"if you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."  

vincent van gogh
dutch post-impressionist painter
books  quotes

“and forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.”

kahlil gibran
lebanese poet and novelist
the prophet  quotes   

to laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. this is to have succeeded. 

ralph waldo emerson
american poet

"seldom does an individual exceed
his own expectations." 
unknown

let every man or woman here, if you never hear me again, remember this, that if you wish to be great at all, you must begin where you are and with what you are. he who would be great anywhere must first be great in his own philadelphia.  

russel h. conwell

insist on yourself; never imitate. your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession...  do that which is assigned to you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much.

ralph waldo emerson
american poet

there'll be two dates on your tombstone
and all your friends will read 'em
but all that's gonna matter is that little dash between 'em..."

kevin welch

your work is to discover your world 
and then with all your heart give yourself to it.  

the buddha
the "enlightened one"

here's to the crazy ones.  the misfits.  the rebels.  the trouble-makers.  the round heads in the square holes.  the ones who see things differently. they're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the
status-quo. you can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them.  but the only thing you can't do is ignore them.  because they change things.  they push the human race forward.  and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.  because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

"think different" advertisement
  apple computers

guard well your spare moments. they are like uncut diamonds. discard them and their value will never be known. improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life. 

ralph waldo emerson
american poet

you are not here merely to make a living. you are here in order to
enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. you are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand."

woodrow wilson
28th president of the united states

one hundred percent of the shots you don't take - don't go in. 

wayne gretzky
canadian ice hockey player

"i find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand,
as in what direction we are moving: 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, jr.
us supreme court justice

"when you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce.  you look for reasons it is not doing well.  it may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun.  you never blame the lettuce. yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. but if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce.  blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. that is my experience.  no blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. if you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change."

thich nhat hanh
vietnamese zen master and spiritual leader
from his book: peace is every step    

"try not to become a man of success.
 rather become a man of value." 

albert einstein
american theoretical physicist

"you must do the thing you think you cannot do." 

eleanor roosevelt
american first lady

"keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children."  

kahlil gibran
lebanese poet and novelist
the prophet  

"don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. the time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use."

earl nightingale
motivational speaker

"it is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself." 

ralph waldo emerson
american poet

"all labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence."

dr. martin luther king jr.
american civil rights leader

finish every day and be done with it. you have done what you could. some blunders and absurdities no doubt have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. this day is all that is good and fair. it is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays.

ralph waldo emerson
american poet

sow a thought, and you reap an act; 
sow an act, and you reap a habit; 
sow a habit, and you reap a character; 
sow a character, and you reap a destiny. 

charles reade  
english novelist

use what talent you possess: 
the woods would be very silent 
if no birds sang except those that sang best.

henry van dyke
american educator

ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them, you reach your destiny.

carl schurz
us senator from wisconsin

"if a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as michelangelo painted, or beethoven played music, or shakespeare wrote poetry. he should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well."

martin luther king jr.  
american civil rights leade

"if you have built castles in the air, 
your work need not be lost;
 that is where they should be. 
now put the foundations under them."

henry david thoreau   
american author, naturalist

the longer i live, the more i realize the impact of attitude on life. attitude to me is more important than facts. it is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think or say or do. it is more important than appearance, gift, or skill. it will make or break a company...a church...a home. the remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. we cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. we cannot change the inevitable. the only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude. i am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how i react to it. and so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes. 

charles swindoll  

"man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."

oliver wendell holmes, jr.
us supreme court justice

your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. who looks outside, dreams. who looks inside, awakens. 

carl jung
swiss psychologist

"great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." 

albert einstein
american physicist

"it takes as much stress to be a success as it does to be a failure."

emilio james trujillo
haight street armchair philosopher

"the best way to predict your future is to create it."

unknown

"keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."

mark twain
american author

one ship drives east and another drives west
with the selfsame winds that blow.
'tis the set of sails and not the gales
which tells us the way to go. 

ella wheeler wilcox
american poet

“whether you think you can 
or think you can't --
 you are right.” 

henry ford  
founder, ford motor company

"in any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing."

theodore roosevelt
26th president of the united states

your talent is god's gift to you. 
what you do with it is your gift back to god. 

unknown