Inspirational

"Life is made of millions of moments,
but we live only one of these moments at a time.
As we begin to change this moment,
we begin to change our lives."
-- Trinidad Hunt

"We must become the change we want to see."
-- Mahatma Gandhi

"Everybody wants to be somebody,
but nobody wants to grow."
-- Goethe

"It's never too late
to become
what we might have been."
-- George Elliot

"Nothing that I can do will change
the structure of the universe.
But maybe, by raising my voice
I can help the greatest of all causes
-- goodwill among men and peace on earth."
-- Einstein

"Life is made up of small pleasures.
Happiness is made up of those tiny successes.
The big ones come too infrequently.
And if you don't collect all these tiny successes,
the big ones don't really mean anything."
-- Norman Lear

"You are a child of the Universe,
no less than the moon and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the Universe is unfolding as it should."
--Ehrmann, Max

"It's surprising how many persons go through life
without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people
are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves,
and if you're not comfortable within yourself,
you can't be comfortable with others."
-- Sydney J. Harris

"It is better to be wrong than to simply follow convention.
If you are wrong, no matter, you have learned something
and will grow stronger.
If you are right, you have taken another step
toward a fulfilling life."
-- Bryce Courteney

"Dream as if you'll live forever,
Live as if you'll die today."
-- James Dean

"Wise people have an inward sense
of what is beautiful,
and the highest wisdom is to trust this intuition
and be guided by it."
-- Aristotle

"Make those you meet
feel like an angel has kissed them,
and leave behind gentle memories when you go."
-- Lynn Ray

"Pain is inevitable.
Suffering is optional."
-- M. Kathleen Casey

"Don't worry about the world ending today.
It's already tomorrow in Australia."
-- Charles Schultz

"Risk more than others think is safe.
Care more than others think is wise.
Dream more than others think is practical.
Expect more than others think is possible."
-- Cadet Maxim

"Work like you don't need the money,
Dance like no one is watching,
And love like you've never been hurt."
-- Lao Tzu

"Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself
and know that everything in this life has a purpose,
there are no mistakes, no coincidences,
all events are blessings given to us to learn from."
--Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

"Life moves pretty fast.
If you don't stop and look around once in a while,
you could miss it."
-- Ferris Bueller (character quote)

"Heal the past,
live the present,
dream the future."
-- Mary Engelbreit

"To be nobody but yourself-
in a world which is doing it's best, night and day, to make you everybody else
- means to fight the hardest battle in which any human being can fight,
and never stop fighting."
--Cummings

"We are here to add what we can to life,
not to get what we can from it."
-- William Osler

"I look to the future
because that's where I'm going to spend
the rest of my life."
-- George Burns

"Life is a song - sing it.
Life is a game - play it.
Life is a challenge - meet it.
Life is a dream - realize it.
Life is a sacrifice - offer it.
Life is love - enjoy it."
-- Sai Baba

"Life isn't about keeping score. It's not about
how many people call you and
it's not about who you've dated,
are dating, or haven't dated at all.
It isn't about who you've kissed,
what sport you play,
or which guy or girl likes you. It's not about your shoes or your hair or
the colour of your skin
or where you live or go to school. In fact,
it's not about grades, money, clothes, or colleges that accept you or not.
Life isn't about if you have lots of friends, or if you are alone,
and it's not about how accepted or unaccepted you are.
Life just isn't about that. But life is about
who you love and who you hurt.
It's about how you feel about yourself.
It's about trust, happiness,and compassion. It's about sticking up for your friends and
replacing inner hate with love.
Life is about avoiding jealousy,
overcoming ignorance,
and building confidence. It's about
what you say and what you mean.
It's about seeing people for who they are and not what they have.
Most of all, it is about choosing to use your life
to touch someone else's in a way that could never have been achieved otherwise.
These ahoices are what life's about."
-- Nike ad

"Good judgement comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgement."
-- Evan Hardin

"All your life
you are told the things you cannot do.
All your life they will say
you're not good enough or strong enough
or talented enough. They'll say you're the wrong height
or the wrong type to play this or be this
or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO,
a thousand times no until all the no's become meaningless.
All your life they will tell you no,
quite firmly and very quickly. They will tell you no.
And YOU WILL TELL THEM YES."
-- Nike ad

Life Manifestos

"If I had my life to live over, I'd try to make more mistakes next time.
I would relax. I would limber up.
I would be sillier than I have been this trip.
I know of very few things I would take seriously. I would be crazier.
I would be less hygienic. I would climb more mountains, swim more rivers and
watch more sunsets. I would burn more gasoline. I would eat more ice cream and less beans.
I would have more actual trouble and fewer imaginary ones.
You see, I am one of those people wo lives prophylactically and sensibly and sanely, hour after hour, day after day.
Oh, I have had my moments, and, if I had it to do over again, I'd have more of them.
In fact, I'd try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead each day.
I have been one of those people who never go anywhere without a thermometer, a hot-water bottle, a gargle,
a raincoat and parachute. If I had it to do over again, I would go places and do things
and travel lighter than I have. If I had my life to live over, I would start barefooted earlier in the spring
and stay that way later in the fall. I would play hooky more. I wouldn't make such good grades
except by accident. I would ride on more merry-go-rounds.
I'd pick more daises."
-- Anonymous

"For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair,
let a child run his fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge you never walk alone.
We leave you a tradition of the future.
The tender loving care of human beings will never become obsolete.
People, even more than things,
have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, redeemed and redeemed and redeemed.
Never throw anyone away.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.
As you grow older, you'll discover that you have two hands:
One for helping yourself, the second for helping others.
You have great days still ahead of you.
May there be many of them."
-- Anonymous

"Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air.
You name them - work, family, health, friends and spirit - and you're keeping all of these in the air.

You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back.
But the other four balls - family, health, friends, and spirit are made of glass.
If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered.
They will never be the same.

You must understand that and strive for balance in your life. How?
Don't undermine your worth by comparing yourself to others.
It is because we are different that each of us is special. Don't set your goals by what other people deem important.
Only you know what is best for you.

Don't take for granted the things closest to your heart.
Cling to them as if they were your life, for without them, life is meaningless.
Don't let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future.
By living your life one day at a time, you live ALL the days of your life.

Don't give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.
Don't be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is this fragile thread that binds us to each other.
Don't be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.

Don't shut love out of your life by saying it's impossible to find time.
The quickest way to receive love is to give; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly;
and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.

Don't run through life so fast that you forget not only where you've been, but also where you are going.

Don't foget, a person's greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.
Don't be afraid to learn. Knowledge is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily.

Don't use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved.
Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.

Yesterday is History. Tomorrow is a Mystery, and Today is a gift:
that's why we call it 'The Present'."
-- Anonymous

"Shake off your doubts and then go for it.
Check out your options and act.
Find an approach to the future,
And turn today's dreams into fact.

Take a first step to tomorrow.
Start on the course of your choice.
Look at what life has to offer.
Listen to your inner voice.

Don't live a life of regretting,
Stifled by negative force.
Think of what you can accomplish.
Steer an affirmative course.

Build on activities positive.
Work witj abundance of heart.
by making the best of the present,
Change is the process you start.

Even thmugh problems may surface,
Problems don't have to prevail.
As long as you're one who is trying,
And never just waiting to fail."
-- Bruce B. Wilmer

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97: Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.
The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists,
whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.
I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind.
You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded.
But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now
how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.
You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective
as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind,
the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts.
Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead,
sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end,
it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults.
If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters.
Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life.
The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives.
Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees.
You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't.
Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't.
Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary.
Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either.
Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can.
Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it.
It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good.
Be nicer to your siblings.
They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go,
but with a precious few you should hold on.
Work hard to bridge gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get,
the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once,
but leave before it makes you hard.
Live in Northern California once,
but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths:
Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old.
And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young,
prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund.
Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or
by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it.
Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of
fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off,
painting over the ugly parts, and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen."
-- Mary Schmich (The Chicago Tribune) *