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Welcome. My blog is an experiment: Could I have something to say, once a month, for a year? While I like to tell a humorous story, there are stories and reflections I would like to share. My promise to you: when I've got nothing more to say, I quit. Thanks for reading.

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Twenty Quotes

Twenty Quotes

It seems that on a daily basis we are hit by bad news, be it global, national, or local.  As we struggle to deal with issues, both as a culture and on an individual basis, a quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. seems to come back to me, as if of its own volition, time after time:

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

These 20 words seem as succinct a statement for living as I have ever read.

A few months ago I was wondering if any of my friends and family have any similar, life-affirming quotes that they would be willing to share.  Quotes that bring you back from believing the worst in humanity; quotes that help you see a better future for our children; quotes that seem to insist on being heard and remembered.

I solicited quotes from those who I thought might like to join in my Quotation Project and suggested that they could invite like-minded friends.  Though I received fewer responses than I expected, I sincerely appreciate those who contributed their favorite quotes.

I decided against listing who sent me each quote, but wanted to provide as accurate an attribution as I possibly could to the original author.  (I discovered that the internet was great for WHO gave a quote, but not terrific for the actual source--speech, article, book, ...)  For the most part, the quotes are in no specific order.  Finally,  if the quotation is part of a longer piece, I have placed an asterisk at the beginning.  If you are interested in the full quotes, please see the end of this document.

I hope that you will find below something to hold on to.

If anyone has quotes to add, I would be happy to consider a Part 2!

  
The Quotation Project


1*.    “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only      love can do that.”  Martin Luther King, Jr.,  from Where Do We Go from Here? Chaos or     Community


2.*     “The longer I love, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life….  The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day….  The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.”  ― Charles R. Swindoll


3.         "Fire can warm or consume,
            water can quench or drown,
            wind can caress or cut.

            And so it is with human relationships;
            we can both create and destroy,
            nurture and terrorize,
            traumatize and heal each other."
                                    The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog, Bruce D. Perry and Maia Szalavitz


3.         “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”  anonymous


4.         “The time is always right to do the right thing.”  Martin Luther King, Jr. 


5.         “Things work out best for those who make the best of the way things work out.” ―John Wooden


6.         “It isn't about what you do, but about how you do it.” ―John Wooden


7.         "Pain is temporary.  It may last for a minute, or an hour, or a day, or even a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place.  If I quit, however, it will last forever."  --unknown


8.         "Whether you think you can or you can't, you are right."    ―Henry Ford (or Zig Ziglar?)


9*.       "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us."   Marianne Williamson as quoted in the movie Coach Carter


10.       "Faith precedes the miracle.  Proof follows the miracle."  Clayton King


11.       "Love your neighbor as yourself."  The Bible


12.       "Never underestimate the power of a few dedicated to change the world.  It's the only thing that ever has." ―Margaret Meade


13.       “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” JK Rowling (Albus Dumbledore), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban


14.       “If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely” Roald Dahl, The Twits 


    15*.     “The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

                                       Answer.
                That you are here—that life exists and identity,
                That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”
            from Walt Whitman’s “O Me! Or Life!” in Leaves of Grass (1892)
                (w/ special thanks to Robin Williams’ portrayal of Mr. Keating in Dead Poet’s Society)


16.       This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness. Dalai Lama


17.       I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday.  And lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you. Neil DeGrasse Tyson


18.       Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.  ―F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby


19.       The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. Albert Einstein


20.       Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured. Mark Twain


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Here are the longer pieces from which some of the works above have been excerpted:

1.          “The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, 
            begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
            Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
            Through violence you may murder the liar,
            but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.
            Through violence you may murder the hater,
            but you do not murder hate.
            In fact, violence merely increases hate.
            So it goes.
            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, Jr.
                                                            From Where Do We Go from Here? Chaos or Community


2.         “The longer I love, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than      circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company...a church....a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude...I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our attitudes.”   --Charles R. Swindoll



9.         "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?  Actually, who are yon not to be?  You are a child of God.  Your playing small does not serve the world.  There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you.  We are all meant to shine, as children do.  We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.  It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same.  As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." Marianne Williamson as quoted in the movie Coach Carter


15.       Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,

                Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
                Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
                Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
                Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
                Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
                The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

                                       Answer.
                That you are here—that life exists and identity,
                That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

                        ―Walt Whitman, “Oh Me, Oh Life!” in  Leaves of Grass (1892)

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