Welcome to my Daily Inspiration - Daily Quote. See today's daily inspirational quotes below.
May the world be kind to you, and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Showing posts with label Henry David Thoreau. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Henry David Thoreau. Show all posts

Friday, July 31, 2026

LOOK, Don't Just Assume What You Will See


Change what you see,
by changing how you see.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
- Henry David Thoreau

A flower is a weed seen through joyful eyes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Call a plant beautiful, and it becomes a flower.
Call it ugly, and it becomes a weed.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We don't see things as they are,
we see things as we are.
- Anais Nin

It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.
- Helen Keller

Look for the Unexpected in the Commonplace.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

What we see depends mainly on what we look for.
- John Lubbock

We never see what we are not ready to see.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further Reading: What I Know - What I Don't Know
            

Tuesday, June 9, 2026

First, Understand What IS


First, Understand What IS!
You can't improve the world until you understand how it functions today.
Especially regarding human nature, understand what is baked-in and what is malleable.
Study psychology; study history of the world.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

What I recognized is that you can't put it together.
It's already together, and what you have to do
is experience it being together.
- Werner Erhard

If you want reality to be different than it is,
you might as well try to teach a cat to bark.
- Byron Katie

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.
- Henry David Thoreau

We don't live in the world of reality,
we live in the world of how we perceive reality.
- Bryan Singer

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious
privilege it is to be alive -
to breathe,
to think, to enjoy, to love.
- Marcus Aurelius

Not what we experience,
but how we perceive what we experience,
determines our fate.
- Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

Further reading: Seeking

Solitary Cell

Perspective
             

Thursday, May 21, 2026

Heaven is Within Us


Heaven is within us, and we experience it
to the degree that we become conscious of it.
- Ernest Holmes

Heaven means to be one with God.
- Confucius

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.
- Henry David Thoreau

Affirmation:
I am one with Spirit. Spirit is within me.
Spirit permeates me and surrounds me.
Spirit is my comfort and my strength.
I am one with Spirit.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Be at Peace

Attitude of Gratitude

Serving Others

Welcome to Our Family
   

Sunday, April 26, 2026

Seek Creative Solutions

 


If your only tool is a hammer,
you tend to see every problem as a nail.
- Abraham Maslow
Read my thoughts about this... 

If your only tool is a bomb,
you tend to see every problem as a target.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Little men with little minds and little imaginations
go through life in little ruts,
smugly resisting all changes which would jar their little worlds.
- Zig Ziglar

If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer.
- Alan Lewis
[Sometimes a bigger hammer works, but it isn't a very creative approach.]

Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful
than Thor with his hammer.
The one melts, the other breaks into pieces.
- Henry David Thoreau

Further reading: 9 Secrets For Getting Un-Stuck

Focus and Flexibility

Be Present in the Moment

Our Habits

Adaptability
     

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Courage and Perseverance


The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.
- Herbert Kaufman 

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman,
before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
- John Quincy Adams

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is
that one comes from a strong will,
and the other from a strong won't.
- Henry Ward Beecher

All endeavor calls for the ability
to tramp the last mile,
shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil.
The fight to the finish spirit is the one...
characteristic we must posses
if we are to face the future as finishers.
- Henry David Thoreau

Patience, persistence, and perseverance.
A little more each day,
a little better each day.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Emulate the Patience of Nature

Stand Up To Your Obstacles

Realize Success

The Power of Mental Attitude
    

 

Sunday, April 19, 2026

Walk Your Talk

 


I challenge you to make your life a masterpiece.
I challenge you to join the ranks of those people
who live what they teach, who walk their talk.
- Tony Robbins

Live with intention.
Walk to the edge.
Listen hard.
Practice wellness.
Play with abandon.
Laugh.
Choose with no regret.
Appreciate your friends.
Continue to learn.
Do what you love.
Live as if this is all there is.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations.
For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
- Henry David Thoreau

Today's affirmation: Today, I will do my best...
and then relax in the knowing that I have done all I could.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Don't Miss Out On Life

Live Every Moment, Joyfully

Progress

Enthusiasm and Passion
        

Tuesday, March 10, 2026

It's YOUR Life, Make YOUR Choices

 


Don't compromise yourself.
You are all you've got.
- Janis Joplin

It all depends on how we look at things,
and not on how things are in themselves.
The least of things with a meaning
is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.
- Carl Jung

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.
- Henry David Thoreau

If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable,
you disconnect yourself from what you truly want,
and all that is left is compromise.
- Robert Fritz

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.
- Steve Jobs

In matters of style, swim with the current;
in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
- attributed to Thomas Jefferson

The Meaning of a Thing is Not Measured by its Size.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Your To-Do List

Question Your Questions

Choose Your Priorities

Your Relationship with Time

The Main Thing
     

Wednesday, March 4, 2026

Feel with Your Heart

 


The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
- Oscar Wilde

Many men go fishing all of their lives
without knowing that it is not fish they are after.
- Henry David Thoreau

To know the whole world is nothing
when it is compared to knowing your own inner mystery of life.
- Osho

The best and most beautiful things in the world
cannot be seen or even touched.
They must be felt with the heart.
- Helen Keller

Further reading: Wonder and Mystery

The Mystery of Life

Beyond Answers

Experience Life with Reverence
      

Friday, January 30, 2026

Simplify Your Life

 


Life is really simple,
but we insist on making it complicated.
- Confucius

As you simplify your life,
the laws of the universe will be simpler;
solitude will not be solitude,
poverty will not be poverty,
nor weakness weakness.
- Henry David Thoreau

If thou wilt make a man happy,
add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.
- Epicurus

What if happiness were found in the serenity of simple pleasures.
What if we didn't need the newest gizmo... the highest high?
What if happiness is in the air we breathe...
slowly, deeply, and consciously?
What if happiness is one fresh grape, savored with gratitude?
What if happiness is in our oneness with all creation?
What if happiness is about enjoying life exactly as it comes to us -
without chasing after it?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To live a pure unselfish life,
one must count nothing as one's own
in the midst of abundance.
- The Buddha

Further reading: Bounty of the Earth

Simple Life

Giving of Yourself
    

Friday, December 19, 2025

Appreciate Simple Joys


Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life
are not only not indispensable,
but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.
- Henry David Thoreau

The essence of life is not in
the great victories and grand failures,
but in the simple joys.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.
- Henry David Thoreau

The greatest wealth is to live content with little.
- Plato

Further reading: Life Really Is Good

Choose Joy Anyway

Calm During Storms

Radiate Light and Love
     

 

Monday, November 24, 2025

Youth Does Not Know of "Impossible"


The young do not know enough to be prudent,
and therefore they attempt the impossible -
and achieve it,
generation after generation.
- Pearl S. Buck

Everyone who got where he is,
had to begin where he was.
- Richard L. Evans

The youth gets together his materials
to build a bridge to the moon,
or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth,
and, at length, the middle-aged man
concludes to build a woodshed with them.
- Henry David Thoreau

Youth is a quality, not a matter of circumstances.
- Frank Lloyd Wright

Nothing is Impossible when You are Young in Spirit.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Stay Young

Be Brave and Chase Your Dreams

Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

Aging With Grace
      

Sunday, November 23, 2025

Take time to understand, and to appreciate


It is an easy thing for one whose foot is on the outside
of calamity to give advice and to rebuke the sufferer.
- Aeschylus

Could a greater miracle take place
than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?
- Henry David Thoreau

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
- Philo

We are all different - and we are all one.
Take time to understand, and to appreciate.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Before you criticize anyone,
walk a mile in their shoes.
- Anonymous [gender-neutral update]

The more we care for the happiness of others,
the greater is our own sense of well-being.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Understanding is a two-way street.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

We will never have true civilization until we have
learned to recognize the rights of others.
- Will Rogers

When the rights of any group, no matter how small, no matter how marginal,
are violated, your liberty, your freedom is put at risk.
Let there never be a day when we cast about in horror
and have to ask the question, "How did it ever come to this?"
- Thomas Childers

Further reading: The Art of Listening

Opportunity for Kindness

Of all the keys to happiness, Service to Others is the big one

Open Your Mind
      

Saturday, October 18, 2025

Winners Dream Big Dreams


Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations.
For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
- Henry David Thoreau

So many of our dreams at first seem impossible,
then they seem improbable, and then,
when we summon the will,
they soon become inevitable.
- Christopher Reeve

Winners Dream Big Dreams.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We come this way but once.
We can either tiptoe through life
and hope we get to death without being badly bruised
or we can live a full, complete life achieving
our goals and realizing our wildest dreams.
- Bob Proctor

Further reading: Don’t Quit

Hold Fast to Your Dreams

What You Become

Boldly Sail the Storms of Life
       

Sunday, September 21, 2025

The Woods Speak


An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
- Henry David Thoreau

Let today be a day to spend time alone in nature.
Take a walk as far from the hustle and bustle of society as you can.
If you can, walk near trees or water.

There is sanctuary in being alone with nature.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife...
- Thomas Gray

If a person walks in the woods and listens carefully,
he can learn more than what is in books,
for they speak with the voice of God.
- George Washington Carver

Further reading: Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now


    

Thursday, July 31, 2025

Look for the Unexpected in the Commonplace


Change what you see,
by changing how you see.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
- Henry David Thoreau

A flower is a weed seen through joyful eyes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Call a plant beautiful, and it becomes a flower.
Call it ugly, and it becomes a weed.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We don't see things as they are,
we see things as we are.
- Anais Nin

It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.
- Helen Keller

Look for the Unexpected in the Commonplace.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

What we see depends mainly on what we look for.
- John Lubbock

We never see what we are not ready to see.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further Reading: What I Know - What I Don't Know

 

Monday, June 9, 2025

Change Comes from Action, Not from Wishing

 


What I recognized is that you can't put it together.
It's already together, and what you have to do
is experience it being together.
- Werner Erhard

If you want reality to be different than it is,
you might as well try to teach a cat to bark.
- Byron Katie

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.
- Henry David Thoreau

We don't live in the world of reality,
we live in the world of how we perceive reality.
- Bryan Singer

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious
privilege it is to be alive -
to breathe,
to think, to enjoy, to love.
- Marcus Aurelius

Not what we experience,
but how we perceive what we experience,
determines our fate.
- Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

Further reading: Seeking

Solitary Cell

Perspective

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

One with Spirit

 


Heaven is within us, and we experience it
to the degree that we become conscious of it.
- Ernest Holmes

Heaven means to be one with God.
- Confucius

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.
- Henry David Thoreau

Affirmation:
I am one with Spirit. Spirit is within me.
Spirit permeates me and surrounds me.
Spirit is my comfort and my strength.
I am one with Spirit.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Be at Peace

Attitude of Gratitude

Serving Others (pathway to Heaven)

Welcome to Our Family
   

Saturday, April 26, 2025

Try New Means

 


If your only tool is a hammer,
you tend to see every problem as a nail.
- Abraham Maslow
Read my thoughts about this... 

If your only tool is a bomb,
you tend to see every problem as a target.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Little men with little minds and little imaginations
go through life in little ruts,
smugly resisting all changes which would jar their little worlds.
- Zig Ziglar

If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer.
- Alan Lewis
[Sometimes a bigger hammer works, but it isn't a very creative approach.]

Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful
than Thor with his hammer.
The one melts, the other breaks into pieces.
- Henry David Thoreau

Further reading: 9 Secrets For Getting Un-Stuck

Focus and Flexibility

Be Present in the Moment

Our Habits

Adaptability
     

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

The habit of persistence

 


The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.
- Herbert Kaufman 

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman,
before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
- John Quincy Adams

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is
that one comes from a strong will,
and the other from a strong won't.
- Henry Ward Beecher

All endeavor calls for the ability
to tramp the last mile,
shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil.
The fight to the finish spirit is the one...
characteristic we must posses
if we are to face the future as finishers.
- Henry David Thoreau

Patience, persistence, and perseverance.
A little more each day,
a little better each day.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Emulate the Patience of Nature

Stand Up To Your Obstacles

Realize Success

The Power of Mental Attitude
    

Saturday, April 19, 2025

Make your life a masterpiece

 


I challenge you to make your life a masterpiece.
I challenge you to join the ranks of those people
who live what they teach, who walk their talk.
- Tony Robbins

Live with intention.
Walk to the edge.
Listen hard.
Practice wellness.
Play with abandon.
Laugh.
Choose with no regret.
Appreciate your friends.
Continue to learn.
Do what you love.
Live as if this is all there is.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations.
For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
- Henry David Thoreau

Today's affirmation: Today, I will do my best...
and then relax in the knowing that I have done all I could.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Don't Miss Out On Life

Live Every Moment, Joyfully

Progress

Enthusiasm and Passion
        
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