You never see what you want to see, forever playing to the gallery.
—Robertson Davies
…So many of us go through so much of our lives being shaped, pushed, prodded, and even defined by the the gallery surrounding us. We put way too much stock in their feedback. Instead, set your sights on a grand vision which energizes you and fills you with passion. Don’t worry about the critics; chart your own path and forge ahead!
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Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity. — Saint Augustine, 354-430 AD (by Philippe de Champaigne; Public Domain)
It takes less time to do a thing right, than it does to explain why you did it wrong. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1868, by Julia Margaret Cameron; Public Domain)
If your only tool is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. — Abraham Maslow (Image Licensed by Penn Wealth Pub.)
The environment shapes people’s actions. — B.F. Skinner (Image Licensed by Penn Wealth Pub.) This is overwhelmingly true, but it is not a given. We control our actions, yet we decide—most of the...
The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins? — Edgar Allan Poe (1849 daguerreotype; Public Domain)
Happiness is a virtue, not its reward. — Baruch Spinoza, Age of Enlightenment philosopher (1665; Public Domain) We have the script completely backwards. We believe that if we achieve certain...
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it. — W.C. Fields (1938, by CBS Radio; Public Domain)
The essential conditions of everything you do must be choice, love, and passion. — Nadia Boulanger (Image licensed by Penn Wealth Pub.) Under the rubric of these three simple words—choice, love,...
To the timid and hesitating, everything is impossible because it seems so. — Walter Scott, author of Ivanhoe (1830, by Sir John Watson Gordon; Public Domain)
Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light. — Helen Keller (Image licensed by Penn Wealth Pub.)
All of our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason. — Immanuel Kant (1768, by Johann Gottlieb Becker; Public...
Prediction is very difficult, especially if it is about the future. — Niels Bohr, Danish physicist (Image licensed by Penn Wealth Pub.)
No accidents are so unlucky but that the wise may draw some advantage from them; nor are there any so lucky but that the foolish may turn them to their own prejudice. — François de La...
It is better for you to be free of fear lying upon a pallet, than to have a golden couch and a rich table and be full of trouble. — Epicurus (Public Domain) Here’s the challenge: We cannot always...
Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish. — Jean de La Fontaine (by Hyacinthe Rigaud; Public Domain)
Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. Do you plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first, then, the foundation of humility. — Saint Augustine, 354-430 AD (by Philippe de...
When you expect things to happen—strangely enough—they do happen. — John Pierpont Morgan (Image Licensed by Penn Wealth Pub.) …and back up those expectations with constant, focused action towards...
Destiny is no matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. — William Jennings Bryan (by Harris & Ewing Photography; Public Domain)
There are those who go boldly into the future, forging a path for others to follow; those who willingly take that path; and those who must be dragged forward by the stoic hands of time. Happiness...
There is no place and no time I would rather be in than right here and right now, under these precise circumstances. — M.S. Hazell (Image licensed by Penn Wealth) It is amazing how this simple...
