Ten Barack Obama Jokes

I haven't blog in loooong while, I know. There's so much going on in the background of my life that I couldn't find the time, and if I had the time, the mood, to blog here. So much water indeed has passed under the bridge, that history has been made while I wasn't blogging. It's not too late though to blog about the President-elect Barack Obama.

U.S. comedians are saying that they will miss George W. Bush, as Mr. Obama apparently is not as easy as Dubya to joke about. Dubya, a card-bearing anti-intellectual (like Sarah Palin???), has his trademark "Bushisms" that comedians earn a living on. Mr. Obama is the intellectual that the likes of Mr. Bush despises.

That may be so, but there's no limit to human creativity, comedians especially. See for yourselves what jokes I was able to gather from the Web on Obama:

"And people were worried about the Bradley effect. Apparently, it was not nearly as strong as the Bush effect." -Jay Leno

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"According to recent news reports, Bill Clinton has now become an adviser to Barack Obama. Bill Clinton is giving advice to Barack Obama. Do you know who is really upset about this? Michelle Obama." -Jay Leno

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"Last night, after Barack Obama was declared the winner, President Bush called Obama, promised to work with him to guarantee a smooth transition. Yeah. Yeah, when we heard this, Obama said, 'Thanks, but you've done enough.'" -Conan O'Brien

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"People looking into Barack Obama's campaign contributions say that Obama may have received $3.3 million from abroad. Yeah. It turns out that broad is Oprah Winfrey." -Conan O'Brien

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"With just 19 days left until the election, Barack Obama warned supporters today to guard against overconfidence. Then he boarded Air Force One, blasted 'We Are The Champions' and shouted 'I'm King of the World.'" -Amy Poehler

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"After a quick meet-and-greet with King Abdullah, Obama was off to Israel, where he made a quick stop at the manger in Bethlehem where he was born." -Jon Stewart

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"Barack Obama now says he is open to offshore oil drilling. So, apparently, when he promised change, he was talking about his mind." -Jay Leno

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"A town in Upstate New York is being accused of being biased 'cause they sent out absentee ballots that say 'Barack Osama.' Today they apologized and printed new ballots that say 'Barack Hussein Osama.'" -Conan O'Brien

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"After his big speech in North Carolina today, Senator Joe Biden said he was experiencing a sore throat and lost his voice. Boy, the good news doesn't stop for Barack Obama. Just one lucky break after another." -Jay Leno

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"Barack Obama is now denying that he is email pals with the beautiful actress, Scarlett Johansson. Remember that story? They were saying that Scarlett Johansson and Barack Obama were emailing each other. He says no, it's not true. In fact his exact words were 'I did not have textual relations with that woman.'" -Jay Leno

Ten Quotes on Failure

I can't get over the fact that the Philippine Team to the 2008 Beijing Olympics failed to bag any medal. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is reportedly “not happy,” too, over our medal shutout in the recently-concluded Olympic games.

And why not? Look, Michael Phelps is not even a team, much less a country, but he was able to haul eight gold medals on his own! Ok, so you think I'm being unfair? Let me point you to desolate Afghanistan, which was able to win it's first ever Olympic gold medal!

I know that Filipino-Chinese 24-year-old Willy Wang won the gold for Wushu. But Wushu is only an exhibition or demonstration sport in the Olympics, so any medal won in the sport do not count in the official medal tally.

Are there lessons to be learned from our FAILURE? Let's see what we can from these quotations:

My reputation grows with every failure. –George Bernard Shaw

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Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle. –James Russell Lowell

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Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes. –John Dewey

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You won't skid if you stay in a rut. –Kin Hubbard

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There are two kinds of failures: those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought. –Laurence J. Peter

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Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. –Oscar Wilde

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Every great mistake has a halfway moment, a split second when it can be recalled and perhaps remedied. –Pearl S. Buck

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Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. –Robert F. Kennedy

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It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failures. Precept, study, advice, and example could never have taught them so well as failure has done. –Samuel Smiles

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We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery. –Samuel Smiles

Ten Quotes From Barack Obama

I admire Barack Obama a lot. He is a phenomenal guy, the type who comes along once in a generation. Given his origins, the odds he was up against and where he is right now, I can only conclude as an avid student of history that he is a man of destiny with an important, if not urgent, mission to fulfill in the world.

I certainly wish we could have someone with Barack's caliber and sense of mission as among the serious contenders for our own Philippine presidential elections come 2010. The country has suffered long enough dwelling in the cellar among the community of nations in Southeast Asia. We were ahead of most developing countries in the region in the 1960s that's why it is unnatural for us to be where we are right now. We badly need to regain our national pride, become relevant and respected again on the regional, if not the global, stage and recover our rightful place in the sun.

Here are ten quotes from BARACK OBAMA that best highlight his character and personal philosophy--alternately inspiring, witty, wise and frank:

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

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Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

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I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

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If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost.

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Issues are never simple. One thing I'm proud of is that very rarely will you hear me simplify the issues.

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It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today.

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My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.

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The fact that my 15 minutes of fame has extended a little longer than 15 minutes is somewhat surprising to me and completely baffling to my wife.

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We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent.

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You know, my faith is one that admits some doubt.

The Ten Favorite Ancient Chinese Proverbs of Radovan Karadzic

The world can breath a little easier with another notorious war criminal finally reeled-in by the proverbial long arm of the law. Radovan Karadzic, former leader of the Bosnian Serbs, was indicted nearly 13 years ago in connection with the massacre of nearly 8,000 Bosnian men and boys at Srebrenica. Based on the comparative photos shown to the right of this post, you will agree that his low-tech disguise is very effective (he looks to me more like Santa Claus!). "You could only recognize him if you know him by the sound of his voice,” according to a wartime friend of Mr. Karadzic. But then, there is no perfect crime and crime does not pay, so there goes his ingenious disguise.

Mr. Karadzic had lived a double life for over a decade as "Dragan Dabic," an alternative medicine guru and part-time writer for the magazine "Healthy Life" (he was additionally a poet, by the way). Since he was really a practising psychiatrist before he entered politics, I figure that role-playing as an alternative medicine guru was not much of a strain for him. I got interested in his story when The New York Times reported that he had a website. I promptly Googled "Dragan Dabic website" and clicked the link to his site. Below is a screenshot of his website, in case authorities take it down later (click on image to enlarge):



The English translation of his assumed profile in the said website is quoted below:

Dr. Dragan "David" Dabic was born some six decades ago in a small Serbian village of Kovaci, near Kraljevo. As a young boy he liked to explore nearby forests and mountains, spending a lot of time on Kopaonik mountain where he tended to pick the omnipresent, natural and potent medicinal herbs that grew at those green pastures. As a young man he moved to Belgrade, and then on to Moscow where he graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree (spec. in Psychiatry) at the Moscow State University (Lomonosov). After Russia, Dr. Dabic travelled around India and Japan, after which he settled in China where he specialized in alternative medicine, with a special emphasis on the mind-body control, meditation, Yoga, spiritual cleansing, as well as Chinese herbs. In mid-1990s Dr. Dabic returned back to mother Serbia for good, and ever since then emerged as one of the most prominent experts in the field of alternative medicine, bioenergy, and macrobiotic diet in the whole of the Balkans, and is frequent contributor to the regional alternative health magazines, and guest expert with numerous TV appearances and on many public forums, seminars and symposiums (Belgrade, Novi Sad, Pancevo, Sombor, Smederevo, Kikinda...) dedicated to these issues and topics.

Dr. Dragan Dabic currently resides on Yury Gagarin street in New Belgrade, but for public forum invitations, television appearances or private consultations he can be reached directly at the following contact:

healingwounds @ dragandabic . com

Guess what, Mr. Karadzic aka Mr. Dabic had ten (10) favorite ancient Chinese proverbs on his no-frills website. What do these choice quotes tell about this intriguing persona? See for yourself:

Behind every able man, there are always other able men.

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Teacher opens the door, but you must enter by yourself.

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A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows the public opinion.

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He who cannot agree with his enemies is controlled by them.

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If your strength is small, don't carry heavy burdens. If your words are worthless, don't give advice.

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A flawed diamond is better than a common stone that is perfect.

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Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.

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If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, teach people.

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You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.

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The one who gives up his own, shall dig two graves.

(Photo credit: The New York Times)

Ten Quotes on History

It must be the then-and-now photos of two unemployed persons from two historical eras, which I posted over the weekend in my other blog, that enticed me to read more about the Great Depression. The experience is, to say the least, enlightening and illuminating.

But disturbing, too, in the sense that it gave me a sense of foreboding about a likely future that is slowly unfolding much like a replay of an old familiar movie. I hope it's just my overworked mind playing a trick on me, for it's a future we'd rather not have.

Join me as I explore quotes from wise and famous men who have attempted to explain why history seems to uncannily repeat itself:

Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever shall be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results. -Machiavelli

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History teaches everything including the future. -Lamartine

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The past does not repeat itself, but it rhymes. -Mark Twain

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We learn from history that we never learn anything from history. -Hegel

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While the mediocre European is obsessed with history, the mediocre American is ignorant of it. -Anonymous

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If history teaches anything about the causes of revolution--and history does not teach much but still teaches considerably more than social science theories--it is that a disintegration of political systems precedes revolutions, that the telling symptom of disintegration is a progressive erosion of governmental authority, and that this erosion is caused by the government's inability to function properly, from which spring the citizens' doubts about its legitimacy. -Hannah Arendt

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You must always know the past, for there is no real Was, there is only Is. -William Faulkner

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Mankind are so much the same, in all times and places, that history informs us of nothing new or strange in this particular. Its chief use is only to discover the constant and universal principles of human nature. -David Hume

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History has now been for the first time systematically considered, and has been found, like other phenomena, subject to invariable laws. -August Comte

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History repeats itself because no one was listening the first time. -Anonymous

(Photo credit: www.sxc.hu)

Ten Quotes on Victory

Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao did the Philippines proud again today as he snatched the WBC lightweight title from Mexican-American David Diaz in an impressive ninth round knockout at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. With this spectacular win, Pacquiao became the first Filipino as well as the first Asian to win four world titles, not counting the Ring Magazine featherweight championship he bagged in 2003 after beating Mexican boxer Marco Antonio Barrera.

Everybody loves a winner. Why, even recent NBA champions, the Boston Celtics, were there cheering for Pacquiao from their special ringside seats. After the game, I even caught them on cable TV having a picture taken together with Pacquiao and his team. Apparently, both are self-confessed members of a "mutual admiration society." According to Ronnie Nathanielsz, "Pacquiao endeared himself to the Celtics when, despite training in Los Angeles, he picked the Celtics as his favorite team to beat the Lakers and when they did their admiration for one another was strengthened even further."

Let's examine the mystique that lies behind VICTORY, in the words of others who have earned one:

Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat. -Malcolm S. Forbes

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If you can't accept losing, you can't win. -Vince Lombard

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Expect victory and you make victory. -Preston Bradley

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If you think you can win, you can. Faith is necessary to victory. -William Hazlitt

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There is no victory at bargain basement prices. -Dwight D. Eisenhower

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To be prepared is half the victory. -Miguel Cervantes

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Victory belongs to the most persevering. -Napoleon Bonaparte

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Victory always starts in the head. -Douchan Gersi

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There are some defeats more triumphant than victories. -Michael Eyquen de Montaigne

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Victory is a thing of the will. -General Ferdinand Foch

(Photo credit: www.sxc.hu)

Quotes on Fathers

Today is Father's Day. I didn't grow up knowing that there is such a special day in the year for fathers. Understandably, it is not part of our indigenous tradition as Filipinos. That's not to say I don't like the idea. In fact, given that the wife/mother is the central figure in Filipino homes, I am flattered by all the attention given to me by everyone in the family on this special day.

Sonora Dodd of Spokane, Washington, is credited for conceiving the idea of Father’s Day while she listened to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909. She wanted a special day to honor her widowed father who was left to raise his six children on a farm. Spokane’s mayor chose a day in June for this purpose, because it was the birth month of Dodd's father. President Lyndon Johnson issued in 1966 the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers every third Sunday in June. However, it was President Richard Nixon who signed in 1972 the public law that made celebration of Father's Day permanent.

The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother. -Henry Ward Beecher

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When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years. -Mark Twain

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It is a wise father that knows his own child. -William Shakespeare

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That is the thankless position of the father in the family - the provider for all, and the enemy of all. -J. August Strindberg

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It is much easier to become a father than to be one. -Kent Nerburn

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Fathers, like mothers, are not born. Men grow into fathers and fathering is a very important stage in their development. -David Gottesman

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A man knows when he is growing old because he begins to look like his father. -Gabriel García Márquez

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I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection. -Sigmond Freud

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You know, fathers just have a way of putting everything together. -Erika Cosby

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A father is a banker provided by nature. -French Proverb

(Photo credit: www.sxc.hu)

Ten Quotes on Innovation

I've been wanting to blog about the forces that trigger financial innovation for a long time now. There's need to do a literature survey to make sure I cover all the known bases to-date. Unfortunately, I haven't had the luxury of time for such research. I thought, however, that a less ambitious start would be to identify a unifying theme for such a wide-ranging post. From my experience, good sources for such a theme are what authorities or experts have to say on the subject. Here are ten quotes on INNOVATION which I particularly liked:

Well, when you're trying to create things that are new, you have to be prepared to be on the edge of risk. -Michael Eisner

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When you innovate, you've got to be prepared for everyone telling you you're nuts. -Larry Ellison

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An enterprising person is one who comes across a pile of scrap metal and sees the making of a wonderful sculpture. An enterprising person is one who drives through an old decrepit part of town and sees a new housing development. An enterprising person is one who sees opportunity in all areas of life. -Jim Rohn

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The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow. -Rupert Murdoch

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There has been opposition to every innovation in the history of man, with the possible exception of the sword. -Benjamin Dana

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Innovation is the central issue in economic prosperity. -Michael Porter

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Innovation is not the product of logical thought, although the result is tied to logical structure. -Albert Einstein

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Every innovation occasions more harm and derangement of order by its novelty, than benefit by its abstract utility. -Legal Maxim

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Chance favors only the prepared mind. -Louis Pasteur

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Nearly 100% of innovation -- from business to politics -- is inspired not by "market analysis" but by people who are supremely pissed off by the way things are. -Tom Peters

(Photo credit: www.sxc.hu)

Ten Quotes from Confucius

Whenever I feel like quoting an ancient philosopher, the first name that comes to my mind is that of Confucius. But for a figure whose influence in Chinese history has been compared with that of Socrates in the West, I was surprised to learn that it is hard to separate which accounts of Confucius' life are fact and which ones are fiction.

Another revelation from my research: Confucius' admission that he was simply “a transmitter and not a maker” of his teachings. According to him, his teachings are really lessons transmitted from antiquity.( You can read more about Confucius here). Whatever the source of his teachings, I still like them--deceptively simple but very profound, just like the following:

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

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Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

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You cannot open a book without learning something.

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Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.

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To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

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The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential... these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.

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The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.

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The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.

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The faults of a superior person are like the sun and moon. They have their faults, and everyone sees them; they change and everyone looks up to them.

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Study the past, if you would divine the future.

Ten Quotes on Coincidences

A coincidence is "a sequence of events that although accidental seems to have been planned or arranged," according to the FreeDictionary. I've had so many in my life that I have lost count of them. Since I'm not a habitual note-taker or a diary-keeper, it will take me really serious effort to recall all those.

But I am suddenly conscious again about coincidences precisely because of several recent developments in my life that are so uncanny in terms of context, timing and significance, relative to what I am planning for my next career shift. I have not blogged here for two weeks now precisely because I've been busy with activities that will lead to my next "incarnation," this time as an entrepreneur. Join me as I explore further the nature of COINCIDENCES, as other people viewed or experienced it:

In the magical universe there are no coincidences and there are no accidents. Nothing happens unless someone wills it to happen. -William S. Burroughs

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A coincidence is a small miracle in which God chooses to remain anonymous. -Unknown

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Coincidence is the word we use when we can't see the levers and pulleys. -Emma Bull

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Coincidences are spiritual puns. -G.K. Chesterton

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There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from. -Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

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If you do something once, people will call it an accident. If you do it twice, they call it a coincidence. But do it a third time and you've just proven a natural law. -Grace Murray Hopper

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If there were no such thing as coincidence, there would be no such word. -Heron Carvic

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Coincidence, if traced far enough back, becomes inevitable. -Hineu

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Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous. -Albert Einstein

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Consciousness itself is an infinite regress. This explains coincidences. -Robert Anton Wilson

(Photo credit: www.sxc.hu)

Ten Quotes on Love and Marriage

We celebrated my wife's birthday today with a sumptuous dinner which she herself painstakingly prepared for the whole family. I had wanted to treat them out instead but she prevailed in the end. Compromise: that's lesson no.1 to a long and happy marriage, LOL. Why don't we explore today the many faces of LOVE and MARRIAGE while I'm at it:

Love at first sight is easy to understand; it's when two people have been looking at each other for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle. -Amy Bloom

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LOVE, n. A temporary insanity curable by marriage or by removal of the patient from the influences under which he incurred the disorder... It is sometimes fatal, but more frequently to the physician than to the patient. -Ambrose Bierce

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MARRIAGE, n. The state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress and two slaves, making in all, two. -Ambrose Bierce

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In matrimony, to hesitate is sometimes to be saved. -Samuel Butler

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Ah Mozart! He was happily married - but his wife wasn't. -Victor Borge

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One survey found that ten percent of Americans thought Joan of Arc was Noah's wife.... -Robert Boynton

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Husbands are awkward things to deal with; even keeping them in hot water will not make them tender. -Mary Buckley

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Laugh and the world laughs with you. Snore and you sleep alone. -Anthony Burgess

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The majority of husbands remind me of an orangutan trying to play the violin. -Honore de Balzac

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All married couples should learn the art of battle as they should learn the art of making love. Good battle is objective and honest--never vicious or cruel. Good battle is healthy and constructive, and brings to a marriage the principle of equal partnership. -Ann Landers

(Photo credit: www.sxc.hu)

Ten Quotes on Failures

I'm feeling contemplative today. That's what a setback could do to me. I was hopeful about something positive to develop this week, but the news I received this morning was otherwise. I know that such experiences are meant to teach us a lesson. We just have to be perceptive. Let's wax philosophical about FAILURES through the wise words of other great men:

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. -Thomas Edison

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Failure doesn't mean you are a failure... it just means you haven't succeeded yet. -Robert Schuller

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Try again. Fail again. Fail better. -Samuel Beckett

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Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. -F. Scott Fitzgerald

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There are defeats more triumphant than victories. -Michel de Montaigne

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You always pass failure on your way to success. -Mickey Rooney

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A failure is a man who has blundered but is not capable of cashing in on the experience. -Elbert Hubbard

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My reputation grows with every failure. -George Bernard Shaw

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The only real failure in life is the failure to try. -Sven Goran Eriksson

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Success builds character, failure reveals it. -Dave Checkett

(Photo credit: www.stockxpert.com)

Ten Quotes on Birthdays

I wanted to blog about my birthday last Saturday but I hestitated. I have already restructured my main blog to just focus on finance topics. Ditto for my other blogs, which have their own niches. This looks like my only blog where I could talk about birthdays and (hopefully) get away with it, so here goes:

The best birthdays of all are those that haven't arrived yet. -Robert Orben

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My birthday!--what a different sound
That word had in my youthful ears;
And how each time the day comes round,
Less and less white its mark appears.
-Thomas Moore

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No wise man ever wished to be younger. -Jonathan Swift

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Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what the hell happened. -Cora Harvey Armstrong

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When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it happened or not. -Mark Twain

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Men are like wine. Some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age. -C.E.M. Joad

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Age is a high price to pay for maturity. -Tom Stoppard

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Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you have not committed. -Anthony Powell

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If we could be twice young and twice old we could correct all our mistakes. -Euripides

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You take all of the experience and judgment of men over 50 out of the world and there wouldn't be enough left to run it. -Henry Ford

(Photo credit: www.sxc.hu)

Ten Quotes on Entrepreneurship

It's been nearly two weeks since my last post. As I have explained in my other blog, we recently launched, together with some former colleagues in investment banking, a new consultancy group that's now busy seeking mandates in what we believe to be an underserved niche in the Philippine market. Of course, nothing is ever certain in this world except death and taxes. Who knows, in the end, we could be proven wrong about our analysis and perception. But until then, we are hopeful and bullish about our prospects as a new business group. This is the wider context for my choice of subject for today's post.

The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer. -Nolan Bushnell (founder of Atari)

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The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it. -Debbi Fields (founder of Mrs. Fields Cookies)

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When you reach an obstacle, turn it into an opportunity. You have the choice. You can overcome and be a winner, or you can allow it to overcome you and be a loser. The choice is yours and yours alone. Refuse to throw in the towel. Go that extra mile that failures refuse to travel. It is far better to be exhausted from success than to be rested from failure. -Mary Kay Ash (founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics)

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Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you're generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make. -Donald Trump (real estate and entertainment mogul)

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I had to make my own living and my own opportunity! But I made it! Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them! -Madam C.J. Walker (America's first black female millionaire)

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An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he'll quickly learn how to chew it. -Roy Ash (co-founder of Litton Industries)

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Entrepreneurs are risk takers, willing to roll the dice with their money or reputation on the line in support of an idea or enterprise. They willingly assume responsibility for the success or failure of a venture and are answerable for all its facets. -Victor Kiam

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Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage. -Niccolo Machiavelli

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I'm not sure I knew what an entrepreneur was when I was ten, but I knew that starting little businesses and trying to sell greeting cards or newspapers door-to-door or just vending machine kind of thing is.. there's just something very intriguing to me about that. -Steve Case

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Too often, we try to fit in with the crowd. We play it safe. But innovation is about taking risks while being true to you. This takes confidence. And it takes the belief that your “style” is what the world needs and wants. Yes, taking this risk may help you stand out. More importantly, it may be the ticket to your success. -Stephen Shapiro

(Photo credit: www.flickr.com)

Ten Quotes on Faith

Nothing beats the Lenten season in reminding a Catholic about his spirituality and faith. Certainly not Christmas. A season commemorating the birth of Christ is far too joyous a celebration to be able to induce serious soul-searching and introspection. Didn't you notice that our relationship with God comes to the fore in times of need, suffering or great sorrow? That flow is from us to Him. During Lent, it's the reverse flow of this relationship that is highlighted--from Him to us. By reliving His passion and ultimate sacrifice on the cross during this season, we are in effect reminded to renew our faith in the Almighty. Here are ten quotes that explore the various dimensions of this thing we call FAITH:

Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible. -William James

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Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to. -George Seaton

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Faith means not wanting to know what is true. -Friedrich Nietzche

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Faith is knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof. -Kahlil Gibran

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Faith is like electricity. You can't see it, but you can see the light. -Unknown

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To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible. -St. Thomas Aquinas

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Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. -Mother Teresa of Calcutta

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The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness. -Henry David Thoreau

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Faith is taking the first step even when when you don't see the whole staircase. -Martin Luther King

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When the solution is simple, God is answering. -Albert Einstein

(Photo credit: www.sxc.hu)

Ten Quotes on Credibility

Stepping back to survey my recent posts in two of my blogs, I realized that I have unconsciously choosen to write about a common theme--CREDIBILITY--in both, although one is an investment banker's blog and the other, for the most part a political blog. We probably have an emotional weather vane of sorts that changes direction periodically, sometimes triggered internally and, at times, externally. For whatever reason, the topics that caught my fancy lately had "credibility" as their common thread, so maybe it's as good as any to be my ten featured quotes today:

All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses. -Friedrich Nietzsche

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The more you are willing to accept responsibility for your actions, the more credibility you will have. -Brian Koslow

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Credibility is like virginity. Once you lose it, you can never get it back. -Unknown

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Governing today means giving acceptable signs of credibility. It is like advertising and it is the same effect that is achieved--commitment to a scenario. -Jean Baudrillard

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Consultants have credibility because they are not dumb enough to work at your company. -Scott Adams

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For every credibility gap, there is a gullibility gap. -Richard Clopton

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Constantly there's a credibility issue; you're judged on how you look. If you look good, people assume you aren't credible. -Lisa Guerrero

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I think there has to be some credibility to the humor, especially if situation comedy has to have a situation. And some of them don't. -Dick Van Dyke

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In the end, you make your reputation and you have your success based upon credibility and being able to provide people who are really hungry for information what they want. -Brit Hume

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You don't want your credibility banana to turn brown, but you do want to speak out about what you believe in. -Bradley Whitford

(Photo credit: Stockxpert.com)

Ten Quotes on Change

The bottomline in the ongoing political drama in the Philippines is the increasingly impatient clamor for leadership change and moral transformation. In America, change is also the winning battlecry of Barack Obama. Actually, in many aspects of life in many parts around the world, the mantra is change. This is why I chose it as my theme in this post today. See if you can learn an additional lesson or two about CHANGE in the following quotes:

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power. -Alan Cohen

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If you want to make enemies, try to change something. -Woodrow Wilson

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The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. -Abraham Lincoln

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The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order. -Alfred North Whitehead

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He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery. -Harold Wilson

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All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. -Anatole France

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Change always comes bearing gifts. -Price Pritchett

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The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind. -William Blake

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The wheel of change moves on, and those who were down go up and those who were up go down. -Jawaharlal Nehru

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All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward. -Ellen Glasgow

Ten Quotes on Corruption

It's been a week since my last set of quotes (on Truth) inspired by a new whistleblower on the aborted NBN/ZTE deal which has created a firestorm, which now threatens the Philippine president's continued hold on power. Over a period of just one week, I have had to adjust my own initial assessment of the likelihood of a new People Power movement materializing (being euphimistically labelled today as "communal action" by the Catholic Church heirarchy) from "zero" to "more than 50% probability".

In my view, unless President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) does something to turn the tide of history that is unfolding, she'll get knocked-over and swallowed-up by the developing political tsunami. At the very heart of the present maelstrom is the sickening culture of CORRUPTION that has been quietly tolerated for so long by Pinoys. Here are quotes that expound more on this evil spell that has turned Philippine governance hopelessly dysfunctional and badly in need of change:

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. -Friedrich Nietzsche

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The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference. -Bess Myerson

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It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. -David Brin

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The more corrupt the state, the more laws. -Publius Cornelius Tacitus

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The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means. -Georges Bernanos

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Only the old are innocent. That is what the Victorians understood, and the Christians. Original sin is a property of the young. The old grow beyond corruption very quickly. -Malcolm Bradbury

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Corruption never has been compulsory. -Anthony Eden

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Money and corruption are ruining the land, crooked politicians betray the working man, pocketing the profits and treating us like sheep, and we're tired of hearing promises that we know they'll never keep. -Ray Davies

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As a columnist, I realize that whatever amount of corruption I expose, half my readers will block it out, although they may get a frisson of joy in the process. -Margaret Carlson

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Every man has his price. -Proverb

(Photo credit: www.sxc.hu)

Ten Quotes on Truth

There's a national drama being acted out on the Philippine Senate that, in my view, could potentially destabilize the country. This is the latest in a series of politically-motivated exposes, which has hounded President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) for sometime now, clearly intended to humiliate, discredit and, if luck is on the side of the President's political opponents, unseat her ahead of the scheduled elections in 2010.

The bone of contention is the TRUTH behind allegations, made earlier by the businessman-son of the ex-Speaker of the House and now reinforced by a new whistleblower, of huge pay-offs whose money trail presumably leads to the seat of power in Malacanang Palace. Here's a collection of quotes that dwell on that elusive TRUTH which has sown so much discord in the Philippines:

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. -Abraham Lincoln

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Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods. -Albert Einstein

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There are no whole truths: all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil. -Alfred North Whitehead

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Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it. -Andre Gide

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Whenever you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. -Arthur Conan Doyle

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We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart. -Blaise Pascal

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Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true. - Buddha

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Chase after the truth like all hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never touch its coattails. -Clarence Darrow

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Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit. -Edward Murrow

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Truth is such a rare thing, it is delighted to tell it. -Emily Dickenson

(Photo credit: www.sxc.hu)

Ten Quotes on Life

I was reviewing my posts since I started this blog a year ago and discovered to my surprise that, while I have sprinkled my previous posts with quotes about life, here and there, I have yet to devote a post dedicated to LIFE--the canvas on which I paint my thoughts in my other niche blog. So here goes:

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and have a new ending. -Maria Robinson

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Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile. -Albert Einstein

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Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live. -Dorothy Thompson

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The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important. -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. -Friedrich Nietzsche

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The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live. -Joan Borysenko

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I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well. -Diane Ackerman

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Why stay we on the earth except to grow? -Robert Browning

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Don't go through life, grow through life. -Eric Butterworth

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To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. -Emily Dickinson

(Photo credit: www.sxc.hu)

Ten Quotes on Vision and Ambition

Vision and ambition. Two words with terminal sounds that rhyme nicely. The former "conceives" while the latter "achieves"; action words which, again, have a nice ring to them but therein ends their resonance (at least to me). The first one is decidedly "yang"--positive, upward-seeking. As for the other, well, ambition has an uplifting nature but it has an ugly side that is "yin"--consuming, ironically downward-seeking and, therefore, negative.

My recent posts in two of my other blogs contain elements of both. My brief post on Davos, where I traced the origin of what is now called the "World Economic Forum," (the 38th annual conference being attended by 27 heads of state, among others, is ongoing) is meant as a tribute to a single individual's strategic vision. On the other hand, my post on the shocking $7 billion loss announced recently by Societe Generale (SocGen) is meant as a slap on the wrist of a young rouge trader driven by overweening ambition to get ahead fast in the competitive world of banking.

The following quotes hopefully capture in elegant prose what my own thoughts are about vision and ambition:

On Vision

To accomplish great things we must first dream, then visualize, then plan... believe... act! -Alfred A. Montapert

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Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision. -Ayn Rand

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The whole world steps aside for the man who knows where he is going. -Anonymous

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Vision is the art of seeing the invisible. -Jonathan Swift

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Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens. -Carl Jung

On Ambition

No one does anything from a single motive. -Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Ambition can creep as well as soar. -Edmund Burke

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When ability exceeds ambition, or ambition exceeds ability, the likelihood of success is limited. -Ralph Half

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In order to be profoundly dishonest, a person must have one of two qualities: either he is unscrupulously ambitious, or he is unswervingly egocentric. -Maya Angelou

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Man's many desires are like the small metal coins he carries about in his pocket. The more he has the more they weigh him down. -Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba

(Photo credits: Stockxpert.com)

Ten Quotes on Greed

I've been blogging about the US subprime crisis since the middle of last year. That crisis is a shameful showcase of human frailties. Try naming one--I'm sure the subprime crisis has it. Greed comes to mind easily, for the subprime crisis is, at bottom, a tale of greed. Here are ten selected quotes that shed more light on the nature of greed:

We are all born brave, trusting and greedy, and most of us remain greedy. -Mignon McLaughlin

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The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. -Jesus

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So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning. -Morrie Schwartz

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For greed, all nature is too little. -Seneca

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Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed. -Albert Einstein

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Greed is a fat demon with a small mouth and whatever you feed it is never enough. -Janwillem Van De Wetering

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A greedy person and a pauper are practically one and the same. -Swiss Proverb

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There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed. -Buddha

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The covetous man pines in plenty, like Tantalus up to the chin in water, and yet thirsty. -Thomas Adams

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Hell has three gates: lust, anger, and greed. -Bhagavad Gita

(Photo credits: Stockxpert.com)

Ten Quotes on Paradoxes

A paradox is a self-contradictory statement. I blogged today about a paradox that I have observed in the present subprime turmoil which has rocked the U.S. economy and could possibly affect the rest of the world if it really worsens. It is by no means the only paradox I have seen in my lifetime. There are many, believe me. Life is full of paradoxes, if you'd only care to notice. Let me share with you what others have said about paradoxes:

The truth often sounds paradoxical. -Lao Tzu

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Two paradoxes are better than one; they may even suggest a solution. -Edward Teller

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Play not with paradoxes. That caustic which you handle in order to scorch others may happen to sear your own fingers and make them dead to the quality of things. -George Eliot

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The paradox is really the pathos of intellectual life and just as only great souls are exposed to passions it is only the great thinker who is exposed to what I call paradoxes, which are nothing else than grandiose thoughts in embryo. -Soren Kierkegaard

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Across planes of consciousness, we have to live with the paradox that opposite things can be simultaneously true. -Ram Dass

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The paradoxes of today are the prejudices of tomorrow, since the most benighted and the most deplorable prejudices have had their moment of novelty when fashion lent them its fragile grace. -Marcel Proust

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There is this paradox in pride - it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from becoming so. -Charles Colton

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Perhaps the greatest paradox of all is that there are paradoxes in mathematics. -Edward Kasner

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The best therapy for emotional blocks to math is the realization that the human race took centuries or millennia to see through the mist of difficulties and paradoxes which instructors now invite us to solve in a few minutes. -Lancelot Hogben

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Abandon the urge to simplify everything, to look for formulas and easy answers, and to begin to think multidimensionally, to glory in the mystery and paradoxes of life, not to be dismayed by the multitude of causes and consequences that are inherent in each experience -- to appreciate the fact that life is complex. -M. Scott Peck

(Photo credits: www.stockxpert.com)

Ten Quotes on the Presidency

I've been intently monitoring the developments in the on-going primaries in the U.S., as well as the early start of party maneuverings in the Philippines that will build up to the presidential elections in mid-2010. Getting elected to the presidency is no joke, as we can glean from these quotes:

Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There's nothing to do but stand there and take it. -Lyndon B. Johnson

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[Running for President is] physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually the most demanding single undertaking I can envisage unless it's World War III. -Walter F. Mondale

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Any man who wants to be president is either an egomaniac or crazy. -Dwight D. Eisenhower

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To be a great president, you have to have a war. All the great presidents have had their wars.

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Anyone that wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office. -David Broder

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It is dangerous for a national candidate to say things that people might remember. -Eugene McCarthy

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You can fool all the people some of the time, and some people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. -Abraham Lincoln

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Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may be distressed in the midst of all their power, but they will never look to anything but power for their relief. -Edmund Burke

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Whenever there is authority, there is a natural inclination to disobedience. -Thomas C. Haliburton

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All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway. -Harry S. Truman

(Thanks to www.stockxpert.com for the use of the royalty-free photo shown above).

Ten Quotes on Fame

Pop diva Britney Spears recently figured in the news again. I'm not into celebrity-watching alright, but she was all over cable television so how could I miss the news that she was taken to the Cedars-Sinai Hospital last Thursday night for what one source called a "complete psychotic meltdown"? She actually joins an already long, and still growing, list of showbiz celebrities whose success, fame and fortune worked more like a curse than a charm for them.

At 55, going 56 this year, you could probably say that I've been around long enough to have confirmed from experience the great truth in the old saw that "there is a price for everything." On this note, here's a short collection of quotes on the subject of fame:

Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident and money takes wings. The only thing that endures is character. -Unknown

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Fame always brings loneliness. Success is as ice cold and lonely as the North Pole. -Vicki Baum

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A celebrity is a person who works hard all of their life to become well known, and then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized. -Fred A. Allen

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People should realize we're jerks just like them. -Edward De Bono

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He said "What did fame ever do for me? I'm still broke!" I said "What did your fame ever do for anyone else?" -Raphie Frank

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Fame or integrity: which is more important? Money or happiness: which is more valuable? Success or failure: which is more destructive? If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never truly be fulfilled. If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself. Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. -Lao Tzu

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Fame, we may understand, is no sure test of merit, but only a probability of such: it is an accident, not a property of a man. -Thomas Carlyle

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Fame is a food that dead men eat. -Henry Austin Dobson

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Stardom isn't a profession; it's an accident. -Lauren Bacall

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In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes. -Andy Warhol

(Thanks to www.stockxpert.com for the royalty-free photo shown above)

Ten Quotes on Perseverance and Persistence

I have accepted long ago that life's problems, sufferings and pain are thrown our way for a purpose. They build character and make us better persons in the end; they are not meant to punish us or defeat us. And so it was with this spirit that I faced a most unusual challenge last week.

Like I wrote in my other blog, I never imagined that I would one day need to know how to code a blog template when I first decided to go blogging one year ago. I thought blogging was mere writing and that was it.

Anyway, a peculiar problem with one of the ads displayed on my other blog forced me to learn the XML language in a jiffy, from scratch! To make the long story short, I succeeded where I initially doubted if I could hack it. Only a stubborn failure-is-not-an-option attitude saved the day for me. Three cheers for perseverance and persistence!

Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines. -Robert Schuller

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With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable. -Thomas Foxwell Buxton

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Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did. -Newt Gingrich

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The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't. -Henry Ward Beecher

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When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. -Franklin D. Roosevelt

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The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places. -Author Unknown

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Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves. -Dale Carnegie

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Fall seven times, stand up eight. -Japanese Proverb

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The great majority of men are bundles of beginnings. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

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It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer. -Albert Einstein

Here's wishing you a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

(Thanks to www.stockxpert.com for the use of the royalty-free photo shown above)