Favorite Inspirational Quotes

Six Mistakes of Man
-The illusion that personal gain is made up of crushing others.
-The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected.
-Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it.
-Refusing to set aside trivial preferences.
-Neglecting development and refinement of the mind, and not acquiring the habit of reading and study.
-Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

-This comes from operating on the competitive plane. As Wallace Wattles says, we must endeavor to act on the creative plane and the Universe will move with us. Nothing is ever lastingly made by tearing down others. It is negative and destructive (yes, this is a judgment). Act positively. Support others positively. The whole world cold change before your eyes.

-If an act is in the past, I cannot correct it, so why worry about it? If I have no control over it, whatever it may be, and therefore cannot change it, there is no sense worrying about it. All this does is cause me sleepless nights, heartburn or an upset stomach. It is simply wasted energy. What I use when I realize I am doing this is a simple shouted , “STOP!” (mostly in my head to myself unless no one is around). That gives me time to realize I cannot not change or correct the thing, so think about something else that I can work on.

-Perhaps the word “now” should be added to this statement. It simply could be we personally need more knowledge or training. The thing could require someone else to look at it and do it. It could simply require some time to pass allowing society to change enough to make it possible. Or new technological or scientific advances must be made to make a thing possible. Allow for possibilities however improbable you may think them.

-I have a preference for hamburgers. Better yet, cheeseburgers. Yet if I refuse to set aside this preference, I will fill my body with chemicals and other unhealthy things (unless I know precisely where the meat and all ingredients are from and how raised). Eating them every day will keep me from being healthy and I will always be fat. (And no, I don’t eat burgers every day.) Sometimes accomplishing a great purpose, which could be considered great only to me, may require setting aside small comforts and preferences. I can give up TV time to study or build websites. However, my question - is allowing my fears to run me “refusing to set aside trivial preferences?” Are my fears and reluctance trivial? I guess that depends upon just how much I really want my goals. Most fears are simply the product of an active imagination anyway and will not come true.

-I did a speech once for Toastmasters on life long learning. In it I discussed the illiteracy rate in the USA. I was astounded at the results. But even more amazing to me was the fact that most people, once they graduate from school, read less than one book a year. Damn! If that isn’t “neglecting the development and refinement of the mind”, I don’t know what is. I myself read…a lot. So do my spouse and son. We are life long learners. But I am not sure that I have really studied what I have read most of the time. Doing this journal is helping greatly. Perhaps writing a book report, an idea I read about elsewhere, on each nonfiction book I read is the way to go. I used to take notes. It’s time to start that again and create a report which will be a distillation of what I learn in each book. Better yet would be making sure I take at least one action from each book, if possible, and add it to my life.

-One thing I truly believe is we are each here to experience what the physical universe, this time and space, allows us to experience. We have chosen, and continue to chose, what we experience on this grand adventure into time and space. Who, then, am I to try to compel someone else to not experience what they have chosen regardless of how little I understand of the life they have decided to live? All I can do is offer the paint brushes and paint. It is up to them to paint their picture upon the canvas.