If you can't crash through an obstacle or leap over it, walk around it

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles
possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.
- Albert Schweitzer

Real obstacles don't take you in circles. They can be overcome.
Invented ones are like a maze.
- Barbara Sher

Obstacles are like wild animals.
They are cowards but they will bluff you if they can.
If they see you are afraid of them...
they are liable to spring upon you;
but if you look them squarely in the eye,
they will slink out of sight.
- Orison Swett Marden

Press on.
Obstacles are seldom the same size tomorrow as they are today.
- Robert H. Schuller

Further reading: Choose Your Habits, Choose Your Life

Later is Never

Learn to Motivate Yourself
       

Success is living a life you feel proud of

The key to success, and to happiness,
is being fully engaged in life -
leading yourself with inspiration and committed action -
setting your own fine and honorable example.

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Success is not the key to happiness.
Happiness is the key to success.
If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
- Albert Schweitzer

Success is getting and achieving what you want.
Happiness is wanting and being content with what you get.
- Bernard Meltzer

"Success" isn't about money or fame.
Success is living a life you feel proud of.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Doing Your Best

Wanting is Not Enough

Small Pleasures

Childlike Wonder
    

The measure of your success is how many lives you have made better

Believe in yourself,
in your vision for your future,
and in your ability to take a small step
each day toward achieving your vision.

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To leave the world a bit better ... to know that one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
- Bessie A. Stanley (commonly attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Anyone who proposes to do good
must not expect people to roll stones out of his way,
but must accept his lot calmly,
even if they roll a few stones upon it.
- Albert Schweitzer

True success is bringing joy to yourself and to others.
Success is measured in lives bettered, not in money or power.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We do not need to proselytize
either by our speech or by our writing.
We can only do so really with our lives.
Let our lives be open books for all to study.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Further reading: March On

Pay It Forward

Turn Crisis into Progress

Stand Together
    

Your Legacy to Future Generations

We have an obligation to live in harmony with God's creation.
- Bruce Babbitt

Everything you do, and everything you do not do,
is your legacy to future generations.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Treat the earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents,
it was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children.
- Native American traditional

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

Be gentle with the earth.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Further reading:

Plant Trees For Your Grandchildren

The World We Leave Our Children

The Seeds You Plant

All Life
   

Value Mystery

As soon as man does not take his existence for granted,
but beholds it as something
unfathomably mysterious, thought begins.
- Albert Schweitzer

Be thankful that life is a mystery.
There is so much we can never know.
Breathe deeply and relax into the not-knowing.
There is much that we do not have to know in order to live joyfully.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Uncertainty that comes from knowledge
(knowing what you don't know)
is different from uncertainty coming from ignorance.
- Isaac Asimov

Mystery creates wonder,
and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand.
- Neil Armstrong

Further reading: Nothing is Certain

Cherish Mystery

Childlike Wonder

Magnificent Mystery
        

Be a Role Model, Not a Critic

 

Being a role model is the most powerful form of educating.
Youngsters need good models more than they need critics.
It's one of a parent's greatest responsibilities and opportunities.
- John Wooden

Example is not the main thing in influencing others.
It is the only thing.
- Albert Schweitzer

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

A good example is the best sermon.
- Benjamin Franklin

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: Inspire Others

Live a life you hope your children will emulate

Be a Leader

The Nature of Education

How We Learn
      

Never Take Life for Granted

 

As soon as man does not take his existence for granted,
but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious,
thought begins.
- Albert Schweitzer

God is not what you imagine,
or what you think you understand.
If you understand you have failed.
- Saint Augustine

Be thankful that life is a mystery.
There is so much we can never know.
Breathe deeply and relax into the not-knowing.
There is much that we do not have to know in order to live joyfully.
We Can Never Understand Our World, But We Can Still Enjoy It.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The world is incomprehensible.
We won't ever understand it;
we won't ever unravel its secrets.
Thus we must treat the world as it is:
a sheer mystery.
- Carlos Castaneda

Uncertainty that comes from knowledge
(knowing what you don't know)
is different from uncertainty coming from ignorance.
- Isaac Asimov

Further reading: Wonder and Mystery

Pause to Wonder

Cherish Mystery

Life: Mystery and Riddle
    

Be Kind! Have Compassion for ALL

 

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

Compassion is the ultimate value in life.
Service is the ultimate action.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Love is the foundation from which your decisions about
your life should be made.
- Darren L. Johnson

I can do no other than be reverent
before everything that is called life.
I can do no other than to have compassion
for all that is called life.
That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics.
- Albert Schweitzer

Further reading: Keep the Golden Rule

Feed the Hungry

The Universal Sacrament of Compassion

True Measure of a Successful Life
   

Our Children's Planet

 

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

This land, this water, this air, this planet -
this is our legacy to our young.
- Paul Tsongas

People must feel that the natural world is important
and valuable and beautiful and wonderful
and an amazement and a pleasure.
- David Attenborough

If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow,
we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology.
We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created,
not just as it looked when we got through with it.
- Lyndon B. Johnson

Be gentle with the earth.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Further reading: Our Future is the World's Children

One Planet, One People, One Destiny

Legacy to Future Generations

Reverence for Our Earth
      

Be Grateful, and Pay It Forward

 

TODAY, consider performing an act-of-kindness for someone who can never repay you.

Sometimes our light goes out but
is blown into flame by another human being.
Each of us owes deepest thanks
to those who have rekindled this light.
- Albert Schweitzer

Each of us has been generously gifted by parents, teachers, mentors, and others we can never repay. So, in gratitude for what we have received, it is now our turn to generously gift the children, the up-and-coming, and the down-and-out -- with no expectation that they can ever repay us - and with the hope that they will, in turn, pay-forward to another generation.

Pay It Forward.
Gift future generations in proportion to your gratitude.
The nature of life is that we pay forward
our biological creation and nurture.
Our parents gift us with life and nurture,
and we gift our children with life and nurture.
While this much is essential to continued human existence,
choose to take "pay it forward" farther - much farther.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The debt of gratitude we owe our mother and father
goes forward, not backward.
What we owe our parents is the bill presented to us by our children.
- Nancy Friday

The moment you become miserly you are closed
to the basic phenomenon of life: expansion, sharing.
The moment you start clinging to things,
you have missed the target.
Because things are not the target,
you, your innermost being, is the target -
not a beautiful house, but a beautiful you;
not much money, but a rich you;
not many things, but an open being,
available to millions of things.
- Osho

Further reading: Pay It Forward - as an Expression of Universal Gratitude

Opportunity for Daily Thanksgiving

True Measure of a Successful Life

Universal Kindness and Compassion
    

Your Obstacles are Only as Big as You Think They Are

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles
possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.

- Albert Schweitzer

Real obstacles don't take you in circles.

They can be overcome.
Invented ones are like a maze.
- Barbara Sher

Obstacles are like wild animals.
They are cowards but they will bluff you if they can.
If they see you are afraid of them...
they are liable to spring upon you;
but if you look them squarely in the eye,
they will slink out of sight.
- Orison Swett Marden

Press on.
Obstacles are seldom the same size tomorrow as they are today.
- Robert H. Schuller

Further reading: Choose Your Habits, Choose Your Life

Later is Never

Learn to Motivate Yourself
       

Discover What You Love To Do, And Do It

 

The key to success, and to happiness,
is being fully engaged in life -
leading yourself with inspiration and committed action -
setting your own fine and honorable example.

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Success is not the key to happiness.
Happiness is the key to success.
If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
- Albert Schweitzer

Success is getting and achieving what you want.
Happiness is wanting and being content with what you get.
- Bernard Meltzer

"Success" isn't about money or fame.
Success is living a life you feel proud of.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Doing Your Best

Wanting is Not Enough

Small Pleasures

Childlike Wonder
    

Success is measured in lives bettered, not in money or power

 

Believe in yourself,
in your vision for your future,
and in your ability to take a small step
each day toward achieving your vision.

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To leave the world a bit better ... to know that one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
- Bessie A. Stanley (commonly attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Anyone who proposes to do good
must not expect people to roll stones out of his way,
but must accept his lot calmly,
even if they roll a few stones upon it.
- Albert Schweitzer

True success is bringing joy to yourself and to others.
Success is measured in lives bettered, not in money or power.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We do not need to proselytize
either by our speech or by our writing.
We can only do so really with our lives.
Let our lives be open books for all to study.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Further reading: March On

Pay It Forward

Turn Crisis into Progress

Stand Together
    

Be Gentle with the Earth

 

We have an obligation to live in harmony with God's creation.
- Bruce Babbitt

Everything you do, and everything you do not do,
is your legacy to future generations.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Treat the earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents,
it was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children.
- Native American traditional

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

Be gentle with the earth.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Further reading:

Plant Trees For Your Grandchildren

The World We Leave Our Children

The Seeds You Plant

All Life
   

Life is a Mystery and Mystery Creates Wonder

 

As soon as man does not take his existence for granted,
but beholds it as something
unfathomably mysterious, thought begins.
- Albert Schweitzer

Be thankful that life is a mystery.
There is so much we can never know.
Breathe deeply and relax into the not-knowing.
There is much that we do not have to know in order to live joyfully.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Uncertainty that comes from knowledge
(knowing what you don't know)
is different from uncertainty coming from ignorance.
- Isaac Asimov

Mystery creates wonder,
and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand.
- Neil Armstrong

Further reading: Nothing is Certain

Cherish Mystery

Childlike Wonder

Magnificent Mystery
        

Set a Good Example

 

Being a role model is the most powerful form of educating.
Youngsters need good models more than they need critics.
It's one of a parent's greatest responsibilities and opportunities.
- John Wooden

Example is not the main thing in influencing others.
It is the only thing.
- Albert Schweitzer

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

A good example is the best sermon.
- Benjamin Franklin

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: Inspire Others

Live a life you hope your children will emulate

Be a Leader

The Nature of Education

How We Learn
      

We Can Never Understand Our World, But We Can Still Find Joy In It

 

As soon as man does not take his existence for granted,
but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious,
thought begins.
- Albert Schweitzer

God is not what you imagine,
or what you think you understand.
If you understand you have failed.
- Saint Augustine

Be thankful that life is a mystery.
There is so much we can never know.
Breathe deeply and relax into the not-knowing.
There is much that we do not have to know in order to live joyfully.
We Can Never Understand Our World, But We Can Still Enjoy It.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The world is incomprehensible.
We won't ever understand it;
we won't ever unravel its secrets.
Thus we must treat the world as it is:
a sheer mystery.
- Carlos Castaneda

Uncertainty that comes from knowledge
(knowing what you don't know)
is different from uncertainty coming from ignorance.
- Isaac Asimov

Further reading: Wonder and Mystery

Pause to Wonder

Cherish Mystery

Life: Mystery and Riddle
    

Compassion For ALL

 

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

Compassion is the ultimate value in life.
Service is the ultimate action.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Love is the foundation from which your decisions about
your life should be made.
- Darren L. Johnson

I can do no other than be reverent
before everything that is called life.
I can do no other than to have compassion
for all that is called life.
That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics.
- Albert Schweitzer

Further reading: Keep the Golden Rule

Feed the Hungry

The Universal Sacrament of Compassion

True Measure of a Successful Life
   

Be Gentle with the Earth

 

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

This land, this water, this air, this planet -
this is our legacy to our young.
- Paul Tsongas

People must feel that the natural world is important
and valuable and beautiful and wonderful
and an amazement and a pleasure.
- David Attenborough

If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow,
we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology.
We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created,
not just as it looked when we got through with it.
- Lyndon B. Johnson

Be gentle with the earth.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Further reading: Our Future is the World's Children

One Planet, One People, One Destiny

Legacy to Future Generations

Reverence for Our Earth
      

Pay It Forward

 

TODAY, consider performing an act-of-kindness for someone who can never repay you.

Sometimes our light goes out but
is blown into flame by another human being.
Each of us owes deepest thanks
to those who have rekindled this light.
- Albert Schweitzer

Each of us has been generously gifted by parents, teachers, mentors, and others we can never repay. So, in gratitude for what we have received, it is now our turn to generously gift the children, the up-and-coming, and the down-and-out -- with no expectation that they can ever repay us - and with the hope that they will, in turn, pay-forward to another generation.

Pay It Forward.
Gift future generations in proportion to your gratitude.
The nature of life is that we pay forward
our biological creation and nurture.
Our parents gift us with life and nurture,
and we gift our children with life and nurture.
While this much is essential to continued human existence,
choose to take "pay it forward" farther - much farther.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The debt of gratitude we owe our mother and father
goes forward, not backward.
What we owe our parents is the bill presented to us by our children.
- Nancy Friday

The moment you become miserly you are closed
to the basic phenomenon of life: expansion, sharing.
The moment you start clinging to things,
you have missed the target.
Because things are not the target,
you, your innermost being, is the target -
not a beautiful house, but a beautiful you;
not much money, but a rich you;
not many things, but an open being,
available to millions of things.
- Osho

Further reading: Pay It Forward - as an Expression of Universal Gratitude

Opportunity for Daily Thanksgiving

True Measure of a Successful Life

Universal Kindness and Compassion