Archive for the 'Quotations' Category

Views on Life & Death

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The Native American View on Life & Death

You live on earth only for a few short years
which you call an incarnation,
and then you leave your body as an outworn dress
and go for refreshment to your true home in the spirit.
~ White Eagle 

 

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view,  and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people.
Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place.
Show respect to all people and grovel to none.
When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself.
Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.
When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death,
so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way.
Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.

~ Chief Tecumseh (Crouching Tiger) Shawnee Nation 1768-1813


Buddha’s View on Life & Death

The secret of health for both mind and body
is not to mourn for the past,
not to worry about the future,
or not to anticipate troubles,
but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.

~ Buddha

Quotations for Positive Attitudes

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Quotations for Positive Attitudes

You are today where your thoughts have brought you?
You will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.
James Allen

A strong positive mental attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug.
Patricia Neal

Act as if what you do makes a difference.
It does.
William James, 1842-1910, Psychologist, Professor and Author

Often we allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. We lose many irreplaceable hours brooding over grievances that, in a year’s time, will be forgotten by us and by everybody. No, let us devote our life to worthwhile actions and feelings, to great thoughts, real affections and enduring undertakings.  
Andre Maurois, 1885-1967, Writer

No matter how small and unimportant what we are doing may seem, if we do it well, it may soon become the step that will lead us to better things.
Channing Pollock, Actor, Writer and Composer

In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened.
Harold S. Kushner, Rabbi, Author of When Bad Things Happen To Good People

Be the change you want to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi
 

Life is our greatest possession and love its greatest affirmation.
Leo Buscaglia

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second. Give your dreams all you’ve got and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.
William James, 1842-1910, Psychologist, Professor and Author

There are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them.
Clare Boothe Luce, 1902-1987, American Diplomat and Writer

Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure. The way you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You are overcome by the fact because you think you are.
Norman Vincent Peale

No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change.
Barbara DeAngelis, Author

One of the very first things I figured out about life…is that it’s better to be a hopeful person than a cynical, grumpy one, because you have to live in the same world either way, and if you’re hopeful, you have more fun.
—Barbara Kingsolver

Quotations for New Year’s

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Quotations for New Year’s


One of the secrets of getting more done is to make a TO DO List every day, keep it visible, and use it as a guide to action as you go through the day.
– Alan Lakein, Time Management Expert and Author

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room-by-room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched.  Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives… not looking for flaws, but for potential.
– Ellen Goodman

Now let us welcome the new year, full of things that have never been…
– Rilke

We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day. – Edith Lovejoy Pierce

A healthy attitude is contagious but don’t wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier.
– Anonymous

Most of us miss out on life’s big prizes.  The Pulitzer.  The Nobel.  Oscars.  Tonys.  Emmys.  But we’re all eligible for life’s small pleasures. A pat on the back.  A kiss behind the ear.  A four-pound bass.  A full moon.  An empty parking space.  A crackling fire.  A great meal. A glorious sunset.  Hot soup.  Cold beer.
– Anonymous

It is when things go hardest, when life becomes most trying, that there is greatest need for having a fixed goal.
– B.C. Forbes

Set a goal to achieve something that is so big, so exhilarating that it excites you and scares you at the same time.  It must be a goal that is so appealing, so much in line with your spiritual core, that you can’t get it out of your mind.  If you do not get chills when you set a goal, you’re not setting big enough goals.
– Bob Proctor

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

Quotations for Christmas & Hanukkah

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Quotations for Christmas & Hanukkah

To the American People:
Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind.
To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy,
is to have the real spirit of Christmas.
If we think on these things, there will be born in us a Savior
and over us will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world.
~Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), United States President
Presidential message (December 25, 1927)

Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide open heart that thinks of others first.
~George Matthew Adams

Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won’t make it "white."
~Bing Crosby

Our holiday traditions are about connecting with one another.
~Oprah Winfrey

My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?
~Bob Hope, American film actor and comedian

My Christmas wish is that we will continue to be thoughtful throughout the year.
~Patti LaBelle

At this time of year, when the sun is most hidden, the holiday of Hanukkah celebrates the rays of hope and light… At such times, we yearn for the sun, and the light and warmth that it provides. Often, it is through simple and unrecognized miracles that we are able to feel the warmth of hope and light.
~Rabbi Rafael Goldstein

If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another.
~Tenzin Gyatso

Joy is what happens when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.
~Marianne Williamson, Author of A Return To Love

The lights of the Hanukkah menorah that we kindle in our homes are a reminder both of the Menorah in the Temple in Jerusalem and the light that shines brightly within each one of us.
~Libi Astair

When a person is "being with" or "present in the moment" their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual "being-nesses" are in the same place at the same time.
~Brian Klemmer

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
~Buddha

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.
~Albert Schweitzer

He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.
~Roy L. Smith

Giving really starts to be better than receiving. I guess that’s a sign of growing up.
~Jewel

Home is familiar and filled with tradition. It’s aunts, uncles, cousins and lifelong friends.
~Brian Naylor

Mail your packages early so the post office can lose them in time for Christmas.
~Johnny Carson
 
I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six.
Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.
~Shirley Temple

Once again, we come to the holiday season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice.
~Dave Barry

There’s nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.
~Erma Bombeck

It is the personal thoughtfulness, the warm human awareness, the reaching out of the self to one’s fellow man that makes giving worthy of the Christmas spirit.
~Isabel Currier

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful."   
~Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993)
Pastor, Speaker and Author

For Yuletide quotations, stories, poems, traditions and treasures, see the book Heart of the Holidays, by Sheryl Roush


Heart of the Holidays
book is available only here with a BONUS MUSIC CD of Christmas and Hanukkah selections, by talented pianist Laurie Z., and beloved actor Jack Palance.

Quotations: Commitment, Initiative, Decision

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Quotations: Commitment, Initiative, Decision

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, and then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


My basic principle is that you don’t make decisions because they are easy;
you don’t make them because they are cheap;
you don’t make them because they’re popular;
you make them because they’re right.
Theodore Hesburgh

 

Find what you love to do.
Find your  passion.
Know what makes you want to get up in the morning, that’s all you need.
—Condoleeza Rice

Every decision you make – every decision – is not a decision about what to do. It’s a decision about Who You Are. When you see this, when you understand it, everything changes. You begin to see life in a new way. All events, occurrences, and situations turn into opportunities to do what you came here to do.
Neale Donald Walsch
Author of Conversations With God

Quotations on Success

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Quotations on Success

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

When you are grateful — when you can see what you have — you unlock blessings to flow in your life.
—Suze Orman

There are two ways of meeting difficulties; you alter the difficulties, or you alter yourself to meet them.
Phyllis Bottome

Life isn’t about finding yourself.
Life is about creating yourself.
George Bernard Shaw

When the vision on the inside becomes more compelling and powerful than what is observed on the outside, then the universe is at your command.
James Arthur Ray

A man’s fortune must first be changed from within.
Chinese Proverb

You have to start by changing the story you tell yourself about getting older…The minute you say to yourself, ‘Time is everything, and I’m going to make sure that time is used the way I dream it should be used,’ then you’ve got a whole different story.
—Diane Sawyer

Success comes from taking the initiative and following up… persisting… eloquently expressing the depth of your love. What simple action could you take today to produce a new momentum toward success in your life?
Anthony Robbins

In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
Eric Hoffer

When we can begin to take our failures seriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.
Katherine Mansfield

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
Winston Churchill

Your self image is your pattern!
Every thought has an activity visualized.
Every activity belongs to a pattern.
You identify with your pattern or thought.
Your patterns leads your life.
J G Gallimore

Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you;
Be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.
W. Clement Stone

If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it, even if I did not have the ability in the beginning.
Mahatma Gandhi

Put blinders on to those things that conspire to hold you back, especially the ones in your own head.
—Meryl Streep

It’s the little things you do that can make a big difference. What are you attempting to accomplish? What little thing can you do today that will make you more effective? You are probably only one step away from greatness.
Bob Proctor, The Secret

The secret of making something work in your lives is, first of all, the deep desire to make it work; then the faith and belief that it can work; then to hold that clear definite vision in your consciousness and see it working out step by step, without one doubt or disbelief.
—Eileen Caddy

Listen to that voice inside you that says you can accomplish anything. Trust that feeling that tells you, you can achieve all that you hope for. Believe that everything you want is waiting for you. Hold on to the knowledge that nothing is impossible. Remember that each person who has ever achieved a goal started out with only a dream.
Jason Blume 

Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.
Art Linkletter

Don’t wait for extraordinary opportunities.
Seize common occasions and make them great.
—Orison Swett Marden

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


Most successful people begin with two beliefs:
the future can be better than the present,
and I have the power to make it so.
—David Brooks

Don’t ask what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
Howard Thurman

If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.
John D. Rockefeller

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.
Sir Winston Churchill

Plan your hours to be productive.
Plan your weeks to be educational.
Plan your years to be purposeful.
Plan your life to be an experience of growth.
Plan to change.
Plan to grow.
—Iyanla Vanzant

Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can — there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did.
—Sarah Caldwell

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.
Lewis L. Dunnington

My greatest luxury is silence.
—Jean-Georges Vongerichten, chef

True Freedom to Be Who We Are

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Surrender

When we are willing to surrender who we think we "should" be, true freedom is revealed and acceptance of "what is" becomes paramount.

Surrender is not about giving up your Essential Nature, in fact it means embracing it fully and completely. When you surrender to the "real you," self-acceptance becomes the order of the day. No more wanting to be different instead, acceptance gives away to understanding, love and kindness.
 
When we surrender, we are willing to release what we think is "right" for "what is." We are learning to accept. We can let go of the past we give the power of forgiveness room to blossom. When we are truly willing to surrender, our egos are put aside for the truth; the truth of our actions, our language and our thoughts. In acceptance, we are free to make the conscious powerful choices necessary to alter our lives without guilt, shame or doubt.  

~Rhonda Britten
Fearless Year E-Book
www.FearlessLiving.org

POEM: A Tribute to Old Glory

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A Tribute to Old Glory
by Cynthia Groopman

In the soft gentleness of the dawn’s early light,
My eyes are dazzled by an enchanting breathtaking sight.
For regally gracing the clear early morning sky,
Is Old Glory cheerfully waving so very high.

For dear red, white and blue you symbolize a nation of heroes
Who are so loyal, brave and true.
Like a dove of peace, your stripes are of a snowy white,
Symbolizing freedom’s preciously shining eternal light.
A bright red is as fiery as a blaze,
Adding luster and brightness to the morning haze.

For dear Old Glory, you are indeed a joyful gift for us to behold,
As you picturesquely narrate a story that is remarkably told.
For you are priceless treasure and I love and admire you,
With emotions, words and sentiments that are loving true.

Quotations for Women

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Born a precious child, our life beckons to find the wise woman inside,  only to show us the truth about our lives is to remain that precious child, after all.
Sheryl Roush

A woman is a full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture, and transform.
Diane Mariechild

A woman’s heart can always stretch to hold a little more.
Rosalie Ferrer Kramer

You were born a woman and Earth is your kingdom.
What are you waiting for?
Maruja Basalo

I am a sensible and sentimental woman.
I receive great love and celestial peace
from our loving Almighty God
that beautifies me inside.
Consuleo Sanchez

If things are not going well with you, begin your effort at correcting the situation by carefully examining the service you are rendering, and especially the spirit in which you are rendering it. 
Roger Babson, 1875-1967, Statistician and Columnist

We are not asked … to believe in a perfect world. We are asked to equip ourselves with courage, hope, readiness for hard work and to cherish large and generous ideals.
—Emily Balch

I was worthless, until I decided to be worth more.
Kim Jeffery, Career Woman

When you grow up and you’re different, all you want to do is find a way to be the same. And then as a more mature adult you realize the beauty of thinking on your own.
—Sarah Jessica Parker

 

BOOKS –AND MUSIC IN THE HEART BOOK SERIES:
Click on title to view each book.

Heart of a Woman (printed)
Heart of a Military Woman (printed) ….. and on Kindle
Heart of a Mother (printed)
Heart of a Mother (printed with Bonus Music CD)
Heart of a Mother …  Music CD
Heart of the Holidays (printed) ….. and on Kindle
Heart of the Holidays … Music CD
Heart of a Woman in Business (printed)

Corazon de Mujer
(printed) (Heart of a Woman in Spanish)

Character and Conduct

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Character and Conduct

Conduct is what we do; character is what we are.

Conduct is the outward life;
character is the life unseen, hidden within, yet evidenced by that which is seen.

Conduct is external, seen from without;
character is internal–operating within.

Character is the state of the heart;
conduct is its outward expression.

Character is the root of the tree;
conduct is the fruit it bears.

– E.M. Bounds

Heart-Felt Quotations

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"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched… but are felt in the heart."
~Helen Keller

“When I speak of love, I am not speaking of some sentimental or weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality.”
~Martin Luther King, Jr.
 

"You will reap what you sow, now or later."
~Rev. Charles Stanley, Atlanta, GA

"The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love."
~William Wordsworth

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
while loving someone deeply gives you courage."
~Lao-Tzu

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

"Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness."
~Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Love is a verb."
~R. Buckminster Fuller

"Love is the most priceless treasure life affords us."
~Alan Harris

"If you have much, give of your wealth.
If you have little, give of your heart."
~Arab Proverb

Beauty of the Heart

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The only lasting beauty is the beauty of the heart.
~Rumi, Sufi Poet

Quotations: Making Positive Choices

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Quotations: Making Positive Choices

One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.
– Eleanor Roosevelt

Every act we perform is a choice, even if we are unaware that we have made a choice. Our unawareness of choice at the level of electrons and atoms gives us the illusion of a mechanical reality. In this way, we appear to be mere victims subject to the whims of a "higher being."
Fred Alan Wolf, Quantum Theorist

Quotations for Christmas

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He who has no Christmas in his heart will never find Christmas under a tree.

-Author Unknown

Toasts for Good Cheer

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Toasts for Good Cheer


No matter what looms ahead, if you can eat today, enjoy today,
mix good cheer with friends today enjoy it and bless God for it.
~Henry Ward Beecher

May God grant you always…
A sunbeam to warm you,
a moonbeam to charm you,
a sheltering Angel so nothing can harm you.
Laughter to cheer you.
Faithful friends near you.
And whenever you pray,
Heaven to hear you.
~Irish Blessings

These things I warmly wish for you
Someone to love, some work to do,
A bit o’ sun, a bit o’ cheer,
And a guardian angel always near.
~Irish Blessings

May you always have walls for the winds,
a roof for the rain,
tea beside the fire,
laughter to cheer you,
those you love near you
and all your heart might desire.
~Irish Blessings

Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.
~William Shakespeare

At Christmas play and make good cheer,
for Christmas comes but once a year.
~Thomas Tusser

New Year’s Quotations

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New Year’s Quotations

Let us dare to dream of a peace that the world has never known.
~Coretta Scott King

Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve.
Middle age is when you’re forced to. 
~Bill Vaughn

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. 
A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. 
~Bill Vaughan

A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other. 
~Unknown

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.
~Oprah Winfrey

We will open the book. Its pages are blank.
We are going to put words on them ourselves.
The book is called Opportunity
and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.
~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Glory to God in highest heaven,
Who unto man His Son hath given;
While angels sing with tender mirth,
A glad new year to all the earth.
~Martin Luther

I do think New Year’s resolutions can’t technically be expected to begin on New Year’s Day, don’t you? Dieting on New Year’s Day isn’t a good idea as you can’t eat rationally but really need to be free to consume whatever is necessary, moment by moment, in order to ease your hangover. I think it would be much more sensible if resolutions began generally on January the second. 
~Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones’s Diary

Thanksgiving Blessings by Melody Beattie

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Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.
It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home,
a stranger into a friend.
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today,
and creates a vision for tomorrow.

–Melody Beattie

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