some curious way, I suspect, depends on being always in motion just a little bit, one way or another."
- Norman Mailer

"Time invested in improving ourselves cuts down on time wasted in disapproving of others."
-Unknown

"Shimjichi nu ada nayum (Kindness will never be wasted in any way)."
- Okinawan Proverb

"Be not afraid of growing slowly. Be afraid only of standing still."
-Chinese Proverb

"To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don't need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself."
~Thich Nhat Hanh

"The real voyage of discovery consist not in seeking new lands, but seeing with new eyes."
- Marcel Proust

"Sometimes life has a way of putting us on our backs to force us to look up."
-Cory Booker

"When you live for a strong purpose, then hard work isn't an option. It's a necessity."
- Steve Pavlina

For my son on his final day of high school:
"My [child] has made my love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten and future worth living."
- Shaila (KISS-FM)

Happy Birthday, Prince!

In honor of the 53rd birthday of prolific lyricist, song writer, musician known as Prince Rogers Nelson, here's a bit from one of his lesser-known tracks:

“Did you ever stop to wonder why you put another down?
No man should asunder the joy that another man’s found.
Many a times the business you were working wasn’t ever filed in your name.
Maybe the cartridge you were playing don’t fit in your video game.”
- Prince (“Push” from the album Diamonds and Pearls)

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."
- Edmund Burke

"Nothing will work unless you do."
- Maya Angelou

"Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that."
-Norman Vincent Peale

"The heart has eyes which the brain knows nothing of."
- Charles H. Perkhurst

"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him."
- James D. Miles

"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do."
- Benjamin Franklin

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."
– Albert Einstein

On Memorial Day

"Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death."
- Omar N. Bradley

"If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?"
- John Wooden

"Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit."
— Vince Lombardi

"Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander."
- Holocaust Museum, D.C.

"You can't stop my go!"
-Mos Def

The Curse of Neo

"If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done."
-Bruce Lee

"Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think."
- Christopher Robin (A.A. Milne)

"Patience and fortitude conquer all things."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Peace is not something you wish for, it's something you make, something you do, something you are, something you give away."
- Robert Fulghum

"After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb."
-Nelson Mandela

"He is most powerful who has power over himself."
- Seneca

On what would have been his 83rd birthday:
"Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery."
-Malcolm X

"Face your fears. Understand your insecurities. Demolish self-doubt. YOU are in control, so drive carefully and mash the gas."
-Apolo Anton Ohno

"No one is without knowledge except he who asks no questions."
-African Proverb

"He conquers who endures."
- Persius

"Find a goal that commands your spirit, inspires your heart [and] the very thought of it makes your pulse race, then never surrender in its pursuit."
-Cory Booker

"No man is free who is not master of himself."
- Epictetus

"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do."
-Bruce Lee

"There is no way to peace. Peace is the way."
A. J. Muste

"Don't shrink from the truth of who you are. You were born to stand out, not fit in."
- Cory Booker

"Another day and another chance to get better."
- Freddy Adu

"...Express yourself. have faith in yourself. Don't go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it."
-Bruce Lee

"Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm."
- Winston Churchill

"The purpose of continuous practice is to practice continuously."
- Dogen

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning."
- Albert Einstein

"With confidence, you have won before you have started."
-Marcus Garvey

"Other people may be there to help us, teach us, guide us along our path, but the lesson to be learned is always ours."
-Unknown

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."
- John Wooden

"There are no limits. There are only plateaus and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them."
- Bruce Lee

As it is the month I tested for my black belt, May's quotes will be martial in nature. Enjoy!

"When you look at life, think in terms of karate. But remember karate is not only karate - it is life."
-Gichin Funakoshi

Congratulations to Mireille ("Going My Way" Blogger) and my good friend Tyrone G. (of "Bunny Slippers Are Evil" fame) who recently graded for - and received - their black belts :-)

"Always be a first-rate version of yourself instead of a second-rate version of somebody else."
- Judy Garland

"Developing love and compassion and reducing anger and spite [are] universal activities which require no faith in any religion whatsoever."
-Dalai Lama

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
- Winston Churchill

"If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere."
- Frank A. Clark

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
- Thomas Edison

"The important thing is not to stop questioning."
- Albert Einstein

"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

For the NY Knicks:
"Champions don't panic. We keep it moving."
- Yolanda Adams

"You win some, you lose some and some get rained out. But you have to get dressed for all of them!"
- Satchel Paige

"It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not."
-Unknown

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes."
- William James

"Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same."
- Francesca Reigler

"Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone."
- Mohandas Gandhi

"You might not always get what you want, but you always get what you expect."
- Charles H. Spurgeon

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."
-Albert Einstein

"Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of."
-Charles Richards

"Hope lies in imagination and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality."
- Jonas Salk

"Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections."
- Unknown

"You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely."
-Ogden Nash

"If things start happening, don't worry, don't stew, just go right along and you'll start happening too."
- Dr. Seuss

"The greatest wealth is health."
- Virgil

"Not everyone has the ability to see, use and apply common sense."
- Charles James

"When you know what you want and want it bad enough, you will find a way to get it."
- Jim Rohn

"When I despair I remember that throughout history, truth and love have always won."
-Mohandas Gandhi

"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it."
- Henry Ford

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
- Winston Churchill

"Today I will do what others won't so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can't."
- Jerry Rice

"An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied."
- Arnold Glasow

"Whatever you are, be a good one."
- Abraham Lincoln

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."
- John Quincy Adams

"I would much rather have regrets about not doing what people said, than regretting not doing what my heart led me to and wondering what life had been like if I'd just been myself."
- Brittany Renee

"The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for."
- Maureen Dowd

"Dreams are illustrations...from the book your soul is writing about you."
- Marsha Norman

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."
- Helen Keller

"If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner."
- Tallulah Bankhead

"To feel valued, to know, even if only once in a while, that you can do a job well is an absolutely marvelous feeling."
-Barbara Walters

"You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise."
- Maya Angelou

"The welfare of each is bound up in the welfare of all."
- Helen Keller

"The way you treat yourself sets the standard for others."
- Sonya Friedman

and an addendum:
"People will treat you as badly as you let them."
- my mom

"If your success is not on your own terms, it is not success at all."
-Anna Quindlen

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead

"A happy woman is one who has no cares at all; a cheerful woman is one who has cares but doesn't let them get her down."
- Beverly Sills

"I am doomed to an eternity of compulsive work. No set goal achieved satisfies. Success only breeds a new goal. The golden apple devoured has seeds. It is endless."
- Bette Davis

"The more things you do, the more you can do."
- Lucille Ball

"Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what's more than enough."
- Billie Holiday

"If you do not find peace in yourself, you will never find it anywhere else.”
- Paula A. Bendry

"I wouldn't have turned out the way I was if I didn't have all those old-fashioned values to rebel against."
- Madonna

"Don't wish me happiness - I don't expect to be happy. It's gotten beyond that, somehow. Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor - I will need them all."
- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"The kind of beauty I want most is the hard-to-get kind that comes from within - strength, courage, dignity."
- Ruby Dee

"When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid."
- Audre Lorde

"Aging is not 'lost youth' but a new stage of opportunity and strength."
- Betty Friedan

"A woman is like a teabag, you never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water."
- Eleanor Roosevelt

"There are years that ask questions and years that answer."
- Zora Neale Hurston

"Disappointment to a noble soul is what cold water is to burning metal; it strengthens, tempers, intensifies, but never destroys it."
- Eliza Tabor

"...Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give the world the best you have anyway..."
- Mother Teresa

"Nothing can dim the light which shines from within."
- Maya Angelou

"I always wondered why somebody doesn't do something about that. Then I realized that I was somebody."
- Lily Tomlin

"I'm holding on to my freedom
Can't take it from me
I was born into it
It comes naturally
I'm strumming my own freedom
Playing the God in me
Representing His glory
Hope He's proud of me.."
- Jill Scott ("Golden")

"Next to God, we are indebted to women – first for life itself then for making it worth living."
- Mary McLeod Bethune

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any."
- Alice Walker

Women's History Month

March is Women's History Month. Let's get it started:

"I used to want the words 'She tried' on my tombstone. Now I want "She did it.'"
- Katherine Dunham

"Activism is my rent for living on this planet."
– Alice Walker

"Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company."
-Booker T. Washington

"A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination."
- Nelson Mandela

"Stop saying you have nothing - you have a chance."
- Rev. Joseph "Run" Simmons

"Sorry but if you're an American you have a debt to pay. And its not to sit back and criticize what is happening but to contribute to what should."
- Cory Booker

"Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"God places the heaviest burden on those who can carry its weight."
- Reggie White

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."
-Nelson Mandela

"Knowledge is the prime need of the hour."
- Mary McCloud Bethune

"Good givers are great getters."
- Russell Simmons

"Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work."
-Rita Mae Brown

"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
- Nelson Mandela

"Darkness is only driven out with light, not more darkness."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even."
- Muhammad Ali

"Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today."
- Malcolm X

"It always seems impossible until its done."
- Nelson Mandela

"Excellence is not an act but a habit. The things you do the most are the things you will do best."
- Marva Collins

"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong, because someday in your life, you will have been all of these."
- George Washington Carver

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts."
- Nikki Giovanni

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."
- Nelson Mandela

"If we have the courage and tenacity of our forebears, who stood firmly like a rock against the lash of slavery, we shall find a way to do for our day what they did for theirs."
- Mary McCloud Bethune

"Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly."
- Langston Hughes

"Strange as it seems, you make your own dreams come true."
- Chaka Khan

"It doesn't matter who you are, where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you. Always."
- Oprah Winfrey

"We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"When I discover who I am, I'll be free."
- Ralph Ellison

Black History Month Kickoff

Today marks the start of Black History Month. Let's kick it off with a quote by one of the most amazing writers of our time. I admire her spunk.

"Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me."
- Zora Neale Hurston

"Greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That's the day we truly grow up."
- Maxwell

"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment."
- Buddah

In Memorium

"Respect for another man's opinion is worthy. It is the realization that any opinion is valuable, for it is the sign of a rational being."
- Sargent Shriver

"Sometimes the questions are complicated, and the answers are simple."
-Dr. Seuss

"The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind."
- Dr. Wayne Dyer

"The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving."
- Albert Einstein

"The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything."
- Theodore Roosevelt

"The world of reality has its limits; The world of imagination is boundless."
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

"If you really put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price."
- Unknown

"Worry often gives a small thing a great shadow."
- Swedish Proverb

"By associating with wise people you will become wise yourself."
- Menander

"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You."
-Dr. Seuss

"The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook."
- William James

"Heaven is where you'll be when you are okay right where you are."
-Sun Ra

Remembering Dr. King

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Fall seven times, stand up eight."
- Japanese proverb

"Who is wise? One who learns from all."
-The Talmud

"Every man gotta right to decide his own destiny."
- Bob Marley

"Life is a sum of all your choices."
- Albert Camus

I found this quote on my birthday:

"Maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated."
-Unknown

"The greatest works are done by the ones. The hundreds do not often do much; the companies never. It is the units, the single individuals, that are the power and the might."
-Charles H. Spurgeon

"Smile, breathe and go slowly.”
-Thich Nhat Hanh

In light of the craziness that happened yesterday in Arizona, I though this fitting:

"A Native American grandfather talking to his young grandson tells the boy he has two wolves inside of him struggling with each other. The first is the wolf of peace, love and kindness. The other wolf is fear, greed and hatred. 'Which wolf will win, grandfather?' asks the young boy. 'Whichever one I feed,' is the reply."
-Native American Proverb

"Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish."
-Marcus Aurelius

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore."
-Andre Gide

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
- Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated."
-Confucius

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it."
- W. C. Fields

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing."
- Abraham Lincoln

"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors and let each New Year find you a better man/woman."
- Ben Franklin

Happy New Year!

"If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven't done anything today."
- Lou Holtz