If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
THE DALAI LAMA
Religious leader

Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

All’s Well That Ends Well
I have never seen a monument erected to a pessimist.
PAU LHARVEY

Radio commentator
Change your thoughts and you change the world.
HAROLD R. MCALINDON
Writer

People will accept your ideas much more readily if you tell them Benjamin Franklin said it first.
DAVID H. COMINS

To me, old age is fifteen years older than I am.
BERNARD M. BARUCH(1870–1965)
Presidential advisor

CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR
Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
SUSAN ERTZ(1894–1985)
Writer

Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don’t.
PETE SEEGER
Singer and composer

Truce is better than friction.
CHARLES HERGUTH
On the lighter side . . .

Some think it’s holding on that makes one strong; sometimes it’s letting go.
SYLVIA ROBINSON

Anger is the only thing to put off till tomorrow.
SLOVAKIAN PROVERB

It’s very hard to take yourself too seriously when you look at the world from outer space.
THOMASK. MATTINGLYII
Apollo 16 astronaut

We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.
BERTHA CALLOWAY
Founder of the Great Plains Black Museum

Worry is a misuse of the imagination.
DAN ZADRA
Business executive

MAKING DECISIONS WILLIAM MCKINLEY, THE 25TH U.S. PRESIDENT, once
had to choose between two equally qualified men for a key job. He puzzled over the choice until he remembered a long-ago incident. On a rainy night, McKinley had boarded a
crowded streetcar. One of the men he was now considering had also been aboard, though he
didn’t see McKinley. Then an old woman carrying a basket of laundry struggled into the car,
looking in vain for a seat. The job candidate pretended not to see her and kept his seat.
McKinley gave up his seat to help her. Remembering the episode, which he called
“this little omission of kindness,” McKinley decided against the man on the streetcar. Our
decisions—even the small, fleeting ones—tell a lot about us.
Adapted from Presidential Anecdotes
PAULF. BOLLER, JR.
Penguin Books

Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.
ELMER G. LETERMAN
Business executive

There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do.
FREYA MADELINE STARK(1893–1993)
Travel writer

The truth is that there is nothing noble in being superior to somebody else. The only real nobility is in being superior to your former self.
WHITNEY YOUNG(1921–1971)
Civil rights leader

Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope—a slight change, and all patterns alter.
SHARON SALZBERG
Cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society

KNOW WHAT COUNTS
No matter what you’ve done for yourself or for humanity, if you can’t look back on having given
love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?
LEE IACOCCA
Automobile executive

Keeping score of old scores and scars, getting even and one-upping, always make you less
than you are.
MALCOLM FORBES(1919–1990)
Publisher

There are spaces between our fingers so that another person’s fingers can fill them in.
Be life long or short, its completeness depends on what it was lived for.
DAVID STARRJORDAN(1851–1931)
Educator and writer

The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.
HARRIET BEECHERSTOWE(1811–1896)
Writer

There’s nothing like a newborn baby to renew your spirit—and to buttress your
resolve to make the world a better place.
VIRGINIA KELLEY(1923–1994)
Nurse

While we have the gift of life, it seems to me the only tragedy is to allow part of us to die—
whether it is our spirit, our creativity, or our glorious uniqueness.
GILDA RADNER(1946–1989)
Comedian

You cannot live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.
JOHN WOODEN
College basketball coach

The average human heart beats 100,000 times a day. Make those beats count.
LIVE FOR THE MOMENT

If I have learnt anything, it is that life forms no logical patterns. It is haphazard and full of
beauties which I try to catch as they fly by, for who knows whether any of them will ever
return?
MARGO TFONTEYN(1919–1991)
Dancer

Follow the grain in your own wood.
HOWARD THURMAN(1900–1981)
Clergyman

Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all they have.
H. JACKSON BROWN, JR.
Writer

Imagine how much easier it would be for us to learn how to love if we began with a shared definition.
BELL HOOKS
Writer and critic

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON(1803–1882)
Philosopher and writer

For the most part, fear is nothing but an illusion. When you share it with someone else, it tends to disappear.
MARILYNC. BARRICK
Psychologist and writer

One never knows what each day is going to bring. The important thing is to be open and ready for it.
HENRY MOORE(1898–1986)
Sculptor

There is no greater joy nor greater reward than to make a fundamental difference in someone’s life.
SISTER MARY ROSE MCGEADY
Children’s advocate

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you
are, you need one.
JANE HOWARD(1935–1996)
Writer

Nobody will believe in you unless you believe in yourself.
LIBERACE(1919–1987)
Pianist

The opportunity for brotherhood presents itself every time you meet a human being.
JANE WYMAN
Actor

There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON(1856–1915)
Educator

A true friend knows your weaknesses but shows you your strengths; feels your fears but fortifies
your faith; sees your anxieties but frees your spirit; recognizes your disabilities but emphasizes your possibilities.
WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD
Educator

True friends are those who really know you but love you anyway.
EDNA BUCHANAN
Writer

Trouble is a sieve through which we sift our acquaintances. Those too big to pass through
are our friends.
ARLENE FRANCIS(1907–2001)
Actor

Treat your friends as you do your pictures, and place them in their best light.
JENNIEJEROMECHURCHILL(1854–1921)
Mother of Winston Churchill

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
EDITHWHARTON
“Vesalius in Zante”

Minds are like parachutes—they only function when open.
THOMAS DEWAR

Only the mediocre are always at their best.
JEAN GIRAUDOUX(1882–1944)
Diplomat and writer

Life is an escalator: You can move forward
or backward; you can not remain still.
PATRICIARUSSELL-MCCLOUD

Motivational speaker
Challenge is a dragon with a gift in its mouth.
. . . Tame the dragon and the gift is yours.
NOELAEVANS