Food for Thought

Look at the stars. It won’t fix the economy. It won’t stop wars. It won’t give you flat abs, or better sex, or even help you figure out your relationship and what you want to do with your life. But it’s important. It helps you remember that you and your problems are both infinitesimally small and conversely, that you are a piece of an amazing and vast universe. - Unknown

Letting go is like pulling out a tooth. When it was pulled out, you’re relieved, but how many times does your tongue run itself over the spot where the tooth once was? Probably a hundred times a time. Just because it was not hurting you doesn’t mean you did not notice it. It leaves a gap and sometimes you see yourself missing it terribly. it’s going to take a while, but it takes time. Should you have kept the tooth? No, because it was causing you so much pain. Therefore, move on and let go. - Unknown

Every noble work is bound to face problems and obstacles. It is important to check your goal and motivation thoroughly. One should be very truthful, honest, and reasonable. One's actions should be good for others, and for oneself as well. Once a positive goal is chosen, you should decide to pursue it all the way to the end. Even if it is not realized, at least there will be no regret. - Dalai Lama

More Food for Thought Here and the book Food for Thought

Life - Quotes

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. - Crowfoot

There is one purpose to life and one only: to bear witness to and understand as much as possible of the complexity of the world – its beauty, its mysteries, its riddles. - Anne Rice

Living a meaningful life is not a popularity contest. If what you’re saying is always getting applause, you’re probably not yet doing the right stuff. - Marianne Williamson

No man has ever known what he would meet around the next corner; if life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavour. - Eleanor Roosevelt

You come into the world with nothing, and the purpose of your life is to make something out of nothing. - Henry Louis Mencken

Life is like a flute. It may have many holes and emptiness but if you work on it carefully, it can play magical melodies. - Unknown

Live quietly in the moment and see that beauty of all before you. The future will take care of itself. - Paramahansa Yogananda

When you feel life is tough, take a trip around a nearby hospital and all your worries will start looking smaller. - Ram Mohan

We must be willing to relinquish the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. - Joseph Campbell

We become happier, much happier, when we realize life is an opportunity rather than an obligation. - Mary Augustine

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking. - Marcus Aurelius

Life is a journey that must be travelled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations. - Oliver Goldsmith More on Life Here, and the book The Mystery of Life - a collection of quotes on and pertaining to life.

Quote Worthy

Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder that which one would not have been able to guess. - Margaret Mead

Anything can happen in this world. It is a crazy place, but as long as we have each other we can overcome anything life throws at us. Just have to believe in ourselves and keep moving forward. - Dustin Ash

Find opportunities in change, especially in today’s world where change is moving at a fast pace, don’t let change overwhelm you, let change help you find opportunities you may have never seen! - Catherine Pulsifer

First a new theory is attacked as absurd; then it is admitted to be true, but obvious and insignificant; finally it is seen to be so important that its adversaries claim they themselves discovered it. - William James

I think it’s important to get your surroundings as well as yourself into a positive state – meaning surround yourself with positive people, not the kind who are negative and jealous of everything you do. - Heidi Klum

If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in. - Rachel Carson

Innovation is usually the result of connections of past experiences. But if you have the same experiences as everyone else, you are unlikely to look in a different direction. - Steve Jobs

Invention, strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory; nothing can come of nothing. - Joshua Reynolds

In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present. - Lao Tzu

If people refuse to look at you in a new light and they can only see you for what you were, only see you for the mistakes you’ve made, if they don’t realize that you are not your mistakes, then they have to go. - Steve Maraboli

More Quotes Here - And the book Quote Worthy

Proverbs

Like a ten-speed bike, most of us have gears we do not use. - Charles Schulz

If you are not a fish, how can you tell if the fish are happy? - Chinese Proverb

Mess with the bull and one usually gets the horns. - Latin American Saying

You can't stop a pig from wallowing in the mud. - West Africa Proverb

You can't buy an inch of time with an inch of gold. - Chinese Proverb

Live your own life, for you will die your own death. - Latin Proverb

You can't sew buttons on your neighbor's mouth. - Russian Proverb

If the townspeople are happy, look to the chief. - Liberian Proverb

Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee. - George Chapman

You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. - Irish Proverb

You cannot put an old head on young shoulders. - Unknown

Lightning never strikes the same place twice. - P. H. Myers

Medicine left in the container can't help. - Yoruba Proverb

Like a fish, one should look for holes in the net. - Samoan

Lend your money and lose your friend. - William Caxton

A closed mouth catches no flies. - Miguel De Cervantes

The right man comes at the right time. - Italian Proverb

Measure a thousand times; cut once.  - Turkish Proverb

You can't judge a horse by its harness. - Thomas Fuller

Put a silk on a goat and it is still a goat. - Irish Proverb

Don't make a mountain out of a molehill. - Henry Ellis

You can't fit a square peg in a round hole. - Unknown

Let the punishment fit the crime. - W.S. Gilbert

If you are hiding, don't light a fire. - Ghanaian

If the shoe fits, wear it. - Nicholas Breton

Love - Quotes

The more you love, the more love you have to give. It’s the only feeling we have which is infinite. - Christina Westover

That best portion of a good man’s life; his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love. - William Wordsworth

Real love doesn’t care about body type, model looks, or wallet size. It’s more concerned with what’s inside. - Unknown

There is no passion that more excites us to everything that is noble and generous than virtuous Love. - Wellins Calcott

Love is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart and the senses. - Lao Tzu

Love means exposing yourself to the pain of being hurt, deeply hurt by someone you trust. - Unknown

Love is something eternal; the aspect may change, but not the essence. - Vincent van Gogh

Men always want to be a woman's first love – women like to be a man's last romance. - Oscar Wilde

Never lose yourself while trying to hold on to someone who doesn’t care about losing you. - Unknown

Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence. - Erich Fromm

Love is like an hourglass, with the heart filling up as the brain empties. - Jules Renard

Love is to love someone for who they are, who they were, and who they will be. - Chris Moore

More on Love Here, and the book The Light of Love

Quote Worthy

Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforce, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe. - Frederick Doughlas

A strong, successful man is not the victim of his environment. He creates favourable conditions. His own inherent force and energy compel things to turn out as he desires. But a weak man is the victim of outside influences. - Orison Swett Marden

Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy. - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

May I share with you a formula that in my judgment will help you and help me to journey well through mortality… First, fill your mind with truth; second, fill your life with service; and third, fill your heart with love. - Thomas S. Monson

To get up when you are down, to fight more intensely when you are struggling; to put in the extra effort when you are in sheer pain, to comeback when nobody expects you to, and to stand tall when everyone is pulling you down are what make a champion. - Apoorve Dubey

If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person. If there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house. If there is harmony in the house, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world. - Chinese Proverb

Your opinion is your opinion, your perception is your perception – do not confuse them with ‘facts’ and ‘truth’. Wars have been fought and millions have been killed because of the inability of men to understand the idea that everybody has a different viewpoint. - John Moore

If you can manipulate news, a judge can manipulate the law. A smart lawyer can keep a killer out of jail, a smart accountant can keep a thief from paying taxes, a smart reporter could ruin your reputation – unfairly. - Mario Cuomo

More Quotes Here - And the book Quote Worthy on http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/vincentthnay

Trivia

I cannot guarantee the accuracy of all the points.

The shortest flight in the world is by Loganair, a Scottish airline. The entire journey between two Orkney Islands, Westray and Papa Westray is a 1,750 yard flight, which takes as little as 47 seconds or up to 2 minutes, depending on winds. 

The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes. 

The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska. 

The stethoscope was invented because a French doctor felt uncomfortable placing his face on a younger woman's chest. 

The Swine Flu vaccine in 1976 caused more death and illness than the disease it was intended to prevent. 

The tooth is the only part of the human body that can't heal itself. 

The typical lead pencil can draw a line that is thirty five miles long. 

The University of Alaska spans four time zones. 

The USA bought Alaska from Russia for about 2 cents per acre ($4.74/km2). Treaty signed at 4 a.m. on March 30, 1867 with the purchase price set at $7.2 million. 

The word "queueing" has five consecutive vowels. 

The words "abstemious" and "facetious" both have all five vowels "a, e, i, o, u" in them in order. 

There are 500,000 detectable earthquakes in the world each year. 

There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos. 

There are so many kinds of apples that if you ate a new one every day, it would take you over 20 years to try them all. 

There are three things the human brain cannot resist noticing: food, attractive people, and danger. 

More Trivia Here

Success - Quotes

That man is successful who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much, who has gained the respect of the intelligent men and the love of children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who leaves the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who never lacked appreciation of earth’s beauty or failed to express it; who looked for the best in others and gave the best he had. - Robert Louis Stevenson

Success is identical with happiness only on condition that we have aimed at and attained those things in life which are really worthwhile, and – if success is to be complete – the most worthwhile. Any success which does not result in happiness, in some one of its varied forms, for self or for others, is a sham. - Frank Chapman Sharp

Humility is the true key to success. Successful people lose their way at times. They often embrace and overindulge from the fruits of success. Humility halts this arrogance and self-indulging trap. Humble people share the credit and wealth, remaining focused and hungry to continue the journey of success. - Rick Pitino

I’ve come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that’s as unique as a fingerprint – and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you. - Oprah Winfrey

There are many aspects to success; material wealth is only one component… But success also includes good health, energy and enthusiasm for life, fulfilling relationships, creative freedom, emotional and psychological stability, a sense of well-being, and peace of mind. - Deepak Chopra

Never lose sight of the fact that the most important yardstick of your success will be how you treat other people – your family, friends, and co-workers, and even strangers you meet along the way. - Barbara bush

Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have. - Zig Ziglar

More on Success Here, and the book The Road to Success

Quote Worthy

Sometimes the slightest things change the directions of our lives, the merest breath of a circumstance, a random moment that connects like a meteorite striking the earth. Lives have swivelled and changed direction on the strength of a chance remark. - Bryce Courtenay

When everyone at school is speaking one language, and a lot of your classmates’ parents also speak it, and you go home and see that your community is different – there is a sense of shame attached to that. It really takes growing up to treasure the specialness of being different. - Sonia Sotomayor

Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen. - Leonardo Da Vinci

I had already found that it was not good to be alone, and so made companionship with what there was around me, sometimes with the universe and sometimes with my own insignificant self; but my books were always my friends, let fail all else. - Joshua Slocum

The man who finds that in the course of his life he has done a lot of wrong often wakes up at night in terror, like a child with a nightmare, and his life is full of foreboding: but the man who is conscious of no wrongdoing is filled with cheerfulness and hope. - Plato

Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe. - Frederick Douglass

Once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about. - Haruki Murakami

When your world moves too fast and you lose yourself in the chaos, introduce yourself to each colour of the sunset. Reacquaint yourself with the earth beneath your feet. Thank the air that surrounds you with every breath you take. Find yourself in the appreciation of life. - Christy Ann Martine

More Quotes Here - And the book Quote Worthy

Global Warming

I used to think that top environmental problems are biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that thirty years of good science could address these problems. I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, and to deal with these we need a cultural and spiritual transformation. And we scientists don’t know how to do that. - Gus Spoth

All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it's here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster. - Barack Obama

As best as can be determined, the world is now warmer than it has been at any point in the last two millennia, and, if current trends continue, by the end of the century it will likely be hotter than at any point in the last two million years. - Elizabeth Kolbert

Avoiding a planet-changing global warming catastrophe is why we urgently need to transform the global energy system to a carbon-neutral one. The clock is ticking. - Martin Hoffert

For innovators who find safe and workable solutions to global warming, the rewards will be staggering. - Fred Krupp

Global warming is too serious for the world any longer to ignore its danger or split into opposing factions on it. - Tony Blair

Global warming must be seen as an economic and security threat. - Kofi Annan

Global warming sounds so big that it's hard to imagine that you as an individual can do anything about it ("what I do is such a tiny drop in the bucket it doesn't matter anyway"). But that's where you're wrong: the reason Earth is in peril is because of individual actions – by me, by you, by the person sitting next to you, by the person you bump into on the street. The bad news is that when we put all those individual actions together, it becomes on huge number – big enough to change climate, big enough to change how Earth supports life. The good news – the very good news – is that, just as the problem is the sum of what each one of us is doing, so is fixing the problem. - Anthony D. Barnosky

I don't mean to imply that we are in imminent danger of being wiped off the face of the earth – at least, not on account of global warming. But climate change does confront us with profound new realities. We face these new realities as a nation, as members of the world community, as consumers, as producers, and as investors. And unless we do a better job of adjusting to these new realities, we will pay a heavy price. We may not suffer the fate of the dinosaurs. But there will be a toll on our environment and on our economy, and the toll will rise higher with each new generation. - Eileen Claussen

It is true that there are still some who deny that global warming is taking place, or that it constitutes a serious problem. Others, while recognizing that global warming is occurring, do not accept that it results from human activities and hence effectively deny that action can be taken to combat it. The great majority of atmospheric scientists, however, now accept that man-made emissions – chiefly, but not only, of carbon dioxide – are aggravating the so-called 'greenhouse effect', thereby causing the world to warm up to what amounts to a dangerous extent. - Barry Holden

No single technology will stop global warming, but there is a silver bullet: a cap on carbon that will launch all these solutions into the mainstream. - Fred Krupp

Life - Quotes

What’s done is done. What’s gone is gone. One of life’s lessons is always moving on. it’s okay to look back and think of fond memoires but keep moving forward. - Unknown

I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it. - Neil Gaiman

The beautiful thing about life is that you can always change, grow and get better. You aren’t defined by your past. You aren’t your mistakes. - Unknown

I’d rather sing one wild song and burst my heart with it, than live a thousand years watching my digestion and being afraid of the wet. - Jack London

If I don't have time to live my life well the first time, when am I going to find the time to go back and live it over? - Robert Fulghum

Life, like some cities, is full of blind alleys, leading nowhere. The great art is to get and to keep out of them. - Christian Nestell Bovee

If life be wretched, it is hard to bear it; if it be happy, it is horrible to lose it; both come to the same thing. - Jean De La Bruyere

If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live. - Lin YuTang

Life started out one thing and then suddenly turned a corner and became something else. - Jeffrey Eugenides

Life is not always perfect. Like a road, it has many bends, ups and downs, but that’s its beauty. - Unknown

How fugitive and brief is mortal life between the budding and the falling leaf. - Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. - Mary Oliver

More on Life Here, and the book The Mystery of Life - a collection of quotes on and pertaining to life.

Quote Worthy

Let us labour for that larger and larger comprehension of truth, that more and more thorough repudiation of error, which shall make the history of mankind a series of ascending developments. - Horace Mann

Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common. - Denis Diderot

There is no respect between the souls of two individuals if their minds can’t trust each other and there is no trust between them if their hearts can’t accept the truth of each other. - Anuj Somany

Sometimes we feel all doors are closed in our lives. But all the closed doors may not be locked, they may be waiting for your knock. - Unknown

If you have the spirit of understanding everything in a positive way, you will enjoy each and every moment of life, whether it’s pressure or pleasure. - Unknown

Sometimes, our light goes out, but is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being. - Albert Schweitzer

Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is. - Ernest Hemingway

Not the ones speaking the same language, but the ones sharing the same feeling understand each other. - Rumi

Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. - Henry David Thoreau

Maybe it won’t work out. But maybe seeing if it does will be the best adventure ever. - Unknown

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly what is essential to the eye. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

One day, you will be at the place you always wanted to be. Don’t stop believing. - Unknown

More Quotes Here - And the book Quote Worthy on http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/vincentthnay

Truth - Quotes

He who clips away a little truth, and puts in a patch of falsehood to make measure, is likely to become a skilful manufacturer of lies. - John Thornton

He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. - Thomas Jefferson

He who shuts out truth, by the same act opens the door to all the error that supplies its place. - Horace Mann

Hurt me with the Truth but, never comfort me with a Lie. - Unknown

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. - Isaac Newton

I never encourage deceit, and falsehood, especially if you have got a bad memory, is the worst enemy a fellow can have. The fact is truth is your truest friend, no matter what the circumstances are. - Abraham Lincoln

I suppose the most revolutionary act one can engage in is ... to tell the truth. - Howard Zinn

If a man is in too big a hurry to give up an error he is liable to give up some truth with it. - Wilbur Wright

If I hear the way of truth in the morning, I am content even to die in the evening. - Confucius

If the whole world should agree to speak nothing but truth, what an abridgment it would make of speech! And what an unravelling there would be of the invisible webs which men, like so many spiders, now weave about each other! - Washington Allston

If we think we have found truth for ourselves, above all things, let us not impose it on one another. Let us lock upon it all the doors of consciousness. For however inspiring it may be to us, however ennobling, when once we try to impose it on another it becomes a poison. - John Daniel Barry

If you add to the truth, you subtract from it. - Unknown

If you can't tell the truth to the people you care about the most, eventually you stop being able to tell the truth to yourself. - Cassandra Clare

If you do not find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it? - Dogen Zenji

If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people. - Virginia Woolf

If you shut the door to all errors, truth will be shut out. - Rabindranath Tagore

If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way. - Emile Zola

If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything. - Mark Twain

If you want to find out the truth, ask effective questions which are open-ended, concise and non-challenging. - Unknown

If you wish to see the truth then hold no opinions for or against anything. To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind. - Zen Master Seng Tsan

In a free society, there comes a time when the truth – however hard it may be to hear, however impolitic it may seem to say – must be told. - Al Gore

In all debates, let Truth be thy aim, not Victory. - William Penn

In seeking truth you have to get both sides of a story. - Walter Cronkite

In the end, the truth finds a way to surface even if you don't want it to. - Jennifer Lopez

Happiness - Quotes

Happiness is a choice, not a result. Nothing will make you happy until you choose to be happy. No person will make you happy unless you decide to be happy. Your happiness will not come to you. It can only come from you. - Ralph Harslon

The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be. - Marcel Pagnol

One day, you will understand that happiness was always about learning how to live with yourself, that happiness was never in the hands of other people. - Bianca Sparacino

Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don’t wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. - Earl Nightingale

Praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and sorrow come and go lime the wind. To be happy, rest like a giant tree in the midst of them all. - The Buddha

The secret to being happy is keeping a sense of humour, making the most of everyday, and taking time to enjoy the little things. - Unknown

The key to being happy is knowing you have the power to choose what to accept and what to let go. - Doinsky

False pleasures come from without and are imperfect: happiness is internal and our own. - John Lubbock

Happiness is a by-product of an effort to make someone else happy. - Gretta Brooker Palmer

Learn to be happy with what yo have while you pursue all that you want. - Jim Rohn

Happiness consists in moderate desires, wants easily satisfied. - James Platt

Don’t let your happiness depend on something you may lose. - C. S. Lewis

More on Happiness Here
The book The Pursuit of Happiness