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Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question,'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But,
conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must
take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must
take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right.
-  Martin Luther King Junior

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Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.
- James Russel Lovell, poet, editor, and diplomat (1819-1891) .

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Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well-ordered mind than a man's ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his
own company.
- Seneca, philosopher (BCE 3-65 CE)

The fire which enlightens is the same fire which consumes.
-Henri Frederic Amiel, philosopher and writer (1821-1881)


Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
-William James, psychologist (1842-1910)

Evil is like a shadow - it has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must
shine light on it.
-Shakti Gawain, teacher and author (b. 1948)


If you wish to be loved, show more of your faults than your virtues.
-Edward Bulwer-Lytton, author (1803-1873)


I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day; I'd rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way.
-Edgar Guest, poet (1881-1959)


If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
-Desmond Tutu, clergyman (b. 1931)


The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal.
-Erich Fromm, psychoanalyst and author (1900-1980)

160108

We have been told that all paths lead to truth ・you have your path as a Hindu and someone else has his path as a Christian and another as a Muslim, and they all meet at the same door ・which is, when you look at it, so obviously absurd.

Truth has no path, and that is the beauty of truth, it is living. A dead thing has a path to it because it is static,but when you see that truth is something living, moving, which has no resting place, which is in no temple, mosque or church, which no religion, no teacher, no philosopher, nobody can lead you to ・then you will also see that this living thing is what you actually are ・ your anger, your brutality, your violence, your despair, the agony and sorrow you live in. In the understanding of all this is the truth, and you can understand it only if you know how to look at those things in your life. And you cannot look through an ideology, through a screen of words, through hopes and fears.
- J. Krishnamurthy

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I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty.
-Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)

For money you can have everything it is said. No that is not true. You can buy food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; soft beds, but not sleep; knowledge but not intelligence; glitter, but not comfort; fun,but not pleasure; acquaintances, but not friendship; servants, but not faithfulness; grey hair, but not honor; quiet days, but not peace. The shell of all things you can get for money. But not the kernel. That cannot be had for money.
-Arne Garborg, writer (1851-1924)

X

Care more than others think wise;
Risk more than others think safe;
Dream more than others think practical;
Expect more than others think possible.


I have learnt that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
- Maya Angelou

I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may, - light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful
- John Constable

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Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.
-Michel De Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592)

The superior man must be watchful over himself when he is alone
- Confucius

“We must find the courage to leave our temples”, Ghosananda insisted, “and enter the suffering-filled temples of human experience.”
-- Preah Maha Ghosananda (The Gandhi of Cambodia)

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Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right.
-Carl Schurz, revolutionary, statesman and reformer (1829-1906)

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It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace.
-Andre Gide, author, Nobel laureate (1869-1951)

Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength.
-Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)

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Words are things; and a small drop of ink /
Falling like dew upon a thought, produces /
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.
-Lord Byron, (1788-1824)

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A hair in the head is worth two in the brush.
-Oliver Herford, writer and illustrator (1863-1935)


I've learned that if you pursue happiness, it will elude you. But if you focus on your family, the needs of others, your work, meeting new people, and doing the very best you can, happiness will find you.
Age 65

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Be like the bird, who halting in his flight /
On limb too slight, /
Feels it give way beneath him, yet sings /
Knowing he has wings.
-Victor Hugo, writer (1802-1885)

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A half-truth is a whole lie.
-Yiddish proverb

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You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.
-Ronald Searle, artist (1920- )

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We shall succeed only so far as we continue that most distasteful of all activity, the intolerable labor of thought.
-Learned Hand, jurist (1872-1961)

The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.
-Salvador Dali, painter (1904-1989)


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The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely.
-Lorraine Hansberry, playwright and painter (1930-1965)

"The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets
painful is the man who will win."
- Roger Bannister

"Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking of yourself at all"
--- William Temple, 98th Archbishop of Canterbury

Virtues of Dishonesty

These are from an article by Shoba Narayan in the Lounge-Mint, of 20 October 2007

"Pretty much all the truth-telling in the world is done by children"
- Oliver Wendell

"People who are brutally honest get more satisfaction from brutality than from honesty."

Happiness Quotes

Abd Er-Rahman III of Spain (960 C.E.):
I have now reigned about 50 years in victory or peace, beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to have been wanting to my felicity. In this situation, I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot. They amount to fourteen.

Albert Schweitzer:
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

Anne Frank:
The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be andthat God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature.

Aristotle:
Happiness belongs to the self-sufficient

Carl Jung:
There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

Edward de Bono:
Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations.

Helen Keller:
Happiness cannot come from without. It must come from within. It is not what we see and touch or that which others do for us which makes us happy; it is that which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow and then for ourselves.

Helen Keller:
When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.

James Oppenheim:
The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet