Rayden Tron’s Inspiration Page

Lightning Strikes Again!

Pic courtesy of David O. Stillings

Where there is no vision, the people perish.

Whenever my emotional batteries get run down I turn to collecting uplifting, enlightening quotes. When the sun forgets to rise on me, I whip them out and recharge. Then the thought hit me: such wisdom doesn’t do anyone else any good sitting in a drawer during my good times. So, here are some of my favorites. Enjoy. Feel free to contribute your favorites. (E-mail them to rayden@erols.com. Nothing sectarian, please. There are plenty of other places to promote religious beliefs.)


From Ann Landers’ column:

The difference between Winners and Whiners is – The Whiner says, "I don’t know, and I’m sure nobody else does either." The Winner says, "Let’s find out."
When a Whiner makes a mistake, he says, "It wasn’t my fault." When a Winner makes a mistake, he says, "I’m responsible and I’m going to see what can be done to set things right."
When a Winner makes a commitment, he honors it. When a Whiner makes a promise, he keeps it if he doesn’t change his mind.
A Winner feels responsible for more than his job calls for. A Whiner says, "That’s not my department."
A Winner says, "There ought to be a better way to do it." A Whiner says, "That’s the way it’s always been done. Why change?"
A Winner paces himself and rarely bites off more than he can chew. A Whiner has only two speeds – hysterical and lethargic.
A Winner says, "I could be a lot better, and I’m going to try to improve." The Whiner says, "I’m not as bad as a lot of other people."

Submit to pressure from your peers and you move down to their level.
Speak up for your own beliefs and you invite them up to your level.
If you move with the crowd, you’ll get no further than the crowd.
When 40 million people believe in a dumb idea, it’s still a dumb idea.
Simply swimming with the tide leaves you nowhere.
So if you believe in something that’s good, honest, and bright, stand up for it.
Maybe your peers will get smart and drift your way.

Take time to work,
It is the price of success.
Take time to think,
It is the source of power.
Take time to play,
It is the secret of perpetual youth.
Take time to read,
It is the foundation of wisdom.
Take time to be friendly,
It is the road to happiness.
Take time to love and be loved,
It is the privilege of the gods.
Take time to share,
Time is too short to be selfish.
Take time to laugh,
Laughter is the music of the soul.

"Love is that condition in which the happiness of someone else is essential to your own."

"What matters today is not the difference between those who believe and those who do not believe, but the difference between those who care and those who don’t."

"The biggest human temptation is...to settle for too little."

"Where the heart is willing, it will find a thousand ways; where it is unwilling, it will find a thousand excuses."

"One of the lessons of history is that NOTHING is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say."

"While the early bird gets the worm, it is the second mouse that gets the cheese."

For Personal Strength and Vision:

"Those of us who do not push the envelope on a consistent basis risk being relegated to licking it."

"You cannot achieve the impossible without attempting the absurd."

"If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing you’re probably right."

"If rejection destroys your self-esteem, you’re letting others hold you as an emotional hostage."

"It’s not what you are that holds you back, it’s what you think you are not."

"When our center is strong, everything else is secondary."

"If you don’t run your own life, somebody else will."

"As he thinketh in his heart, so is he."

"It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head."

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

"Everyone should carefully observe which way his heart draws him, and then choose that way with all his strength."

"He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how."

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their own dreams."

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar."

"Do not believe in miracles, rely on them."

"The pessimist sees difficulties in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunities in every difficulty."

"When you are going through hell, keep going."

"Glory gives herself only to those who dream of her."

"If one advances confidently in the direction of their dreams and endeavors to lead a life which they have imagined, they will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

"The true joy in life [is] being used for a purpose that is a mighty one...being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy."

"The best happiness is dependent on two things - the knowledge that one is growing and the feeling that one is doing good to others."

"Never lose hope in your dreams. For without dreams, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly."

Bits of Truth and Personal Favorites:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

"What is right is often forgotten by what is convenient."

"My experience of the world is that things left to themselves don't get right."

"America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination, and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand."

"Excellence is a responsibility. And 'modesty', both false and real, is just a way of trying to shirk that responsibility."

"Freedom does not just mean doing what you want without harming others. It means engaging in the wider collective endeavor of shaping our society."

"Today the world is the victim of propaganda because people are not intellectually competent.More than anything the United States of America needs effective citizens competent to do their own thinking."

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat...

"It is only through strife, through hard and dangerous endeavor, that we shall ultimately win the goal of true national greatness."

"As you are, so are your buildings; and as are your buildings, so are you."

"It is not necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice. There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."

"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast."

"Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other."

"Remember that as a teenager you are in the last stage of your life when you'll be happy to hear the phone is for you."

"The passion for freedom of the mind is strong and everlasting, which is fortunate, because so is the passion to squelch it."

"The passion for truth is silenced by answers that have the weight of undisputed authority."

"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."

"Fear not the flesh nor love it. If you fear it, it will gain mastery over you. If you love it, it will swallow and paralyze you."

"Death be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so..."

"Bureaucaracy is fifty thousand ants on a log floating down the Mississippi River and every one of them thinking they're running it."

"Bureaucracy is a system of operations whereby everybody's a victim and nobody's responsible."

"I get knocked down, but I get up again. You’re never gonna keep me down!"

"We will either find a way or we will make one."

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless."

"I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor easy."

"To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy."

"Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down."

"UNLESS someone like YOU cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."

Courtesy of Conductorman:

The person who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

It's never too late, in fiction or in life, to revise.

The first ingredient of success is this: Dream a great dream.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

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

Other Quotes Pages that have met my approval:

Transhumanist Quotes from Transcedo of the Netherlands

Rayden Tron's Homepage | Overview and Philosophy | Sample of Rayden Tron's story

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