The Power Tie

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
~Herbert Spencer

Lose money for the firm, and I will be understanding. Lose a shred of reputation for the firm, and I will be ruthless. ~Warren Buffett

There a man never attains virtue and excellence through power; rather he attains power and authority through his virtue…study wisdom, therefore, and when you have learnt it, do not neglect it, for I say to you without hesitation that you can attain authority through wisdom. ~ Ælfred, The Great (849-899AD)

Ælfred, The Great

There are few fields of endeavor where history counts so little as in finance.
~John Kenneth Galbraith

A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men. ~Thomas Carlyle

Who lies for you will lie against you. ~Bosnian proverb

Huge markets attract people who measure themselves by money. If someone goes through life and measures themselves solely by how much they have, or how much money they earned last year, sooner or later they’re going to end up in trouble ~Warren Buffett

It’s forgiveness that makes us what we are. Without forgiveness, there would be no history. Without that hope, there would be no art, for every work of art is in some way an act of forgiveness. Without that dream, there would be no love, for every act of love is in some way a promise to forgive. We live on because we can love, and we love because we can forgive. ~Greg David Roberts, Shantaram

Government Rules

American Flag Bubbled

[The United Soviet States of America] would come about as a result of various capitalist crises, the national government would assume more and more control over the economy.......In finance....... it will mean the nationalization of the banking system and its concentration around a central State bank....
~William Z. Foster, Communist Party boss Toward Soviet America,  

Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosper by letting the Government take care of him, better take a closer look at the American Indian.
~ Henry Ford

 We are witnessing a slow, steady takeover of our true freedoms. We are becoming a socialist nation, and whoever can't see this is probably hoping it isn't true. If we permit Mr. Obama to take over all our industries, if we permit him to raise our taxes to support unconstitutional causes, then we will be in default. This great America will become a paralyzed nation.
~ Jon Voight

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
-Thomas Jefferson

The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.
-Samuel Adams

 History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster.
~Douglas MacArthur 

 We have never stopped sin by passing laws; and in the same way, we are not going to take a great moral ideal and achieve it merely by law.
~Dwight D. Eisenhower

 In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves...self-discipline with all of them came first.
~Harry S. Truman

“If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”
― Adolf Hitler

 “How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think.”
― Adolf Hitler

 The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty. So let’s not have any native militia or native police.
~Adolf Hitler, Hitler’s Table Talk, 1941-1944: Secret Conversations with the English translation copyright1953 by Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.
-Thomas Jefferson

With self-discipline most anything is possible.
~Theodore Roosevelt

Let there be Peace

It's been a very difficult week here in Connecticut. Last week less than 30 miles away from my home was the site of the second worse school shooting in our nation's history.  20 small children between the ages of 6 and 7 were gunned down in their classroom. 6 female educators were gunned down trying to protect the school children.  It's a tragedy that knocks you off balance and shakes you to your very core.

It's in times like these that I look to things that are comforting. Readings which provide some sort of guidance, faith or hope.  With Christmas around the corner these quickly came to mind.

"When you give something, just for the joy of creating, it always comes back on a much larger scale." —Ji Lee

"Tonight I want to tell you the story of an empty stocking.

Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child's cry, a blazing star hung over a stable, and wise men came with birthday gifts. We haven't forgotten that night down the centuries. We celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees, with the sound of bells, and with gifts.

But especially with gifts. You give me a book, I give you a tie. Aunt Martha has always wanted an orange squeezer and Uncle Henry can do with a new pipe. For we forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled, all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in a manger. Its his birthday we're celebrating. Don't let us ever forget that.

Let us ask ourselves what He would wish for most. And then, let each put in his share, loving kindness, warm hearts, and a stretched out hand of tolerance. All the shinning gifts that make peace on earth. "
-- The Christmas Sermon in the movie, The Bishop's Wife

Bill Murray plays Francis Xavier Cross in the classic Christmas movie, Scroogred, by far one of my absolute favorites.  It's a wonderful 1988 parody on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  The speech at the end of the movie is fantastically written and makes the point very clear.

[Frank X Cross]: "I'm not crazy. It's Christmas Eve. It's the one night when we all act a little nicer.  We...we smile a little easier. We...we...share a little more. For a couple of hours we are the people we always hoped we would be. It's really a miracle because it happens every Christmas Eve. And if you waste that miracle, you're gonna burn for it. I know. You have to do something. You have to take a chance and get involved. There are people that don't have enough to eat and who are cold. You can go and greet these people. Take an old blanket out to them or make a sandwich and say, "Here." "l get it now." And if you give, then it can happen, the miracle can happen to you. Not just the poor and hungry, Everybody's gotta have this miracle! It can happen tonight for you all! If you believe in this pure thing, the miracle will happen and you'll want it again tomorrow! You won't say, "Christmas is once a year and it's a fraud." It's not! It can happen every day! You've just got to want that feeling! You'll want it every day! It can happen to you! I believe in it now. I believe it's gonna happen to me, now. I'm ready for it! And it's great. It's a good feeling. It's better than I've felt in a long time. I'm ready. Have a Merry Christmas. Everybody... Did I forget something, big man?

[Calvin] "God bless us, every one."

Circumstances Beyond Our Control

Recently my son, 18 yrs old was injured again while playing lacrosse. This is the fourth injury in four years! The first was the last week of the season he received a concussion which took him out of school for a few days. The second was the first game of his sophomore year when he received a concussion so sever he was out of school for 24 days and took months to fully recover.  The third was during preseason when he tore his ACL. He is a senior now and decided to take the field one more season with his friends and teammates. Traditionally he had always been a long pole defense man but in order to protect his knee he hopped into the goal. He was having a fantastic season and with just two weeks left in the season he was knocked from behind upon coming out of goal and has now injured his "good" knee. We won't know until the MRI results are back whether he will require surgery or not; my hope is obviously no surgery and just plenty of physical therapy. Keeping my fingers crossed.  The fortune cookie quoted below ironically was his last night which is why I dedicated this to him.

When you learn to be flexible, amazing opportunities reveal themselves! ~Fortune Cookie

The greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances. ~ Martha Washington

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.  ~ Horace 

Stop blaming outside circumstances for your inside chaos. ~ Steve Maraboli  

Expect the best, prepare for the worst. ~ Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are.  ~ Arthur Golden 

We should be inspired by people... who show that human beings can be kind, brave, generous, beautiful, strong-even in the most difficult circumstances.  ~ Rachel Corrie 

To practice five things under all circumstances constitutes perfect virtue; these five are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.  ~ Confucius 

Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records.  ~ William Arthur Ward 

Confidence is preparation. Everything else is beyond your control. ~ Richard Kline 

The pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of the brave man... It is more powerful than external circumstances.  ~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca 

There is no education like adversity.  ~ Benjamin Disraeli 

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it. ~ Maya Angelou

Making an awesome save!

Update on May 19, 2012 - He tore the ACL and does need surgery on the 23rd.

What doesn't kill us, makes us stronger? ~ Friedrich Neitzche 

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.  ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Live and Learn

Riding on the Beach

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. ~ Michael Jordan

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit. ~ Aristotle

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. ~Goethe

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. ~ Gandhi

Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

One's mind, once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimension. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

It's a New Day

Tree of Light

With a new day comes new strength and new thoughts. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

A man travels the world in search of what he needs, and returns home to find it. ~ George Moore

Life takes you to unexpected places. Love brings you home. ~ Anonymous

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. ~ Richard Bach

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. ~ Thomas Paine

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined. ~ Henry David Thoreau

The difference between try and triumph is a little umph. ~ Anonymous

Where they're is passion and desire, there will always be new horizons. ~ Anonymous

There is no such thing as limits to growth, because there are no limits to the human capacity for intelligence, imagination, and wonder. ~ Ronald Reagan

A bend in the road is not the end of the road...unless you fail to make the turn. ~ Anonymous

One's mind, once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimension. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Experimentation is Experience

No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong. - Albert Einstein

Observation is a passive science, experimentation an active science. - Claude Bernard

I reeverted easily to my wild state, that is experimentation. - Jack Steinberger

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The men of experiment are like the ant; they only collect and use. But the bee...gathers its materials from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own. - Leonardo da Vinci

The true method of knowledge is experiement. -William Blake

A fool is a man who never tried an experiment in his life. - Erasmus Darwin

I am my own experiement. I am my own work of art - Madonna

No, life has not disaappointed me. On the contrary, i find it truer, more desirable and mysterious every year - ever since the day when the great liberator came to me: the idea that life could be an experiment of the seeker for knowledge - and not a duty, not a calamity, not trickery. - Friedrich Nietsche

Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun. - Mary Lou Cook

Every great inspiration is but an experiment - Charles Ives

"La Cucaracha"

La cucaracha, la cucaracha
Ya no puede caminar
Porque no tiene, porque le falta
Marijuana que fumar.
The cockroach, the cockroach
Now he can't go traveling
Because he doesn't have, because he lacks
Marijuana to smoke.

Folksong

Strengths and weaknesses

Build up your weaknesses until they become your strong points. - Knute Rockne

When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you. - Lao Tzu

A really self-restrained person grows every day from strength and from peace to more peace. The very first step in self-restraint is the restraint of thoughts. - Gandhi

It never ceases to amaze me; we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinions than our own. - Marcus Aurelius

Do we not realize that self respect comes with self reliance? - Abdul Kalam

Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men. - Seneca

Our strength grows out of our weaknesses. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. - Abraham Lincoln

The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination... - Maya Angelou

There is nothing so strong as gentleness, and nothing so gentle as strength. - Leo Muir

Neglected, then renewed

I have been negligent in keeping up with posting my ongoing collection of quotes. So in order to start the ball off rolling again I have chosen to share some quotes on negligence and renewal.

Negligence is the rust of the soul, that corrodes through al her best resolves. - Owen Feltham

Turn your midlife crisis to your own advantage by making it a time for renewal of your body and mind, rather than stand by helplessly and watch them decline. - Jane Brody

No profit to have learned well, if you neglect to do well. - Publilius Syrus

We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

To be worn out is to be renewed. - Lao-tzu

Curiosity in children, is but an appetite for knowledge. One great reason why children abandon themselves wholly to silly pursuits and trifle away their time insipidly is, because they find their curiosity balked, and their inquiries neglected - John Locke (1632-1704)

Four things come not back - the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life and the neglected opportunity. - Arabian Proverb

We strain to renew our capacity for wonder, to shock ourselves into astonishment once again. - Shana Alexander

Tweets

I recently became a Tweep - that is someone who uses Twitter. At first I was hesistant, not fully understanding this new world. It's only been my first week but so far here are a few of my new faves.

Be yourself today. Be wildly yourself. - John Mayer

Bran cereal gets a bad rap for being boring. Since when is promoting good digestive health boring? Answer: never. Not if you're constipated. - Michael Ian Black
If you're feeling lonely, reach out and help some one . . . we are all alone, until we chose not to be. When you give, you grow. Reach out. - paul_hewson
Remember life is what you make it!!! So go hard or go home!!! Work hard for your dreams today. And have fun!!! - iam diddy
YouLookGreat says sometimes when you think people don't like you, in actuality they don't even know you exist.
17" Macbook arrived! Santa is real, he just dresses like a UPS guy now. No toddler finger smudges on this screen... for at least a week. -tonyhawk

Trick or Treat! Smell My Feet! We Want Something Good to Eat!

When I was a kid, I remember having a record of Halloween Songs. Yes a vinyl record. One particular song stuck in my head so that even 30+ years latter when it gets to be Halloween these words ring in my head:

H-A-DOUBLE L-O-W-DOUBLE E-N spells Halloween!

H-A-DOUBLE L-O-W-DOUBLE E-N spells Halloween!

Over and over again...thus I never forgot how to spell the word and passed the little diddy onto my own children.

On Hallowe'en the thing you must do

Is pretend that nothingcan frighten you

An' if somethin' scares you and you want to run

Jus' let on like it's Hallowe'en fun.

-from an Early Nineteenth Century Halloween Postcard

Nothing on Earth so beautiful as the final haul on Halloween night. -Steve Almond

Hold on, man. We don't go anywhere with "scary," "spooky," "haunted," or "forbidden" in the title. -From Scooby-Doo

This Halloween the most popular mask is the Arnold Schwarzenegger mask. And the best part? With a mouth full of candy you will sound just like him. -Conan O'Brien

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

Where there is no imagination there is no horror. -Arthur Conan Doyle, Sr.

There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls. -George Carlin

Charlie Brown is the one person I identify with. C.B. is such a loser. He wasn't even the star of his own Halloween special. -Chris Rock

From ghoulish and ghosties and long leggety beasties and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us! - Scottish saying

Backward, turn backward,O Time, in your flight make me a child again just for to-night!

-Elizabeth Akers Allen

$$, Fear and Politics

The trick is to stop thinking of it as your money. - An IRS Auditor

The less prudence with which others conduct their affairs, the greater prudence with which we should conduct our own affairs. - Warren Buffett

The Old One had taught him that. One need not be afraid. Fear was a thing of the mind, and if one did not offer it a place, it had none. - Louis L'Amour, The Californios

The true rule, in determining to embrace or reject anything, is not whether it has any evil in it; but whether it has more evil than good. There are few things whilly evil or wholly good. Almost everything...is an inseperable compound of the two; so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded. - Abraham Lincoln

It doesn't matter how the people vote; what matters is who counts the votes and how they do it. - Stalin

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. - Benjamin Franklin

It doesn't matter where you are coming from...it matters where you're going to. - Arnold Schwarzenegger

I have fewer misgivings concerning our excellence in the natural, i.e. exact sciences [mathematics, atomic physics, electronics, etc.] than the field of political and social "sciences", which are by no means exact and where superficiality, lack of knowledge, even fakery cannot so easily be found out and shown up. A political columnist, a political candidate or office-holder, a professor of political science may have a long record of wrong predictions and of faulty analyses and of eloquent but ill-informed views, especially on foreign affairs; and he may very well survive as a respected oracle. An engineer on the other hand, whose design for a bridge is faulty, a mathematician or physicist whose equations do not equate will soon lose prestige and professional standing. -- Fritz Kraemer, strategic advisor to the Chief of Staff of the US Army for over 30 years

Skepticism and pessimism aren't synonymous. Skeptism calls for pessimism when optimism is excessive. But it also calls for optimism when pssimism is excessive. -- Howard Marks, Oaktree Capital Management

The Wisdom of Pooh

Quotes by one of my favorite authors: A.A.Milne

If there ever comes a day when we can't be together keep me in your heart, I'll stay there forever.
Winnie the Pooh

If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together.. there is something you must always remember. you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. but the most important thing is, even if we're apart.. i'll always be with you.
Winnie the Pooh

If the person you are talking to doesn't appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.
Winnie the Pooh

Welcome

Since high school which was some 25+ years ago, I have been a collector of quotes. For some reason I have always found solice and comfort in reading the wisdom of others. Maybe I was never sure of how to express a feeling or point of view but someone must wiser than me like Benjamin Franklin or Ronald Reagan said something so profound that someone wrote it down and saved it. Some quotes can be reflective, some just plain funny - all of them meaning different things to each reader as well. My bff at the time was the first person to ever share quotes with me and actually is probably the trigger which set me off on my way to collecting my own. It had been during a particularly difficult time in my life. Sophomore year a time of big changes for a 16 year old girl who's home life was very challenging. My bff, although a terrific writer herself - who actually has now written 3 or 4 published novels and teaches at Williams - looked to the wisedom of others to help me through my rough patch added to her own words "I love you".

It would be very poetic to be able to christen this blog with those very quotes but as I look through my files while writing this I can't find them - which is really annoying and all the more reason to start filing these all in cyberspace on my blog. Oh well, that's my reality of a cluttered life. I dedicate this blog to the man pictured above Mr. Benjamin Franklin, an avid collector of sayings - most of which he coined himself [I think he would have absolutely loved the internet] and to my high school bff for helping me find the words when I couldn't find them myself.