Thursday, November 18, 2010

Penny for your thoughts and a buck for your guess

People in their right minds never take pride in their talents.

Wonder if you can guess the book this is quoted from..?
--
Okay another hint, from the same book:

The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule, is a person's conscience.


(Answer in the labels for this post.)

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Help

God will help you be all you can be, but S/He will never help you be someone else.

-- Joyce Meyer

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Compassion and you

If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.

- Jack Kornfield

Saturday, October 16, 2010

On.

On the intensely personal journey that lies in words and thoughts and the mind. On war, peace, powerlessness and desperate humour. On appearances and mental jouneys in overwhelming darkness. On intent versus action. On wishful omens. And creating realities, escaping realities and being lost among these. On pictures dancing inside the mind, whirling like leaves and banshees and dervishes and whirling and whirling and whirling. About all this.

Quoting Emma Larkin, George Orwell, and many more more Burma, in the pages of Finding George Orwell in Burma.

Truth is true only within a certain period of time. What was truth once may no longer be truth after many months or years.

One of the attributes which qualified him to be a writer was his ability to face unpleasant facts.

He drags his wasted body through the compulsory early-morning exercise routine, wearing on his face the look of grim enjoyment which was considered proper during the physical jerks.

Where does the past exist? If it cannot be read in actual sites or in official records, is it preserved only in people’s minds? The past always comes back to haunt us.

Glimpses of banana trees on the bank, flailing in the wind like hysterical banshees.

Have you heard the one about the dentist? There was once a Burmese man who travelled many hard miles in order to visit a dentist in a neighbouring country. When he arrived at the dentist’s office, the dentist was surprised to learn how far the man had travelled. Are there no dentists in your country? he asked the man with concern. Yes, yes, we have dentists, the man replied. The problem is we are not allowed to open our mouths.

They will never, never allow us to have freedom of expression. They know that if we published the truth – if people could know the truth, they would be forced out within a month.

Even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.

The question is how large must a minority be before it deserves autonomy.

The object of war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact. War is Peace.

I was hated by large numbers of people – the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me.

Nothing ever did happen – a least not on the scale that my friend had predicted. But, if there were never any nationwide fireworks, I got the sense that they took place all the time on a personal level. And these individual fireworks, I got the sense that they took place all the time on a personal level. And these individual fireworks, these small internal implosions, no one could predict or control.

Every joke is a tiny revolution.

God is no fool.

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The chain reaction: Nineteen Eighty-Four; Burmese Days; Killing an Elephant; A Smokey Room Story by George Orwell. The Captive Mind by Czeslaw Milosz. Peacock Dreams by William Tydd. Mandalay by Kipling.

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Making real

There is a thought in your mind right now. The longer you hold on to it, the more you dwell upon it, the more life you give to that thought. Give it enough life, and it will become real. So make sure the thought is indeed a great one.

- Ralph Marston

Saturday, October 02, 2010

On interruptions

The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.
- Chinese Proverb

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Now

Your journey has molded you for your greater good, and it was exactly what it needed to be. Don't think that you've lost time. There is no short-cutting to life. It took each and every situation you have encountered to bring you to the now. And now is right on time.

-- Asha Tyson

Saturday, September 18, 2010

On humility

Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking about yourself at all.
- William Temple (1881-1944)

Friday, September 03, 2010

Reminders

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?- Mary Oliver

Tell me

Tell me

Tell me

Tell me!

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Battles

You can conquer almost any fear if you will make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind.
- Dale Carnegie (1888-1955)

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Ideal vision

The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart - this you will build your life by, and this you will become.
- James Allen (1864-1912)

Friday, August 27, 2010

Of value

Prosperity consciousness is the awareness that all of us have something of value to offer, and we all deserve to get paid for what we provide to others.

- Peggy McColl

Monday, August 23, 2010

Riches

Look to your health; and if you have it, praise God and value it next to conscience; for health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable of, a blessing money can't buy.

-- Izaak Walton (1593-1683)

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Decisions and choices

A sign of wisdom and maturity is when you come to terms with the realization that your decisions cause your rewards and consequences. You are responsible for your life, and your ultimate success depends on the choices you make.

-- Denis Waitley

Monday, August 09, 2010

Dream

Everybody builds a dream in their lifetime. You’re either going to build your dream, or somebody else's. So build your own.

-- Christopher LaBrec

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Timelessness

The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead. There has never been a time when you and I and the kings gathered here have not existed, nor will there be a time when we will cease to exist. As the same person inhabits the body through childhood, youth, and old age, so too at the time of death he attains another body. The wise are not deluded by these changes.

-- Bhagavad Gita 2:12-13


So peaceful, simply to read this.

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Champ

To be a champ, you have to believe in yourself when nobody else will.

- Sugar Ray Robinson (1920-1989)

Monday, August 02, 2010

Time-line

Very few of us know how much we can put into life if we use it properly, wisely, and economically. Let us economize our time -- lifetimes ebb away before we wake up, and that is why we do not realize the value of the immortal time God has given us.

-- Paramahansa Yogananda

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Hindsight

Do not save your loving speeches for your friends till they are dead; do not write them on their tombstones, speak them rather now instead.
-- Anna Cummins

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Capacity building

Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I shall have the belief that I can do it. I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it, even if I may not have it at the beginning.

-- Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Deep breath

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.

- Epictetus (55-135)

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Power of one

One may walk over the highest mountain one step at a time.
-- John Wanamaker

Monday, July 26, 2010

Looking afar

Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road.

-- Dag Hammarskjold (1905-1961)

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Righting the wrong

To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it.
- Confucius


But, I don't understand.. isn't remembering needed, and isn't that natural?

Friday, July 23, 2010

Balance

Equilibrium is, not being upset at the good things you miss and not being overjoyed at the good things you receive.