What I Know - What I Dont Know

What I know about life ...

I know that the darkest night is often the bridge to the brightest tomorrow.

I know that my life is designed to be an adventure.

I know that the act of smiling makes both me and others happier.

I know the power of saying, "Thank You."

I know that the greatest gift I can give the world is my happiness.

I know that joy blooms where minds and hearts are open.

I know that today is my day to dance lightly with life.

I know that I can change what I see by changing how I see.

What I don't know about life ...

I don't know the meaning of life, but I know compassion is the key.

I don't know what lies after death, but I know it is good.

I Say NO - I Say YES

I say NO to the demands of the world.
I say YES to the longings of my own heart.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I choose with careful consideration.

I say NO to social pressures. I say NO to community pressures. I say NO to unthinking demands of tradition.

I say YES to kindness. I say YES to compassion. I say YES to honor. I say YES to worthy forms of service.

Further reading: Gandhi quote: A 'No' uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.

Mary Anne Radmacher: Your informed, “no,” to a particular service allows another to offer their gifted and unreserved, “yes.”

Joy is a Choice - but Not an Easy Choice

Stand up for what you want

We are responsible for the consequences of our choices

Happy Day Quotes

Today is a happy day because I say it is.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

When I began preparing today's message, I intended to include one or two Happy Day quotes, but I couldn't find any good ones. I'm contemplating the lack of Happy Day quotes, and I see a need to be filled. If you know of a great Happy Day quote, or want to write one, please let me know.

Any day can be a Happy Day simply because I declare it to be a a happy day. I don't need a reason for today to be a Happy Day, but here are a few things that make it easier for me to say "Happy Day!"

A Happy Day is a day when I go for a walk.

A Happy Day is a day when I breathe deeply and consciously.

A Happy Day is a day when I express gratitude for all of Life.

How many ways can you complete the sentence, "A Happy Day is a day when I _____."

The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation. Bertrand Russell

Cooperation

The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.
- Bertrand Russell

We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.
- Benjamin Franklin

The choice is to work alone to be a little more successful than the next person, or to work together for the great betterment of humanity. Do you ever wonder why our educational system teaches competition rather than cooperation?

Further reading: It is amazing how much you can accomplish when it doesn't matter who gets the credit.

I feel unity with Spirit and all that is.

Teamwork: John Lennon: A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together becomes reality.

Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will. Zig Ziglar

Think Positive

Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.
- Zig Ziglar

Positive thinking has acquired a bad reputation - which I believe to be totally undeserved.

Certainly, thinking positively, while sitting back and doing nothing constructive, is a road to ruin. However, being optimistic, thinking positively, and then taking action leads to the greatest probability of success, and happiness.

Believe you can - and then make it happen.

Everything is not as it appears to be.

Everything is not as it appears to be.
- old saying

The small raccoon in today's picture appears cute and cuddly, but watch out. Beneath the teddy-bear exterior is a wild animal.

True beauty is more than skin deep. Love the person, not the appearance.

Further reading: The Nature of Beliefs

Ralph Waldo Emerson: People only see what they are prepared to see

I am a passionate Observer of Life - jlh

Sheri Rosenthal: Trust: Can you trust and if so who?

I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship. Louisa May Alcott

I'm not afraid of storms for I'm learning how to sail my ship.
- Louisa May Alcott

The greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.
- Epictetus

When the tempest rages, when the thunders roar, and the lightnings blaze around us it is then that the truly brave man stands firm at his post.
- Luther Martin

Our mettle is tested by storms, not by calm.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Circumstance does not make the man: it reveals him to himself. - James Allen

ACTION - the sixth Point of Simply An Inspired Life

The Sailboat Metaphor

Mary Anne Radmacher: Courage doesn't always roar

Need For Approval

Need For Approval

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.
- Mark Twain

Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best.
- Andrew Carnegie

While it is natural to feel some degree of need for the approval of others, be careful. If you find yourself unwilling to take actions that others disapprove of, you have lost control of your own life and have given your destiny to others. An excessive need-for-approval is a sign of low self-esteem, and in severe cases, a condition termed Co-dependency.

Take charge of your life! You are responsible to yourself - not to others.


Further reading: Aesop's Fables: The Miller, His Son, and the Ass

7 Secrets of Happy Couples

You do not need anyone's permission to be your true self - jlh

What is Honor? Is there a place for Honor today?

Keyword Cloud and Search Box

It is now even easier than ever to find the inspiration you want from among the over 700 Daily Inspirations archived on our Daily Inspirations blog.

Try our new Keyword Cloud feature. A link to access the Keyword Cloud is located just above the Search Box in the upper right of every page of the blog.

Where there is a will, there is a way.

Where there's a will, there's a way.
- old English proverb

Sometimes success requires persistence and hard work. Sometimes an ingenious new approach is needed. Or it may be time for a whole new beginning. Think, and choose wisely whether to try harder or to try something new.

Further reading: Pope John XXIII: Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams.

Lao Tzu: A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.

Beyond the Grief of Divorce - 7 Steps Toward New Beginnings

Success... A goal is a dream with a deadline. - Napoleon Hill

Adventure is not outside man; it is within. George Eliot

Adventure is not outside man; it is within.
- George Eliot

Life is an adventure in forgiveness.
- Norman Cousins

Security is mostly a superstition. 

It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. 

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. 

Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
- Helen Keller

The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.
- Oprah Winfrey

There is no certainty; there is only adventure.
- Roberto Assagioli

Without adventure civilization is in full decay.
- Alfred North Whitehead

Further reading: Life is no brief candle to me - George Bernard Shaw

Appreciate the Unexpected

A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are for. - John A. Shedd

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. - Mark Twain

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.
- Mark Twain

Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.
- Mark Twain

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. 

A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.
- Mark Twain

Remember that courage is a choice.

Further reading: Inspirational Mark Twain Quotes

Hoist the Anchor

Today is your day to paint life in bold colors - jlh

A hero is someone who has given his life to something bigger than himself or something other than himself. - Joseph Campbell

Only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet. - African Proverb

Only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet.
- African Proverb

It is wonderful to have Faith, but don't confuse trust with being gullible. Balance trust with conscious thought.

Further reading: Todays Affirmation: I follow my own star and my own inner compass.

Stay Conscious and Aware - Do not decide who to trust, decide which ideas to trust.

You have not been abandoned.

You have not been abandoned. You are never alone, except by your own choice. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie You are never an abandoned empty crate. You are always filled with Spirit, even when you feel most alone and rejected. If the phrase "Child of God" feels comfortable to you, live into that inner knowing today. Further reading: Have a Conversation with God, Today

Presidential Quotes for Presidents Day

Today, February 15, 2010, is President's Day in the United States. 

Here are several Presidential quotes ...

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.
- George Washington (First United States President)

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?
- Abraham Lincoln (16th United States President)

Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt (32nd United States President)

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
- Thomas Jefferson (third President of the United States)

Further reading: Thomas Jefferson: Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

Jimmy Carter: We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.

John F. Kennedy: Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth

Romantic Love Quotes for Valentine Day

Today is Valentine's Day - the day dedicated to romantic love. Every day is the right day to tell your spouse or lover how special they are to you, but perhaps today is a day to fix a special breakfast and place a romantic quote at their place.

Browse my collection of Romantic Love Sayings, Marriage Love Sayings, Cute Love Sayings, and my whole collection of Love Sayings. Here are three of my favorite expressions of love...

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.
I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me.
I love you for that part of me you bring out.
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

You are my ground and you are my rainbow.
You are my butterfly and you are my ecstasy.
You are the start of my journeys and always my destination.
You are my home - the place to which I always return.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart.
It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.
- Judy Garland

Set and enforce your personal boundaries. - JLH

Set and enforce your personal boundaries.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You and only YOU get to choose how much influence you allow others to exert over your life.

Further reading: The Sailboat Metaphor

This Above All, To Thine Own Self Be True - 5 Ways to Apply William Shakespeare's Advice Today

Winston Churchill quote: You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

Not everything that casts a long shadow is to be feared. - JLH

Not everything that casts a long shadow is to be feared.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.
- Joseph Campbell

Often the trouble you fear is no more than bluff and bluster. Fear is a bully that dissolves when confronted.

Further reading: Discovery and adventure, rather than fear

Circumstance does not make the man: it reveals him to himself. - James Allen

ACTION - the sixth Point of Simply An Inspired Life

Mark Twain: Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater one.

Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater one.
- Mark Twain
Whose laws have priority in your life?

Further reading: Mark Twain quotes

This above all, to thine own self be true. - William Shakespeare

Albert Camus: Life is a sum of all your choices.

Death is the final opening to Spirit. - JLH

Death is the final opening to Spirit. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie 

  There is no death, only a change of worlds. - Chief Seattle 

 Further reading: UNITY - the eighth Point of Simply An Inspired Life

We fear both the best and the worst in life

We fear both the best and the worst in life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us.
- Marianne Williamson

Why would we fear the best in life? We tend to fear the unknown, to fear what is outside our experience.

Let today be a day to open the door to life's greatness.

Further reading: See the list of our most popular Inspirational Articles on Relationships, Happiness, Positive Attitude, and more.

Change always comes bearing gifts

Change always comes bearing gifts.
- Price Pritchett

While it is only human to fear change and to fear the unknown, take a deep breath and welcome change.

Usually, change is for the better. Even when a change is, on balance, painful, there is always a silver lining to every cloud.

Welcome change. Be grateful for the blessings and accept the rest as important lessons.


Further reading:

Rabindranath Tagore quote: If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.

Intention versus Expectation (Demand)

Success Tip: Drive Change
   

There is a crack in everything... Leonard Cohen

There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.
- Leonard Cohen

If our world were as we perceive it should be, we would never be inspired to be creative or adventurous. Let us give thanks that our world is designed to challenge us and to bring out the best of the human spirit.


Further reading: Circumstance does not make the man: it reveals him to himself. - James Allen

Eleanor Roosevelt quote: The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Do first things first, and second things not at all. - Peter Drucker

Do first things first, and second things not at all. - Peter Drucker I

f a task is important, do it now. If it is not truly important, forget about it forever, relax, and do something that really is important. 

 Further reading: Time, like life itself, has no inherent meaning. 

  CHOICE - the fourth Point of Simply An Inspired Life 

  Choice: Choose carefully and well

You cannot do a kindness too soon - Ralph Waldo Emerson

You cannot do a kindness too soon,
for you never know how soon it will be too late.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let Today be a day to let Kindness rule all your actions.

Further reading: Love from the Children of Langkloof South Africa

Mark Twain: Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

The Cab Ride

Oscar Wilde: The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.

Aesop: Gentleness and kind persuasion win where force and bluster fail

Warrior... Carlos Castaneda

If you were a warrior you would know that the worst thing one can do is confront human beings directly. - Carlos Castaneda

Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools. - Albert Einstein 

I find great wisdom in the Toltec writings of Carlos Castaneda, although I certainly find don Miguel Ruiz to be a much easier read. This is what I hear in the Castaneda quote... 1. Don't mind other people's business. 2. Don't get angry. 3. Keep your (negative) opinions to yourself.

Know Thyself

Know Thyself - inscribed on the ancient Greek temple at Delphi 

 He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened. - Lao Tzu 

 How strange that, although we dwell within ourselves, we seldom know what we truly want or what we truly believe about important matters. Take time to contemplate - away from the opinions and influence of others - what you really want and what you believe to be important in your life. 

 Further reading: VISION - the fifth Point of Simply An Inspired Life

Love makes the world go round

Love makes the world go 'round
- this is an old anonymous proverb, but made popular by the 1958 and 1961 songs

I love you not only for what you are,
but for what I am when I am with you.
I love you not only for what you have made of yourself,
but for what you are making of me.
I love you for that part of me you bring out.
- Roy Croft

Further reading: I love You Just the Way You Are

Steve Jobs Three Rules of Life

Steve Jobs' Three Rules of Life ... 

  1. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. 

  2. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. 

  3. Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition - they somehow already know what you truly want to become. 

 Steve Jobs' Three Rules of Life are from Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Speech 2005.