Speech Motivational Quotes

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No matter how old you are now. You are never too young or too old for success or going after what you want. Here’s a short list of people who accomplished great things at different ages 1) Helen Keller, at the age of 19 months, became deaf and blind. But that didn’t stop her. She was the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. 2) Mozart was already competent on keyboard and violin; he composed from the age of 5. 3) Shirley Temple was 6 when she became a movie star on β€œBright Eyes.” 4) Anne Frank was 12 when she wrote the diary of Anne Frank. 5) Magnus Carlsen became a chess Grandmaster at the age of 13. 6) Nadia ComΔƒneci was a gymnast from Romania that scored seven perfect 10.0 and won three gold medals at the Olympics at age 14. 7) Tenzin Gyatso was formally recognized as the 14th Dalai Lama in November 1950, at the age of 15. 8) Pele, a soccer superstar, was 17 years old when he won the world cup in 1958 with Brazil. 9) Elvis was a superstar by age 19. 10) John Lennon was 20 years and Paul Mcartney was 18 when the Beatles had their first concert in 1961. 11) Jesse Owens was 22 when he won 4 gold medals in Berlin 1936. 12) Beethoven was a piano virtuoso by age 23 13) Issac Newton wrote PhilosophiΓ¦ Naturalis Principia Mathematica at age 24 14) Roger Bannister was 25 when he broke the 4 minute mile record 15) Albert Einstein was 26 when he wrote the theory of relativity 16) Lance E. Armstrong was 27 when he won the tour de France 17) Michelangelo created two of the greatest sculptures β€œDavid” and β€œPieta” by age 28 18) Alexander the Great, by age 29, had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world 19) J.K. Rowling was 30 years old when she finished the first manuscript of Harry Potter 20) Amelia Earhart was 31 years old when she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean 21) Oprah was 32 when she started her talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind 22) Edmund Hillary was 33 when he became the first man to reach Mount Everest 23) Martin Luther King Jr. was 34 when he wrote the speech β€œI Have a Dream." 24) Marie Curie was 35 years old when she got nominated for a Nobel Prize in Physics 25) The Wright brothers, Orville (32) and Wilbur (36) invented and built the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight 26) Vincent Van Gogh was 37 when he died virtually unknown, yet his paintings today are worth millions. 27) Neil Armstrong was 38 when he became the first man to set foot on the moon. 28) Mark Twain was 40 when he wrote "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", and 49 years old when he wrote "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" 29) Christopher Columbus was 41 when he discovered the Americas 30) Rosa Parks was 42 when she refused to obey the bus driver’s order to give up her seat to make room for a white passenger 31) John F. Kennedy was 43 years old when he became President of the United States 32) Henry Ford Was 45 when the Ford T came out. 33) Suzanne Collins was 46 when she wrote "The Hunger Games" 34) Charles Darwin was 50 years old when his book On the Origin of Species came out. 35) Leonardo Da Vinci was 51 years old when he painted the Mona Lisa. 36) Abraham Lincoln was 52 when he became president. 37) Ray Kroc Was 53 when he bought the McDonalds Franchise and took it to unprecedented levels. 38) Dr. Seuss was 54 when he wrote "The Cat in the Hat". 40) Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III was 57 years old when he successfully ditched US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River in 2009. All of the 155 passengers aboard the aircraft survived 41) Colonel Harland Sanders was 61 when he started the KFC Franchise 42) J.R.R Tolkien was 62 when the Lord of the Ring books came out 43) Ronald Reagan was 69 when he became President of the US 44) Jack Lalane at age 70 handcuffed, shackled, towed 70 rowboats 45) Nelson Mandela was 76 when he became President
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Pablo
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To assess the quality of thoughts of people, don't listen to their words, but watch their actions.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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I’m not very good with on-the-spot motivational speech,” I say to her. β€œSometimes at night, I’ll rewrite conversations I had during the day, but I’ll change them up to reflect everything I wish I could have said in the moment.
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Colleen Hoover (November 9)
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Politeness is the first thing people lose once they get the power.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.
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Martin Luther King Jr. (I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World)
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APOLLO'S DAILY MOTIVATIONAL SPEECH "You are gorgeous and people love you!
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Rick Riordan (The Hidden Oracle (The Trials of Apollo, #1))
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All worries are less with wine.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Yawns are not the only infectious things out there besides germs. Giggles can spread from person to person. So can blushing. But maybe the most powerful infectious thing is the act of speaking the truth.
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Vera Nazarian
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The job of feets is walking, but their hobby is dancing.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Great losses are great lessons.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Take care of your costume and your confidence will take care of itself.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Anger gets you into trouble, ego keeps you in trouble.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Seeing the mud around a lotus is pessimism, seeing a lotus in the mud is optimism.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Be a worthy worker and work will come.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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So, kiss the girl. Buy the dress. Take a vacation. Join the circus. Order the fried frog legs. Try out for the play. Learn to snowboard. Do something that scares the shit out of you. Or something that makes you happy. Or something that makes you cry. Whatever it is, do something that makes you feel. Because feeling nothing is no way to go through life.
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Valerie Thomas (From What I Remember...)
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Father has a strengthening character like the sun and mother has a soothing temper like the moon.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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The deepness of your mind produces the thickness of your thoughts.
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Michael Bassey Johnson
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Hunger gives flavour to the food.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Music shouldn't be just a tune, it should be a touch.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Some of the most powerful speeches I have given have been delivered in the dedicated silence of my actions.
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Steve Maraboli (Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience)
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In leadership, life and all things it’s far wiser to judge people by their deeds than their speech - their track record rather than their talk” – Rasheed Ogunlaru
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Rasheed Ogunlaru
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Tweet others the way you want to be tweeted.
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Germany Kent (You Are What You Tweet: Harness the Power of Twitter to Create a Happier, Healthier Life)
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Arrogant men with knowledge make more noise from their mouth than making a sense from their mind.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Respect cannot be inherited, respect is the result of right actions.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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In your name, the family name is at last because it's the family name that lasts.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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The decision is your own voice, an opinion is the echo of someone else's voice.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Be polite in your speeches. Good information rudely communicated will make no positive difference.
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Israelmore Ayivor (Mine Your Gold: How to dig up and optimize your hidden greatness)
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Mixing old wine with new wine is stupidity, but mixing old wisdom with new wisdom is maturity.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Common man's patience will bring him more happiness than common man's power.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Freedom of Speech doesn't justify online bullying. Words have power, be careful how you use them.
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Germany Kent
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Some of us can live without a society but not without a family.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Some people when they see cheese, chocolate or cake they don't think of calories.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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A farmer is a magician who produces money from the mud.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Health is hearty, health is harmony, health is happiness.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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During your struggle society is not a bunch of flowers, it is a bunch of cactus.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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If you can't impress them with your argument, impress them with your actions.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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A warrior doesn’t worry. He or she evaluates the situation, investigates the source, calculates the risks and benefits, formulates a plan then puts it into action.
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Shannon L. Alder
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War is not just the shower of bullets and bombs from both sides, it is also the shower of blood and bones on both sides.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Networking isn't how many people you know, it's how many people know you.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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A slip of the foot may injure your body, but a slip of the tongue will injure your bond.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Music is the fastest motivator in the world.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Don't promote negativity online and expect people to treat you with positivity in person.
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Germany Kent
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With right fashion, every female would be a flame.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Fail soon so that you can succeed sooner.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Statements of ordinary people are ignored like poor freebies, statements of great people are accepted like profound philosophy.
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Amit Kalantri
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Parents expect only two things from their children, obedience in their childhood and respect in their adulthood.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Today it is cheaper to start a business than tomorrow.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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If she says goodbye, someone else will say hi.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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If thinking should precede acting, then acting must succeed thinking.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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To avoid enemies, say nothing; to avoid critics, do nothing; to avoid haters, be nothing; but to avoid mediocrity, ignore all.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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Politics doesn't corrupt people, people corrupt politics.
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Amit Kalantri
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It's time to shop high heels if your fiance kisses you on the forehead.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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During a conversation, listening is as powerful as loving.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Side benefit of dating me: free motivational speeches. It's like friends with benefits where the benefits are inspirational.
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Josh Sundquist (We Should Hang Out Sometime: Embarrassingly, a True Story)
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Encourage others each and every day–nothing’s more important than our words. Did you know that, on average, each of us speaks about twenty-five thousand words daily? My last book didn’t have that many words. A lot of language is flowing out of our mouths every day and having an impact on those around us. But how much of that flow is fulfilling God’s intended purpose for our speech? How much of it reflects pride, rather than a gospel-motivated humility?
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C.J. Mahaney (Humility: True Greatness)
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Before you worry about the beauty of your body, worry about the health of your body.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Cowards say it can't be done, critics say it shouldn't have been done, creator say well done.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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He who sacrifices his respect for love basically burns his body to obtain the light.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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In modern times couples are more concerned about loyalty than love.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Good becomes better by playing against better, but better doesn't become the best by playing against good.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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The mistakes of the world are warning message for you.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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In the business people with expertise, experience and evidence will make more profitable decisions than people with instinct, intuition and imagination.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Fashion doesn't make you perfect, but it makes you pretty.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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The smell of the sweat is not sweet, but the fruit of the sweat is very sweet.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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You can not control the thought, but you can control the tongue.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Leading people requires not only sensing change afoot, but imagining a brighter future and communicating it in a way that motivates others to follow you there.
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Nancy Duarte (Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies and Symbols)
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Faster is fatal, slower is safe.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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In general, poor is polite and rich is rude.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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The mere fact that I exist, means that I deserve to be here and to express myself any damn way I please.
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Euphoria Godsent
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Do not Speak for Anyone. Just let them know their Right to Speak.
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Vineet Raj Kapoor
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Any girl with a grin never looks grim.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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If the farmer is rich, then so is the nation.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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J. C. Ryle observed, β€œA man may preach from false motives. A man may write books, and make fine speeches, and seem diligent in good works, and yet be a Judas Iscariot. But a man seldom goes into his closet, and pours out his soul before God in secret, unless he is serious.
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Kevin DeYoung (Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem)
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How could we love books more than money? This is the state of book lovers.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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My spouse is my shield, my spouse is my strength.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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What luck has gave you will probably leave you.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Passion makes you good, but pride stops you to get better.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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A professional who doesn't deliver as committed is not just lazy, he is a liar.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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In a democracy, there will be more complaints but less crisis, in a dictatorship more silence but much more suffering.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Power does not pardon, power punishes.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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If you are not good at speeches, be good at your actions.
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Amit Kalantri
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Texting is not talking and a phone is not a friend.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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I'm not very good with on-the-spot motivational speech," I say to her. "Sometimes at night, I'll rewrite conversations I had during the day, but I'll change them up to reflect everything I wish I could have said in the moment. So I just want you to know that tonight when I write this conversation down on paper, I'll say something really heroic and it'll make you feel really good about your life.
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Colleen Hoover (November 9)
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Dear Fellow Human Being, You are born wild, You do not deserve to be tamed! Tell yourself, You do not deserve this! All those toxic words you have to listen from people, All those fears they try to pin on your mind, All those giggles they aim at your dreams, All those judgmental stares inspecting your individuality, All those fingers pointing towards your crude character, All those shackles that tie your feet to social expectations, All those cages that do not let your imagination fly free, Listen deeply, you do not deserve any of it. My dear fellow human, you do not deserve this hostility. You are born wild, You do not deserve to be tamed!
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Jasz Gill
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Anger is an assertion of rights and worth. It is communication, equality, and knowledge. It is intimacy, acceptance, fearlessness, embodiment, revolt, and reconciliation. Anger is memory and rage. It is rational thought and irrational pain. Anger is freedom, independence, expansiveness, and entitlement. It is justice, passion, clarity, and motivation. Anger is instrumental, thoughtful, complicated, and resolved. In anger, whether you like it or not, there is truth. Anger is the demand of accountability, It is evaluation, judgment, and refutation. It is reflective, visionary, and participatory. It's a speech act, a social statement, an intention, and a purpose. It's a risk and a threat. A confirmation and a wish. It is both powerlessness and power, palliative and a provocation. In anger, you will find both ferocity and comfort, vulnerability and hurt. Anger is the expression of hope. How much anger is too much? Certainly not the anger that, for many of us, is a remembering of a self we learned to hide and quiet. It is willful and disobedient. It is survival, liberation, creativity, urgency, and vibrancy. It is a statement of need. An insistence of acknowledgment. Anger is a boundary. Anger is boundless. An opportunity for contemplation and self-awareness. It is commitment. Empathy. Self-love. Social responsibility. If it is poison, it is also the antidote. The anger we have as women is an act of radical imagination. Angry women burn brighter than the sun. In the coming years, we will hear, again, that anger is a destructive force, to be controlled. Watch carefully, because not everyone is asked to do this in equal measure. Women, especially, will be told to set our anger aside in favor of a kinder, gentler approach to change. This is a false juxtaposition. Reenvisioned, anger can be the most feminine of virtues: compassionate, fierce, wise, and powerful. The women I admire mostβ€”those who have looked to themselves and the limitations and adversities that come with our bodies and the expectations that come with themβ€”have all found ways to transform their anger into meaningful change. In them, anger has moved from debilitation to liberation. Your anger is a gift you give to yourself and the world that is yours. In anger, I have lived more fully, freely, intensely, sensitively, and politically. If ever there was a time not to silence yourself, to channel your anger into healthy places and choices, this is it.
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Soraya Chemaly (Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger)
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Seed becomes tree, son becomes stranger.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Sacrifice of the self is sheer stupidity if sacrifice is not for the self.
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Amit Kalantri
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Freedom of speech doesn't mean threatening the freedom of others.
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Vikrmn: CA Vikram Verma (You By You)
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Uniform of a soldier and uniform of a student both are equally needed for the nation.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
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Dust sleeping on your bookshelf and all your plants are drying out you are too busy to save yourself is your mind heading for burnout? Coffee rings on your bedside table anxiety pills under your pillowcase working round the clock to foot the bill is there no time for breakfast these days? Friends haven't seen you in a while your phone is always out of reach you're slowly forgetting how to smile is your silence a figure of speech? Life can sometimes seem to be unfair but hoping is better than you think send the message in a bottle if you dare is it so hard to not force yourself to sink?
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Akash Mandal
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Excerpt from Ursula K Le Guin's speech at National Book Awards Hard times are coming, when we’ll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope. We’ll need writers who can remember freedom – poets, visionaries – realists of a larger reality. Right now, we need writers who know the difference between production of a market commodity and the practice of an art. Developing written material to suit sales strategies in order to maximise corporate profit and advertising revenue is not the same thing as responsible book publishing or authorship. Yet I see sales departments given control over editorial. I see my own publishers, in a silly panic of ignorance and greed, charging public libraries for an e-book six or seven times more than they charge customers. We just saw a profiteer try to punish a publisher for disobedience, and writers threatened by corporate fatwa. And I see a lot of us, the producers, who write the books and make the books, accepting this – letting commodity profiteers sell us like deodorant, and tell us what to publish, what to write. Books aren’t just commodities; the profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable – but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words. I’ve had a long career as a writer, and a good one, in good company. Here at the end of it, I don’t want to watch American literature get sold down the river. We who live by writing and publishing want and should demand our fair share of the proceeds; but the name of our beautiful reward isn’t profit. Its name is freedom.
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Ursula K. Le Guin
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24. (fr) Psychologists use the term "socialization” to designate the process by which children are trained to think and act as society demands. A person is said to be well socialized if he believes in and obeys the moral code of his society and fits in well as a functioning part of that society. It may seem senseless to say that many leftists are over-socialized, since the leftist is perceived as a rebel. Nevertheless, the position can be defended. 25. (fr) The moral code of our society is so demanding that no one can think, feel and act in a completely moral way. For example, we are not supposed to hate anyone, yet almost everyone hates somebody at some time or other, whether he admits it to himself or not. Some people are so highly socialized that the attempt to think, feel and act morally imposes a severe burden on them. In order to avoid feelings of guilt, they continually have to deceive themselves about their own motives and find moral explanations for feelings and actions that in reality have a nonmoral origin. We use the term "oversocialized” to describe such people. 26. (fr) Oversocialization can lead to low self-esteem, a sense of powerlessness, defeatism, guilt, etc. One of the most important means by which our society socializes children is by making them feel ashamed of behavior or speech that is contrary to society’s expectations.
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Theodore J. Kaczynski (Industrial Society and Its Future)
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What’s Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba That he should weep for her? What would he do Had he the motive and the cue for passion That I have? He would drown the stage with tears And cleave the general ear with horrid speech, Make mad the guilty and appall the free, Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I, A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, And can say nothingβ€”no, not for a king, Upon whose property and most dear life A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward? Who calls me β€œvillain”? Breaks my pate across? Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face? Tweaks me by the nose? Gives me the lie i' th' throat As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this?
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William Shakespeare (Hamlet)
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If a man works without any selfish motive in view, does he not gain anything? Yes, he gains the highest. Unselfishness is more paying, only people have not the patience to practice it. It is more paying from the point of view of health also. Love, truth, and unselfishness are not merely moral figures of speech, but they form our highest ideal, because in them lies such a manifestation of power. In the first place, a man who can work for five days, or even for five minutes, without any selfish motive whatever, without thinking of future, of heaven, of punishment, or anything of the kind, has in him the capacity to become a powerful moral giant. It is hard to do it, but in the heart of our hearts we know its value, and the good it brings. It is the greatest manifestation of power β€” this tremendous restraint; self-restraint is a manifestation of greater power than all outgoing action.
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Swami Vivekananda (Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda)
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because the cigarette or spliff was an indispensable technology, a substitute for speech in social situations, a way to occupy the mouth and hands when alone, a deep breathing technique that rendered exhalation material, a way to measure and/or pass the time. More important than the easily satisfiable addiction, what the little cylinders provided me was a prefabricated motivation and transition, a way to approach or depart from a group of people or a topic, enter or exit a room, conjoin or punctuate a sentence. The hardest part of quitting would be the loss of narrative function; it would be like removing telephones or newspapers from the movies of Hollywood’s Golden Age; there would be no possible link between scenes, no way to circulate information or close distance, and when I imagined quitting smoking, I imagined β€œsettling down,” not because I associated quitting with a more mature self-care, but because I couldn’t imagine moving through an array of social spaces without the cigarette as bridge or exit strategy.
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Ben Lerner (Leaving the Atocha Station)
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Now, motivational patterns are going to be similar among all espionage agents. That is to say: there will be certain types of motivation that are similar despite differing schools or opposed aims. You will study first how to separate this element for your analysisβ€”in the beginning, through interrogation patterns that betray the inner orientation of the interrogators; secondly, by close observation of language-thought orientation of those under analysis. You will find it fairly simple to determine the root languages of your subjects, of course, both through voice inflection and speech pattern.
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Frank Herbert (Dune)
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Claiming to be a victim gives people perverse authority. Subjective experience becomes key: 'I am a sexual abuse victim. I am allowed to speak on this. You are not because you have never experienced what it is like to be...'. Victim status can buy special privileges and gives the green light to brand opposing views or even mild criticisms as tantamount to hate speech. So councils, who have become chief cheerleaders for policing subjective complaints, define hate speech as including 'any behavior, verbal abuse or insults, offensive leaflets, posters, gestures as perceived by the victim or any other person as being motivated by hostility, prejudice or hatred'. This effectively incites 'victims' to shout offense and expect a clamp-down. Equally chilling, if a victim aggressively accuses you of offense, it is dangerous to argue back, or even to request that they should stop being so hostile, should you be accused of 'tone policing', a new rule that dictates: '[Y]ou can never question the efficacy of anger ... when voiced by a person from a marginalized background'. No wonder people are queueing up to self-identify into any number of victim camps: you can get your voice heard loudly, close down debate and threaten critics.
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Claire Fox (β€˜I Find That Offensive!’)
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Dear Forrest, I am sorry there was no time for us to speech other before I left. The doctors made their decision quickly, and before I knew it, I was being taken away, but I asked if I could stop long enough to write you this note, because you have been so kind to me whileI was here. I sense, Forrest, that you are on the verge of something very significant in your life, some change, or event that will move you in a different direction, and you must seize the moment, and not let it pass. When I think back on it now, there is something in your eyes, some tiny flash of fire that comes now and then, mostly when you smile, and , on those infrequent occasions, I believe what I saw was almost a Genesis of our ability as humans to think, to create, to be. This war is to for you, old pal - nor me - and I am well out of it as I'm sure you will be in time. The crucial question is, what will you do? I don't think you're an idiot at all. Perhaps by the measure of tests or the judgement of fools, you might fall into some category or other, but deep down, Forrest, I have seen that glowing sparkle of curiosity burning deep in your mind. Take the tide, my friend, and as you are carried along, make it work for you, fight the shallows and the snags and never give up. You are a good fellow, forrest, and you have a big heart. Your pal, Dan
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Winston Groom (Forrest Gump (Forrest Gump, #1))
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Among the people to whom he belonged, nothing was written or talked about at that time except the Serbian war. Everything that the idle crowd usually does to kill time, it now did for the benefit of the Slavs: balls, concerts, dinners, speeches, ladies' dresses, beer, restaurantsβ€”all bore witness to our sympathy with the Slavs. With much that was spoken and written on the subject Konyshev did not agree in detail. He saw that the Slav question had become one of those fashionable diversions which, ever succeeding one another, serve to occupy Society; he saw that too many people took up the question from interested motives. He admitted that the papers published much that was unnecessary and exaggerated with the sole aim of drawing attention to themselves, each outcrying the other. He saw that amid this general elation in Society those who were unsuccessful or discontented leapt to the front and shouted louder than anyone else: Commanders-in-Chief without armies, Ministers without portfolios, journalists without papers, and party leaders without followers. He saw that there was much that was frivolous and ridiculous; but he also saw and admitted the unquestionable and ever-growing enthusiasm which was uniting all classes of society, and with which one could not help sympathizing. The massacre of our coreligionists and brother Slavs evoked sympathy for the sufferers and indignation against their oppressors. And the heroism of the Serbs and Montenegrins, fighting for a great cause, aroused in the whole nation a desire to help their brothers not only with words but by deeds. Also there was an accompanying fact that pleased Koznyshev. It was the manifestation of public opinion. The nation had definitely expressed its wishes. As Koznyshev put it, ' the soul of the nation had become articulate.' The more he went into this question, the clearer it seemed to him that it was a matter which would attain enormous proportions and become epoch-making.
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Leo Tolstoy (Anna Karenina)
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Thank you Neil, and to the givers of this beautiful reward, my thanks from the heart. My family, my agent, editors, know that my being here is their doing as well as mine, and that the beautiful reward is theirs as much as mine. And I rejoice at accepting it for, and sharing it with, all the writers who were excluded from literature for so long, my fellow authors of fantasy and science fictionβ€”writers of the imagination, who for the last 50 years watched the beautiful rewards go to the so-called realists. I think hard times are coming when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine some real grounds for hope. We will need writers who can remember freedom. Poets, visionariesβ€”the realists of a larger reality. Right now, I think we need writers who know the difference between the production of a market commodity and the practice of an art. Developing written material to suit sales strategies in order to maximize corporate profit and advertising revenue is not quite the same thing as responsible book publishing or authorship. (Thank you, brave applauders.) Yet I see sales departments given control over editorial; I see my own publishers in a silly panic of ignorance and greed, charging public libraries for an ebook six or seven times more than they charge customers. We just saw a profiteer try to punish a publisher for disobedience and writers threatened by corporate fatwa, and I see a lot of us, the producers who write the books, and make the books, accepting this. Letting commodity profiteers sell us like deodorant, and tell us what to publish and what to write. (Well, I love you too, darling.) Books, you know, they’re not just commodities. The profit motive often is in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our artβ€”the art of words. I have had a long career and a good one. In good company. Now here, at the end of it, I really don’t want to watch American literature get sold down the river. We who live by writing and publishing wantβ€”and should demandβ€”our fair share of the proceeds. But the name of our beautiful reward is not profit. Its name is freedom. Thank you.
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Ursula K. Le Guin