Quotes – When Courage Falters

There are lists in which the bravest of warriors prove themselves singularly clumsy.

~Maurice Druon, The She Wolf

Quote – The Struggle For Success

What is success? A mysterious, indescribable power– a vigilance, a readiness, the awareness that simply by my presence I can exert pressure on the movements of life around me, the belief that life can be molded to my advantage. Happiness and success are inside us. We have to reach deep and hold tight. And the moment something begins to subside, to relax, to grow weary, then everything around us is turned loose, resists us, rebels, moved beyond our influence. And then it’s just one thing after another, one setback after another, and you’re finished.

~Thomas Buddenbrooks, in Buddenbrooks

Quotes – Beauty and Ability

Nature has frequently planted astonishing genius in men of monstrously ugly appearance.

~Giovanni Boccacio

Quotes – Life As Strategy

For life is a series of acts of choice, and each choice is at the same time a renunciation.

~Alexander Gray

Quotes – Cultivating Cooperation In A Toddler

If you’ve told a child a thousand times, and the child still has not learned, then it is not the child who is the slow learner.

~Walter B. Barbe

Quotes – Education Starts With The Self

The real preparation to education is the study of one’s self. The training of the teacher is something far more than learning ideas. It includes the training of character. It is a preparation of the spirit.

~Maria Montessori

Quotes – Attitude and Opportunity

Only in America could you find a way to earn a healthy buck; And still keep your attitude on self-destruct.

~MF DOOM

Quotes – A Well-Ordered World

The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the Kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.

Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated. Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy.

From the Son of Heaven down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything besides.

~Confucius

Quotes – Busyness vs. Productivity

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

~Socrates

Quotes – The Meaning of Routine

Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.

~W. H. Auden