Collected Thoughts

Dying is an act of the soul. It is not something we suffer, it is something we do. It is the immortal self laying aside the mortal garment.
~Percy C. Ainsworth~

Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.
~Nido Qubein~

Today I live in the quiet, joyous expectation of good.
~Ernest Holmen~

To me, faith is not just a noun but also a verb.
~Jimmy Carter~

Strength is born in the deep silence of long-suffering hearts; not amidst joy.
~Felicia Hemans~

Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit and simply never leave. Our lives are measured by these.
~Susan B. Anthony~

Keep right on to the end of the road.
~Sir Harry Lauder~

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow.
~Helen Keller~

. . . Jesus did not promise to take away our burdens. He promised to help us carry them.
~John Cardinal Bernardin~

For peace of mind, we need to resign as general manager of the universe.
~Larry Eisenberg~

The future is not a gift -- it is an achievement.
~Harry Lauder~

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.
~Og Mandino~

Laugh and grow strong.
~Ignatius of Loyola~

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land, there is no other life but this.
~Henry David Thoreau~

Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Continue to learn. Appreciate your friends. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is.
~Mary Anne Roadacher-Hershey~

Build for yourself a strongbox, fashion each part with care. When it's strong as your hand can make it, put all your troubles there. Hide there all thought of your failures, and each bitter cup that you quaff. Lock all your heartaches within it, then sit on the lid and laugh.
~Bertha Adams Backus~

Dying seems less sad than having lived too little.
~Gloria Steinem~

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in this life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from.
~Elizabeth Kubler-Ross~

It is impossible to win the race unless you venture to run, impossible to win the victory unless you dare to battle.
~Richard M. DeVos ~

If fear is cultivated it will become stronger, if faith is cultivated it will achieve mastery.
~John Paul Jones~

Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount.
~Clare Boothe Luce~

The psalmist assures us that as we enter into the shadow, we are to be comforted. Notice, however, that we are not to be comforted by anything of our own making. No, it is only the shepherd's rod and his staff that can nudge us in the direction of courage and hope as we are guided and prodded on a path that we would never dare walk by ourselves.
~Bob Lively~

Man must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind him to the fact that each moment of your life is a miracle and a mystery.
~H.G. Wells~

To the question of your life, you are the only answer. To the problems of your life, you are the only solution.
~Jo Coudert ~

When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a moment longer, never give up then--for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.
~Harriet Beecher Stowe~

Anxiety never successfully bridged any chasm.
~Ruffini~

Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.
~Oswald Chambers~

Sadness flies away on the wings of time.
~Jean de La Fontaine~

Worry is as useless as a handle on a snowball.
~Mitzi Chandler~

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.
~~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.~~

In our daily lives, we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but the gratefulness that makes us happy.
~~Albert Clarke~~

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within."
~~Elizabeth Kübler-Ross~~

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered by your old nonsense.
~~Ralph Waldo Emerson~~

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.
~~Anne Bradstreet~~

Life is part positive and part negative. Suppose you went to hear a symphony orchestra and all they played were little, happy, high notes? Would you leave soon? Let me hear the rumble of the bass, the crash of the cymbals and the minor keys.
~~Jim Rohn~~

People ask me "How can I be happy, too?" I tell them do what I did. I decided to be. It was that easy. I took what I had and called them blessings. How could I be unhappy with so many blessings?
~~Bob Perks~~

The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.
~~Ivy Baker Priest~~

Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today.
~~James Dean~~

It's not the load that breaks you down; it's the way you carry it.
~~Lena Horne~~

The strongest oak of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It's the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.
~~Napoleon Hill~~

Oh, Lord God, have mercy on me and mend my broken wings.
~~Kahlil Gibran~~

Live near to God, and so all things will appear to you little in comparison with eternal realities.
~~Robert Murray M'Cheyne~~

Even if I am oppressed with anguish and terror on every side, and seem to be forsaken and utterly cast away from your presence, yet I am Your child and you are my Father.
~~Martin Luther~~

It is when God appears to have abandoned us that we must abandon ourselves most wholly to God.
~~F. Fénelon~~

The soul, for me, is everything in life. It is in all the beauty as well as in all the agony.
~~Marion Woodman~~

Should you shield the valleys from the windstorms, you would never see the beauty of their canyons.
~~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross~~

How we see and hold the full range of our experiences in our minds and in our hearts makes an enormous difference in the quality of this journey we are on, and what it means to us. It can influence where we go, what happens, what we learn, and how we feel along the way.
~~Jon Kabat-Zinn~~

You've got to get up every morning with a smile on your face and show the world all the love in your heart. Then people are going to treat you better. You're going to find, yes you will, that you're beautiful as you feel.
~~Carole King~~

Let us be about setting high standards for life, love, creativity, and wisdom. If our expectations in these areas are low, we are not likely to experience wellness. Setting high standards makes every day and every decade worth looking forward to.
~~Greg Anderson~~
(cancer survivor - told he had 30 days to live, still alive years later)

I always try to turn my personal struggles into something helpful for others.
~~Henri Nouwen~~

Believe it is possible to solve your problem. Tremendous things happen to the believer. So believe the answer will come. It will.
~~Norman Vincent Peale~~

How very little can be done under the spirit of fear.
~~Florence Nightingale~~

Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and repeat to yourself the most comforting words of all: "This, too, shall pass."
~~Ann Landers~~

A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.
~~English proverb~~

Neither anger nor fear shall find lodging in your mind.
~~Dekanawidah~~

A clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has to go through the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain.
~~Mildred Wite Stouven~~

When praying for healing, ask great things of God and expect great things from God. But let us seek for that healing that really matters, the healing of the heart, enabling us to trust God simply, face God honestly, and live triumphantly.
~~Arlo F. Newell~~

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

We are never far from where we need to be. God would not have brought us to this place in our life, if He didn't have something for us to receive.
~~Dale Finch~~

No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere;
I see heaven's glories shine,
And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.
~~Emily Bronte~~

Whatever happens, abide steadfast in a determination to cling simply to God.
~~Francis de Sales~~

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows; it empties today of its strength.
~~Corrie Ten Boom~~