Inspirations Past

Words of Wisdom on Living and Loving:

Happiness Happens week

"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."
~Abraham Lincoln

"Happiness is something that comes into our lives through doors we don’t even remember leaving open." 
~Rose Lane

"Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking."  ~Marcus Aurelius

If you want happiness for an hour — take a nap
If you want happiness for a day — go fishing
If you want happiness for a year — inherit a fortune
If you want happiness for a lifetime — help someone else
~Chinese Proverb

"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."
 ~Buddha

“The Constitution only guarantees you the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.” 
~Benjamin Franklin

“We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same.”
~Carlos Castaneda

“Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”  ~Aristotle

“What does ‘happy’ mean? Happiness is not a state like Vermont.” 
~Abraham Maslow

“Some people cause happiness wherever they go, others whenever they go.” 
~Oscar Wilde

“Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.” 
~Groucho Marx/span>

Getting Ready for Kindergarten week

“All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten.”

~Robert Fulghum

“The Universe is one great kindergarten for man. Everything that exists has brought with it its own peculiar lesson.” 

~Orison Swett Marden

“I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten—happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another.”

~Brenda Ueland

“If people did not do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.” 
~Ludwig Wittgenstein

"The difference between school and life? In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson." 
~Tom Bodett

"Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand."

 ~Chinese proverb

"Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism."

 ~David M. Burns

Vacation week

“A vacation is like love - anticipated with pleasure, experienced with discomfort, and remembered with nostalgia." 
~Author Unknown

"The alternative to a vacation is to stay home and tip every third person you see." 
~Author Unknown

"Holidays are enticing only for the first week or so. After that, it is no longer such a novelty to rise late and have little to do." 
~Margaret Laurence

"We hit the sunny beaches where we occupy ourselves keeping the sun off our skin, the saltwater off our bodies, and the sand out of our belongings." 
~Erma Bombeck

"Those that say you can't take it with you never saw a car packed for a vacation trip." 
~Author Unknown

"A vacation trip is one-third pleasure, fondly remembered, and two-thirds aggravation, entirely forgotten." 
~Robert Brault 
"Laughter is an instant vacation."
~Milton Berle

'What Will Be Your Legacy' week

“And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.” 

~Abraham Lincoln

“You were born an original. Don’t die a copy.” 

~John Maddon

"It is infinitely more exciting to live a life of catastrophic failures than a life of could-haves, should-haves and would-haves." 

~M.H. Meng

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” 

~Mahatma Gandhi

"The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." 

~Thomas B. Macaulay

“Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life is not in vain.”  

~Helen Keller

 We can't all leave a prestigious background or lots of money to visit our children, but we can leave them a legacy of love” 

~Naomi Rhode 

July, 2011

'Wheelchair Beautification' week

‎"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." 

~Albert Einstein

"The only disability in life is a bad attitude.” 

~Scott Hamilton

‎"One's dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but cannot be taken away unless it is surrendered." 

~Michael J. Fox

‎"There`s still so much more to do. I can't sit back and be complacent, and none of us should be. I get around now in a wheelchair, but I get around." 

~Elizabeth Taylor

"You gain strength, courage and confidence through every experience by which you really stop to look fear in the face." 

~Eleanor Roosevelt

"The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials." 

~Dutch Proverb

"Disability is a matter of perception.  If you can do just one thing well, you're needed by someone." 

~Martina Navratilova

Share a Sunset with Your Lover week

“Journeys end in lovers meeting.” 

~William Shakespeare

“Living is strife and torment, disappointment and love and sacrifice, golden sunsets and black storms. I said that some time ago, and today I do not think I would add one word.”

 ~Laurence Olivier 

(aka Laurence IlivedIlovedier)

“True love comes quietly, without banners or flashing lights. If you hear bells, get your ears checked.” 

~Erich Segal

“Sensual pleasures have the fleeting brilliance of a comet; a happy marriage has the tranquility of a lovely sunset.” 

~Ann Landers

“You have to walk carefully in the beginning of love; the running across fields into your lover's arms can only come later when you're sure they won't laugh if you trip.” 

~Jonathan Carroll 

“Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition.” 

~Alexander Smith

“Old love does not rust.” 

~Estonian Proverb 

Make a Difference to Children week

“Your children will become what you are; so be what you want them to be.” 

~David Bly

“Instill great values in your children today and your grandchildren will prosper tomorrow.” 

~Christy Borgeld

"Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing." 

~Phyllis Diller

“Making the decision to have a child—it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body.” 

~Elizabeth Stone

“Human beings are the only creatures that allow their children to come back home.” 

~Bill Cosby 

“I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.” 

~Harry S. Truman

“Whatever they grow up to be, they are still our children, and the one most important of all the things we can give to them is unconditional love. Not a love that depends on anything at all except that they are our children.” 

~Rosaleen Dickson

Family Reunion week

‎"The family is one of nature's masterpieces." 

~George Santayana

“The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life.” 

~Richard Bach

‎"Family: A social unit where the father is concerned with parking space, the children with outer space, and the mother with closet space." 

~Evan Esar

‎"Family faces are magic mirrors looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future." 

~Gail Lumet Buckley

"Families are like fudge... mostly sweet with a few nuts." 

~Author Unknown

‎"Families are the compass that guide us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we occasionally falter." 

~Brad Henry

"I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he's rich." 

~Dan Wilcox and Thad Mumford

4th of July, 2011

Freedom!

"Freedom is the oxygen of the soul." 

~ Moshe Dayan

 “Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?”

~ Ghandi

June, 2011

“A loving heart is the truest wisdom.” 

~ Charles Dickens

“Youth is a circumstance you can't do anything about.

The trick is to grow up without getting old.” 

~ Frank Lloyd Wright

"Never save the best for later. You don't know what tomorrow holds" 

~ Paulo Coelho 

“You cannot do a kindness too soon

because you never know how soon it will be too late.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

‎"The wisdom acquired with the passage of time is a useless gift unless you share it." 

~ Esther Williams

"There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents,

 the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love.

 When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age."

~ Sophia Loren

‎"What we do during our working hours determines what we have;

what we do in our leisure hours determines what we are." 

~ George Eastman

“My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”

~ The Dalai Lama 

“The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard,

but must be felt with the heart.” 

~ Helen Keller

‎"Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can."

~ Danny Kaye

"The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”

~ Socrates

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