More Favorite Quotes about Life
Management
“Here’s what management is about: Pick good people and set the right priorities.” Lee Iacocca
“You basically get what you reward. If you want to achieve the goals and reflect the values in your mission statement, then you need to align the reward system with these goals and values.” Stephen R. Covey
“The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.” William James
“The way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement.” Charles Schwab
“There is nothing else that so kills the ambitions of a person as criticisms from superiors. I never criticize anyone. I believe in giving a person incentive to work. So I am anxious to praise but loath to find fault. . . . I have yet to find a person, however great or exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than he would ever do under a spirit of criticism.” Charles Schwab
“[Good managers] know that people have ‘good’ sides and ‘bad’ sides and that the secret of good management is in magnifying the former and toning down the latter.” Ha-Joon Chang
“When top executives get huge pay hikes at the same time as middle-level and hourly workers lose their jobs and retirement savings, or have to accept negligible pay raises and cuts in health and pension benefits, company morale plummets. I hear it all the time from employees: This company, they say, is being run only for the benefit of the people at the top. So why should we put in extra effort, commit extra hours, take on extra responsibilities? We’ll do the minimum, even cut corners. This is often the death knell of a company.” Robert Reich
“Nothing is more deadly to achievement than the belief that effort will not be rewarded, that the world is a bleak and discriminatory place in which only the predatory and the specially preferred can get ahead.” George Gilder
“A variety of studies establish the inextricable link between the wages, benefits, and conditions of a job and the quality of the service provided.” Beth Shulman
“Good wages are pro business, since they reduce turnover, increase morale, produce better-skilled employees, and improve productivity.” Jim Hightower
“It’s the same in the office, the lab, the factory. Employees and coworkers are more productive, more loyal – satisfied and happy – when they are treated fairly, decently, and with dignity than when they are used and taken for granted, when they feel like no more than a tiny cog in a giant corporate wheel.” Wayne Dosick
“We need to take a hard look at new business ownership models in the country. To my mind, we need to significantly expand employee ownership. . . . Study after study has shown that employee ownership increases employment, increases productivity, increases sales, and increases wages in the United States. . . . The workers . . . become more motivated, absenteeism goes down, worker productivity goes up, and people stay on the job for a longer period of time.” Bernie Sanders
Means and Ends
“You can’t get to a pleasant place to be at unless you use pleasant methods to get there. When you are dealing with a human society the means is fully as important as the end.” Clarence Darrow
“We will never have peace in the world until men everywhere recognize that ends are not cut off from means, because the means represent the ideal in the making, and the end in process, and ultimately you can’t reach good ends through evil means, because the means represent the seed and the end represents the tree.” Martin Luther King Jr.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.” Friedrich Nietzsche
“Act as if the maxim on which you act were to become, through your will, a universal law.” Immanuel Kant
“Be the change you want to see in the world.” Mohandas Gandhi
Memory
“Memory is the miser of the mind; forgetfulness the spendthrift.” Robert Ingersoll
“Repetition teaches your mind that something’s important, and hence worth remembering.” Keith Blanchard
“It’s well established that repetition is key to memory.” Mandy Oaklander
“Context and landmarks may actually be important to going from ‘remembering’ to ‘knowing.’ The more associations a particular memory can trigger, the more easily it tends to be recalled.” Maia Szalavitz
“Your brain needs small breaks after a task in order to lock away new memories.” Markham Heid
“I’ve always subscribed to an old Chinese proverb that the palest ink is better than the best memory.” Vincent Bugliosi
“Checklists seem able to defend anyone, even the experienced, against failure in many more tasks than we realized. They provide a kind of cognitive net. They catch mental flaws inherent in all of us – flaws of memory and attention and thoroughness.” Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto
Mistakes
“When Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House, he confessed that if he could be right 75 percent of the time, he would reach the highest measure of his expectation. . . . If that was the highest rating that one of the most distinguished men of the twentieth century could hope to obtain, what about you and me?” Dale Carnegie
“Even Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, and Albert Einstein made serious mistakes. But the scientific enterprise arranges things so that teamwork prevails: What one of us, even the most brilliant among us, misses, another of us, even someone much less celebrated and capable, may detect and rectify.” Carl Sagan
“We are all full of weakness and errors, let us mutually pardon each other our follies – it is the first law of nature.” Voltaire
“We all take leave of our senses, from time to time.” Bryan A. Garner
“There is a foolish corner in the brain of the wisest man.” Aristotle
“The proactive approach to a mistake is to acknowledge it instantly, correct and learn from it. This literally turns a failure into a success.” Stephen R. Covey
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Thomas Edison
“Scientists are well accustomed to the idea that progress could not exist without failure. The scientific method itself rests on repeated trial and error.” Alex Dalenberg
“Mistakes are a necessary artistic experience in the process of creating a great work.” Alexei Tolstoy
“It is common sense to take a method and try it; if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” Franklin D. Roosevelt
“A perfect character might be attended with the inconvenience of being envied and hated; and . . . a benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his friends in countenance.” Benjamin Franklin
“Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.” Mark Twain
Moderation
“Let him know how to choose the mean and avoid the extremes on either side, as far as possible. . . . For this is the way of happiness.” Plato
“The golden rule is moderation in all things.” Terence
“Keep the golden mean between saying too much and too little.” Publilius Syrus
Money
“Money, like any other force such as electricity, is amoral and can be used for either good or evil.” Martin Luther King Jr.
“The first duty of man is to support himself – to see to it that he does not become a burden. His next duty is to help others if he has a surplus, and if he really believes they deserve to be helped.” Robert Ingersoll
“All should be taught that the highest ambition is to be happy, and to add to the well-being of others; that place and power are not necessary to success; that the desire to acquire great wealth is a kind of insanity. They should be taught that it is a waste of energy, a waste of thought, a waste of life, to acquire what you do not need and what you do not really use for the benefit of yourself or others.” Robert Ingersoll
“The worst enslaving trait of all is greed. I rail against the substitution of money for worth. The idea that the endless accumulation of dead money can furnish a meaningful life to sold-out souls is the supreme lie offered by the system of free enterprise.” Gerry Spence
“This disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful . . . is, at the same time, the greatest and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments.” Adam Smith
“It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly.” Bertrand Russell
“Millions of men give all their energies, as well as their very souls, for the acquisition of gold. And this will continue as long as society is ignorant enough and hypocritical enough to hold in high esteem the man of wealth without the slightest regard to the character of the man. . . . In judging of the rich, two things should be considered: How did they get it, and what are they doing with it? Was it honestly acquired? Is it being used for the benefit of mankind?” Robert Ingersoll
“I don’t like mansions. They depress me. In fact, I even feel sorry for a rich husband and wife living in a forty-room mansion. They’re obviously searching for something they don’t have, such as happiness or the respect of others.” Vincent Bugliosi
“The man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without.” Ernest Hemingway
“We all know that men in moderate circumstances can have just as comfortable houses as the richest, just as comfortable clothing, just as good food. They can see just as fine paintings, just as marvelous statues, and they can hear just as good music. They can attend the same theaters and the same operas. They can enjoy the same sunshine, and above all, can love and be loved just as well as kings and millionaires.” Robert Ingersoll
“An honest, sensible, humane man, . . . laboring to do good rather than be rich, to be useful rather than make a show, living in modest simplicity . . . is really the most respectable man in society, [and] makes himself and all about him most happy.” John Adams
“I have not sought during my life to amass wealth and to adorn my body, but I have sought to adorn my soul with the jewels of wisdom, patience, and above all with a love of liberty.” Socrates
Morality
“To treat others ethically is to act out of concern for their happiness and suffering.” Sam Harris
“Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindness: Do not unto others that you would not have them do unto you.” Confucius
“Give every other human being every right you claim for yourself.” Robert Ingersoll
“A man is not moral because he is obedient through fear or ignorance. Morality lives in the realm of perceived obligation. . . .” Robert Ingersoll
“It cannot be said too often that actions are good or bad in the light of consequences, and that a clear perception of consequences would control actions. That which increases the sum of human happiness is moral; and that which diminishes the sum of human happiness is immoral. . . . Blind, unreasoning obedience is the enemy of morality.” Robert Ingersoll
“The ideas of right and wrong change with the experience of the race, and this change is wrought by the gradual ascertaining of consequences – of results.” Robert Ingersoll
“The highest ethical duty is often to discard the outmoded ethics of the past.” Corliss Lamont
“Our conscience is not the vessel of eternal verities. It grows with our social life, and a new social condition means a radical change in conscience.” Walter Lippmann
“Overemphasis on the sex aspect of morality has led to a neglect of its other aspects and a narrowing of its range.” Corliss Lamont
“Modern technology has conveniently provided a measuring stick by which you can determine whether or not you are conducting your business in an acceptable, ethical way. . . . You can ask yourself: How will I feel if my business dealings today are secretly recorded on a hidden video camera, and appear on this evening’s television newscast for all to see?” Wayne Dosick
“When you choose wrong because it suits you right now, the message you give others is that when it suits you, you may likely do wrong again. You become a threat and liability to others. That’s a pragmatic reason, outside of pride in morality, not to do wrong.” Laura Schlessinger
“Integrity, honesty, and honor may not give immediate rewards or gratification, and they can be life-threatening (for example, being a whistle-blower or turning state’s evidence). The absence of integrity, honesty, and honor do not always bring punishment or scorn, and can be life-aggrandizing (connivers and cheats often gain power and wealth). Therefore, morality must be its own reward.” Laura Schlessinger
“The reward for doing right is mostly an internal phenomenon: self-respect, dignity, integrity, and self-esteem. . . . Not doing right may have momentary payoffs but will wreak havoc with your self-esteem, respect from others, and quality of life.” Laura Schlessinger
“Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind;
The thief doth fear each bush an officer.” Shakespeare
“The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance, and even our very existence depends on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to our lives.” Albert Einstein
Music and Art
“Music was born of love. Had there never been any human affection, there never could have been uttered a strain of music.” Robert Ingersoll
“Language is not subtle enough, tender enough, to express all that we feel; and when language fails, the highest and deepest longings are translated into music. Music is the sunshine – the climate – of the soul, and it floods the heart with a perfect June.” Robert Ingersoll
“There is more real devotional feeling summoned from the temple of the mind by great music than by any sermon ever delivered.” Robert Ingersoll
“Being surrounded by artistic and musical beauty soothes the soul, bringing both quiet calm and creative inspiration. . . .” Wayne Dosick
“Music can relieve pain and anxiety, enhance immune function and brain function, alleviate stress and spur physical rehabilitation.” Stacey Colino
“Artists are prophets. They define the meaning of our lives and point the way.” Anthony V. Bouza
“The arts often realize human truths well before other branches of human endeavor.” Chris Hedges
“Art that teaches us, moves us, challenges us to think about the human condition in new ways, is often shocking and disturbing. It is intended to be.” Philip D. Harvey
“It is as we respond to the understandings and feelings inherent in . . . art that we acquire much of our truth, much of our nobility and grace, and much of our pleasure.” Ursula Goodenough
“Before the hippie, antiwar, and civil rights movements of the late 1960s began to really take hold, there had been decades of foundational work laid by writers, filmmakers, poets, performers, activists, and others that helped people conceive of a different future.” Peter Moskowitz
“Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” Oscar Wilde
“I consider art to be the language of the human spirit and, without art, we are all handicapped.” Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld
“If you could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.” Edward Hopper
“I am haunted by the need to dance. It is the purest expression of every emotion, earthly and spiritual. It is happiness.” Anna Pavlova
“Visual or poetic art doesn’t always have a ‘message’ – what is conveyed can be simply . . . beauty for the sake of beauty.” Dan Barker
“Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty. . . . [E]very individual ought to acquiesce in his own sentiment, without pretending to regulate those of others.” David Hume
“De gustibus non est disputandum.” ancient Roman adage meaning “You can’t argue about taste”
“Research shows empirically that artistic and cultural creativity acts alongside the high-tech industry and business and finance to power economic growth.” Richard Florida
“The moment a city starts to lose its artists, things can fall apart and the city might lose its edge.” David Cameron, former British prime minister
“There is in all artists a little of the vagabond.” Robert Ingersoll
“The truth is . . . that the great artists of the world are never puritans, and seldom ever ordinarily respectable. No virtuous man – that is, virtuous in the YMCA sense – has ever painted a picture worth looking at, or written a symphony worth hearing, or a book worth reading, and it is highly improbable that the thing has ever been done by a virtuous woman.” H. L. Mencken
“A world turned into a stereotype, a society converted into a regiment, a life translated into a routine, make it difficult for either art or artists to survive. Crush individuality in society and you crush art as well. Nourish the conditions of a free life and you nourish the arts, too.” Franklin D. Roosevelt
“As . . . research has shown, arts and music training can sharpen developing brains, bolster creativity, and teach kids how to work together to achieve a goal – all of which contribute to successful outcomes, in school and beyond.” Tom Jacobs
“Creating art can be therapeutic.” Hallie Levine
“Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent to the human condition.” Graham Greene, novelist
“Practice any art, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.” Kurt Vonnegut
Nature
“Spending time outdoors, especially in green spaces, is an effective way to improve your health and happiness. It’s been shown to lower stress, blood pressure and heart rate while encouraging physical activity and buoying mood and mental health.” Jamie Ducharme
Neatness
“Many people feel calmer and more in control when their work and living spaces are tidy.” Gretchen Rubin
“Mess causes stress. It overwhelms our senses, distracts us . . . .” Anne Alexander
Old Age
“To be happy in old age, it is necessary that we accustom ourselves to objects that can accompany the mind all the way through life, and that we take the rest as good in their day. The mere man of pleasure is miserable in old age, and the mere drudge in business is but little better; whereas natural philosophy, mathematical and mechanical science are a continual source of tranquil pleasure. . . .” Thomas Paine
“Those who knew Benjamin Franklin will recollect that his mind was forever young, his temper ever serene; science, that never grows gray, was always his mistress. He was never without an object, for when we cease to have an object, we become like an invalid in a hospital waiting for death.” Thomas Paine
“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” Henry Ford
“There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will have truly defeated age.” Sophia Loren
“Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing.” Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
“For as I like a young man in whom there is something of the old, so I like an old man in whom there is something of the young; and he who follows this maxim, in body will possibly be an old man but he will never be an old man in mind.” Cicero
“It is a splendid thing to think that the woman you really love will never grow old to you. Through the wrinkles of time, through the mask of years, if you really love her, you will always see the face you loved and won. And a woman who really loves a man does not see that he grows old; he is not decrepit to her; he does not tremble; he is not old; she always sees the same gallant gentleman who won her hand and heart. I like to think of it in that way; I like to think that love is eternal.” Robert Ingersoll
Peace
“True peace is not merely the absence of tension, but it is the presence of justice.” Martin Luther King Jr.
Perseverance
“The ground of liberty is to be gained by inches. We must be contented to secure what we can get from time to time, and eternally press forward for what is yet to get.” Thomas Jefferson
“The most successful people in the world aren’t usually the brightest. They are the ones who persevere.” Ross Perot
“Winning is often simply getting up off the ground one more time than your opponent.” Vincent Bugliosi
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Thomas Edison
“Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.” Louis Pasteur
“‘Tis true there is much to be done, . . . but stick to it steadily, and you will see great effects, for constant dropping wears away stones . . . and little strokes fell great oaks, as Poor Richard says. . . .” Benjamin Franklin
“If you are going through hell, keep going.” Winston Churchill
Play
“Play is not just for kids. It’s actually an essential ingredient of a happy adult life and a natural antidepressant. Recent science shows that the absence of play in adults contributes to depression, and adding it back into our lives not only helps make us happier and more resilient but also positively impacts our brains.” Dr. Elisha Goldstein
Problems
“Obstacles and problems are a part of life. True happiness comes not when we get rid of all of our problems, but when we change our relationship to them, when we see our problems as a potential source of awakening, opportunities to practice patience, and to learn.” Richard Carlson
“When parents see their children’s problems as opportunities to build the relationship instead of as negative, burdensome irritations, it totally changes the nature of parent-child interaction. Parents become more willing, even excited, about deeply understanding and helping their children. . . . This paradigm is powerful in business as well.” Stephen R. Covey
“Sweet are the uses of adversity.” Shakespeare
“There is no education like adversity.” Benjamin Disraeli
“What doesn’t destroy me makes me stronger.” Friedrich Nietzsche
“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places.” Ernest Hemingway
“It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues.” Abigail Adams
“It is difficulties that show what men are.” Epictetus
“What disturbs people’s minds are not events but their judgments on events.” Epictetus
“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” Shakespeare
“Even if I am not responsible for my situation, I am responsible for my reaction to it.” Unknown
“Easy lives make boring people.” Ronda Rousey
Racism
“The idea of a superior or inferior race is a myth that has been completely refuted by anthropological evidence.” Martin Luther King Jr.
“Despite research, there is no credible evidence that the races show any differences in the science of their brain function.” Martin L. Gross
“Of the roughly twenty thousand protein-coding genes allocated to each human . . . a relative handful manifest themselves in what are today generally considered the signifiers of race – skin color, hair texture, nose shape, and so on. We can accurately identify people by color, or language, or nationality. Yet as genetic signifiers for what lies beneath the visible surface, these characteristics are essentially meaningless.” Daniel Okrent
“Some racists still reject the plain testimony written in the DNA that all the races are not only human but nearly indistinguishable. . . .” Carl Sagan
“Scientifically speaking, there . . . cannot be any such thing as racism. We are all one.” Bill Nye (“The Science Guy”)
Resentment
“Resentment refers to the mental process of repetitively replaying a feeling, and the events leading up to a feeling, that goads or angers us. . . . A wealth of medical studies have shown that holding onto resentment and an incapacity to forgive will cause blood pressure to go up, weaken the immune system, and provoke cardiovascular degeneration. Refusing to forgive, or at least forget, floods the body with stress hormones that cause symptoms ranging from headaches to colds and flu, impaired circulation, premenstrual tension, fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, migraine, fibromyalgia, and other stress-related afflictions.” Mark Sichel, CSW
“As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.” Nelson Mandela, regarding the end of his 27 years in Robben Island prison
Resignation
“A good supply of resignation is of the first importance in providing for the journey of life.” Arthur Schopenhaur
“There is only one way to happiness, and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” Epictetus
“When we have done our best, we should wait the result in peace.” J. Lubbock
“Do the best that can be done and then . . . be resigned.” Robert Ingersoll
“Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.” Michael de Montaigne
“Care is no cure, but rather corrosive,
For things that are not to be remedied.” Shakespeare
“Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass,
of glory in the flower,
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind.” William Wordsworth
Savings
“Thrift is not some obsolete Victorian notion. . . . It will be the difference between those who prosper and achieve respect and those who become a burden to their children and society.” Peter G. Peterson
“Wealth can only be accumulated by the earnings of industry and the savings of frugality.” John Tyler
“Let frugality and industry be our virtues.” John Adams
“Industry and frugality, as the means of procuring wealth . . . thereby [secures] virtue, it being more difficult for a man in want to act always honestly. . . .” Benjamin Franklin
“Gaining money by my industry and frugality, I lived very agreeably. . . .” Benjamin Franklin
Science
“Science is the great antidote to the poison of . . . superstition.” Adam Smith
“Science is a systematic method of investigation based on continuous experimentation, observation, and measurement leading to evolving explanations of natural phenomena, explanations which are continuously open to further testing.” Ohio Academy of Science
“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” Arthur Conan Doyle
“Scientific conclusions are always tentative, because the development of better tools, new approaches and new findings may make necessary refinements, changes or even discarding previously held theories and concepts. . . . The result is excitement and exhilaration in open inquiry.” Gerald Larue
“The discovery of how things work is intrinsically rewarding, and developing the practical applications of discoveries is no less so.” Thomas W. Clark
“Has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? . . . No other human institution comes close.” Carl Sagan
Sleep
“Adequate sleep is another necessary ingredient for a healthy mind and memory.” Markham Heid
“Sleep deprivation makes it harder to control our emotions. We’re more irritable, things seem more dramatic when they don’t go our way, and it’s harder to make decisions.” Adriana Galvan, Ph.D.
“Lack of sleep is not jut a symptom of depression, but . . . can either cause or exacerbate it. . . . When we don’t get enough sleep, we feel tired, lethargic, and irritable, and lose motivation to do the things we need to do, all things associated with depression as well.” James Gangwisch, sleep epidemiologist, Columbia University
“One of the reasons we sleep, it now seems, might be to keep a range of illnesses – including cognitive diseases like Alzheimer’s and other dementias – at bay.” Alice Park
“Sleep has a restorative component. But neuroscience research shows us that sleep is necessary to help us make sense of the things we learn during the day. Sleep is when our brain categorizes things – deciding whether to save this information or throw it out because it’s irrelevant. It’s also important for consolidating memories.” Adriana Galvin, Ph.D.
“Sleep really should not be seen as a luxury or waste of time. People joke that they’ll sleep when they’re dead, but they might end up dead sooner if they don’t sleep.” Prof. Adam Spira, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Sports
“Sports is a moral undertaking because it requires of participants, and it schools spectators in the appreciation of, noble things – courage, grace under pressure, sportsmanship.” George Will
“Running track and cross-country turned out to be important to my life. Training hard, not quitting even when you were dead tired, gave me a discipline that has stayed with me for the rest of my life.” Bernie Sanders
“The most important thing is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered, but to have fought well.” The Olympic Creed
“The common belief that coaches must be abusive to be successful is a myth. Research shows that if you find a task fun, you’ll perform better. If more coaches took . . . a Golden Rule approach to coaching, treating their players the way they themselves would like to be treated, fewer athletes would drop out of sports in their teens, and more athletes at every level would be happier and more satisfied.” Ralph Nader
“Coaches need training in how to teach fitness as an enjoyable activity. This would be a far cry from torture sessions that athletes endure . . . as a personal test of the athletes’ willingness to endure pain, or as a form of punishment. . . . This approach can make athletes hate fitness training and avoid physical fitness activities after their playing career is over.” Andrew W. Miracle Jr. and C. Roger Rees
“Compulsory sports for those who by temperament or physique do not qualify may be a disaster. . . . The repercussions may be extreme . . . and they may be very long-lasting, even throughout adulthood.” John Money, Ph.D.
“One of the functions that things like professional sports play, in our society and others, is to offer an area to deflect people’s attention from things that matter, so that the people in power can do what matters without public interference.” Noam Chomsky
Stress
“[Stress] allows us to overcome challenging situations, and it provides us with the motivation to get through rough times in our life or to achieve our goals. But when it becomes excessive, stress can be very detrimental to our health.” Alice Figueroa
“A little stress can help people stay sharp and respond to a pressing challenge. But if stress lingers for long periods, its effects can have wide-ranging and sometimes disastrous consequences for a person’s mental and physical health.” Markham Heid
“Stress is a normal part of everyday life, so avoiding it is really not possible. What’s important is making sure that stress response is acute and short-lasting, rather than something that festers for long periods of time.” Michael Bailey
“A constant state of high alert can contribute to serious health problems and disease: Type 2 diabetes . . . high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease . . . obesity . . . viruses and infectious diseases. . . . Fertility and libido plunge too. . . . Insomnia, depression, headaches and even heartburn . . . can combine to make a high-stress life an ongoing misery.” Jeffrey Kluger
“Even short-term stress can be dangerous when you’re older. It could induce a heart attack or stroke.” Christopher Fagundes
“But we do have palliatives . . . we know the power of exercise as a stress reducer; of building a social support network; of diet as a route to overall wellness; of establishing unthreatening workplaces; of cognitive-behavioral therapy to reframe goals and stakes and dangers. We know as well of . . . wonderfully powerful . . . approaches such as mindfulness and meditation and yoga.” Jeffrey Kluger
Suicide
“No man has a right to leave his wife to fight the battle alone if he is able to help. No man has a right to desert his children if he can possibly be of use. As long as he can add to the comfort of those he loves, as long as he can . . . be of any use, it is his duty to remain.” Robert Ingersoll
“Human life consists in mutual service. No grief, pain, misfortune or ‘broken heart’ is excuse for cutting off one’s life while any power of service remains. But when all usefulness is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one.” Charlotte Perkins Gilman
“No man should kill himself as long as he can be of the least use to anybody, and if you cannot find some person that you are willing to do something for, find a good dog and take care of him. You have no idea how much better you will feel.” Robert Ingersoll
Time
“Waste not time, for that is the stuff that life is made of.” Swiss proverb
“Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.” Peter Drucker
“They spend life in making ready to live! They form their purposes with a view to the distant future; yet postponement is the greatest waste of life; it deprives them of each day as it comes, it snatches from them the present by promising something hereafter. The greatest hindrance to living is expectancy, which depends upon tomorrow and wastes today.” Seneca
“Look to this day! For it is life, the very life of life . . . . For yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to this day!” From “The Salutation to the Dawn,” a poem from ancient India
“There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries . . .
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.” Shakespeare
Turning the Other Cheek
“To turn the other cheek is to teach would-be cheats that cheating pays.” Peter Singer
“When struck on one cheek to turn the other, is really joining a conspiracy to secure the triumph of brutality. To agree not to resist evil is to become an accomplice of all injustice.” Robert Ingersoll
“I don’t want to hurt people’s feelings if I can help it. I don’t want anyone unnecessarily humiliated, but I say whatever stands between you and justice must give way. . . . You must do exactly what is right, and let those who have done wrong bear the consequences.” Robert Ingersoll
“For benefits return benefits; for injuries return justice without any admixture of revenge.” Confucius
Unconditional Love
“Love is not love that alters
When it alteration finds. . . .
O, no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken.” Shakespeare
“The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved – loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.” Victor Hugo
“None of us, no, not one, is perfect; and were we to love none who had imperfections, this world would be a desert for our love.” Thomas Jefferson
Unhappiness
“I believe unhappiness to be very largely due to mistaken views of the world, mistaken ethics, mistaken habits of life . . . .” Bertrand Russell
“Pointing to another world will never stop vice among us; shedding light over this world can alone help us.” Walt Whitman
“To avoid pain we must know the conditions of health. For the accomplishment of this end we must rely upon investigation instead of faith, upon labor in place of prayer. Most misery is produced by ignorance. Passions sow the seeds of pain.” Robert Ingersoll
“It’s impossible to feel good about yourself if you are doing things that you aren’t proud of. . . . It’s essential that you . . . [do] things you can respect and admire.” Ellen Bass and Laura Davis
“If you want to feel proud of yourself, then do good. Take action that will make you proud. . . . And if you really want to feel proud, then do something to help someone else.” Oseola McCarty
“If one could only learn to appreciate the little things . . .
A song that takes you away, for there are those who cannot hear.
The beauty of a sunset, for there are those who cannot see.
The warmth and safety of your home, for there are those who are homeless.
Time spent with good friends for there are those who are lonely.
A walk along the beach for there are those who cannot walk.
The little things are what life is all about.
Search your soul and learn to appreciate.” Shadi Souferian
Work
“It is labor that has made the world a fit habitation for the human race.” Robert Ingersoll
“Every human being should be taught that his first duty is to take care of himself, and that to be self-respecting he must be self-supporting. To live on the labor of others, either by force which enslaves, or by cunning which robs, or by borrowing or begging, is wholly dishonorable. Every man should be taught some useful art.” Robert Ingersoll
“I believe that labor is a blessing. It never was and never will be a curse. It is a blessed thing to labor for . . . the ones you love. It is a blessed thing to have an object in life – something to do – something to call into play your best thoughts, to develop your faculties and to make you a man.” Robert Ingersoll
“Being a productive member of society, a contributor to the well-being of our neighbors and our community, gives our lives meaning, dignity, and satisfaction.” Bernie Sanders
“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and status and should be undertaken with meticulous excellence.” Martin Luther King Jr.
“Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or doing it better.” John Updike
“When men are employed they are best contented.” Benjamin Franklin
“To business that we love we rise betime
And go to it with delight.” Shakespeare
“The labor we delight in physics [cures] pain.” Shakespeare
“The greatest analgesic, soporific, stimulant, tranquilizer, narcotic, and to some extent even antibiotic – in short, the closest thing to a genuine panacea – known to medical science is work.” Thomas Szasz, M.D.
“Enjoyment results from successfully reaching or striving to reach a goal. . . . Since our bodies evolved pleasure circuits . . . to actually feel good when our purposes are met, those feelings themselves can be something to aim for.” Dan Barker
“Diligence is the mother of good luck.” Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Maxims
“Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.” Thomas Edison
“What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. . . .” Thomas Paine
“A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.” Albert Einstein
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” Mark Twain
“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” Alexander Graham Bell
“Everyone should be taught the nobility of labor, the heroism and splendor of honest effort. As long as it is considered disgraceful to labor, or aristocratic not to labor, the world will be filled with idleness and crime, and with every possible moral deformity.” Robert Ingersoll