"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."--Guatama Buddha "While you, the leader, can teach many things, character is not taught easily to adults who arrive at your desk lacking it. Be cautious about taking on reclamation projects regardless of the talent they may possess. Have the courage to make character count among the qualities you seek in others." -- John Wooden "The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is." - Winston Chruchill "In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." -Theodore Roosevelt 1907 "Remembering you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart" - Steve Jobs "A man who wouldn't cheat for a poke don't want one bad enough" - Gus McCrae "You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down." - Unknown "Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving with a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming... "WOW! What a ride!" - Unknown "Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe "If a man does his best, what else is there?" - General George S. Patton "Always remember others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself." - Richard Nixon "Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don't." - Pete Seeger "The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets." - Will Rogers "Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things only hoped for." - Epicurus "When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion -- when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see money flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed." - Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (1957) "People are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves. They therefore remain bound." - James Allen "More and more as I am here and see what life really is, I understand that it is not when or how you die but how and if you truly were ever alive." - Dr. Jerri Nielsen FitzGerald "Every decision you make - every decision - is not a decision about what to do. It's a decision about Who You Are. When you see this, when you understand it, everything changes. You begin to see life in a new way. All events, occurrences, and situations turn into opportunities to do what you came here to do." - Neale Donald Walsch 99% of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses. - George Washington Carver "No one ever attains very eminent success by simply doing what is required of him; it is the amount and excellence of what is over and above the required that determines the greatness of ultimate distinction." - Charles Kendall Adams Adversity is another way to measure the greatness of individuals. I never had a crisis that didn't make me stronger. ~Lou Holtz