Words of Wisdom

A True Leader

"A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the
courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to
listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to
be a leader, but becomes one by the quality of his
actions and the integrity of his intent." 

  -- Anonymous

Words of Wisdom

"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not
enough; we must do." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"People may hear your words, but they feel your
attitude." -- John Maxwell

"Only those who constantly retool themselves stand a
chance of staying employed in the years ahead." -- Tom
Peters, Author 

"It has been said that 'you can reach more than you
think with a drop of ink.' You can reach mega millions
more via e-mail and the Internet." -- Dick Innes 

"What you do today can improve all your tomorrows." --
Ralph Marston 

"A goal is a dream with a deadline." -- Napoleon Hill

Words of Wisdom

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things
Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He'd
either be insane or else he'd be the devil of hell.
'You must make your choice,' Lewis continues. Either
Jesus was and is the Son of God, or else He was insane
or evil, but let us not come up with any patronizing
nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has
not left that open to us. He did not intend to." --
C.S. Lewis

"Do not wait; the time will never be 'just right.'
Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you
may have at your command, and better tools will be
found as you go along." -- Napoleon Hill

"Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can
be no courage unless you are scared." -- Eddie
Rickenbacker 

"Effective leadership is not about making speeches or
being liked; leadership is defined by results, not
attributes." -- Peter F. Drucker 

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no
wind is favorable." -- Seneca, Roman philosopher

"Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does
enlarge the future." -- Paul Boese

Words of Wisdom

"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act
responsibly, while bad people will find a way around
the laws." -- Plato, Philosopher

"A moment of patience in a moment of anger saves you a
hundred moments of regret." -- As seen on Mickey's
Funnies

"A goal without a plan is just a wish." -- Larry Elder

"To believe and not to act is not yet to believe, for I
only truly believe that which motivates me to action."
-- Dick Innes

"Some machines can do the work of 50 ordinary people.
No machine can do the work of one extraordinary
person." -- Unknown

The following message was printed outside a church:
CH??CH, and asked the question, "What is missing?"

Words of Wisdom

"Be more concerned with your character than your
reputation, because your character is what you really
are, while your reputation is merely what others think
you are." -- John Wooden, basketball coach 

"Trouble is only opportunity in work clothes." -- Henry
Kaiser

"Don't let complexity stop you." -- Bill Gates

"A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner." --
English proverb 

"If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never
have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if
there were no light in the universe and therefore no
creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark.
Dark would be without meaning." -- C.S. Lewis

"Everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody
thinks of changing himself." -- Leo Tolstoy

Words of Wisdom

"One's beliefs set the sails that govern the direction
that one's life will go." -- Dick Innes

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good
people to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke

"The more he cast away, the more he had." -- John
Bunyan

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass; it's
about learning how to dance in the rain." -- Unknown

"Long-range goals keep you from being frustrated by
short-term failures." -- J.C. Penney

The test of courage comes when we are in the minority.
The test of tolerance comes when we are in the
majority." -- Ralph Sockman

Words of Wisdom 

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented." --
Georges Braque

"An autopsy of history is that all great nations commit
suicide." -- Arnold Toynbee

"The most important thing is your self-respect. It
doesn't matter what people think about you, but what
you think about yourself." -- Robert H. Abplanalp 

"Success has nothing to do with what you gain in life
or accomplish for yourself. It's what you do for
others." -- Danny Thomas

"Immature love says: 'I love you because I need you.'
Mature love says 'I need you because I love you.'" --
Erich Fromm 

"A man can get discouraged many times, but he is not a
failure until he begins to blame somebody else and
stops trying." -- John Burroughs

Words of Wisdom 

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away
from those who are willing to work and give to those
who would not." -- Thomas Jefferson

"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own
debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would
save one-half the wars of the world." -- Thomas
Jefferson

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can
prevent the government from wasting the labors of the
people under the pretense of taking care of them." --
Thomas Jefferson

"My reading of history convinces me that most bad
government results from too much government." -- Thomas
Jefferson

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
-- Thomas Jefferson

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the
right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to
protect themselves against tyranny in government." --
Thomas Jefferson

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to
time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." -- Thomas
Jefferson 

Words of Wisdom 

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source
of learning." -- Bill Gates

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to
another with no loss of enthusiasm." -- Winston
Churchill

"Show me a man who cannot bother to do little things
and I'll show you a man who cannot be trusted to do big
things." -- Lawrence Bell

"The main dangers in this life are the people who want
to change everything--or nothing." -- Lady Astor

"Behind every success is a succession of failures." --
Rick Beneteau 

"On anniversaries the wise husband always forgets the
past ... but never the present." -- Unknown

"Trouble in marriage often starts when a man gets so
busy earning his salt that he forgets his sugar." --
Unknown

Words of Wisdom

"Life is like a mirror; we never get back more than we
put in." -- Source Unknown

"The highest reward for man's toil is not what he gets
for it, but what he becomes by it." -- John Ruskin 

"As water cannot rise higher than its source, so the
moral quality in an act can never be higher than the
motive that inspires it." -- A.W. Tozer

"When people cease to believe in God, they do not
believe in nothing. They believe in anything." --
William Temple

"Blessed be he who aimeth at nothing for he shall
surely hit it." -- Unknown

"If we don't stand for something, we may fall for
anything." -- Unknown

Words of Wisdom 

"Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds." -- Gordon
B. Hinckley 

"The grass is always greener where you water it." --
Anonymous 

"Truth isn't something you have--like a commodity. It
is something you live. No one can honestly say, 'I have
the truth,' and be a pain in the neck. You don't have
it until you're living it." -- Anonymous 

"Truth is always strong no matter how weak it looks;
and falsehood is always weak, no matter how strong it
looks." -- Phillips Brooks 

"In prayer, God hears more than words. He listens to
our heart." -- Anonymous

"The task ahead of us is never as great as the Power
behind." -- Anonymous

Words of Wisdom

"Wisdom is knowledge tempered with judgment." -- Peter
Ritchie Calder

"The elevator to success is out of order ... you have
to take the stairs." -- Author Unknown

"Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible
objections must first be overcome." -- Samuel Johnson

"The most difficult thing in the world is to know how
to do a thing and to watch someone else do it wrong,
without comment." -- T.H. White

"To be prepared is half the victory." -- Miguel de
Cervantes 

"The hardships that I encountered in the past will help
me succeed in the future." -- Philip Emeagwali

Words of Wisdom 

"Love is a great beautifier." -- Louisa May Alcott

"Courage is like a muscle. We strengthen it with use."
-- Ruth Gordon, actress 

"Today I will do what others won't, so tomorrow I can
accomplish what others can't." -- Jerry Rice 

"Unless a tree has borne blossoms in spring, you will
vainly look for fruit on it in autumn." -- Walter Scott

"Do not worry about your failures. Worry about the
chances you miss when you do not try." -- Unknown

"Try to please everyone and you will please none."

Words of Wisdom 

"You'll always miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
-- Wayne Gretzky 

"Force may make hypocrites, but it can never make
converts." -- William Penn

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming
interested in other people than you can in two years by
trying to get other people interested in you." -- Dale
Carnegie

"A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are
built for." -- Grace Hopper

"If I have seen further, it is because I have stood on
the shoulders of past giants." -- Isaac Newton

A life of ease is a difficult pursuit." -- William
Cowper

Words of Wisdom 

"Light houses don't blow horns, they just shine!" --
Author Unknown

"You'll always miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
-- Wayne Gretzky

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

"Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of
success." -- Henry Ford

"Go out on a limb---that's where the fruit is." -- Will
Rogers

"What lies behind us, and what lies before us, are tiny
matters compared to what lies within us." -- Ralph
Waldo Emerson

Words of Wisdom

"The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something
that will outlast it." -- William James

"I've learned that people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did, but people will never
forget how you made them feel." -- Maya Angelou

"As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say.
I just watch what they do." -- Andrew Carnegie

"To love God is the greatest of virtues; to be loved by
God is the greatest of blessings." -- Portuguese
Proverb

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you
can do." -- John Wooden

"Successful people form the habit of doing what
failures don't like to do. They like the results they
get by doing what they don't necessarily enjoy." --
Earl Nightingale, Motivational Speaker

Words of Wisdom

"High achievement always takes place in the framework
of high expectation." -- Charles Kettering

"I've felt that dissatisfaction is the basis of
progress. When we become satisfied in business, we
become obsolete." -- J. Willard Marriott Sr.

"No great thing is created suddenly." -- Epictetus

"You're never too old to grow up." -- Shirley Conran

"When you're through changing, you're through." --
Bruce Fairchild Barton

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever
wasted." -- Aesop

What Does It Mean to Be Adopted?

Teacher Debbie Moon's first graders were discussing a
picture of a family. One little boy in the picture had
a different hair color than the other members. One of
her students suggested that he was adopted. A little
girl said, "I know all about Adoption, I was adopted."

"'What does it mean to be adopted?" asked another
child.

"'It means," said the girl, "that you grew in your
mommy's heart instead of her tummy!"

Words of Wisdom 

"To lead the orchestra, you have to turn your back on
the crowd." -- Max Lucado

"The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready
for his opportunity when it comes." -- Benjamin
Disraeli

Kind words do not cost much.... Yet they accomplish
much." -- Blaise Pascal

"The great use of life is to spend it on something that
outlasts it." -- William James 

"Eggs cannot be unscrambled." -- American Proverb

"When one door closes, another door opens, but we so
often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed
door that we do not see the ones which open for us." --
Alexander Graham Bell

Words of Wisdom 

"Do not let your victories go to your head. Do not let
your failures go to your heart." -- Unknown 

"Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily
well." -- Jim Rohn

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not
care who gets the credit." -- Harry Truman

"The wise does at once what the fool does at last." --
Baltasar Gracian

"Lost time is never found again." -- Benjamin Franklin

"Eggs cannot be unscrambled." -- American Proverb

Words of Wisdom 

"Quality is not an act; it is a habit." -- Aristotle 

"No one can defeat us unless we first defeat
ourselves." -- Dwight Eisenhower 

"There is one thing in this world that can change your
life instantly. It is called action." -- Unknown

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." --
William James

"Things do not happen. Things are made to happen." --
John F. Kennedy

"What you get by achieving your goals is not as
important as what you become by achieving your goals."
-- Henry David Thoreau
Words of Wisdom 

"What we learn with pleasure we never forget." --
Alfred Mercier

"The most important persuasion tool you have in your
entire arsenal is integrity." -- Zig Ziglar

"The impossible is often the untried." -- Jim Goodwin

"The happiness of most people we know is not ruined by
great catastrophes or fatal errors, but by the
repetition of slowly destructive little things." --
Ernest Dimnet

"When people do nothing, they are doing something." --
Submitted by Les Nixon

"Don't quack like a duck; soar like an eagle." -- Ken
Blanchard

Words of Wisdom

"People who are unable to motivate themselves must be
content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their
other talents." -- Andrew Carnegie, Industrialist 

"If your actions create a legacy that inspires others
to dream more, learn more, do more and become more,
then you are an excellent leader." -- Dolly Parton,
Entertainer 

"Stop stewing and start doing!" -- Denis Waitley 

"No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose
time has come." -- Victor Hugo 

"Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman,
before which difficulties disappear and obstacles
vanish into air." -- John Quincy Adams

"Goals are like stepping-stones to the stars. They
should never be used to put a ceiling or a limit on
achievement." -- Denis Waitley

Words of Wisdom 

"One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a
Cheshire cat in a tree. 'Which road do I take?' she
asked. 'Where do you want to go?' was his response. 'I
don't know,' Alice answered. 'Then,' said the cat, 'it
doesn't matter.'" -- Lewis Carroll

"We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be
defeated." -- Maya Angelou

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after
it with a club." -- Jack London

"To be a good loser is to learn how to win." -- Carl
Sandburg

"No matter how many goals you have achieved, you must
set your sights on a higher one." -- Jessica Savitch

"The most significant decision I make each day is my
choice of an attitude. When my attitudes are right,
there's no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no
dream too extreme and no challenge too great." --
Charles Swindoll

A Formula for Success

"Would you like me to give you a formula for success?
It's quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure.
You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success.
But it isn't all that. You can be discouraged by
failure--or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make
mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember, that's
where you will find success." -- Thomas J. Watson 

As a boss of mine once said to me when I made a major
mistake, "The man who never made a mistake never made
anything." -- Dick Innes


 Albert Schweitzer on Happiness

In addressing graduates, Albert Schweitzer said, "I
don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I
do know: the only ones among you who will be really
happy are those who have sought and found how to
serve."

I Am Responsible

"I am responsible. Although I may not be able to
prevent the worst from happening, I am responsible for
my attitude toward the inevitable misfortunes that
darken life. Bad things do happen; how I respond to
them defines my character and the quality of my life. I
can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by
the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from
the pain and treasure the most precious gift I
have--life itself." -- Walter Anderson 

Something to think about 

A group of students were asked to list what they
thought were the present "Seven Wonders of the World."
Though there were some disagreements, the following
received the most votes:

1. Egypt's Great Pyramids
2. Taj Mahal
3. Grand Canyon
4. Panama Canal
5. Empire State Building
6. St. Peter's Basilica
7. China's Great Wall

While gathering the votes, the teacher noted that one
student had not finished her paper yet. So she asked
the girl if she was having trouble with her list. The
girl replied, "Yes, a little. I couldn't quite make up
my mind because there were so many." 

The teacher said, "Well, tell us what you have, and
maybe we can help. The girl hesitated, then read, "I
think the 'Seven Wonders of the World' are:

1. To See 
2. To Hear 
3. To Touch
4. To Taste
5. To Feel
6. To Laugh
7. And to Love."

The room was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.
The things we overlook as simple and ordinary and that
we take for granted are truly wondrous!

A gentle reminder: The most precious things in life
cannot be built by hand or bought by man.

  -- Submitted by Shirley Cooper

Words of Wisdom

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like
wrapping a present and not giving it." -- William
Arthur Ward 

"Temptations are never so dangerous as when they come
to us in a religious garb." -- D.L. Moody 

"It's the little things we do--not the big things--that
define who we truly are." -- Dick Innes 

"Time and money spent in helping men to do more for
themselves is far better than mere giving." -- Henry
Ford

"Saying 'yes' to God means saying a thousand 'no's' to
other things!" -- Doug Newton

"Never assume the obvious is true." -- William Safire,
Journalist
Words of Wisdom 

"Those things that hurt, instruct." -- Benjamin
Franklin

"Great works are performed, not by strength but by
perseverance." -- Author Unknown

"Use your smile to change the world. Don't let the
world change your smile." -- Unknown

"True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It
is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost,
but the urge to serve others at whatever cost." --
Arthur Ashe, professional tennis player

"My father taught me that reputation, not money, was
the most important thing in the world." -- William
Rosenberg, Dunkin Donuts founder 

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every
experience in which you really stop to look fear in the
face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived
through this horror. I can take the next thing that
comes along.' You must do the thing you think you
cannot do." -- Eleanor Roosevelt