Humor Friday

Do not worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.

—Joey Adams (Image licensed by Penn Wealth)

It Takes Courage to Seek the Light of Truth

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

—Plato (Image licensed by Penn Wealth)

Trying to Please Everyone

He makes no friends who never made a foe.

—Alfred Lord Tennyson (by George Frederic Watts; Public Domain)

Trying to please everyone we meet is a recipe for disaster. Most of us try to avoid conflict, but if doing so means sacrificing our values and beliefs we end up in an emotional wasteland. Living with a strong foundational character will mean agitating some people along the way, even if we neither confront them directly nor appear “preachy,” but it will also invite some wonderful people into our lives we would have otherwise never connected with. 

—Mike Hazell

Land of the Lost

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. 

—Erasmus, Catholic priest and Dutch philosopher (1523, by Hans Holbein the Younger; Public Domain)

Surprisingly, over the course of the blog’s history, we have never used this famous proverb uttered by the incredible soul, Erasmus. Perhaps it was simply waiting for the right time to surface. 

—Mike Hazell

Elegant Solutions

When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty; but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.

—R. Buckminster Fuller, American architect, inventor, and futurist (Image licensed by Penn Wealth)

Montreal Biosphere, designed by R. Buckminster Fuller

Humor Friday

If you haven’t got anything nice to say about anyone, come sit next to me.

—Alice Roosevelt Longworth (1903, photographer unknown; Public Domain)

The Roosevelt family, 1903, with Alice standing in white hat. Alice was the eldest daughter of the president, and the only child of his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt. She died in 1980 at age 96.

Lead or Follow, the Choice is Yours

Remember, if you do not choose to lead, you will forever be led by others. Find what scares you and do it. You can make a difference, but only if you choose to do so.

—Michael Straczynski, American filmmaker (Image licensed by Penn Wealth)

The Stepping Stones of Achievement

Methodically complete your predefined series of actions and accomplishments, and achievement is sure to come.

—Mike Hazell (Image licensed by Penn Wealth)

To achieve our objectives in life and attain a desired state, we must focus our efforts on that which we control. We begin with a clear image of our destination, and then define the accomplishments needed along the way. Each of these come with their own set of actions; tasks which are completely under our control. By breaking the journey down to individual steps, we avoid being overwhelmed and can simply focus on the ground in front of us.  

—Mike Hazell

Travel-Induced Clarity

The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.

—Samuel Johnson (Image licensed by Penn Wealth)

So much of our world view is shaped by what we are told. But actual travel to different lands and various cultures, or simply experiencing firsthand the world around us, virtually always comes with a series of epiphanies that reshape our perspective and sharpen our understanding of how things really are. Nothing creates clarity better than personal experience. 

—Mike Hazell

Flames of Achievement

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.

—Golda Meir (Image licensed by Penn Wealth)

View of the desert and Dead Sea from the fortress of Masada