Words that Inspire

So here I sit, on my couch, after determining that the strange loud noise I just began hearing against the house is, in fact, hail. This would be after the snow I shoveled this morning…before the rain set in. Now, it’s hail. I do not know what chore hail will necessitate in the morning, but I’ve got my ice chopper and shovel at the ready. And I, being the eternal optimist, am thankful that we haven’t gotten to locusts, because that plague really freaks me out.

While sitting here in my catatonic post-shoveling state, I’ve been thinking about some quotes that inspire and/or amuse me. I decided to put some that I really love here in my blog. The order is completely random and the list is just a smattering of the pages and pages I’ve accumulated over the years. But maybe you’ll find some inspiration and enjoyment from them, too. So here goes…and thanks for stopping by.

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” – Henry David Thoreau

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie

“I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the strong.” – Leo Rosten

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by 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 cause; who at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the 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, 1910

“Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.” – Margaret Mead

“Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.” – William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

“Whatever you are, be a good one.” – Abraham Lincoln

“Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So get on your way.” – Dr. Seuss

“No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come.” – Victor Hugo

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you lived. This is to have succeeded.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.” – Haile Selassie

“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 we 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 won’t be insecure around you

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 other people permission to do the same

And as we are liberated from our own fear

Our presence automatically liberates others.”

- Marianne Williamson (Nelson Mandela’s 1994 Inaugural Address)

“I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to anyone, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it; for I shall not pass this way again.” – Stephen Grellet

And from one of my all-time favorites, the wickedly funny Dorothy Parker:

“The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue.”

“Take me or leave me; or, as is the usual order of things, both.”

“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.”