"The result of any man's life will consist of his character multiplied by his circumstances."
Phillip Brooks

Perseverance is demonstrated by those who keep going when the going gets tough, who don’t give up even when others say, “It can’t be done.”

"Knowing How to Think Empowers You Far Beyond Those Who Know Only What to Think."

"Sow a Thought, and you reap an Act; Sow an Act, and you reap a Habit; Sow a Habit, and you reap a Character; Sow a Character, and you reap a Destiny." Charles Reade

"A person shows what he is by what he does with what he has."Anonymous

It's a rare person who doesn't get discouraged. Whether it happens to us or to an associate we're trying to cheer up, the answer centers around one word: perseverance.
The value of courage, persistence, and perseverance has rarely been illustrated more convincingly than in the life story of this man (his age appears in the column on the right):
Failed in business 22
Ran for Legislature - defeated 23
Again failed in business 24
Elected to legislature 25
Sweetheart died 26
Had a nervous breakdown 27
Defeated for Speaker 29
Defeated for Elector 31
Defeated for Congress 34
Elected to Congress 37
Defeated for Congress 39
Defeated for Senate 46
Defeated for Vice-President 47
Defeated for Senate 49
Elected President of the U.S. 51
That's the record of Abraham Lincoln.

A few more ten second sermons:
A fault recognized is half corrected.
When people share their fears with you, share your courage with them.
Alter you attitude and you can alter your life.

Two brothers convicted of stealing sheep were branded on the forehead with the letters ST, for "sheep thief".
One brother, unable to bear the stigma, moved to a foreign land. But men asked him about the strange letters. He wandered restlessly, and at length, full of bitterness, died and was buried in a forgotten grave.
The other brother said, "I can't run away from the fact that I stole sheep. I will stay here and win back the respect of my neighbours and myself."
As the years passed he built a reputation for integrity. One day, a stranger saw the old man with the letters branded on his forehead. He asked a native what they signified. "It happened a great while ago," said the villager. "I've forgotten the particulars; but I think the letters are an abbreviation of Saint."

If you wish to be successful, runs an old Chinese proverb, talk to three old men.
A research organization asked several hundred men over sixty, from all walks of life, what their biggest mistake had been. The following things turned up again and again:
Dropped out of college.
Did not stick to anything.
Did not save money.
Would not listen to the advice of older, wiser heads.
Played it safe and missed the big opportunity.
Didn't work hard enough.

Babylon in all its desolation is a sight not so awful as that of the human mind in ruins."
Scrope Berdmore Davies

June L. Rokoff, senior vice-president at Lotus Development Corporation, in a speech to students at Bentley College said "A couple of years ago when I was named to the position I have now, my husband David took his collection of my old business cards and had them framed." She held up the framed cards for all to see and continued, "Here it is - I keep it hanging in my office. When I look at it, I think of two people.
"One is my 10th-grade math teacher, who told me I should probably give up on math, or any career relating to math, because I was no good at geometry.
"The other is a boss I had in my second job, when I was 23 years old. He told me I'd gone about as far as I could go in the computer industry. He said I should just accept the fact that my career had 'plateaued' and quit trying to get ahead.
"So if any of you see my old math teacher or my old boss, would you let them know that today I have 1200 people working for me. And that most of them are very good in math."

"If You Wouldn't Wake Up Early to Do Something, You Probably Shouldn't Stay Up Late For It Either."

"The value of an idea lies in the using of it."

-Thomas Edison

"I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample underfoot."
Horace Greeley

"The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime, and the punishment of his guilt."

John Philpot Curran

The road to success is not straight.

There is a curb called Failure, a loop called Confusion; speed bumps called Friends; red lights called Enemies; caution lights called Family.

You will have flats called jobs. But, if you have a spare called Determination; an engine called Perseverance; insurance called Faith, and a driver called Jesus, you will make it to a place called Success!!

A house is built of logs and stone,
Of piles and posts and piers;
A home is built of loving deeds
That stand a thousand years.

Victor Hugo

"Some day, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of Love, and then, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire."

Teilhard de Chardin

Forget your mistakes but don't forget what they taught you.

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."

Winston Churchill

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

- Martin Luther King Jr.

"One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon - instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today."
Dale Carnegie

Don't tell me the sky is the limit if there are footprints on the moon.

"Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action."
Disraeli

“The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.”
― Lewis Carroll

Starting to learn something new? Finding it hard going? Take heart from a proverb I remember my grandmother using: "All things are difficult before they are easy."

If you're going to give someone a piece of your mind, make sure you can spare it.

Carl Jung, unquestionably one of the greatest psychiatrists of all time wrote, "During the past thirty years, people from all the civilized countries of Europe have consulted me. I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among all my patients over the age of thirty-five, there was not one whose problems in final analysis was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say, then, that every one of them fell ill because they lost that which the living religions of every age had given to their followers. And I would say that not one patient in thirty years under my care was ever really healed unless he regained a healthy, religious outlook."

"Promises. Keep them...The world is divided into two classes of people: the few people who make good on their promises (even if they don't promise as much) and the many who don't. Get in column A and stay there. You'll be very valuable wherever you are."

Peter Townsend

President Gordon B. Hinckley: One of the great tragedies we witness almost daily is the tragedy of men of high aim and low achievement. Their motives are noble. Their proclaimed ambition is praiseworthy. Their capacity is great. But their discipline is weak. They succumb to indolence. Appetite robs them of will. Source: “And Peter Went Out and Wept Bitterly,” Ensign, May 1979, 65.

Judge of your natural character by what you do in your dreams

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A few ten-seconds sermons:
If you find a path with no obstacles on it, chances are it doesn’t lead anywhere.
Heroism is endurance for one moment more.
Stop making excuses; start making progress.

The distance between a problem and a solution, is the distance between your knees and the floor.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Albert Einstein

"Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth."

-- Franklin D. Roosevelt

The things you do when no one is looking, are the things that define you.

June L. Rokoff, senior vice-president at Lotus Development Corporation, in a speech to students at Bentley College said "A couple of years ago when I was named to the position I have now, my husband David took his collection of my old business cards and had them framed." She held up the framed cards for all to see and continued, "Here it is - I keep it hanging in my office. When I look at it, I think of two people.
"One is my 10th-grade math teacher, who told me I should probably give up on math, or any career relating to math, because I was no good at geometry.
"The other is a boss I had in my second job, when I was 23 years old. He told me I'd gone about as far as I could go in the computer industry. He said I should just accept the fact that my career had 'plateaued' and quit trying to get ahead.
"So if any of you see my old math teacher or my old boss, would you let them know that today I have 1200 people working for me. And that most of them are very good in math."

"Loving can cost a lot but not loving always costs more, and those who fear to love often find that want of love is an emptiness that robs the joy from life."

Merle Shain

The Dash

I read of a man who stood to speak
At the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
From the beginning to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birth
And spoke of the following date with tears,
But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time
That she spent alive on earth
And now only those who loved her
Know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own,
The cars, the house, the cash,
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard;
Are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left
That can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough
To consider what’s true and real
And always try to understand
The way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger
And show appreciation more
And love the people in our lives
Like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect
And more often wear a smile,
Remembering that this special dash
Might only last a little while.

So when your eulogy is being read
With your life’s actions to rehash
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent your dash?

"It is not who is right, but what is right, that is of importance."

Thomas Huxley

Most of us fall short of our potential because of little things we know or assume about ourselves. And the most self-defeating assumption of all is that we are just like everyone else.

"Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance."

Bruce Barton

Don't change so people will like you. Be yourself and the right people will love the real you.

Forget your mistakes but don't forget what they taught you.

"The most delightful surprise in life is to suddenly recognize your own worth."

Maxwell Maltz

If at first you do succeed, try something harder.

"Before you can score, you must first have a goal."

Greek proverb

"Promises. Keep them...The world is divided into two classes of people: the few

people who make good on their promises (even if they don't promise as much) and the

many who don't. Get in column A and stay there. You'll be very valuable wherever you

are."

Peter Townsend

"One of the secrets of a long and fruitful life is to forgive everybody everything every

night before you go to bed."

Ann Landers

A wise old owl sat on an oak

The more he saw the less he spoke;

The less he spoke the more he heard;

Why aren't we like that wise old bird?

Edward H. Richards

"When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his

rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet, at the

hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it,

but all that had gone before."

John H. Mennear

"Those who lose riches lose much, but those who lose courage lose all."