Quotes I Like
“The generous and bold have the best lives.”
— Poetic Edda, Ancient Norse Manuscript from Iceland
“New Beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.”
— Laozi
“Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra. Then suddenly it flips you over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.”
— Matt Groening, Creator of The Simpsons
"There are certain queer times and occasions in this stranger mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimply discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody’s expense but his own... And, as for small difficulties and worryings, prospects of sudden disaster, peril of life and limb, all these, and death itself, seem to him only sly, good-natured hits, and jolly punches in the side bestowed by the unseen and unaccountable old joker.That odd sort of wayward mood I am speaking of comes over a man only in some time of extreme tribulation; it comes in the very midst of his earnestness; so that what just before might have seemed to him a thing most momentous, now seems but a part of the general joke. There is nothing like the perils of whaling to breed this free and easy sort of genial, desperado philosophy; and with it I now regarded this whole voyage of the Pequod, and the great White Whale its object."
“Imagine if every moment something that is happening to you, you are choosing it.”
— Eckhart Tolle
"Man schließe das Auge, man öffne, man schärfe das Ohr, und von leisesten Hauch bis zum wildesten Geräusch, von einfachsten Klang bis zur höchsten Zusammenstimmung, von dem heftigsten leidenschaftlichen Schrei bis zum sanftesten Worte der Vernunft ist es nur die Natur, die spricht, ihr Dasein, ihre Kraft, ihr Leben und ihre Verhältnisse offenbart, so daß ein Blinder, dem das unendlich Sichtbare versagt hat, im Hörbaren ein unendlich Lebendiges fassen kann."
"Wo große Liebe zu sich selber ist, da ist sie der Schwangerschaft Wahrzeichen. Noch grünen mir meine Kinder in ihrem ersten Frühlinge, nahe beinander stehend und gemeinsam von Winden geschüttelt, die Bäume meines Gartens und besten Erdreichs. Knorrig und gekrümmt und mit biegsamer Härte soll er mir dann am Meere dastehe, ein lebendiger Leuchtturm unbesiegbaren Lebens."
“But the bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision.”
— Thucydides
“The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.”
— William Blake
"All Life is figured by them [the Norse] as a Tree. Igdrasil, the Ash tree of existence, has its roots deep down in the kingdoms of Hela or Death; its trunk reaches up heaven-high, spreads its boughs over the whole universe: it is the tree of existence. At the foot of it sit three “Nornas”, Fates,—past, present and future, watering its roots from the sacred well. Its “boughs”, with their buddings and disleafings? —events, things suffered, things done, catastrophes, — stretch through all lands and time. Is not every leaf a biography? Its boughs are Histories of Nations. The rustle of it is the noise of Human Existence. It grows there, the breath of human passion rustling through it… the infinite conjugation of the verb’to do.'"
“Worf: [Blood-curdling roar]. That is how the Klingon lures a mate.
Ensign Crusher: Are you telling me I should go yell at her?
Worf: No, men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects and claw at you.
Ensign Crusher: What does the man do?
Worf: He ducks a lot.”
Star Trek The Next Generation
“On s’engage et puis on voit”
“First get into a fight, and then figure out what to do.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte
“All poets and heroes are children of Aurora and emit their music at sunrise. Morning is when I have a dawn in me.”
— Henry David Thoreau, Walden
“Those who are courageous, go headlong. They search all opportunities of danger. Their life philosophy is not that of insurance companies. Their life philosophy is that of a mountain climber, a glider, a surfer. And not only in the outside seas they surf; they surf in their innermost seas. And not only on the outside they climb Alps and Himalayas; they seek inner peaks. But remember one thing: never forget the art of risking— never, never. Always remain capable of risking. Wherever you can find an opportunity to risk, never miss it, and you will never be a loser. Risk is the only guarantee for being truly alive.”
— Osho Rajneesh
“For me to say I wasn’t a genius, I would just be lying, to you and to myself.”
— Kanye West
“The rules don’t break me. I break the rules.”
— DJ Kaufmann
“Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elisium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken
Himmlische, dein Heiligthum.
Deine Zauber binden wieder,
was der Mode Schwerd getheilt;
Bettler werden Fürstenbrüder,
wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
Wem der große Wurf gelungen,
eines Freundes Freund zu seyn;
wer ein holdes Weib errungen,
mische seinen Jubel ein!
Freude trinken alle Wesen
an den Brüsten der Natur,
Alle Guten, alle Bösen
folgen ihrer Rosenspur.
Küße gab sie uns und Reben,
einen Freund, geprüft im Tod.
Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben,
und der Cherub steht vor Gott.”
— Friedrich Schiller, “An Die Freude”
“In dem Augenblick, in dem man sich endgültig einer Aufgabe verschreibt, bewegt sich die Vorsehung auch. Alle möglichen Dinge, die sonst nie geschehen wären, geschehen, um einem zu helfen. Ein ganzer Strom von Ereignissen wird in Gang gesetzt durch die Entscheidung, und er sorgt zu den eigenen Gunsten für zahlreiche unvorhergesehene Zufälle, Begegnungen und materielle Hilfen, die sich kein Mensch vorher je so erträumt haben könnte. Was immer Du kannst, beginne es. Kühnheit trägt Genius, Macht und Magie.”
— Goethe
"Denn alle Kraft dringt vorwärts in die Weite,
Zu leben und zu wirken hier und dort;
Dagegen engt und hemmt von jeder Seite
Der Strom der Welt und reisst uns mit sich fort:
In diesem innern Sturm und äussern Streite
Vernimmt der Geist ein schwer verstanden Wort:
Von der Gewalt, die alle Wesen bindet,
Befreit der Mensch sich, der sich überwindet."
“Trust is the coin of the realm. When trust was in the room, whatever room that was – the family room, the schoolroom, the locker room, the office room, the government room or the military room – good things happened. When trust was not in the room, good things did not happen. Everything else is details.”
— George Shultz
“The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs.
“Dreams are the seedlings of realities.”
— James Allen
“Writing is the antidote to confusion.”
— James Clear
There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
— Charles Darwin, Origin of Species, Conclusion
Mental toughness is persistence not intensity.
— James Clear
He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch.
— Jean-Luc Godard
“Your 1st blog post will be bad, but your 1000th will be great.
Your 1st workout will be weak, but your 1000th will be strong.
Your 1st meditation will be scattered, but your 1000th will be focused.
Put in your reps.”
— James Clear
“When making plans, think big.
When making progress, think small.”
— James Clear
“As I’ve gotten older—I would say starting in my mid-to-late 20s—I could not help but notice the effect on people of the stories they told about themselves. If you listen to people, if you just sit and listen, you’ll find that there are patterns in the way they talk about themselves.
There’s the kind of person who is always the victim in any story that they tell. Always on the receiving end of some injustice. There’s the person who’s always kind of the hero of every story they tell. There’s the smart person; they delivered the clever put down there.
There are lots of versions of this, and you’ve got to be very careful about how you tell these stories because it starts to become you. You are—in the way you craft your narrative—kind of crafting your character. And so I did at some point decide, “I am going to adopt self-consciously as my narrative, that I’m the happiest person anybody knows.” And it is amazing how happy-inducing it is.”
— Michael Lewis
Fforsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit.
(Someday you will look back even on this and laugh).
— Virgil
Love is not consolation. It is light.
— Friedrich Nietzsche
Verbrennen mußt du dich wollen in deiner eignen Flamme: wie wolltest du neu werden, wenn du nicht erst Asche geworden bist!
— Friedrich Nietzsche, ASZ, Vom Wege des Schaffenden
Wenn du dein hier und jetzt unerträglich findest und es dich unglücklich macht, dann gibt es drei Möglichkeiten: Verlasse die Situation, verändere sie oder akzeptiere sie ganz. Wenn du Verantwortung für dein Leben übernehmen willst, dann musst du eine dieser drei Möglichkeiten wählen, und du musst die Wahl jetzt treffen.
— Eckhart Tolle, Die Kraft der Gegenwart
A value is something that you give your time, energy and your resources to. If it’s not a value that you want to chase, or that’s good for you, but you’re still giving all your time and energy and resources to it — Yes, you are valuing it. You are giving away your most valuable assets to it.
— Dr. Isaiah Hankel
That which you most need will be found where you least want to look.
— Carl Jung
In a moment the ashes are made, but a forest is a long time growing.
I will storm the gods, and shake the universe.
A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.
There is no easy way from the earth to the stars.
It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.
He who is brave is free.
No man was ever wise by chance.
There is no genius without a touch of madness.
The fool, with all his other faults, has this also, he is always getting ready to live.
— Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Energy follows thought.
— David Allen
“So gerät jeder geistige, jeder schöpferische Mensch unverweigerlich in den
Kampf mit seinem Dämon, und immer ist es ein Heldenkampf, immer ein
Liebeskampf: der herrlichste der Menschheit. Manche erliegen seinem
hitzigen Andrängen wie das Weib dem Manne, sie lassen sich vergewaltigen
von seiner übermächtigen Kraft, sie fühlen sich selig durchdrungen und
überströmt vom fruchtbaren Element… Bis in den letzten Nerv seines
Schaffens zittert der heiße Atem, die sinnliche Vibration der Brautnacht
des Geistes mit seinem ewigen Verführer. Nur im Schöpfer vermag sich das
Dämonische aus dem Schatten des Gefühles in Sprache und Licht zu ringen,
und am deutlichsten erkennen wir seine leidenschaftlichen Züge in jenen,
die ihm erliegen, im Typus des vom Dämon hinabgerissenen Dichters, für den
ich hier die Gestalten Hölderlins, Kleistens und Nietzsches als die
sinnvollsten der deutschen Welt gewählt habe. Denn wenn der Dämon
selbstherrlich in einem Dichter waltet, ersteht in flammenhaft
aufschießender Steigerung auch ein besonderer Typus der Kunst: Rauschkunst,
exaltiertes, fieberhaftes Schaffen, spasmische, überwallende Aufschwünge
des Geistes, Krampf und Explosion, Orgiasmus und Trunkenheit, die μανια der
Griechen, die heilige Raserei, die sonst nur dem Prophetischen, dem
Pythischen innewohnt.”
— Stefan Zweig, Kämpf mit dem Dämon: Hölderlin, Kleist, Nietzsche
Wir aber wollen die Dichter unseres Lebens sein, und im Kleinsten und Alltäglichsten zuerst.
Friedrich Nietzsche, Fröhliche Wissenschaft
“Time (aeon) is a child at play.” (DK 52) Heraklitus
êthos anthrôpôi daimôn. The character of man is his guardian spirit. (B119) Heraklitus
Collections: wholes and not wholes; brought together, pulled apart; sung in unison, sung in conflict; from all things one and from one all things (B10) Heraklitus
The price of greatness is responsibility. Winston Churchill
Wir gehören nicht zu denen, die erst zwischen Büchern, auf den Anstoß von Büchern zu Gedanken kommen – unsere Gewohnheit ist, im Freien zu denken, gehend, springend, steigend, tanzend, am liebsten auf einsamen Bergen oder dicht am Meere, da wo selbst die Wege nachdenklich werden. Friedrich Nietzsche
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. Winston Churchill You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life. Winston Churchill Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened. Winston Churchill
Deine Aufgabe ist nicht, Liebe zu suchen. Deine Aufgabe ist, alle die Hindernisse, die du dagegen aufgebaut hast, zu suchen und zu finden. Rumi
In media vita! – Nein! Das Leben hat mich nicht enttäuscht! Von Jahr zu Jahr finde ich es vielmehr wahrer, begehrenswerter und geheimnisvoller – von jenem Tage an, wo der große Befreier über mich kam, jener Gedanke, daß das Leben ein Experiment des Erkennenden sein dürfe – und nicht eine Pflicht, nicht ein Verhängnis, nicht eine Betrügerei! – Und die Erkenntnis selber: mag sie für andere etwas anderes sein, zum Beispiel ein Ruhebett oder der Weg zu einem Ruhebett, oder eine Unterhaltung, oder ein Müßiggang – für mich ist sie eine Welt der Gefahren und Siege, in der auch die heroischen Gefühle ihre Tanz- und Tummelplätze haben. »Das Leben ein Mittel der Erkenntnis« – mit diesem Grundsatze im Herzen kann man nicht nur tapfer, sondern sogar fröhlich leben und fröhlich lachen! Und wer verstünde überhaupt gut zu lachen und zu leben, der sich nicht vorerst auf Krieg und Sieg gut verstünde? Friedrich Nietzsche, die fröhliche Wissenschaft
“Den Schaffenden, den Erntenden, den Feiernden will ich mich zugesellen: den Regenbogen will ich ihnen zeigen und alle die Treppen des Übermenschen.
Den Einsiedlern werde ich mein Lied singen und den Zweisiedlern; und wer noch Ohren hat für Unerhörtes, dem will ich sein Herz schwer machen mit meinem Glücke.
Zu meinem Ziele will ich, ich gehe meinen Gang; über die Zögernden und Saumseligen werde ich hinwegspringen. “ Friedrich Nietzsche, Also Sprach Zarathustra
Turn your problems into projects. David Allen
Wenn du aufhörst, zwanghaft vom Jetzt wegzustreben, dann ergießt sich die Freude des Seins in alles hinein, was du tust. Eckhart Tolle
It seemed, wrote Machiavelli, that in the midst of murder and civil wars, our republic became stronger, its citizens infused with virtues… a little bit of agitation gives resources to souls and what makes the species prosper isn’t peace but freedom. Rousseau
Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world. Eckhart Tolle
It’s very, very simple. Fight for your values to the death, or feel that you’re wasting your life. Ai Wei Wei
Wir werden geformt und gestaltet durch das, was wir lieben. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
In dem Augenblick, in dem man sich endgültig einer Aufgabe verschreibt, bewegt sich die Vorsehung auch. Alle möglichen Dinge, die sonst nie geschehen wären, geschehen, um einem zu helfen. Ein ganzer Strom von Ereignissen wird in Gang gesetzt durch die Entscheidung, und er sorgt zu den eigenen Gunsten für zahlreiche unvorhergesehene Zufälle, Begegnungen und materielle Hilfen, die sich kein Mensch vorher je so erträumt haben könnte. Was immer Du kannst, beginne es. Kühnheit trägt Genius, Macht und . Beginne jetzt. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and of creative action, that man finds his supreme joys. Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
“From women’s eyes this doctrine I derive: They sparkle still the right Promethean fire; They are the books, the arts, the academes, That show, contain, and nourish all the world.” Berowne in Love’s Labor’s Lost
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before beginning to improve the world. Anne Frank
I’ve had to work with a lot of nations, for that matter, at odds with each other. And I tell you this: You do not lead by hitting people over the head. Any damn fool can do that, but it’s usually called ‘assault’ — not ‘leadership.’ I’ll tell you what leadership is. It’s persuasion, and conciliation, and education, and patience. It’s long, slow, tough work. That’s the only kind of leadership I know, or believe in, or will practice. Dwight D Eisenhower
All intellectual improvement arises from leisure. Samuel Johnson
Bildung ist die Entwicklung der Kraft, Herausforderungen zu meistern. Monetts Summary of Wilhelm Humboldt’s Concept of “Bildung”
Out of difficulties grow miracles. Jean de la Bruyere
From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow. Aeschlyus
How frequently, in the course of our lives, the evil which in itself we seek most to shun, and which, when we are fallen into, is the most dreadful to us, is oftentimes the very means or door of our deliverance, by which alone we can be raised again from the affliction we are fallen into. I could give many examples of this in the course of my unaccountable life; but in nothing was it more particularly remarkable than in the circumstances of my last years of solitary residence in this island. Robinson Crusoe
Look at the lilies. See how they grow. They neither toil nor spin.
- Matthew 6:28
“The strawberry grows underneath the nettle And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best Neighbour’d by fruit of baser quality: And so the prince obscured his contemplation Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt, Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night, Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.” Shakespeare, Henry V
Gewagte Ideen sind wie Schachfiguren, die vorwärts bewegt werden. Sie mögen geschlagen werden, doch dabei der Anfang eines erfolgreichen Spiels sein. Goethe
A freedom fighter must use every opportunity to speak to people about his cause. Nelson Mandela
My reigning sin, to which perhaps many others are appendant, is waste of time, and general sluggishness. Samuel Johnson
Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The braver one is, the happier one is. Seneca
When I look back upon them I cannot but return my sincere thanks to the high gods for the gift of existence. All the days were good and each day better than the other. Ups and downs, risks and journeys, but always the sense of motion, and the illusion of hope. Come on now all you young men, all over the world. You are needed more than ever now to fill the gap of a generation shorn by the war. You have not an hour to lose. You must take your places in Life’s fighting line. Twenty to twenty-five! These are the years! Don’t be content with things as they are. ‘The earth is yours and the fulness thereof.’ Enter upon your inheritance, accept your responsibilities. Raise the glorious flags again, advance them upon the new enemies, who constantly gather upon the front of the human army, and have only to be assaulted to be overthrown. Don’t take No for an answer. Never submit to failure. Do not be fobbed off with mere personal success or acceptance. You will make all kinds of mistakes ; but as long as you are generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her. She was made to be wooed and won by youth. She has lived and thrived only by repeated subjugations. Winston Churchill
… the cell is an ideal place to learn to know yourself, to search realistically and regularly the process of your own mind and feelings. In judging our process as individuals we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one’s social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education. These are, of course, important in measuring one’s success in material matters and it is perfectly understandable if many people exert themselves mainly to achieve all these. But internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one’s development as a human being. Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others – qualities which are within easy reach of every soul – are the foundation of one’s spiritual life. Development in matters of this nature is inconceivable without serious introspection, without knowing yourself, your weakness and mistakes. At least, if for nothing else, the cell gives you the opportunity to look daily into your entire conduct, to overcome the bad and develop whatever is good in you. Regular meditation, say about 15 minutes a day before you turn in, can be very fruitful in this regard. You may find it difficult at first to pinpoint the negative features in your life, but the 10th attempt may yield rich rewards. Never forget that a saint is a sinner, who keeps on trying. Nelson Mandela, Autobiography
The poetry of Earth is never dead. John Keats
In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence, a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention. Herbert Simon (Nobel Prize Winner)
The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried. Stephen McCranie
Danger should know that Caesar is more dangerous than he Shakespeare - Julius Caesar
Sonne kann nicht ohne Schein / Mensch kann nicht ohne Liebe sein Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Water is the softest thing, yet it can penetrate mountains and earth.” Lao-Tzu
Even amidst fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted. Ted Hughes for Sylvia Plath’s gravestone… also from Buddhist 16th century novel Journey To The West
First make the change easy, then make the change. Sandi Metz, kind of
Teaching music is not my main purpose. If children hear fine music from the day of their birth and learn to play it, they develop sensitivity, discipline and endurance. They get a beautiful heart. Suzuki
It has often been said that power corrupts. But it is perhaps equally important to realize that weakness, too, corrupts. Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance, and suspicion are the faults of weakness. The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from the sense of inadequacy and impotence. They hate not wickedness but weakness. When it is their power to do so, the weak destroy weakness wherever they see it. Eric Hoffer
Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision. Peter Drucker Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something. Eric Hoffer Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength. Eric Hoffer
New Beginnings are often disguised as painful endings. Laozi
Restate the problem. Get the hell out of the office. Lead a healthy happy life. (Number one way to increase the value). (DHH) David Hannemeier Hansson
The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure that you seek. Joseph Campbell (channeling Rilke)
Approach the game with no preset agendas and you’ll probably come away surprised at your overall efforts. Phil Jackson, Great NBA Coach
Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm. Winston Churchill
The creative adult is the child who survived. Ursula K. LeGuin
Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck. Dalai Lama
No bird soars in a calm. Orville Wright
Vielleicht sind alle Drachen unseres Lebens Prinzessinnen, die nur darauf warten uns einmal schön und mutig zu sehen. Vielleicht ist alles Schreckliche im Grunde das Hilflose, das von uns Hilfe will. Rilke
What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly. Lao-Tzu
Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself. Matsuo Basho
Shùn qí zì rán 顺其自然 Let it be (rán shì “natural”). Go with the flow.
"”Imagine writing a new application… once written, this application need never change.
For this case, design does not matter. Like a circus performer spinning plates in a world without friction or gravity, you could program the application into motion and then stand back proudly and watch it run forever. No matter how wobbly, the plates of code would rotate on and on, teetering round and round but never quite falling.
As long as nothing changed.
Unfortunately, something will change. It always does. The customers didn’t know what they wanted, they didn’t say what they meant. You didn’t understand their needs, you’ve learned how to do something better. Even applications that are perfect in every way are not stable. Change is unavoidable. It is ubiquitous, omnipresent, and inevitable.
Changing requirements are the programming equivalent of friction and gravity. They introduce forces that apply sudden and unexpected pressures that work against the best-laid plans. It is the need for change that makes design matter.”” “ Sandi Metz, Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby”
Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’ Mary Anne Radmacher
When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t. Thomas Edison
The Obstacle Is The Way Ancient Zen Saying - Within Every Obstacle is an Opportunity to improve your condition
In the dime stores and bus stations/ People talk of situations/ Read books, repeat quotations/ Draw conclusions on the wall/ Some speak of the future/ My love she speaks softly/ She knows there’s no success like failure/ And that failure’s no success at all Bob Dylan
Wenn man einen Stein ins Wasser wirft, so eilt er sich auf dem schnellsten Weg zum Grunde des Wassers. So ist es, wenn Siddhartha ein Ziel hat, einen Vorsatz hat. Siddharta tut nichts, er wartet, er denkt, er fastet, aber es geht durch die Dinge der Welt hindurch wie der Stein durchs Wasser, ohne etwas zu tun, ohne sich zu rühren: er wird gezogen, er läßt sich fallen. Sein Ziel zieht ihn an sich, denn er läßt nichts in seine Seele ein, was dem Ziel widerstreben könnte. Das ist es, was Siddharta bei den Samanas gelernt hat. Es ist was, was die Toren Zauber nennen und wovon sie meinen, es werde durch die Dämonen bewirkt. Nichts wird von den Dämonen bewirkt, es gibt keine Dämonen. Jeder kann zaubern, jeder kann seine Ziele erreichen, wenn er denken kann, wenn er warten kann, wenn er fasten kann. – Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
“Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.” Margaret Thatcher
“A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.” Henry Ford “Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly. It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service.” Henry Ford
“Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” Henry Ford “The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.” Henry Ford
“You can do anything if you have enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes rise to the stars. With it, there is accomplishment. Without it there are only alibis.”
“Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement.” Henry Ford
“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.” Henry Ford
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently.” Henry Ford
It is feeling and force of imagination that makes us eloquent. Quintilian
Tatkraft und die Ausdauer erobern alles. Benjamin Franklin (auf Deutsch)
Make no mistake, I always want to win, but I never fight with an opponent. My fight is within me — it is the struggle to be the best I can be at whatever I do. John Wooden
Be quick, but don’t hurry. John Wooden
Festina Lente - Roman Saying
People will forget what said, people will forget what you did, but they will always remember how you made them feel.
Maya Angelous / Dries van Wagenberg
“I’ve already grown a goiter from this torture, hunched up here like a cat in Lombardy (or anywhere else where the stagnant water’s poison). My stomach’s squashed under my chin, my beard’s pointing at heaven, my brain’s crushed in a casket, my breast twists like a harpy’s. My brush, above me all the time, dribbles paint so my face makes a fine floor for droppings! My haunches are grinding into my guts, my poor ass strains to work as a counterweight, every gesture I make is blind and aimless. My skin hangs loose below me, my spine’s all knotted from folding over itself. I’m bent taut as a Syrian bow. Because I’m stuck like this, my thoughts are crazy, perfidious tripe: anyone shoots badly through a crooked blowpipe. My painting is dead. Defend it for me, Giovanni, protect my honor. I am not in the right place—I am not a painter.”
— Michelangelo - Michelangelo: To Giovanni da Pistoia, “When the Author Was Painting the Vault of the Sistine Chapel” —1509
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. Albert Einstein
A good plan violently executed today is better than a perfect plan executed next week. Patton
Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas Aristotle + Isaac Newton intro to his Nova Principum
Copy your heroes. Austin Kleon
Wenn’s etwas gibt, gewalt’ger als das Schicksal, So ist’s der Mut, der’s unerschuettert traegt. -Emanuel Geibel (quoted in Kaufman edition opening to Nietzsche)
Study the past if you would define the future. Confucius
Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon and star. Confucius
“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.” Confucius
A will set on love is free from evil. Confucius
Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things. Denis Diderot
Write with the heart, revise with the head. -Finding Forrester
” Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.
He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One! “ Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
Painting is silent poetry and poetry painting that speaks. Simonides of Ceos
“No written word, no oral plea, can teach our youth, what they should be. Nor all the books on all the shelves, It’s what the teachers are themselves.”
— John Wooden, favorite poem (source unknown to me)
The quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love. — Terence
We need the tonic of wildness. — Henry David Thoreau
Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder. Thoreau
” Und im übrigen lassen Sie sich das Leben geschehen. Glauben Sie mir: das Leben hat recht, auf alle Fälle. “ Rilke
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Oscar Wilde
Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of soul. Aristotle
Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. Henry David Thoreau
“Margaret Fuller’s failures are several times more sumptuous than other folks’ successes. And perhaps that is something we need to admit about failure: It can well be more sumptuous than success… Somewhere in our collective unconscious we know — even now — that to have failed is to have lived. Cristina Nehring
“What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why, I have forgotten, and what arms have lain Under my head till morning; but the rain Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh Upon the glass and listen for reply, And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain For unremembered lads that not again Will turn to me at midnight with a cry. Thus in winter stands the lonely tree, Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one, Yet knows its boughs more silent than before: I cannot say what loves have come and gone, I only know that summer sang in me A little while, that in me sings no more.” Edna St. Vincent Millay, Sonnet XLIII
I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed. Michael Jordan
“Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers.” — Marshall McLuhan
Fortune favours the bold. Virgil
First, it was not a strip bar, it was an erotic club. And second, what can I say? I’m a night owl. -Marion Barry, former mayor of Washington D.C.
“Let us live so that when we come to die, even the undertaker will be sorry.” Mark Twain
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, Allen Ginsberg, “Howl”
Listen to the MUSTN’TS, child,
Listen to the DON’TS
Listen to the SHOULDN’TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON’TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me -
Anything can happen, child,
ANYTHING can be.
— Shel Silverstein
“Joy is to be present to oneself in truth.” — Søren Kierkegaard