Thursday, September 21, 2006

Thursday 13:

This week I'm sharing some of my favorite quotes, organized by yours truly's principles for a happy life.

1. Keep It Simple
“A mess can cover up more than tables and floors. People lose themselves in the day-to-day stuff, and they don’t get to be who they really are.”
Organizer Extraordinaire, Laurie Arriola

2.Stay Present: Correct the Past, Plan the Future, But Live Now
“We are born at the rise of the curtain and we die with its fall, and every night in the presence of our patrons we write our new creation, and every night it is blotted out forever; and of what use is it to say to audience or to critic, “Ah, but you should have seen me last Tuesday?”
Michael MacLiammoir, The Bell,
“Hamlet in Eisinore”, 1952

3. Commit: Find a Purpose and Live It
“I always wanted to be somebody. Now I see that I should have been more specific”
Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner

4. Don’t Turn on Yourself
“When will you have a little pity for every soft thing that walks through the world, yourself included?”
Mary Oliver

5. Keep Conflict to a Minimum
"One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty counsels. The thing to do is to supply light and not heat. "
Woodrow Wilson, 1916

6. Laugh and Cry
“Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson,
The Conduct of Life, 1860

7.Do Good Work
“Don’t ask your self what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who come alive” (Harold Whitman).

8.Bend Bend Bend: Choose Happy Instead of Right
“There is no good in arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an east wind is to put on your overcoat.”
James Russell Lowell, “Democracy”
address in Birmingham England 1884

9.Create
“I entered biology to understand the beauty of life. I started with the ecology of animals, but that wasn’t quite right, so I went one level deeper, to the study of tissues, then to chemistry, and finally even dabbled in the depths of quantum mechanics. Yet when I got there, I saw that the wonder of life had somehow slipped through my fingers along the way.”
Allbert Szent-Gyorgyi,
Nobel Laureate Biologist

10. Connect
“Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love IS everything it’s cracked up to be. That’s why people are so cynical about it. ..It really IS worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.”
Erica Jong, How to Save your Own Life, 1977

And a final word from the Saint of the Universe:
We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. I do not agree with the big way of doing things.
Mother Theresa, 1975

12 comments:

  1. Certainly some gems there - or should that be pearls? of wisdom ... Thank you.

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  2. Love Erica Jong...she's so funny and honest.

    In #4, I would put in "sympathy" instead of "pity", but it's a good sentiment.

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  3. #9 -- Nothing makes me happier than my kids or my art, those things I've created and am creating or help create.

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  4. Wowza! Thank you! What a great way to end the week and start the weekend (and autumn!). xox

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  5. Sometimes, I return to your blog and I knew I left a comment during my previous visit, but I guess, I did not submit it. Maybe I want to read your post again :-)

    I like Woodrow Wilson's statement. My neighborhood sure can use it. As always Mother Teresa is right. I know many successful people who achieve great things without the drama.

    Hope your back is feeling better!!!

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  6. Hi KJ,

    #4 seems to be the hardest one for the high achievers in the crowd. We have high standards for everyone, especially ourselves. Thanks for the reminder.

    Have a great weekend!
    Andrew

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  7. Hi kj...it's taken centuries to answer your question on my blog...I'm sorry :-)
    First of all thank you for such kind words about my studio...they meant a lot to me.
    The tip I can give you to keep things organized is to have lots and lots of boxes to sort everything and use labels...that's how I takle all of my mess :-) Plus the fact that I'm a little obssesive compulsive about neatness...ha!
    Thanks again for visiting my blog!

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  8. Aha! Another quotes-crazy blogger...just like me!

    Keep at it! c",)

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  9. Great quotes, very inspirational!

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  10. hey, bearette, you can't correct mary oliver! if she's says it's pity, it's pity!

    :)

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  11. WOW! Definately words to live by! each and every quote was meaningful and insightful. Loved it, love quotes!

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