How tough is life according to John Wayne?

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And for a Monday morning:

"Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid."

- actor and all around tough guy, John Wayne

Freedom in speech and thought

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“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”

- Soren Kierkegaard Danish philosopher (1813 - 1855)

Love and Life

“Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds.” - Goethe

Photo by rachel_thecat @ flickr

The Art of Forgiveness

From Denny: Forgiveness is an art form long over-looked in our technology fast-paced society. This is one of the loveliest quotes I've seen on the subject.

"To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness." - Robert Muller

Photo by law_keven @ flickr

Women and the taboo

From Denny: Oscar Wilde was one cheeky quote kind of guy, always amusing when speaking the truth in his unique way. Take a look and grin, especially the women out there!

"Women have a much better time than men in this world; there are far more things forbidden to them." - Oscar Wilde

Shakespeare on Love and relationships

This is his portrait that has been in the news lately.

William Shakespeare (via last.fm)

From Denny: Shakespeare has this enduring quality! He was a faithful reader of the Bible and often commented upon how he retold the plot lines found in the Bible. Definitely he was a man who could tell a good story or we would not still be reading and studying his work all these hundreds of years after he was gone from this Earth. His words still ring Truth.

Of course, Shakespeare has been in the news lately. They found an early portrait of him to verify how he really looked. The guy is such a publicity hound! Even he would probably find today's cultural fascination with him to be most amusing!

Here's his quote:

“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” – William Shakespeare

Dale Carnagie on how to develop real friendship

Photo by Gwennypics @ flickr

From Denny: You would think this quote would be obvious to most people. But then it becomes painfully transparent that there are always some people who were raised by savage animals called abusive humans.

Perhaps it was a lack of good teaching. Perhaps it was a childhood spent just trying to survive one bad moment after another they didn't learn appropriate and beneficial people skills.

Maybe some people just become hard-hearted over time and set aside developing good character as a lame pursuit, not seeing the benefits of it over the long term. Here Carnagie addresses the very reason good character development is beneficial: it brings happiness!

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you." - Dale Carnagie

FDR on the inner prison of the mind

Photo from NASA

From Denny: FDR was one deep thinker. Repeatedly he was faced with difficult decisions about the fate of others, often agonizing over the possible outcomes. Quotes like this one only come from much soul-searching and the personal experience of putting into practice what he had figured out.

"Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

FDR on wealth and poverty in society

From Denny: FDR has always been a favorite President of mine and Americans in general. He was not a perfect man and had his flaws like anyone.

Yet, like Obama today, he faced an uphill economic climb for this country. For him there was no precedent and he struck out boldly, hoping for the best to occur.

Isn't it haunting how his words from this quote of 60 years ago rings the same Truth today...?

Photo by BL1961 @ flickr

"The hopes of the Republic cannot forever tolerate either undeserved poverty or self-serving wealth." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Skiing well humor

Photo by Hamed Saber @ flickr

"Cross country skiing is great if you live in a small country."
- Steven Wright

Curiosity vs. Cat

Photo by christinejwarner @ flickr

"Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect."
- Steven Wright

Clean vs. God

Photo by SMN @ flickr

"Cleanliness becomes more important when godliness is unlikely."
- P. J. O'Rourke

People and Toasters

"If people were meant to pop out of bed, we'd all sleep in toasters." - Author unknown

The Peace Process

“Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.” - John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Hatred, politics, society and government

"We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Photo by srqpix @ flickr

Fear of loss

"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Peace vs. fear

"There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Love and perfection

“We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.” - Sam Keen

Photo by emdot @ flickr - gives new meaning to the anti-botox brigade!

Love, strength and courage!

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” - Lao Tzu

Photo by D. Sharon Pruitt @ flickr

Love and loss

“You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.” -
Barbara De Angelis

Photo by johnlemon @ flickr - this photo gives new meaning to walking the dog! :)

One person counts

“To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.” - Brandi Snyder

Photo by HaPe Gera @ flickr

Music vs. philosophy

“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” - Ludwig von Beethoven

Photo by Shermeee @ flickr

Heart and soul

“For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.” - Judy Garland

Photo by tanakawho @ flickr

Love and need

“Love me when I least deserve it, because that's when I really need it.” - Swedish Proverb

Photo by *L*u*z*a* @ flickr

Doubting our limits

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Photo by alicepopkorn @ flickr

Loving

"The greatest happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved - loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves." - Victor Hugo

Photo by law_keven @ flickr

Practising Courage in Life

"Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them." - Orison Swett Marden

Graphics by CatStuff.com

Understanding God's Ways...

"Never think that God's delays are God's denials. Hold on; hold fast; hold out. Patience is genius." - Comte de Buffon, French mathematician and naturalist.

Photo by muha... @ flickr

Men and fishing...

"Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after." ~ Henry David Thoreau

Photo by Zest-pk @ flickr