Unusual <> Exceptional

The weirder you are going to behave, the more normal you should look. It works in reverse, too. When I see a kid with three or four rings in his nose, I know there is absolutely nothing extraordinary about that person. - P.J. O'Rourke


Unusual doesn't equate to exceptional.

Peaceful Mind

If you want peace, stop fighting. If you want peace of mind, stop fighting with your thoughts. - Peter McWilliams


Be a pacifist when it comes to your mind.

Pulling Up

There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up. - Booker T. Washington


Putting down is the same as pushing down.

Laughable

If you're going to be able to look back on something and laugh about it, you might as well laugh about it now. - Marie Osmond


Perspective.

Mind Fix

A great many open minds should be closed for repairs. - Toledo Blake


Open minds are at times filled with trash.

Innovation Clues

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. - Steve Jobs


And one isn't any good at doing the others job.

Virtuous Women

There are few virtuous women who are not bored with their trade. - Francois de La Rochefoucauld


Temptation is not just the purview of women.

Parenting Prosperity

My father was not a failure. After all, he was the father of a president of the United States. - Harry S. Truman


Parenting success can outweigh fiscal failure.

Non-Technical Questions

Non-technical questions sometimes don't have an answer at all. - Linus Torvalds


The stuff agnostics are made from.

Joy of Being Human

One of the joys we have in being humans is in exercising our freedom to choose and to take each case as it comes to us. We are not robots who are forced into behaviors by their programming. We see things; we think things; and we choose our course of action or beliefs appropriately. And as long as that remains true of us, we will live every day of our lives on one slippery slope or another. There is no reason to fear this. - Real Live Preacher


When your freedom to choose is in danger re-read the above.

Purpose and Principle

Purpose and principle, clearly understood and articulated, and commonly shared, are the genetic code of any healthy organization. To the degree that you hold purpose and principles in common among you, you can dispense with command and control. People will know how to behave in accordance with them, and they'll do it in thousands of unimaginable, creative ways. The organization will become a vital, living set of beliefs. - Dee Hock


Whenever you gather others around you to advance a goal make sure they share your purpose and principles.

Squander Yourself

The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose. - William Cowper


In other words (though not as good); Go for it!

Writing Goal

I like to think in that moment's hesitation before our bold futures reclaimed us, we lived that simple life together all the way to our peaceful old ages, with a brood of grandchildren around us on a farm in the south of France, quietly going about our days, warm and complete like loaves of fresh bread, our small world filled with the aroma of patience and familiarity. - Tina Redse


To be able to write like this is a worthy goal.

Flirtin' With Fools

God created the flirt as soon as he made the fool. - Victor Hugo


It's kind of fun to play the fool, as long as you don't take the game seriously.

Spoiler

Golf is a good walk spoiled. - Mark Twain


Does fishing spoil a day by the water?

The Best of Everything

The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. - Anonymous


Your happiness is under your control.

Jump At The Sun

Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to 'jump at de sun.' We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground. - Zora Neale Hurston

And off the couch.

Caring For Your Own

What is common to many is least taken care of, for all men have greater regard for what is their own than what they possess in common with others. - Aristotle

..... Pretty good case against governmental ownership.

Limitless Learning

Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time. - Rabbinical Saying

..... Don't limit your child by failing to teach what you have learned.

Lonely

If we don't teach our children to be alone, they will only know how to be lonely. - Sherry Turkle

..... You will know you are successful when your kid forgets their cell phone at home.

Lack of Self

Immature love is a symptom of too little self. An emotionally immature person doesn’t feel comfortable and secure enough with him or her self to go through life without a romantic partner. He needs a romantic partner to “complete” his self. If the romantic partner pulls or grows away from him, he becomes threatened and lashes out in some way. This is what’s going on in cases of physical or verbal abuse. Physical and verbal abuse are tactics of intimidation. The person who victimizes his “loved one” with these tactics is not being “selfish.” Quite the opposite: he’s exhibiting a lack of self. - Michael J. Hurd

..... Worth contemplating.

On The Dole

Corruption, like a cancer … eats faster and faster every hour. The revenue creates pensioners, and the pensioners urge for more revenue. The people grow less steady, spirited, and virtuous, the seekers more numerous and more corrupt, and every day increases the circles of their dependents and expectants, until virtue, integrity, public spirit, simplicity, and frugality become the objects of ridicule and scorn, and vanity, luxury, floppery, selfishness, meanness, and downright venality swallow up the whole of society. - John Adams

..... What was corruption in John's day is now public policy.

Good Morning

If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don't be surly at home, then go out in the street and start going 'Good morning' at total strangers. - Maya Angelou

..... Get real and stay that way; if you aren't, it shows and it ain't pretty.

The Marriage Gamble

Marriage is a safe way to gamble--if you win, you win a pile, and if you lose, you don't lose anything, only the privilege of living dismally alone, and soaking your own feet. - Josh Billings

..... Don't fall into that old trap of imagining what you don't have is better than what you have.

Neglect

Neglect is a form of abuse. - Tina Redse

..... Always wondered why I hated being ignored.

Ultimate Work

The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: One is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the task in hand covers both bases, but not often. This tense duality will always play center stage. It will never be transcended. - Hugh Macleod

..... Getting paid enough to pay the bills by being creative is the ultimate job.

Troubled

No man is defeated without until he is defeated within. - Eleanor Roosevelt

..... Don't let 'em get to ya.

Do It All

You can do anything, but you can't do everything. - David Allen

..... But it sure is fun to try!

Fooling Folks

You can fool too many of the people too much of the time. - James Thurber

..... Because of the prevailing opinion that people must be, and are, "protected."

Keep On

There's always something to suggest that you'll never be who you wanted to be. Your choice is to take it or keep on moving. - Phylicia Rashad

..... You're smart enough to make your own judgments.

Full Understanding

Is it possible to understand the universe without God? - Lawrence Krauss

..... Because you do not fully understand something does not mean you must invent a cause.