Thought For The Day TFTD: March 2005

THOUGHTS FOR TODAY
Daily e-amiled Thoughts
Initiated December 2002 through March 6 2005

"If you're strong enough, there are no precedents."
[F. Scott Fitzgerald]
"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."
- John F. Kennedy
"A waist is a terrible thing to mind."
Kenneth H. Kaufman
"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out."
Robert Collier
"You don't drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there."
Edwin Louis Cole
"The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible."
Arthur C. Clarke: Technology and the Future

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
Sir Winston Churchill

An optimist wakes up each morning and says brightly "Good morning G-d!" A pessimist wakes up grunting "Oh G-D.....morning!"
Judith Rubinger

"It's not over until it's over."
Yoggi Berra
"No pressure, no diamonds."
Mary Case

"This is as true in everyday life as it is in battle: we are given one life and the decision is ours whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind, or whether to act and, in acting, to live."
General Omar Bradley

"When you reach for the stars, even though you may not quite get one, you won't come up with a handful of mud either."
Leo Burnett

"Oh the gift the gift he gee us, if only we could see us as others see us."
Introduced to me by Neil J. Cantor

After researching it's source, I learned it came in the original form as follows:
Penned by Scotland's national bard, Robert Burns from his poem "To a Louse"
The poem was actually written “on seeing a [bug-ridden (louse)] in a lady's Bonnet at church
O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us.
It wad frae monie a blunder free us An' foolish notion
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us An' ev'n Devotion
The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.

Richard Bach: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Note: If it is not work, it's_______________? And the most probable result is _________________So if we can learn to "Trick our Minds," as I have been trying to teach you Rachael and Andrew for years, the result's can be _____________________?.

"99% of the game is half mental."
Yogi Berra

"It is a funny thing about life--if you refuse to accept anything but the best
You very often get it."
William Somerset Maugham

"Seventy percent of success in life is showing up"
Woody Allen
"For once you have tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward; for there you have been, and there you long to return."
-Leonardo da Vinci
"If it's between you, and some poor bastard who's wife you're going to turn into a widow, brother, you are goin' down."
"There's a flip side to that coin... what if you do got me boxed in and I gotta put you down... because no matter what, you will not get in my way. We been face to face, yeah, but I will not hesitate. Not for a second.
-- Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro -- The movie "HEAT"

"Without pain, without sacrifice, we would have nothing."
Note: From Rachael Sarah Mahr, said by Tyler Durden
From the Movie "Fight Club"

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
Sir Winston Churchill

" A black cloud only covers part of the sky"
From Joshua Seth Altschule

"You are today where your thoughts have brought you, you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Most people are mirrors, reflecting the moods and emotions of the times;
few are windows, bringing light to bear on the dark corners where troubles fester.
The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows."
Sydney J. Harris

"The person who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The person who walks alone is likely to find themselves in places no one has ever been."
Alan Ashley-Pitt

Today's "Thought for the Day" requires an explanation. I had asked my friend Neil Cantor to create an aphorism on a concept he has been espousing to many within his inner circle since I can remember. That is on Future Thinking. He created what follows and I am thrilled to be able to share it with all of you pre-New Year. Perhaps it will result in some of you (including me), making it a part of your life, or for others, reinforcing it in theirs.
"Not to prepare for the future
is tantamount to stop growing or living,
For the only people who should not
prepare for the future, are those who
have a guarantee they won't be here."
Neil J. Cantor
Supplemental Note from Author: The caveat is "Faith."
Without faith (A belief, hope, positive thoughts, et al.)
what have you got ?................Nothing..............A Void......
Again, it has been said Faith can move mountains and I believe that and that is one of the cornerstone's of "Future Thinking."
ADDITIONAL NOTE: I have included some of you on this group distribution that are not normally on the daily Thoughts for the Day" E-mailing. It is a DAILY MAILING ORIGINALLY DESIGNED TO SEND TO MY CHILDREN. IT HAS GROWN SOMEWHAT AND MANY PEOPLE HAVE ASKED TO BE INCLUDED IN IT. If any of you would like to be added to the daily distribution list please e-mail me and let me know, or conversely if there are some that do not want to be included in the future please also let me know.

Commentary, What is your opinion?
The way various societies treat women is ONE of the barometers, albeit a major one, in the evolution of society and spirituality. One definition of evolution of society and spirituality being, growing toward an understanding of our essence as living beings, so that we can begin to realize our true potential, as members of a vast interconnected universe. Therefore the way we treat others, and the way various societies and cultures throughout history have treated others, whether they are of different color, gender, nationality, religion, life form, (i.e. animals,) or even sexual persuasion, is a measure of our level of growth toward that understanding of potential and purpose in the gift of life.
The reason this barometer may be an important one is it seems to be easily studiable throughout history, and into current times.
1) Are or were women allowed to be educated?
2) Are or were women bought and sold?
3) Are or were women used only as sexual objects?
4) Are or were women relegated to household and family chores or allowed to participate in the greater scope of societies needs?
5) Are or were women permitted to participate in the same activities and arenas as men?
Finally, as a thought for you, and perhaps this is just my mind working overtime, the word history, is it possibly a play on the words "his" story?

"An adult is a person of any age who does what rightly must be done, whether they like it or not, without selfish hope of reward."
Dr. Serota NJC's elementary school teacher

"Shadows in the flame. - The flame is not so bright to itself as to those, whom it illuminates, so also the wise man."
Nietzsche

"Be ye careful of being judgmental of those you meet, for they are all facing hard battles and issues not unlike those that you are facing"
Plato
Note: In modern times, Covey writes in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:
"Seek first to understand before seeking to be understood."

"All of our knowledge and our emotional responses have their origins in our perceptions…"Leonardo Divinci

"It is easy to be a Liberal, when it doesn't effect you."
Murray Cantor

"Finding good players to play is easy getting them to play together as a team is another story."
Casey Stengel

"Neither a borrower nor a lender be"
A line from the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. Polonius, a garrulous old man, gives this advice to his son..
Note To: Rachael and Andrew: Do you think this is a correct statement? That it is good advice? Why?

A friend responded with the following regarding Today's thought:
"Neither a borrower nor a lender be"

Assuming, of course, that your question is outside the realm of professional lending -- that you should LEND when you can to encourage those in need about whom you care but you should be careful to manage your expectations of repayment. That is to say - never LEND more than you can afford to lose...

That said -- it might be better to GIVE in your heart rather than lend...this can save the recipient face and allow them to accept when they are in need.
"All of our knowledge and our emotional responses have their origins in our perceptions…"
Leonardo Divinci

Note to R & A: Perception is reality. Remember that going forward as you navigate through your lives.

As far as borrowing -- well no one should seek to be an excessive borrower but there are times when accepting a loan or even a gift is the right thing to do. If your need is great and you know the burden of the gift is not too much for the lender/giver and you know that you will reciprocate the friendship and love to the person in the measure received -- then go ahead...

Just be prepared to earnestly pay back the debt -- in one fashion or another. Remember you can borrow and lend much more than money -- there are gifts of labor, gifts of time and patience, gifts of care physical and spiritual, and many ways to borrow and lend....

My answer for the day.
Love,
LCS
" To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are (1) gravity, (2) generosity of soul, (3) sincerity,
(4)earnestness and (5) kindness. "
Confucius
"Don't judge a book by it's cover!"
Thomas Jefferson
Note: Did you know the source of this quote
It is the province of knowledge to speak And it is the privilege
of wisdom to listen.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the
children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the
long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or
nothing. "

Note: Can you guess who the source of this is?
Helen Keller
This was introduced to me by Ken Kaufman

"The superior man is modest in his speech but exceeds in his actions"
Confucius
and
"Speak softy but carry a big stick."
Theodore Roosevelt

Note to R & A: In living one's life, playing sports, participating in any activity or endeavor, those that rely on their actions rather than their words will be much better placed and regarded.

We are generally the better persuaded by the reasons we discover ourselves
than by those given to us by others.
Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

Note: Wouldn't we be so much better off, if this were not the case?
"If you have a great ambition, take as big a step as possible in the direction of fulfilling it. The step may only be a tiny one, but trust that it may be the largest one possible for now."
Mildred Mcafee

" It is what it is....."
fsm

"To sell software [or select a new cell phone plan, or turn on headlights in a rental car] is to ask people to voluntarily become temporarily incompetent."
(Po Bronson, Nudist on the Late Shift)

Note to R & A: I know you both remember the saying's, " The only thing permanent in life is change," and " It's not what happens to me that matters, all that matters is how I deal with what happens to me." They apply to this too don't you think?

"A person that has committed a mistake and doesn't correct it,
is committing another mistake"
Confucius

"Become addicted to constant and never-ending self-improvement."
Anthony J. D'Angelo: The College Blue Book

Note: Of course there is also Anthony Robbins version - CANI
Constant And Never-ending Improvement

"No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the
Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy
friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am
involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell
tolls; It tolls for thee." -John Donne, poet (1573-1631)

Note to Rachael & Andrew: The underlined part of the quote above, was one of your grandfather's favorites. He frequently used it and pointed out to all of us regularly, that each member of our family was interconnected. That our family unit was of tantamount importance and an impenetrable bond. That the actions of one family member effected and reflected on the entire family regardless of where or when. On his gravestone is the inscription, " He loved family and knew love."

"There's no success like failure, And failure's no success at all."
Bob Dylan: "Love Minus Zero/No Limit"

Life Shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
--Anais Nin
Sandy my dear pal:

Do you think it's easy to swim against a strong tide That takes courage

Do you think it's easy to admonish someone you love dearly That takes courage

Do you think it's easy to give up ice cream after dinner when you've eaten it your entire life That takes courage

Do you think it's easy to sit down a child that you love more than anything in the world and discipline them to a point where they feel they hate you. That takes courage

Do you think for a moment exercising after a rough night or when you're still hung over or when you feel a little under the weather and you'd rather turn over and go back to bed is easy That takes courage

Do you think it's easy to give someone that's important in your life an ultimatum that if they don't get off the mark (whatever that may be) you really don't want that person in your life That takes courage

I could go on and on but I don't want to build "Big Ben" here.

Courage involves risk and we've learned without risk there can be no reward.

But risk means having faith in yourself and your principles and to keep that faith even when others don't want to get involved.

And it all comes back to what your Anais Nin said:

Life shrinks or expands......................but now we have to take that a step further,

You, your personal, your persona as seen by you will expand or shrink depending on how much courage you employ to live your life.

* More powerful than the will to win is the courage to begin.

* There is something admirable, something inspiring, something soul-stirring about a man who displays coolness and courage under extremely trying circumstances.

* The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.

Sandy, I could go on and on and on, but I believe this a good beginning.

Heroes are not without fear, but they conquer their fear and it turns into courage.

Iron Will is not the absence of fear but the conquering of that fear. And when one conquers their fears they become courageous.

Your pal,

N1
Don't work for my happiness, my brothers--show me yours--show me that it possible--show me your achievement--and the knowledge will give me courage for mine.
--Ayn Rand The Fountainhead.

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."
Thomas Alva Edison
" Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture...Do not build up obstacles in your imagination. "
Norman Vincent Peale

Note to Rachael & Andrew: This was your grandfather's favorite positive thinker. and motivational author. I have the first edition original book he bought of his, and am saving it for you.

"The way to become boring is to say everything."
-Voltaire (1694 - 1778)
Sent to me by Abbie Cole

"All skills start with the basics of reading and math."
President George W. Bush
State of the Union Address 2004

Note: Rachael & Andrew, as I have tried to teach you over and over and over, if you dedicate yourself to READING throughout your lives, you will add extra arrows to your quiver. Trust me when I tell you, it is a comfort and strong asset to have as many arrows in your quiver as you can...
Dear Rachel and Andrew

As a life long avid reader I can assure you that I am a better, smarter, and hopefully, more interesting person for all my reading. I have despaired at the fact that Phillip, my son, won't read...In fact, he is currently an all A's student at Jesuit and he just did a terrible job on the SAT prep test as he simply does not have the working vocabulary to succeed on this test.

Reading and talking with others who use an extensive vocabulary are the ONLY ways to truly master the nuances of word usage. There are no shortcuts possibles. You can't study vocabulary lists or spelling lists.

Phillip is wonderful at rote memorization but his actual varbal skills and reading skills are not that good. So Andrew and Rachel -- READ, READ, READ.

I am sorry to say that my straight A son will probably not go to the college of his choice because of this shortfall...It is just the hard facts. So your Dad, as usual, is right...

Love,

Lynn Scrivner,
A long time friend of your Dad

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies,
but the silence of our friends "
Martin Luther King Jr.

" Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it. "
Michael Jordan

Note to R & A: Isn't it interesting how the very best in whatever field, all seem to work harder than most, practice more than most, think of more possibilities than most, and figure out ways to make what they want happen.

"Be nice to people on your way up because you meet them on your way down."
Jimmy Durante

Note:
I was actually unaware that Jimmy Durante was the source of this saying.
I do know it is used currently by many in different forms, one of which is by Kanili Sosa on his new CD, "Kaneilian."
Be nice to the people you meet on the way, because you are going to meet the same people on the way down.

N1

" The Dream of DOING leads to Success, The Dream of BEING leads to Significance."
" IF IT'S GOING TO BE, IT'S UP TO ME ! "
Robert H. Schuller

"The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him."
Stanislaw Jerszy Lec (1909- )
"As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say.I just watch what they do."
Andrew Carnegie
Note to R & A:
As we have repeatedly discussed over the years, you are much better served and will be way more respected by letting your actions speak for you. Compare Michael Jordan with Keyshawn Johnson for example. One achieved greatness, one just keeps showboating and telling all that will listen how great he is.
"The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names."
Chinese proverb
Note: My friend Neil Cantor does this to a higher degree than anyone I know...

"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something."
Plato
"If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when? "
Rabbi Hillel
Note: This one famous statement says so much. I know you have heard it before, but have you ever fully contemplated its meaning and value?
NOTE: It was pointed out to me that the previous version of the Thought for the day was not quite correct. Corrected version follows:

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
But if I am only for myself, what am I?
If not now when?"
Rabbi Hillel
February 2004:
"The important thing is never to stop questioning."
Albert Einstein
"To have a friend, you must first be a friend"
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Note : This may be one of the most powerful secrets to lasting, endearing, real friendships you will ever encounter.

"You can only serve one master at a time, until such time as you train that master to serve you, and then you can go serve another."
Sol Mahr

Note: To Rachael and Andrew this was a saying your grandfather used frequently.

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."
-Henry David Thoreau
Sent by my special friend Abbie

"Never and forever is the language of fools."
Alexander the Great

"Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is the triumph
of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
" The transitional battlegrounds of our adolescence surrender our lives to the momentum of mediocrity. What happened to the celestial fire that used to light our way. No fire no heat, no heat, no life."
Marlon Brando in the movie "Don Juan DeMarco

"Let today be the shadow maker for tomorrow"

Joshua Altschule
(just a thought as I set a new personal record while
running)
Note: How about this from my nephew Joshua...Way to go huh?

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."
Alvin Toffler
Note: THIS IS A STRONG STATEMENT. Alvin Toffler wrote the GREAT book "Future Shock," which was 1st introduced to me years ago by Bonnie Gorbaty.

"A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a joke
or worried to death by a frown on the right person's brow."
- Charles Brower
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
Jimi Hendrix
This quote came from Rachael Sarah Mahr

" Duck " " Ouch !!!!, Too Late "
Wyatt Earp
As printed in the Tombstone Epitaph News paper, 1886
Sent from my Uncle Harvey in Arizona
That is so funny!!! I have to tell you we have a similar thing in sailing circles.....sailboats have to "Tack" or turn back and forth to sail into the wind... In addition to planning these tacks based on the availability of the wind across the water, which can, on many days fluctuate, you have to watch out for the depth under your keel....

therefore... we often sail along and all of a sudden the keel hits ("BUMP") at which time the sailor shouts ("FUCK") and then orders the crew to ("TACK!!!")

So it is known as the "bump, fuck, tack" method of moving up the bay...this is probably what I would like on my own tonbstone if I had one - profanity and all.

(GRIN)
Lynn
"We are defined by the choices we make."
~Tyler~
From the movie Fight Club
"There are times when preoccupation can be confused with indifference. There are other times however when preoccupation is indifference."
F. Sanford Mahr

"Consider the Source"
Sol Mahr
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
Where is the information we have lost in data?
-- T. S. Eliot, The Rock (c. 1915)

" Too often we...enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. -- "
John F. Kennedy

The greatest photographs make us look at the everyday differently by placing a frame around unnoticed corners of it.
SAUL SINGER saul@jpost.com

Man looks at the sky and says 'This is east and that is west' but the sky knows no such difference. -- Buddha
"Going away somewhere new for a brief time permits one to escape reality and if desired, be anyone they want to be. However when one stays somewhere long enough, they inevitably take themselves along."
F. Sanford Mahr

"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what's right."
Isaac Asimov
"It's not just what you do when the lights are turned on, it's what you do when no one is watching.
Muhammad Ali
Contributed by my friend NJC

"It's o.k. to be a non-conformist, as long as you are
not conforming to non-conformity"
Sol Mahr

Note: So what do you think this means? Hint.... how about all the people that get piercings and tattoos to make a statement and be different. Yet they all get the same?

"I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others." --
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

"It is nice to be important
But it is more important to be nice."
Note: Sent by my friend Jerry Schine

"Friends are people who help you be more yourself-more than the person you intended to be...
Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born"

Anais Nin
Note: Sent by my friend Karen Binette
"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, Blackfoot warrior and orator, 1890
Note to Rachael and Andrew: Interesting to learn through the various quotes how each use of metaphor is based on the sensory perception and realities of the time. If Crowfoot were a Knight of the Roundtable as part of King Arthur's Court in Camelot, or a Samurai Warrior in Ancient China, or perhaps a Mongolian Horse Warrior, during the era of Atilla the Hun, what metaphors do you think he may have used for the question " What is life?" For that matter what metaphors might you think to choose in present times?
Then indecision brings its own delays,
And days are lost lamenting o'er lost day.
'What you can do, or dream you can, begin it;
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
-- Goethe, Fauste

Note: So Rachael and Andrew does this sound a bit like
"Sense of Urgency"

"All lies and jest, still, a man hears what he wants to hear and
disregards the rest. "
Simon and Garfunkel, The Boxer
March, 2004

You are today where your "CHOICES" have brought you,
You will be tomorrow where your "CHOICES" have taken you.
Neil J.Cantor

"My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions, but in the fewness of my wants."
J. Brotherton

" I guess Angelo was right when he used to say, there are never perfect people, only perfect moments."
Sylvester Stallone to Madeline Stowe in "Avenging Angelo"

In every aspect of life and all the people and situations you encounter you will find this rule to serve you well: S.W.S.W.S.W.N.
" Some Will Some Won't So What Next."
Not sure of original source.
First introduced to me at a networking seminar led by Jerry Campisi

"Every beauty which is seen here below by persons
of perception resemble more than anything else that celestial
source from which we all are come...."
-Michelangelo (1475-1564)
"Change your thoughts, and you change your world."
-Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993)
Note: To Rachael & Andrew, This was your grandfather's favorite motivational and self-help author. I met him, and interviewed him actually and have a tape of the interview if you are ever interested.
"Follow your bliss."
-Joseph Campbell (1904-1987)
Note: If you haven't yet read any of his books you should consider his last
The Inner Reaches of Outer Space
"You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give."
-Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)

"As a tale, so is life; not how long
it is, but how good it is, is what matters."
-Seneca (4? B.C.-65 A.D.)

"Be an opener of doors."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

'If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants'
Sir Isaac Newton
Note: To Rachael and Andrew: Can you think of how you might apply this concept ?
" A man's got to do what a man's got to do."
Andrew Jacob Mahr
Note: Said by my son Andrew when he was about 6 years old, when he was questioned about why he was doing something.
'One can never be too thin or too rich.'
- Duchess of Windsor

Note to Rachael & Andrew:
Not exactly on the too thin part, being anorexic is no good at all...which would lead you to another statement...
All things in ______________?

Any act, any decision anything one does. One must first ask
the following question - "How will what I am about to do reflect on
my immediate and extended family?" Will what I am doing be for their good (i.e. make them proud) or bad (embarrass them or compromise them)?
Remember that no matter what one does it effects more than just ones self. Their immediate and extended family is impacted and affected by their actions.
Sol Mahr
Note: Said well over 7,422 times by my father to each of us while we were growing up

"'How could I know in a minute that I'd be standing face to face
with my own destiny"

Coldplay
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"
--Albert Einstein

Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.
Albert Schweitzer:
"And In the End, The Love You Take is equal To the Love You Make."
The Beatles

Note: Pretty profound huh?
Think for yourself and let others enjoy
the privilege of doing so too.
Voltaire
Do not go where the path may lead,
go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned."
Buddha
'If I am not for myself, who will be? But if I am only for myself, what good am I? And if not now, when?
Hillel
"You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor."
Aristotle
Note: To Rachael & Andrew; This is so RIGHT on! Please take a moment to reflect on what this means. I would be interested in an example of how you may apply this statement to your life situations today

'If you don't have the capacity to change yourself and your attitudes, then nothing around you can be changed'
(The Koran)

Note: Isn't this an interesting source....

"Knowledge is an infinite series of images in the memory.
Understanding, which penetrates into their significance,
is the power to perceive their essence and interrelationship. "
- Kabbalah

" The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the
shoreline of wonder."
- Ralph W. Sockman
Knowledge is happiness, because to have knowledge - broad
deep knowledge - is to know true ends from false and lofty
things from low. To know the thoughts and deeds that have
marked man's progress is to feel the great heart-throbs
of humanity through the centuries; and if one does not feel
in these pulsations a heavenward striving, one just indeed
be deaf to the harmonies of life.
- Helen Keller

" The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers
knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom."
- Isaac Asimov

The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap,
it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge
of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral
illumination.
- Elizabeth Hardwick

Knowledge increases in proportion to its use - that is, the
more we teach the more we learn.
- H. P. Blavatsky
1831 - 1891

If It's Going to Be, It's Up to Me: The Eight Proven Principles of Possibility Thinking
by Robert Harold Schuller

Note: A favorite of my friend NJC
"I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."
John F. Kennedy's remarks at dinner honoring Nobel Prize winners of the Western Hemisphere, the White House, April 29, 1962, Public Papers of the Presidents: 1962, p. 347.
April 1, 2004

"We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen
twice as much as we speak."
~Epictetus

Note: Rachael and Andrew I know you have heard me say this to you over and over throughout the years. So now you know where it originated. It is still awesome advice and too few people follow it.
You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.
~John Wooden

"You give 100% in the first half of the game and if that isn't enough, in the second half you give what's left."
Yoggi Berra
Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.
~Seneca
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
~Dalai Lama
If someone is too tired to give you a smile, leave one of your own, because no one needs a smile as much as those who have none to give.
~Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch
"Good manners make any man a pleasure to be with. Ask any woman." -- Peter Mayle
Eight Gifts That Do Not Cost A Cent
1. The Gift of Listening…
But you must really listen. No interrupting, no daydreaming, no planning your response. Just
listening.
2. The Gift of Affection…
Be generous with appropriate hugs, kisses, pats on the back and handholds.
Let these small actions demonstrate the love you have for family and friends.
3. The Gift of Laughter…
Clip cartoons. Share articles and funny stories. Your gift will say, "I love to laugh with you."
4. The Gift of a Written Note…
A brief, handwritten note may be remembered for a lifetime, and may even change a life.
5. The Gift of a Compliment…
A simple and sincere, "You look great in red," "You did a super job" or
"That was a wonderful meal" can make someone’s day.
6. The Gift of a Favor…
Every day, go out of your way to do something kind.
7. The Gift of Solitude…
There are times when we want nothing better than to be left alone. Be sensitive to those times
and give the gift of solitude to others.
8. The Gift of a Cheerful Disposition…
The easiest way to feel good is to extend a kind word to someone, really it’s not that hard to say,
Hello or Thank You.
"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches
but to reveal to him his own."
~Benjamin Disraeli

How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a weary world.
William Shakespeare
Note: Today's Thought for the Day is long. It is a famous poem of course, but was sent to me by my brother. He was given it in the form of a plaque by a group of his old friends as testimony to his ways in their view. I can think of a friend like this in my life. Can you? I hope so because if you can you have been blessed with the greatest treasure life holds.... And special note to Rachael and Andrew, you have heard me say this many times [ To have a friend one must first be a friend] Enjoy what follows following:
The Thousandth Man
by Rudyard Kipling.
One man in a thousand, Solomon says,
Will stick more close than a brother.
And it's worth while seeking him half your days
If you find him before the other.
Nine nundred and ninety-nine depend
On what the world sees in you,
But the Thousandth man will stand your friend
With the whole round world agin you.

'Tis neither promise nor prayer nor show
Will settle the finding for 'ee.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine of 'em go
By your looks, or your acts, or your glory.
But if he finds you and you find him.
The rest of the world don't matter;
For the Thousandth Man will sink or swim
With you in any water.

You can use his purse with no more talk
Than he uses yours for his spendings,
And laugh and meet in your daily walk
As though there had been no lendings.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine of 'em call
For silver and gold in their dealings;
But the Thousandth Man h's worth 'em all,
Because you can show him your feelings.

His wrong's your wrong, and his right's your right,
In season or out of season.
Stand up and back it in all men's sight --
With that for your only reason!
Nine hundred and ninety-nine can't bide
The shame or mocking or laughter,
But the Thousandth Man will stand by your side
To the gallows-foot -- and after!

There are no traffic jams when you go the extra mile.
~Attributed to both Zig Ziglar and Dr. Kenneth McFarland

Note to Rachael & Andrew: Your grandfather used to say, It is only crowded and competitive at the bottom and middle of any field or endeavor. The top is always wide open.

You have the same force running through you that allows the planets to move, the earth to orbit, the seeds to sprout, and the flowers to open. There is not a separate G-d for each person. There is one universal intelligence flowing through all of us. In the sacred space within us we are all one and the same. We know that we are spiritual beings trying to learn how to be human. We know the best within us is love, kindness and compassion. Yet our egos, both individually and collectively, have campaigned long and hard to promote a false idea. How sane is it for people to be killing each other over disputes that ancient egos created long before we arrived? How sane is it for us to believe that some of us deserve to eat the food that G-d provides and that others do not deserve it by virtue of their geographic location? When you center yourself and find your quiet inner sacred space, you know the loving presence that does not discriminate. You know that being special is not something bestowed on some and not on others. You know that it is absurd to believe that a Muslim or Jewish baby will burn in hell because of not having Buddhist or Christian beliefs. You know that Australian aborigines are equal in importance to royalty. Your sacred self tells you this, if you listen.
-- Dr. Wayne Dyer
"If every man's internal care
Were written on his brow,
How many would our pity share
Who raise our envy now?"
~Peitro Metastasio

Farewell

A little while and
I will be gone from among you,
from nowhere we come;
into nowhere we go.

What is life?
It is a flash of a firefly
in the night.
It is a breadth of a buffalo
in the winter time.
It is the little shadow
that runs across the grass
and loses itself in the sunset.

-- Crowfoot, Blackfoot Chief,
his dying words
If there is anything we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could be better changed in ourselves.
- Carl Jung
Think
Look around you. Your house, your car, your computer, telephone, refrigerator, clocks, roads, books -- all these things and more, originated in the human mind. Just think, what thinking can do.
Scientists now estimate that the normal person uses less than five percent of their brain's capacity. And yet we seem to get by fairly well on that. Imagine what would be possible if you could use your brain just a little bit more.
The realm of the mind has no limitations. You don't need money, or space, or batteries to think. You can imagine the grandest, most complex of things, while taking a shower or pulling weeds. Just like your muscles, your mind becomes stronger the more you use it, the more you challenge it, the more you pay attention to it.
We live in a world where fortunes are being made every day, from thoughts and ideas. Your mind can take you anywhere you want to go. Use it for all it's worth, and think of the possibilities.
-- Ralph Marston

Finish each day
and be done with it,
Tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"What we are today comes from thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind."
Buddha
"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."
-John F. Kennedy

Note: Sent from a dear friend who prefers anonymity
" Revenge is a dish best served cold "
Pierre Ambroise Francois Choderios de LaClos (1741-1803). He originally said it in French in his 1782 book Les Liasons Dangereuses: "La vengeance est un plat qui se mange froid,"
Note: Sent by my brother Eric
" Each of us will answer for the good we do not do."
Neil J. Cantor
The worst day is good for something. All that is not love, is knowledge, and all that is not good today, is a store laid up for the wants of distant days.
Journal (Sept.-Oct. 1845)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Oh man! There is no planet sun or star could hold you, if you but knew what you are.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
We are each of us angels with only one wing. And we can only fly embracing each other. ~Luciano de Crescenzo
Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it. The man who knows how will always have a job. The man who also knows why will always be his boss. As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man, who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
A wise man's question contains half the answer." Solomon Ibn Gabriel
Note: Submitted by my brother ERIC
If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are—if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.
~Joseph Campbell

Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.
~St. Augustine

To be nobody but myself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make me somebody else - means to fight the hardest battle any human can fight, and never stop fighting.
~ee cummin

May 2004:

Never bear more than one trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds - all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have.
~Edward Everett Hale
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it. This you have the power to revoke.
~Marcus Aurelius
"I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom." -- (General George Patton)

The brain can be developed just the same as the muscles can be developed, if one will only take the pains to train the mind to think. Why do so many men never amount to anything? Because they don't think. -- [Thomas Edison (1921)]

"Nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue-to the end
that we should hear and see more than we speak."
Socrates
Note: Yet another source for one of my favorite bits of wisdom

"Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions. Small
people always do that, but the really great make you feel
that you, too, can become great."
--Mark Twain
"Success is going from failure to failure without loss of
enthusiasm."
--Winston Churchill
For 1,100 years
They lived to serve their people
With Seven (7) principles to guide them
Duty & Loyalty (Chu)
Justice & Morality (Gi)
Complete Sincerity (Makoto)
Polite Courtesy (Rei)
Compassion (Jin)
Heroic Courage (Yu)
Honor (Meiyo)

The Samurai

from the movie The Last Samuri
Note: Can you imagine coupling these with the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey, as a model for living one's life?
Be Proactive
Begin with the end in mind
Put first things first
Think win win
Seek first to understand then to be understood
Synergize
Sharpen the Saw

I hold it true, whate’er befall,
I feel it when I sorrow most;
‘Tis better to have loved and lost,
Than never to have loved at all.
- Tennyson: In Memoriam

Note: This is a very common and often used saying. Did you know where it came from?

" In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame again by an encounter or interaction with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. -- (Albert Schweitzer)

It all comes down to one very simple choice ... Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'. -- Andy Dufrain (Tim Robbins) in "The Shawshank Redemption"

NOTE: AWESOME MOVIE if you haven't seen it...

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
- George Bernard Shaw

Note: Sent by a dear friend

"You have to practice for a long time before you can learn to sound like yourself " -(Miles Davis)

"TO BE JUDGMENTAL IS TO LIMIT"
Rajneesh, Bagwan Sri

Note: Sent by Lynda Goldman

The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality. -- [John Quincy Adams (1767-1848)]

Note: The key to it all as has been said by so many throughout the ages is mastering interpersonal relations between humans. " Seek first to understand, then to be understood." SRC

Should we all confess our sins to one another we would all laugh at one another for our lack of originality. Should we all reveal our virtues we would also laugh for the same cause. -- (Khalil Gibran)

If you want a job done, give it to a busy person - Anon.It is not enough to be busy....the question is: what are we busy about - Henry Thoreau.
Note: We have all heard this statement many times. I never knew Thoreau was the source of it. Did you?
The universe is a place of constant and never-ending change.
Each point in time is different from the point before it and the point after it.
Every point in the universe is its own entire world, with its own conditions and
state of being.

In our own lives, many of us tend to do and try to do so many different things,
one after the other without allowing for any apparent connection between them.

Inner peace is when every part of someone and every facet of one's day is
moving in the same direction. When one has purpose, one has peace.

Paraphrased and augmented by fsm from:
"Bringing Heaven Down to Earth" by T. Freeman

"Without mentors, kids are 80 percent more likely to become something in life . . . loafers."
Kenneth Cole
"Never and forever is the language of fools."
Alexander the Great

Decency knows no financial pedigree
Neil Cavuto

"If you have a great ambition, take as big a step as possible in the direction of fulfilling it. The step may only be a tiny one, but trust that it may be the largest one possible for now."
Mildred Mcafee

We in the United States have all heard the haunting song, "Taps." It's the song that gives us that lump in our throats and usually tears in our eyes.

But, do you know the story behind the song? If not, I think you will be interested to find out about its humble beginnings.

Reportedly, it all began in 1862 during the Civil War, when Union Army Captain Robert Ellicombe was with his men near Harris's Landing in Virginia.

The Confederate Army was on the other side of the narrow strip of land.

During the night, Captain Ellicombe heard the moans of a soldier who lay severely wounded on the field. Not knowing if it was a Union or Confederate Soldier, the Captain decided to risk his life and bring the stricken man back for medical attention.

Crawling on his stomach through the gunfire, the Captain reached the stricken soldier and began pulling him toward his encampment. When the Captain finally reached his own lines, he discovered it was actually a Confederate soldier, but the soldier was dead. The Captain lit a lantern and suddenly caught his breath and went numb with shock. In the dim light, he saw the face of the soldier. It was his own son.

The boy had been studying music in the South when the war broke out. Without telling his father, the boy enlisted in the Confederate Army.

The following morning, heartbroken, the father asked permission of his superiors to give his son a full military burial, despite his enemy status.

wish His request was only partially granted. The Captain had asked if he could have a group of Army band members play a funeral dirge for his son at the funeral.

The request was turned down since the soldier was a Confederate. But, out of respect for the father, they did say they could give him only one musician.

The Captain chose a bugler. He asked the bugler to play a series of musical notes he had found on a piece of paper in the pocket of the dead youth's uniform. This was granted.

The haunting melody, we now know as "Taps" used at military funerals, was born.
The words are:
DAY IS DONE.... GONE THE SUN.

FROM THE LAKES...FROM THE HILLS

FROM THE SKY . ALL IS WELL...SAFELY REST ... GOD IS NIGH

FADING LIGHT .... DIMS THE SIGHT ... AND A STAR... GEMS THE SKY

GLEAMING BRIGHT ... FROM AFAR ... DRAWING NIGH ... FALLS THE NIGHT

THANKS AND PRAISE ... FOR OUR DAYS ... 'NEATH THESUN ... 'NEATH THE STARS

'NEATH THE SKY ... AS WE GO ... THIS WE KNOW ... GOD IS NIGH
I, too, have felt the chills while listening to "Taps", but I have never seen all the words to the song until now. I didn't even know there was more than one verse. I also never knew the story behind the song, and I didn't know if you had either, so I thought I'd pass it along. I now have an even deeper respect for the song than I did before.

REMEMBER THOSE LOST AND HARMED WHILE SERVING THEIR COUNTRY.

And also those presently serving in the Armed Forces.

'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.
- Abraham Lincoln
Note: From an anonymous friend

"Talent, intelligence and perseverance are rewarded, yet good intended people in order to excel have to be surrounded by a thirst for challenge...it is by putting your hands in the clay that enables you to mold your destiny."

Paraphrased from
Mr. Juan Williams
Keynote Speaker Commencement Address
Rachael's High School Graduation 6/1/2004

My parents ( Ivan and Bobbie) gave me two things 1st ROOTS and then WINGS...
Each of which alone is important, yet one without the other is not complete.
Paraphrased from Lynda Goldman
"By 1980, we knew it was time to renew our faith; to strive with all our strength toward the ultimate of individual freedom, consistent with an orderly society. We believed then and now: There are no limits to growth and human progress, when men and women are free to follow their dreams. And we were right to believe that..................."
President Ronald Reagan the fortieth president of the United States

Note: In memory of a leader who passed today June 5, 2004 He made his conservative successors politically possible. Historians may long argue his proper rank among U.S. presidents -- great or not? -- but few would contest that he was a leader who left a deep imprint, grudgingly admired even by opponents and revered by millions.

Note: Today's "Thought for the Day." are quotes sourced as having been said at various times, by the 5 star general that led the Allied Forces into battle on this day (D-Day) 60 years ago....

1. What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog.
2. The older I get, the more wisdom I find in the ancient rule of taking first things first - a process which often reduces the most complex human problems to manageable proportions.
3. In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
4. People talk about the middle of the road as though it were unacceptable. Actually, all human problems, excepting morals, come into the gray areas. Things are not all black and white. There have to be compromises. The middle of the road is all of the usable surface. The extremes right and left, are in the gutters.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
American Five Star General and 34th President of the United States
1890–1969

" It is what it is....."
fsm

"Ronald Reagan won America's respect with his greatness, and won its love with his goodness. He had the confidence that comes with conviction, the strength that comes with character, the grace that comes with humility, and the humor that comes with wisdom. He leaves behind a nation he restored and a world he helped save. "
President George W. Bush

"We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give."
President Ronald W. Reagan

"The world belongs to the energetic."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Note: Submitted by my buddy NJC

" I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there's purpose and worth to each and every life."
Memorial Wall of final resting place of:
President Ronald Wilson Reagan
August 2004
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort but rather where he stands in times of challenge and controversy."
Martin Luther King
Imagine
Imagine that your problems are no longer a problem for you. Imagine that your frustrations no longer frustrate you.

Imagine that you are no longer limited by the limitations. Imagine that the obstacles no longer are able to hold you back.

Now consider this. Your life is the way it is not because of what comes your way, but because of how you respond to it all.

If you can truly imagine that the problems are no problem, that is the way it will be. If you can sincerely imagine that the obstacles cannot hold you back, they won't.

Do you respond to the difficulties by making them even worse? Or do you choose to imagine yourself beyond them?

The moment you imagine, it changes nothing except you. And yet, that is more than enough to completely change your world.

-- Ralph Marston
I will not play at tug o' war.
I'd rather play at hug o' war,
Where everyone hugs instead of tugs.
-Shel Silverstein, writer (1930-1999)

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,Moves on: nor all your Piety nor WitShall lure it back to cancel half a Line,Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.
the rubaiyat - omar khayyam - 11th century

For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, "It might have been." -John Greenleaf Whittier, poet (1807-1892)
Momentum of achievement

Success comes most readily to those who are already successful.
SO.......that's why the small successes are so important.

When you set a goal, however small it may be, and then work to achieve it, you put in motion a powerful positive momentum.
That momentum can help you to reach toward higher and higher levels of achievement.

The small successes do matter, for they set that momentum in motion. No step is trivial, however small it may be, when it is leading in a positive direction.

Too many people wait and hope for, beg, plead and even fight for that one big break that will bring about instant success. Sadly, in so doing they overlook the small opportunities for success that come in every moment of every day.

You can easily make a little bit of progress in the next fifteen minutes. And you can make a little more progress in the next few hours. Create for yourself the momentum of achievement. And you can take it wherever you wish to go.

-- Ralph Marston
Never bear more than one trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds - all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have. -Edward Everett Hale, clergyman and author (1822-1909)

The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,
And all the sweet serenity of books.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet (1807-1882)

READING IS THE KEY TO KNOWLEDGE AND GROWTH:
From the movie with Anthony Hopkins, " Hearts in Atlantis." Hopkins' character tells the young boy in the movie when the boy is complaining that all his Mom bought him for his b-day was a library card," ...all the master story tellers of the world are there just waiting for you. ...just give a writer an hour or two to hook you, and if he can't wish him the best and find someone else."
A scholar knows no boredom. -Jean Paul Richter, writer (1763-1825)

TODAY IS A NEW DAY

USE IT AS YOU LIKE-----WASTE IT OR USE IT FOR GOOD**** WHAT YOU DO IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE YOU ARE SWAPPING A DAY OF YOUR LIFE FOR IT WHEN TOMORROW COMES---TODAY WILL BE GONE FOREVER----LEAVING IN ITS PLACE, SOMETHING YOU TRADED FOR IT.------GAIN OR LOSS----GOOD OR EVIL----SUCCESS OR FAILURE----- WHAT WILL YOU HAVE ?
DON'T REGRET THE PRICE YOU PAID FOR THE DAY LOST.
Sol Mahr

Note: Left on my bedroom door, by my father,
the night before I left home to be a musician .
To conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
-Sun Tzu , The Art of War
A General who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.
-Sun Tzu, the Art of War

Note: This quote reminds of the one paraphrased and favored by my friend NJC:
"The definition of luck is when adequate preparation meets opportunity."
A
ll Warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.
-Sun Tzu, the Art of War

Note: A powerful book that has many more implications than warfare. As a matter of fact the most successful and dynamic agent in the entertainment field, Michael Ovitz, among many others, uses this as his bible.

"There are no problems, just exercises with varying degrees of difficulty."
fsm

Note: I created this in the early 1980's, for my then sales staff. Thought to send it now as many are watching the Olympics and seeing events (i.e. diving) with varying degrees of difficulty

THE JEW - AS DESCRIBED BY OTHERS

"Some people like the Jews, and some do not. But no thoughtful man can deny the fact that they are, beyond any question, the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has appeared in the world."
Winston Churchill (1)

"The Jew is that sacred being who has brought down from heaven the everlasting fire, and has illumined with it the entire world. He is the religious source, spring, and fountain out of which all the rest of the peoples have drawn their beliefs and their religions."
Leo Tolstoy (2)

"It was in vain that we locked them up for several hundred years behind the walls of the Ghetto. No sooner were their prison gates unbarred than they easily caught up with us, even on those paths which we opened up without their aid."
A. A. Leroy Beaulieu (3)

"The Jew gave us the Outside and the Inside - our outlook and our inner life. We can hardly get up in the morning or cross the street without being Jewish. We dream Jewish dreams and hope Jewish hopes. Most of our best words, in fact - new, adventure surprise, unique, individual, person, vocation, time, history, future, freedom, progress, spirit, faith hope, justice - are the gifts of the Jews."
Thomas Cahill (4)

"One of the gifts of the Jewish culture to Christianity is that it has taught Christians to think like Jews, and any modern man who has not learned man to think as though he were a Jew can hardly be said to have learned to think at all."
William Rees-Mogg (5)

"It is certain that in certain parts of the world we can see a peculiar people, separated from the other peoples of the world and this is called the Jewish people.... This people is not only of remarkable antiquity but has also lasted for a singular long time... For where as the people of Greece and Italy, of Sparta, Athens and Rome and others who came so much later have perished so long ago, these still exist, despite the efforts of so many powerful kings who have tried a hundred times to wipe them out, as their historians testify, and as can easily be judged by the natural order of things over such a long spell of years. They have always been preserved, however, and their preservation was foretold... My encounter with this people amazes me..."
Blaise Pascal (6)

"The Jewish vision became the prototype for many similar grand designs for humanity, both divine and man made. The Jews, therefore, stand at the center of the perennial attempt to give human life the dignity of a purpose."
Paul Johnson (7)

"As long as the world lasts, all who want to make progress in righteousness will come to Israel for inspiration as to the people who had the sense for righteousness most glowing and strongest."
Matthew Arnold (8)
"The study of history of Europe during the past centuries teaches us one uniform lesson: That the nations which received and in any way dealt fairly and mercifully with the Jew have prospered; and that the nations that have tortured and oppressed him have written out their own curse."
Olive Schreiner (9)

"If there is any honour in all the world that I should like, it would be to be an honorary Jewish citizen."
A.L. Rowse (10)
FUTURE THINKING: Not to prepare for the future is tantamount to stop growing or living, For the only people who should not prepare for the future, are those that have a guarantee they won't be here. (Neil J.Cantor)

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
--T. S. Eliot

Class:
Class never runs scared. It is sure-footed and it can handle whatever comes along.
Class has a sense of humor. It knows that a good laugh is the best lubricant for oiling the machinery of human relations.
Class never makes excuses. It takes its lumps and learns from past mistakes.
Class knows that good manners are nothing more than a series of small sacrifices and minor inconveniences.
Class bespeaks an aristocracy unrelated to ancestors or money. Some extremely wealthy people have no class at all, while others who are struggling to make ends meet are loaded with it.
Class is real. You can't fake it.
Class is comfortable in its own skin. It never puts on airs.
Class never tries to build itself up by tearing others down. Class is already up and need not attempt to look better by making others look worse.
Class can "walk with kings and keep its virtue and talk with crowds and keep the common touch." Everyone is comfortable with the person who has class because he is comfortable with himself.If you have class, you've got it made. If you don't have class, no matter what else you have, it won't make up for it. From an Ann Landers column - at least 7 years ago
Note: Sent by Wayne Mosley
"An ounce of Mom is worth a ton of Rabbi's or Priests."
Mr. Juan Williams
Commencement Speaker Rachael Mahr's High School Graduation

"If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart. "
--Socrates

Note: I have heard a modern version of this but never knew it originated with Socrates. Did you?

If everyone hung their troubles on the same clothes line, every one would rush to get back their own problems
Murray Cantor father of NJC

The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.
Seneca

Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds.
--Buddha

Note: My friend NJC has said for years...Each of us will answer for the good we did not do...

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.
--Truman Capote (1924-1984)
"Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."
Satchel Paige
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
--Confucius
Note: Isn't it interesting how many variations on this there has been. Did any of you know this was the original source?
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
--Eleanor Roosevelt
"Only you control the doorway to your own mind. Only you can choose what input it receives, either positive or negative. Only you are the gatekeeper of what your mind receives to process. You are in total control."
fsm
G-d Grant Me The Serenity To Accept The Things I Cannot Change, The Courage To Change the Things I Can And The Wisdom To Know The Difference
--Serenity Prayer

NOTE: ONE OF THE ALL TIME GREAT APHORISMS AND AFFIRMATIONS. VERY EFFECTIVE IF INTERNALIZED and applied to almost anything.

"What I continue to remind myself of each day is that I have a choice in thinking positive or thinking negative. Although the negative is always easy so then it is a choice of putting effort into creating the positive. The results are always positive so I see it very simply as a win/win."
Bonnie Gorbaty
"Average minds discuss people. Above average minds discuss people and events. Great minds discuss people, events and ideas."
Paraphrased by Kenneth H. Kaufman and fsm

Note: Original quote attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt
"Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people."

Pain nourishes courage. You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you.
--Mary Tyler Moore
What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?
--Vincent Van Gogh

" I don't believe in pessimism. "
--Clint Eastwood

Note: So simple yet perfect. All we have to do is change the tapes in our minds to not believe in pessimism it will open up a whole new way of living for us. The first time I ever heard about changing the tapes in your mind, was from Jimmy DeMesa, when he shared the concept with Neil Cantor and me.

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy course; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. "
--Theodore Roosevelt

Note: These words contain perhaps one of the stronger concepts there is in life.
R & A I hope you will read these words carefully

May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night, and the road downhill all the way to your door.
--An Irish blessing
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

Henry David Thoreau
Note: Contributed by Rachael Sarah Mahr
If your sunshine wants far outstrip your cold morning desire, have a talk with yourself. Then have a lot more talks with yourself. Convince number one that you can succeed - and you will succeed. If you don't believe in you, why should anyone else?
--Tom Hopkins
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
--Buddha
NOTE: THIS IS SO POWERFUL
Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world.
--Buddha
"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. "
Oscar Wilde
Note: Another from Rachael Sarah Mahr

"Good is the enemy of Great."
Seen on a T-shirt by NJC
from the Book Good to Great
Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't
by Jim Collins
Seven Simple Steps To Success - BRIAN TRACY

The starting point of many great fortunes has been these seven simple steps:

1. Set a goal and back it with a burning desire.

2. Begin accumulating capital with a regular savings program. Nothing else is possible without this. You can't move forward until you start a savings program.

3. Use your current job as a springboard to later success. Learn while you earn. Take the long view.

4. Experiment in business on a limited scale so you can learn the key abilities necessary for success.

5. Search for problems, needs unmet, products or services you can supply of good quality at reasonable prices.

6. Read everything you can find on your chosen field. Remain flexible. Be willing to change your mind if you get different information.

7. Implement your plans with courage and persistence. Have complete faith in your ability to succeed and never, ever give up.

And here are two steps you can take immediately to start moving toward entrepreneurial success:

First, set a goal, make a plan and then launch your plan. Get started. Do something. Begin on a small scale with limited risk and investment but get going!

Second, resolve that, no matter what happens, you will never, ever give up until you're successful. Before you accomplish anything worthwhile, you'll have to pass the persistence test. And the test will come far sooner than you imagine.
"Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently."
Henry Ford
"Whether you think that you can or that you can't, you are usually right."
Henry Ford
Note: This has been paraphrased a number of different ways, my personal favorite is, "There are those that think they can and those that think they can't, and they are both right." Do you have a version that you like?
"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked throughout the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
Viktor Frankl: Man's Search for Meaning
To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated. James Carse
"Learning to shrug is the beginning of wisdom. "
Sarah Ban Breathnack- Simple Abundance
Note: Awesome book first introduced as a gift by Jimmy Demesa

"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."
The Beatles
"There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come."
Victor Hugo
I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.
Thomas Jefferson
" Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. "
Carl Sandburg
" I cannot live without books. "
Thomas Jefferson
Note: The secrets and wonders of the universe are available to all of us through this medium. All we have to do is avail ourselves to the opportunity.
" I cannot live without books. "
Thomas Jefferson
Note: The secrets and wonders of the universe are available to all of us through this medium. All we have to do is avail ourselves to the opportunity.
Change the word " Books " to read " Computers "
"And than you will be up to speed, that is in todays age...
sent from my Uncle Harvey Kuperman
" Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity. "
Socrates

Note: Sometimes this takes a lifetime to learn
"I refuse to allow a disability to determine how I live my life. I don't mean to be reckless, but setting a goal that seems a bit daunting actually is very helpful toward recovery,"
Christopher Reeve

Note: (1) Goal setting, (2) Mindset, (3) Attitude (4) Belief and (5) Action. This is how it's done.
Commitment or Involvement
"There is a difference between being committed and involved. We can use your a basic breakfast to illustrate this, (bacon and eggs). The chicken is involved, the pig is committed."
Keynote Speaker Kelley School of Business
Rachael Sarah Mahr's Freshman Induction 2004
The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.
Socrates

Is this like "fake it 'till you make it?"

Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.
Aristotle

Note: One of my favorites along this line is, " Friends are the Family we make for ourselves."

We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
US Declaration of Independence

Note to Rachael & Andrew: Have you ever taken pause to read and fully understand the significance of these words? This is the baseline that allows you to enjoy who you are and what you have today.
Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments.
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

"Change your thoughts and you change your world. "
Norman Vincent Peale

Note: To Rachael and Andrew; this was your grandfather's favorite motivational author and speaker. We have a copy of his first edition book in our library, plus a tape of an interview with him when he lectured in St. Petersburg. Do you know the title of his most famous work?
Instructions for Life in the new millennium from the Dalai Lama:

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

3. Follow the three Rs: Respect for self, respect for others and responsibility for all your actions.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

8. Spend some time alone every day.

9. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.

10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.

12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.

14. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.

15. Be gentle with the earth.

16. Once a year, go some place you've never been before.

17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need
for each other.

18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
"I know this--a man got to do what he got to do. "
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

Note: Andrew what do you have to say about this? You thought you were the originator huh?
"Football is like life -- it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority."
--Vince Lombardi
"The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions--the little, soon-forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look or heartfelt compliment."
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
From The Art Of War -Sun Tzu
All warfare is based on deception:
Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.
Opportunities multiply as they are seized.
Note: To Rachael & Andrew. This book in my view is one to be studied carefully. It's implications and applications are many in business dealings. Michael Ovitz, one of the most successful entertainment agrenst of all time uses this book as his bible as do many I am aware of. Your father ( that be me ) tries to study it and apply it's principles. I have a copy for each of you.
"There is real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment. "
Norman Vincent Peale
Note to R &A: how often do you let your enthusiasm have a contagious effect on your course of conduct? How often do you allow your natural enthusiasm to impact the otherwise mundane?
If you want to know your past, look into your present conditions. If you want to know your future, look into your present actions."--Buddhist Saying

"Before you contradict an old man, my fair friend, you should endeavor to understand him."
George Santayana
Imagine a People who knew no boundaries!!
Norman Rockwell
Note Offered by Hope Cohen Barnett
A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.

The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were G-d's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If G-d allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us.

We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly!

"A wise man ought always to follow the paths beaten by great men, and to imitate those who have been supreme, so that if his ability does not equal theirs, at least
it will savour of it. " .
Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

According to Gandhi, the seven sins are wealth without works, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, and politics without principle.
Gandhi, Mahatma
Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
William Jennings Bryan

"There is little need of commentary upon this clause. No man can
well doubt the propriety of placing a president of the United
States under the most solemn obligations to preserve, protect,
and defend the constitution. It is a suitable pledge of his
fidelity and responsibility to his country; and creates upon his
conscience a deep sense of duty, by an appeal, at once in the
presence of God and man, to the most sacred and solemn sanctions,
which can operate upon the human mind." --Joseph Story

"Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children."
- Ancient Indian Proverb
-
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."
Alan Kay

"The best way to predict 'your' future is to invent it."

Yesterday's Thought for the Day slightly amended by NJC
"What we have here is a failure to Communicate."
From the Paul Newman movie
Cool Hand Luke

Note: To Rachael and Andrew.... Think about all the things in your life so far that have been impacted negatively by a failure to properly communicate. Communication is the baseline for interactions and relationships and it will continue to be so throughout the rest of your lives. Hone your skills, and realize that perhaps the most heavily weighted component of communicating is to LISTEN.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Life of Reason, Reason in Common Sense, Scribner's, 1905, page 284
George Santayana

" If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying?
If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying? "
Shantideva

The Eagle wasn't always the Eagle. The Eagle, before becoming the Eagle, was Yucatangee, the Talker. Yucatangee talked and talked. It talked so much it heard only itself. Not the river, not the wind, not even the Wolf. The Raven came and said "The Wolf is hungry. If you stop talking, you'll hear him. The wind too. And when you hear the wind, you'll fly." So he stopped talking. And became its nature, the Eagle. The Eagle soared, and its flight said all it needed to say.
Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess, Northern Exposure, Birds of a Feather, 1993

Note: To R & A you are both familiar with the concept of letting your actions speak louder than your words. Doesn't this apply?

The Most Beautiful Flower

The park bench was deserted as I
sat down to read
Beneath the long, straggly
branches of an old willow tree
Disillusioned by life with good
reason to frown,
For the world was intent on
dragging me down.
And if that weren't enough to
ruin my day,
A young boy out of breath
approached me, all tired from play.
He stood right before me with his
head tilted down
And said with great excitement,
"Look what I found!"
In his hand was a flower, and
what a pitiful sight,
With its petals all worn - not
enough rain, or too little light.
Wanting him to take his dead
flower and go off to play,
I faked a small smile and then
shifted away.
But instead of retreating he sat
next to my side
And placed the flower to his nose
And declared with overacted
surprise,
"It sure smells pretty and it's
beautiful, too.
That's why I picked it; here,
it's for you."
The weed before me was dying or
dead.
Not vibrant of colors: orange,
yellow or red.
But I knew I must take it, or he
might never leave.
So I reached for the flower, and
replied, "Just what I need."
But instead of him placing the
flower in my hand,
He held it mid-air without reason
or plan.
It was then that I noticed for
the very first time
That weed-toting boy could not
see: he was blind.
I heard my voice quiver; tears
shone in the sun
As I thanked him for picking the
very best one.
"You're welcome," he smiled, and
then ran off to play,
Unaware of the impact he'd had on
my day.
I sat there and wondered how he
managed to see
A self-pitying woman beneath an
old willow tree.
How did he know of my
self-indulged plight?
Perhaps from his heart, he'd been
blessed with true sight.
Through the eyes of a blind
child, at last I could see
The problem was not with the
world; the problem was me.
And for all of those times I
myself had been blind,
I vowed to see the beauty in
life,
And appreciate every second
that's mine.
And then I held that wilted
flower up to my nose
And breathed in the fragrance of
a beautiful rose.............
To be lyrical, not unlike Eric Clapton you have to find a way to play it so it hits people in the heart not the head.
John Mayer
Note: Couldn't resist this one, first I thoroughly enjoy John Mayer's artistry but also I believe this applies to many aspects of life not just music.
'While troubles will come, they are always temporary --
nothing lasts forever.
Thus, there is the legend that King Solomon,
one of the wisest men in history,
had a ring inscribed with the words,
This too shall pass.' --
Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan
Note To R & A & Brett: This guy was an amazing highly advanced and special person. He died at a very young age, although he left behind gifts in the form of his books and teachings for all of us. I encourage you to make note of his name, and read some of his books, some of which are in our library.
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral begettting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater but you do not murder hate. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

Martin Luther King
The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said."
- Peter F. Drucker

"Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk."

Note: Sent by my special friend Lori Antoniou Sherrill

And as taught to me by my mentor NJC, "The highest compliment we can pay someone is to listen to them."

"Do not trust the horse, Trojans! Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks, even though they bring gifts."
-Virgil, Aeneid, The
"Every moment of one's existence one is growing into more or retreating into less."
— Norman Mailer

Possibility + Responsibility = Success

"If it's going to be, it's up to me !"
Robert H. Schuller

Note to R & A: This may be one of the most powerful concepts you will encounter in your lives. Learn it, internalize it, own it... Make sure it is always there as an arrow in your quiver.

" Things are only impossible until they're not. "

Jean-Luc Picard, 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'

"One Day At A Time, For the Rest of Your Life."
"IF IT"S GOOD TODAY, IT WILL BE GOOD TOMORROW OR IT WASN'T ANY GOOD AT ALL."
Maureen Cohn
Note: These are from my dear friend Maureen. As my mentor NJC has said to me many times, which is very apropos here,
"Our friends are the family we make for ourselves."
Today's "Thought For The Day" is appropriate as we approach Thanksgiving, and as it is such a special time of year. The source of this story may not be accurate, however in my view what follows is cleverly crafted and with a meaningful message. I know you will agree, there is something that can be learned from everything and everyone. IT IS LONG BUT I BELIEVE that those of you that will INVEST the time TO READ ALL OF IT WILL BE GLAD THAT YOU DID. A further note I do know from my own independent reading that the person this claims as having said this, was in fact, someone that came to similar conclusions even after years of scientific study. Enjoy!
"Does evil exist?" The university professor challenged his students with this question. "Did G-d create everything that exists?"
A student bravely spoke up, "Yes, he did!"
"G-d created everything?" The professor asked.
"Yes, sir," the student replied.
The professor answered, "If G-d created everything, then G-d created evil. Since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are, then G-d is evil."
The professor was pleased and then boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Judeo-Christian faith was a myth.
Another student raised his hand and said, "Can I ask you a question professor?"
"Of course," replied the professor.
The student stood up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?"
"What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?"
The other students snickered at the young man's question. Not deterred, the young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or an object have or transmit energy."
As the room turned quiet, the student continued, "Absolute zero (- 460 degrees F) is the total absence of heat; all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat."
The student then said. "Professor, does darkness exist?"
The professor responded, "Of course it does."
The student replied, "With all due respect, you are not correct, sir. Darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. One cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is?You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."
Finally the young man said to the professor. "So therefor sir, does evil exist?"
Although uncertain about the last two questions and the student's explanations, this one the professor felt confident about. He responded, "Of course as I have already said. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil."
To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of G-d. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of G-d. G-d did not create evil. Evil is not like faith, or love that exists just as does light and heat. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have G-d's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light."
The young student' s name ...................... Albert Einstein
http://www.snopes.com/religion/einstein.asp
The web site that claims this as not accurate.
There is no less invention in aptly applying a thought found in a book,
Than in being the first author of the thought.
Pierre Bayle

Note: Sourced from my dear friend Neil Cantor. Question what single thing could possibly be more beneficial than opening up the wonders of the universe and all the known and collected knowledge to date, than by reading ? This of course kicks even that up a notch, with the implicit message of applying what we learn. Readding literally expands us,it exercises the muscle that is our brain, and it has a rippling and far reaching effect not only on ourselves but others we come in contact with. Note to R & A here is yet another example of "read read read...." Trust me my children it is where the true action is.
While Thanksgiving started with the Pilgrims in 1621, it was adopted as a national holiday in 1789. The following extract is from a declaration by George Washington, one of our Country's Founding Fathers and the Nation’s first President:
"Whereas, it is the duty of all Nations to
acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God,
to obey his Will, to be grateful for his Benefits,
and humbly to implore his Protection and Favor.
I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th of November next....
a day of Public Thanksgiving
and Prayer....to be devoted by the People of the United States, to the service of that great and glorious
Being who is the beneficent Author of all that was,
that is, or that will be."
G. Washington
"The outward freedom that we shall attain will only be in exact proportion to the inward fraction to which we may have grown at a given moment. And if this is a correct view of freedom, our chief energy must be concentrated on achieving reform from within."
Ghandi

Note: sent by Lori Antoniou Sherrill
"In the game of chess as in life, once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back into the same box."
Latin Proverb
Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Rather,try to be better than yourself.
— William Faulkner
Learning is acquired by reading books; but the much more necessary learning, the knowledge of the world, is only to be acquired by reading man, and studying all the various editions of them.
--Philip Dormer Stanhope, statesman and writer (1694-1773)
"Some want success. Others must have it. Must. They are not merely interested, they are passionate. They are not merely motivated, they are possessed. Those thus spirited, become leaders in all fields and endeavors..........."
Business Week Magazine

Note: Does this resonate for you in any area of your life? If not....Why not?
If you are only in the "want " group, what steps can you take NOW to become one of the few to get to the "Must" Group? Fsm

"Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of man you are."
(Thomas Carlyle)

Note: Contributed by Neil Cantor
"Character is not only what you are, but it is truly what others think you are."
Taken from the rules of civility -Era of George Washington

Contributed by NJC
"If one is out of touch with oneself, then one cannot touch others."—
Ann Morrow Lindbergh
NJC
Note: In my opinion this is amazing and very Powerful.

A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on the end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master's house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.
For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water in his master's house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.
After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you."
"Why?" asked the bearer. "What are you ashamed of?"
"I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master's house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts," the pot said. The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, "As we return to the master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path." Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half of its load, and so again the pot apologized to the bearer for its failure.
The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house."
Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots. In the universe's great economy, nothing goes to waste. Don't be afraid of your flaws. Acknowledge them, and you too can be the cause of beauty. Know that in our weakness, we find our strength.
"However, it is by our works and not by our words that we be judged.
These,we hope,will sustain us in the humble though proud station we have so long held in the name of Your obedient servant."
Robert B. Thomas
The Farmers Almanac
Founded in 1792

Note: Sent by my Uncle Harvey Kuperman

"It's not over until the fat lady sings."

The expression "It's not over until the fat lady sings" is actually a misquote. The correct phrase is "It's not over until the fat lady sinks," and it has its origins in the game of billiards. The black eight ball was commonly referred to as the "fat lady," so no matter how bad the game was for a competitor, the game wasn't over until the "fat lady" sank.
http://www.oncewritten.com/LanguageLab/030922LanguageLab.htm

"Cowardice asks, Is it safe?
Expediency asks, Is it politic?
Vanity asks, Is it popular?
but Conscience asks, Is it right? "
Alexander Punshon
"All that is necessary to break the spell of frustration and inertia is to act as if it is impossible to fail."
Dorothea Brand
Wake up and Live
"In the Midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you."
--- Deepak Chopra

"Although the grass may appear greener on the other side of the fence, remember it will always need mowing on whatever side you are on."
fsm
Note: Some of you may not be able to see the embedded photo above the Thought for The Day... It is of a boat anchored in serene waters, with the water serving as a mirror image of a small row boat, a photographic metaphor ofs thoughts embedded in our minds that affect our realities.

Thoughts have great power.
Thoughts are like seeds you plant in your mind.
The more you hold onto a particular thought, the more power you invest in it.
Positive thoughts give us energy and strength.
Negative thoughts rob us of power and make us feel tired and strained.
We are by nature positive.
Negativity is the result of faulty thinking.
You can change if you want to.
You can't control other people, situations or circumstances, but you can control what is going on inside you.
It takes time to change and transform those old patterns of thinking.
Be patient with yourself.
It starts with only one thought.....

"Don't ever say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours each day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson,Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein."
H. Jackson Brown
"This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, act I, scene iii,
lines 78–80. Polonius is speaking to Laertes.

“It is what it is”
FSM

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
-Charles Darwin
Note to R & A: As I have said over and over, "the only thing permanent in life is change."

WHY- fsm
A work in process started March 1999
"Drink to Me" Pablo Picasso 1881-1973 [1]

W
hy do so many things in life happen as they do ? Why do some people seem to lead self-directed lives illustrated with color and vibrancy? Their palates are a mix with a vast array of color, which are applied by each of their interpretations of the life they are experiencing. Each choice of color or color combinations then, leads to a myriad of possibilities of what can be realized and created. Yet there are others, in far greater quantities unfortunately, that live their lives in black and white. Perhaps with the occasional exception of a hue of gray showing up here or there. Why is it that those very same people,( the ones that are leading a self directed life replete with a proactive attitude), experience throughout their lives, people and events that seem to show up or occur at precisely the right moment when they are supposed to, or perhaps required to. Even if at the time it is not thought so or realized? Perhaps their paradigms are such that they are not ready to recognize, appreciate or understand how the presence fits? [2] Are we living our lives, every day as a celebration and as such in "living color" or are we more complacent, accepting of the unchallenged ways of the masses afraid to step outside of defining comfort zones, and as such relegated to life in black and white only. It is possible then that only those that choose to live their lives with passion and with possibility, only those embracing living in color, are able to realize when others are arriving offering new perspectives, new challenges, new learning, new growth and perhaps that the offering may be in the form of a new sadness and or disappointment. When these people or opportunities manifest themselves into our lives, it's as if the universe is inviting each of us to participate in a drama, gain as much as possible, which colors our own world so to speak by the interaction that is about to unfold.

It seems to me that the essence of our physical life existence, are interpersonal relationships between people [3]. This holds true whether or not at the time of our interaction with others, the experience is perceived as good, bad or perhaps confusing. All interactions with others can be a blessing. It can be a contributory factor to making each of us the best that we can each be. The key is to be open and receptive to it all, only then can it become an exciting process.

There are times when people come into our lives, and there is an instant connection, a pervasive sense of knowing that they are there because they are meant to be there. Yet there are other times when we encounter people and it does not seem right at all, or, perhaps the timing is just a bit off. Sometimes our interaction with them may even be confrontational, strained, adversarial or hurtful. Other times it can be confusing based on where we are in our lives and what else we might be feeling or experiencing. Nevertheless, in any scenario, we eventually come to realize by every type of interaction we experience, that as people ebb and flow in our life journeys, they each bring a lesson or experience that ultimately serves our growth and development.

People that show up in our lives may come from virtually any walk of life and circumstance. They may be our associates or colleagues, adversaries or opponents, teammates or co-workers, service providers, friends, mates, lovers, prospective mates or lovers, teachers, family members, daughters, sons, fathers, mothers, grandchildren or even chance encounters with otherwise complete strangers. Regardless of where they come from or how we encounter them, our interaction with them will affect our lives in some profound way.

Sometimes the initial result of meeting these people seems to be negative and creates hurtful, painful or seemingly unfair experiences. Other times our interactions with others can be challenging and confusing, forcing us to step outside our comfort zones. However, by putting aside the paradigms that we have operated by until that point, over time we come to realize, that without overcoming the challenges, obstacles or hurdles these encounters presented, we would have not realized our full potential, or gained the strength, wisdom and willpower, that serves us later in our lives as we transcend our baselines to higher personal levels. In essence we become better and grow stronger, by each and every interaction. [4] It is within the seeds of adversity that the Self experiences growth" It is only through relationships with other people, places and events that one can exist as a knowable quantity, as an identifiable something in the universe. Remember absent everything else, you are not. [5]"

To loosely paraphrase the movie title, "Close Encounter of the Third Kind," [6] so too our encounters and interactions with others, "Close Encounters with the Human Kind." What may appear to be random chaos is actually an orderly unfolding of choice, cause and effect. The entire universe is an ordered exact infrastructure in a delicate balance. It is said that when a butterfly flaps its wings in one part of the world, a rippling effect can occur in another. The book Entanglement, by Amir D. Aczel, addresses the field of Quantum Mechanics as postulated by Einstein and his colleagues. The idea is that subatomic particles are inextricably linked, and that a change in one would instantly be reflected in its counterpart, even if separated by a Universe. This field will open a whole new realm of understanding and possibilities.

Nothing happens by chance or by means of luck. Illness; injury; love; loss of love; lost moments of true greatness; death of a loved one; mistakes caused by whatever reasons, and or any other consequential experience, all occur and therewith test the limits of, and expand the constraints and boundaries of our souls. We are as a result through our interactions with others and the circumstances we encounter, forging our souls, not unlike the way steel is forged from the intense heat of a blast furnace when applied to iron ore. Without these tests throughout our lives, whatever they may be, life would be like a smoothly paved, straight, flat road to nowhere. It would be safe and comfortable, but dull and otherwise pointless. It would be a mere existence and passage of time, likened perhaps to waiting at an airport between connecting flights. Helen Keller said, " Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired and success achieved."

The people we meet that effect our lives, and the success and downfalls we experience as a result, help us to create who we are and who we are to become. If we can learn to understand that even the bad experiences can be learned from, in fact they are probably the most poignant and important ones; and discipline ourselves to realize that no matter what it is we experience, that "this too shall pass, " [7] we can proceed along our life journey better equipped for growth and development and be insulated from unnecessary emotional overreaction. "You can choose to be a person who has resulted simply from what has happened, or from what you have chosen to be and do about what has happened. It is in the latter form that creation of Self becomes conscious. It is on the second expression that Self becomes realized." [8] As I have been imparting to my children since they were very young, "It is not what happens to me that matters, all that matters is how I deal with what happens to me." [9]

If someone you have opened yourself up to hurts you, betrays you, or breaks your heart forgive them, for they have helped you learn about trust and the importance of being cautious when you open your heart. If someone loves you, love them back unconditionally, not only because they love you, but also because they are teaching you to love and how to open your heart.

We must make every day count, and embrace the people and circumstances that cross our daily paths regardless of our initial perception of them We must appreciate every moment and take from each moment everything that we possibly can with a knowing that ultimately a greater purpose will be served. "Each now is but a moment on the trail of all nows. [10]"

An untold treasure will unfold if we talk to people that we have never talked to before, and actually listen to what they have to say. [11] We must let ourselves fall in love, again and again, and set our sights high. The capacity to love is most probably the greatest gift that human beings have. [12] "

"Life was not meant to be led like a Shakespearean soliloquy." fsm

When the right love comes along, although he/she may be camouflaged and masked in a presentation that we do not expect or are used to, we will eventually realize that all that we went through up until that point, served to enable us to experience and contribute to a greater love experience than we ever thought possible. All relationships are sacred as they provide us with life's grandest opportunity. Yet the chance to experience and be a contributing part of a very special relationship between two people is life's most precious gift and blessing.

I am not the person I was, nor will I ever be. You are not the person you were, nor will you ever be. No matter what the precipitation. No matter the circumstances that are, were or could have been, we must evolve. We must go forward carrying with us each the events, positive or negative, that were. However realizing that in fact they "were not are."

Life has a longing for itself, it must proliferate even in the face of tragedy, albeit in a form that is different, perhaps shaped if you will, by the constraints and imposed limitations of the situation just travailed.

We are the architects of our own lives. We can make them anything we wish. Things and people have a way of rising to the level of expectations we place on them. If we can learn and discipline ourselves to raise and maintain our attitudes to the same level during the period while we are waiting for our expectations to become reality, our journeys will be less disappointing, and the chances of our expectations actually coming to fruition will be greater. [13]

"My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me."
Henry Ford

There are four (4) questions that really matter in life:
1) What is sacred?
2) Of What is the spirit made ?
3) What is worth living for ?
4) What is worth dying for ?
The answer to each is the same..........ONLY LOVE.
From the movie Don Juan DeMarco
Starring Johnny Depp as Don Juan DeMarco
"The fierce power of Imagination is a gift from G-d. Joined with the grandeur of the mind, the potency of inference, ethical depth, and the natural sense of the divine, Imagination becomes an instrument for the Spirit."
-Kabbalah
"The only way to have a friend is to be one."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

To have a friend you must first be a friend. NJC
Hebrew Phonetic: " Syag La'choch'ma Shti'ka. "
Translation: A condition for wisdom is keeping silence.
Meaning:
· Wisdom is the result of processing new information with knowledge a person already has - a dialectical process.
· The process of acquiring wisdom requires the participants' silence, so that the vessel to hold wisdom will be formed before fruits of the dialectical process can come to life through words and actions.
· In addition, this phrase insinuates us as to the way of adjusting the vessel to the material it intends to hold within. This idea is a key element en-route a successful marriage between form and content - The form must fit the content!
Sourced from the Kaballah
"tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further…And on fine morning - / So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
" When you're hot keep shooting. When you're not keep shooting 'till you get hot."
Bernie Stein, M.D.
friend and consummate tennis and basketball player

" Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. "
Mark Twain
DANCE WITH ME – fsm 1998
O body swayed to music.
O brightening glance...
How can we know the dancer from the dance.
W.B. Yeats
When raindrops fall
and gently caress,
the leaves of trees
the blades of grass.
There are images,
so strong………
Desires,
so innate………
to seek to be sought.
So too the moisture seeking the leaf ....
glistening innately on the blade.

Perfection knows no bounds
nor limits.
Satisfaction although, knows
the experience of miraculous moments.

A moment alone
MlRACULOUS,
Yet only the secure may dare.
Moments of connection
MIRACULOUS,
Treasures for all yet
so priceless and rare.

Dance with me as raindrops fall,
but caress my spirit
most of all.

"It is the fear that comes before the doing that makes the doing hard to do."
Al Pacino playing Roy Cohen
Mike Nichols film
Angels in America

"It's as if the transitional battlegrounds of our adolescence have surrendered our lives to the momentum of mediocrity. What happened to the celestial fire that used to light our way ? As if there is no fire there is no heat, if there is no heat, there is no life."
from the movie Don Juan DeMarco
Marlon Brando character to Johnny Depp character

"Change your thoughts and you change your world. "
Norman Vincent Peale
"One's time expands or contracts depending on how we prioritize our ACTIVE participation in it's demands and resulting constraints."
fsm

Note: want to see something get done.....give it to a busy person to do....

"A parent's ultimate role is to guide, not to decide."
fsm and khk

"Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom."
Theodore Issac Rubin
Note: Joseph Telushkin writes in a book on Jewish Values, If one could pick only one major quality in a mate what sould it be. His answer ........... kindness

" If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. "

Mother Teresa

"The world is a looking glass, as it gives back to every man
the reflection of his own face." -
William Makepeace Thackeray, novelist (1811-1863)

Note to R & A: What do you think this really means?
The amazing little two letter word
UP

One two-letter word has more meanings than any other,............................."UP."
It's easy to understand UP, when it means toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP, ? or
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?
Why do we speak UP, why are the officers UP for election, and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends. And we brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers, and clean UP the kitchen.We lock UP the house and some fix UP the old car.
At other times the little word has other special meanings.People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.
A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.
We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary.
In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now as time is UP............time to shut UP....!

"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will."
— Vince Lombardi

Note: Wow this nails it ! I hope this resonates with many of you
to the same degree it does to me.....
"No matter where you go, there you are. --"
Buckaroo Banzai
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)
"Majority rule only works if you are also considering individual rights.
Because you cannot have five wolves and one sheep voting on
what to have for supper. "
Larry Flynt Esquire Article 3/1999
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. -- "
Nietzsche, The Dawn, 1881
Note: Powerful
"When the impossible has been eliminated, all that remains no matter how improbable is possible."
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Note: I have sent this b4 as a previous Thought for the Day, however am including it again, as I have been having some conversations with a few people on this distribution list that this should clearly resonate with.

" In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on".
Robert Frost

"There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living
at what you love; there’s only a scarcity of resolve
to make it happen."
Wayne Dyer

Note: This should ring a bell especially clear for some of you I have been working with............

"Mistakes are the portals of discovery."
James Joyce

Note: This can be true if one doesn't continue to make the same ones over and over. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is crazy!

" Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."
-- John Wooden

Think Harder!
Thinking harder about something leads you in the right direction. Persistence thereafter, finds the correct answer or helps to make the right decision.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Howard Gregory Altschule (aka my nephew)

"It occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well."
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby

"People who don't make goals end up working for those who do."
Quote from Canfield -- The Success Principles
Note: Sent by Diane Cantor
"I will study and get ready, and perhaps my chance will come."
Abraham Lincoln

"The definition of luck is when adequate preparation meets opportunity."
NJC

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing."
Abraham Lincoln
Want to be a Champion?
Everyone wishes and wants to be a champion. But not everyone knows how to be one, or what it takes.
In most endeavors we all imagine or aspire to be THE NUMBER 1. But if polled as to how we intend to go about it, most of us do not know, and or we get lazy and many times, rely on luck or “destiny”

Most # 1 achievers (champions), will tell you that, “Luck has very little to do with it.” Being Number 1 takes inspiration, persistence, and faith.
Tom Hopkins teaches that a professional adheres to four P's.
1. PRE-PLAN. Set goals. Devise strategies. Set your course of action, with specific tasks and corresponding deadlines. The only way you can reach what for you is the Number 1 position is to have a clear picture of that top slot and whatever path leads to it.

Your plans must be realistic, -- achievable. You can't plan on being the country's representative to the swimming Olympics if you're 40 pounds overweight and the competition is just a month away -- So, plan smart. Put your goals in writing to add commitment. A good plan is the first step climbing up the ladder to being Number 1.

2. PRACTICE. with a good scheme in hand, the next step is to work on it. How? Practice, practice, practice. No one becomes a champion swimmer or anything else overnight. Not even in ten overnights! It takes months of serious training, and dedicated practice. Persistence!
“Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.” In other words, there's no sense practicing something that doesn't work or that doesn't lead you to success. In baseball, if your swing is self-taught, and your batting average is so-so, you need professional help. Then, using the professional, correct, and proven techniques, you practice, practice, practice, until it becomes second nature.

3. PERFECT. This is something that goes beyond practice. This P is shooting for perfection. Some call it fine-tuning. After you've practiced long and hard to learn, understand, and rationalize the techniques and skills… after you’ve done it a hundred, no, a thousand times… after you can actually do it with your eyes closed… it’s then time to cross the line to perfection. Do not stop practicing until the motion becomes flawless. Until you can do it flawlessly, every time.

4. PERFORM. This is the test. The moment that will tell you that you have succeeded. Everything you planned, practiced, and perfected, will find fulfillment during the performance. Show your mastery – your skill.
You step up to the plate, you come up the stage,you change a difficult habit, or you face your client, and with full confidence and mastery of skill, you give it all you’ve got. Just as you’ve planned it, exactly as you’ve visualized it, you smoothly move from start to finish, and you deliver it flawlessly. That is the mark of a winner and true champion.

Many professionals push on to improve on their performance. Every performance becomes an opportunity to practice, and become even better – Every performance can be the take-off point for bigger tasks and loftier goals. A professional never ceases to enrich and refine himself. A professional always sees himself as a winner and a champion. A professional always continues to Practice,Drill and Rehearse, even when at the top of his/her game.( Know who showed up first and left last for every basketball practice and workout? Yep...Michael Jordan) A winner is a winner and will continue to win because he/she’s a champion who doesn’t quit, and always seeks as Anthony Robbins writes CANI (Constant and Never Ending Improvement.)

Be not afraid of greatness; some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
--- William Shakespeare

"I've always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come. I don't do things half-heartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect half-hearted results."
--- Michael Jordan

Note: To those of you on this distribution list, and you know full well who you are, I hope this resonates and you not only take heed, but in addition take action to emulate a champion.

" 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
"Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them: A desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill."
— Muhammad Ali

We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers - you can blame anyone but never blame yourself. It's never your fault. But it's always your fault, because if you wanted to change, you're the one who has got to change. It's as simple as that, isn't it?
--- Katherine Hepburn

"I believe in G-d, and I believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man's finest hours, his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle victorious."
--- Vince Lombardi

Note: To some on this distribution list that are wanting to change certain things in their life. Are you working your heart out toward your cause? If not you will not chances are you will not be victorious in what you want to be. Wanting it is not enough...

"I cannot nor will not be ordinary I have to keep training and seeking and growing.
I have to stay hungry. It is my will and so has become my nature "
Arnold Schwartzenegger

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear."
— Ambrose Redmoon

Note: This includes the courage to make changes or realize goals that are elusive and heretofore maybe hard to achieve. Some of you on this list that are trying to realize goals and or make hard changes in your lives.....Make what you want to accomplish and or change the most important thing.

" Do not be awe struck by other people....................
Nobody can be you as efficiently as you can. "
Norman Vincent Peale

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
Note: Sent by Neil J. Cantor
" Whatever you are, be a good one. "
Abraham Lincoln

"You must see it. You must believe it, and then......you must NEVER STOP working to MAKE IT HAPPEN."
Arnold Schwarzenegger
" Opportunities multiply as they are seized. "
Sun Tzu- The Art of War
Note: Awesome book. Michael Ovitz for example formerly the most successful and brilliant entertainment agent, made this his bible, and required reading for all of his associates. It is a book that is to be studied not read.......

"Here the ways of men/women part: if you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire. "
-- Nietzsche
"If your only tool is a hammer, you begin to see everything in terms of nails."
Abraham Maslow
"I know this--a man got to do what he got to do. "
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
Note: One of my son Andrew's favorites since he was a little boy

All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did. --
T. E. Lawrence, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (or The Arabian Nights)

Note: Do you dream by day or night or both?
SW3/N Some Will ~ Some Won’t ~ So What… / Next!
(sw,sw,sw,n)

Used by many in Sales and Consulting first introduced to me by
Jerry Campisi in early 1990's.
Works well in terms of finding a relationship and dating etc.

“If the maximum you do is the minimum required,
the result is mediocrity.”
Note: Sent in by Carol W. Clay, bride of Robert A. Clay, poet and author of;
"My Heart's Memory" , "Within These Walls", and " A Moment "
www.myheartsmemory.com

"Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and
gravity, we shall harness for G-d the energies of love, and then, for a
second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire."
(Pierre Teilhard de Chardin)

Note: Sent in by NJC as a Valentine's Day TFTD
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. (1881-1955) a French Jesuit priest and noted man of science, whose posthumously published speculations on man's evolutionary future made him a cause celebré among the world's intelligentsia.

"If you love yourself first then you can have the strength to impart love to others."
Hope Cohen Barnett
Note: We had a TFTD pre Valentine's Day, on Valentine's Day, and now post Valentine's Day
"Now, here you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"
LEWIS CARROLL , Through the Looking-Glass

"What I am is defined entirely by who I am."
Al Pacino playing Roy Cohen
in the Mike Nichols film
Angels in America

Note to Rachael & Andrew: What do you think of this statement?
"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."
-- Saint Francis of Assisi (1182-1226
"I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest,
with visions to be realized,
than lord among those without dreams and desires."
-- Kahlil Gibran
There is but one land..................Our Earth
There is but one population.................Humanity
There is but one religion...................Love
Holocaust Survivor

Note: sent by NJC

" Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he/she was born in another time. "
Rabbinical Saying
"Cherish your visions and your dreams
as they are the children of your soul;
the blue prints of your ultimate achievements."
Napoleon Hill
Katy bar the door

Meaning
Take precautionsthere's trouble ahead
Origin
One suggestion as to the origin of this is that it originates with an English folk song in which a husband and wife argue and refuse to speak to each other. When the husband fails to ask his wife Katy to bar the door the house is burgled.
"Conflict cannot survive without your participation."
--- Dr. Wayne Dyer
"Mistakes are the portals of discovery."
James Joyce
"I'd never join a club that would allow a person like me to become a member."
Groucho Marx
real name Julius Henry Marx; American humorist; born 1890; died 1977
"I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is part
of why I succeed.
I can accept failure, but I can't accept not trying."
--- Michael Jordan
"I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is part
of why I succeed.
I can accept failure, but I can't accept not trying."
Michael Jordan

"A problem is a chance to do your best."
Duke Ellington

"History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon"
Napoleon

Note: Now this one is brilliant. Applies to so many things including religious beliefs and other paradigms that people truly believe and live by.
"Vision is the art of seeing things invisible."
Jonathan Swift

"I'm a firm believer that if you say something out loud long enough, the person saying it will believe it and those who listen to it will want to begin to believe it,"
Howard Schnellenberger **
(called to my attention by Neil Cantor)

This is a powerful one. It is right on, and it works. Try it you will see....

** coach Florida Atlantic University Football formerly Coach at Miami and an assistant coach on the Superbowl winning teams of the Miami Dolphins

Thought For The Day TFTD

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Monday, March 21, 2005

Sunday, March 20, 2005

Friday, March 18, 2005

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Monday, March 14, 2005

Sunday, March 13, 2005

Saturday, March 12, 2005

Friday, March 11, 2005

Thursday, March 10, 2005

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Monday, March 07, 2005

Sunday, March 06, 2005

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