I have been astonished that men could die martyrs for their religion -
I have shudder'd at it.
I shudder no more.
I could be martyr'd for my religion
Love is my religion
And I could die for that.
I could die for you.
~ by John Keats ~

Nothing in life is to be feared.
It is only to be understood.
When you dare to face the things that scare you,
you open the door to freedom and success.

Most of your obstacles would melt away if,
instead of cowering before them
or procrastinating about dealing with them,
you would make up your mind to walk boldly through them.
Max Steingart

"Taking care of your body, no matter what your age, is an investment
Oprah

"The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend."
-- Henri Bergson
Perception defines our reality

Let us not bankrupt our today's by paying interest on the regrets of yesterday and by borrowing in advance the troubles of tomorrow.
Ralph W. Sockman

"The world breaks every one, and afterward many are strong at the broken places." - Ernest Hemingway "A Farewell to Arms"

It is wrong to think that love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship. Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is it matters not the duration nor the effort.;............think not you can guide the course of love.
for love, if it finds you worthy, shall guide your course.
Kahlil Gibran

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself - and be lenient to everybody else.
 Henry Ward Beecher

"Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure, not this thing nor that, but simply growth."
W.B.Yeats
Sourced by: NJC

"In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn than to
contemplate." (René Descartes)
Sent in by NJC

If you had a friend who talked to you like you sometimes talk to yourself, would you continue to hang around with that person?"

-- Rob Bremer

Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in ."
Brian Tracy

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
- Mark Twain

A day dawns, quite like other days; in it, a single hour comes, quite like other hours; but in that day and in that hour the chance of a lifetime faces us.
- Maltbie Babcock

"Fearlessness may be a gift but perhaps more precious is the courage acquired through endeavour, courage that comes from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one's actions
Aung San Suu Kyi
Sourced by Richard Gorbaty

Progress is impossible without change and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."
George Bernard Shaw

It isn't the big pleasures that count the most; it's making a great deal out of the little ones."
Jean Webster

The height of your accomplishments will equal the depth of your convictions.
- William F. Scolavino

Veni, vidi, vici [I came, I saw, I conquered].
—Julius Caesar, 1st century

"To myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me... If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." - Isaac Newton

"Art washes
from the soul the dust of everyday life."
— Pablo Picasso

"There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so"
William Shakespeare

In the general course of human nature, A power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will.
Alexander Hamilton

"Always saddle your own horse."
Connie Reeves....
She is a member of the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas......she passed away at age 102 in 2001.......;She was a role model and mentor to thousands of young women when she used to teach horseback riding at summer camps in east Texas...
Note: Sourced by Peg Sall

Tonight is the second night of the fourth Passover and this Sunday the fourth Easter, during the Iraq War, and other looming crises throughout the region and world....Perhaps the words of this 13 year old child are worthy of recalling.... Paint Box
Each color glowing with delight.
I had a paint box with colors
Warm and cool and bright.
I had no red for wounds & blood
I had no black for an orphaned child
I had no white for the fate of the dead
I had no yellow for burning sands
I had orange for joy and life
I had green for buds and blooms
I had blue for clear bright skies
I had rose for dreams and rest
Then I sat me down - and painted
PEACE

"Slavery takes many forms; not all shackles are made of iron. A person with true freedom knows no bounds..... they are free to change themselves and as such the world......Experiences come through two vehicles: experiences of the body, and of the mind.
The key is freedom -- not from a physical oppressor, but from a spiritual, mental one. Ideas may enslave us. Pressures, self-imposed limits -- are all in our mind. To be free of them, we must first understand them." Rabbi Stephen Baars
"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose"
- Kris Kristofferson (Me and Bobby McGee)
(And cover by Janis Joplin)

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference
Elie Wiesel