You can't win any race by looking at what the other guy is doing. The moment you even take the time to look backwards is when you lose your place. The most you can do is decide who and what you want to be, and then get on with the business.
..Until you own yourself, and are defined by your own terms, operate from the center of yourself, are not dictated by other people's definitions and expectations, then you are still enslaved. You're enslaved to what society thinks you should do. (Oprah Winfrey)

A moment in the universe is a whole lifetime for our weak empty vessels. Where does our life begin and where does it end here or elsewhere. What is our purpose here when we are destined for worm food. We are so small, so insignificant in the scheme of things in the universe that I often wonder if the earth is not the actual son of God and we mere parasites living off the earth and destined to return to it's dusty bowels. (Anon)

We ignore the ones who adore us, and adore the ones who ignore us. (anon)

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. (Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933)

"But, you know what life really is? You're born, you suck your mother's tits. You get a little older, you suck your girlfriend's tits. You get married, you suck your wife's tits. That's what life is. Life sucks." (John Ryman, "When Galaxies Collide")

"One of the basic things which I was a long time in realizing, and which I am still learning, is that when an activity feels as though it is valuable or worth doing, it is worth doing. Put another way, I have learned that my total organismic sensing of a situation is more trustworthy than my intellect. All of my professional life I have been going in directions which others thought were foolish, and about which I have had many doubts myself. But I have never regretted moving in directions which 'felt right,' even though I have often felt lonely or foolish at the time...Experience is, for me, the highest authority...Neither the Bible nor the prophets - neither Freud nor research - neither the revelations of God nor man - can take precedence over my own experience." (Carl Rogers)

The Law of Attraction attracts to you everything you need, according to the nature of your thought life. Your environment and financial condition are the perfect reflection of your habitual thinking. Thought rules the world. (Joseph Edward Murphy)

For a long time it seemed to me that real life was about to begin, but there was always some obstacle in the way. Something had to be got through first, some unfinished business; time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. (Bette Howland)

The happiest people are those who are too busy to wonder whether they are or not.
Money can't buy happiness. But it sure makes misery easier to live with.
Learn to let go, That's the key to happiness.
Happiness is only found by those, who are striving to make others happy. (Anons)

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly; 'Tis dearness only that gives everything its value. (Thomas Paine)

"It's a good thing when a man is different from your image of him. It shows he isn't a type. If he were, it would be the end of him as a man. But if you can't place him in a category, it means that at least a part of him is what a human being ought to be. He has risen above himself, he has a grain of immortality." (Boris Pasternak)

No matter how hard you work for success if your thought is saturated with the fear of failure, it will kill your efforts, neutralize your endeavors and make success impossible. (Baudjuin)

Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret. (Ambrose Bierce)

People are illogical, inconsiderate and self-centred. Love them anyway (Anon)

Four things do not come back: the Spoken Word, the Sped Arrow, the Past Life, and the Neglected Opportunity. (Arabian proverb)

"The world is a looking glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, an it is a jolly , kind companion." (Thackeray 'Vanity Fair')

"One-half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it." (Anon)

"Solitude: a good place to visit, but a poor place to stay." (Anon)

"Just remember all...that words are powerful, so very powerful, that it can change attitudes (for the better or for the worse), with or without provocation. They can be triggers, reminders, movers, and emotives....Be kind with your words and listen to positive messages in things that we have in common....Communication in the ways that make a positive impact and even possibly profitable (new friendships, good feelings, etc) for all parties, is THE key." (Seona)

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." (Bertrand Russell)

Articles (Click on link for full article)

What underlies tolerance is the recognition that there is plenty of room in the world for alternatives to coexist, and that if one is offended by what others do it is because one has let it get under one's skin.
The Last word on Tolerance - AC Grayling

The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity - Gide
The last word on Hypocrisy - AC Grayling

Everyone knows these lessons of experience. But experience also teaches how infrequently they are heeded. Memory is short; peace and ease let the weeds of folly grow back.
The last word on experience - AC Grayling

Anatole France observed caustically that "justice is the sanction of established injustice", thinking of the way that original inequities in the distribution of wealth, power and privilege in society come in time to be sanctified by history and protected by law
The last word on justice - AC Grayling

"Angry men are blind and foolish," Aretino wrote, "for reason at such times takes flight, and in her absence anger plunders all the riches of the intellect." When given expression it plunders all the goods and fruits of peace too, and is indifferent to the suffering of bystanding innocents.
The last word on anger - AC Grayling

In personal life risks are the motors of advance, especially in emotional and intellectual respects. To love is to risk, to try new ideas and methods is to risk, to be open to new friendships, new experiences, new challenges and changes: all involve risks. The costs are occasional failure and the likelihood of suffering; the prizes are great.
The last word on safety - AC Grayling

"Nothing is permanent but change," said Heraclitus; and change is indeed the premise of nature. Stasis is a negative condition; movement, development, alteration, are the nodes of progress through time. "Each new season grows from the leftovers of the past," wrote Hal Borland, "that is the essence of change, and change is the basic law."
The last word on change - AC Grayling

The 18th century cult of the "noble savage" extolled the supposed freshness and serenity of a life unencumbered by knowledge, a life bounded only by the sky's visible horizon and the natural lifespan of man. "Where ignorance is bliss," Thomas Gray famously wrote in his lines on Eton College, "it is folly to be wise."
The last word on delusion - AC Grayling

Most insidious of all is the compromise an individual makes with himself when ambitions begin to falter, and he begins to "accept his limitations" - a phrase that far more often denotes retreat and weariness in the face of failure than a just discernment of powers. Unamuno said that we are all potentially heroes and geniuses..
The last word on compromise - AC Grayling

There is nobility in forbearance, and it expresses a desire for something far greater and grander than revenge, namely peace, a future, and an end to the festering hatreds and hurts which poison life. It takes magnanimity - a word anglicised from "magna anima" which means "great soul" - to rise above revenge.
The last word on revenge - AC Grayling

Respect is an attitude that one free individual gives another, either in hope at the outset, or as a result of finding out that the other has, does or exemplifies things which merit it. It is not the same as admiration - "Fools admire", was Pope's terse observation, "but wise men approve"
The last word on respect - AC Grayling

To hate one's enemies is to dissipate one's energies in wholly negative ways. Enmity is a response to perceived injury or threat, and it is compounded of resentment and anger, hostility and dislike, all of which can become obsessions, parasitising one's peace of mind away. To hate or despise an enemy is therefore to award him a victory over oneself, at least in these respects.
The last word on enmity - AC Grayling

Power's tendency to corrupt is a function of the work it does in liberating man's worst characteristics. A man feels his power over another more acutely when he breaks the other's spirit than when he wins his respect. To have power over others is to be in a position to deprive them of choices and options, to bend them to one's will, to make use of them.
The last word on power - AC Grayling

Common wisdom sees that a preparedness to lose is a necessary condition of gain. Naturally enough, most hope they can escape the condition, which makes loss more bitter when it occurs. It is hard to accept that to live is to lose, that to love is to lose, that trying to achieve anything of value is to lose - and that the only way to gain what matters is to accept these facts with courage.
The last word on loss - AC Grayling

"Fear can never make virtue," said Voltaire. Ignorance and fear are closely allied; they feed from each other, and their appetite grows by feeding. And fear has its own inexorable logic: "What we fear comes to pass," said Publilius Syrus, "far more rapidly than what we hope" - mainly because we make it so.
The last word on fear - AC Grayling

Racism will end when individuals see others only in individual terms. "There are no 'white' or 'coloured' signs on the graveyards of battle," said John F. Kennedy
The last word on racism - AC Grayling

An alternative is to base resolutions not on past failures but the hope of future success. "Resolution: not to mix rum and gin again in quite those quantities" and "Resolution: become fluent in Cantonese" might not differ in their prospects of success, but the latter, simply in virtue of its aspiration, is far the more admirable.
Resolutions - AC Grayling

..So when we talk about race, we're torn between stereotypes ruthlessly deployed and seeking out the particular. And, seeking the particular, should not race talk really be class talk? For instance, most of the Caribbeans who came here in the Fifties...
The Young, gifted, black...and very confused - Diran Adebayo

..Conflicts among diverse peoples within African nations are often referred to as "tribal warfare," while conflicts among the diverse peoples within European countries are never described in such terms. If the rivalries between the Ibo and the Hausa and Yoruba in Nigeria are described as "tribal," why not the rivalries between Serbs and Slavs in Yugoslavia, or Scots and English in Great Britain, Protestants and Catholics in Ireland, or the Basques and the Southern Spaniards in Spain?....
Racism in the English Language - Robert B. Moore

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