“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”
– Albert Einstein
Professor Einstein was once asked to explain his theory of relativity, but to do so in simple terms. He paused, then stated, “When you put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, it seems like an hour. But when you sit with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity.”
“Oh God, to have reached the point of death, without ever having lived at all.”
– Thoreau
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
– Shakespeare
“You have your brush, you have your colors, you paint paradise, then in you go.”
– Nikos Kazantzakis
“So the time has come for us to stop asking the questions to which we already know the answer and to be the answer for those who are still asking the questions imagining they don't know the answer.”
– Neale Donald Walsch
“If you are not getting as much from life as you want to, then examine the state of your enthusiasm.”
– Norman Vincent Peale
President Abraham Lincoln was walking past a crowd, when a woman accused him of being two faced. “My dear,” he replied, “If I were two faced, do you think I would have chosen this one?”
“Whatever you are, be a good one.”
– Abraham Lincoln
“Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told, 'I'm with you kid, let's go.'”
– Maya Angelou
“Final exams are like nuclear war there are no winners only survivors.”
– My theme in college
“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.”
– Henry Miller
My Dad and I concerning college:
No Mon
No Fun
Your Son
Too bad
So Sad
Your Dad
REFLECTION
“If I had my life to live over again, I'd try to make more mistakes next time. I wouldn't try to be so perfect.
I would relax more. I'd limber up. I'd be sillier than I've been on this trip. In fact, I know very few things that I would take so seriously, I'd be crazier.
I'd be less hygienic.
I'd take more chances, I'd take more trips, I'd climb more mountains, I'd swim more rivers, I'd watch more sunsets, I'd go more place I'd never been to. I'd eat more ice cream and fewer beans.
I'd have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones. You see I was one of those people who lived life prophylactically and sensibly and sanely hour after hour and day after day. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd have more of those moments. In fact, I'd try to have nothing but beautiful moments – moment by moment by moment.
I've been one of those people who never went anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a gargle, a raincoat, and a parachute. If I had to do it all over again, I'd travel lighter next time.
If I had to do it all over again, I'd start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I'd ride more merry-go-rounds, I'd watch more sunrises, and I'd play with more children, if I had to live my life over again. But you see I don't.
Your life is God's gift to you, and how you use it is your gift to God.”
– reflections of an 85-year-old man who learned he was dying
RISK
“Oh, learn to risk again. Go back to that point in childhood where the whole world was a gigantic, wondrous mystery that you had to understand. Get hooked on it. Say to yourself, 'I want to know everything. I want to feel and touch and taste and understand everything, and there isn't time in life to do it all, so I've got to do it now.' Value every moment as if it really is your last because it might very well be.
It's amazing— you might not realize it, but so much of what you are not is because you are literally standing in your own way of becoming. And what I am pleading with you about is, get the hell out of your way! Fly, life and love is all available to you.”
– Leo Buscaglia
PURPOSE
“The most important thing in the world is that you make yourself the greatest, grandest, most wonderful, loving person in the world because that is what you are going to be giving to your children — to all that you meet”
WONDER
“If a name be needed, let the name be WONDER, and then from wonder to wonder, existence opens.”
RELATIONSHIPS
“Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one also be alone. Even as the strings of a lute are alone, though they quiver to the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping, for only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. Stand together and yet not too near together for the pillars of the temple, in order to hold the temple up, stand apart. The oak tree and the cypress do not grow in each others shadow.”
– Gibran
The Dalai Lama's Instructions for Life:
Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
Follow the three Rs:
- Respect for self.
- Respect for others.
- Responsibility for all your actions.
Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
Don't let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
Spend some time alone everyday.
Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
Be gentle with the earth.
Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
“Fettuccine Alfredo is macaroni and cheese for adults.”
– comic Mitch Hedberg
“If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.”
– Milton Berle
“God is the energy you call imagination. God is creation. God is first thought. And God is last experience. And God is everything in between.
The point of life is not to get anywhere — it is to notice that you are, and always have been, already there.
There is no limit to what you can become.
The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation. You are not discovering yourself, but creating yourself anew.
Seek, therefore, not to find out who you are, seek to determine who you want to be.
The person who has the "faith to move mountains," and dies six weeks later, has moved mountains for six weeks. That may have been enough for him.
Envy not success, nor pity failure, for you know not what is success or failure in the soul's reckoning.
Nothing has meaning, save the meaning you give it.”
– Neale Donald Walsch
“The greatest risk is to risk nothing at all.”
– Leo Buscaglia
