Don't Procrastinate Your Problems

“All problems become smaller if you don’t dodge them, but confront them. Touch a thistle timidly, and it pricks you; grasp it boldly, and its spines crumple."

--Williams S. Halsey

Make Good Habits

“We’re worn into grooves by Time—by our habits. In the end, these grooves are going to show whether we’ve been second rate or champions, each in his way is dispatching the affairs of every day. By choosing our habits, we determine the grooves into which Time will wear us; and these are the grooves that enrich our lives and make for ease of mind, peace, happiness—achievement.”

–Frank B. Gilberth

Make Use of Your Opportunities

“Four things come not back—the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity.”

–Arabian Proverb

The Knack of Common Sense

“Common Sense is the knack of seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be done.”

--Stowe

Be a Doer!

“The world is divided into people who do things and people who get the credit. Try, if you can, to belong to the first class. There’s far less competition."

–Dwight Morrow

Do Not Criticize the Good Work of Someone Else

“He whose first emotion, on the view of an excellent work, is to undervalue or depreciate it, will never have one of his own to show.”

--Aikin

Mistakes can Make you Wise

“When you make a mistake, don’t look back at it long. Take the reason of the thing into your mind, and then look forward. Mistakes are lessons of wisdom. The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power.”

–Hugh White

Heroes and Celebrities

"We should all have heroes to look up to, to inspire us, to motivate us, to suggest an ideal to work toward. In choosing a hero, the most important thing to know is the difference between a hero and a celebrity. A hero can be both. But, someone can also be a celebrity without being worthy of being called a hero. Remembering this is vital in your search!"

--Edmond Danken Sailor

Don't Aim Low!

“Not failure, but low aim, is a crime.”

--Ernest Holmes

There is More Glory in Overcoming

“The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.”

--Moliére

The Aim of Education

“The aim of education should be to convert the mind into a living fountain, and not a reservoir.”

--John M. Mason

Life is Worth Living

“Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.”

--William James

Regret is a Waste of Time

“Regret is an appalling waste of energy. You can’t build on it; it’s only good for wallowing in.

–Katherine Mansfield

Books Open Almost All Doors

“Books come at my call and return when I desire them; they are never out of humor and they answer all my questions with readiness. Some present in review before me the events of past ages; others reveal to me the secrets of nature. These teach me how to live, and those how to die; these dispel my melancholy by their mirth, and amuse me by their sallies of wit. Some there are who prepare my soul to suffer everything, to desire nothing, and to become thoroughly acquainted with itself. In a word, they open the door to all the arts and sciences.

--Petrarch

Desire Determines Possibilities

"Whether an idea becomes a reality or not, does not depend so much on whether it is possible -- but on how great the desire for it is."

--Edmond Danken Sailor

Someone With a Settled Purpose Will Accomplish it

“I have brought myself by long meditation to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and nothing can resist a will which will stake even existence upon its fulfillment.”

--Disraeli

Education is Life

“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”

–John Dewey

What You Know, What You Don't

"Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don't know."

--Bertrand Russell

Do Not Stand Back--Jump In!

“To do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in, and scramble through as well as we can.

–Sydney Smith

Solitude and Society in Balance

“Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character."

–James Russell Lowell

Put Beauty into Your Life

“The beauty of life comes, not from what we get out of life, but from what we put into it.”

--Edmond Danken Sailor

Don't Let Circumstances Rule You

“Circumstances are the rulers of the weak; they are but the instruments of the wise."

–Samuel Lover

Cultivate a Diamond Character

"Character is a diamond that scratches every other stone."

--Bartol

Routines are Your Momentum

“Most of life is routine—dull and grubby, but routine is the momentum that keeps a man going. If you wait for inspiration you’ll be standing on the corner after the parade is a mile down the street.”

--Ben Nicholas

Keep the Weeds out of Your Life

“Everyone knows that weeds eat out the life of a garden and of the productive fields. The gardener and the farmer alike each has to keep the weeding process alive. It’s like that in the building and developing of character. No one knows our own faults and tendencies better than we do ourselves, so that it is up to each on of us to keep the weeds out, and to keep all growth vigorous and fruitful.

–George Mathew Adams

Be a Good Example!

“The first great gift we can bestow on others is a good example.”

--Morell

A Beautiful Dream!

“I saw a vision of life so wonderful, through dreams realized, journeys accomplished, and potentials fulfilled.”

--Edmond Danken Sailor

Always Speak Obligingly

“We cannot always oblige, but we can always speak obligingly.”

--Voltaire

Being Angry is a Bad Habit

"Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit."

--Epictetus

Two Kinds of Failures

“There are two kinds of failures: The man who will do nothing he is told, and the man who will do nothing else.”

--Dr. Perle Thompson

What Will Be Your Direction?

“It is our thoughts that determine our direction. Positive thoughts take us toward what we want, and negative thoughts take us toward what we no not want.”

--Edmond Danken Sailor

Do Not Be a Cynic--Take Courage!

“The cynic makes fun of all earnestness; he makes fun of everything and everyone who feels that someone can be done….But in his heart of hearts he knows that he is a defeated man and that his cynicism is merely an expression of the fact that he has lost courage and is beaten.”

--George E. Vincent

Something to Live For

"We must give the peoples of the world something to live for as well as something to live on."

--John Haynes Holmes

Simple Virtues Better Than Smartness

“The simple virtues of willingness, readiness, alertness, and courtesy will carry a man farther than mere smartness.”

--Davidson

Don't Sling Mud!

“Before you sling some mud at someone else, be aware they may just sling some back.”

--Edmond Danken Sailor

What Kind of Society Will We Build?

(Sic)Action is not a secondary concern for a democracy. It is a primary concern, for the kind of recreation a people make for themselves determines the kind of people they become and the kind of society they build.

--Harry A. Overstreet

It is our Thoughts that Determine Who We are

"Our best friends and our worst enemies are our thoughts. A thought can do us more good than a doctor or a banker or a faithful friend. It can also do us more harm than a brick."

--Dr. Frank Crane

Redistribute Opportunity

“It is less important to redistribute wealth than it is to redistribute opportunity.”

--Arthur H. Vandenberg

Keep Moving!

"Things and people not actively in use age twice as fast."

--Arnold Bennett

Debt Puts You in Servitude

“You become a slave to someone or some company, when you live beyond your means. Debt puts you into servitude.”

--Edmond Danken Sailor

Don't Say Anything Bad About Somebody Else

"There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it behooves all of us not to talk about the rest of us."

--Robert Louis Stevenson

You Can Do It!

"Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon, must inevitably come to pass!"

--Paul J. Meyer

Don't Let Anything Between You and Your God

"Organized religion has been a good way to get a middle man between man and his God."

--Edmond Dankin Sailor

Believe you Can do It!

"If you can conceive it, and believe it, you can achieve it."

--Napoleon Hill

Live for Something

"Lack of something you feel important about is almost the greatest tragedy a man may have."

--Dr. Arthur E. Morgan

Is the Sky Really Falling?

“Be cautious of people who tell you the sky is falling; they’re usually trying to sell you something to prevent it.”

--Edmond Danken Sailor

Debt Makes You A Slave

"He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little."

--Horace

Work Together and Get There Faster

"People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going more quickly and easily, because they are traveling on the thrust of one another."

--Author Unknown