"A nice kick in the ass will sober almost anyone up."

"Never trust an idiot's perception."

my SO

"The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in."

Morrie Schwartz, Tuesdays With Morrie

"Law 4: Always say less than necessary"

Robert Greene, The 48 laws of power

Renunciation is not getting rid of the things of this world, but accepting that they pass away. - Aitken Roshi

Recipe for Happiness:
An insatiable curiosity, a joy of discovery, quick to forgive, hold no grudges, love without condition, stay loyal to the end, see the best and ignore the rest -- wow, we can learn a lot of man's best friend.

Nick Bolletieri
by way of my Starbucks paper cup...

Recipe for Frustration:

trying to get my inside to feel how someone else's outside looks........

Oh 't ain't what you do it's the place that you do it
'T ain't what you do it's the time that you do it
'T ain't what you do it's the way that you do it
That's what gets results

--Sy Oliver & Trummy Young

We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same.

--Carlos Castenada, mystic and author (1925-1998)

What we must decide is perhaps how we are valuable, rather than how valuable we are.

--F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

Blowing out another's candle will not make yours shine brighter.
--unknown

There is only one way to achieve happiness on this terrestrial ball, and that is to have either a clear conscience or none at all.

--Ogden Nash

There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue.
--Yamamoto Tsunetomo

If we now use just 10% of our brains, imagine how dumb we'd be if we used 100%

ARTelevision

"I think all artists, and especially poets, are forever in search of a community. It's a solitary act, and you need a community of like-minded souls to survive and to flourish. So the search for a community is really a lifetime engagement."

Stanley Kunitz

"We all do 'do, re, mi,' but you have got to find the other notes yourself." - Louis Armstrong

"If you can keep your head while all the others around you are losing theirs--get somebody to explain the situation to you."

Author unknown

I love ^^ that quote... it's been my screen saver for years... :)

Honor isn't about making the right choices. It's about dealing with the consequences.
Midori Koto

The world is full of willing people; some willing to work, the others willing to let them.

Robert Frost

If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. It it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.

--E.B. White

"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it." (Mark Twain)

He didn’t understand that it’s all connected,
that one subject leads to another
and forms a kind of chain
that raises its head and nods like a cobra
when you’re sucking on a bong after three days of no sleep.
On acid it’s even wilder, and appears to eat things.
But, not having gone to college,
my dad had no concept of a well-rounded liberal-arts education.
He thought that all my classes should be murder-related,
with no lunch breaks or anything.
Fortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

David Sedaris

We find comfort among those who agree with us, growth among those who don't.

--Frank A. Clark

The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser - in case you thought optimism was dead.

--Robert Brault

If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.

-Henry Ford

My new signature pretty much sums it up. I'll post it anyhow, in case I change my sig later.
Mind you this was 150 years ago... *sigh*

“Things are going worse. It has been three and half years since they came to power, and nothing has been improved." “Where is government? Why have the politicians left the people to face their destiny while the government hides behind the walls of the heavily protected green zone?”

Raheem Kadem- Sadr City, Iraq, in a New York Times article.

"Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough."
Emily Dickinson

"The mind knows only what lies near the heart."

- (Norse) The Poetic Edda

"You are what you think about all day long."

Dr. Robert Schuller

Sheri Hostetler

"Instructions

Give up the world; give up self; finally, give up God.
Find god in rhododendrons and rocks,
passers-by, your cat.
Pare your beliefs, your absolutes.
Make it simple; make it clean.
No carry-on luggage allowed.
Examine all you have
with a loving and critical eye, then
throw away some more.
Repeat. Repeat.
Keep this and only this:
what your heart beats loudly for
what feels heavy and full in your gut.
There will only be one or two
things you will keep,
and they will fit lightly
in your pocket. "

sweetpea

A learned man once went to a Zen master to inquire about Zen. As the Zen master talked, the learned man would frequently interrupt him with remarks like, "Oh yes, we have that too...", ect.
Finally the Zen master stopped talking and began to serve tea to the learned man; however, he kept on pouring until the tea cup over flowed.
"Enough, no more can go into the cup!" the learned man interrupted.
"Indeed I see", answered the Zen master. "If you do not first empty you cup, how can you taste my cup of tea?"

During a bit of conversation between a friend and I, we were talking about how some things are baseless and inane. Her example was, "the tv is on, democracy is failing". I thought it over a bit and we both seemed to realize, that's quite profound.
Or we were both quite tired, yet, it still strikes me so.

The only thing to fear is fear itself. And if anything can go wrong it will at the worst possible time. Remember- Murphy was an optimist.

Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year while another man gets a full year’s value out of a week.

Charles Richards

Learn as though you would never be able to master it; hold it as though you would be in fear of losing it.

Confucius

You want to fight for this love, but honey you cannot wrestle a dove - James Mercer

This line from Gone for Good really struck me this morning, so I made it my signature.

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent."

Calvin Coolidge

"Money don't make my world go 'round... I'm reaching out to a higher ground."

Desree

"Take care of you, because, in the end, you're all you have"