Quotes/aphorisms that have actually helped you in life

[Mickey Brausch]

[ QUOTE ]
"Distance lends perspective" -- I printed this out in block letters and had it on my bedroom wall for years.

[/ QUOTE ]How far from your bed ?

[Howard Treesong]

"A quitter never wins. A winner never quits. But if you never win and never quit, you're an idiot."

"Get to work. You're not being paid for the power of your dreams."

Both of these are from despair.com, and both are prominently displayed on large posters in my office.

[registrar]

[ QUOTE ]
both are prominently displayed on large posters in my office.

[/ QUOTE ]

Why? I mean, why displayed, not why do you like them?

[Nate.]

When I feel, for whatever reason, more loving than loved, I find wisdom in these lines:

[ QUOTE ]
"How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me."

--W.H. Auden, The More Loving One

[/ QUOTE ]

This poem from Hart Crane has frequently helped me to grow from pain:

[ QUOTE ]
<u>The Hive</u>



Up the chasm-walls of my bleeding heart
Humanity pecks, claws, sobs, and climbs;
Up the inside, and over every part
Of the hive of the world that is my heart.


And of all the sowing, and all the tear-tendering,
And reaping, have mercy and love issued forth.
Mercy, white milk, and honey, gold love--
And I watch, and say, "These the anguish are worth."

[/ QUOTE ]

I find staggering wisdom in these lines from Hamlet; hearing them recited in a class once was one of the most intense experiences of my life:

[ QUOTE ]
Hamlet: Not a whit, we defy augury; there’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all.

[/ QUOTE ]

--Nate

[Howard Treesong]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
both are prominently displayed on large posters in my office.

[/ QUOTE ]

Why? I mean, why displayed, not why do you like them?

[/ QUOTE ]

The first one reminds me to avoid falling in love with my own arguments. It's the siren song of law practice. There's a delicate judgment call you must make from time to time: repeating an argument gives it added force, but repeat it too many times without winning it, and you're screwed. Too many people I've worked with don't get this right, and it reminds me to take time to think macroscopically about the arguments we're pushing.

I display the second one because I'm effing lazy. I could sit and daydream for hours about winning the WSOP ME or hanging out with the twins. But that doesn't bring home the bacon, and the poster is a constant reminder of the fact that if I really want the twins, I'd better keep my ass on the grindstone.

[drewjustdrew]

"Don't sweat the small stuff and it's all small stuff."

- Richard Carlson

I never read the book, but I live by this motto. I lead a very low stress life.

[MrMon]

"Allies do not require a common goal, only a common enemy."

- First read in "The Fountainhead", but it's been around for years in different forms.

[hyde]

It is easier to ride a horse in the direction it is going.

[***]

"Sometimes you eat the bar, sometimes the bar eats you."

"Dude: I was feeling really [censored] earlier in the day, I'd lost a little money, I was down in the dumps.
Tony: Forget about it.
Dude: Yeah man! [censored] it! Can't worry about that [censored], life goes on man."

Both from The Big Lebowski. I can be a high strung dude at times and these quotes remind me of the importance of relaxation. They also make me laugh to beat the bush.

[Aces McGee]

Although recent events in my life have me thinking that I may be realizing my dreams too slowly, I have always found utility in the story of the young bull and the old bull:

A young bull and an old bull are standing atop a hill, watching a group of cows grazing below. The young bill says "I'm going to run down this hill and f*ck one of those cows." The old bull slowly lifts his head, looks at the young bull, and says "I'm going to walk down there, and f*ck them all."

This story is a common one (I've since heard it from my uncle, and a business consultant I met at a conference), but it was a basketball coach my sophomore year in high school that first relayed it to me. He would occasionally remind me of it if he thought I or the team were getting a little bit out of control and needed to slow the tempo down (I was the point guard, so that was my job). He was something of a yeller and screamer, an in-your-face type, but in these instances, he's just calmly say to me "Rocky (my nickname at the time), be the old bull."

Like I said, I sometimes wonder if I'm too laid-back about pursuing what I want do in life, but being the old bull has served me well in countless instances.

-McGee