Quotes

I love quotes.  They inspire me and I like to read them on a daily basis.  No big, I'm just a quote nerd.  So here are my absolute favorites that I have accumulated after years (literally) of quote hoarding.



My Favorites

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? -Anonymous
To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.  -Steve Prefontaine

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. -Mark Twain

To cook is not just to prepare food for someone or for yourself, it is to express your sincerity. -Zen Mind Beginners Mind
You can do anything- but not everything. -David Allen
The richest man is not he who has the most but he who needs the least. -Unknown
Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire. -Reggie Leach
Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them. -Albert Einstein
Follow your bliss... (From a painting on a rock in the Como area of Minneapolis)
An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day. -Thoreau
The only way out of something is to go through it. -Anonymous
Progress NOT perfection. -Anonymous
Imagination is more important than knowledge. -Albert Einstein 
All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of leting go and holding on. -Henry Ellis

Zen Mind
In the beginners mind there are many possibilities but in the experts mind there are few. 
Our body and mind are not two and not one, our body and mind are both two and one.
We do not exist for the sake of something else.  We exist for the sake of ourselves.
When we have our body and mind in order everything else exists in the right place, the right way.
It is easy to have calmness in inactivity, it is hard to have calmness in activity, but calmness in activity is true calmness.
The most important thing is to express your true nature in the simplest, most adequate way and to appreciate it in the smallest existence.
If your mind is calm and constant you can keep yourself away from the noisy world even though you are in the midst of it.
Building character is like making bread.  You have to mix it little by little, step by step, and moderate temperature is needed.  You know yourself quite well, and know how much temperature you need.  You know exactly what you need.
Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure.
The point we emphasize is strong confidence in our original nature.
Cultivate your own spirit.
In constancy there is no particular effort involved- there is only the unchanging ability to accept things as they are.

 Steve Prefontaine (Runner)
If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.

You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back.

Success isn’t how far you got, but the distance you traveled from where you started.
You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.

Ancient Advice


We are what we repeatedly do, therefore, excellence is not an act but a habit. -Epicetus
Bow to your highest and holiest teacher, yourself. -Yoga
It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness. -Chinease Proverb
Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. -Confucius
First say to yourself what you would be, and then do what you have to do. -Epictetus


Randoms

The quieter you become, the more you can hear. -Anonymous
The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time. -Richard Cech
It is not the length of life, but the depth of life. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous then absolutely boring. -Marilyn Monroe
Life is what YOU make it. -Anonymous
Keep calm and carry on. -From a Poster
Always remember that the future comes one day at a time. -Dean Acheson
All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward. -Ellen Glasgow
Aim above morality.  Be not simply good, be good for something. -Thoreau
Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but religiously follows the new. -Thoreau
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them. -Leo Tolstoy
The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them. -Bernard Baruch
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. -Albert Einstein
When your self worth goes up, your net worth goes up with it. -Mark Hanson
Never, never, never, never give up. -Winston Churchill
Expectations are resentments waiting to happen. -Alcoholics Anonymous
Never lose the chance of saying a kind word. -William Thackeray
Life is too ironic to fully understand. It takes sadness to know what happiness is. Noise to appreciate silence. And absence to value presence. -(Don't know where this came from please tell me if you know!)