Honored Values

If we keep treating our most important values as meaningless relics, that's exactly what they'll become. - Michael Josephson


Such as Life, Liberty and Property.

Your Net Worth

Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones. - Benjamin Franklin


Note your net worth to the world is calculated differently than your net worth to the bank.

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."

Recognize Blessings

Men are slower to recognize blessings than misfortunes. - Titus Livius

Spend more time looking for the good in things.

Value

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. - Albert Einstein


To be successful you need to be valuable.

Self Value

If you really do put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price. - Anonymous


But if your bid is too high nobody is interested!

Worth of a Garden

A hundred objective measurements didn't sum the worth of a garden; only the delight of its users did that. Only the use made it mean something. - Lois McMaster Bujold


That it was made by a thinking rational person from the chaos of nature is what made it worth something.


(Other post on Value)

One Picture

You know, I've but one picture on my wall

That of my Grandmother

Who I never met at all

You don't see people like her today

No hunch of shoulder

No looking away

Original Sin she didn't know

No sign of guilt or shame

Even remotely show

She has unabashed open pride
Confidence in life
She doesn't hide

Determination is in her eyes
She could do anything

That's no surprise

Cause I've but one picture on my wall

That of my Grandmother

Who I never met at all

Yet I know her better than those

Who have bent my ear

With verse and prose

I've spent a lot of time under her gaze
She's kept me going

Throughout these days

None of which were as tough I'm sure

As those she met boldly
And did endure

I can see she is ready to laugh
The joke being on her

Or on her behalf

Gaiety is there ready to appear
Waiting to burst forth
With hearty cheer

She could dance with the best I'm told

Waltz or polka,

Slow or bold

I wish I could ask the next dance
(That I could keep up 

I'd have to chance)

And at the end I'd say thank you
For more than the turn

But for all you do

For all you've done by being there

To show me the way

That I might dare

For I've but one picture on my wall

That of my Grandmother
Who I'll never meet at all


- Lyle

You Ain't No Wretch

If you really do put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price. - Anonymous


And don't be caught singing "a wretch like me...".


(Other posts on Value)

Paid by the Hour

You don't get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour. - Jim Rohn 


I sure wish they would teach this in school.


(Other posts about Work )

Judging Worth

Most people know no other way of judging men's worth but by the vogue they are in, or the fortunes they have met with. - Francois de La Rochefoucauld 


Not the wealth in their pockets nor the number who recognize their name but the virtue they have demonstrated through their actions.


(Other posts on Success)

What is Friendship?

What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received; it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love. - Francois de La Rochefoucauld

One need not be enamored with all of a friends values - it really is a mutual trade. One may have a secret love but one couldn't have a secret friend.

What is Virtue?

Wisdom and penetration are the fruit of experience, not the lessons of retirement and leisure. Great necessities call out great virtues. - Abigail Adams

Virtue is the action which is used to gain something of value. Ill-gotten gains may be accounted as wealth but not as value.

What is Valuable?

If dandelions were hard to grow, they would be most welcome on any lawn. - Andrew V. Mason

If gold was easy to find it would not be a precious metal. "Value" is a measure of human effort.

Enduring Spirit

Millions of men have lived to fight, build palaces and boundaries, shape destinies and societies; but the compelling force of all times has been the force of originality and creation profoundly affecting the roots of human spirit. - Ansel Adams

Those which truly reach the roots of the human spirit endure. Think about the "classics" of any field and I think you will agree.

Confused Thinking

Poetry is the work of poets, not of peoples or communities; artistic creation can never be anything but the production of an individual mind. - Lascelles Abercrombie

The poet does not set the type or bind the book - though those efforts are valuable, they add nothing to the verse. Do not confuse creation with implementation, whether it be a poem or a video game.

Well Begun

Well begun is half done - but in the undone half lies all the work. - Roy Wilson

My father's saying. If you see this as a negative statement it is probably because you see work as a detriment. I never knew him to feel that way. Work is what you do to accomplish things of value.

The Battle for Profit

Too many people think only of their own profit. But business opportunity seldom knocks on the door of self-centered people. No customer ever goes to a store merely to please the storekeeper. - Kazuo Inamori

The desire for profit should walk hand-in-hand with the desire to do something of value, not lead the charge.

Be a Rodin

You are either the sculptor of circumstances, or the clay. - Robert James Bidinotto

Sculptors choose to create a thing of beauty and inspiration - or not. Be a Rodin.

The Origin of Pleasure

Pleasure is a by-product of doing something that is worth doing. Therefore, do not seek pleasure as such. Pleasure comes of seeking something else, and comes by the way. - A. Lawrence Lowell



Do that which is worth doing. Create that which is worth creating. Don't call it work, call it seeking pleasure.