THINK about new ideas, rather than either blindly rejecting or accepting them

What is my purpose in sending these Daily Quotes and Inspirations, as I have been doing since 2008?
Some of these messages are intended to provide a small measure of comfort, but most of these messages are intended to challenge my readers to deeper thinking.

Short quotations/aphorisms are by their nature incomplete, and almost always present only one side of an issue. Long-time readers will also notice that I often present quotations that contradict each other - for example, some exhort the reader to work harder/smarter while others encourage placing a relatively low priority on work.

My hope is that these daily messages will get you thinking about new ideas. Let's take these aphorisms as a spur for inquiry. Let those ideas with which you disagree start you thinking, talking and questioning, but also let the comfortable, familiar, and inspiring quotes become a source of questioning. Remember that our comfortable inspiring quotes are also never 100% true in all situations. Open Minds - Open Hearts. Thank you for reading these daily messages.
Read more about this at Inspirational/Motivational Quotes - Spur for Inquiry

Beware of false knowledge;
it is more dangerous than ignorance.
- George Bernard Shaw

Look for what is,
and not for what you think should be.
- Albert Einstein [paraphrase]

What is a scientist after all?
It is a curious man looking through a keyhole,
the keyhole of nature, trying to know what's going on.
- Jacques Yves Cousteau

Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.
- Harry S. Truman

All truths are easy to understand
once they are discovered;
the point is to discover them.
- Galileo Galilei

Do not limit yourself to either analysis or emotion.
Look deeply into the DNA of its seeds,
AND appreciate the intoxicating grandeur of the forest.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Be a Seeker

Lifelong Learning

Inquiry

Conscious Learning

Discovery
    

Ask Deeper Questions

Let no one think that flexibility
and a predisposition to compromise
is a sign of weakness or a sell-out.
- Paul Kagame

The boldness of asking deep questions may require
unforeseen flexibility if we are to accept the answers.
- Brian Greene

Those who can see value only in tradition,...
deny man's ability to adapt to changing circumstances.
- Stephen Bayley

In science the important thing is to modify and change
one's ideas as science advances.
- Herbert Spencer

Be resolute in your goals, but flexible in your tactics.
There are times that call for repetition and perseverance;
and there are times that require new ways of thinking and doing.
The challenge is knowing one from the other.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: I choose to adapt to the circumstances in which I find myself

New Ideas

Practice makes perfect - sometimes

Be Flexible
       

Life is Complex. Don't Expect Easy Answers

Willingly accept the complexity and the contradictions of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You didn't get stamped out of a mold. You aren't a "black person" or a "white person," a "fat person" or a "skinny person," a "bad person" or a "good person." You are a highly complex human being with emotions, beliefs, capabilities. Each day you face challenges to your health, relationships, finances, and world-view -- and every day you respond to those challenges in ways which are unique to you.

Honor and love all of your unique self. Never diminish yourself with self-applied labels or categorizations.

Actions are always more complex and nuanced than they seem.
We have to be willing to wrestle with paradox in pursuing understanding.
- Harold Evans

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize
how little we understand about life,
ourselves, and the world around us.
- Socrates

For every complex problem,
there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
- H. L. Mencken

I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma,
a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own
mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
- Umberto Eco

Further reading: All Life is Paradox

Lessons from Life

Stand Rapt in Awe
      

Review Your Daily Habits. Are They Supporting You?

Is today the day to stop doing what doesn't inspire you, but has become a habit?

Is today the day to begin new projects and a new way of life that truly inspires you?

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

Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make,
both consciously and unconsciously.
If you can control the process of choosing,
you can take control of all aspects of your life.
You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself.
- Robert Foster Bennett

The freedom we are looking for is the freedom to be ourselves,
to express ourselves. But if we look at our lives we will see that
most of the time we do things just to please others ...
The worst part is that most of us are not even aware that we are not free.
-Don Miguel Ruiz

Bad habits are like a comfortable bed,
easy to get into, but hard to get out of.
- Anonymous

Correcting bad habits cannot be done by forbidding or punishment.
- Robert Baden-Powell (the founder of scouting)

Further reading: Are You a Prisoner?

5 Secrets For Breaking Your Bad Habits

Our Habits

Running in Circles

Self Discipline

Habits - Like Water to a Fish
     

Renew Your Connection With Nature

The primal rhythmic power
and resonant sound of waves on the shore
are like the earth's heartbeat,
and become our connection with the body of nature.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Everything has rhythm. everything dances.
- Maya Angelou

To discover joy is to return
to a state of oneness with the universe.
- Peggy Jenkins

Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers,
the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters,
and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.
- John Lubbock

Further reading: The Beat of the Universe

Set Your Rhythm

Today is Your Day

Unity with Spirit and All Creation
    

Choosing Compassion Toward ALL is Heroic

To go against the dominant thinking of your friends,
of most of the people you see every day,
is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.
- Theodore H. White

The opposite of courage in our society
is not cowardice, it is conformity.
- Rollo May

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

Today's affirmation
I CHOOSE with Open Mind and Open Heart.
I renounce all assumptions and expectations.
I thoughtfully consider all possibilities.
I CHOOSE with courage, awareness, consciousness, and compassion toward all.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Trouble with Conformity

Make Decisions

Embrace Change

Do What You Know Is Right

Try Being Outrageous
       

Punishment Seldom Achieves the Intended Result

It is an open question whether any behavior
based on fear of eternal punishment
can be regarded as ethical
or should be regarded as merely cowardly.
- Margaret Mead

To be admirable, morality must be its own reward.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Power is of two kinds.
One is obtained by the fear of punishment
and the other by acts of love
Power based on love
is a thousand times more effective and permanent
then the one derived from fear of punishment.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Punishment cannot heal spirits, can only break them.
- Barbara Deming

If people are good only because they fear punishment,
and hope for reward,
then we are a sorry lot indeed.
- Albert Einstein

Correcting bad habits cannot be done
by forbidding or punishment.
- Robert Baden-Powell (the founder of scouting)

Today's project:
Meaningful and joyful lives are lived by adhering to one's personal value system - one's principles. Today, write your six to eight most important values on an index card, and refer to that card as you go about your life today.

Further reading: Anger is Its Own Punishment

Finding Peace in Forgiveness

Revenge, the Deadliest Sin?