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Muhammad Ali: Just a job
“It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.” ~Muhammad Ali
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Octavio Paz: Language
For every language that becomes extinct, an image of man disappears. -Octavio Paz, poet, diplomat, Nobel laureate (1914-1998)
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Victor Hugo: Evil
“Evil. Mistrust those who rejoice at it even more than those who do it. ” ~Victor Hugo
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Albert Ellis: Love and persistence
“The art of love is largely the art of persistence. ” ~Albert Ellis
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Alexandre Dumas: Generalizations
“All generalizations are dangerous, even this one. ” Alexandre Dumas
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Rabindranath Tagore: Freedom
“We gain freedom when we have paid the full price.” ~Rabindranath Tagore.
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John Lennon: Peace and television sets
“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.” ~John Lennon.
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Joseph Conrad: Gossip
“Gossip is what no one claims to like, but everybody enjoys.” ~Joseph Conrad.
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Unknown: Great opportunity
“The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are.” ~Unknown
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Johnson: Ignorance
“Ignorance, when voluntary, is criminal, and a man may be properly charged with that evil which he neglected or refused to learn how to prevent.” ~Johnson
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Albert Camus: Ridiculous beginning
“All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. ” ~Albert Camus
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Marcus Aurelius: Begin
“Begin – to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished. ” ~ Marcus Aurelius
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William Blake: Heights
“No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.” ~William Blake
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William Arthur Ward: The best in ourselves
“When we seek out the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.” ~William Arthur Ward.
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Soren Aaby Kierkegaard: Life
“Life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced.” ~Soren Aaby Kierkegaard
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George Washington: Conscience
“Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience. ” George Washington
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Henley Gibble: Finishing
“Running the marathon gave me an inner strength that changed my life…just finishing can have a profound effect on your confidence and self-esteem.” ~Henley Gibble
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Lillian Hellman: Agreeable injustice?
“Since when do we have to agree with people to defend them from injustice?” -Lillian Hellman, playwright (1905-1984)
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Hermann Hesse: Sinister
“People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.” ~Herman Hesse.
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Arthur Baer: Good neighbour
“A good neighbour is a fellow who smiles at you over the back fence, but doesn’t climb over it.” ~Arthur Baer
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Margaret Chase Smith: Moral cowardice
“Moral cowardice that keeps us from speaking our minds is as dangerous to this country as irresponsible talk. The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character. ” Margaret Chase Smith
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Dagobert D. Runes: Common hatred, not common love
“Dictators long ago found out it is easier to unite people in common hatred than common love.” Dagobert D. Runes
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Grandpappy O'Donnell: Any fool can be happy…
“…any fool can be happy. It takes a man with real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep.” ~Grandpappy O’Donnell
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Salman Rushdie: Books
A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return. -Salman Rushdie, writer (b. 1947)
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Guy Debord: Quotations
Quotations are useful in periods of ignorance or obscurantist beliefs. —Guy Debord
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Henry Wadsworth: Sad, not cold
Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad. Henry Wadsworth
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Mandell Creighton: Doing good
“No people do so much harm as those who go about doing good. ” —Mandell Creighton.
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James Harrington: The Law
“The Law is but words and paper without the hands of swords of men. ” James Harrington
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Andy Rooney: Computers and paper
“Computers may save time but they sure waste a lot of paper. About 98 percent of everything printed out by a computer is garbage that no one ever reads. ” Andy Rooney
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Bradley Whitford: Life
“Life is too challenging for external rewards to sustain us. The joy is in the journey.”– Bradley Whitford, American actor.
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Oscar Wilde: Popularity
“Popularity is the one insult I have never suffered.” —Oscar Wilde.
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James Ramsey: Reason against unreason
“Never reason from what you do not know. If you do, you will soon believe what is utterly against reason.” James Ramsey
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Edmund Burke: Tolerance
“Toleration is good for all, or it is good for none.” ~Edmund Burke.
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Bob Marley: Corruption
If something can corrupt you, you’re corrupted already. ~Bob Marley
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Joyce Carol Oates: Being Alice
“I learned long ago that being Lewis Carroll was infinitely more exciting than being Alice.” —Joyce Carol Oates, writer (b. 1938).
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George Eliot: Certainty
“No great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty.” —George Eliot.
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Edward Koch: A clean bandage
“In a neighborhood, as in life, a clean bandage is much, much better than a raw or festering wound.” ~Edward Koch
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Plato: Poetry
“Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet. ” —Plato.
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David Jenkins: God
“No statement about God is simply, literally true. God is far more than can be measured, described, defined in ordinary language, or pinned down to any particular happening. ” David Jenkins
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Imagination without taste
“There is nothing more dreadful than imagination without taste. ” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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Ibycus: Friendship
“Contests allow no excuses, no more do friendships.” Ibycus
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Ruth Benedict: Happiest excitement
The happiest excitement in life is to be convinced that one is fighting for all one is worth on behalf of some clearly seen and deeply felt good, and against some greatly scorned evil. ~Ruth Benedict (1887–1948), U.S. anthropologist. An Anthropologist at Work, part 2 (1959).
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Sarah Caldwell: Learn everything you can
“Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can – there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did. ” Sarah Caldwell
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Samuel Johnson: Bellywise
“He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else. ” Samuel Johnson
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Bob Glover and Shelly-Lynn Florence Glover: Consistency and discipline
Consistency requires discipline. Force yourself out the door. Bob Glover and Shelly-Lynn Florence Glover, The Competitive Runner’s Handbook
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Francois Rabelais: Monk's habit
“A habit does not a monk make. ” Francois Rabelais
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Gilbert K. Chesterton: Familiar things, foreign nations
“What affects men sharply about a foreign nation is not so much finding or not finding familiar things; it is rather not finding them in the familiar place. ” Gilbert K. Chesterton
