Motivational Speaker Wisdom

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. - Bonnie Jean Wasmund

Journalistic Wisdom

I say that a man must be certain of his morality for the simple reason that he has to suffer for it. - G. K. Chesterton

Authoress Wisdom

No good deed goes unpunished - Clare Booth Luce

TV Show Host Wisdom

Expecting the world to treat you fairly
because you are a good person
is a little like expecting the bull not to attack you
because you are a vegetarian - Dennis Wholey

American Astronomer Wisdome

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. The bamboozle has captured us. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back - Carl Sagan

Nothing is as simple as we hope it will be. - Jim Horning

American Cartoonist Wisdom

Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't the fine line between sanity and madness gotten finer? - George Price

French (Russian-born) author and salonist Wisdom

We are rich only through what we give, and poor only through what we refuse. - Anne-Sophie Swetchine

British Writer Wisdom

There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before - Robert Lynd

British Physician Wisdom

Health is not values till sickness comes - Dr Thomas Fuller

American Singer/Comedian Wisdom

I never know how much of what I say is true. - Bette Midler

British Writer Wisdom

In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary. - Aaron Rose

British Prime Minister Wisdom

Youth would be an ideal state if it came a little later in life - Herbert Henry Asquith

American Sitcom Wisdom

The Great thing about television is that if something important happens anywhere in the world, day or night, you can always change the channel - from "Taxi"

English Writer Wisdom

When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest. - William Hazlitt

Scottish essayist Wisdom

The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none. - Thomas Carlyle

Pulitzer Prize Winning Novelist Wisdom

The only difference between a rut and a grave....is in their dimensions - Ellen Glasgow

Motivational Speaker Wisdom

We don't have to wait for fear to vanish altogether because that moment will never come; all we need is a moment of daring that can change a whole lifetime of waiting. ~ Diane Conway

Greek Philosophy Wisdom

All paid jobs abosrb and degrade the mind. - Aristotle

Famous Cartoonist Wisdom

Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation. - Kin Hubbard

Famous Comedian Wisdom...

I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I'm gonna put pins into all the locations that I've traveled to. But first, I'm gonna have to travel to the top 2 corners of the map so it won't fall down. - Mitch Hedberg

Famous Actor Wisdom

It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously - Peter Ustinov

Famous Author Wisdom

Love is not blind - it sees more, not less. But becuase it sees more, it is willing to see less. - Rabbi Julius Gordon

Famous Author Wisdom

Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone - Anthony Burgess (1917 - 1993)

TV Personality Wisdom

If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead. - Johnny Carson

Motivational Speaker Wisdom

Did you ever see an unhappy horse?

Did you ever see bird that had the blues?

One reason why birds and horses are not unhappy is because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses. - Dale Carnegie

Screen Writer Wisdom

If you don't feel that you are possibly on the edge of humiliating yourself, of losing control of the whole thing, then probably what you are doing isn't very vital. If you don't feel like you are writing somewhat over your head, why do it? If you don't have some doubt of your authority to tell this story, then you are not trying to tell enough. ~ John Irving

Economicist Wisdom

We increasingly live in a complicated world in which those things that can be done in one click get done, and those that can't, don't. ~ Brad DeLong

Famous Author Wisdome

A classic is a book which people praise and don't read. ~ Mark Twain

Computer Scientist Wisdom

Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else. ~ Donald Knuth

Inspirational Writer Wisdom

The pessimist borrows trouble; the optimists lend encouragement. ~ William Arthur Ward

Author Wisdom

In my humdrum life, the daily battle hasn't been good versus evil. It's hardly so epic. Most days, my real battle is doing good versus doing nothing. ~ Deirdre Sullivan

Start thinking in 2007!

If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never truly be fulfilled. If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself. ~ Lao-tzu

Seasonal Wisdom

There's a candle in my window

With its halo of bright gold,

Telling with each tiny flicker

Of the joy each heart can hold.

At this joyous Christmas season

For each passer-by to see,

Ponder on his way and reason,

This is just as it should be.

~ Ruth Scott Hubbard

Seasonal Wisdom

God bless you with the courage to

Pursue each noble quest

And grant this golden Yule will be

By far your happiest.

~ James J. Metcalfe

Seasonal Wisdom

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days, that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the sailor and the traveler, thousands of miles away, back to his own fireside and his quiet home! ~ Charles Dickens

Seasonal Wisdom

When Christmas bells are ringing

The carols old and true

Of you, dear friend, I'm thinking,

And I send my wish to you.

~ Mrs. W. Baggott

Seasonal Wisdom

There is a Christmas song upon the air,

There is a joy innate within the heart;

An inner sense of peace, a holy light

Illumines life and sets these days apart.

~ Edna Greene Hines

In the Spirit of the Season - A Story

I wrote this story several years ago....but I find it bears repeating:

For years and years I too hated Christmas…too much brouhaha in my books…then I had a Christmas epiphany…no small feat for a non-Christian…but here goes

I always put huge store in Christmas…because I was raised in a huge family and I had believed all my life that "family" is what Christmas was about…My Father’s birthday is the twenty-third and my uncle’s is the twenty-fifth and as a child we always did the big Christmas/birthday celebration…but as time goes on things change and you discover that "family" are people too…and they have foibles…they mess up…and things never quite live up to your expectations.

In the early ‘90’s my Mother moved to BC leaving me to live in the old family home in Thunder Bay. My brother was newly married to woman that put the "C" in control. (and another word that I won’t use here!) She didn’t like cooking when I was around and for many years I thought it was cos she was intimidated by the fact that I have my chef’s papers…turns out she’s just lazy, opinionated and lazy…but that’s another story.

So Mom moves to BC, Dad and my sister are in Toronto and I am faced with the prospect of cooking the whole Christmas shebang at my brother and sister-in-law’s house. My sister-in-law has invited her whole family so I am cooking a 27lb turkey and all the trimmings. Two kinds of stuffing (one for each end) 3 kinds of salad and 4 vegetables, mashed spuds, gravy, pickles etc etc and top it all off with Figgie Pudding…(I’m from a go big er go home kinda family)

Five days before Christmas my sister-in-law calls me and informs me that I am "allowed" to come to her house for an hour between 6 and 7 AM to stuff the bird and put it in the oven…but then I need to leave for the day so she can have some "quality" time with her family.

Can you guess where I told her to put her bird? ~ahem~

So the Christmas dawns and I am alone. I am not answering the phone…and I am depressed….as my Grampy used to say, "I am lower than whale shit and that is on the bottom of the ocean! We are having a good old North Western Ontario blizzard and as I listen to the radio I am overcome both with the concept that I can’t get away from Christmas (it’s just freakin everywhere) and that I am alone. So I jump in my truck and head out to the local truck stop for breakfast. Somewhere where there’s people and noise.

On my way to the truck stop I drive past the Greyhound Bus Depot and while it is closed I spot and elderly man in a summer weight suit huddled in the doorway.

I drive by…then go around the block and drive by again. Something about this situation tweaks my conscience and I cannot get the picture of this man out of my head.

On my third pass I pull into the parking lot and lean out my window. "Are you ok?" I ask. This tiny elderly fellow looks up at me and with tears running down his face says, "I’ll do."

"Well no…he won’t do." I think as I watch him shiver and shudder. So I offer to let him in my truck. I’m thinking that if it turns out he’s got a gun…I certainly won’t feel any worse off than I already do this Christmas.

At first he refuses. But then with some cajoling and conversation he eventually climbs in and I take him to the truck stop to warm him up and maybe get him some food. He refuses to eat but allows as I could buy him a "cup of cocoa".

As he thaws out he tells me his story. He tells me his name is Sheldon Shepherd. He left Vancouver 3 days ago on his way to London ON to spend Christmas with his family. He was traveling by Greyhound. In the bathroom in the Thunder Bay bus terminal he is mugged…robbed…and knocked out. Because he is old school and won’t ask for help when he comes to… he doesn’t tell anyone, his grandkid’s Christmas presents are gone, as is his coat and wallet. He finds himself outside of the depot, the depot closed, in a blizzard with a lump on his head the size of Santa. Areas of his story seem lacking to me…but he’s got this lump and no coat and no money…so…

I am filled with righteous indignation and I insist that he allow me to call the police. They come and after all is said and done I find out that they can get him another bus ticket to London but they have to find a judge to authorize the funds and besides there is no bus running thru till the twenty-sixth. One of the police officers suggests that this sad soul go to the local homeless shelter. I’ve never been there but I know where it is so I agree to drive him there.

Sheldon is quiet on his way to the shelter. He confides in me as we are pulling into the parking lot that he’s never had to accept charity before and not comfortable with it now. I fully understand. I have never been able to look a homeless person in the eye. I have always been consumed with guilt and the thought that there but for the grace of all the gods go I.

In we go. My first impression was that we were entering a jail. We walked in thru the front door to be confronted with locked double doors and a "security guard". Sheldon is pulling back so I tell the guard his story and the guard opens the locked doors to allow us into the shelter telling us to "find Rick".

As we enter I am assaulted by a cacophony of sounds and smells….lots of them not pleasant. There is a riot of color and furniture and bodies everywhere…there are people sleeping standing up against walls and on the stairs and tired used old blankets clutched in dirty little children’s fingers.

Slowly as I become accustomed to the "ambiance" I begin to see Christmas in this room. There are bits of tinsel hanging from dirty stocking caps set jauntily over dirty faces. There’s what can only be called a Charlie Brown Christmas tree in the corner and there are new socks and new gloves on many hands and feet…and lots of the people that are awake are smiling. I don’t understand.

Across the room is the big serving window to the kitchen but I see no one on the other side…as I start across the room I hear the unmistakable sound of dishes smashing to the floor and a resounding "Damn it!" from behind the wall. I peek around a see a harried fellow, in half a Santa suit picking up broken dishes and muttering.

"Rick?" I ask. This frantic man turns to me and blesses me with the biggest gap tooth smile and says…"yup…hiya! What can I do for you?"

I explain Sheldon’s story and Rick tells me no problem he can stay here over night. He then turns to Sheldon and says,"I don’t suppose you can cook?"

"Why?" says Sheldon and I at once. Turns out that the volunteer church group that was to cook the shelter’s Christmas dinner won’t be coming because of the storm. Rick says that Christmas is always a banner time for the shelter food wise…"people assuage their guilt by giving at Christmas". The end result is that he has tons of food and no cooks.

"Hmmmmmm," says I, "maybe I can help"

Long story short…we have Christmas dinner for close to 200. Sheldon isn’t a cook but he’s a mean dishwasher and clean up kinda guy…and we recruit a couple of people from the shelter and we are off… We have beef and turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing made in pans instead of in the bird and spaghetti with sauce and chocolate pudding.

We have Christmas Carols and laughter and hugs and tears and handclasps from dirty little fingers. By 10 PM I am completely and totally physically exhausted, sweaty and hot, hot, hot… but as I turn to survey the room I have an epiphany.

Christmas is not about receiving the love from my family that I believe is my due. It truly is about the giving.

In any way shape or form. Sheldon passed away in 1996 but I still hear from his daughter Janice…once a year at Christmas. And that’s the best that I can do.

Seasonal Wisdom

Christmas is the happiness that lights our children's eyes.

Christmas is a song of bells ringing through the skies.

Christmas is a time of peace, of contentment deep within,

A time of love and silent hope that years will never dim.

~ Sherrill Thompson

Seasonal Wisdom

There's a beauty when it's Christmas,

All the world is different then;

There's no place for petty hatred

In the hearts and minds of men.

That is why my heart is happy

And my mind can hold a dream,

For I keep a part of Christmas

With its peace and joy supreme

~ Garnett Ann Schultz

Seasonal Wisdom

The spirit of this season

Is old, yet ever new;

May it be yours on Christmas

And last the new year through.

~ Ernest B. McClellan

Seasonal Wisdom

Carol singing, church bells ringing,

Once more Christmastime is here.

Children laughing, grownups beaming,

Hearts are warm with Christmas cheer.

~ Ruby Lee Mitchell

Life Wisdom

While thought exists, words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living. ~ Cyril Connolly

Realistic Wisdom....

A Realist is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been purified. A skeptic is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been burned. ~ Warren W. Wiersbe

Motivational Speaker Wisdome

It's been said that there are two days over which we have no control: yesterday, because it's a cancelled check, and tomorrow, because it's a promissory note. ~ Diane Conway

Famous Author Wisdome

How are you going to spend this one odd and precious life you have been issued? Whether you're going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over people and circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are. ~ Anne Lamot

Motivational Wisdom....

I learned, when hit by loss, to ask the right question: "What next?" instead of "Why me?" . . . Whenever I am willing to ask "What is necessary next?" I have moved ahead. Whenever I have taken no for a final answer I have stalled and gotten stuck. ~ Julia Cameron

Anonymous Wisdom

All through life we must keep choosing. Destiny hangs on "yes" and "no." As we look back, it is to wonder what would have happened if we had gone the other way when the road forked. ~ Anonymous

Trueblood Wisdom

A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants trees under which he knows full well he will never sit. ~ D. Elton Trueblood

Anonymous Wisdom

Time is like a movie. All people see it in its full length. Some people fast forward or rewind to their favorite times and skip the bad. Others are stuck watching only bad acting. Some people direct and all want to be stars but in the end everyone gets cut from the script. ~ Anonymous

Ralph Marston Wisdom

Don't lower your expectations to meet your performance. Raise your level of performance to meet your expectations. Expect thet best of yourself, and then do what is necessary to make it a reality. ~ Ralph Marston

http://wonderofitall.com/

Author Wisdom

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all - Peter Drucker

Author Wisdom

"Always do right - this will gratify some and astonish the rest." - Mark Twain

Inspirational Wisdome

"Success is not to be measured by the position someone has reached in life, but the obstacles he has overcome while trying to succeed." - Booker T. Washington

Author Wisdom

By the time a man realizes that this father was right he usually has a son who thinks he's worng - Charles Wordsworth

Artist Wisdome

I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso

Work Wisdome

It's not the hours put in at work that counts, it's the work you put in the hours. - Sam Ewing

Wisdom

Usually, terrible things that are done with the excuse that progress requires them are not really progress at all, but just terrible things. - Russell Baker

Optimistic Wisdom

Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. -Vince Lombardi

Smart Guy Wisdome...

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen. - Albert Einstein

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

the poppies blow

Between the crosses row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

Chinese Wisdom...

Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still - Chinese Proverb

Ancient Wisdom....

There is nothing worse than agressive stupidity - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Sleep Wisdome...

Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep. - Fran Lebowitz

Contemplate:

The first faults are theirs that commit them, the second faults are theirs that permit them

Life Wisdome

The Grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. - Allan K Chalmers

Political Wisdom?

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. - Peter F Drucker

Halloween Wisdome

Hark! Hark to the wind!

'Tis the night, they say,

When all souls come back from the far away-

The dead, forgotten this many a day!

~Virna Sheard

Halloween Wisdome

You wouldn't believe

On All Hallow Eve

What lots of fun we can make,

With apples to bob,

And nuts on the hob,

And a ring-and-thimble cake.

Carolyn Wells~

Halloween Wisdome

One need not be a chamber
to be haunted;
one need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place.
~Emily Dickinson

Halloween Wisdome

'Tis the night - the night
Of the grave's delight,
And the warlocks are at their play;
Ye think that without
The wild winds shout,
But no, it is they - it is they.

~Arthur Cleveland Coxe

Halloween Wisdome

Where there is no imagination there is no Horror. ~Arthur Conan Doyle, Sr.

Scottish Wisdome...

From ghoulies and ghosties

And long-leggedy beasties

And things that go bump in the night,

Good Lord, deliver us!

~Scottish Saying

Halloween Wisdome

Bring forth the raisins and the nuts-
Tonight All-Hallows' Spectre struts
Along the moonlit way.
~John Kendrick Bangs

Calvin and Hobbes Wisdom...

"History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices."-Calvin & Hobbes

Buddha-ism

One of his students asked Buddha,

"Are you the messiah?"

"No", answered Buddha.

"Then are you a healer?"

"No", Buddha replied.

"Then are you a teacher?" the student persisted.

"No, I am not a teacher."

"Then what are you?" asked the student, exasperated.

"I am awake", Buddha replied.

Alzheimer's Quote...

uuuuhhhmmm?
I forgot

Buddha-ism

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him. - Buddha

Autumn...

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. - Albert Camus

Famous Author Wisdome

Sorrow and the scarlet leaf, Sad thoughts and sunny weather; Ah me! this glory and this grief Agree not well together - Thomas W Parsons

ThanksGiving

Ah! on Thanksgiving day,
when from East and from West,
From North and South,
come the pilgrim and guest,
When the gray-haired New Englander
sees round his board
The old broken links of affection restored,
When the care-wearied man
seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles
where the girl smiled before.
What moistens the lips
and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past,
like the rich pumpkin pie?
- John Greenleaf Whittier

Change Wisdom

Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal - Albert Schopenhauer

Leadership Wisdome...

You do not lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership. – Dwight D Eisenhower

Leadership Wisdome

It's hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse. – Adlai Stevenson

Famous Wisdome....

Fear grows in darkness, if you think there’s a bogeyman around, turn on the light. – Dorothy Thompson

British Wisdome

The real idle man gets nowhere. The perpetually busy man does not get much further. – Sir Heneage Ogilvie

Famous Wisdome....

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. – Jim Ryun

Greek Wisdom...

When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be applied. -Herophilus.

Calvin and Hobbes Wisdom...

"You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help." -Calvin

Ancient Wisdom....

Good health and good sense are two of life's greatest blessings. - Syrus

arrrrrrrrrrrrgh!

ah hab a toad id by dose

ah feel lak shit

ah dodn't wand do be wid fabily

or fweinds

all ah wand do do is sweep

dood dight

Wyzwmn has a cold!

Attention to health is life greatest hindrance. – Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld

Einstein Wisdom

The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing. – Albert Einstein

Will Rogers Wisdom

Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save. - Will Rogers

Dalai Lama Wisdom

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness. - HH the Dalai Lama

Calvin and Hobbes Wisdom...

"There's more to this world than just people, you know." - -Hobbes

Famous Wisdome....

No one, Eleanor Roosevelt said, can make you feel inferior without your consent. Never give it. - Marian Wright Edelman

Business Wisdom

Perhaps the most important thing we can undertake toward the reduction of fear is to make it easier for people to accept themselves, to like themselves. - Bonaro W. Overstreet

Famous Wisdome

Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal. - Arthur Schopenhauer