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)