Friday, April 18, 2008

Friday Five - Quotes

Words - so innocent and powerless as they are,
as standing in a dictionary, how potent
for good and evil they become in the hands
of one who knows how to combine them.
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne


First, I have to thank everyone who took time last week to cast a vote for the most handsome male celebrity. That post received more comments than anything I’ve done so far. What does that tell you about all of us, my friends? LOL!

This week, I thought I’d move away from beautiful men, and instead look at beautiful words. Everyone who knows me knows that I’m crazy about quotes. In fact, for the two years prior to starting this blog, I emailed almost daily a motivational quote to subscribers, along with a few words from me. The positive words of others have helped me get through some pretty rough times in my life. I know – and still know – that I’m not alone in taking strength from others’ experiences.

I’m not going to make any comments on these: I think the words speak for themselves. So today I’m sharing with you my top five for this week:


The Five Most Inspirational Quotes

1. It's never too late to be what you might have been. ~ George Eliot

2. Your mental attitude will lead you into the light or hold you in darkness. It will lead you to hope or despair, to a glorious success or a miserable failure, and it is entirely within your own power to choose which it shall be. ~ Orison Swett Marden

3. We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us. ~ Joseph Campbell

4. Plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers. ~ Veronica A. Shoffstall

5. When you come to the end of all the light you know, and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: Either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught to fly. ~ Edward Teller


How about you? What’s your favorite quote?


Here’s to all of us who are learning to fly!


Until next time…

18 comments:

RunningNan said...

OOOh... I like... Unfortunately, I don't know if I have a favorite quote. I'll have to think about that and get back to you!

Ready Maid said...

"Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers." - the apostle John (3 Jn: 2 NKJV)

RunningNan said...

Ok.. So I did remember one that I do like!

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Lao-tzu

Fairy Princess said...

I use this one a lot when trying to keep food out of my mouth LOL:
Nothing tastes as good as thin feels.

Also I am inspired by this:

You don't drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.

These are the two that I carry in my head with me on my journey.

HappyBlogChick said...

ooooh, I like all yours!

I don't know that I have a favorite quote. I'll ponder and get back to you!

Hanlie said...

Lovely quotes! I have two:

The more I practice, the luckier I get. ~ Gary Player

In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer. ~Albert Camus

lahodges said...

Okay, here are my five:

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." - Eleanor Roosevelt

"Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly." - Lanston Hughes

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out." - Robert Collier

"The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen." - Frank Loyd Wright

"The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible." - Arthur C. Clarke

Nicole said...

My favorite is "Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable." -- Sydney Harris

Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson said...

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.
William Shakespeare

Diana Swallow said...

I like this one but I change it to woman LOL

A man who wants something will find a way; a man who doesn’t will find an excuse. – Stephan Dolley Jr.

Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. – Charles Richards

and this one that Teale told me but I don't know who said it first...

"You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great!"

Anonymous said...

Life's to short so love the one you got... Sublime

Experience is the only thing you have left when everything else is gone...unknown

Its better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all...

my own a quite a favorite.. You don;t need that.. you have eaten today... you are not going to starve to death!!
Lizzie

Unknown said...

So many inspirations in my life. So here are a few although I loved everyone's. Hard to choose just one.
The first I don't know who wrote it but it is on a plaque on my home office wall.
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take....but by the number of moments that take our breath away.

Our thoughts and our imaginations are the only real limits to our possibilities. Orison S. Marden

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. Helen Keller

Be brave enough to live creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You cannot get there by bus, only by hard work, risking and by not quite knowing what you are doing. What you will discover will be wonderful: Yourself.
Alan Alda

Last but not least a little humor at the end of the evening.

If you think you are too small to be effective , you have never been in bed with a mosquito!
Anita Roddick

Good night Ladies.
Happy weekend to all,
Hugs,
Kate

Anonymous said...

For me, it is hard to narrow favorite quotes to only five. I've found such inspiration in the writings of others. Nonetheless, are five that to me are profound:

"Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Oh, the comfort--the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person--having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away."
— Dinah Craik

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do."
— Eleanor Roosevelt

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just like people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is just like an old time rail journey...delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."
— Gordon B. Hinckley

And last but not least...

"He never fell,
never slipped back,
never flew."
— John Steinbeck

Lora said...

I love quotes....and I always love reading the ones you post each day!

One of my favorites (that I reminded my kids of often) is this:

"Use what talent you posess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best." Henry Van Dyke

Grumpy Chair said...

"Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly." Proverb

Cammy@TippyToeDiet said...

Ouch. #3 hit me right between the eyes, and it kind of stung a little. :)

One of my favorite quotes is a Japanese proverb: "Fall down seven times, get up eight." (And that gives me an idea for a blog entry. *G*)

jovaliquilts said...

"Just do it."
I know that's from a commercial, but sometimes I have to say that to myself over and over.

Anonymous said...

Never sacrifice what you want the most for what you want at the moment.