Monday, September 13, 2010

Gordon B. Hinckley

Criticism and pessimism destroy families, undermine institutions of all kinds, defeat nearly everyone, and spread a shroud of gloom over entire nations.

Our lives are the only meaningful expression of what we believe and in Whom we believe. And the only real wealth, for any of us, lies in our faith.

Respect for self is the beginning of cultivating virtue in men and women.

Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

jack welch

An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.

Be candid with everyone.

Change before you have to.

Control your own destiny or someone else will.

Don't manage - lead change before you have to.

Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be.

Giving people self-confidence is by far the most important thing that I can do. Because then they will act.

Globalization has changed us into a company that searches the world, not just to sell or to source, but to find intellectual capital - the world's best talents and greatest ideas.

I've learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success.

If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete.

If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it you almost don't have to manage them.

My main job was developing talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course, I had to pull out some weeds, too.

Strong managers who make tough decisions to cut jobs provide the only true job security in today's world. Weak managers are the problem. Weak managers destroy jobs.

The essence of competitiveness is liberated when we make people believe that what they think and do is important - and then get out of their way while they do it.

The team with the best players wins.

Friday, September 10, 2010

orville wright

A sudden dart when a little over a hundred feet from the end of the track, or a little over 120 feet from the point at which it rose into the air, ended the flight.

If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope of advance.

Isn't it astonishing that all these secrets have been preserved for so many years just so we could discover them!

No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris.

The ability to do this so quickly was largely due to the enthusiastic and efficient services of Mr. C.E. Taylor, who did all the machine work in our shop for the first as well as the succeeding experimental machines.

The airplane stays up because it doesn't have the time to fall.

The course of the flight up and down was exceedingly erratic, partly due to the irregularity of the air, and partly to lack of experience in handling this machine. The control of the front rudder was difficult on account of its being balanced too near the center.

We left Dayton, September 23, and arrived at our camp at Kill Devil Hill on Friday, the 25th.

We were then satisfied that, with proper lubrication and better adjustments, a little more power could be expected. The completion of the motor according to drawing was, therefore, proceeded with at once.

With all the knowledge and skill acquired in thousands of flights in the last ten years, I would hardly think today of making my first flight on a strange machine in a twenty-seven mile wind, even if I knew that the machine had already been flown and was safe.

With twelve horse power at our command, we considered that we could permit the weight of the machine with operator to rise to 750 or 800 pounds, and still have as much surplus power as we had originally allowed for in the first estimate of 550 pounds.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

thomas a. edison

Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.

Be courageous. I have seen many depressions in business. Always America has emerged from these stronger and more prosperous. Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith! Go forward!

Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.

Discontent is the first necessity of progress.

Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.

Great ideas originate in the muscles.

Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.

His genius he was quite content in one brief sentence to define; Of inspiration one percent, of perspiration, ninety nine.

I find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success.

I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

I know this world is ruled by infinite intelligence. Everything that surrounds us- everything that exists - proves that there are infinite laws behind it. There can be no denying this fact. It is mathematical in its precision.

I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun.

I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.

I start where the last man left off.

If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.

It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.

Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

Maturity is often more absurd than youth and very frequently is most unjust to youth.

Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged.

Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.

One might think that the money value of an invention constitutes its reward to the man who loves his work. But... I continue to find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress.

Restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.

Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work.

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.

The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.

The body is a community made up of its innumerable cells or inhabitants.

The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around.

The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work.

The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: Hard work, Stick-to-itiveness, and Common sense.

The value of an idea lies in the using of it.

There is far more opportunity than there is ability.

There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.

There is no substitute for hard work.

There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so absolutely terrifying, that even man, the fighter, who will dare torture and death in order to inflict torture and death, will be appalled, and so abandon war forever.

There's a way to do it better - find it.

They say President Wilson has blundered. Perhaps he has, but I notice he usually blunders forward.

To have a great idea, have a lot of them.

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.

To my mind the old masters are not art; their value is in their scarcity.

Waste is worse than loss. The time is coming when every person who lays claim to ability will keep the question of waste before him constantly. The scope of thrift is limitless.

We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.

What a man's mind can create, man's character can control.

What you are will show in what you do.

When I have fully decided that a result is worth getting I go ahead of it and make trial after trial until it comes.

Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

ina's kitchen essentials

Kitchen Essentials
INA GARTEN, cookbook author


A GOOD SET OF SHARP KNIVES by Wüsthof, including a chef's knife, a paring knife, a slicing knife, and a bread knife

ALL-CLAD POTS: small and large sauté pans, small and large lidded pots, and a large stockpot

ONE LARGE ALL-CLAD ROASTING PAN. You can make something small in a big one, but you can't make something big in a small one.

One medium and one large LE CREUSET ROUND DUTCH OVEN

I cannot imagine not having my KITCHENAID MIXER K45

Ditto my CUISINART PRO CUSTOM 11 FOOD PROCESSOR, with its slightly bigger bowl

A set of STAINLESS-STEEL MIXING BOWLS (try a restaurant supply house). I also have a set of 10 clear glass bowls that you can get at Williams-Sonoma for about $38 — the best value in the world.

On the counter, I have a big pot of WOODEN SPOONS AND RUBBER SPATULAS

I have another pot with WHISKS AND MEASURING SPOONS. All available from a restaurant supply place — they shouldn't be fancy.

A CHEF'S CHOICE ELECTRIC KNIFE SHARPENER

A BOOS BUTCHER BLOCK CUTTING BOARD

A MEAT THERMOMETER

For potholders, I use BLACK OVEN MITTS

A stack of HALF SHEET PANS. They're about 13" x 18" each with a one-inch rim. I use them for roasting vegetables, baking cookies and brownies, and lots of other tasks.

a word of advice to the wives of men

"You have it within your power to send your husband away to his work or his business or his profession each day with a feeling of Self-confidence that will carry him successfully over the rough spots of the day and bring him home again, at night, smiling and happy....

"No one can foretell the possibilities of achievement available to the man whose wife stands at his back and urges him on to bigger and better endeavor, for it is a well-known fact that a woman can arouse a man so that he will perform almost superhuman feats. It is your right and your duty to encourage your husband and urge him on in worthy undertakings until he shall have found his place in the world. You can induce him to put forth greater effort than can any other person in the world. Make him believe that nothing within reason is beyond his power of achievement and you will have rendered him a service that will go a long way toward helping him win in the battle of life."

~ Napoleon Hill ~
The Law of Success

thoughts are things

"I hold it true that thoughts are things;
They're endowed with bodies and breath and wings;
And that we send them forth to fill
The world with good results or ill.
That which we call our secret thought
Speeds forth to earth's remotest spot,
Leaving its blessings or its woes,
Like tracks behind it as it goes.
We build our future, thought by thought,
For good or ill, yet know it not,
Yet so the universe was wrought.
Thought is another name for fate;
Choose, then, thy destiny and wait,
For love brings love and hate brings hate."

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

bill gates

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.

At Microsoft there are lots of brilliant ideas but the image is that they all come from the top - I'm afraid that's not quite right.

Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.

I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot.

If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1000 MPG.

If I'd had some set idea of a finish line, don't you think I would have crossed it years ago?

Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana.

It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.

Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself.

Life is not fair; get used to it.

Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.

Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Until we're educating every kid in a fantastic way, until every inner city is cleaned up, there is no shortage of things to do.

We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction.


We've got to put a lot of money into changing behavior.

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.

Monday, September 6, 2010

warren buffett

A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.

Beware of geeks bearing formulas.

Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.

I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.

I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.

I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.

If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.

If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.

It's better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you'll drift in that direction.

It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.

Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.

Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.

Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars.

Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.

Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked.

Our favorite holding period is forever.

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.

Risk is a part of God's game, alike for men and nations.

Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.

Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.

Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.

The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule.

The investor of today does not profit from yesterday's growth.

The only time to buy these is on a day with no "y" in it.

The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. For to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves-and the better the teacher, the better the student body.

There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.

Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.

Value is what you get.

Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.

We believe that according the name 'investors' to institutions that trade actively is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a 'romantic.'

We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.

We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.

When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.

When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results.

Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like? As Mae West said, "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful".

Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.

You do things when the opportunities come along. I've had periods in my life when I've had a bundle of ideas come along, and I've had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I'll do something. If not, I won't do a damn thing.

You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.

Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it's not going to get the business.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Joseph Smith, Jr.

All your losses will be made up to you in the resurrection, provided you continue faithful. By the vision of the Almighty I have seen it.

Although I do wrong, I do not the wrongs that I am charged with doing; the wrong that I do is through the frailty of human nature, like other men. No man lives without fault.

Every man who has a calling to minister to the inhabitants of the world was ordained to that very purpose in the Grand Council of heaven before this world was. I suppose I was ordained to this very office in that Grand Council.

I am not learned, but I have as good feelings as any man.

I could explain a hundred fold more than I ever have of the glories of the kingdoms manifested to me in the vision, were I permitted, and were the people prepared to receive them.

I see no faults in the Church, and therefore let me be resurrected with the Saints, whether I ascend to heaven or descend to hell, or go to any other place. And if we go to hell, we will turn the devils out of doors and make a heaven of it.

I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.

If I had not actually got into this work and been called of God, I would back out. But I cannot back out: I have no doubt of the truth.

If I revealed all that has been made known to me, scarcely a man on this stand would stay with me." and "Brethren, if I were to tell you all I know of the kingdom of God, I do know that you would rise up and kill me.

If my life is of no value to my friends it is of none to myself.

If you do not accuse each other, God will not accuse you. If you have no accuser you will enter heaven. What many people call sin is not sin; I do many things to break down superstition, and I will break it down.

If you will stay with the majority of the Twelve Apostles, and the records of the Church, you will never be led astray.

In your hands or that of any other person, so much power would, no doubt, be dangerous. I am the only man in the world whom it would be safe to trust with it. Remember, I am a prophet!

It is my meditation all the day, and more than my meat and drink, to know how I shall make the Saints of God comprehend the visions that roll like an overflowing surge before my mind.

Mormonism is the pure doctrine of Jesus Christ; of which I myself am not ashamed.

Never be discouraged. If I were sunk in the lowest pits of Nova Scotia, with the Rocky Mountains piled on me, I would hang on, exercise faith, and keep up good courage, and I would come out on top.

No one can ever enter the celestial kingdom unless he is strictly honest.

Noah came before the flood. I have come before the fire.

One of the grand fundamental principles of Mormonism is to receive truth, let it come from whence it may.

Salvation cannot come without revelation. Men of the present time testify of heaven and hell, and have never seen either; and I will say that no man knows these things without this.

Take away the Book of Mormon and the revelations, and where is our religion? We have none.

The best way to obtain truth and wisdom is not to ask from books, but to go to God in prayer, and obtain divine teaching.

The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead.

There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes. We cannot see it, but when our bodies are purified, we shall see that it is all matter.

Truth is Mormonism. God is the author of it.

We may come to Jesus and ask Him; He will know all about it; if He comes to a little child, he will adapt himself to the language and capacity of a little child.

What is the damnation of hell? To go with that society who have not obeyed His commands.

Friday, September 3, 2010

henry ford

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.

A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.

A market is never saturated with a good product, but it is very quickly saturated with a bad one.

An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous.

Any colour - so long as it's black.

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.

As we advance in life we learn the limits of our abilities.

Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.

Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets.

Capital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty.

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.

Competition is the keen cutting edge of business, always shaving away at costs.

Don't find fault, find a remedy.

Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes shine to the stars. Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes, the swing in your gait. The grip of your hand, the irresistible surge of will and energy to execute your ideas.

Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement.

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.

History is more or less bunk.

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can't be done.

I believe God is managing affairs and that He doesn't need any advice from me. With God in charge, I believe everything will work out for the best in the end. So what is there to worry about.

I cannot discover that anyone knows enough to say definitely what is and what is not possible.

I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night.

If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.

If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own.

If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right.

It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.

It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.

It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.

Money is like an arm or leg - use it or lose it.

Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.

My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.

Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.

One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do.

Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.

Speculation is only a word covering the making of money out of the manipulation of prices, instead of supplying goods and services.

The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.

The highest use of capital is not to make more money, but to make money do more for the betterment of life.

The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.

The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.

There are no big problems, there are just a lot of little problems.

There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.

There is no man living that can not do more than he thinks he can.

There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible.

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.

Time and money spent in helping men to do more for themselves is far better than mere giving.

We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's dam is the history we make today.

Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly. It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service.

What's right about America is that although we have a mess of problems, we have great capacity - intellect and resources - to do some thing about them.

Whatever you have, you must either use or lose.

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.

Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.

You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.

You can't learn in school what the world is going to do next year.

You will find men who want to be carried on the shoulders of others, who think that the world owes them a living. They don't seem to see that we must all lift together and pull together.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

andrew carnegie

Aim for the highest.

All honor's wounds are self-inflicted.

And while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.

As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.

Concentrate your energies, your thoughts and your capital. The wise man puts all his eggs in one basket and watches the basket.

Concentration is my motto - first honesty, then industry, then concentration.

Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best.

Do your duty and a little more and the future will take care of itself.

Every act you have ever performed since the day you were born was performed because you wanted something.

He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that dare not is a slave.

I shall argue that strong men, conversely, know when to compromise and that all principles can be compromised to serve a greater principle.

Immense power is acquired by assuring yourself in your secret reveries that you were born to control affairs.

Mr. Morgan buys his partners; I grow my own.

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.

No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.

People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.

Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community.

The 'morality of compromise' sounds contradictory. Compromise is usually a sign of weakness, or an admission of defeat. Strong men don't compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised.

The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%.

The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.

The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.

The men who have succeeded are men who have chosen one line and stuck to it.

The way to become rich is to put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket.

There is little success where there is little laughter.

There is no class so pitiably wretched as that which possesses money and nothing else.

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!

Whatever I engage in, I must push inordinately.

You cannot push anyone up the ladder unless he is willing to climb.

You must capture and keep the heart of the original and supremely able man before his brain can do its best.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

albert einstein

A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.

A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem.

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.

A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?

A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?

All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.

An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.

Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.

Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.

As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.

Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems, in my opinion, to characterize our age.

Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.

Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.

Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler.

Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.

Force always attracts men of low morality.

God always takes the simplest way.

God does not play dice.

God may be subtle, but he isn't plain mean.

Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.

He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.

Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.

I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.

I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.

I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.

I shall never believe that God plays dice with the world.

I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.

I want to know all Gods thoughts; all the rest are just details.


If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.

If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.

If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?

If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.

If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.

In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must above all be a sheep oneself.

Information is not knowledge.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.

Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.

Isn't it strange that I who have written only unpopular books should be such a popular fellow?

It gives me great pleasure indeed to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed.

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

It is only to the individual that a soul is given.

It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.

It should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid.

It stands to the everlasting credit of science that by acting on the human mind it has overcome man's insecurity before himself and before nature.


It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.

Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift.

Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.

Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

Love is a better teacher than duty.

Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events.

Morality is of the highest importance - but for us, not for God.

Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone.

Most people say that is it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.

Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.

Never lose a holy curiosity.

No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.

Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.

Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.

One may say the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.


Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.

Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.

People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results.

Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity.

Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it.

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds.

Solitude is painful when one is young, but delightful when one is more mature.

Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.

That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.

The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

The environment is everything that isn't me.

The faster you go, the shorter you are.

The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead.

The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.

The grand aim of all science is to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms.

The hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax.

The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.

The only real valuable thing is intuition.

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.

The only source of knowledge is experience.

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.

The process of scientific discovery is, in effect, a continual flight from wonder.

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.

The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.

The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.

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.

There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.

There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there.


There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance.

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.

To the Master's honor all must turn, each in its track, without a sound, forever tracing Newton's ground.

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.

True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness.

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.

We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings.

We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.

We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.

When the solution is simple, God is answering.

When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity.

Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.

Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.

You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I've only ever had one.

You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.

You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.

Monday, August 30, 2010

viktor e. frankl

A human being is a deciding being.

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

Challenging the meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human.

Each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.

Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated, thus, everyone's task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it.

Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

Fear may come true that which one is afraid of.

For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment.

I recommend that the Statue of Liberty be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the west coast.

Life can be pulled by goals just as surely as it can be pushed by drives.

Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.

The last of human freedoms - the ability to chose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances.

Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked.

What is to give light must endure burning.

When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

maxwell maltz

Accept yourself as you are. Otherwise you will never see opportunity. You will not feel free to move toward it; you will feel you are not deserving.

Close scrutiny will show that most "crisis situations" are opportunities to either advance, or stay where you are.

For imagination sets the goal picture which our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of will, as is so commonly believed, but because of imagination.

If you make friends with yourself you will never be alone.

Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on.

Man maintains his balance, poise, and sense of security only as he is moving forward.

Often the difference between a successful man and a failure is not one's better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on his ideas, to take a calculated risk, and to act.

Our self image, strongly held, essentially determines what we become.

Realizing that our actions, feelings and behaviour are the result of our own images and beliefs gives us the level that psychology has always needed for changing personality.

Remember you will not always win. Some days, the most resourceful individual will taste defeat. But there is, in this case, always tomorrow - after you have done your best to achieve success today.

Self-image sets the boundaries of individual accomplishment.

Self-improvement is the name of the game, and your primary objective is to strengthen yourself, not to destroy an opponent.

Take the trouble to stop and think of the other person's feelings, his viewpoints, his desires and needs. Think more of what the other fellow wants, and how he must feel.

The "self-image" is the key to human personality and human behavior. Change the self image and you change the personality and the behavior.

To change a habit, make a conscious decision, then act out the new behavior.

To think, when one is no longer young, when one is not yet old, that one is no longer young, that one is not yet old, that is perhaps something.

We are built to conquer environment, solve problems, achieve goals, and we find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve.

We must have courage to bet on our ideas, to take the calculated risk, and to act. Everyday living requires courage if life is to be effective and bring happiness.

You can always find the sun within yourself if you will only search.

You make mistakes. Mistakes don't make you.

You may live in an imperfect world but the frontiers are not closed and the doors are not all shut.

Your most important sale in life is to sell yourself to yourself.

Friday, August 27, 2010

napoleon hill

A goal is a dream with a deadline.

Action is the real measure of intelligence.

All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea.

All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination, Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth.

Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.

Before success comes in any man's life, he's sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That's exactly what the majority of men do.

Big pay and little responsibility are circumstances seldom found together.

Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.

Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action.

Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.

Don't wait. The time will never be just right.

Edison failed 10, 000 times before he made the electric light. Do not be discouraged if you fail a few times.

Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought.

Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.

Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win - essential to success.

Everyone enjoys doing the kind of work for which he is best suited.

Fears are nothing more than a state of mind.

First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.

Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.

Happiness is found in doing, not merely possessing.

Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind's eye, and you will be drawn toward it.

Ideas are the beginning points of all fortunes.

If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.

If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.

If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it, write it in the sand near the water's edge.

It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving or the class of people served.

It is always your next move.

It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.

It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project.

Just as our eyes need light in order to see, our minds need ideas in order to conceive.

Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true.

Money without brains is always dangerous.

More gold has been mined from the thoughts of men than has been taken from the earth.

Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.

Nature cannot be tricked or cheated. She will give up to you the object of your struggles only after you have paid her price.

No accurate thinker will judge another person by that which the other person's enemies say about him.

No man can succeed in a line of endeavor which he does not like.

No man ever achieved worth-while success who did not, at one time or other, find himself with at least one foot hanging well over the brink of failure.

No man is ever whipped until he quits in his own mind.

One must marry one's feelings to one's beliefs and ideas. That is probably the only way to achieve a measure of harmony in one's life.

Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.

Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel.

Procrastination is the bad habit of putting of until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.

Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire.

Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.

Success in its highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which come only to the man who has found the work that he likes best.

The battle is all over except the "shouting" when one knows what is wanted and has made up his mind to get it, whatever the price may be.

The best way to sell yourself to others is first to sell the others to yourself.

The ladder of success is never crowded at the top.

The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.

The man who does more than he is paid for will soon be paid for more than he does.

The most interesting thing about a postage stamp is the persistence with which it sticks to its job.

The starting point of all achievement is desire.

The way to develop decisiveness is to start right where you are, with the very next question you face.

The world has the habit of making room for the man whose actions show that he knows where he is going.

There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.

There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.

Think and grow rich.

Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.

Understand this law and you will then know, beyond room for the slightest doubt, that you are constantly punishing yourself for every wrong you commit and rewarding yourself for every act of constructive conduct in which you indulge.

Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting.


War grows out of the desire of the individual to gain advantage at the expense of his fellow man.

We begin to see, therefore, the importance of selecting our environment with the greatest of care, because environment is the mental feeding ground out of which the food that goes into our minds is extracted.

When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.

When your desires are strong enough you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve.

Wise men, when in doubt whether to speak or to keep quiet, give themselves the benefit of the doubt, and remain silent.

You can start right where you stand and apply the habit of going the extra mile by rendering more service and better service than you are now being paid for.

You give before you get.

You might well remember that nothing can bring you success but yourself.

Your ability to use the principle of autosuggestion will depend, very largely, upon your capacity to concentrate upon a given desire until that desire becomes a burning obsession.

Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.

anais nin

Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age.

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

Anxiety is love's greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic.

Do not seek the because - in love there is no because, no reason, no explanation, no solutions.

Dreams are necessary to life.

Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living.

Each contact with a human being is so rare, so precious, one should preserve it.

Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.

Good things happen to those who hustle.

How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself.

I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing.

I will not be just a tourist in the world of images, just watching images passing by which I cannot live in, make love to, possess as permanent sources of joy and ecstasy.

I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naive or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman.

If all of us acted in unison as I act individually there would be no wars and no poverty. I have made myself personally responsible for the fate of every human being who has come my way.

If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it.

It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.

It's all right for a woman to be, above all, human. I am a woman first of all.

Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.

Life is truly known only to those who suffer, lose, endure adversity and stumble from defeat to defeat.

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.

Living never wore one out so much as the effort not to live.

Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.

My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living.

Our life is composed greatly from dreams, from the unconscious, and they must be brought into connection with action. They must be woven together.

People living deeply have no fear of death.

The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle.

The only abnormality is the incapacity to love.

The personal life deeply lived always expands into truths beyond itself.

The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.

The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say.

There are many ways to be free. One of them is to transcend reality by imagination, as I try to do.

There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.

There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.

Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.

Truth is something which can't be told in a few words. Those who simplify the universe only reduce the expansion of its meaning.

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls.

What I cannot love, I overlook. Is that real friendship?

When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.

When you make a world tolerable for yourself, you make a world tolerable for others.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

paul coelho

Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.

Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.


Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.

The two worst strategic mistakes to make are acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes or other people's opinions.

We have to stop and be humble enough to understand that there is something called mystery.

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It's just a matter of paying attention to this miracle.

You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it.

You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

antoine de saint-exupery

A civilization is built on what is required of men, not on that which is provided for them.

And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.

For true love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have. And if you go to draw at the true fountainhead, the more water you draw, the more abundant is its flow.

I have no right, by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him; it is what he thinks of himself. To undermine a man's self-respect is a sin.

I know but one freedom, and that is the freedom of the mind.

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

Life has meaning only if one barters it day by day for something other than itself.

Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward in the same direction.

Only he can understand what a farm is, what a country is, who shall have sacrificed part of himself to his farm or country, fought to save it, struggled to make it beautiful. Only then will the love of farm or country fill his heart.

Tell me who admires and loves you, and I will tell you who you are.

The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them.

The one thing that matters is the effort.

The time for action is now. It's never too late to do something.

To be a man is, precisely, to be responsible.

True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

love & marriage

“The sum which two married people owe to one another defies calculation. It is an infinite debt, which can only be discharged through all eternity.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Ask the child why it is born; ask the flower why it blossoms; ask the sun why it shines. I love you because I must love you.” 
~ George P. Upton

“Marriage is ever made by destiny.” 
~ George Chapman

“Two human loves make one divine.” ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

“A happy marriage is a new beginning of life, a new starting point for happiness and usefulness.” ~ Dean Stanley

“There is nothing half so sweet in life
As love's young dream.” 
~ Thomas Moore

“Grace and remembrance be to you both.” 
~ William Shakespeare

“One should believe in marriage as in the immortality of the soul.” 
~ Honore de Balzac

“Whatever souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” ~ Emily Bronte

“Happy and thrice happy are those who enjoy an uninterrupted union, and whose love, unbroken by any sour complaints, shall not dissolve until the last day of their existence.
” ~ Horace

“He is the half part of a blessed man


Left to be finished by such as she:


And she a fair divided excellence


Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.
”

~ William Shakespeare

“Heaven give you many, many merry days.” 
~ William Shakespeare

“For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke


"After all, what was more important, in the end, than love?" ~ Stephanie Meyer

“You are my life. You're the only thing it would hurt to lose.” ~ Stephanie Meyer

“I promise to love you forever - every single day of forever.” ~ Stephanie Meyer

“If I could dream at all it would be about you. And I'm not ashamed of it.” ~ Stephanie Meyer

“A heart that loves is always young. ” ~ Greek Proverb

“I love you, not for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.” ~ Roy Croft

“As we grow older together, As we continue to change with age, There is one thing that will never change. . . I will always keep falling in love with you.” ~ Karen Klodfelder

“Give her two red roses, each with a note. The first note says For the woman I love and the second, For my best friend.” ~ Unknown

“This day I will marry my friend, the one I laugh with, live for, dream with, love.” ~ Anonymous

“If rain drops were kisses,I could send you showers. if hugs were seas i send you oceans. and if love was a person i send you me!!” ~ ally qwerty

“To the world you are one person, but to one person you are the world.” ~ unknown

“If I know what love is, it is because of you.” ~ Herman Hesse

“Grow old along with me the best is yet to be.” ~ Robert Browning

“Love is much like a wild rose, beautiful and calm, but willing to draw blood in its defense.“ ~ Mark Overby

“Love is a gift from God, and as we obey His laws and genuinely learn to serve others, we develop God's love in our lives. Love of God is the means of unlocking divine powers which help us to live worthily and to overcome the world.” ~ David B. Haight

“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever.” ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

“You know you're in love when reality is finally better than your dreams.” ~ Unknown

“The most precious possession that ever comes to a man in this world is a woman's heart.” ~ Josiah G. Holland

“Patience with others is Love, Patience with self is Hope, Patience with God is Faith.” ~ Adel Bestavros

“Boys are like stars, there are millions of them out there, bbut only one can make your dreams come true.” ~ Courtney Conner

“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” ~ Robert Heinlein

“A heart that loves is always young. ” ~ Greek Proverb

“As we grow older together, As we continue to change with age, There is one thing that will never change. . . I will always keep falling in love with you.” ~ Karen Klodfelder

The best thing about me is you.” ~ Shannon Crown

“Give her two red roses, each with a note. The first note says For the woman I love and the second, For my best friend.” ~ Unknown


Saturday, August 21, 2010

the living christ

THE LIVING CHRIST
THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES

THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS

Flourish image for decoration

As we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ two millennia ago, we offer our testimony of the reality of His matchless life and the infinite virtue of His great atoning sacrifice. None other has had so profound an influence upon all who have lived and will yet live upon the earth.

He was the Great Jehovah of the Old Testament, the Messiah of the New. Under the direction of His Father, He was the creator of the earth. "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:3). Though sinless, He was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. He "went about doing good" (Acts 10:38), yet was despised for it. His gospel was a message of peace and goodwill. He entreated all to follow His example. He walked the roads of Palestine, healing the sick, causing the blind to see, and raising the dead. He taught the truths of eternity, the reality of our premortal existence, the purpose of our life on earth, and the potential for the sons and daughters of God in the life to come.

He instituted the sacrament as a reminder of His great atoning sacrifice. He was arrested and condemned on spurious charges, convicted to satisfy a mob, and sentenced to die on Calvary's cross. He gave His life to atone for the sins of all mankind. His was a great vicarious gift in behalf of all who would ever live upon the earth.

We solemnly testify that His life, which is central to all human history, neither began in Bethlehem nor concluded on Calvary. He was the Firstborn of the Father, the Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Redeemer of the world.

He rose from the grave to "become the firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Corinthians 15:20). As Risen Lord, He visited among those He had loved in life. He also ministered among His "other sheep" (John 10:16) in ancient America. In the modern world, He and His Father appeared to the boy Joseph Smith, ushering in the long-promised "dispensation of the fulness of times" (Ephesians 1:10).

Of the Living Christ, the Prophet Joseph wrote: "His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters, even the voice of Jehovah, saying:

"I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father" (D&C 110:3–4).

Of Him the Prophet also declared: "And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!

"For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father—

"That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God" (D&C 76:22–24).

We declare in words of solemnity that His priesthood and His Church have been restored upon the earth—"built upon the foundation of . . . apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone" (Ephesians 2:20).

We testify that He will someday return to earth. "And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together" (Isaiah 40:5). He will rule as King of Kings and reign as Lord of Lords, and every knee shall bend and every tongue shall speak in worship before Him. Each of us will stand to be judged of Him according to our works and the desires of our hearts.

We bear testimony, as His duly ordained Apostles—that Jesus is the Living Christ, the immortal Son of God. He is the great King Immanuel, who stands today on the right hand of His Father. He is the light, the life, and the hope of the world. His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come. God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son.

THE FIRST PRESIDENCY THE QUORUM OF THE TWELVE
Image of the signatures of the First Presidency Image of the signatures of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

January 1, 2000