By Helen Exley. 2002.
To have a purpose that is worthwhile, and that is steadily being accomplished, that is one of the secrets of a life that is worth living.
–Rachel Carson
I am not bound to win
But I am bound to be true.
I am not bound to succeed
But I am bound to live up to what light I have.
–Abraham Lincoln
The great thing in this world is not so much where we are but in what direction we are moving.
–Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)
The only real satisfaction there is, is to be growing up inwardly all the time, becoming more just, true, generous, simple, manly, womanly, kind, active. And this we can all do, by doing each day the day’s work as well as we can.
–James Freeman Clarke (1810-1888)
To awaken each morning with a smile brightening my face; to greet the day with reverence for the opportunities it contains; to approach my work with a clean mind; to hold ever before me, even in the doing of little things, the ultimate purpose toward which I am working; to meet men and women with laughter on my lips and love in my heart; to be gentle, kind, and courteous through all the hours; to approach the night with weariness that ever woos sleep and the joy that comes from work well done this is how I desire to waste wisely my days.
–Thomas Dekker (c. 1570-1641)
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honour; duty; mercy; hope.
–Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
The best things are nearest—breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of Right just before you. Do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.
–Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
Focusing our attention—daily and hourly—not on what is wrong, but on what we love and value, allows us to participate in the birth of a better future, ushered in by the choices we make every day.
–Carol Pearson
How one lives is, after all, one of the rights left to the individual—when and if one has the opportunity to choose.
–Alice Walker
All that there is to the making of a successful, happy, and beautiful life, is the knowledge and application of simple, root principles.
–James Allen (1849-1925)
Unless you give yourself to some great cause, you haven’t even begun to live.
–William P. Merrill
It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit, But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.
–Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
No pleasure philosophy, no sensuality, no place nor power, no material success can for a moment give such inner satisfaction as the sense of living for good purpose.
–Minot Simons
Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.
–Marian Wright Edelman
If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is to keep on walking.
–Ancient Buddhist expression
Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it; ignorance deride it; malice may distort it; but there it is…
–Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1963)