Poetry for Life
30,000Welcome

Mission

"We are the free of soul the free of heart that will express what our spirits hold."

Our Inspiration

The works we share is what the world is ready to hear. There are many more and soon will be but a tag is what you place on me. I write out from the profusion of thought and crushing weight of the words in my court. Individuals call it poetry. I say it's hearts and soul's playground… I don't stop playing this endless game. It's my passion, now the question is… Do you play?

"Definition" of Poetry

There are as many definitions of poetry as there are poets. Wordsworth defined poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings;" Emily Dickenson said, "If I read a book and it makes my body so cold no fire ever can warm me, I know that is poetry;" and Dylan Thomas defined poetry this way: "Poetry is what makes me laugh or cry or yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what makes me want to do this or that or nothing." So what is poetry?

Perhaps the characteristic most central to the definition of poetry is its unwillingness to be defined, labelled, or nailed down. But let's not let that stop us, shall we? It's about time someone wrestled poetry to the ground and slapped a sign on its back reading, "I'm poetry. Kick me here."

Poetry is the chiselled marble of language; it's a paint-spattered canvas - but the poet uses words instead of paint, and the canvas is you. Poetic definitions of poetry kind of spiral in on themselves, however, like a dog eating itself from the tail up. Let's get nitty. Let's, in fact, get gritty. I believe we can render an accessible definition of poetry by simply looking at its form and its purpose:

One of the most definable characteristics of the poetic form is economy of language. Poets are miserly and unrelentingly critical in the way they dole out words to a page. Carefully selecting words for conciseness and clarity is standard, even for writers of prose, but poets go well beyond this, considering a word's emotive qualities, its musical value, its spacing, and yes, even its special relationship to the page. The poet, through innovation in both word choice and form, seemingly rends significance from thin air.

How am I doing so far? On to purpose:

One may use prose to narrate, describe, argue, or define. There are equally numerous reasons for writing poetry. But poetry, unlike prose, often has an underlying and over-arching purpose that goes beyond the literal. Poetry is evocative. It typically evokes in the reader an intense emotion: joy, sorrow, anger, and catharsis, love... Alternatively, poetry has the ability to surprise the reader with an Ah Ha! Experience -- revelation, insight, further understanding of elemental truth and beauty. Like Keats said:

"Beauty is truth. Truth, beauty.
That is all ye know on Earth and all ye need to know."

How's that? Do we have a definition yet?

Poetry is artistically rendering words in such a way as to evoke intense emotion or an Ah Ha! Experience from the reader.

Pretty unsatisfying, huh? Kind of leaves you feeling cheap, dirty, all hollow and empty inside… like Chinese food.

Don't do this. Don't shackle poetry with your definitions. Poetry is not a frail and cerebral old woman, you know. Poetry is stronger than you think. Poetry is imagination and will break those chains faster than you can say "Harlem Renaissance."

To borrow a phrase, poetry is a riddle wrapped in an enigma swathed in a cardigan sweater… or something like that. It doesn't like your definitions and will shirk them at every turn. If you really want to know what poetry is, read it. Read it carefully. Pay attention. Read it out loud. Now read it again.

There's your definition of poetry. Because defining poetry is like grasping at the wind - once you catch it, it's no longer wind.

Special thanks to the quote from Mark Flanagan, for his great “definition” of poetry found at it really inspires me and put into words what I though all along.

Mark has been and continues to be a contributor to a variety of online and print publications since the turn of the century. Prior to that, he manned the publishing trenches at The Rocky Mountain News.

About C.F. van Niekerk

Giovanni

This work is dedicated to Johannes Hermanus van Niekerk (1947-2005). A true father of love, kindness; meekness and a great example as a husband of his one wife (Ina Rudolph van Niekerk) for thirty years…

Coenie van Niekerk was born on April 11, 1977 in Johannesburg, South Africa.He grew up with a strong sense of art and culture and sang for the famous P.A.C.T. opera house in Pretoria, South Africa.

With his grandfather publishing many of his own poetic works in the early 1900's in Afrikaans anthologies, and his mother also being a poet and songwriter, Coenie van Niekerk, a third generation poet was born with a heart to challenge and questions "Life".

"Under the calamity of reality is the conclusion that holds the molds of the knowledge in me and the understanding in you,
Forwards in its means and strong in intent is the quest for our existence true..."
"The Opus"

His work, "Lets Awake", featured in "Poetry for Life", was described by Poetry.com as "...a poetic artistry..." and having "...a unique talent and artistic vision...".

Quotes

1. Love is enough, though the world is awating. – William Morris English Poet

2. Defeat never comes to any man until he admits it. – Josephus Daniels

3. A Ship in the harbour is safe. But that is not what ships are made for. – Anonymous

4. You live in the midst of life, but can describe it only from the vantage pint of distance. – Lindbergh

5. I your want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman. – Margaret Thatcher

6. What history teaches us is this: that people have not learned anything from it. – German Philosopher George Hegel

7. Advice is like snow – the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon the mind. – S. Coleridge

8. Every problem has a gift for you in its hands. – Richard Bach

9. It is my rule never to loose me temper till it would be detrimental to keep it. – Sean O Casey, Irish play writer

10. Extremism in the defence of liberty is no vice. – Barry Goldwater U.S. senator

11. Life without liberty is like body without spirit. – Kahlil Gibran “The Vision”

12. The only thing you take with you when you are gone is what you leave behind. – John Allston

13. You cannot separate peace from freedom because peace comes with freedom. – Malcolm X

14. I can never give a yes or a no. I do not believe everything in life can be settled by a monosyllable. – Betty Smith

15. Show affection, it will probably meet with pleasant response. – Anonymous

16. A leader is a fellow who refuses to be crazy like every body else is crazy. – P. Maurin

17. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act but a habit. – Aristotle

18. Act well at the moment, and you have performed a good action to all eternity. – Swiss theologian J. Lavater

19. Memory depends very much on the perspicuity, regularity, and the order of your thought. – U.S. critic Margaret Fuller

20. The sole has more diseases than the body. – Henry Wheeler Shaw, U.S. author (1818-1885)

21. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. – L.P. Hartley, British author

22. I do not know if war is an interlude during peace, or peace an interlude of war. – George Clemenceau

23. Genius is eternal patience. – Michelangelo, Italian artist (1475-1564)

24. He, who will not reason, is a bigot. He who dares not to is a slave. – British writer, William Drummond

25. War is a contagion. – Franklin D. Roosevelt, (1882-1945)

26. Neither in the life of the individual not in mankind is it desirable to know the future. – J. Burckhardt

27.
History is worth reading when it tells us truly what the attitude towards life was in the past. – U.S. author, D.C. Fisher

28.
Remember that every man is a variation of you. – U.S. playwright, William Saroyan

29
. All the history books that contain no lies are extremely tedious. – French writer, Anatole France

30.
In a dream you are never 80. – American Poet, Anne Sexton, (1928-1974)

31
. What is history but a fable agreed upon? – Napoleon Bonaparte, (1769-1821)

32
. Peace without justice is tyranny. – U.S. journalist, Allan White, (1868-1944)

33
. If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow. – Chinese proverb.

34.
There is no grief that time does not lesson and soften. – Roman scholar, Cicero (106-43BC)

35.
To find our what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness. – John Dewey

36
. The world often continues to allow evil because it is not angry enough. – Bede Jarrett

37
. Hard as it is to listen to one in affliction, it is as difficult for him to know compassion listens to him. – Author, S. Weil

38
. There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew. – Marshall McLuhan

39.
The soul that is within me no man can degrade. – Frederick Douglas

40.
Whom the gods wish to destroy they first call promising. – Cyril Connolly


41.
Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad. – Euripides

42.
If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

43
. Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness. – Philosopher, Bertrand Russell

44
. Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story. – American Author, John Barth

45
. We must not read either law or history backward. – English Historian, Helen M Cam

46
. You should avoid making yourself too clear even in your explanations. – Philosopher, Baltasar Gracian

47
. Regrets are as personal as fingerprints. – American Writer, Margaret Culkin Banning (1891-1982)

48
. a Man who does not loose his reason over certain things has none to lose. – German dramatist, Gotthold Lessing

49
. We tell our thoughts like our children, to put on their hats and coats before they go out. – Henry W. Fowler

50
. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty. – Ex-US senator, Eugene McCarthy

51
. The fellow who says he will meet you halfway usually thinks he is standing on the dividing line. – O.A. Battista

52
. Verily, when judgment day comes, we will not be asked what we read, but what we have done. – Theogian, T. Kempis

53
. No man can resolve himself into Heaven. – American Evangelist, Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899)

54
. The worst enemy of truth and freedom in our society is the compact majority. – Norwegian dramatist, Hendrik Lbsen

55
. There is nothing-in life but refraining from hurting others, comforting those who are sad. – SA author, Olive Schreiner

56
. To be proud and inaccessible is to be timid and weak. – French clergyman, Jean Baptiste Massillon

57
. Do not be humble; you aren’t that great. – Golda Meir, Israeli prime minister (1898-1978)

58
. It has been the inactions of those who can act that made it possible for evil to triumph. – Haile Selassie

59
. At every single moment of ones life one is what one is going to be no less than what one has been. – Oscar Wilde

60
. Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. – Theodore Roosevelt, 16th president of the U.S.

61
. A good beginning makes a good ending. – English proverb

62
. Having morals is not preaching; it is beauty of a rare kind. – French priest an author, Ernest Dimnet

63
. Moral indignation is in most cases 2% moral, 46% indignation, and 50% envy. – Film director, Vittorio De Sica

64
. It is the characteristic of the censorships that give credibility to the opinions they attack. – Author Voltaire

65
. The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter. – Author Mark Twain

66
. It is an undoubted truth that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in. – Author Lord Chesterfield

67
. Each child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man. – Poet Rabindranath Tagore

68
. Never look down on anybody unless you are helping him up. – US congressman, Jesse Jackson

69
. People that bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them. – Philosopher, Eric Hoffer

70
. The main thing is to make history, not write it. – Otto von Bismarck, German Statesman

71
. The mind, which only has prejudices to rest on, will ever be unstable. – Mary Wollstonecraft, English author

72
. No man remains quite what he was when he recognises himself. – Thomas Mann, German author

73
. To conquer without risk is to triumph without glory. – Pierre Corneille, French dramatist

74
. There is a great difference in believing something still, and believing it again. – Wystan Auden, British poet

75
. Our lives our not in the laps of the gods but in the lap of the cooks. – Lin Yutang, Chinese author

76
. An attack on ignorance usually fails because the masses defend their ignorance. – Hendrik W. van Loon, Lecturer

77
. There are two cardinal sins from which all the other spring: impatience and laziness. – Franz Kafka, Czech author

78
. To know how to say what others know how to think I what make poets or sages. – Elizabeth Charles, Writer

79
. You can close your eyes to reality, but not to memories. – Stanislaw J. Lec. , Polish author

80
. Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough, but not baked in the same oven. – Yiddish Proverb


81
. Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you. – Novelist Aldous Huxley

82
. What we become depends what we read after all professors’ finish with us. – Historian Thomas Carlyle

83
. You think money is the root of all evil. Have you asked what is the root of all money? – Philosoher Ayn Rand

84
. Curses are like processions. They return to the place from which they came. – Italian writer Giovanni Ruffini

85. The force that rules the world is conduct, whether it be moral or immoral. – American Educator Nicholas Murray Butler

86
. Feelings of misplacement births great ministry.

87
. The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. – Composer John Powell

88
. One of the penalties for not participating in politics is being governed by your inferiors. – Plato, Philosopher

89
. To be a revolutionary you have to care about people who have no power. – Actress Jane Fonda

90
. Be true to your work, your word and your friend. – American author, Henry David Thoreau


91
. The difference between the boss and a leader: a boss go and a leader says let us go. – Author EM Kelly

92
. To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead. – Philosopher Bertrand Russell

93
. Cherophobia is the fear of having fun.

94
. Praise underserved is satire in disguise. – English politician, Henry Broadhurst

95
. Honesty is the best policy, but he who acts on that principle is not an honest man. – British Theologian, Richard Whately

96
. Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves. – Author, James Barrie

97
. A good head and a good heart are always formidable combination. – Former SA president, Nelson Mandela

98
. A teacher effects eternity, he can never tell where his influence stops. – Historian Henry Brooks Adams

99
. Misquotations are the only quotations that are never misquoted. – British biographer Hesketh Pearson

100
. Change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it disappears. – Psychologist RD Laing


101
. Marriage always demands the finest arts of insincerity possible between two human beings. – Author Vicky Baum

102
. There is a coherent plan in the universe, though I do not know what it is. – Author Sir Fred Hoyle

103
. The proof of love is trust. – The Joyce Brothers

104
. Everything has been figured out, except how t love... – Philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre

105
. There are only two classes of mankind in the world: doctors and patients. – Author Rudyard Kipling

106
. We had better live as we think; otherwise we shall end up thinking as we have lived. – Author Paul Bouret

107
. No man is good enough to govern another man without his or her consent. – Former US president Abraham Lincoln

108
. An explanation of cause is not a justification by reason. – English CS Lewis (1898-18-1963)

109
. You have converted a man because you have silenced him. – Writer John Morley

110
. Though we travel the world to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we will not find it. – Ralph Emerson



111
. We are the people our parents warned us about. – Jimmy Buffett

112.
I cannot give a yes or no. I do not believe everything can be settled by a monosyllable. – Author Betty Smith

113
. To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. – Elbert Hubbard

114
. Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom t make mistakes. – Mahatma Gandhi

115
. If you are able to state a problem, it can be solved. – American inventor, Edwin H Land (1909-1991)

116
. I cannot save the world, but we can. – Bono U2

117
. Everyone can master a grief, but he that das it. – William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

118
. Sometimes it is worse to win a fight than to lose. – American singer Billie Holiday

119
. It is my rule never to lose my temper till it would be detrimental to keep it. – Playwright Sean O Casey

120
. To be independent when you have no money – that is the test of the Lord. – Singer Mahalia Jackson

121. "Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing, it's when you've had everything to do and you've done it!" – Margaret Thatcher

122. "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that 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." – Mark Twain

123. "The best motivation is self-motivation. The guy says, I wish someone would come by and turn me on. What if they don't show up? You've got to have a better plan for your life than that." – Jim Rohn

124. "Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain cool and unruffled under all circumstances." – Thomas Jefferson

125 ."Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat and worry with laughter at your predicaments, thus freeing your mind to think clearly toward the solution that is certain to come." – Og Mandino

126."Learn how to be happy with what you have while you pursue all that you want."– Jim Rohn

127. "I have often been afraid, but I would not give in to it. I made myself act as though I was not afraid and gradually my fear disappeared." – Theodore Roosevelt

128. "Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your oldnonsense." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

129. "The rare individual who honestly satisfies this heart-hunger (praise) will hold people in the palm of his hand, and even the undertaker will be sorry when he dies." – Dale Carnegie

130. "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor souls who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." – Theodore Roosevelt



131
. "Winning is not everything. It's the only thing." – Vince Lombardi

132."Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use." – Earl Nightingale, speaker, author

132. "Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." – Mark Twain

133. "Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action." – Benjamin Disraeli

134. "Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil." – James Allen

135. "Our real problem is not our strength today; it is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow." – Calvin Coolidge

136. "Learn how to be happy with what you have while you pursue all that you want." – Jim Rohn

137. "The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will." – Vincent T. Lombardi

138. "You don't have to change that much for it to make a great deal of difference. A few simple disciplines can have a major impact on how your life works out in the next 90 days, let alone in the next 12 months or the next 3 years." – Jim Rohn

139. "Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams.Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do." – Pope John XXIII

140. "Earn as much money as you possibly can and as quickly as you can. The sooner you get money out of the way, the sooner you will be able to get to the rest of your problems in style." – Jim Rohn



141
. "Whatever you are, be a good one." – Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

142. "Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. It is the accumulative weight of our disciplines and our judgments that leads us to either fortune or failure." – Jim Rohn

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

144. "The way you give your name to others is a measure of how much you like and respect yourself." – Brian Tracy

145. "When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal." – Napoleon Hill author of 1936 classic Think and Grow Rich

146 .The guy says, "When you work where I work, by the time you get home, it's late. You've got to have a bite to eat, watch a little TV, relax and get to bed. You can't sit up half the night planning, planning, planning." And he's the same guy who is behind on his car payment! – Jim Rohn

147. "People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them." – George Bernard Shaw, "Mrs. Warren's Profession," 1893

148. "If you were to show me your current financial plan, would I get so excited by it that I would go across the country and lecture on it? If the answer is no, then here's my question: "Why not"? Why wouldn't you have a superior financial plan that is taking you to the places you want to go?" – Jim Rohn

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

150. "Others will underestimate us, for although we judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, others judge us only by what we have already done." – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow



151
. "Forget the resolutions. Forget control and discipline... too much work. Instead try experimenting. Go in search of something to fall in love with...something about yourself, your career, your spouse." – Dale Dauten

152. "The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to them their own." – Benjamin Disraeli

153. "Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours." – Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) Scottish-born American industrialist, philanthropist, educator

154. "They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel." – Carl W. Buechner

155. "Let a person rejoice when he is confronted with obstacles, for it means that he has reached the end of some particular line of indifference or folly, and is now called upon to summon up all his energy and intelligence in order to extricate himself, and to find a better way; that the powers within him are crying out for greater freedom, for enlarged exercise and scope." – James Allen

156. "Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes the furthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The "sure thing" boat never gets far from shore." – Dale Carnegie

157. "It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about." – Dale Carnegie (1888-1955)

158. Nothing is difficult to those who have the will. – Dutch Poet's Society

159. "You can't expect to prevent negative feelings altogether. And you can't expect to experience positive feelings all the time...The Law of Emotional Choice directs us to acknowledge our feelings but also to refuse to get stuck in the negative ones." – Greg Anderson

160. "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." – Henry Ford (1863-1947)

161. "We all know a variety of ways to make a living. What's even more fascinating is figuring out ways to make a fortune." – Jim Rohn...master motivator

162. "Find something you love to do and you'll never have to work a day in your life." – Harvey Mackay

163. "People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing."– Andrew Carnegie

164. "So what do we do? Anything - something. So long as we just don't sit there. If we screw it up, start over. Try something else. If we wait until we've satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late." – Lee Iacocca

165. "Most wealth is inconspicuous. The man down the street driving the nice car and living in the mansion could easily have greater debt and a lower net worth than the stealthy and wealthy plumber who drives a beat-up truck but seems to work only when he doesn't feel like fishing." – Loral Langemeier, Author

166. "Natives who beat drums to drive off evil spirits are objects of scorn to smart Americans who blow horns to break up traffic jams." – Mary Ellen Kelly  

167. "When plans are laid in advance, it is surprising how often the circumstances fit in with them." – Sir William Osler, Physician  

168. "The habit of looking on the best side of every event is worth more than a thousand pounds a year." – Samuel Johnson, Author  

169. "The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore." – Vincent Van Gogh, Painter  

170."My father used to say to me, 'Whenever you get into a jam, whenever you get into a crisis or an emergency...become the calmest person in the room and you'll be able to figure your way out of it.'" – Rudolph Giuliani, Former Mayor of New York City  

171. "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks about changing themselves." – John Randolph  

172. "Before you begin a thing; remind yourself that difficulties and delays quite impossible to foresee are ahead... You can only see one thing clearly, and that is your goal. Form a mental vision of that and cling to it through thick and thin." – Kathleen Norris, Novelist  

173. "Continual improvement is an unending journey." – Lloyd Dobens and Clare Crawford Mason    

174."Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves." – James Matthew Barrie, Author    

175. "To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe." – Anatole France, French Novelist  

176. "Four short words sum up what has lifted most successful individuals above the crowd: a little bit more. They did all that was expected of them and a little bit more." – A. Lou Vickery, Writer  

177. Anything can be achieved in small, deliberate steps. But there are times you need the courage to take a great leap; you can't cross a chasm in two small jumps." – David Lloyd George  

178. "The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand." – Vince Lombardi, Football Coach  

179. "All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them." – Walt Disney  

180. "Sometimes you've got to let everything go... purge yourself. If you are unhappy with anything... whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you'll find that when you're free, your true creativity, your true self comes out." – Tina Turner, Singer  

181. "I don't believe in pessimism. If something doesn't come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it's going to rain, it will." – Clint Eastwood, Actor and Director  

182. "You gotta dance like nobody's watching, dream like you will live forever, live like you're going to die tomorrow and love like it's never going to hurt." – Meme Grifsters  

183. "All of the great achievers of the past have been visionary figures; they were men and women who projected into the future. They thought of what could be, rather than what already was, and then they moved themselves into action, to bring these things into fruition." – Bob Proctor, Author and Speaker  

184. "We cannot tell what may happen to us in the strange medley of life. But we can decide what happens in us... how we can take it, what we can do with it... and that is what really counts in the end." – Joseph Fort Newton , Author    

185. "When we change the models in our mind, we change the results in our life." – Mark Victor Hansen  
186. "It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." – Albert Einstein      

187. "Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little." – Edmund Burke

188. "The surest way to be late is to have plenty of time." – Leo Kennedy

189. "I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition." – Martha Washington, First American First Lady

190. "The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up." – Mark Twain

191. "When we see ourselves in a situation which must be endured and gone through, it is best to make up our minds to it, meet it with firmness, and accommodate everything to it in the best way practicable. This lessens the evil, while fretting and fuming only serves to increase your own torments." – Thomas Jefferson, 3rd U.S. President

192. "When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and arguments.  

193. "That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding." – Thich Nhat Hahn

194. "Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again." – Og Mandino, Author

195. "Any man's life will be filled with constant and unexpected encouragement if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day." – Booker T. Washington, Educator and Author

196. "A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes." – Hugh Downs, Journalist  

197. "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 18." – Albert Einstein

198. "So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning." – Morrie Schwartz

           

199. "I want to know God's thoughts... the rest are details." – Albert Einstein

200. "Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down." – Charles F. Kettering, Engineer and Inventor

201. "Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." – Leo Buscaglia

202. "In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted." – Bertrand Russell, Author and Mathematician

203. "An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest." – Benjamin Franklin

204. "Success in marriage does not come merely through finding the right mate, but through being the right mate." – Barnett Brickner, Rabbi

205. "Within you right now is the power to do things you never dreamed possible. This power becomes available to you just as soon as you can change your beliefs." – Dr. Maxwell Maltz, Author

206. "Don't ask yourself what the world needs - ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." – Harold Thurman Whitman, Philosopher and Theologian

207. "It's the constant and determined effort that breaks down all resistance, sweeps away all obstacles." Claude M. Bristol, Author   208. "A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline." – Harvey Mackay, Author

209. "Your true passion should feel like breathing; it's that natural." – Oprah Winfrey

210. "The secret of joy is contained in one word – excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it." – Pearl S. Buck, author

 

211. "A sense of humor can help you overlook the unattractive, tolerate the unpleasant, cope with the unexpected, and smile through the unbearable." – Moshe Waldoks, Rabbi and Humorist

212. "God does not play dice with the universe." – Albert Einstein

213. "Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into." – Wayne Dyer, Author and Speaker

214. "To the world, you may be one person, but to one person, you just might be the world." – Anonymous

215. "With vision, every person, organization and country can flourish. The Bible says, 'Without vision we perish.' " – Mark Victor Hansen

216. "To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light." – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poet and Essayist

217. "If you believe in unlimited quality and act in all your business dealings with total integrity, the rest will take care of itself." – Frank Perdue, Founder of Perdue Chicken

218. "There's no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love. There is only a scarcity of resolve to make it happen." – Wayne Dyer, Author and Speaker

219. "You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love." – Henry Drummond, Scientist and Author

220. "Experience shows that success is due less to ability than to zeal. The winner is he who gives himself to his work body and soul." – Charles Buxton, Author

221. "Great works are performed, not by strength, but by perseverance." – Samuel Johnson            

222. "The strongest oak tree of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It's the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun." – Napoleon Hill, Writer

223. "To keep your marriage brimming, with love in the loving cup, whenever you're wrong, admit it; whenever you're right, shut up." – Ogden Nash

224. "Regardless of how you feel inside, always try to look like a winner. Even if you are behind, a sustained look of control and confidence can give you a mental edge that results in victory." – Arthur Ashe, Professional Tennis Player

225. Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle." – Abraham Lincoln

226. "Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away." – Tom Clancy, Author

227. "This became a credo of mine... attempt the impossible in order to improve your work." – Bette Davis, Actress

228. "I'm living proof that your choice of how to respond to a situation constitutes your ultimate power." – Naomi Judd, Singer and Songwriter

229."You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him." – Leo Aikman, Writer and Newspaper Editor

230. "Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts." – Albert Einstein

231. "To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy ground." – Stephen Covey

232. "The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary." – Donald Kendall

233. "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." – Native American proverb

234. "Do not save your loving speeches for your friends till they are dead; Do not write them on their tombstones, speak them rather now instead." – Anna Cummins, Poet

   

235. "It is no great thing to be humble when you are brought low; but to be humble when you are praised is a great and rare attainment." – St. Bernard, French Theologian and Reformer

236. "Start small; Think possibilities; Reach beyond your known abilities; Invest all you have in your dream; Visualize miracles; Expect to experience success." – Rev. Robert H Schuller

237. "The little unremembered acts of kindness and love are the best parts of a person's life." – William Wordsworth, Poet

238. "What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner." – Colette

239. "Focus more on your desire than on your doubt, and the dream will take care of itself. You may be surprised at how easily this happens. Your doubts are not as powerful as your desires, unless you make them so." – Marcia Wieder, Speaker and Author

240. "Set your sights high, the higher the better. Expect the most wonderful things to happen, not in the future but right now. Realize that nothing is too good. Allow absolutely nothing to hamper you or hold you up in any way." – Eileen Caddy, Author

241. "Your own resolution to success is more important than any other one thing." – Abraham Lincoln, U.S. President

242. "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve." – Dr. Napoleon Hill

243. "When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, never give up then, for that is just the time that the tide will turn." – Harriet Beecher Stowe, Writer and Abolitionist

244. "Someday, after mastering winds, waves, tides and gravity, we shall harness the energy of love; and for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire." – Pierre Teilhard De Chardin  

245. "Make each day useful and cheerful and prove that you know the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be happy, old age without regret and life a beautiful success." – Louisa May Alcott, Author

246. "Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning." – Gloria Steinem, Author and Journalist  

247. "Yes, there are times when something is legitimately not our fault. Blaming others, however, keeps us in a stuck state and is ultimately rough on our own self-esteem." – Eric Allenbaugh, Author

248. "I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do." – Helen Keller, Author and Lecturer

249. "Be a fountain, not a drain." – Rex Hudler, Baseball player

250. "Each day, and the living of it, has to be a conscious creation in which discipline and order are relieved with some play and pure foolishness." – May Sarton, Poet

251. "I live by this credo: Have a little laugh at life and look around you for happiness instead of sadness. Laughter had always brought me out of unhappy situations. Even in your darkest moment, you usually can find something to laugh about if you try hard enough." – Red Skelton, Comedian

252. "We all like to be loved, but if I made decisions based on being liked, I wouldn't be a very responsible CEO." – Malcolm Rogers, Executive Director, Boston Museum of Fine Art

253. "Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can read." – Mark Twain

254. "Fall seven times, stand up eight." – Japanese Proverb

255. "Never does a man portray his character more vividly than his proclaiming the character of another." – Winston Churchill, Former British Prime Minister

256. "Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world." – Lucille Ball, Actress

257. "A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?" – Albert Einstein        

 

258. "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." – Thomas Edison

259. "Listening is a high art of loving. Ask yourself, 'When was the last time I really listened to my child? My parent? My brother or sister?' When someone is ready to share, three magic words amplify your connection, and they are: 'Tell me more.'" – Rev. Mary Manin Morrissey

260. "If you had a friend who talked to you like you sometimes talk to yourself, would you continue to hang around with that person?" – Rob Bremer, Speaker

261. "If you are out to describe truth, leave elegance to the tailor." – Albert Einstein

262. "All of the great achievers of the past have been visionary figures; they were men and women who projected into the future. They thought of what could be, rather than what already was, and then they moved themselves into action, to bring these things into fruition." – Bob Proctor

263. "Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says. 'Make me feel important.' Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life." – Mary Kay Ash, Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics

264. "You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true." – Richard Bach, Writer

265. "Visionaries are NOT special people. The gift of true vision requires only a willingness to open your eyes to first, find the horizon. Once fixated on the horizon comes the ability to see beyond, where the true magic of life exists." – Rick Beneteau

266. "If we are ever to enjoy life, now is the time, not tomorrow or next year... Today should always be our most wonderful day." – Thomas Dreier, Author

267. "When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn." – Harriet Beecher Stowe, Novelist

268. "Men give me credit for genius. All the genius I have lies in this: When I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly. Day and night, it is before me. I explore it in all its bearings. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then ... people are pleased to call [the effort that I made] the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought." – Alexander Hamilton

           

269. "I know not what others may choose but, as for me, give me liberty or give me death."– Patrick Henry

270. "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." – Anais Nin, Author

271. "A leader leads through inspiration. People like to work with people going places and are starved for the energy and excitement that business was always meant to have." – Loral Langemeier, Author of The Millionaire Maker

272. "The clearest sign of wisdom is continued cheerfulness." – Michel de Montaigne, Essayist

273. "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." – Eleanor Roosevelt, Former First Lady of the U.S.

274. "Eat before shopping. If you go to the store hungry, you are likely to make unnecessary purchases." – American Heart Association Cookbook

275. "If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life, you'll never have enough." – Oprah Winfrey

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