from the Introspect Library |
compiled and maintained by RD Clyde |
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If you can't do as you wish, do as you can.
Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.
What you see, but can't see over is as good as infinite.
Some men dream things that are and ask why. I dream things that aren't and ask why not.
When you see a turtle on top of a fencepost, you know he had some help.
Never tell a young person that anything cannot be done. God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very thing.
Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right!
The wind and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.
Accidents don't happen by themselves; they have to be carelessly planned ahead of time.
Act Now! This opportunity may be withdrawn at any time. (This opportunity is called life.)
We are the only scriptures some people will ever read.
Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.
Logic is simply a well organized way of doing things wrong.
To respond is positive; to react is negative.
No steam or gas ever drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.
It's no good agreeing with a person who can't make up his mind.
All rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full.
Even if you're on the right track you'll get hit if you just stand there.
Act, don't react!
It is far better to be under way than under advisement.
The elect are whosoever will, and the nonelect, whosoever won't.
Nothing wilts faster than laurels that have been rested upon.
I feel that the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more.
Do not free the camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel.
The world breaks everyone and afterward many are stronger at the broken places.
A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind.
Only entropy comes easy.
It takes a real storm in the average person's life to make him realize how much worrying he has done over the squalls.
Tough times never last, but tough people do.
When it gets dark enough you can see the stars.
Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.
God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.
The devil does not tempt unbelievers and sinners who are already his own.
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.
Inside every man there is a poet who died young.
Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the Earth are never alone or weary of life.
Beauty seen is never lost.
Better a wimp for five minutes than dead for your whole life.
Two things upon this changing earth can neither change nor end; the splendor of Christ's humble birth, the love of friend for friend.
As we struggle with shopping lists and invitations, compounded by December's bad weather, it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation, and people to whom we are worth the same.
One good thing about Christmas shopping - it toughens you for the January sales.
The man who rows the boat seldom has time to rock it.
Never argue with a fool; people might not know the difference.
One place where you're sure to find the perfect driver is in the back seat.
If you have no will to change it, you have no right to criticize it.
What we resist, we become.
Cynics do not contribute, skeptics do not create, doubters do not achieve.
To see what is right and not do it, is want of courage.
The self is not something that one finds - it is something one creates.
God left the earth unfinished for man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity still in the cloud, the oil still in the earth. He left the rivers unbridged and the forests unfelled and the cities unbuilt. God gave man the challenge of raw materials - not the ease of finished things. He left the pictures unpainted and the music unsung and the problems unsolved, that man might know the joys and glories of creation.
Castigation is a doom which achieves itself. In punishing yourself, you come to merit punishment.
Everyone is a bore to someone. That is unimportant. The thing to avoid is being a bore to oneself.
Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are.
One truly understands only what one can create.
What we have been makes us what we are, but what we are includes what we can become.
Death is like a candle that is put out at the break of dawn.
What the caterpillar thinks is the end of life, the butterfly thinks is just the beginning.
All I want is a little more than I'll ever get.
Compromise will never be an instrument of happiness.
Destiny is no matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
See also: Fear
Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt.
It's far harder to kill a phantom than a reality.
Fear is born in doubt.
The principle goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done - men who are creative, inventive and discoverers.
Getting things done is not always what is most important. There is value in allowing others to learn, even if the task is not accomplished as quickly, efficiently or effectively.
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.
History is a race between education and catastrophe.
It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: "And this, too, shall pass away." How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!
People don't wear out, they give up. As far as trails go, there's always an open trail for the mind if you keep the doors open and give it a chance.
If you have tried to do something and failed, you are vastly better off than if you had tried to do nothing and succeeded.
You must never regret what might have been. The past that did not happen is as hidden from us as the future we cannot see.
Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
Bad experience is a school that only fools keep going to.
Your age tells how long you've been on the road, not how far you've gotten.
Life is not a dress rehearsal.
See also: Success
Failure is an event, never a person.
However things might seem, no evil thing is success and no good thing is failure.
Not failure, but low aim is often our greatest sin.
What we wish, that we readily belive.
Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end do our duty as we understand it.
Faith is building on what you know is here, so you can reach what you know is there.
Never fear shadows. They simply mean there's a light shining somewhere nearby.
He who cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.
When you forgive somebody else, you accept the responsibility for your own future.
To err is human; to forgive is not company policy.
Every man should keep a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends.
We can't give our children the future, strive though we may to make it secure. But we can give them the present.
Learn from the past in order to plan for the future, but live in the present.
Nothing is entirely foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
If a nation values anything more than it's freedom, it will lose it's freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.
To choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances is the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's own way.
Freedom is knowing who you really are.
Never explain - your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe it anyway.
A real friend never gets in your way, unless you happen to be on the way down.
A friend is someone you can do nothing with and enjoy it.
However much we guard ourselves against it, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us. It is not so much the example of others we imitate, as the reflection of ourselves in their eyes and the echo of ourselves in their words.
We cherish our friends not for their ability to amuse us, but for our ability to amuse them.
We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over. So in a series of kindnesses there is, at last, one which makes the heart run over.
You can make more friends in a month by being interested in them than in ten years by trying to get them interested in you.
Being taken for granted can be a compliment. It means you've become a comfortable, trusted element in another person's life.
The glory of friendship is not in the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is in the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him.
I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar.
The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, in spite of ourselves.
The way that you give a gift depends as much on the person to whom it is given as the appropriateness of the gift itself.
He who lives only to benefit himself confers on the world a benefit when he dies.
There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
I asked the Lord how much He loved me. He said "I love you this much", and He spread his arms and died.
God can only be known within the context of one's own awareness.
The Word did not become a philosophy, a theory, or a concept to be discussed, debated, or pondered. But, the Word became a Person to be followed, enjoyed, and loved!
The next time the devil reminds you of your past, remind him of his future.
There is no salvation in worshipping a false God - neither a cow; nor a crocodile; nor a cedar post; nor even a spirit essence without body parts or passions, that fills the immensity of space.
He who has ceased to pray has lost a great friendship.
Seldom is a man greater than in his private prayers.
What we usually pray to God is not that his will be done, but that he approve ours.
Praying doesn't change God, it changes me.
Nothing that is God's is obtainable by money.
God is above all things, but not beyond their reach.
Two men please God - who serves Him with all his heart because he knows Him; who seeks Him with all his heart because he knows Him not.
The best way to know God is to love many things.
It is the still, small voice that the soul heeds, not the deafening blasts of doom.
Society exists for the benefit of it's members, not the members for the benefit of society.
Government, even in it's best state, is but a necessary evil.
Politics has got so expensive that it takes lots of money to even get beat with nowadays.
Power over a man's substance is power over his will.
Crime wouldn't pay if the government ran it.
Don't steal! The government doesn't like competition.
Death and taxes may be the only uncertainties in life, but nowhere is it written that we have to tax ourselves to death.
Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination for injustice makes democracy necessary.
There is no such thing as a little country. The greatness of a people is no more determined by their number than the greatness of a man is determined by his height.
Waiting is worse than knowing. Grief rends the heart cleanly, that it may begin to heal; waiting shreds the spirit.
Pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
Sorrow makes men sincere.
See also: Love
Happiness is like a butterfly. The more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it comes and softly sits on your shoulder.
You can never get enough of the things you don't need, because the things you don't need can never satisfy.
Pleasure usually takes the form of "me" and "now"; joy is "us" and "always".
Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead.
Anyone who says you can't buy happiness just doesn't know where to shop.
The greatest joy of life is to love and be loved.
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
Aim at heaven, and you will get earth thrown in; aim at earth, and you will get neither.
If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead.
To get to heaven, turn right and go straight.
Humility is never false; if anything, it is truth at it's most basic level -- truth without an agenda.
Better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness.
No winter lasts forever; no spring skips it's turn.
Where there is no vision, there is no hope.
An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.
A name is the blueprint of the thing we call character. You ask, "What's in a name?" I answer, "Just about everything you do."
Keep your words sweet - you may have to eat them.
I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
Never claim as a right what you can ask as a favor.
The man who offers an insult writes it in sand, but for the man who receives it, it's chiseled in stone.
See also: Wisdom
Strive not to know all the answers, but to understand the questions.
When you cease to strive to understand, then you will know without understanding.
Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.
Every man has a right to be wrong in his opinions, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.
Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.
To be conscious that we are perceiving and thinking is to be conscious of our own existence.
The mark of a well educated person is not necessarily in knowing all the answers, but in knowing where to find them.
If nobody said anything unless he knew what he was talking about, a ghastly hush would descend upon the earth.
What is now proved was once only imagined.
An age is called Dark not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it.
Television commercials are educational. They teach you how stupid advertisers think you are.
Fact is only solidified opinion.
The long unmeasured pulse of time moves everything. There is nothing hidden that it cannot bring to light, nothing once known that may not become unknown.
There's nothing more frightening than ignorance in action.
Knowing where to lead people is not the same as convincing them to follow you.
See also: Freedom
The condition upon which God has given liberty to man is eternal vigilance.
It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.
We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.
Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others.
The joy of living is finding peace in all things.
In making a living today, many no longer leave room for life.
If you bet against yourself you always lose.
Into every life a little rain must fall, but that's what makes the flowers grow.
You are young at any age if you are planning for tomorrow.
If you don't know where you are going, you can never get lost.
The problem with living in the past is there's no future in it.
Life is like music. It must be composed by ear, feeling and instinct; not by rule.
The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.
Everyone is trying to accomplish something big, not realizing that life is made up of little things.
Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.
I used to trouble about what life was for - now being alive seems sufficient reason.
You only live once, but if you live right, once is enough.
Fate is what life gives to us, Destiny is what we do with it.
Life itself can't give you joy
Unless you really will it;
Life just gives you time and space
It's up to you to fill it.
Look to the future, because that is where you'll spend the rest of your life.
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
May you live as long as you want to. May you want to as long as you live.
Sometimes good intentions are of greater moment than the awkwardness of their expression.
Knowledge is gained by learning, trust by doubt, skill by practice, and love by love.
Love will find a way. Indifference will find an excuse.
We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life.
If we could all hear one another's prayers, God might be relieved of some of his burden.
Love is the only thing you can give away and still have more than you did to start with.
Anything will give up it's secrets if you love it enough.
I love you, not for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.
The opposite of love is not hate; it's apathy.
In tennis, love means nothing.
The opposite of love is not hate; it's selfishness. And apathy is the strongest symptom of that. In it, a person is saying he is too busy worrying about himself to bother with worrying about anyone else.
Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish it's source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.
The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather in spite of ourselves.
Why love if losing hurts so much? We love to know that we are not alone.
The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; propably because they are generally the same people.
Serve in spite of yourself.
Kindness is the greatest act of service.
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
If it weren't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any at all.
Flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul.
One of the new miracle drugs is inexpensive. That's the miracle.
Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.
It is possible to make no mistakes and still lose.
Money will buy a bed but not sleep; books but not brains; food but not appetite; finery but not beauty; a house but not a home; medicine but not health; luxuries but not culture; amusements but not happiness; religion but not salvation; a passport to everywhere but heaven.
Anyone who says money can't buy happiness just doesn't know where to shop.
Money may not buy happiness, but it buys the kind of misery you enjoy.
The Lord, Himself, was prepared for His greatest test through (music's) influence, for the scripture records: "And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives" (Mark 14:26)
We are able to feel and learn very quickly through music, through art, through poetry some spiritual things that we would otherwise learn very slowly.
We cannot preach the gospel without music.
For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me.
When the singing in a congregation has slipped, it often means that other spiritual matters have slipped as well.
Today, one of the important parts of our worship services is the congregational singing of hymns, in addition to the beautiful choir music.
The most effective preaching of the gospel is when it is accompanied by beautiful appropriate music.
We can get nearer to the Lord through music than perhaps through any other thing except prayer.
In the Church we need better music and more of it, and better speaking and less of it.
Man himself is a musical instrument.
...when we rejoice in beautiful scenery, great art, and great music, it is but the flexing of instincts acquired in another place and another time.
I will praise the name of God with song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.
Select music that will strengthen your spirit.
...I am comforted by the assurance that there will be beautiful music in heaven...
We must "learn once again in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to really sing."
Listen to and sing the music of heaven.
Praise the Lord in joyful song,
Praise Him, Praise Him all day long.
But what of me, I cannot sing;
I have no melody to bring?
Then read again, oh joy of joys,
The Lord said, "Make a joyful noise."
Traditionally, noise is used to ridicule, embarrass, denigrate, and curse, while silence is used for worship, respect, anticipation and love. Do we hate each other as much as our noise level suggests?
Four things come not back: the spoken word, the spent arrow, the past life and the neglected opportunity.
Never miss a good chance to shut up.
See also: Adversity
An optimist believes we live in the best of all possible worlds; a pessimist fears this is true.
It doesn't hurt to be optimistic. You can always cry later.
"I'm so optimistic I'd go after Moby Dick in a rowboat and take the tartar sauce with me."
If you never have a dream, you can never have a dream come true.
An optimist is simply a pessimist with no job experience.
Beware the fury of a patient man.
For peace of mind, resign as general manager of the universe.
If peace has a fragrance, it is the fragrance of the first drops of rain.
Peace is the only feeling Satan cannot counterfeit.
Some people are like wheelbarrows; useful only when pushed, and very easily upset.
The time to stop talking is when the other person nods his head affirmatively but says nothing.
The treacherous, unexplored areas of the world are not in continents or the seas; they are in the hearts and minds of men.
The surest plan to make a man -- Is, think him so.
The less you talk, the more you're listened to.
The Americans can always be depended upon to do the right thing; but only after exhausting all other possibilities
One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don't come home at night.
One of the earliest lessons I learned as a child was that if you looked away from something, it might not be there when you looked back.
Go as far as you can see, and when you get there you'll see farther.
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded it's almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is filled with educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
One difference between perseverance and obstinacy is, that one often comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't.
What this contry needs is more unemployed politicians.
The things that count most in life are the things that can't be counted.
Avoiding a problem doesn't solve it.
It is in some ways more troublesome to track and swat an evasive wasp than to shoot, at close range, a wild elephant. But the elephant is more troublesome if you miss.
Problems cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness that created them.
Simple solutions seldom are.
A shortcut is often the quickest way to someplace you weren't going.
We do not see the lens through which we look.
It takes a very unusual mind to undertake analysis of the obvious.
Delay is the deadliest form of denial.
We often ask the question, "When the Second Coming happens, will you be ready?" The answer is that the Second Coming will happen whether you are ready or not. Today is the time to be ready; today is the time to make yourself ready.
The wars of this age will neither be won nor lost on the battlefields of earth, but in the hearts and minds of men.
It is easier to stay out than to get out [of temptation].
Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.
To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of the arts.
Half doing is many a man's undoing.
Things of quality have no fear of time.
If something is exceptionally well done it has embedded in it's very existence the aim of lifting the common denominator rather than catering to it.
Anything not worth doing is worth not doing well.
Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly until you learn to do it well.
If God had really intended men to fly, He'd make it easier to get to the airport.
There are no exceptions to the rule that everybody likes to be an exception to the rule.
Attention to health is life's greatest hindrance.
Plato was a bore.
Nietzsche was stupid and abnormal.
The shortest distance between two points is under construction.
When it comes to the "bleeding edge" of technology, the pioneers are the ones with the arrows in their backs.
The nice thing about [computer] standards is that there are so many to choose from.
Old lawyers never die; they just lose their appeal.
Those who go to college too long die by degrees.
Old chemists never die, they just fail to react.
Old fishermen never die, they just smell that way.
The early bird gets the worm. Some reward!
If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you.
People usually get what's coming to them - unless it's been mailed.
Things are more like they are now than they've ever been before.
"I am a jelly donut."
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
A fool and his money are some party.
The difference between adults and children is that adults have toys that require monthly payments.
There are three rules to good public speaking: Be sincere, be brief and be seated.
It is a small man that can spell a word only one way.
The way you see people is the way you treat them.
Never speak but when you have something to say, and always stop when you get through saying it.
There is a proverb, "As you have made your bed, so must you sleep in it," which is simply a lie. If I have made my bed uncomfortable, please God, I will make it again.
Repentance is another name for aspiration.
The seven deadly sins are Pride, Covetousness, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy and Sloth.
Lead me not unto temptation - I can find it all by myself.
You have ordained, Lord, that every man's inordinate affection is his own punishment.
When we preach on hell, we might at least do it with tears in our eyes.
Be able to be alone. Lose not the advantage of solitude.
Language has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone, and the word solitude to express the glory of being alone.
There is nothing stronger in the world than gentleness.
In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
See also: Failure
Successful men follow the advice they prescribe for others.
Winning isn't everything, but it beats anything that comes in second.
Success isn't permanent and failure isn't fatal.
Fans don't boo nobodies.
Success is only another form of failure if we forget what our priorities should be.
For every million people who can withstand adversity, there is only one who can withstand success.
A person who cannot even stay alive can't be regarded as a great success.
Behind every successful man there's a woman saying "What do you mean you're going to be late for dinner?"
Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves are triumph and defeat.
You can have anything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.
Work will win when wishy-washy wishing won't!
Our aspirations are our possibilities.
Success lies on the far side of failure.
Success isn't where you get to, but the distance you travelled from where you started.
Success is getting up one time more than you fall down.
Your age tells how long you've been on the road, not how far you've gotten
Second place is the first loser.
Use what talents you posses; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.
It takes less time to do a thing right than it does to explain why you did it wrong.
Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves.
Napoleon said he was able to win all those battles because he understood the value of five minutes.
Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all it's pupils.
Even when pursued, the butterfly is never in a hurry.
It takes less time to do something right the first time.
It takes less time to do something right than it does to do it again.
Being taken for granted can be a compliment. It means you've become a comfortable, trusted element in another person's life.
A lie can run around the world before the truth can get it's boots on.
Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit.
The truth is a tool to be used in helping others climb closer to God, not a weapon to be used in attacking them.
A rumor without a leg to stand on will get around some other way.
Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.
Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected.
Superstition, idolatry and hypocrisy have ample wages, but the truth goes begging.
See also: Priorities, Quality
Nothing should be prized more highly than the value of each day.
A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator the smaller the fraction.
The seven virtues are Faith, Hope, Charity, Temperance, Fortitude, Justice and Prudence.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
A person doesn't have to be sightless to be blind.
In war, there are no unwounded soldiers.
As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have it's fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.
Might does not make right, it only makes history.
Wise men still seek Him today.
A wise man does not contend, so no man can contend against him. Yield and overcome.
Wisdom is the correct application of truth.
Wisdom is to know the thought which steers all things through all things.
The difference between a smart man and a wise man is that a smart man knows what to say, a wise man knows whether or not to say it.
Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor vexation. Where there is poverty and joy, there is neither greed nor avarice. Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt.
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information.
See also: Procrastination
It's amazing how long it takes to complete something you're not working on.
Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.
Anyone who thinks hard work will never hurt you has never had to pay to have it done.
Jesus now has many lovers of his Heavenly Kingdom, but few bearers of his cross.