Alexander Graham Bell: Inspiration
What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.
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Michael Brown: Inspiration
WHY am I sometimes afraid to love first? Why must my love, first and always, pass through filters of fear and judgment? Why must my judgment of the other always precede my response to their request, or to them as human beings?
BECAUSE I might get used! I might get hurt! Because I am adult and must always keep my judgment well honed!
BUT what if she responds to my gift with "Thank you for not judging me!" followed by weeping and repeating her thanks several times?
WHAT if he responds to my conversation and gift with a huge hug that almost knocks the two of us onto the ground, causing us both to break into joyful laughter?
WHAT if she crumbles up my handful of dollar bills and stuffs them into her pockets as insulation against the cold?
WHAT if that raggedy man, sitting on the ground in filth, looks up at me with the beautiful face and voice of a child and says "My name is Teddie... Thank you!"
WHAT if I spend too much time filtering my love? I may miss the fact that the other person has already been judged enough, hurt enough, disbelieved enough, and taken advantage of far more often than me. It may be worth my risk to love first, but maybe along with a prayer if I am nervous.
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Larry Ferguson: Inspiration
And the sea will grant each man new hope
As sleep brings dreams of home
(Erroneously attributed to Christopher Columbus, but according to movie director John McTiernan the line was actually written for the film by screenwriter Larry Ferguson for Hunt for Red October.)
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Mahatma Gandhi: Inspiration
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 than the one derived from fear of punishment.
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Martin Heidegger: Inspiration
Anyone can achieve their fullest potential, who we are might be predetermined, but the path we follow is always of our own choosing. We should never allow our fears or the expectations of others to set the frontiers of our destiny. Your destiny can't be changed but, it can be challenged. Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.
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Robert Heinlein: Inspiration
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
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Katharine Hepburn: Inspiration
Oh, my piglets, we are the origins of war — not history’s forces, nor the times, nor justice, nor the lack of it, nor causes, nor religions, nor ideas, nor kinds of government — not any other thing. WE are the killers. WE breed wars. WE carry it like syphilis inside dead bodies, rotting field and stream, because the living ones are rotten. For the love of God, can’t we love one another just a little? That’s how peace begins. We have so much to love each other for. We have such possibilities, my children. We could change the world.
(From "The Lion in Winter" (1968))
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Frank Herbert: Inspiration
I’ll miss the sea, but a person needs new experiences.
They draw something… deep inside, allowing them to grow.
Without change, something sleeps inside us… and seldom awakens.
The sleeper must awaken.
(From “Dune” (movie by Dino DeLorentiis, 1984, book by Frank Herbert, 1965))
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Christopher Hoctor: Inspiration
Aye, it's time to quit my job and embark upon the journey
That takes me home to beaches of stone, to watch the boats in tourney;
And all I ask is a view of Gods blessed shore,
In day I watch the winds white caps, at night the lights and more.
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Christopher Hoctor: Inspiration
It is the eternal mystery to me that we humans are at the top of the food chain, but arrive in this world with no wisdom, fewer instincts than most other creatures, and no owner’s manual.
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Christopher Hoctor: Inspiration
When we were young, every 'next day' held a promise of new light, new adventures, new hope. For us old folks there may be few remaining, but tomorrow is still the next day and it seems an even greater thing. The idea of tomorrow still holds the promise it did 40 years ago, but so much has changed, all the worries, the drama, the injuries of youth are now behind. The old bones and muscles are shot but the head is full of memories, the heart is filled with loved ones. Memories allow us to live the best parts of life again. Every day the memories ferment into something more rich. I wouldn't trade that for anything. Tomorrow is MY day. Older is not closer to death, it's closer to new life for all!
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Christopher Hoctor: Inspiration
I think the closer we get to understanding how mass and space first came to be, the closer we will come to understanding God; but science only answers how - God answers why
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Christopher Hoctor: Inspiration
About Flying
"a eitilt le teagmháil an aghaidh Dé" (my arms motto, in Irish: To fly, to touch the face of God). I have reached out, touched the face of God, have been drunk on altitude and speed in a world without a frame and full of colors never seen on the ground. Flying will wake something inside you that will never sleep again. It has lifted me and my spirit to soar; although I walk this Earth today that spirit shall never touch down again.
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Christopher Hoctor: Inspiration
Be informed, but don’t let the facts blind you; seek the truth. It lies somewhere between the lines, above the authors and reporters; a silent presence all around us, obscured by their hidden agendas, and our own bias’.
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Christopher Hoctor: Inspiration
It’s curious. Every New Year we reflect on the old, and make resolutions for the new. Too many of us resolve to make a personal improvement, in ourselves. Could we not simply resolve to do for others? After all, we will be judged by our deeds for our fellow man, not what we did for ourselves. Resolution is a very strong word; because when we use it for ourselves and break it, we feel we didn’t hurt anyone. Let’s make resolutions for others, tell them, and be accountable.
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Christopher Hoctor: Inspiration
If we went to bed knowing we will never wake up, can we say we forgave those who trespassed against us, and asked for forgiveness where we needed to? Can we say with certainty that we have lived a full life, and we are not afraid? I think I could say 'yes', and that is something to be thankful for. Never the less, I hope I'm not being too prophetic!
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Christopher Hoctor: Inspiration
Tomorrow will bring yet another sunrise, and by the Grace of God, another chance to live; succeed, screw up, love, learn, rejoice, be sad. Best of all, it will bring opportunity. To give thanks to God, seize it.
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Christopher Hoctor: Inspiration
"Remember Pearl Harbor" - The banner in countless places, a battle cry used in 1941 to 1945, and quite often since. Sadly, too many that did remember the attack 70 years ago today, are gone. That call inspired 100's of millions of Americans to mobilize; join the military, retool the factories, pick up that riveter and GO. It wasn't just a call to pitch in, it was a call to sacrifice for a time so the nation can afford to supply a war on tyranny and dictatorship. Our military fought with incredible bravery, our government actually had to have that proverbial 'bake sale' of War Bonds, our citizens had to ration sugar, gas, and many other things.
Today, I see the same kind of inconceivable courage and uncommon valor in our troops as those brave men of WWII. Even though the battle cry has been refreshed in the form of "Remember 9-11", I DON'T see the government controlling spending in order to respond, I don't see a nation mobilizing in that same fashion. We have an elevated sense of patriotism, but not a willingness to sacrifice. We are not even mobilizing against poverty and suffering within our own borders! To me, the difference lies in core values, that is to say the lack of them since they have been stamped out by a terribly misguided idea of political correctness. Those values, undeniably rooted in religion, do not have to be ignored because of separation of church and state; our present condition calls for more than any political party to be correct and succeed in election, it calls for Providence. This does not come from mankind; it comes only from seeking it from a higher authority. Providence will not come without prayer, it will not serve the greedy, it will not come without a price... but spending our nation out of existence is not the price for victory. The only way to victory is emulating the hearts and minds, the commitment and sacrifice, of our "greatest generation".
(FB Post, 7 Dec 2011)
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Dr. Martin Luther King: Inspiration
Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially where the welfare of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict upon our soul when we look the other way.
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Yo-Yo Ma: Inspiration
Culture - the way we express ourselves and understand each other - can bind us together as one world.
(https://youtu.be/1prweT95Mo0)
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President Barack Obama: Inspiration
We have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world; duties that we do not grudgingly accept, but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.
(inaugural address)
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President Ronald Reagan: Inspiration
Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have.
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President Ronald Reagan: Inspiration
Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we've ever known.
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President Ronald Reagan: Inspiration
I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace: to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.
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President Ronald Reagan: Inspiration
Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.
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President Ronald Reagan: Inspiration
My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose - somehow we win out.
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President Theodore Roosevelt: Inspiration
Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
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President George Washington: Inspiration
Our own Country's Honor, all call upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions - The Eyes of all our Countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings, and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the Tyranny mediated against them. Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world, that a Freeman contending for Liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.
(General Orders, 1776)
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President George Washington: Inspiration
Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions. The Eyes of all our Countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings, and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the tyranny mediated against them.
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