Here are words which I have gathered over the years. Take them with
 you to  enjoy, learn, and prosper. and be the best person you an be.
                                                                                                                                       Robert T. Koveleskie

 

"My life is my message." ~Mahatma Ghandi~ 

To really be successful in life, "Don't cut corners or do just enough to get by. You want to look back and say, 'I was the best I could be. I worked hard and followed my dreams. I made a difference in people's lives." If you can do that, then you will have peace of mind no matter what you achieve in life." Dan Marino, NFL quarterback. Addressing University of Pittsburgh graduates 2008.~

"I was a much happier person when I was younger and more naive." R~

“In solemn truth I tell you, anyone believing in me shall do the same miracles I have done, and even greater ones, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask Him for anything, using my name, and I will do it, for this will bring praise to the Father because of what I the Son, will do for you. Yes, ask anything, using my name, and I will do it!” John 14.12.13~

"Life is short and precious. Don't waste a moment of it. Use your time and energy to do even better things than you have done. Live to help others to the fullest and be the best person you can be." R~

"A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something." Wilson Mizner~

"Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain -- and most fools do." Dale Carnegie~

"An expert is someone who is one page ahead of you in the manual." David Knight~

"Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always like it the least." Chesterfield~

"The rather common prejudice is that we are personally the masters of our own souls and the captains of our fates. The truth of the matter is that we are very largely shaped by others, who in an almost frightening way, hold our destiny in their hands. We are, each of us, the product of those who have loved us or refused to love us." Unknown~

"Preach often--and sometimes use words." Saint Francis of Assisi~

"Reputation is what others have been led to believe we are and character is what we know we are."
unknown~

"We need to judge people more by what they don't do. What they do is often self-serving." R~

"A person who has asked you for your 'honest opinion' usually wants to hear anything but your honest opinion."  Farlander~

"...my rights are not negotiable; my freedom is worth whatever it costs." Lynn Johnston~ Author of Who's Afraid of the IRS.

"Cases are not always won on their merits, and Truth does not always transpire through the candle power of her virtues." Reid Buckley

"If you can't be kind, be vague." unknown~

*When everything's coming at you to fast to handle, changing lanes is always an option." unknown~

"The second mouse gets the cheese." Darcy~

"If your experiences have been that you don't succeed on the first try, don't skydive." Unknown

"Perhaps the only purpose of your life is for you to be an example for others to be like you. Live it well."  Unknown~

"When you get in the end zone act like you've been there before." unknown~

"Be wise in choosing who you are because you will have yourself as a partner for life."  R~

"Not forgiving is like taking poison and expecting the other person to die." unknown~

“There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of even one small candle of truth.” unknown~

"I am always fascinated with the power of engaged people with good ideas and big hearts" Dr. Steve Ender~ President, Westmoreland County Community College

"Unchecked police power has no exception for victim of any stature or walk of life. Unknown~

"No good deed goes unpunished'."  Clare Bothe Luce~

"If you are what you should be, you will set the world on fire."  St. Catherine of Siena~

"He who lives by the sword will die by the sword." Jesus~

"I'd rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I'm not." Kurt Cobain~

"What we do is more important than what is done to us."  Nikki Giouanni~

"When your heart speaks, take good notes." Judith Campbell~

"A thousand reasons not to do something will not change a need." Unknown~ 

"Be wise in choosing who you are because you will have yourself as a partner for life."  R

"The hand that is open to give is the hand that is open to receive." Author unknown~

"You can pay for knowledge once, or you can pay for ignorance over a lifetime." Unknown~

"If you want to make enemies, try to change something." Woodrow Wilson~

"Deal with the faults of others as gently as with your own." Chinese proverb~

"The important thing is never to stop questioning." Albert Einstein~

"The only bigger fool than someone who lies about you, is you, if you waste time worrying about it." R~

"Environmental factors in childhood also plays an important role in determining whether or not a person grows up to be a chronic liar. Those who come from chaotic and dysfunctional families have a greater tendency to lie than those who grew up in a caring household.  Busak~

"Give a man a fish he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime."  Unknown

"Get up. Look up. And never give up." Michael Irvin~ Dallas Cowboy hall-of-famer

"As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do." Andrew Carnegie ~

"Unchecked police power has no exception for victim of any stature or walk of life."  Author unknown~

"If you want to predict the future, design it." Author unknown~

"Being good is commendable, but only when it is combined with doing good if it's useful."  ~Author Unknown

"Unless someone like you cares an awful lot, nothing is going to get better.  It's not."  ~Dr. Seuss

"You have to have a sense of who you are and what you believe, and that provides the context for your day-to-day actions." Dr. Nancy L. Zimpher, president, University of Cincinnati ~

"I am only one, but I am one.  I cannot do everything, but I can do something.  And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do."  ~Edward Everett Hale

"He who gives when he is asked has waited too long."  ~Sunshine Magazine

"Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire."  Reggie Leach~

"Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win." Jonathan Kozol~

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
Teddy Roosevelt ~

"Build a man a fire, and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life." Unknown

"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein." H. Jackson Brown~

"This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read." Winston Churchill~ 

"No person can be a great leader unless he takes genuine joy in the successes of those under him." W. A. Nance~

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana~

"It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them." Mark Twain~  

"The only fool bigger than the person who thinks he knows it all is the person who argues with him."
Stanislaw Jerszy Lec ~

"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." Voltaire ~

"It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong." Voltaire~

"How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world." ~William Shakespeare

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal."  ~Albert Pike

"Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." Mark Twain~ 

"I expect to pass through life but once.  If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again."  ~William Penn

"A man never stands as tall as when he kneels to help a child." Unknown~

"And what is as important as knowledge?" asked the mind.  "Caring and seeing with the heart." answered the soul.

"Pass no judgment, and you will not be judged. For as you judge others, so you will yourselves be judged, and whatever measure you deal out to others will be dealt back to you. Always treat others as you would like them to treat you. That is the Law and the prophets." Jesus ~

"Tell me and I forget; show me and I remember; involve me and I understand."  Unknown ~   

"The greatest gift a man can give to his children is to love their mother."  Unknown~

"If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference." The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln: Six Months at the White House by Francis B. Carpenter (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1995), pp. 258-259.~

"Better to be strong and scorned than to be weak and lauded."  Charlie Tarasovic~

"You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving." St. Francis De Sales~

"Children need love, especially when they don't deserve it." Harold Hulbert~ 

"Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart." Marcus Aurelius~

"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 the part of me that you bring out." Elizabeth Barrett Browning ~

"I'm not trying to counsel any of you to do anything really special except to dare to think and to dare to go with the truth and to dare to really love completely." R. Buckminster Fuller~

"Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier."  ~Mother Teresa

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."  Theodore Roosevelt~

"Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow delightful conditions, all heavenly environment; of these if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built." James Allen~ 

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, however measured and far away." Henry David Thoreau~

"To share often and much; to leave the world a little better; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. That is to have succeeded". Ralph Waldo Emerson~

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." 
 Winston Churchill~

"Only a life lived for others is worth living." 
Albert Einstein~

To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them? Shakespeare (Hamlet 3/1)~

Sinners prayer: "Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and deserve the consequences of my sins. I believe that your death upon the cross provided for my forgiveness. I trust in you as my personal Lord and Savior and I want to turn my life over to you. Please help me. Thank you Jesus." Author Unknown~

'"Freedom is the consequence of challenging our government whenever we feel it is wrong." R~

"It is extremely difficult to make predictions, especially when they involve the future."  Niels Bohr (1885-1962)~

"Do it now or do more later."   Author unknown~

"What a wise man does in the beginning a fool does in the end." Author unknown~

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. "H.L. Mencken~

"Hope is a sedation of the poor." R~

"Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under."  H.L. Mencken~

"The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."  Thomas Paine~

"One only sees clearly through the heart."  French novelist Antoine de Saint-Exupery~

"In my walks, every man I meet is my superior in some way, and in that I learn from him."  Ralph Waldo Emerson~  

"Don't argue with an idiot, he will just lower you to his level and beat you with experience."  Author unknown~

"When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world.  I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation.  When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town.  I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.  Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family.  My family and I could have made an impact on our town.  Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world."  ~Author Unknown

"Let me but do my work from day to day, in field or forest, at the desk or loom, in roaring marketplace or tranquil room. Let me but find it in my heart to say, when vagrant wishes beckon me astray, this is my work; my blessing, not my doom. Of all who live, I am the one by whom this work can best be done in the right way. Then shall I see it not too great nor small to suit my spirit and to prove my powers. Then shall I cheerfully greet the laboring hours and cheerfully turn when the long shadows fall at eventide to play and love and rest, because I know for me my work is best."   Henry Van Dyke~

"There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the  beginning."  Louis L'Amour~ 

"The best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love."  William Wordsworth~

"If you think things are under control, you’re not going fast enough. Mario Andretti ~

“Peace is the first casualty of untruthfulness.”  Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury~

 "The first casualty of war is truth”  Hiram Warren Johnson~

"The secret of never having to tell a lie is to do nothing that you would be ashamed of if it were publicly disclosed." R~

"We look them in the eye and tell them what we know."  Katherine Graham, publisher of Washington Post~

"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it." Lincoln's Cooper Institute Address, February 27, 1860.~

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worth cause; who at the best knows in the end of the triumph of high achievements; and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither defeat nor victory." Theodore Roosevelt, April 10, 1899~

"Once you have learned the art of using other people’s money, you will have  opened the door to wealth limited only to your imagination and your passion to succeed"  R~

"There are two lasting bequeaths we can give our children.  One is roots. The other is wings."  Hodding Carter, Jr.~

"If you are to be successful you need to move beyond any doubt in your ability, have no fear of failing and being ridiculed by your family, friends, and colleagues, be stone resolute in that which you believe, and stand strong in the winds of adversities surely to come."  R~

"Preach often and sometimes use words." Saint Francis~

"If you are to be successful you must rise above the opinions of others.  But to be really successful you must rise above what most view as unobtainable."  R~

"Nothing happens in business until someone sells something."  Author unknown~

"Work like you don't need money, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like no one's watching."  Crystal Boyd

"In the land of the blind, a one-eyed man is King." Author unknown~

"Justice is too often blinded by the truth."  Unknown author~

"We need to approach ideas with ignorance and a curiosity to allow us to discover the new ."  R~

"Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room."  Sir Winston Churchill

"One man with courage makes a majority"  Andrew Jackson~

"Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds."  Colin Powell ~

"May I continue to live my faith to the fullest, proud of who I am and what I believe, always striving to be the best possible person I can be." Fr. George Alderson, Greensburg Central Catholic High School~

"Don't get in a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel." Mark Twain~

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." Derek Bok, the former President of Harvard University

"Few  in business have ever saved their way to success. You have to spend money on marketing a good idea to make money." Unknown author~

"All politicians should do two terms, the first in office and the second in jail" Sen. Alan Simpson ~

"Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do, and what is the right thing to do."
US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart~

"The energy of an idea is reduced by application or conversation." R~

"Great minds talk about ideas, average minds talk about events, small minds talk about people."
Eleanor Roosevelt~

"Those who never go far in life ask,  'Why must we do that?' The successful ask, 'How can we do that better,' and then work toward a solution."  R~

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." Confucius~

"Perseverance is no guarantee you'll succeed, but without it, it's almost guaranteed that you won't." Bill Gates~

"The formula for success in business is to recognize opportunity, follow a realistic business plan, engage experienced and honest professionals, nurture a passion to succeed, focus, focus, focus, and never give up."  R~

"My rights are not negotiable, my freedom to speak out for truth is worth whatever it costs."  Author unknown~

"Great things begin to happen when we challenge so called "truths." Author unknown ~

"If we do not speak up to change a wrong, how can we expect others to respect us when we are right.?"  Author unknown~

"You are setting standards of courage by which others are judged." Author unknown~

"You seem to be stepping over the line just enough to preserve deniability." Author unknown~

"Never under estimate the value of a fact, because someday it could flower into a truth." Thoreau ~

"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense." Winston Churchill~

"We get in life what we are willing or unwilling to do something or nothing about to get more or less."  R~

"Great people don't take offense, noble people do not give it."  Author unknown~

A Vision without a task is but a dream.  A task without a vision is drudgery.  A vision with a task is the hope of the world."  Bill Gates~

"If we don't change the direction we're going, we're going to end up where we're headed."  Chinese Proverb~

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power". Abraham Lincoln~ 

"If you keep on doing what you've been doing, you're going to keep on getting what you've been getting." Author Unknown~

"Your critics win only if they change you." Dyer

"To be happy and successful you must be independent of the opinions of others." Dyer~

"The greatest gift we can give to parents is to bring their children home safely."  R~

"The plausible impossibility is better than a convincing possibility."  Author unknown~

"To escape criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing." Elbert Hubbard~

"To be successful in business, do one thing, do it well, do it better than anyone else, and do it for less."  Author unknown~

"A professional liar is one who tells just enough to preserve one's deniability."  Author unknown~

"There seems to be some words missing between your statement and your intent." Governor Cuomo~

"The only profit of worth that we have is what we have left behind for the betterment of mankind."  R~

"When you aren't certain that you know what you're talking about, give minimum information and maximum politeness."  Author unknown~

"Some men set standards by which others are judged---I prefer to set standards by which we all are judged."  Author unknown~

"Are you here to get answers or are you here to set a record on how many questions you can ask?"
Governor Cuomo~

"Any jackass can kick down a barn, I'm here to build one." President Lyndon Johnson~

"Some people are threatened by change while the more successful see it as an opportunity."  Author unknown~

"Extremism in the defense of liberty is not vice, and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." Goldwater~

"It must have been a day like this that moved the poet to write: 'God's in his heaven and all's right in this world'."  Robert Browning~

"We all need to have public accountability for our private behavior."  Author unknown~

"Wise men learn from experience but wiser men learn before experience." R~

"The ideals which I care to use as beacons that shall show the way for me to serve my mankind towards higher objectives of humanness, are goodness, beauty and truth. Goodness in being kind and gentle to all. Beauty, in perpetual improvement in all that I touch. Truth, in all that I do." Albert Einstein~

"If you think you can--you're right! If you think you can't--you're right!"  Author unknown~

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."  Ken Olson,  founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977~

"Why create mediocrity, when you can copy genius."  Author unknown~

"Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer." Sun-tzu, Chinese general & military strategist 400 BC~

"Happy is the man who early learns the wide chasm that lies between his wishes and his powers." Goeth~

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." Mark Twain~

"If you want to succeed, you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the paths of worn businesses." John D. Rockefeller~

"The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty." ... Proverbs 21:5

"Whoever relies on the Tao in governing men doesn't try to force issues or defeat enemies by force or arms. For every force there is a counterforce. Violence, even well-intentioned, always rebounds upon oneself. The Master does his job and then stops. He understands that the universe  is forever out of control, and that trying to dominate events goes against the current of the Tao. Because he believes in himself, he doesn't try to convince others. Because he accepts himself, the whole world accepts him."  The Tao Te Ching as Translated by Stephen Mitchell~

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reasoning for existing...Never lose a holy curiosity."  Albert Einstein~

"To be a useful component of society, we need to be active in promoting good causes, skillfully oppose that which  contravenes goodness, and enlighten when we feel we are not understood." R~

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ~

"Work like you don't need the money - Love like you've never been hurt - Dance like nobody's watching"  Author Unknown

"When things go wrong as they sometimes will, when the road you’re trudging seems all up hill, when the funds are low, and the debts are high and you want to smile but you have to sigh, when care is pressing you down a bit, rest if you must - but don’t you quit. Life is queer with its twists and turns, as everyone of us sometimes learns, and many a failure turns about when he might have stuck it out and won the fight, don’t give up though the pace seems slow - you may succeed with another blow. Success is failure turned inside out - the silver tint on the clouds of doubt. You can never tell how close you are, it may be near when it seems so far; so stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit - it’s when things seem worst that you must not quit."  Author unknown

"The test of progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have little."   Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1937 

"Get out there and fail a few times, then come back and we'll talk about getting you financed.  R

"How can I ever thank you?" gushed a woman to  Clarence Darrow, after he had solved her legal  troubles.  "My dear woman," Darrow replied, "ever since the  Phoenicians invented money, there has only been  one answer to that question."

"The only true profit we have in this world is the kindness we have shown to others and what we have left behind for the gentrification of mankind."  R~

Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember. Countee Cullen~

" I promise, if you want to live a good and happy life, each day begin by internalizing the Prayer of Saint Francis and end the prayer asking God to bring you a troubled person who needs your help."  R~

PRAYER OF  ST. FRANCIS

Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there is hatred let me bring your love.
Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord,
And where there's doubt, true faith in you.

Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there's despair in life, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, only light.
And where there's sadness, ever joy.

Oh, Master, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand.
To be loved as to love with all my soul.

Make me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
In giving of ourselves that we receive,
And in dying that we're born to eternal life.

 IMPORTANT ADVICE FROM A WISE AND WEALTHY MAN
At a meeting of international entrepreneurs, the key speaker, considered to be one of the wealthiest and wisest businessmen in the world was asked what he would do differently if he had his life to live over.  The room of entrepreneurs went dead silent as they awaited his answer.  Without hesitation, he replied, "I would have sent my wife flowers. You see, I was always too busy chasing after wealth and didn't realize that I had more than all the wealth in the world at home. I am ashamed to tell you with all the millions I have made, that I have never once sent my wife a bouquet of flowers. Now, I would give all my wealth, and more, to relive that opportunity. If you were to take with you any advice which I have given you today, this advice would be the greatest: when you leave this meeting, rush to the nearest telephone and send your wife a bouquet of flowers with a note telling that you love her" 

TWO WOLVES
An old Cherokee is telling his grandson about a fight that is going on inside us. He said it is between 2 wolves. One is evil: Anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The other is good: Joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?" The old  Cherokee simply replied, "The one we feed."

The Final Analysis
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self centered. 
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish and ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you may win some false friends and some enemies.
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you.
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone may destroy overnight.
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness they may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.

The good that you do today, people may forget tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best that you have and it may never be enough.
Give the world the best anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it was always between you and God.
It was never between you and them, anyway.

There is Still Hope
If you can look at the sunset and smile, then you still have hope.
If you can find beauty in the colors of a small flower, then you still have hope.
If you can find pleasure in the movement of a butterfly, then you still have hope.
If the smile of a child can still warm your heart, then you still have hope.
If you can see the good in other people, then you still have hope.
If the rain breaking on a roof top can still lull you to sleep, then you still have hope.
If the sight of a rainbow still makes you stop and stare in wonder, then you still have hope
If the soft fur of a favored pet still feels pleasant under your fingertips, then you still have hope.
If you meet new people with a trace of excitement and optimism, then you still have hope.
If you give people the benefit of a doubt, then you still have hope.
If you still offer your hand in friendship to others that have touched your life, then you still have hope.
If receiving an unexpected card or letter still brings a pleasant surprise, then you still have hope.
If the suffering of others still fills you with pain and frustration, then you still have hope.
If you refuse to let a friendship die, or accept that it must end, then you still have hope.
If you look forward to a time or place of quiet and reflection, then you still have hope.
If you still buy the ornaments, put up the Christmas tree or cook the turkey, then you still have hope.
If you still watch love stories or want the endings to be happy, then you still have hope.
If you can look to the past and smile, then you still have hope.
If, when faced with the bad, when told everything is futile,
you can still look up and end the conversation with the phrase...
"yeah....BUT.." then you still have hope.
Hope is such a marvelous thing. It bends, it twists,
it sometimes hides, but rarely does it break. It sustains us when nothing else can.
It gives us reason to continue and courage to move ahead, when we tell ourselves we'd rather give in.
Hope puts a smile on our face when the heart cannot manage.
Hope puts our feet on the path when our eyes cannot see it.
Hope moves us to act when our souls are confused of the direction.
Hope is a wonderful thing, something to be cherished and
nurtured, and something that will refresh us in return. And it can
be found in each of us, and it can bring light into the darkest of places.
Never lose hope. Unknown~
 

Desiderata
Go placidly amid the noise and haste. Remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons. They are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble. It is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is. Many persons strive for high ideals and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy.  Max Ehrmann~
 

A Lesson in Life
There was an Indian Chief who had four sons. He wanted  his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest,  in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance  away. The first son went in the winter, the second in the  spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the  fall. When they had all gone and come back, he called them  together to describe what they had seen. The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and  twisted. The second son said no it was covered with green buds  and full of promise.
The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with  blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most  graceful thing he had ever seen. The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it  was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and  fulfillment. The man then explained to his sons that they were all  right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree's  life. He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a  person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure,  joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end,  when all the seasons are up. If you give up when it's winter, you will miss the  promise of your spring, the beauty of your summer, fulfillment of your  fall. The moral to this story is, don't let the pain of one season destroy the joy of  all the rest. Don't judge life by one difficult  season. Live Simply. Love  Generously. Care  Deeply. Speak  Kindly. Leave the Rest to  God. Happiness keeps You Sweet. Trials keep You Strong. Sorrows keep You Human. Failures keep You Humble. Success keeps You Glowing. But only God keeps you going. Unknown~

SO YOU WANT TO BE RICH AND FAMOUS
In 1923, a very important meeting was held at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. Attending this meeting were nine of the world's most successful financiers.  *The president of the largest independent steel company *The president of the largest utility company *The president of the largest gas company *The greatest wheat speculator *The president of the New York Stock Exchange *A member of the President's Cabinet *The greatest "bear" on Wall Street *The head of the world's greatest monopoly *The president of the Bank of International Settlements Certainly, we must admit that here were gathered a group of the world's most successful people. At very least, they were who had found the secret of making money and were masters of the art of business. Now, let's take a look at the final page of their lives: *The former president of the largest independent steel company, Charles Schwab, died bankrupt and lived on borrowed money for five years before his death. *The former president of the largest utility company, Samuel Insull, died a fugitive from justice and penniless in a foreign land. *The president of the largest gas company ,Howard Hopson, went insane. *The greatest wheat speculator, Arthur Cutten , died abroad, insolvent. *The president of the New York Stock Exchange, Richard Whitney, was released from Sing Sing Penitentiary after serving a stiff sentence. *The former member of the President's Cabinet, Albert Fall, was pardoned from prison so he could die at home. *The greatest "bear" on Wall Street, Jesse Livermore, died a suicide. *The head of the world's greatest monopoly, Ivar Krueger, died a suicide. *The former president of the Bank of International Settlements, Leon Fraser, died a suicide.  I will now leave you to your own thoughts. Aside from this, J.P. Getty, one of the wealthiest men in the world said, after being married eight times, he would give up all his wealth for the love of his first wife.

A ROSE WITHIN
A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully, and before it
blossomed, he examined it. He saw the bud that would soon blossom
and also the thorns. And he thought, "How can any beautiful flower
come from a plant burdened with so many sharp thorns?" Saddened by
this thought, he neglected to water the rose, and before it was ready to
bloom, it died.

So it is with many people. Within every soul there is a rose. The
God-like qualities planted in us at birth grow amid the thorns of our
faults. Many of us look at ourselves and see only the thorns, the
defects. We despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come from
us. We neglect to water the good within us, and eventually it dies. We
never realize our potential.

Some people do not see the rose within themselves; someone else must
show it to them. One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is to be
able to reach past the thorns and find the rose within others. This is
the characteristic of love, to look at a person, and knowing his faults,
recognize the nobility in his soul, and help him realize that he can
overcome his faults. If we show him the rose, he will conquer the
thorns. Then will he blossom, blooming forth thirty, sixty, a
hundred-fold as it is given to him. -Our duty in this world is to help others by
showing them their roses and not their thorns. Only then can we achieve
the love we should feel for each other; only then can we bloom in our own
garden. Author Unknown~

The New Colossus
Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

There are several versions of the well-known statement attributed to the German anti-Nazi activist, Pastor Martin Niemöller (his family name can also be writted without the umlaut as "Niemoeller"). The following is said, by someone who heard him speak at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decautur GA in 1959 (or 1960), to be what he actually said. However, a reader said this: "The Nazi party did not come for the Jews until last. Correctly the order is Communist, Socialist,Trade Unionist,then Jews, then Pastor Niemoller."

In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me —
and by that time no one was left to speak up.