Thought for Today

The real winners in life are the people who look at every situation with an expectation that they can make it work or make it better.

~ Barbara Pletcher

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Nothing which does not transport is poetry. The lyre is a winged instrument. 

-Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824) 

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY

The living language is like a cow-path: it is the creation of the cows themselves, who, having created it, follow it or depart from it according to their whims or their needs. From daily use, the path undergoes change. A cow is under no obligation to stay. 

-E.B. White, writer (1899-1985) 

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY

We are all of us more or less echoes, repeating involuntarily the virtues, the defects, the movements, and the characters of those among whom we live.

-Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824) 

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY

I once met a man who had forgiven an injury. 

I hope some day to meet the man who has forgiven an insult.

 -Charles Buxton, brewer, philanthropist, writer, and politician (1823-1871) 

Confidence

May not be true but a good story nevertheless!

Confidence! 
 
The business executive was deep in debt and could see no way out.
 
Creditors were closing in on him. Suppliers were demanding payment. He sat on the park bench, head in hands, wondering if anything could save his company from bankruptcy.
 
Suddenly an old man appeared before him. "I can see that something is troubling you," he said.
 
After listening to the executive's woes, the old man said, "I believe I can help you."
 
He asked the man his name, wrote out a check, and pushed it into his hand saying, "Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can pay me back at that time."
 
Then he turned and disappeared as quickly as he had come.
 
The business executive saw in his hand a check for $500,000, signed by John D. Rockefeller, then one of the richest men in the world!
 
"I can erase my money worries in an instant!" he realized. But instead, the executive decided to put the uncashed check in his safe. Just knowing it was there might give him the strength to work out a way to save his business, he thought.
 
With renewed optimism, he negotiated better deals and extended terms of payment. He closed several big sales. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again.
 
Exactly one year later, he returned to the park with the uncashed check. At the agreed-upon time, the old man appeared. But just as the executive was about to hand back the check and share his success story, a nurse came running up and grabbed the old man.
 
"I'm so glad I caught him!" she cried. "I hope he hasn't been bothering you.  He's always escaping from the rest home and telling people he's John D. Rockefeller."
 
And she led the old man away by the arm.
 
The astonished executive just stood there, stunned. All year long he'd been wheeling and dealing, buying and selling, c onvinced he had half a million dollars behind him.
 
Suddenly, he realized that it wasn't the money, real or imagined, that had turned his life around. It was his newfound self-confidence that gave him the power to achieve anything he went after.

A Thought for Today

Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.
- E.B. White

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Never mistake knowledge for wisdom.

One helps you make a living, the other helps you make a life.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Everyone who has ever taken a shower has had an idea.  It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off, and does something about it that makes a difference.

 ~Nolan Bushnell

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others. 

~Christian D. Larson

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Gold in its native state is but dull, un-ornamental stuff, and only lowborn metals excite the admiration of the ignorant with an ostentatious glitter. However, like the rest of the world, I still go on underrating men of gold and glorifying men of mica.

 -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910) 

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Like cars in amusement parks, our direction is often determined through collisions. 

-Yahia Lababidi, author (b. 1973) 

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY

It is not how old you are, but how you are old. 

-Jules Renard, writer (1864-1910) 

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice. 

-Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President (1809-1865

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY

The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and he does it without destroying something else.

 -John Updike, writer (1932-2009) 

Thought for Today

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

Sensible Man

"The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measurement anew every time he saw me, while all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me"

- George Bernard Shaw

If

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And – which is more – you'll be a Man my son!

- Rudyard Kipling

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY

I don't hate my enemies. After all, I made 'em. 

-Red Skelton, comedian (1913-1997)