Excellence and Virtue

Excellence is an art won by training and habitation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act but a habit. - Aristotle


Expect excellence and virtue every time.

Earning The Win

How little a thing can make us happy when we feel we have earned it. - Mark Twain


That is why there should be a winners and a losers in kids games. Trophies we get, but do not earn, fail to ignite the spirit.

Hurt or Healing

What matters is this: you can look at a scar and see hurt, or you can look at a scar and see healing. Try to understand. - Sharri Reynolds


You can dwell on the cause or the effect.

See, Think, Test

See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that. - Douglas Adams


Many forget to test. Their thinking may be wrong.

Star Bright

There is nothing that dulls a personality so much as a negative outlook. - Gordon B. Hinckley


There is nothing that brightens a personality so much as a positive outlook.

Limited Resources

No woman can be handsome by the force of features alone, any more than she can be witty by only the help of speech. - Langston Hughes


Beauty is more than skin deep.

Look

It is better to be looked over than overlooked. - Mae West


In more ways than one.

Ho Hum

When the effective leader is finished with his work, the people say it happened naturally. - Lao Tzu


Sometimes no applause is a good thing.

Capable of a Lot!

If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves. - Thomas A. Edison


Never accept less than possible from you and yours.

Real Charity

Real charity doesn't care if it's tax-deductible or not. - Dan Bennett


There is Charity with a capital "C" and then there is charity with a lower case "c."

Sparse Reasons

His reasons are as two grains of wheat in two bushels of chaff: you shall seek all day ere you find them, and when you have them, they are not worth the search. - William Shakespeare


Some reasons carry more weight than others.

They're On Their Way

When Hitler came for the Jews... I was not a Jew, therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church; and there was nobody left to be concerned. - Pastor Martin Niemoller


Advocate for others liberty as well as your own.

Value of Praise

Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity. - Samuel Johnson


Praise should not be frivolous. Expressing your love shouldn't be either.

Walking Blind

He should not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall. - J. R. R. Tolkien


Making assumptions about an unknown subject can lead to disaster.

Your Help

God help those who do not help themselves. - Wilson Mizner

Don't ever count on divine intervention.

Perfect Bureaucrats

The perfect bureaucrat everywhere is the man who manages to make no decisions and escape all responsibility. - Brooks Atkinson


Remember, public school teachers are essentially bureaucrats.

Truth Is Eternal

Truth is eternal, knowledge is changeable. It is disastrous to confuse them. - Madeleine L'Engle


Not only is truth eternal, it is universal.

Practice Makes Complete

One can acquire everything in solitude, except character. - Marie Stendhal


You develop your character through practice not rehearsal.

Choose Soon

A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance. - Hunter S. Thompson


And it will probably be the wrong choice.

......Is Next To Godliness

If by the last quarter of the twentieth century godliness wasn't next to something a little more interesting than cleanliness, it might be time to reevaluate our notions of godliness. - Tom Robbins


OK. You first.

Underdogs

All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume. - Noam Chomsky


To find the source of this propaganda look to the universities.

Worthy Goal

People don't want their lives fixed. Nobody wants their problems solved. Their dramas. Their distractions. - Chuck Palahniuk


Worthy Goal: Figure out how to inspire people to want their lives fixed.

Extreme Liberty

I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. - Barry Goldwater


In the past this is how people approached the world but it has reversed of late.

Heartstrings

Beware the pull on your heartstrings - it's often the purse-strings that are actually being reached for. - Barbara Mikkelson


A propaganda technique which works well on folks who fail to use reason to moderate their emotions.

Untruthful Actions

Actions lie louder than words. - Carolyn Wells


Beware not only of disingenuous words, but deeds as well.

Masculine & Feminine

The masculine grows by challenge but the feminine grows by praise. - David Deida


Yes, but don't assume anyone is purely masculine or feminine.

Jealousy Is a Disease

Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy - in fact, they are almost incompatible; one emotion hardly leaves room for the other. - Robert Heinlein


If you don't trust the one you love then maybe its not love.

Tyrants

... the tyrant also has those who associate with him in a humble spirit, which is a work of flattery. Hence tyrants are always fond of bad men, because they love to be flattered, but no man who has the spirit of a freeman in him will lower himself by flattery; good men love others, or at any rate do not flatter them. Moreover, the bad are useful for bad purposes; 'nail knocks out nail,' as the proverb says. It is characteristic of a tyrant to dislike every one who has dignity or independence; he wants to be alone in his glory, but any one who claims a like dignity or asserts his independence encroaches upon his prerogative, and is hated by him as an enemy to his power. Another mark of a tyrant is that he likes foreigners better than citizens, and lives with them and invites them to his table; for the one are enemies, but the others enter into no rivalry with him.  - Aristotle


Use this to size up your country's leaders.

Tranquility

When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere. - Francois de La Rochefoucauld


And you will never convince them of it.

Some Poems Don't Rhyme

I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity. - Gilda Radner, 1946-1989


It's not the cards you are dealt, it's how you play them.