The path to awareness lies not in another's footsteps.
- CFD -
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
- Quoted in the movies Coach Carter and Akeelah and the Bee, and often attributed to Nelson
Mandela who used it in his 1994 Inaugural Speech, actually from Marianne
Williamson's book A Return to Love - Reflections on the Principles in A Course in Miracles (Chapter 7, Section 3, Page 165).
A leader
brings people where they want to go.
A great
leader brings people where they ought to go but may not be want to go.
- Rosalyn Carter
An effective
leader helps people discover their own desire to go where they ought to go.
- CFD
Disappointment is expectations not met. - DC
Happiness is expectations exceeded. - CD
Sometimes when you win, you lose. Sometimes when you lose, you win. If they can conceive it and believe it, they can achieve it. They must know it is not their aptitude but their attitude that will determine their altitude. Even the fear of death is nothing compared to the fear of not
having lived authentically and fully. - Frances Moore Lappe, O Magazine, May
2004 The greatest danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too
high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.
Michelangelo - Destiny is what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone,
when they are young, knows what their destiny is -- everything is clear and
everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for
everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time
passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible
for them to realize their destiny. To realize one's destiny is a person's only
real obligation. - Paulo Coehlo, The Alchemist - We need to teach the next generation of children from day one that
they are responsible for their lives. Mankind's greatest gift, also its
greatest curse, is that we have free choice. We can make our choices built from
love or from fear. - Elisabeth Kubler Ross - Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no
power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free. - Jim
Morrison Some of the worst mistakes of my life have been haircuts. - Jim
Morrison The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known
defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way
out of the depths. These persons have
an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with
compassions, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not
just happen. Elisabeth Kubler Ross If you try to lead others while you yourself do not develop, you
will eventually become lost. Then you will feel everything burdensome. It is
most fundamental to advance and develop yourself. Ikeda (The Human
Revolution) Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act. And never suppose that in any possible situation, or under any circumstances, it is best for you to do a dishonorable thing, however slightly so it may appear to you ... From the practice of the purest virtue, you may be assured you will derive the most sublime comforts in every moment of life, and in the moment of death.
Thomas Jefferson (letter to Peter Carr, August 19, 1785)
Nothing could be worse than the fear that one had given up too
soon, and left one unexpended effort that might have saved the world. - Jane Addams There are people who put their dreams in a little box and say,
'Yes, I've got dreams, of course. I've got dreams.' Then they put the box away
and bring it out once in a while to look in it, and yep, they're still there.
These are great dreams, but they never even get out of the box. - Erma Bombeck It takes an uncommon amount of guts to put your dreams on the
line, to hold them up and say, 'How good or bad am I?' That's where the courage
comes in. Erma Bombeck Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and
needs of others for their sake and for our own. Cesar Chavez Thinking too well of people often allows them to be better
than they otherwise would. - Nelson Mandela Treat a person as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat
him as he could be, and he will become what he should be. - Jimmy Johnson I destroy
my enemies when I make them my friends. - Abraham Lincoln It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to
befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true
religion. The other is mere business. -Mohandas Gandhi If you want to make peace with your enemy,
you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner. - Nelson Mandela I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will
have the final word in reality. Martin Luther King, Jr. There is nothing like returning to a place
that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. -Nelson Mandela When we are really honest with ourselves, we must admit that
our lives are all that really belongs to us. So it is how we use our lives that
determines what kind of men we are. It is my deepest belief that only by giving
our lives do we find life. - Cesar Chavez Nonviolence
means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence
of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him. -
Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace is
a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding
old barriers, quietly building new structures. - John F. Kennedy Most
people don't understand the power of nonviolence and tend to be amazed by the
whole idea. Those who have been involved in bringing about change and see the
difference between violence and nonviolence are firmly committed to a lifetime
of nonviolence, not because it is easy or because it is cowardly, but because
it is an effective and very powerful way. - Cesar Chavez Whoever
fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a
monster. - Friedrich Nietzche Education is more than a luxury; it is a responsibility that
society owes to itself. - Robin Cook, Coma Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by
being kind. - Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things
that matter. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to
improve the lot of others they send forth a ripple of hope, and crossing each
other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples
build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and
resistance. - Robert F Kennedy America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we
falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. -
Abraham Lincoln We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who
walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of
bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that
everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human
freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to
choose one's own way. - Viktor Frankl (author, neurologist and psychiatrist Holocaust
survivor (1905-1997)) To announce that there must be no criticism of the
President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not
only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American
public. - Theodore Roosevelt 26th US President (1858-1919) Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate; it is that
we are powerful beyond measure. - Nelson Mandela For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but
to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. - Nelson Mandela There is nothing like returning to a place that remains
unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. - Nelson Mandela, 'A Long Walk to
Freedom' Education is the most powerful weapon, which you can use to
change the world. - Nelson Mandela If you
want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice
compassion. - The 14th Dalai Lama Imagination is more important than knowledge. Albert
Einstein Within the child lies the fate of the future. - Maria
Montessori Loyalty to petrified opinion never broke a chain or freed a
human soul. - Samuel Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain) As for me, all I know is that I know nothing. - Socrates To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to
knowledge. - Disraeli Our knowledge is the amassed thought and experience of
innumerable minds. - Ralph Waldo Emerson A child educated only at school is an uneducated child. -
George Santayana The best way to give advice to your children is to find out
what they want, and then advise them to do it. - Harry Truman If you're lonely while you're alone, you're in bad company.
- Jean-Paul Sartre An individual has not started living until he can rise above
the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of
all humanity. - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Be the change you wish to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi It is little short of a miracle that modern methods of
instruction have not already completely strangled the holy curiosity of
inquiry. I believe that one could even deprive a healthy beast of prey of its
voraciousness if one could force it with a whip to eat continuously whether it
were hungry or not. - Albert Einstein Never regard study as a duty, but as the enviable
opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of
the spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to
which your later work belongs. - Albert Einstein It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in
creative expression and knowledge. - Albert Einstein
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Albert Einstein One should guard against preaching to young people success
in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for
work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the
knowledge of the value of the result to the community. -
Albert Einstein One should guard against inculcating a young man with the
idea that success is the aim of life, for a successful man normally receives
from his peers an incomparibly greater portion than the services he has been
able to render them deserve. The value of a man resides in what he gives and
not in what he is capable of receiving. The most important motive for study at
school, at the university, and in life is the pleasure of working and thereby
obtaining results, which will serve the community. The most important task for
our educators is to awaken and encourage these psychological forces in a young
man. Such a basis alone can lead to the joy of possessing one of the most
precious assets in the world - knowledge or artistic skill. - Albert Einstein I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination
encircles the world. - Albert Einstein When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to
the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for
absorbing positive knowledge. - Albert Einstein The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is
a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has
forgotten the gift. - Albert Einstein The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity
has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he
contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of
reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this
mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity. - Albert
Einstein The most beautiful thing we can experience is the
mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this
emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe,
is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. - Albert
Einstein Nothing is more important to the public weal [well-being]
than to form and train up youth in wisdom and virtue. - Benjamin Franklin Life is not so short but that there is always time enough
for courtesy. - Ralph Waldo Emerson Parents say they want to know what's going on in our lives,
what we do, but they don't really want to know. - 11th grade student, 2001 The two great goals of education: growing academically and
becoming the best people we can be. Unknown The greatest menace to freedom is an inert public. - Former
Supreme Court Justice Loius Brandeis People begin to become successful the minute they decide to
be. Harvey MacKay Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful. - Annette
Funicello Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.
Frederick Nietzsche To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy
ground. Steven R. Covey - The success of love is in the loving- it is not in the result of
loving. Of course it is natural in love to want the best for the other person,
but whether it turns out that way or not does not determine the value of what
we have done. The more we can remove this priority for results the more we can
learn about the contemplative element of love. There is the love expressed in
the service and the love in the contemplation. It is the balance of both which
we should be striving for. Love is the key to finding this balance. Mother Teresa from A Simple Path - The belief that there is only one truth and that oneself is in
possession of it seems to me the deepest root of all evil that is in the world. - Max Born - A leader
brings people where they want to go. A great
leader brings people where they ought to go but may not be want to go.
- Rosalyn Carter An effective
leader helps people discover their own desire to go where they ought to go.
In the Last Samurai, there is a scene where Katsumoto is studying the cherry blossoms in the garden outside the temple. He comments to Algren "The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life." Near the end of the film, Katsumoto has a vision of millions of cherry blossoms falling from the sky and with his dying breath, he softly utters his discovery: "Perfect... They are all... perfect..."
Vous ne trouvez pas le Saint-Graal. C'est le Saint-Graal qui vous trouve.
"The world, Govinda, is perfect at every moment."
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.
- Yogi Berra
- What Dreams May Come
- Jesse Jackson, Washington Post 21 May 78
"CQ + PQ > IQ" (ie Curiosity Quotient and Passion Quotient are more important than Intelligence Quotient. - Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat
The success of love is in the loving- it is not in the result of loving. Of
course it is natural in love to want the best for the other person, but whether
it turns out that way or not does not determine the value of what we have done.
The more we can remove this priority for results the more we can learn about
the contemplative element of love. There is the love expressed in the service
and the love in the contemplation. It is the balance of both which we should be
striving for. Love is the key to finding this balance. - Mother Teresa from A Simple Path
One day my dream is that my children ... will be judged not by the color of
their skin, but by the content of their character. Intelligence plus character
- that is the true goal of education. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Great learning and superior abilities... will be of little value and small
estimation unless virtue, honor, truth and integrity are added to them. -
Abigail Adams to her son John Quincy Adams
The truest friend to the liberty of this country is he who tries to promote its
virtue. - Samuel Adams
I care not about what others think of what I do, but I care very much about
what I think of what I do. That is character! - Theodore Roosevelt
Choose always the way that seem the best, however rough it may be. Custom will
soon render it easy and agreeable. - Pythagoras
The final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands. - Anne Frank
The secret of education is respecting the pupil. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. -
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Few things help an individual more that to place responsibility upon him and to
let him know that you trust him. - Booker T. Washington
We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to
do right. - Dr. Martin Luther King
Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we
think of it; the tree is the real thing. - Abraham Lincoln
As Aristotle taught, people do not naturally or spontaneously grow up to be
morally excellent or practically wise. They become so, if at all, only as the
result of a lifelong personal and community effort. - Jon Moline
A school can create a coherent environment, a climate, more potent than any
single influence - teachers, class, family, neighborhood - so potent that for
at least six hours a day it can override almost everything else in the lives of
children. - Ron Edmonds
Character education is the central curriculum issue confronting educators.
Rather than the latest fad, it is a school's oldest mission. - Dr. Kevin Ryan
Character isn't inherited. One builds it daily by the way one thinks and acts,
thought by thought, action by action. - Helen Gahagan Douglas
It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are. - Roy
Disney
Children spell 'love' ... T-I-M-E." - Dr. Anthony P. Witham
Parents are the first and most important models and teachers of their children.
- Dr. James Comer
Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always
watching you. - Robert Fulghum
I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the
classroom. My personal approach creates the climate. My daily mood makes the
weather. As a teacher, I posses a tremendous power to make a child's life
miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of
inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situation, it is my
response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a
child humanized or dehumanized. - Haim Ginott
The elegance of honesty needs no adornment. - Merry Brown
Enter your classroom every day looking for some way to make every student feel
good about something. It may be the way a student is dressed, answers a
question, helps another student, etc. Use any opportunity, anywhere, anytime. -
Joseph Katarski
Character education is not something new to add to your plate. It is the plate!
- Superintendent John Walko (NY school)
Effective character education is not adding a program or set of programs to a
school. Rather it is a transformation of the culture and life of the school. -
Dr. Marvin Berkowitz
Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique: good teaching come from the
identity and integrity of the teacher. - Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach
We have a profound moral contract with our students. We insist, under the law,
that they become thoughtful, informed citizens. We must - for their benefit and
ours - model such citizenship. The routines and rituals of a school teach, and
teach especially about matter of character. - Sizer & Sizer, The Students
Are Watching
The big questions, those asked by Gaugin and written in his famous triptych, are
the essence of what humanities try to fathom for us, through poems and stories
and plays and essays and factual narratives: where do we come from, and what
are we and where are we going? Such questions have to do with "the meaning
of life," a phrase once summoned commonly, but these days all too sadly
left unused. - Robert Coles, "A Vision of the Humanities for the
Young."
We are all part of a larger stream of events, past, present and future. We are
all the beneficiaries of those who went before us - who built cathedrals,
braved the unknown, who gave their time and their service, who kept faith with
the possibilities of the mind and the human spirit
History teaches us that
character counts. Character above all. - David McCullough, Commencement Address,
University of Massachusetts, Boston
Difference is the beginning of synergy. - Stephen R. Covey
To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy ground. - Steven R.
Covey
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift; the rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. -
Albert Einstein
One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to
find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do. - Henry Ford
Be the change you want to see in the world. - Mohandas K. Ghandi
Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may
come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed
if you persevere, and you will find joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no
effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost. - Helen Keller
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and
convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and
controversy. - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The greatest danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and
falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.
- Michelangelo
Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has
abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been
proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage it
contained. That so few dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time.
- John Stuart Mills
The penalty good people pay for not being interested in politics is to be
governed by people worse than themselves. - Plato
The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how
to get along with people. - Theodore Roosevelt
Do what you can with what you have where you are. - Theodore Roosevelt
Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. -
Robert Louis Stephenson
No one succeeds without effort...Those who succeed owe their success to their
perseverance. - Ramana Maharshi
The end of all education should surely be service to others. We cannot seek
achievement for ourselves and forget about the progress and
prosperity of our community. - Cesar Chavez
Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of
others for their sake and for our own. - Cesar Chavez
The belief that there is only one truth and that oneself is in possession of it
seems to me the deepest root of all evil that is in the world. - Max Born
Nothing could be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon, and left
one unexpended effort that might have saved the world. - Jane Addams
Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make
mistakes. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so
experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that
precious right. - Mohandas K. Ghandi
Confidence comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong.
- Peter T. McIntyre
It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness. -
Charles H. Spurgeon
- CFD
(You do not find the Holy Grail; the Holy Grail finds you.)
- Dan Brown - The Da Vinci Code
Is the "Grail" here a metaphor for the "truth" or "enlightenment"?
- Herman Hesse (Siddartha)