Do not rail against life

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
- Reinhold Niebuhr

How is it that one rails against that
which is nearly a certainty?
- Mary Anne Radmacher

As selfishness and complaint
pervert and cloud the mind,
so love with its joy
clears and sharpens the vision.
- Helen Keller

Do not rail against life. [Do not complain about life.]
Make positive contributions where you can.
Practice gracious acceptance elsewhere.
And express daily gratitude for all of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Surrender

When You Have Been Wronged

Overcoming Disability

The Serenity Prayer

Serenity

Acceptance

Complaining

Gratitude

Understanding

Responsibility

The truth of the matter is that
you always know the right thing to do.
The hard part is doing it.
- Norman Schwarzkoff

The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take
total responsibility for our attitudes.
That's the day we truly grow up.
- John C. Maxwell

When you are impeccable, you take
responsibility for your actions,
but you do not judge or blame yourself.
- don Miguel Ruiz

If humanity does not opt for integrity we are through completely.
It is absolutely touch and go.
Each one of us could make the difference.
- R. Buckminster Fuller

Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.
- Arthur Schopenhauer

Take responsibility for your whole life -
regardless of circumstances.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading:  How to Choose Your Life Purpose

Living A Successful Life

Choice creates all our happiness or unhappiness.

Ecology

Compassion

Values

Plato

Morals

Taking Responsibility

Never Too Late

It's never too late -
never too late to start over,
never too late to be happy.
- Jane Fonda

It is never too late to become what you might have been.
- George Eliot

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

And in the end, it's not
the years in your life that count,
it's the life in your years.
- Abraham Lincoln

So long as you have courage and a sense of humor,
it is never too late to start life afresh.
- Freeman Dyson

The time for action is now.
It's never too late to do something.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

What is age but a number.
What you can dream, you can become, at any age.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Take Charge of Your Life

Never Too Old To Play

Doors will open

Aging With Grace

Personal Growth

Today

Now - Right Now - This Moment

New Beginnings

Age

Never Too Late

True Friends

It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.
- Marlene Dietrich

A friend is someone who understands my past,
believes in my future,
and accepts me just the way I am.
- Anonymous

The only way to have a friend is to be one.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

In true friendship, one can express
anything and everything without feeling ashamed
or afraid of being rejected.
- Aparna Chatterjee 

A true friend is the one who walks in when others walk out.
- Walter Winchell

A true friend is a source of strength and hope.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Happy Friends, Happy You

Staying Positive Around Negative People

Our loved ones

True Friendship

Relationship

Best Friends

Understanding

Caring

Support

Inaction

Inaction is perhaps the greatest mistake of all.
- Charles Schumer

Inaction breeds doubt and fear.
Action breeds confidence and courage.
If you want to conquer fear,
do not sit home and think about it.
Go out and get busy.
- Dale Carnegie

There are risks and costs to action.
But they are far less than the long range
risks of comfortable inaction.
- John F. Kennedy

Iron rusts from disuse;
water loses its purity from stagnation...
even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.
- Leonardo da Vinci

Further reading:  Success Tip: Drive Change

Boldly Sail the Storms of Life

Be Brave and Chase Your Dreams

Take Action

Mistake

Inaction

Fear

Self Confidence

Risks

Setting An Example

A good example is the best sermon.
- Benjamin Franklin

The full measure of a man is
not to be found in the man himself,
but in the colors and textures that
come alive in others because of him.
- Albert Schweitzer

Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish.
Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

You don't spread democracy through the barrel of a gun.
- Helen Thomas

If you want others to follow your example,
don't criticize or cajole others,
but rather live your own life
in a manner that convincingly demonstrates
both the virtue and the success
of your way of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Jimmy Yen - My Personal Greatest Hero

What Is Really Important?

Pay It Forward

Setting a Good Example

Role Model

Virtue

Parents

Differences

Development

Habitual Behavior

If we want to direct our lives,
we must take control of our consistent actions.
It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives,
but what we do consistently.
- Anthony Robbins

Unless you try to do something
beyond what you have already mastered,
you will never grow.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again,
but expecting different results.
- Rita Mae Brown, also attributed to Einstein

Are your habits moving you toward your life goals?
Or are they keeping you stuck in place?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Is Now a Time to be Reasonable?

How to Move On and Let Go

Getting Un-Stuck

New Beginnings

Seeing Beyond

Habit

Consistency

Goals

Progress

Learning To Live Together

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek,
but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Then came Peter to him, and said,
Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me,
and I forgive him? till seven times?
Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee,
Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
- Matthew 18:21-22

Further reading:  The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Joy Blooms Where Minds and Hearts are Open

Abundance or Scarcity? Love or Fear?

Living together in peace

World Peace

Forgiving

Bible Verses

Brotherhood

Unconditional Love

Where Are You Going?

One day Alice came to a fork in the road
and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree.
"Which road do I take?" she asked.
His responses was a question: "Where do you want to go?"
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."
- Lewis Carroll

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I ...
I took the one less traveled by,
and that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost

One of the secrets of life is that
all that is really worth the doing
is what we do for others.
- Lewis Carroll

How different our lives are when we
really know what is deeply important to us,
and keeping that picture in mind,
we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most.
- Stephen R. Covey

Choose your life purpose, and excel at living into that purpose.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Choose Your Life Purpose

How to Make a Decision You Won't Regret

How to Forgive and Move On

Choices

Life Purpose

The Meaning of Life

Being of Service

Motivation

Life Lessons

Mastering Time

Once you have mastered time,
you will understand how true it is that
most people overestimate what
they can accomplish in a year -
and underestimate what
they can achieve in a decade!
- Tony Robbins

Who forces time is pushed back by time;
who yields to time finds time on his side.
- The Talmud

There is only one time that is important - NOW!
It is the most important time because
it is the only time that we have any power.
- Leo Tolstoy

You will never find time for anything.
If you want time you must make it.
- Charles Buxton

Time, like life itself, has no inherent meaning.
We give our own meaning to time as to life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's affirmation: I choose never to be a prisoner of urgency.

Further reading: (Please use the buttons on each page to share the pages you like with your friends.)

Overwhelm

My Thoughts on the Meaning of Time

Life and Death: Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005 (video)

Mistakes

Mistakes are the portals of discovery.
- James Joyce

He who spends time regretting the past,
loses the present and risks the future.
- Quevedo

A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure
until he begins to blame somebody else.
- John Burroughs

If you wait to do everything until you're sure it's right,
you'll probably never do much of anything.
- Win Borden

The greatest mistake you can make in life
is to be continually fearing you will make one.
- Elbert Hubbard

Sometimes you get the results you wanted,
sometimes you don't.
What matters is that you did your best.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Breaking the Cycle of Self-Inflicted Suffering

Wanting to Win

What to Do When Your Whole World is Falling Apart

What is Failure

George Washington Carver on Failure

Robert F. Kennedy on Failure

Mistakes

Failure

Regret

We Have All Been Blessed

May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields.
And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.
- Irish Blessing

If I choose to bless another person,
I will always end up feeling more blessed.
- Marianne Williamson

Blessings flow toward gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: 12 Life Lessons I Learned From My Cat

Comparisons are Odious

Welcome Abundance

Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into.
- Wayne W. Dyer

Not what we have,
but what we enjoy,
constitutes our abundance.
- Epicurus

Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head,
and knows not that it brings abundance
to drive away the hunger.
- Saint Basil

Our journey into consciousness of wealth begins with the realization
that we have already arrived!
- Michael Bernard Beckwith

Abundance is all around us.
Yes, even in a bad economy, even if you have lost your job.
Recognize the abundance and be grateful.

Further reading: How good things really are

Gratitude for All of Life

Law of Attraction

Abundance

Gratitude

Feeling Blessed

Wealth

Life

Hard Times

Be Aware

Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.
- Napoleon Hill

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance;
the wise grows it under his feet.
- J. Robert Oppenheimer

Let us not look back in anger
or forward in fear,
but around in awareness.
- James Thurber

Be alert. The most important things in life are seldom the most obvious.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today is a unique and special day.
It is unlike any other day you have ever experienced.
If you assume that today is like every other day,
you will never notice today's uniqueness.
If you practice keen awareness, you will get
to savor today's uniquely wonderful qualities.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Habits - Like Water to a Fish

Assumptions are Dangerous

Expectations (Demands)

Awareness

Pay Attention

Be Alert

Opportunity

Today

Assumptions

Surrender

The wise man in the storm prays God,
not for safety from danger,
but for deliverance from fear.
It is the storm within which endangers him,
not the storm without.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Inhale, and God approaches you.
Hold the inhalation, and God remains with you.
Exhale, and you approach God.
Hold the exhalation, and surrender to God.
- Krishnamacharya

The creative process is a process of surrender,
not control.
- Julia Cameron

If you surrender completely to the moments as they pass,
you live more richly those moments.
- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

When I see Spirit in everything, Peace is at hand.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Surrender to a Higher Power is a central tenet of 12-step programs, and is the key to recovering from depression, worry, and fear as well.

Further reading: How to Cope With Life

Alcoholism in a Relationship - When to Stay, When to Leave

How to Forgive and Move On

Surrender

Danger

Storm

Inner Peace

Recovery

Oneness

No Limits

Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they're yours.
- Richard Bach

The only limits in our life are those we impose on ourselves.
- Bob Proctor

Don't Limit Your Challenges... Challenge Your Limits.
- Anonymous

If you don't have confidence, you'll always find a way not to win.
- Carl Lewis

Our lives are defined not by the challenges we encounter,
but by how we respond to those challenges.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Life is unlimited - it expands with the generosity,
compassion, inventiveness, and service that you contribute.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Overcoming Disability

Living A Successful Life

Be Brave and Chase Your Dreams

Challenges

Self Confidence

Limitations

Challenge

Unlimited

Limit

Antidotes for Worry

Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
- Winston Churchill

There is nothing that wastes the body like worry,
and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed
to worry about anything whatsoever.
- Mohandas Gandhi

Every tomorrow has two handles.
We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety
or the handle of faith.
- Henry Ward Beecher

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear,
but the triumph over it.
The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid,
but he who conquers that fear.
- Nelson Mandela

Good humor is a tonic for mind and body.
It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression.
- Grenville Kleiser

The antidotes for worry are gratitude, action, service, and faith.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Paradox Of Living In The Moment

The Eye-of-the-Storm

Lighten Up

Be Brave

Worry

Faith

Fear

Thankfulness

Service

Self-Care

Be gentle first with yourself.
- Lama Yeshe

Self-care is critical to having a strong inner foundation. Taking good care of YOU means the people in your life will receive the best of you rather than what is left of you.
- Lorraine Cohen

When you find peace within yourself,
you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.
- Peace Pilgrim

In my own deepening understanding of myself
I find my capacity to serve others is deepened as well.
The better I am at self-care
the more genuinely nurturing of others I am able to be.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

If you doubt the virtue in self-honor,
remember what the flight attendant says,
"Put your own oxygen mask on first."
You are of no use to anyone else
if you have not taken care of your own needs first -
this includes your own emotional,
as well as physical, well-being.
In addition, your greatest value to your children,
your family, your friends, and your community
is the example you set, leading a great life that inspires
those around you to emulate your being.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Love Yourself

Feel Better About Yourself

Honor Yourself

Loving Yourself 

Gentleness

Being Yourself

Self Esteem

Understanding

Nurturing

Celebrate Today

I celebrate myself, and sing myself.
- Walt Whitman

Celebrate what you want to see more of.
- Tom Peters

He is a wise man who does not grieve
for the things which he has not,
but rejoices for those which he has.
- Epictetus

There is not one blade of grass, there is no color
in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.
- John Calvin

Today's affirmation:
I Create Today As a Celebration of My Life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Celebrating Rainbows and Butterflies - the Small Miracles of Our Life

Celebrate Endings

Celebration

Rejoice

Appreciation

Praise

Thanksgiving

Dream and Take Action

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream;
not only plan, but also believe.
- Anatole France

The secret of making dreams come true can be summarized in four C's.
They are Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy;
and the greatest of these is Confidence.
- Walt Disney

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

To live a great life requires two steps...
1. Plan your life goals.
2. Act on your plan - every day.

Today's affirmation:
Standing in the inspiring vision of my future,
I boldly take every step - large and small -
with courage and intent.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How To Not Care What Others Think

Later is Never

How to Choose Your Life Purpose

Dream

Follow Your Dreams

Take Action

Perseverance

Goals

Life Purpose

Don't Sweat The Small Stuff

I bought a copy of Don't Sweat The Small Stuff... and it's all small stuff when it was first published 14 years ago - and I still pull it out every few months to remind myself. 

Here are a few of Richard Carlson's 100 ideas from Don't Sweat The Small Stuff...

2. Make Peace With Imperfection.
Accept yourself as you are - and accept what you have and what you don't have.

16. Ask Yourself the Question: "Will This Matter a Year from Now?"

21. Imagine Yourself at Your Own Funeral.
At the end of their lives, most people wish they had spent more time with the people and activities they truly loved, and less time worrying about aspects of life that, upon deeper examination, really don't matter all that much.

Further reading: Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

22. Repeat to Yourself: "Life Isn't an Emergency."

26. Set Aside Quiet Time - Every Day.
Further reading: Feel Your Connection With the Infinite - a Meditation

43. Become an Anthropologist.
Become interested, WITHOUT JUDGEMENT, in the way other people choose to live and behave.
Further reading: Observing Life

93. Give Up on the Idea that "More Is Better."
Further reading: Simple Life

97. Mind Your Own Business.
Minding your own business goes far beyond simply avoiding the temptation to try to solve other people's problems. It also requires resisting gossip, eavesdropping, talking behind other people's backs, and conjecturing on what others SHOULD do.

Further reading: Questions to Ask Yourself Before Offering Helpful Advice

See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil.
     

Effortless Living

Honor your being,
Release each and every struggle,
Gather strength from life's storms,
Relax into the arms of spirit.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The struggle ends when the gratitude begins.
- Neale Donald Walsch

It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are,
or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy.
It is what you think about.
- Dale Carnegie

Instead of dwelling on negative thoughts,
cause your mind to dwell on peace and joy.
- Ernest Holmes

In the midst of movement and chaos,
keep stillness inside of you.
- Deepak Chopra

Let Go, Let God.
- Anonymous

Further reading: Release

Stillness

Trust in the Light

Living Your Greatest Life

Faith

Let Go

Inner Peace

Positing Thinking

Natural World

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread,
places to play in and pray in,
where nature may heal and cheer
and give strength to the body and soul.
- John Muir

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
- Albert Einstein

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
- John Muir

To cherish what remains of the Earth
and to foster its renewal
is our only legitimate hope of survival.
- Wendell Berry

A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him,
that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men
and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.
- Albert Schweitzer

Let today be a day to spend time alone in nature. Take a walk as far from the hustle and bustle of society as you can. Walk near trees or water if it is possible.

Further reading: Treat the Earth Well

How to Cope with Loneliness

Daily Renewal

Nature

Walking

Ethics

Being Alone

Beauty

Soul

Going With The Flow

Miracles are the natural way of the Universe -
our only job is to move our doubting minds aside
and let the miracles flow.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Going with the flow doesn't mean that we don't know where we're going;
it means that we are open to multiple ways of getting there.
Going with the flow means that we are aware of an energy
that is larger than our small selves,
and we are open to working with it, not against it.
- Madisyn Taylor

Everything in the universe has a purpose.
Indeed, the invisible intelligence that flows through
everything in a purposeful fashion is also flowing through you.
- Wayne Dyer

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Blessings flow toward gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

Go With the Flow - Six Ways to Live a Happier Life

Rest and Relax

Universe

Miracles

Direction

Gratitude

Purpose

Doubts

Our Opportunity

In the midst of difficulty lies opportunity.
- Albert Einstein

Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.
- Napoleon Hill

Opportunities multiply as they are seized.
- Sun Tzu

There is no security on this Earth,
there is only opportunity.
- Douglas MacArthur

Our opportunity is to Soar our Spirit.
To see Light and Joy in everything.
To spread our wings and fly boldly.
To give thanks for rainbows and butterflies -
our symbols of renewal and rebirth.
To offer daily Thanksgiving - for ourselves, our family,
our friends, our community, for the whole world.

Our opportunity is to love ourselves exactly as we are -
with all our joys and sufferings.
To be grateful for everything.
To forgive ourselves for our doubts of our own worthiness -
for we have no need to be anything other than what we are.

Our opportunity is to visualize a kinder world.
To sing glad songs of tomorrow -
imagining a world of love -
of the whole world filled with love.
To offer our hand... often.
To breathe deeply and honor ourselves.
To pause and contemplate... just because.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's affirmation: I am ready and willing to seize the opportunities life offers.

Further reading:  Appreciate the Unexpected

Comparisons are Odious

The Jump is So Frightening - Mary Anne Radmacher

Opportunity Quotes

Being Open Minded

Difficulty

Starting Over

My affirmations

My sayings

Why Quotations?

Quotations help us remember the simple yet profound truths
that give life perspective and meaning.
- Criswell Freeman

The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages
are perpetuated by quotations.
- Benjamin Disraeli

Words are a lens to focus one's mind.
- Ayn Rand

Quotations are dead unless a spur for inquiry.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Know thyself.
- Socrates (inscribed on the ancient Greek temple at Delphi)

Further reading: Nature of Quotations

Inspirational Quotes - Spur for Inquiry

Most Inspiring Quotations

Truths

Meaning

Inquiry

Questions

Ancient Wisdom

Words of Wisdom

Hate

Man's enemies are not demons, but human beings like himself.
- Lao Tzu

There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us.
When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

You have heard that it was said,
'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'
But I tell you: Love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you.
- Matthew 5:43-44

Misunderstanding arising from ignorance breeds fear,
and fear remains the greatest enemy of peace.
- Lester B. Pearson

Life is a reflection of intent.
Love reflects love.
Hate reflects hate.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Further reading: Judging Others

Hatred Paralyzes Life

The Unworkability of Vengeance

What a cruel thing is war

Quotes about Hate

Revenge

Hatred

Enemy

Differences

Peace

Accepting Change

Change is the law of life.
And those who look only to the past or present
are certain to miss the future.
- John F. Kennedy

Change always comes bearing gifts.
- Price Pritchett

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.
- Anonymous

He who rejects change is the architect of decay.
- Harold Wilson

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

The nature of life is constant change, yet we fight against it. Why do we fight change? Humans are creatures of habit and instinctively fear the unknown.

Affirmation: I welcome change as a great adventure.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to get over regrets and resentments

Adapt to Change

Success Tip: Drive Change

Change Quotes

Acceptance

Fear of the Unknown

Adventure

Live Life to the Fullest

People Change

You Are Loved

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.
- Saint Augustine

Know that you are loved.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You may call God love, you may call God goodness.
But the best name for God is compassion.
- Meister Eckhart

We are most like God when we forgive.
- Anonymous

You can safely assume that you've
created God in your own image
when it turns out that God hates
all the same people you do.
- Anne Lamott

Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want.
It is the belief that God will do what is right.
- Max Lucado

Today... Give thanks for the miracles -
Give thanks for the love.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading:  Unanswered Prayers

How God Works - old story retold

Miracles Need Both God and You

Unconditional Love

Oneness

Gift

Giving Thanks

Forgiveness

Words of Comfort on the Death of a Loved One
 

Disagreement

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

You never really learn much from hearing yourself speak.
- George Clooney

If there is any one secret of success,
it lies in the ability to get
the other person's point of view
and see things from that person's angle
as well as from your own.
- Henry Ford

We see life through the fun-house mirrors of our own point-of-view.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Stop Anger Before it Stops You

Six Ways to End Bickering About Money

Moderating the Anger Response

Argument

Point of View

Anger

Perspective

Values

Cooperation