Appreciation

"Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary."
- Margaret Cousins

Self-Expression on Photography

In the life of an artist, creativity is often circular or, in its three-dimensional incarnation, spiral-shaped- a coiled spring. The creative life passes through the same stages over and over again. Each new piece of work, each new phase of life, and each subject matter is shaped by the previous activities of the artist's life. The spiral gives the artwork direction, movement and life.

-Brooks Jensen

Bono

"Whatever your religious or nonreligious views, the chance to begin again is a compelling idea."

- Bono

Op-Ed Guest Columnist - It’s 2009. Do You Know Where Your Soul Is? - NYTimes.com

Fact Quote

If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.
- Bertrand Russell

Yet another quote...

"You make a living by what you get, you make a life by what you give."
- Sir Winston Churchill

A "few" more quotes

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
-Lao Tzu

"He who cannot dance claims the floor is uneven"
-Hindu Saying

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
-Mahatma Gandhi

"Do, or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

"I know more ways not to do something than any man alive"
-Thomas Edison

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance"
-Derek Bok

"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood"
-Marie Curie

"Ninety percent of success is showing up"
-Woody Allen

"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent"
-Eleanor Roosevelt

"We have as much time as we need"
-Melody Beattie

"The future belongs to those who live intensely in the present"
-Anonymous

"Your goal should be out of reach but not out of sight"
-Anita Defrantz

"If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right"
-Mary Kay Ash

"The key to change ... is to let go of fear"
-Rosanne Cash

"No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you"
-Althea Gibson

"Find something you are passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it"
-Julia Child

"I want to do it because I want to do it"
-Amelia Earhart

"We dont know who we are until we see what we can do"
-Martha Grimes

"A word after a word is power"
-Margaret Atwood

"No one can figure out your worth but you"
-Pearl Bailey

"Somehow we learn who we really are and then live with that decision"
-Eleanor Roosevelt

"Nothing is too difficult - you only need to know how"
-Yiddish Proverb

"You really can change the world if you care enough"
-Marian Wright Edelman

"Find a need and fill it"
-Ruth Stafford Peale

"I dont want to be a passenger in my own life"
-Diane Ackerman

"Don't agonize. Organize"
-Florynce Kennedy

"Dont compromise yourself. You're all you've got"
-Janis Joplin

"Be a how thinker, not an if thinker"
-Anonymous

"If you risk nothing, then you risk everything"
-Geena Davis

"Life is a daring adventure or nothing"
-Hellen Keller

"Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity"
-Oprah Winfry

"I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse"
-Florence Nightingale

"The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs"
-Joan Didion

"This work is about transformation-from the person we are to the person we really are, in the end we can't be anyone else"
-Marion Rosen

"Fall seven times. Stand up eight"
-Japanese proverb

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

"You will never find time for anything. If you want time, then you must take it"
-Charles Buxton

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

"It is not knowledge but the act of learning which grants the greatest enjoyment"
-Gauss

"It is better to solve one problem five different ways than to solve five different problems"
-Poyla

"The import thing is to not stop questioning"
-Albert Einstein

"STARING is not a viable problem solving strategy"
-Margaret Kenny

"They know enough who know how to learn."
-Henry Adams

"Self-respect is a question of recognizing that anything worth having has its price."
-Joan Didion

"People often say that this or that person has not found himself. But the self is not something one finds. It is something that one creates."
-Thomas Szasz

"The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach."
-Benjamin Mays

"Champions take responsibility. When the ball is coming over the net, you can be sure I want the ball."
-Billy Jean King

"An intellectual is a person whose mind watches itself."
-Albert Camus

"We know what we are, but know not what we may be."
-Shakespeare's Hamlet

"If today's students can conceive it and believe it, they can achieve it. They must know it is not their aptitude but their attitude that will determine their altitude."
-Jesse Jackson

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."
-Dolly Parton

"Of all the traps and pitfalls of life, self-disesteem is the deadliest and the hardest to overcome, for it is a pit designed and dug by our own hands, summed up in the phrase, 'It's no use- I cant do it.'"
-Maxwell Maltz

"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander Time; for that's the Stuff Life is made of."
-Benjamin Franklin

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble."
-Helen Keller

"From your parents you learn love and laughter and how to put one foot in front of the other. But when books are opened you discover that you have wings."
-Helen Hayes

"Reading is a means of thinking with another person's mind: it forces you to stretch your own."
-Charles Scribner Jr.

"Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject."
-Thomas Mann

"What one has to do usually can be done."
-Eleanor Roosevelt

"Memory is the art of attention."
-Samuel Johnson

"The reward of study is understanding."
-Babylonian Talmud

"When you can't solve the problem, manage it."
-Robert Schuller

"Learning without thought is labor lost…"
-Confucius

"People seldom hit what they do not aim at."
-Henry David Thoreau

"There are two ways of meeting difficulties. You alter the difficulties or you alter yourself to meet them."
-Phyllis Bottome

"A man's accomplishments in life are the cumulative effect of his attention to detail."
-John Foster Dulles

The Little Engine That Could

Quotes:

"We are what we believe we are."
- C. S. Lewis

"If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory."
- William Hazlitt, English Essayist (1778-1830)

"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right. "
- Henry Ford


Websites:

http://www.fff.org/freedom/1091c.asp

http://www.zimbio.com/Courage+Quotes/articles/2/YOu+Can+If+You+Think+You+Can

http://searchwarp.com/swa146551.htm

http://www.isshin-ryu.com/newsletters/2005/news-mar2005.htm

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?fd605807-0029-4ccd-83d0-fbd6e4af7754

http://melodylaila.com/thoughts/2008/01/03/inspiration-from-the-little-engine/


Poems:

You Can If You Think You Can!

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 in 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 battles 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.

~ C. W. Longenecker ~

Beware Of Your Gunless Friend!

The dangerous people are not the ones
Who hit you with clubs and rob you with guns!
The thief won't attack your character traits
Or belittle your abilities to your face!
It likely will be a well-meaning friend
Who merely crushes your will to win.

No, he doesn't rob you, at point of gun,
He simply says, "It can't be done."
When pointed to thousands who already are
He smiles and says, "They're superior!"
Personality-wise, and abilities, too,
They're way ahead of what others can do!"

It matters not that his words are untrue
For, you feel "others" must know you!
So, you're robbed of your hopes, your dreams to succeed.
Robbed of the material blessing received,
Robbed of your faith that says, "I can."
And robbed by an ignorant, gunless friend.

So, the deadliest of men is not he with a gun,
But the one who tells you "It can't be done!"
For that taken by burglars can be gotten again.
But, what can replace your will to win?

~ Author Unknown ~

If you Think You Can, You Can!

You can be a total winner even if you're a beginner,
If you think you can, you can,
If you think you can, you can,
You can wear the gold medallion,
You can ride your own black stallion,
If you think you can, you can,
If you think you can, you can,

It's not your talent or the gift at birth,
It's not your bank book that determines worth,
And it isn't in the color of your skin,
It's your attitude that lets you win,
You can upset Connors or Austin,
Or win the marathon at Boston,
If you think you can, you can,
If you think you can, you can,

You can profit through inflation,
You can redirect this nation,
If you think you can, you can,
If you think you can, you can,

It doesn't matter if you've won before,
It makes no difference what's the half time score,
It's never over until the final gun,
So keep on trying and you'll find you've won,
You grab your dream and then believe it,
Go out and work and you'll achieve it,
If you think you can, you can,
If you think you can, you can!

~ Denis Waitley ~

Sources -
http://www.cybernation.com/victory/youcandoit/youcan.php

http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/2800.html

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/henryford122817.html

More Quotes

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

"We are what we believe we are."
- C. S. Lewis

"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them."
- Walt Disney

"There is nothing more uncommon than common sense."
- Frank Lloyd Wright

Marilyn Monroe Quotes

"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring."
— Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn: Her Life in Her Own Words)

http://quotethehood.groups.vox.com/library/post/6a010980c2dc9c000b0109811d77da000c.html


I believe everything happens for a reason! People change so you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you can appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so that you will eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes, good things fall apart, so better things can fall together

The truth is I've never fooled anyone. I've let people fool themselves. They didn't bother to find out who and what I was. Instead they would invent a character for me. I wouldn't argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn't. When they found this out, they would blame me for disillusioning them and fooling them.

It's often just enough to be with someone. I don't need to touch them. Not even talk. A feeling passes between you both. You're not alone.

Everybody is always tugging at you. They'd all like a sort of chunk out of you. I don' think they realize it, but it's like 'grrr do this, grr do that...' But you do want to stay intact and on two feet.

I've never dropped anyone I believed in.

With fame, you know, you can read about yourself, somebody else's ideas about you, but what's important is how you feel about yourself - for survival and living day to day with what comes up.

Goethe said, 'Talent is developed in privacy, ' you know?And it's really true. There is a need for aloneness which I don't think most people realize for an actor. It's almost having certain kinds of secrets for yourself that you'll let the whole world in on only for a moment, when you're acting.

“...If you can make a girl laugh - you can make her do anything...”

“the nicest thing for me is sleep, then at least i can dream”

“I want to grow old without facelifts... I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I've made. Sometimes I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die young, but then you'd never complete your life, would you? You'd never wholly know you”

• If I'd observed all the rules, I'd never have got anywhere.

• I'm very definitely a woman and I enjoy it.

• I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it.

• I'm trying to find myself as a person, sometimes that's not easy to do. Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do. The best way for me to find myself as a person is to prove to myself that I am an actress.

• People respect you because they feel you've survived hard times and endured, and although you've become famous, you haven't become phony.

• Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you're a human being, you feel, you suffer.

• I love to do the things the censors won't pass.

• A career is wonderful thing, but you can't snuggle up to it on a cold night.

• It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone.

• A career is born in public -- talent in privacy.

• My illusions didn't have anything to do with being a fine actress. I knew how third rate I was. I could actually feel my lack of talent, as if it were cheap clothes I was wearing inside. But, my God, how I wanted to learn, to change, to improve!

• I'm for the individual as opposed to the corporation. The way it is the individual is the underdog, and with all the things a corporation has going for them the individual comes out banged on her head. The artist is nothing. It's really tragic.

• To a reporter: Please don't make me a joke.

• Before marriage, a girl has to make love to a man to hold him. After marriage, she has to hold him to make love to him.

• It's woman's spirit and mood a man has to stimulate in order to make sex interesting. The real lover is the man who can thrill you by touching your head or smiling into your eyes or just staring into space.

• I've been on a calendar, but never on time.

• I am invariably late for appointments ... sometimes, as much as two hours. I've tried to change my ways but the things that make me late are too strong, and too pleasing.

• I've often stood silent at a party for hours listening to my movie idols turn into dull and little people.

• I restore myself when I'm alone.

• 1956 interview about her childhood: Looking back, I guess I used to play-act all the time. For one thing, it meant I could live in a more interesting world than the one around me.

• Shelley Winters: If she'd been dumber, she'd have been happier.

• About Marilyn Monroe, by her ex-husband, Arthur Miller: To have survived, she would have had to be either more cynical or even further from reality than she was. Instead, she was a poet on a street corner trying to recite to a crowd pulling at her clothes.

Perfect Love

"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." -John 4:18

Fear

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us." - Nelson Mandala

Neat Jewelry & Quote Borrowing

http://www.monsoongalleries.com/shop/showportfolio.php?artist_id=130

I randomly ran across this jewelry website. These are pretty interesting pendants, and I love the quotes! I am going to throw some of them up here.

**** “The most beautiful stones have been washed by the waters and polished to brilliance by life’s strongest storms”

*** “Love should be a tree whose roots are deep in the earth, but whose branches extend into heaven” -Bertrand Russel

** “Wherever you are, It is your Friends who make your World” -William James

* “A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature” –Emerson

“A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future and accepts you today just the way you are” –Proverbs 27:17

“Happiness is when what you Think, what you Say, and what you Do are in Harmony” - Gandhi

“Stillness is the greatest revelation” –Lao-Tzu

Obstacles

Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

- Michael Jordan

Envisioning the Vision

Sometimes we have to see past the things that are blocking our vision into the brilliant possibilities that lie beyond. What we can't see, we can imagine. What we can imagine, we can hope for. What we can hope for can cause us to believe in something greater in ourselves and than ourselves. If we can't believe, we have no chance at success. Our circumstances and realities can become a springboard for success rather than a rope meant to trip us up.

The Power to Change

When you blame others, you give up your power to change.
Robert Anthony

This is a thought provoking quote. We either grow or we begin to die. We cannot continually occupy a singular place for a undetermined amount of time. That said, if we don't change, we can't grow. If we don't grow, we become less and less. Both growth and shrinking causes changes in our nature and appearance. I guess it just comes down to whether you want to be more, bolder, braver, and better or smaller and less of a person.

The things that don't quite kill us...

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
Friedrich Nietzsche

This quote may be used quite often, but it holds a great truth at its heart. Adversity and hard times can lead us to defeat and death or to strength and toughness. We can survive far more than we give ourselves credit for most of the time. We can be as tender and as elegant as a blooming rose no matter how tough the environment that surrounds us.

Another source of inspiration (I love this poem!):

Rudyard Kipling
If

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Love and Other Random Thoughts

Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age.
Jeanne Moreau

Let the fear of danger be a spur to prevent it; he that fears not, gives advantage to the danger.
Francis Quarles

If you would stand well with a great mind, leave him with a favorable impression of yourself; if with a little mind, leave him with a favorable impression of himself.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

An affirmation is a strong, positive statement that something is already so.
Shakti Gawain

Someone’s boring me. I think it’s me.
Dylan Thomas, in Rayner Heppenstall, Four Absentees (1960)

You can be a rank insider as well as a rank outsider.
Robert Frost

Independence

Everybody likes to go their own way–to choose their own time and manner of devotion.
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

Talent

If you have a talent, use it in every which way possible. Don’t hoard it. Don’t dole it out like a miser. Spend it lavishly like a millionaire intent on going broke.
Brendan Francis

True Beauty

The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson