We should always live in the dark empty sky. The sky is always the sky. Even though clouds and lightning come, the sky is not disturbed. Even if the flashing of enlightenment comes, our practice forgets all about it. Then it is ready for another enlightenment.
-Shunryu Suzuki, "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind"
From "365 Buddha: Daily Meditations," edited by Jeff Schmidt. Reprinted by arrangement with Tarcher/Putnam, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.

:yin-yang:

Go for what you want…in spite of the evidence.
Remove the muzzle and be authentically YOU.
Approach every "problem" as an opportunity.
Make your enemies your friends.
Know that you're doing the best you can (for now).
Recognize that you're enough.
Express gratitude by giving fully and freely.
Invite into your life only what you really want.
Live as if there are no wrong moves.
Choose beliefs that lead to happiness, love and God.
Encourage the miraculous by believing in the "impossible."

"I get up. I walk. I fall down. Meanwhile, I keep dancing." - Rabbi Hillel

"Progress: To move ahead with confidence is to know that there is someone who goes before you as your captain and your guide. To move ahead with freedom is to know that that same someone is behind you as your rear guard to keep you from being defeated by any failures of the past."

- Roy Lessin

It is not our abilities that make us who we are. It is our choices."
- Professor Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

I love words. I especially love words of wisdom that make you think.

On days that I am feeling down or can't seem to find that light at the end of the tunnel, I pull out my list of quotes and I always find myself moving back to feeling good after reading a few.

Here are some of my favourites. Please add some of your own.

The following are all from a book written by Barbara Sher:

To yourself, you are, and always will be the strongest element in your environment.

Never confuse ignorance with wrongness or weakness.

You have to trust yourself to know when something is not right for you, and leave it.

There's a lot ahead that you don't expect and a lot of what you do expect is not ahead.

You only maintain true independence when you have your own tests to pass, not someone else's.

Resentment is weak and lowers your self-esteem.

More from various people:

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self. - Aldous Huxley

You've got to get up every morning with determination if you're going to go to bed with satisfaction. - George Horace Lorimer

The good news is that the bad news can be turned into good news when you change your attitude. - Robert Schuller

Life is ten percent what you make it, and ninety percent how you take it. - Irving Berlin

Everything starts with yourself - with making up your mind about what you're going to do with your life. - Tony Dorsett

You must begin to think of yourself as becoming the person you want to be. - David Viscott

The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it. - Michelangelo

a quote from one of my absolute *favorite* books - "a return to love" by marianne williamson:

"we're always impacting the world in which we live, through our presence, our energy, our interactions with others. the question is, what kind of impact are we having?"

My quote is in my signature!...I wrote it myself... ;)

Know that in a remote place
in a cloud-covered valley,
There is still a sacred pine that
passes through the chill of the ages.

Bonnie Myotai Treace

Here's a link to www.download.com where you can download some free programs that will display pre-loaded or custom quotes every time windows starts;

http://www.download.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=quote+program&tg=dl-2001

I just love the one in my sig because it is one of those catchy phrases that once introduced into your lexicon of self-talk that goes on within your brain, keeps resurfacing to egg you on just that little bit farther... and then a little farther... and when you feel like the world is doing it's best to press down on you and keep you down, fills you with a righteous fury that you are a good person who will eventually succeed, and getting up after a defeat becomes an act of defiance, a thumbing of one's nose at the negative forces in the universe...

I'm referring of course to the bit of fortune-cookie wisdom I got from the back of a No Fear t-shirt that I scored for pennies at a rummage sale, "A champion is someone who gets up, even when they can't." Better money I have rarely spent.

You have a good head of steam up! Keep it running smoothly. Thanks for the links.
Cheers! Ian.

I saw a quote here in the forums once that I thought was absolutely awesome! I immediately wrote it down and have used it several times since then:

"Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, 'where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.'" - Charley Brown

Here are some more quotes from some famous and not-so-famous people that I have kept and treasured:

"Enjoy the wind in your face because you never know when you're going to kiss the asphalt." - Marion Grey, the Carribean Diva

"Genius is mainly an affair of energy." - Matthew Arnold

"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." - Joseph Cambell


"God is like the sun. You can't look at it, but without it you can't look at anything else." - G.K. Chesterson

"As a culture, we have confused velocity with accomplishment. We 'run' ourselves ragged. Convinced that if we do more and go faster we will succeed, we often lose the pulse of our own lives. We can find it again by 'walking'." - Julia Camerson, Vein of Gold

"Wisdom begins in Wonder." - Socrates

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." - Henry David Thoreau

Finally, my most favorite qote:

"Success rests with having the courage and endurance and above all the will to become the person you are, however peculiar that may be. Then you will be able to say, 'I have found my hero and he is me.'" -Dr. George Sheehan

Hope you enjoy them.
MM

Looove that last one.

How about this one? "It could be worse."

I like these quote's hope you all do to

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
Herm Albright (1876 - 1944)

I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.
Martha Washington (1732 - 1802)

Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it.
Robert Heinlein (1907 - 1988)

Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint on it you can.
Danny Kaye (1913 - 1987)

Summer afternoon - Summer afternoon... the two most beautiful words in the English language.
Henry James (1843 - 1916)

Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.
Winston Churchill, Sir (1874-1965)

Never moon a werewolf.
Mike Binder

I love Eleanor Roosevelt...the woman spoke from the heart and continues to touch mine:

Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

I could not at any age be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on.

I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.

It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.

Life is meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.

One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. When you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else.

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

(This one is my all time favorite) No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that man can alter his life simply by altering his attitude of mind.” --William James

“Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain.” --Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Defeat is simply a signal to press onward."--Helen Keller

"Your children will see what you're all about by what you live rather than what you say." -- Wayne Dyer

"If you want a confidence, act as if you already have it. Try the "as if" technique." --William James (1842-1910)

"Continuous effort--not strength or intelligence--is the key to unlocking our potential." --Winston Churchill

"Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you're going to do now and do it." -- William Durant

this is an awesome thread. Anyone know of a good free automatic quote program that you can add your own favorite quotes to?

That "cat food" one I put up a link to says it allows you to do that, but doesn't.

If I find one that does work, I'll let you all know.

"Everything works out in the end. If it hasn't worked out, it's not the end."
(unknown)

"If you don't fail now and again, it's a sign you're playing it safe."

(Woody Allen)