"Never get angry. Never make a threat. Reason with people."
Mario Puzo (1920 - 1999), 'The Godfather'

"If a man is after money, he's money mad; if he keeps it, he's a capitalist; if he spends it, he's a playboy; if he doesn't get it, he's a ne'er-do-well; if he doesn't try to get it, he lacks ambition. If he gets it without working for it; he's a parasite; and if he accumulates it after a life time of hard work, people call him a fool who never got anything out of life."
Vic Oliver

"Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It was not reasoned into him, and cannot be reasoned out."
Sydney Smith (1771 - 1845)

"Even the fear of death is nothing compared to the fear of not having lived authentically and fully."
Frances Moore Lappe, O Magazine, May 2004

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

"A friend is a second self."
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

"What you risk reveals what you value."
Jeanette Winterson

"One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."
Andre Gide (1869 - 1951)

"Before you agree to do anything that might add even the smallest amount of stress to your life, ask yourself: What is my truest intention? Give yourself time to let a yes resound within you. When it's right, I guarantee that your entire body will feel it."
Oprah Winfrey (1954 - ), O Magazine, October 2002

"Is there life before death?"
Graffito, in Belfast

"Some prices are just too high, no matter how much you may want the prize. The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart."
Lois McMaster Bujold, "Memory", 1996

"The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself."
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

"Getting there isn't half the fun - it's all the fun."
Robert Townsend

"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge."
Daniel J. Boorstin (1914 - )

"Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it."
Robert Heinlein (1907 - 1988)

"Desire, ask, believe, receive."
Stella Terrill Mann

"Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.'"
Kahlil Gibran (1883 - 1931)

"Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sun-dial in the shade?"
Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)

"It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, 1999

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."
Will Rogers (1879 - 1935)

"The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them."
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), 'Notebook,' 1935

"I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business."
Michael J. Fox (1961 - ), quoted by Lorne A. Adrain in 'The Most Important Thing I Know'

"The knowledge that makes us cherish innocence makes innocence unattainable."
Irving Howe (American literary and social Critic and Educator. 1920-1993)

"You can either hold yourself up to the unrealistic standards of others, or ignore them and concentrate on being happy with yourself as you are."
J. Jacques, Questionable Content webcomic, #352, 05-04-05

"Passion makes the world go round. Love just makes it a safer place."
Ice T, The Ice Opinion

"It's not your painting anymore. It stopped being your painting the moment that you finished it."
Jeff Melvoin, Northern Exposure, Fish Story, 1994

"There is nothing greater than touching the shore after crossing some great body of water knowing that I've done it with my own two arms and legs."
Diana Nyad

"Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary."
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948), 'Satyagraha Leaflet No. 13,' May 3, 1919

"Worry a little bit every day and in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years. If something is wrong, fix it if you can. But train yourself not to worry. Worry never fixes anything."
Mary Hemingway

"Do something. If it doesn't work, do something else. No idea is too crazy."
Jim Hightower, The New York Times, March 9, 1986