Quotes

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Two basic rules of life

  1. Change is inevitable
  2. Everybody resists change

This is the true joy in life-being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one-being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy-I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. For the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It's a sort of splendid torch which I've got to hold up for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

shaw.gif (110026 bytes) George Bernard Shaw

The things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.

goethe.JPG (3115 bytes) Goethe

All you need is love.

lennon.jpg (13120 bytes) John Lennon

 

Talking about music is like dancing about architecture. laurie.jpg (5993 bytes)

Technology today is the campfire around which we tell our stories. lauriem.jpg (18430 bytes)

 Laurie Anderson

Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation.

aristotle.jpg (17534 bytes) Aristotle

The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat.

lily2.jpg (22967 bytes) Lily Tomlin

I have nothing to say and I am saying it and that is poetry.


We are getting nowhere, slowly, and that is a pleasure.  It is not irritating to be where one is.  It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else. cage2.jpg (34277 bytes)

Which is more musical: a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school?
 
Questioning why we do what we do is very curious.  I think we do what we do because we slept well and when we wake up we have energy and we try to think of what to do, and we find something to do and do it.  cage.gif (21128 bytes)

 John Cage

Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked...We detect rather than invent our missions in life.

frankl.jpg (98853 bytes) Viktor Frankl

Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.

Popular Mechanics (1949)


There is no need for any individual to have a computer in their home.

Ken Olson, 1977, President, Digital Equipment Corp.


I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.

tomwatson.gif (13370 bytes) Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.


Well informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value.

Editorial in the Boston Post (1865)


Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.

Kelvin.gif (17217 bytes) Lord Kelvin, ca. 1895, British mathematician and physicist


While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially I consider it an impossibility, a development of which we need waste little time dreaming.

deforest.jpg (3162 bytes) Lee DeForest, 1926, American radio pioneer 


There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.

einst_10.jpg (80176 bytes) Albert Einstein, 1932

Affirming Your Creative Resources

The intuition within me already knows the creative solution to this problem.

Within me, in the center of my body, is an absolutely solid will, the foundation of everything I can do to resolve this issue.

Within me is the capacity for joy. Allow the flow of this joy to carry me through the problem.

I have the courage to do whatever is necessary to resolve this problem.

My compassion allows me to empathize with others, to forgive their mistakes as well as my own, in solving this problem.

Don't try to solve the problem. Surrender to it.

Daniel Goleman, Paul Kaufman, Michael Roy

The Creative Spirit

We have to turn inwards, to look into ourselves, look into this container which is our soul, look and listen to it. Until you have listened in to that thing which is dreaming through you, in other words--answered the knock on the door in the dark, you will not be able to lift this moment in time in which we are imprisoned, back again into the level where the great act of creation is going on.

Sir Laurens van der Post

You think because you understand one you must understand two, because one and one makes two. But you must also understand and.

rumi.jpg (9648 bytes) Sufi teaching

People will remember you better if you always wear the same outfit.

byrne.jpg (44371 bytes) David Byrne

Time will reveal everything.  It is a babbler, and speaks even when not asked.

Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.

euripides.jpg (6621 bytes) Euripides

Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad with power.


When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

Charles A. Beard 

I don't know what will be used in the next world war, but the 4th will be fought with stones.


Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.


Once you accept the Universe as matter expanding into Nothing that is Something, wearing stripes with plaids comes easy.

einst_b.jpg (76899 bytes) Albert Einstein

Life's great, and then you go to heaven.

Life's a pizza--you choose the toppings.


If you have to think, think positive.

bobw.gif (16092 bytes) Bob Willey

I am at two with nature.

Basically my wife was immature. I'd be at home in the bath and she'd come in and sink my boats.


Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once.

 

When it comes my time to go
may I go quietly and peacefully like my grandfather--
not screaming like the other passengers in his car.

allen3.jpeg (11482 bytes)  allen.jpg (8373 bytes) Woody Allen

If life's a stage I want to operate the trap door.

I'd love to go out with you, but...
...I'm busy working on my solar-powered sunlamp.
...I have to floss my cat.
...it's my parquet's bowling night.
...I have to change the air in my horn.
...I changed the lock on my door, and now I can't get out.
...I have to check the freshness dates on my dairy products.
...I'm working on my cottage cheese sculpture.
...my Crayons all melted together.
...the last time I went out I never came back.

Don't be afraid of missing opportunities. Behind every failure is an opportunity somebody wishes they had missed.

tomlin.jpg (23172 bytes)  Lily Tomlin

In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher.

Instructions for Life

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 R's: 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 someplace 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.

dalai.jpg (18877 bytes) Dalai Lama

Every disease is a musical problem. It's cure, a musical solution. The more rapid and complete the solution, the greater the musical talent of the doctor.

 novalis.gif (8901 bytes) Novalis

An adult is an obsolete child.

Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

Chewing gum: the national anthem without words.

edphono.jpg (18074 bytes) Thomas A. Edison

Toda vez que uma árvore é cortada aqui na terra, eu acredito que ela cresça outra vez em outro lugar--em algum outro mundo. Então, quando eu morrer, este é o lugar para onde quero ir. Onde as florestas vivam em paz.

(Every time that a tree is cut here on Earth, I believe that it grows again in another place--in some other world.  So, when I die, that is the place where I want to go to.  Where the forests live in peace.)

tom1.jpg (12784 bytes) Antônio Carlos Jobim

Every person who wants to realize fully the potentiality of what it is to be human, and who wants to take part in the evolution of consciousness, can aim for a more complex personality. To do so we need to explore and strengthen those traits that are now lacking, to learn to shift from openness to discipline, within a context of curiosity and awe for the miracle of life...By fully expressing the tendencies of which we are capable, we become part of the energy that creates the future.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

The fates lead those that will follow;  those who won't they drag.

seneca.gif (26338 bytes) L. Annaeus Seneca

I always say to myself, what is the most important thing we can think about at this extraordinary moment

bucky.jpg (13431 bytes) Buckminster Fuller

In action, watch the timing.

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.

Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people's approval and you will be their prisoner.


Do your work, then step back.
The only path to serenity

laotzu.gif (49828 bytes)  Lao Tzu

He who has mastered patience is a master of many things.

Fortune Cookie

Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it.

iberlin.jpg (26372 bytes) Irving Berlin

Weather the storm you can't avoid, and avoid the storm you can't weather.

Sailor's proverb

When your heart is in your dream,
No request is too extreme.

Jiminy Cricket

There are three kinds of artists. The first kind are the ones who hurt to do what they do. It hurts to write, there's pain involved, there's experience in there, there's blood. The second kind of artist imitates the ones in pain. The third kind of artist just do what somebody tell them to do, learn the step, wear this wig, shake your ass, watch yourself. The first kind of artist are the ones who are more popular than the amount of money they receive. The second kind of artist is usually the rich ones. Third kind, they get dropped from the label because millions of them walking around...Be true. Be you. Don't let anybody infiltrate your dream. Make sure you're saying something when you're saying something. It's important to sound like you. To feel like you. To be you.

Erykah Badu

Students today are completely full of shit. Much like the generation before them, the only thing they are really interested in is you telling them how right they are, and how good they are. That is the same mentality that forces Harvard to give Bs to people who don't deserve them out of fear that they'll go to other schools that will give them Bs, and those folks will get the money. We live in a culture that seems to be in a massive state of delusion, where the idea of what you are is more important than you actually being it. It works as long as everyone is winking at the same time. And then if one person stops winking you beat the crap out of that person, and they either start winking or go somewhere else. My students just want to hear how good they are, how talented they are. Most of them aren't really willing to work to the degree to live up to that.

Branford Marsalis Branford Marsalis

from Before the Music Dies

Q. You've been having trouble going to sleep. Are you probably a man or a woman?
A. That's what's been keeping me awake.

Don Knotts, on The Hollywood Squares

There are two kinds of people in this world:
Those that enter a room and turn the television set on,
And those that enter a room and turn the television set off.

Raymond Shaw, the protagonist in the movie
The Manchurian Candidate

The Four Rules of Anythinig

  1. Pay attention
  2. Remain calm
  3. Accept what has happened
  4. Do what needs to be done

If you sit by the river long enough, you will see the body of your enemy float by.

Sun Tzu

Responses to the question "What does 'love' mean?" from  4-to-8-year-olds.


collected by Robert Willey

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