Quote of the Day: e. e. cummings on Courage

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."
e. e. cummings

Quote of the Day: Bob Marley on Curves

Saw this quote the other day.  Looked it up and found it was by Bob Marley.  Very simple and true.

"The most beautiful curve on a woman’s body is her smile."  - Bob Marley

Quote of the Day: Confucius on Life

Here's a quote that makes you think.  Maybe I'm at this stage of my life.

"We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one." - Confucius

Quote of the Day: Emily Dickinson, on Possibilities

Good quote to start the new year.

Not knowing when the dawn will come
I open every door.

― Emily Dickinson

I think that's a great attitude to start the year.

Quote of the Day: Stanley Kubrick, on Meaning and Fulfillment

“The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death — however mutable man may be able to make them — our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfillment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.”
- Stanley Kubrick, interviewed by Eric Nordern, Playboy (September 1968)

"However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light."  So true.

Quote of the Day: Ralph Waldo Emerson on Fear and Action

“Always do what you are afraid to do.”  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sometimes the fact that we're afraid to do something is an indication of what we need to do.  Certainly has been true in my life.

Quote of the Day: Ben Franklin on Life and Time

About a month ago I posted a Bruce Lee quote.  Looks like he copied an old Ben Franklin quote.  Doesn't matter, it (unlike our lives) is timeless.

“Dost thou love life?  Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of.”  - Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac, 1746

Quote of the Day: Kafka on Obsessions

“Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”  - Franz Kafka

In related news...  This past Saturday I skated the Carolina Century for the 7th time.  102+ miles.  7:38.  Lots of pain.  Conversation during the skate: "What the hell is wrong with us?"   :)

Quote of the Day: Knowing You Matter

"One of the best feelings in the world is knowing your presence and absence both mean something to someone."  - Unknown

That's what I'd like in my life, and I'm sure I'm not alone.  Both to have someone like that, and to be that someone for another person.

Quote of the Day: Bruce Lee on Life and Time

“If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of.”  - Bruce Lee

Quote of the Day: John Green on Love

"I'm in love with you, and I'm not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things.  I'm in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we're all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we'll ever have, and I am in love with you.”  - John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

Quote of the Day: The Miracle, Life

I was reminded of the following quote when listening to the song of the day yesterday.

    We spend a whole life searching for a miracle
    and what we fail to realize is
    that life is the miracle.
    All of it.

-Anonymous

Quote of the Day: Marcel Proust on Discovery

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
  - Marcel Proust

This is similar to a past blog post of mine: Quote of the Day: T.S. Eliot on Exploration and Knowing, from March 10, 2012.  I guess the reason I'm posting this idea again is because I'm seeing just how true it is.

Quote of the Day: Shunryu Suzuki on Life's Problems

From Theendlessfurther.com:
http://theendlessfurther.com/tag/shunryu-suzuki/ *
"When your life is always a part of your surroundings–in other words, when you are called back to yourself, in the present moment–then there is no problem. When you start to wander about in some delusion which is something apart from you yourself, then your surroundings are not real anymore, and your mind is not real anymore. If you yourself are deluded, then your surroundings are also a misty, foggy delusion. Once you are in the midst of delusion, there is no end to delusion. You will be involved in deluded ideas one after another. Most people live in delusion, involved in their problem, trying to solve their problem. But just to live is actually to live in problems. And to solve the problem is to be a part of it, to be one with it."
  - Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, 1970

So often we think that if only we could solve our problems, the problems we have today, that we'll be all set and life will be good.  But then you hear that rich people, or other people that you think have things "figured out," still have a lot of stress in their lives.

I think that this quote has it exactly right.  Life is problems.  You'll never solve them all, and if you do you'll just find more.  You have to embrace them.  No, you don't like having problems, of course, nobody does.  But maybe you learn to accept that you'll always have an endless to-do list or you'll never be as fit as you like or you'll never achieve all you want at work.  Fight the battles and savor the small victories, the precious moments.  I wish I had figured this out earlier.


* There were other pages that had this quote, of course.  But this page had a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon!

Quote of the Day: Ralph Waldo Emerson on Instinct

"Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason."

  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quote of the Day: Christopher Columbus on Courage

Not sure if this is historically accurate.  Nevertheless...

"You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore."  - Christopher Columbus

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/192564-you-can-never-cross-the-ocean-until-you-have-the

Quote of the Day: Robin Williams on Loneliness

"I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It’s not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone." – Robin Williams

Many sources for this, here's one:

http://livebyquotes.com/2012/i-used-to-think-the-worst-thing-in-life-was-to-end-up-all-alone-its-not-the-worst-thing-in-life-is-to-end-up-with-people-who-make-you-feel-all-alone-robin-williams/

I was thinking this one day, before I knew of Williams' quote.  My version went more like this: "There's nothing more lonely than feeling lonely while you're with someone else."  Know what I mean?  :(

Quote of the Day: Overcoming Difficulties

An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means that it's going to launch you into something great.

—unknown

Quote of the Day - You're Mad, Bonkers!

I had this quote in an post about A2A (A2A 2010 (and 2009 and 2008, since I didn't have a blog then), Tuesday, October 5, 2010) but I decided it needed and deserved its own post.

"You're mad, bonkers ... but I'll tell you a secret: All the best people are." - Alice's father, to Alice, in Tim Burton's film Alice in Wonderland.

As you, my seven readers*, know, half the reason I even write this blog is so I can find stuff that was, and remains, interesting to me. I was looking for this quote the other day, to show it to someone who I met who appeared to be completely crazy in the absolute best possible sense.  But I couldn't find it on a casual search on my phone.  So here it is!

* estimated readership

Quote of the Day: Ed Feulner on the origin of our "Constitutional" rights

This is something that I am amazed that has to be explained to people.  I have had this very discussion with friends, which is why this quote resonated with me.  I completely agree that this is very widely misunderstood.  It is not the government which grants rights.  Rather, it is our rights that need to be protected from government.  Historically, it is government itself that has trampled on the rights of individuals ... and continues to do so to this day.

From Ed Feulner:

The Constitution doesn't grant us freedoms; it prohibits government from taking them. Nearly all of us, at one time or another, refer to our 'constitutional right to free speech.' While this common phrase may seem harmless, it points to a larger misunderstanding of where our rights come from -- a misunderstanding that undermines many of our most fundamental policy debates. The fact is, the U.S. Constitution protects our God-given rights from government. The government does not (as the phrase above implies) grant those rights to us as citizens. This is perhaps the most widely misunderstood aspect of our system of government.

In case you forgot, this is clearly stated in our Declaration of Independence.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Rights come from God.  Governments are instituted to secure these rights, not to create them--because they cannot.

The latter part of that quote from the Declaration might deserve a little more attention as time goes on...