β
He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much;
Who has enjoyed the trust of pure women, the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children;
Who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;
Who has never lacked appreciation of Earth's beauty or failed to express it;
Who has left the world better than he found it,
Whether an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul;
Who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best he had;
Whose life was an inspiration;
Whose memory a benediction.
β
β
Bessie Anderson Stanley (More Heart Throbs Volume Two in Prose and Verse Dear to the American People And by them contributed as a Supplement to the original $10,000 Prize Book HEART THROBS)
β
It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.
β
β
Vincent van Gogh
β
Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.
β
β
Victor Hugo
β
Sometimes God allows what he hates to accomplish what he loves.
β
β
Joni Eareckson Tada (The God I Love (Running Press Miniatures))
β
You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.
β
β
William Wilberforce
β
So early in my life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.
β
β
Malcolm X (The Autobiography of Malcolm X [Japanese-Language Edition].)
β
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
β
β
Harry Truman
β
There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don't care who gets the credit.
β
β
Ronald Reagan
β
A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, and must empty ourselves. Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in his love than in your weakness.
β
β
Mother Teresa
β
I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.
β
β
Helen Keller
β
In the end, all men die. How you lived will be far more important to the Almighty than what you accomplished.
β
β
Brandon Sanderson (The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1))
β
Every morning when I wake up, I experience an exquisite joy βthe joy of being Salvador DalΓβ and I ask myself in rapture: What wonderful things is this Salvador DalΓ going to accomplish today?
β
β
Salvador DalΓ
β
Don't blow off another's candle for it won't make yours shine brighter.
β
β
Jaachynma N.E. Agu (The Prince and the Pauper)
β
The harder you fall, the heavier your heart; the heavier your heart, the stronger you climb; the stronger you climb, the higher your pedestal.
β
β
Criss Jami (Killosophy)
β
There is strange comfort in knowing that no matter what happens today, the Sun will rise again tomorrow.
β
β
Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
β
None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.
β
β
Ralph Waldo Emerson
β
Always believe in yourself and always stretch yourself beyond your limits. Your life is worth a lot more than you think because you are capable of accomplishing more than you know. You have more potential than you think, but you will never know your full potential unless you keep challenging yourself and pushing beyond your own self imposed limits.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
Instead of focusing on how much you can accomplish, focus on how much you can absolutely love what youβre doing.
β
β
Leo Babauta
β
Don't set your goals by what other people deem important.
β
β
Jaachynma N.E. Agu (The Prince and the Pauper)
β
The struggles we endure today will be the βgood old daysβ we laugh about tomorrow.
β
β
Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
β
The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. work is the key to success, and hard work can help you accomplish anything.
β
β
Vince Lombardi
β
But love is complicated, itβs messy. It can inspire selflessness, selfishness, our greatest accomplishments and our hardest mistakes. It brings us together and it can just as easily drive us apart.
β
β
Courtney Summers (Sadie)
β
Many people say I'm the best women's soccer player in the world. I don't think so. And because of that, someday I just might be.
β
β
Mia Hamm
β
It doesn't matter how great your shoes are if you don't accomplish anything in them.
β
β
Martina Boone (Compulsion (The Heirs of Watson Island, #1))
β
I believe absolutely in my own free will and my own power to accomplish - and that is the belief that moves mountains.
β
β
Jean Webster (Daddy-Long-Legs (Daddy-Long-Legs, #1))
β
If you take responsibility for yourself you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams.
β
β
Les Brown
β
It's in those quiet little towns, at the edge of the world, that you will find the salt of the earth people who make you feel right at home.
β
β
Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
β
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest accomplishment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
β
β
Leo F. Buscaglia
β
What would you not have accomplished if you had been free?"
"Possibly nothing at all; the overflow of my brain would probably, in a state of freedom, have evaporated in a thousand follies; misfortune is needed to bring to light the treasures of the human intellect. Compression is needed to explode gunpowder. Captivity has brought my mental faculties to a focus; and you are well aware that from the collision of clouds electricity is produced β from electricity, lightning, from lightning, illumination.
β
β
Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)
β
You can feel the whole world and still feel lost in it. So many people are in pain-- no matter how smart or accomplished--they cry, they yearn, they hurt. But instead of looking down on things, they look up, which is where I should have been looking, too. Because when the world quiets to the sound of your own breathing, we all want the same things: comfort, love and a peaceful heart.
β
β
Mitch Albom
β
Life's trials will test you, and shape you, but donβt let them change who you are.β
~ Aaron Lauritsen, β100 Days Drive
β
β
Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
β
Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.
β
β
Albert Schweitzer
β
True friends don't come with conditions.
β
β
Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
β
The fact that you are still alive assures you that God has something for you to accomplish.
β
β
Rodney A. Winters (Go into the House)
β
Without struggle, success has no value.
β
β
Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
β
The comfort zone is a psychological state in which one feels familiar, safe, at ease, and secure.
If you always do what is easy and choose the path of least resistance, you never step outside your comfort zone. Great things donβt come from comfort zones.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
As Aristotle said, 'Excellence is a habit.' I would say furthermore that excellence is made constant through the feeling that comes right after one has completed a work which he himself finds undeniably awe-inspiring. He only wants to relax until he's ready to renew such a feeling all over again because to him, all else has become absolutely trivial.
β
β
Criss Jami (Killosophy)
β
At the end of the day, it's not about what you have or even what you've accomplished. It's about what you've done with those accomplishments. Its about who you've lifted up, who you've made better. It about what you've given back" (23).
β
β
Denzel Washington (A Hand to Guide Me)
β
Remember to celebrate the small accomplishments along your journey because they will provide the support needed when the road gets rocky.Β
β
β
C. Toni Graham
β
From this point forward, you donβt even know how to quit in life.β
~ Aaron Lauritsen, β100 Days Drive
β
β
Aaron Lauritsen
β
Be a King. Dare to be Different, dare to manifest your greatness.
β
β
Jaachynma N.E. Agu (The Prince and the Pauper)
β
A confident woman wears a smile and has this air of comfortability and pleasantness about her.
β
β
Jaachynma N.E. Agu
β
Soar with wit. Conquer with dignity. Handle with care.
β
β
Criss Jami (Killosophy)
β
It was being a runner that mattered, not how fast or how far I could run. The joy was in the act of running and in the journey, not in the destination. We have a better chance of seeing where we are when we stop trying to get somewhere else. We can enjoy every moment of movement, as long as where we are is as good as where we'd like to be. That's not to say that you need to be satisfied forever with where you are today. But you need to honor what you've accomplished, rather than thinking of what's left to be done (p. 159).
β
β
John Bingham (No Need for Speed: A Beginner's Guide to the Joy of Running)
β
Life is like butter - when things cool down it can be reshaped
β
β
Alan Sheinwald (Alan Sheinwald is Building a Perfect Home)
β
Men love women who are courageous for it means they can go all the way with him in his pursuit of his good dreams and intentions.
β
β
Jaachynma N.E. Agu
β
Its never to late to get back on your feet though we wont live forever make sure you accomplish what you were put here for
β
β
Abigail Adams (My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams)
β
Very often in everyday life one sees that by losing one's temper with someone who has already lost his, one does not gain anything but only sets out upon the path of stupidity. He who has enough self-control to stand firm at the moment when the other person is in a temper, wins in the end. It is not he who has spoken a hundred words aloud who has won; it is he who has perhaps spoken only one word.
β
β
Hazrat Inayat Khan (Mastery Through Accomplishment)
β
Those who achieve the extraordinary are usually the most ordinary because they have nothing to prove to anybody. Be Humble.
β
β
Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
β
At some point, you just gotta forgive the past, your happiness hinges on it.
β
β
Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
β
Don't die without fulfilling your purpose.
β
β
Jaachynma N.E. Agu (The Prince and the Pauper)
β
Celebrate what you've accomplished, but raise the bar a little higher each time you succeed.
β
β
Mia Hamm
β
Good is never accomplished except at the cost of those who do it, truth never breaks through except through the sacrifice of those who spread it.
β
β
John Henry Newman
β
but I have no mind for business and considered staying awake to be enough of an accomplishment.
β
β
David Sedaris (Me Talk Pretty One Day)
β
Explore, Experience, Then Push Beyond.
β
β
Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
β
Everyone wants to feel loved, but when all you feel is alone it's tough to accomplish anything else.
β
β
Glenn Beck (The Christmas Sweater)
β
If you do whatever it takes to accomplish your goals to live the life you desire, It will be worth it. I promise! But if you find some excuse to justify quitting your journey, you will regret it. This is also a promise!" -gbb
β
β
Glenn Brandon Burke
β
I like stories about supervillains. They teach children that you can accomplish great things even when the whole world is against you.
β
β
G.D. Falksen
β
Dare to be different. Represent your maker well and you will forever abide in the beautiful embrace of his loving arms.
β
β
Jaachynma N.E. Agu (The Prince and the Pauper)
β
Constantly stopping to explain oneself may expand into a frustrating burden for the rare individual, so ceasing to do so is like finally dropping the weights and sprinting towards his goals. Those who insincerely misunderstand, who intentionally distort the motives of a pure-intentioned individual, then, no longer have the opportunity to block his path; instead, they are the ones left to stand on the sidelines shouting frustratedly in the wind of his trail.
β
β
Criss Jami (Killosophy)
β
God is never tired of bringing the sun out every morning, taking it in the evenings and bringing out the moon.
β
β
Jaachynma N.E. Agu (The Prince and the Pauper)
β
Seek and embrace peace. We all deserve a tranquil existence.
β
β
C. Toni Graham
β
The freedom of the open road is seductive, serendipitous and absolutely liberating.
β
β
Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
β
Have you realized that today is the tomorrow you talked about yesterday? It is your responsibility to change your life for the better.
β
β
Jaachynma N.E. Agu (The Prince and the Pauper)
β
There is no tomorrow and there was no yesterday; if you truly want to accomplish your goals you must engulf yourself in today.
β
β
Noel DeJesus
β
It's what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their destiny is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their destiny... It's a force that appears to be negative, but actually shows you how to realize your destiny. It prepares your spirit and you will, because there is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it's because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It's your mission on earth.
β
β
Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist)
β
Il bel far niente means 'the beauty of doing nothing'... [it] has always been a cherished Italian ideal. The beauty of doing nothing is the goal of all your work, the final accomplishment for which you are most highly congratulated. The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life's achievement. You don't necessarily need to be rich in order to experience this, either.
β
β
Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)
β
To accomplish excellence or anything outstanding, you must listen to that whisper which is heard by you alone.
β
β
Ralph Waldo Emerson
β
The definition of a professional is one who does a job well even when they don't like it.
β
β
Alan Sheinwald (Alan Sheinwald is Building a Perfect Home)
β
Clarity of mission is important for acceleration. If you have a mission, but others donβt understand or your actions contradict it, then it will be less contagious.
β
β
Raoul Davis Jr. (Firestarters: How Innovators, Instigators, and Initiators Can Inspire You to Ignite Your Own Life)
β
Your job doesnβt define youβyour bravery and kindness and gratitude do. Even without any βbigβ accomplishments yet to your name, you are enough. Whether you have top billing, or youβre still dancing in the back row, you are enough, just as you are.
β
β
Lauren Graham (In Conclusion, Don't Worry About It)
β
It's amazing what one can accomplish when one doesn't know what one can't do.
β
β
Jim Davis
β
Freedom in any moment is a product of two things: the autonomy you feel and the support for autonomy that the moment allows.
β
β
Raoul Davis Jr. (Firestarters: How Innovators, Instigators, and Initiators Can Inspire You to Ignite Your Own Life)
β
If you didn't earn something, it's not worth flaunting.
β
β
Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
β
It was not that ladies were inferior to men; it was that they were different. Their mission was to inspire others to achievement rather than to achieve themselves. Indirectly, by means of tact and a spotless name, a lady could accomplish much. But if she rushed into the fray herself she would be first censured, then despised, and finally ignored.
β
β
E.M. Forster (A Room with a View)
β
An average man is egoistic, proud and has strong self esteem. They always require partners who massage their ego not those who will drag their ego to the mud.
β
β
Jaachynma N.E. Agu
β
Your words are powerful so what you say goes a long way to either establish or destroy you; this is why you should say things that God has said concerning you, not things that situations or circumstances say.
β
β
Jaachynma N.E. Agu (The Prince and the Pauper)
β
Why doesnβt every fire once kindled, survive and thrive? Why doesnβt every person accomplish her dreams? The simple answer is that the Firestarterβs life is a constant fight against extinction.
β
β
Raoul Davis Jr. (Firestarters: How Innovators, Instigators, and Initiators Can Inspire You to Ignite Your Own Life)
β
An intelligent woman is a goldmine! She has the ability to learn, reason and understand things better and faster than her contemporaries. She is competent, alert and can reason out stuffs easily.
β
β
Jaachynma N.E. Agu
β
I learned early that crying out in protest could accomplish things. My older brothers and sister had started to school when, sometimes, they would come in and ask for a buttered biscuit or something and my mother, impatiently, would tell them no. But I would cry out and make a fuss until I got what I wanted. I remember well how my mother asked me why I couldn't be a nice boy like Wilfred; but I would think to myself that Wilfred, for being so nice and quiet, often stayed hungry. So early in life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.
β
β
Malcolm X (The Autobiography of Malcolm X)
β
If something is difficult for you to accomplish, do not then think it impossible for any human being; rather, if it is humanly possible and corresponds to human nature, know that it is attainable by you as well.
β
β
Marcus Aurelius (The Essential Marcus Aurelius (Tarcher Cornerstone Editions))
β
Never despise small beginnings, and don't belittle your own accomplishments. Remember them and use them as inspiration as you go on to the next thing. When you venture outside your comfort zone, wherever the starting point may be, it's kind of a big deal.
β
β
Chris Guillebeau
β
Collaborators donβt steal othersβ ideas, take advantage of people, or sit back while others accomplish their tasks for them. Collaborators take action to ensure that everyone with whom they work can enjoy the maximum potential outcome.
β
β
Raoul Davis Jr. (Firestarters: How Innovators, Instigators, and Initiators Can Inspire You to Ignite Your Own Life)
β
I wish that people realized how this felt every day. Why does it take a life ending to learn how to cherish each day? Why must we wait until we run out of time to start to accomplish all that we dreamed, when once we had all the time in the world? Why donβt we look at the person we love the most like itβs the last time we will ever see them? Because if we did, life would be so vibrant. Life would be so truly and completely lived.
β
β
Tillie Cole (A Thousand Boy Kisses (A Thousand Boy Kisses, #1))
β
Stand tall and be strong in defense of those great virtues which have been the backbone of our social progress. When you are united, your power is limitless. You can accomplish anything you wish to accomplish. -President Gordon B. Hinckley, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
β
β
Gordon B. Hinckley
β
Each of us has two distinct choices to make about what we will do with our lives. The first choice we can make is to be less than we have the capacity to be. To earn less. To have less. To read less and think less. To try less and discipline ourselves less. These are the choices that lead to an empty life. These are the choices that, once made, lead to a life of constant apprehension instead of a life of wondrous anticipation And the second choice? To do it all! To become all that we can possibly be. To read every book that we possibly can. To earn as much as we possibly can. To give and share as much as we possibly can. To strive and produce and accomplish as much as we possibly can.
β
β
Jim Rohn
β
Those who might be tempted to give way to despair should realize that nothing accomplished in this order can ever be lost, that confusion, error and darkness can win the day only apparently and in a purely ephemeral way, that all partial and transitory disequilibrium must perforce contribute towards the greater equilibrium of the whole, and that nothing can ultimately prevail against the power of truth.
β
β
RenΓ© GuΓ©non (The Crisis of the Modern World)
β
Donβt simply exist in this world, but grasp lifeβs potential by the jacket. Dare it to be all it can. Make life historicalβa gripping account of accomplishment. Make life a mysteryβa challenging, bold adventure. Make life heartfeltβan enduring, poetic romance. Whatever it is you make of your world, live the fairy tale.
β
β
Richelle E. Goodrich (Eena, The Return of a Queen (The Harrowbethian Saga #2))
β
The following day I abandoned my pointless searching and planted myself in one of the open air-cafΓ©s where I drank coffee and tried to find inspiration for the song I owed the Maer. Ten hours I spent there, and the only act of creation I accomplished was to magically transform nearly a gallon of coffee into marvelous, aromatic piss.
β
β
Patrick Rothfuss (The Wise Manβs Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #2))
β
If you ask me how I want to be remembered, it is as a winner. You know what a winner is? A winner is somebody who has given his best effort, who has tried the hardest they possibly can, who has utilized every ounce of energy and strength within them to accomplish something. It doesn't mean that they accomplished it or failed, it means that they've given it their best. That's a winner.
β
β
Walter Payton (Never Die Easy: The Autobiography of Walter Payton)
β
God and Destiny are not against us, rather they are for us, they are the ones who never forget the things we have long forgotten, the ones who hear the desires of our heart that our own heads can't hear, and they are the ones who never forget who we really are, long after our minds have forgotten the images of who we are. We come from God and we belong to Destiny, yet for some reason of ignorance we think that to be the master of our own fates and the captain of our own souls means to write everything down on a paper and plan everything out on a grid! Such great things to be done, and we think they are accomplished by our primitive ways! No. We must only know what we want. And want what we want. And then fly high enough to see all that which we want that we couldn't yet see.
β
β
C. JoyBell C.
β
This idea comes to you, you can see it, but to accomplish it you need what I call a "setup." For example, you may need a working shop or a working painting studio. You may beed a working music studio. Or a computer room where you can write something. It's crucial to have a setup, so that, at any given moment, when you get an idea, you have the place and the tools to make it happen. If you don't have a setup, there are many times when you get the inspiration, the idea, but you have no tools, no place to put it together. And the idea just sits there and festers. Overtime, it will go away. You didn't filfill it--and that's just a heartache.
β
β
David Lynch (Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity)
β
When we search for "ourselves" in the eyes of others, we have imprisoned our own-selves in believing that our self-worth is nothing unless others validate who we are. Unless we approve of whom we are, what we are, and what we are capable of doing as an individual, only then we will have released "ourselves" from our own imprisonment. We are in charge of our own life's destiny and what we do and become can only be validated by our accomplishments and failures; not by what others may think of us.
β
β
David Isley (Dahveed) (Through The Eyes of A Foster Child: A Poetic Journey)
β
Sometimes, in a summer morning,
having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise
till noon, rapt in a revery, amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs,
in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sing around or
flitted noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in at
my west window, or the noise of some traveller's wagon on the distant
highway, I was reminded of the lapse of time. I grew in those seasons
like corn in the night, and they were far better than any work of the
hands would have been. They were not time subtracted from my life, but
so much over and above my usual allowance. I realized what the Orientals
mean by contemplation and the forsaking of works. For the most part, I
minded not how the hours went. The day advanced as if to light some
work of mine; it was morning, and lo, now it is evening, and nothing
memorable is accomplished.
β
β
Henry David Thoreau (Walden)
β
I've been lucky enough now in my life to meet all sorts of extraordinary and accomplished people - world leaders, inventors, musicians, astronauts, athletes, professors, entrepreneurs, artists and writers, pioneering doctors and researchers. Some (though not enough) of them are women. Some (though not enough) are black or of color. Some were born poor or have lives that to many of us would appear to have been unfairly heaped with adversity, and yet still they seem to operate as if they've had every advantage in the world. What I've learned is this: All of them have had doubters. Some continue to have roaring, stadium-sized collection of critics and naysayers who will shout I told you so at every little misstep or mistake. The noise doesn't go away, but the most successful people I know have figured out how to live with it, to lean on the people who believe in them, and to push onward with their goals.
β
β
Michelle Obama (Becoming)
β
O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire
Crouch for employment. But pardon, and gentles all,
The flat unraised spirits that have dared
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
So great an object: can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
Attest in little place a million;
And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,
On your imaginary forces work.
Suppose within the girdle of these walls
Are now confined two mighty monarchies,
Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
Into a thousand parts divide on man,
And make imaginary puissance;
Think when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times,
Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hour-glass: for the which supply,
Admit me Chorus to this history;
Who prologue-like your humble patience pray,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Henry V)
β
We did live in dire poverty. And one of the things that I hated was poverty. Some people hate spiders. Some people hate snakes. I hated poverty. I couldn't stand it. My mother couldn't stand the fact that we were doing poorly in school, and she prayed and she asked God to give her wisdom. What could she do to get her young sons to understand the importance of developing their minds so that they control their own lives? God gave her the wisdom. At least in her opinion. My brother and I didn't think it was that wise. Turn off the TV, let us watch only two or three TV programs during the week. And with all that spare time read two books a piece from the Detroit Public Libraries and submit to her written book reports, which she couldn't read but we didn't know that. I just hated this. My friends were out having a good time. Her friends would criticize her. My mother didn't care. But after a while I actually began to enjoy reading those books. Because we were very poor, but between the covers of those books I could go anywhere. I could be anybody. I could do anything. I began to read about people of great accomplishment. And as I read those stories, I began to see a connecting thread. I began to see that the person who has the most to do with you, and what happens to you in life, is you. You make decisions. You decide how much energy you want to put behind that decision. And I came to understand that I had control of my own destiny. And at that point I didn't hate poverty anymore, because I knew it was only temporary. I knew I could change that. It was incredibly liberating for me. Made all the difference.
β
β
Ben Carson
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Evil is not one large entity, but a collection of countless, small depravities brought up from the muck by petty men. Many have traded the enrichment of vision for a gray fog of mediocrity--the fertile inspiration of striving and growth, for mindless stagnation and slow decay--the brave new ground of the attempt, for the timid quagmire of apathy. Many of you have traded freedom not even for a bowl of soup, but worse, for the spoken empty feelings of others who say that you deserve to have a full bowl of soup provided by someone else. Happiness, joy, accomplishment, achievement . . . are not finite commodities, to be divided up. Is a childβs laughter to be divided and allotted? No! Simply make more laughter! Every personβs life is theirs by right. An individualβs life can and must belong only to himself, not to any society or community, or he is then but a slave. No one can deny another person their right to their life, nor seize by force what is produced by someone else, because that is stealing their means to sustain their life. It is treason against mankind to hold a knife to a manβs throat and dictate how he must live his life. No society can be more important than the individuals who compose it, or else you ascribe supreme importance, not to man, but to any notion that strikes the fancy of the society, at a never-ending cost of lives. Reason and reality are the only means to just laws; mindless wishes, if given sovereignty, become deadly masters. Surrendering reason to faith in unreasonable men sanctions their use of force to enslave you--to murder you. You have the power to decide how you will live your life. Those mean, unreasonable little men are but cockroaches, if you say they are. They have no power to control you but that which you grant them!
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Terry Goodkind (Faith of the Fallen (Sword of Truth, #6))
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It was the general opinion of ancient nations, that the divinity alone was adequate to the important office of giving laws to men... and modern nations, in the consecrations of kings, and in several superstitious chimeras of divine rights in princes and nobles, are nearly unanimous in preserving remnants of it... Is the jealousy of power, and the envy of superiority, so strong in all men, that no considerations of public or private utility are sufficient to engage their submission to rules for their own happiness? Or is the disposition to imposture so prevalent in men of experience, that their private views of ambition and avarice can be accomplished only by artifice? β β¦ There is nothing in which mankind have been more unanimous; yet nothing can be inferred from it more than this, that the multitude have always been credulous, and the few artful. The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature: and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had any interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the inspiration of heaven, any more than those at work upon ships or houses, or labouring in merchandize or agriculture: it will for ever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses. As Copley painted Chatham, West, Wolf, and Trumbull, Warren and Montgomery; as Dwight, Barlow, Trumbull, and Humphries composed their verse, and Belknap and Ramzay history; as Godfrey invented his quadrant, and Rittenhouse his planetarium; as Boylston practised inoculation, and Franklin electricity; as Paine exposed the mistakes of Raynal, and Jefferson those of Buffon, so unphilosophically borrowed from the Recherches Philosophiques sur les AmΓ©ricains those despicable dreams of de Pauw β neither the people, nor their conventions, committees, or sub-committees, considered legislation in any other light than ordinary arts and sciences, only as of more importance. Called without expectation, and compelled without previous inclination, though undoubtedly at the best period of time both for England and America, to erect suddenly new systems of laws for their future government, they adopted the method of a wise architect, in erecting a new palace for the residence of his sovereign. They determined to consult Vitruvius, Palladio, and all other writers of reputation in the art; to examine the most celebrated buildings, whether they remain entire or in ruins; compare these with the principles of writers; and enquire how far both the theories and models were founded in nature, or created by fancy: and, when this should be done, as far as their circumstances would allow, to adopt the advantages, and reject the inconveniences, of all. Unembarrassed by attachments to noble families, hereditary lines and successions, or any considerations of royal blood, even the pious mystery of holy oil had no more influence than that other of holy water: the people universally were too enlightened to be imposed on by artifice; and their leaders, or more properly followers, were men of too much honour to attempt it. Thirteen governments thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favour of the rights of mankind.
[Preface to 'A Defence of the Constitutions of the United States of America', 1787]
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John Adams (A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America)
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Thank you for inviting me here today " I said my voice sounding nothing like me. "I'm here to testify about things I've seen and experienced myself. I'm here because the human race has become more powerful than ever. We've gone to the moon. Our crops resist diseases and pests. We can stop and restart a human heart. And we've harvested vast amounts of energy for everything from night-lights to enormous super-jets. We've even created new kinds of people, like me.
"But everything mankind" - I frowned - "personkind has accomplished has had a price. One that we're all gonna have to pay."
I heard coughing and shifting in the audience. I looked down at my notes and all the little black words blurred together on the page. I just could not get through this.
I put the speech down picked up the microphone and came out from behind the podium.
"Look " I said. "There's a lot of official stuff I could quote and put up on the screen with PowerPoint. But what you need to know what the world needs to know is that we're really destroying the earth in a bigger and more catastrophic was than anyone has ever imagined.
"I mean I've seen a lot of the world the only world we have. There are so many awesome beautiful tings in it. Waterfalls and mountains thermal pools surrounded by sand like white sugar. Field and field of wildflowers. Places where the ocean crashes up against a mountainside like it's done for hundreds of thousands of years.
"I've also seen concrete cities with hardly any green. And rivers whose pretty rainbow surfaces came from an oil leak upstream. Animals are becoming extinct right now in my lifetime. Just recently I went through one of the worst hurricanes ever recorded. It was a whole lot worse because of huge worldwide climatic changes caused by... us. We the people."
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"A more perfect union While huge corporations do whatever they want to whoever they want and other people live in subway tunnels Where's the justice of that Kids right here in America go to be hungry every night while other people get four-hundred-dollar haircuts. Promote the general welfare Where's the General welfare in strip-mining toxic pesticides industrial solvents being dumped into rivers killing everything Domestic Tranquility Ever sleep in a forest that's being clear-cut You'd be hearing chain saws in your head for weeks. The blessings of liberty Yes. I'm using one of the blessings of liberty right now my freedom of speech to tell you guys who make the laws that the very ground you stand on the house you live in the children you tuck in at night are all in immediate catastrophic danger.
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James Patterson (The Final Warning (Maximum Ride, #4))