Quotes
An ongoing list of quotes which I find interesting, inspiring, and insightful. If any are misattributed, please let me know.
A ship in harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.
It is possible to commit not mistakes and still lose. That is not weakness, that is life.
Buried deep within you, beneath all the years of pain and anger, there is something that has never been nurtured: the potential to make yourself a better man. And that is what it is to be human. To make yourself more than you are.
A fool takes offense where none is intended.
An even greater fool takes offense where it is intended.
If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.
See randomness.
When evening has come, I return to my house and go into my study. At the door I take off my clothes of the day, covered with mud and mire, and I put on my regal and courtly garments; and decently reclothed, I enter the ancient courts of ancient men, where, received by them lovingly, I feed on the food that alone is mine and that I was born for. There I am not ashamed to speak with them and to ask them the reason for their actions; and they in their humanity reply to me. And for the space of four hours I feel no boredom, I forget every pain, I do not fear poverty, death does not frighten me. I deliver myself entirely to them.
The overconfident are the most vulnerable.
On every plane, there are those who run toward danger.
Inner strength is never seen until it makes all the difference.
Hesitation breeds dissension. To be worthy of the next life, you must never look back.
Wrath is no vice when inflicted upon the deserving.
Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.
Careless, like a child with fire, so was I with time.
And, as is often the case with faith, I thought I was being asked a favor, when in fact I was being given one.
Faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe.
I asked you what you thought about your parents. Do you remember? I asked if you felt they were perfect or if they needed improvement and do you remember what you said? You said they weren't perfect, but they don't need improvement. This is very insightful, and do you know why? Because it means you are willing to accept people as they are. Nobody's perfect, not even mom and dad. That's OK.
So now I am blessed that the Lord shines on me. Does that mean I get to do more stuff, or less?
Lord help me kill all my demons / I look in the mirror, I see them.
Hatred outlives the hateful
You don't need to like it. You only need to accept it.
We shall build good ships here.
At a profit – if we can.
At a loss – if we must.
But always good ships.
What day is it?
It's today.
My favorite day.
“I have to go to work – as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for – the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?”
History reminds us that nothing counterfeit has any staying power.
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.
Do it or don't do it – you will regret both.
You must never give into despair. Allow yourself to slip down that road and you surrender to your lowest instincts. In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself. That is the meaning of inner strength.
I started by noting that solitude and leadership would seem to be contradictory things. But it seems to me that solitude is the very essence of leadership. The position of the leader is ultimately an intensely solitary, even intensely lonely one. However many people you may consult, you are the one who has to make the hard decisions. And at such moments, all you really have is yourself.
Thou shalt not be a victim.
Thou shalt not be a perpetrator.
Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.
Lifting as we clumb.
Seek with ardor and attend with diligence
Be neither needed nor intimidated.
Live free or die.
No is a complete sentence and requires no explanation.
Greed just wants sunlight -- it doesn't care how high up it is when it gets it.
But below, the hungry underdog burns for sunlight and will spend 100 hours a week trying to get it. When the breakthrough comes, the underdog bursts up through the canopy into the open sky and spreads its leaves out wide. Suddenly, the trees that had been on top are blocked from the sun. Greed is then replaced by the much more powerful drive of survival.
Rust: “I tell you Marty I been up in that room looking out those windows every night here just thinking, it’s just one story. The oldest.”
Marty: “What’s that?”
Rust: “Light versus dark.”
Marty: “Well, I know we ain’t in Alaska, but it appears to me that the dark has a lot more territory.”
Rust: “You’re looking at it wrong, the sky thing.”
Marty: “How’s that?”
Rust: “Well, once there was only dark. You ask me, the light’s winning.”
I'd wish you luck, but as you'll come to learn, you don't need it.
Self control makes the man. A man without discipline is a boy full of reactions, rather than a man of good actions.
How unintentionally cruel it can be to make someone else responsible for your sense of self worth.
The struggle is guaranteed, the success is not.
There is no greater burden than choosing who to save
We are fortunate to have bad days.
I see now that the circumstances of one's birth is irrelevent,it is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are.
Home isn't where you rest. It's what you fight for.
Setessa is not the city of my birth, but it is the place I fight for, and the place I’m willing to die for. Does that not make it my home?
He didn't have a word for home, but he knew it was something to be defended.
By tradition, we don’t speak for two days after battle. If our deeds won't speak for themselves, what else could be said?
Everyone deserves a chance to live. My job is to make sure they get it.
I know that I often sit up at night to watch for you, that you may be able to sleep
The power to endure harm outlives the power to inflict it.
When you kill an American officer, the Geneva Convention becomes the Geneva suggestion.
Turn 100 Hours into 10 minutes
Whoever loves much, performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.
Nothing is wanting with you, but attention, dilligence and steady application, Nature has not been deficient. These are times in which a Genious would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. Would Cicero have shone so distinguished an orater, if he had not been roused, kindled and enflamed by the Tyranny of Catiline, Millo, Verres and Mark Anthony. The Habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. All History will convince you of this, and that wisdom and penetration are the fruits of experience, not the Lessons of retirement and leisure. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the Heart, then those qualities which would otherways lay dormant, wake into Life, and form the Character of the Hero and the Statesman.
I only know I have enough.
I have no enemies, and no hatred.
He is not qualified by nature or education to shine in courts. His abilities are undoubtedly equal to the mechanical parts of his business as ambassador; but this is not enough. He cannot dance, drink, game, flatter, promised dress, swear with the gentlemen, and small talk and flirt with the ladies. Jonathan Sewall regarding John Adams -- although this description could easily apply to me.
He is a great man who uses earthenware dishes as if they were silver, but he is equally great who uses silver as if it were earthenware. It is the sign of an unstable mind not to be able to endure riches.
The present alone can make no man wretched.
You are empathetic because you have strength to spare.
You will never be criticized by someone doing more than you.
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free
That’s the way it is. Good days. And bad days. Up days. Down days. Sad days. Happy days. But never a boring day on this job. You do what God has called you to do. You show up...You get on the rig and you go out and you do the job – No matter how big or small the call. You have no idea what God is calling you to. But he needs you. He needs me. He needs all of us. What great people. We love the job. We all do. What a blessing that is. A difficult, difficult job and God calls you to it. And then He gives you a love for it so that a difficult job will be well done.
We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty
Forgiveness is not forgetting, forgiveness is remembering without anger.