Wednesday 30 November 2011

Quotes - Spiritual


The awakened sages call a person wise when all his undertakings are free from anxiety about results. - Krishna

In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action. - Dag Hammarskjold

Getting in touch with your true self must be your first priority. - Tom Hopkins

Every mortal birth is a heaven-given reminder to prepare for the second birth. - Bruce R. McConkie

Most people don't know or don't accept the fact that if they had no thoughts they would be happy. - Anthony Damiani

Everything is in motion. Everything flows. Everything is vibrating. - Wayne Dyer

A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it. - Dogen

Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment. - Dogen

The highest purpose is to have no purpose at all. This puts one in accord with nature, in her manner of operation. - John Cage

Tuesday 29 November 2011

Food For Thought


Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

To dream about anything that you want to dream, that is the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do, that is the strength of human will. To trust yourself to test your limits, that is the courage to succeed.

In our course through life we shall meet the people who are coming to meet us, from many strange places and by many strange roads and what it is set to us to do to them, and what it is set to them to do to us, will be done.

Monday 28 November 2011

Growing A Bridge

Very interesting and creative bridge indeed. Take a look.

Click on the link to watch the video.

http://www.snotr.com/video/7331/The_Living_Bridge

Saturday 26 November 2011

Happiness


It’s good to be just plain happy; it’s a little better to know that you’re happy; but to understand that you’re happy and to know why and how and still be happy, be happy in the being and the knowing, well that is beyond happiness, that is bliss. - Henry Miller

The way to happiness: keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Fill your life with love. Scatter sunshine. Forget self, think of others. Do as you would be done by. Try this for a week and you will be surprised. - Norman Vincent Peale

True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise; it arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one’s self, and in the next from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions. - Joseph Addison

Friday 25 November 2011

Beliefs / Believes - Quotes

A belief is not an idea held by the mind, it is an idea that holds the mind. - Elly Roselle

A belief is not true because it is useful. - Henri Frederic Amiel

A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it is a superstition. - Jose Bergamin

A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence. - David Hume

As a man believes, so he will act. - Sam Harris

At the core of all well-founded belief, lies belief that is unfounded. - Ludwig Wittgenstein

Because one believes in oneself, one doesn’t try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn’t need others’ approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her. - Lao Tzu

Belief gets in the way of learning. - Robert Heinlein

Belief in the truth commences with the doubting of all those “truths” we once believed. - Friedrich Nietzsche 

Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad. - Denis Waitley

Belief is the wound that knowledge heals. - Ursula K. Le Guin

Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance. - Samuel Butler

Belief may be no more, in the end, than a source of energy, like a battery which one clips into an idea to make it run. - J. M. Coetzee

Belief was immune to logic; it operated by its own laws. - James Siegel

Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives. - Anthony Robbins

Beliefs. Once entrenched in a culture, they persist, evolve and diverge, in a manner reminiscent of biological evolution. - Richard Dawkins

Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail. - Charles F. Kettering

Believe in one thing too much and you have no room for new ideas. - Ray Bradbury

Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle. - Christian D. Larson

Believe in yourself and you will not only take off, you will fly. - Unknown

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy. - Norman Vincent Peale

Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, really believe, your mind will find the ways to do it. Believing a solution paves the way to solution. - David Joseph Schwartz

Believe nothing against another but on good authority; and never report what may hurt another, unless it be a greater hurt to some other to conceal it. - William Penn

Believe nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see. - Unknown

Believe that your life is worth living and your beliefs will help create the fact. - Unknown

Believe you can and you're halfway there. - Theodore Roosevelt

Believing everybody is dangerous, but believing nobody is more dangerous - Abraham Lincoln

Beware! The mind of the believer stagnates. It fails to grow outward into an unlimited, infinite universe. - Frank Herbert

Creeds, like other goods, pass by inheritance to descendants. - Amos Bronson Alcott

Do not believe hastily. - Ovid

Do not ever quit believing in yourself. As long as you believe you can, you will have reason for trying. - Unknown

Don’t believe everything you hear. - Aesop

Don’t believe everything you hear. There are always three sides to a story – yours, theirs, and the truth. - UnknownEvery man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment. - Seneca

Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire. - Jean de La Bruyere

Everything possible to be believ’d is an image of truth. - William Blake

False beliefs can be every bit as consoling as true ones, right up until the moment of disillusionment. - Richard Dawkins

For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible. - Stuart Chase

For what a man would like to be true, that he more readily believes. - Francis Bacon

He does not believe that does not live according to his belief. - Thomas Fuller

He that will believe only what he can fully comprehend, must have a very long head, or a very short creed. - Charles Caleb Colton

He who believes in nobody knows that he himself is not to be trusted. - Berthold Auerbach

He who believes needs no explanation. - Euripides 

I never cease being dumbfounded by the unbelievable things people believe. - Leo Rosten

I think it's better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier. Life should be malleable and progressive; working from idea to idea permits that. Beliefs anchor you to certain points and limit growth; new ideas can't generate. Life becomes stagnant. - Rufus

I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong. - Bertrand Russell

If we can once believe that success is possible, success becomes possible. - Frank Chapman

If you don’t have solid beliefs, you cannot build a stable life. Beliefs are like the foundation of a building, and they are the foundation to build your life upon. - Alfred Montapert

If you only believe when it's easy, you don't really believe. - Laurell K. Hamilton

If you want to know what your true beliefs are, take a look at your actions. - Robert Anthony

It is easier to argue that something nobody believes in actually exists than it is to argue that something everybody believes in is unreal. - Samuel R. Delany

It is hard to let old beliefs go. They are familiar. We are comfortable with them and have spent years building systems and developing habits that depend on them. Like a man who has worn eyeglasses so long that he forgets he has them on, we forget that the world looks to us the way it does because we have become used to seeing it that way through a particular set of lenses. - Kenichi Ohmae

It is not what you believe, but why you believe it! - Unknown

It is okay to stand firm in your beliefs; just do not impose them on others who may be equally resolute in theirs. - Unknown

It's an indulgence to sit in a room and discuss your beliefs as if they were a juicy piece of gossip. - Robert Heinlein

It's not what other people believe you can do, it's what you believe. - Gail Devers

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

It’s what you choose to believe that makes you the person you are. - Unknown

Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe. - Gail Devers

Man can believe the impossible, but can never believe the improbable. - Oscar Wilde

Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good ground for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones. - Bertrand Russell

Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he becomes. - Bhagavad Gita

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 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

Many people have died for their beliefs. The real courage is living and suffering for what you believe. - Christopher Paolini

Maturity of mind is best shown in slow belief. - Baltasar Gracian

Men are most apt to believe what they least understand. - Michel Montaigne

Men freely believes that which they desire. - Caesar

Men in general are quick to believe that which they wish to be true. - Julius Caesar

Men that believe only what they understand can write their creed on a postage stamp. - Austin O’Malley

Most people are too slow to believe, but once you get them going, they believe too much. - Lewis F. Korns

Never underestimate the power of the human mind to believe what it wants to believe, no matter the conflicting evidence. - Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson

No amount of belief makes something a fact. - James Randi

No man ever quite believes in any other man. One may believe in an idea absolutely, but not in a man. - H. L. Mencken

Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know. - Michel de Montaigne

Oftimes our belief, if in another, we would regard a superstition. - Lewis F. Korns

One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who have only interests. - John Stuart Mill

Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing that insures the successful outcome of our venture. - William James

Our beliefs about what we are and what we can be precisely determine what we will be. - Anthony Robbins

That which has been believed by everyone, always and everywhere, has every chance of being false. - Paul Valéry

The belief that there is only one truth and that oneself is in possession of it seems to me the deepest root of all evil that is in the world. - Max Born

The fact that a belief has a good moral effect upon a man is no evidence whatsoever in favour of its truth. - Bertrand Russell

The investigator should have a robust faith – and yet not believe. - Claude Bernard

The lack of belief is a defect that ought to be concealed when it cannot be overcome. - Lillian Smith

The less depth a belief system has, the greater the fervency with which its adherents embrace it. The most vociferous, the most fanatical are those whose cobbled faith is founded on the shakiest grounds. - Dean Koontz

The less you know the more you believe. - U2

The man who cannot believe in himself cannot believe in anything else. - Roy L. Smith

The moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for it, and become blind to the arguments against it. - George Bernard Shaw

The more a man dreams, the less he believes. - H. L. Mencken

The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind. - H. L. Mencken

The thing you really believe in always happens. And the belief in a thing makes it happen. - Frank Lloyd Wright

There can be no merit in believing something which you can neither explain nor understand. - John Lubbock

There is a force that controls all your decisions. It influences how you think and feel every moment you're alive. It determines what you will do and what you will not do. It determines how you feel about anything that occurs in your life. That force is your beliefs. - Anthony Robbins

There is no belief, however foolish, that will not gather its faithful adherents who will defend it to the death. - Isaac Asimov

There’s nothing that can help you understand your beliefs more than trying to explain them to an inquisitive child. - Frank A. Clark

They conquer who believe they can. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Though my sight be lost, I do not yet lose my faith: when I can no longer see, I can still believe. - Ivan Panin

To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection. - Henri Poincare

We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving, and we all have the power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing. - Louisa May Alcott

We are slow to believe that which if believed would hurt our feelings. - Ovid

We believe what we want to believe, what we like to believe, what suits our prejudices and fuels our passions. - Sydney J. Harries

We may not respect all the beliefs of others, but we should respect their right of having them. - Validivar

Weak people believe what is forced on them. Strong people what they wish to believe, forcing that to be real. - Gene Wolfe

What a man believes may be ascertained, not from his creed, but from the assumptions on which he habitually acts. - George Bernard Shaw

What ardently we wish, we soon believe. - Edward Young

What we sincerely believe regarding ourselves is true for us. - Orison Swett Marden

What you believe will depend very much on what you are. - Noah Porter

Whatever we believe about ourselves and our ability comes true for us. - Susan L. Taylor

Whatever you do, you must remain nimble in your thinking. Do not become so attached to any one belief that you cannot see past it to another possibility. - Christopher Paolini

Where is the world whose people don't prefer a comfortable, warm, and well-worn belief, however illogical, to the chilly winds of uncertainty. - Isaac Asimov

Whether your beliefs are true or totally insane, if you accept them, then that's what your life will be about. - Robert Anthony

With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another. - Georg C. Lichtenberg

You can have anything you want if you will give up the belief that you can't have it. - Dr. Robert Anthony

You’ve got to believe in possibilities. You’ve got to believe that tomorrow can be better than today. And here’s the big one. Believe in yourself. - Unknown

Your belief don’t make you a better person, your behaviour does. - Unknown

Thursday 24 November 2011

Quote Worthy


Reasoning at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, Whilst meaner things, whom instinct leads, Are rarely known to stray. - William Cowper

A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work: it is as just a demand as governed men ever made of governing. It is the everlasting right of man. - Thomas Carlyle 

There is an infinite difference between a little wrong and just right, between fairly good and the best, between mediocrity and superiority. - Orison Swett Marden

If we could see things as other people see them, we could come closer to knowing why they do what they do and why they say what they say. - Richard L. Evans

We may not be saintly enough to love our enemies, but for the sake of our health and happiness, let us at least forgive them and forget them. - Dale Carnegie

The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact than a drunken man is happier than a sober one. - George Bernard Shaw

There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second. - Logan Smith

The power of illustrative anecdotes often lies not in how well they present reality, but in how well they reflect the core beliefs of their audience. - Barbara Mikkelson

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Running Advice Can Be Risky, Cause Injury


Finally, an article on Running by researchers who have no financial ties to running programmes or shoe manufacturers. At the end of the day, it’s all just common sense. Listen to what your body is telling you, not the shoe manufacturers, who want you to buy their products. 



New York: Exercise researchers believe advice about running has become unnecessarily complicated as ‘experts’ battle over shoes and running form and training programmes.

Researchers who have no financial ties to running programmes or shoe manufacturers say that most of those complications are unnecessary and some advice is even risk because it can make running harder and increase the chance of injury.

Take, for example, the notion that there is a perfect running form, like striking the ground with the midfoot or or forefoot. There is no convincing evidence for this convoluted advice, disinterested researchers say.

In fact, studies have found that individuals automatically run in a way that is most efficient for their own bodies. Those who change the way they run naturally are less efficient and more prone to injury.

“There is good evidence that your body is exquisitely lazy and will find he easiest way for you to run,” said Carl Foster, professor of exercise and sports medicine at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

Dr Steef Bredeweg of the University Medical Center Groningen,in the Netherlands, and his colleague Dr Ida Buist are principal investigators in a series of rigorous studies of runners, asking how best train novices and how to prevent injuries.

When it comes to running form, Dr Bredeweg sais: “We don’t know what is the right thing to do.”

For example, he noted, forefoot strikers place less stress on their knees but more on their calves and Achilles tendons.

“We tell people we don’t know a thing about the best technique,” h said, telling runners to use the fore they naturally adopt.

Running form is just one example of the confusion buffeting beginners. Running, said John Raglin, professor of kinesiology at Indiana University, “is so prone to these sort of trends.”

People will latch on to anything, he added, and an anecdote or two about what is supposed to be an ideal running form often passes for evidence.

Exercise researchers also say there is no perfect programme to get people started on running.

A lot depends on what a person’s goals are and how fit he or she is before starting to run. Experts caution, though, that it is important to start slowly, increase distance and effort gradually and not become a slave to a rigorous programme.

Dr Raglin said: “People are indoctrinated with what they can achieve in a short time with a little bit of work. But the reality is very different.”

So, if a training programme does not seem to be working, he said, “don’t stick with it because you think it’s what you have to do.”

- New York Times


Tuesday 22 November 2011

Food For Thought


Challenges in life come in three broad categories: easy, difficult, and impossible. Those who take on the easy have a safe and boring life. Those who take on the difficult have a tough but satisfying life. Those who take on the impossible are remembered for life.- Unknown

When life seems chaotic, you don’t need people giving you easy answers or cheap promises. There might not be any answers to your problems. What you need is a safe place where you can bounce with people who have taken some bad hops of their own. - Unknown

A little more patience, a little more charity for all, a little more devotion, a little more love; with less bowing down to the past; brave looking forward to the future with more faith in our fellows, and the race will be ripe for a great burst of light and life. - Unknown

Monday 21 November 2011

Law Of Life


Law of Mechanical Repair - After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you'll have to pee.

Law of Gravity - Any tool, nut, bolt, screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.

Law of Probability - The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.

Law of Random Numbers - If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal and someone always answers.

Variation Law - If you change lines (or traffic lanes), the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now (works every time, even in the supermarket).

Law of the Bath - When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone rings.

Law of Close Encounters - The probability of meeting someone you know increases dramatically when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.

Law of the Result - When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will.

Law of Biomechanics - The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.

Law of the Theatre & Hockey Arena - At any event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle, always arrive last. They are the ones who will leave their seats several times to go for food, beer, or the toilet and who leave early before the end of the performance or the game is over. The folks in the aisle seats come early, never move once, have long gangly legs or big bellies and stay to the bitter end of the performance. The aisle people also are very surly folk.

The Coffee Law - As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

Murphy's Law of Lockers - If there are only 2 people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.

Law of Physical Surfaces - The chances of an open-faced jelly sandwich landing face down on a floor, are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet or rug.

Law of Logical Argument - Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.

Brown's Law of Physical Appearance - If the clothes fit, they're ugly.

Wilson's Law of Commercial Marketing Strategy - As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it.

Doctors' Law - If you don't feel well, make an appointment to go to the doctor, by the time you get there you'll feel better.. But don't make an appointment, and you'll stay sick.

Inverse Square Law - All of the above will be rendered invalid or fail at the most ridiculous time.

Sunday 20 November 2011

Life


The purpose of life is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Having the opportunity to talk about one’s life, to give an account of it, to interpret it, is integral to leading that life rather than being led through it. - Lugones and Spelman

I should have no objection to go over the same life from its beginning to the end: requesting only the advantage authors have, of correcting in a second edition, the faults of the first. - Benjamin Franklin

Your life will be no better than the plans you make, and the action you take. You are the architect and builder of your own life, fortune, and destiny. - Alfred Montapert

Even as a coin attains its full value when it is spent, so life attains its supreme value when one knows how to forfeit it with grace when the time comes. - Felix Marti-Ibanez

Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark. - Agnes de Mille

Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going too fast – you also miss the sense of where you are going and why. - Eddie Cantor

Let us live while we live, and snatch each fleeting moment of truth and love and beauty. - Sarah Alden Bradford Ripley

Saturday 19 November 2011

Love


Love is something eternal – the aspects may change, but not the essence. There is the same difference in a person before and after he is in love as there is in an unlighted lamp and one that is burning. The lamp was there and it is a good lamp, but now it is shedding light, too, and that is its real function. - Vincent van Gogh 

Around us lies the world. Pass out into it with hatred in your heart and, by the operation of a law as immutable as that of gravity, you will encounter strife, bitterness, and shame. Pass out into the same world with love in your hear, love everything you meet, no matter how degraded it may appear, or how far removed from the possibility of love, let your love rest upon all, even as the sun touches everything with the infinite charity of its beams, and all the world will blossom like a rose. What need has the world but love? If love were a living thing in the heart of every man, what use were the laws written in statue books? Heaven's only law is love. - Unknown

When you love somebody, you should follow your heart. Sometimes when you are with the person you love the most, you feel confused. You don’t know who you are or what you want but that is totally understandable. It is natural to let go of a part of yourself to be with that person but the important part is that you don’t lose your own identity in the process! - Unknown

Thursday 17 November 2011

Quote Worthy


The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again. - Thomas Paine

Indeed, what is there that does not appear marvellous when it comes to our knowledge for the first time? How many things, too, are looked upon as quite impossible until they have been actually effected? - Pliny The Elder

The two most precious things this side of the grave are our reputation and our life. But it is to be lamented that the most contemptible whisper may deprive us of the one, and the weakest weapon of the other. - Charles Colton 

One of the best ways to educate our hearts is to look at our interaction with other people, because our relationships with others are fundamentally a reflection of our relationship with ourselves. - Stephen R. Covey

Be not too presumptuously sure in any business; for things of this world depend on such a train of unseen chances that if it were in man’s hands to set the tables, still he would not be certain to win the game. - George Herbert

Whoever, in middle age, attempts to realize the wishes and hopes of his early youth, invariably deceives himself. Each ten years of a man's life has its own fortunes, its own hopes, its own desires. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The world is never quiet, even its silence eternally resounds with the same notes, in vibrations which escape our ears. As for those that we perceive, they carry sounds to us, occasionally a chord, never a melody. - Albert Camus

Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people’s actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is practicable; and to make this custom the more significant, practice it first upon yourself. - Marcus Aurelius 

Wednesday 16 November 2011

Sogyal Rinpoche


Sogyal Rinpoche - a world-renowned Buddhist teacher from Tibet 

Two people have been living in you all your life. One is the ego, garrulous, demanding, hysterical, calculating; the other is the hidden spiritual being, whose still voice of wisdom you have only rarely heard or attended to. . . . Because he or she knows you through and through, since he or she is you, your guide can help you, with increasing clarity and humour, negotiate all the difficulties of your thoughts and emotions. . . . The more often you listen to this wise guide, the more easily you will be able to change your negative moods yourself, see through them, and even laugh at them for the absurd dramas and ridiculous illusions that they are. . . . The more you listen, the more guidance you will receive. If you follow the voice of your wise guide . . . and let the ego fall silent, you come to experience that presence of wisdom and joy and bliss that you really are. - Sogyal Rinpoche 

When you realize the nature of mind, layers of confusion peel away. You don't actually "become" a Buddha, you simply cease, slowly, to be deluded. And being a Buddha is not being some omnipotent spiritual superman, but becoming at last a true human being. - Sogyal Rinpoche 

Benevolence - Quotes

Benevolence is a world of itself – a world which mankind, as yet, have hardly begun to explore. We have, as it were, only skirted along its coasts for a few leagues, without penetrating the recesses, or gathering the riches of its vast interior. - Horace Mann

Everyone feels benevolent if nothing happens to be annoying him at the moment. - C. S. Lewis

How quickly a truly benevolent act is repaid by the consciousness of having done it. - Hosea Ballou

The unaffected language of real feeling and benevolence is easily understood, and is never ridiculous. - Maria Edgeworth

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Food For Thought


Going far beyond the call of duty, doing more than others expect… this is what excellence is all about. And it comes from striving, maintaining the highest standards, looking after the smallest detail, and going the extra mile. Excellence means doing your very best – in everything, in every way. - Unknown

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. It is overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities there are to make our love felt. - Unknown

Heaven on earth is happening simultaneously with the way our lives are showing up, right now in this moment. The trick is to be able to access this coexisting state, day in, day out, moment-by-moment, not just when in pleasant, ideal circumstances. - Unknown  

Monday 14 November 2011

Tap on the Shoulder


              A passenger in a taxi heading leaned over to ask the driver a question and gently tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.
              The driver screamed, lost control of the cab, nearly hit a bus, drove up over the curb and stopped just inches from a large plate window.
              For a few moments everything was silent in the cab. Then, the shaking driver said, "Are you OK? I'm so sorry, but you scared the daylights out of me."
              The badly shaken passenger apologized to the driver and said, "I didn't realize that a mere tap on the shoulder would startle someone so badly."
              The driver replied, "No, no, I'm the one who is sorry, it's entirely my fault. Today is my very first day driving a cab. I've been driving a hearse for 25 years."

Betrayal - Quotes


For Google+ readers, please click on the link to see the post

Be certain that he who has betrayed thee once will betray thee again. - Johann Caspar Lavater

Betray a friend, and you'll often find you have ruined yourself. - Aesop

Betrayal does that – betrays the betrayer. - Erica Jong

Each betrayal begins with trust. - Phish

It would take too long to explain the intimate alliance of contradictions in human nature which makes love itself wear at times the desperate shape of betrayal. And perhaps there is no possible explanation. - Joseph Conrad

We forget cruelty and past betrayal, heedless of where the next bright bolt may fall. - Robert Graves

We have to distrust each other. It is our only defence against betrayal. - Tennessee Williams

When one does another person an injustice, in some mysterious way it does one good to discover (or to persuade oneself) that the injured party has also behaved badly or unfairly in some little matter or other; it is always a relief to the conscience if one can apportion some measure of guilt to the person one has betrayed. - Stefan Zweig

Saturday 12 November 2011

On Friendship


A true friendship always tells us that we are acceptable and accepted. This we all need to know. We have a need to be accepted not for any special quality, not for any grand achievement but simply for ourselves. - Unknown

Deep friendship develops through mutual caring and interest in each other’s well being. Friendship based on competition to show who is better can only exist on the golf course. - Unknown

As we experience acceptance in a friendship, we come to know that someone sees values in us. Being valued by someone who counts is the first step toward valuing oneself. - Unknown

A friendship that is sincere and true gives joy like nothing else will do; that is why glad hearts look up and send a prayer of thanks for faithful friends. - Unknown

The delight of honest friendship is that it can be resumed instantly regardless of the length of time it has been in abeyance; there are no preliminaries or formalities to observe, no protocol to be established. - Unknown

The miracle of friendship can be spoken without words, hearing unspoken needs, recognizing secret dreams, understanding the silent things that only true friends know. - Unknown

Friday 11 November 2011

Birds - Quotes

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song. - Lou Holtz

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. - Latin Proverb

Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness. - Alejandro Jodorowsky

Birds of a feather will gather together. - Robert Burton

Birds of fine plumage are not the best songsters; neither are comely women the most virtuous. - William Scott Downey  

If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes. - Charles Lindbergh

Each bird must sing with his own throat. - Henrik Ibsen

Fine feathers make fine birds. - Unknown

Never look for birds of this year in the nests of the last.  - Miguel de Cervantes

No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings. - William Blake 

The early bird catches the worm. - William Camden 

The wren and the nightingale sound nothing alike, but think how dull the world would be without the songs of both birds. - Kirby Larson

There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before. - Robert Wilson Lynd

Tie two birds together and although they have four wings, they cannot fly. - Unknown

Thursday 10 November 2011

Quote Worthy


Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver. - Barbara De Angelis 

Overcoming fear and worry can be accomplished by living a day at a time or even a moment at a time. Your worries will be cut down to nothing. - Dr. Robert Anthony

Even if the doctor does not give you a year, even if he hesitates about a month, make one brave push and see what can be accomplished in a week. - Robert Luis Stevenson

You cannot run away from a weakness, you must sometime fight it out or perish; and if that be so, why not now, and where you stand. - Robert Luis Stevenson

Let every man be occupied, and occupied in the highest employment of which his nature is capable, and die with the consciousness that he has done his best. - Sydney Smith

The man with a toothache thinks everyone happy whose teeth are sound. The poverty-stricken man makes the same mistake about the rich man. - George Bernard Shaw

The loftiness of understanding embraces all. It requires as much spirit to suffer the failings of others as it does to appreciate their good qualities. - Magdeleine Sable

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

People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom? - Thich Nhat Hanh

Wednesday 9 November 2011

Trivia


I can’t guarantee the accuracy of all the points. :-)

Q: Why do men's clothes have buttons on the right while women's clothes have buttons on the left?
A: When buttons were invented, they were very expensive and worn primarily by the rich. Since most people are right-handed, it is easier to push buttons on the right through holes on the left. Because wealthy women were dressed by maids, dressmakers put the buttons on the maid's right! And that's where women's buttons have remained since.

Q: Why do ships and aircraft use 'mayday' as their call for help?
A: This comes from the French word m'aidez -meaning 'help me' -- and is pronounced, approximately,’ mayday.'

Q: Why are zero scores in tennis called 'love'?
A: In France, where tennis became popular, round zero on the scoreboard looked like an egg and was called 'l'oeuf,' which is French for 'egg.' When tennis was introduced in the US, Americans (mis)pronounced it 'love.'

Q: Why is shifting responsibility to someone else called 'passing the buck'?
A: In card games, it was once customary to pass an item, called a buck, from player to player to indicate whose turn it was to deal. If a player did not wish to assume the responsibility of dealing, he would 'pass the buck' to the next player.

Q: Why do people clink their glasses before drinking a toast?
A: It used to be common for someone to try to kill an enemy by offering him a poisoned drink. To prove to a guest that a drink was safe, it became customary for a guest to pour a small amount of his drink into the glass of the host. Both men would drink it simultaneously. When a guest trusted his host, he would only touch or clink the host's glass with his own.

Q: Why are people in the public eye said to be ‘in the limelight’?
A: Invented in 1825, limelight was uses in lighthouses and theatres by burning a cylinder of lime which produced a brilliant light. In the theatrical performer 'in the limelight’ was the centre of attention.

Q: Why is someone who is feeling great ‘on cloud nine’?
A: Types of clouds are numbered according to the altitudes they attain, with nine being the highest cloud. If someone is said to be on cloud nine, that person is floating well above worldly cares. 

Q: In golf, where did the term ‘Caddie’ come from?
A: When Mary, Queen of Scots went to France as a young girl, Louis, King of France, learned that she loved the Scots game ‘golf’. So he had the first course outside of Scotland built for her enjoyment. To make sure she was properly chaperoned (and guarded) while she played, Louis hired cadets from a military school to accompany her. In French, the word cadet is pronounced ‘ca-day’ and the Scots changed it to ‘caddie’.

Q: Did you ever wonder why dimes, quarters and half dollars have notches(milling), while pennies and nickels do not?
A: The US Mint began putting notches on the edges of coins containing gold and silver to discourage holders from shaving off small quantities of the precious metals. Dimes, quarters and half dollars are notched because they used to contain silver. Pennies and nickels aren’t notched because the metals they contain are not valuable enough to shave.

So there! Now you know!

Tuesday 8 November 2011

Food For Thought


When you meet someone with good manners, you cannot know immediately if you are meeting a good person. You may not know for years, or ever. But you will know instantly that something is right about the person. - Unknown

The man who will not execute his resolutions when they are fresh upon him can have no hope from them afterwards; they will be dissipated, lost and perished in the hurry and scurry of the world, or sunk in the slough of indolence. - Unknown

The need to be focused is not because it guarantees success, but because a person only has so much time and energy to do a project well. Incidentally, it is mainly those who are focused who become most successful in life. - Unknown

Sunday 6 November 2011

On Life


No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for. - Rick Warren

Most men ebb and flow in wretchedness between the fear of death and the hardship of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet they do not know how to die. - Seneca

Appreciation of life itself, becoming suddenly aware of the miracle of being alive, on this planet, can turn what we call ordinary life into a miracle. - Dan Wakefield

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens. - Kahlil Gibran

We cannot tell what may happen to us in the strange medley of life. But we can decide what happens to us, how we take it, what we do with it, and that is what really counts in the end. - Joseph F. Newton

The secret of living a life of excellence is merely a matter of thinking thoughts of excellence. Really, it’s a matter of programming our minds with the kind of information that will set us free. - Charles R. Swindoll

A life lived with integrity – even if it lacks the trappings of fame and fortune is a shinning star in whose light others may follow in the years to come. - Denis Waitley

Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Continue to learn. Play with abandon. Choose with no regret. Laugh! Do what you love. Love as if this is all there is. - Mary Anne Radmacher-Hershey

It is sad indeed to die in your spirit while you live in your body. It is equally tragic to be asleep in life when you should be wide awake to this great world. - Unknown

Everything in life is temporary. So if things are going good, enjoy it because it won’t last forever. And if things are gong bad, don’t worry because it won’t last forever either. - Unknown