Monthly Archives: May 2011

Great Fathers

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My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person – he believed in me.
— Jim Valvano

I learned more listening to my father around the dinner table than in four years of college.
— Anonymous

Everybody knows that fatherhood reveals your limitations. But less well known is that, now and then, fatherhood also brings out skills that might well have gone undiscovered were it not for having kids.
— Hugh O’Neill

The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
— Theodore Hesburgh

The most productive fathering time of your day may be the five minutes you stop along your route home, close your eyes and determine your family agenda for the evening – especially your first 30 minutes.
— Paul Lewis

The Benefits of Exercise

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Everyone who has run knows that its most important value is in removing tension and allowing a release from whatever other cares the day may bring.
— Jimmy Carter

I don’t know how the creative process works, but it always seems, as I’m running, that thoughts start coming in.
— Robert Caro

Running helps me stay on an even keel and in an optimistic frame of mind.
— Bill Clinton

Running is relaxing. I can think out problems more clearly when I’m running by myself.
— Jim Ryun

I use running to gain energy. If you’re going to succeed in a very, very difficult profession, you’d better be fit.
— Israel Horovitz

The Power of Hope

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There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow.
— G.K. Chesterton

Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible.
— Anonymous

Hope always provides options, always provides some glimmer of “Yes, we can do it.” That’s what leaders have to communicate and embody and express in action.
— Warren Bennis

A leader is a dealer in hope.
— Napoléon Bonaparte

Loss of hope, rather than loss of life, is the factor that really decides wars, battles and even the smallest combats. The all-time experience of warfare shows that when men reach the point where they see, or feel, that further efforts and sacrifice can do no more than delay the end, they commonly lose the will to spin it out, and bow to the inevitable.
— B.H. Liddell Hart

Overcome Difficulties

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Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.
— Thomas Adams

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning to dance in the rain.
— Anonymous

I learned from the example of my father that the manner in which one endures what must be endured is more important than the thing that must be endured.
— Dean Acheson

Mother was of royal African blood. Throughout all her bitter years of slavery, she preserved a queen-like dignity.
— Mary Bethune

The more I see of the real champions and succeeders in this world, the more I become convinced that natural aptitude and talent are not the secrets to their success. Rather it is the ability to overcome obstacles that makes the difference between success and failure.
— Robert Backman

Individuality

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Pick a style that you’re comfortable with and stick with it. You can have role models, but don’t try to be somebody else. Be yourself, stay natural and smile once in a while.
— Lee Iacocca

Don’t go along with the crowd. Go your own way.
— Ben Hogan

Never pretend to be something you’re not.
— Anonymous, if a dog were your teacher

In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.
— Coco Chanel

Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody else is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction.
— Sam Walton

Enjoy Nature

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The colors in the sky at sunset, the delicate tints of the early spring foliage, the brilliant autumn leaves, the softly colored grasses and lovely flowers – what painter ever equaled their beauties with paint and brush?
— Laura Ingalls

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.
— George Washington Carver

In July, when I bury my nose in a hazel bush, I feel fifteen years old again. It’s good! It smells of love!
— Camille Corot

I see trees as living sculptures by God and constant earthly reminders of His continuing love for mankind. I don’t just see trunks and branches. I see a sculpture.
— Robert Dedman

No matter how poor or deprived you feel, it is difficult to stick with that feeling for very long if you turn your focus to Mother Nature. No high-priced ticket is needed. No fancy clothes are required. You don’t even have to be on an in-crowd list. You just have to show up.
— Suzanne Zoglio

The Best Book

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The study of God’s word, for the purpose of discovering God’s will, is the secret discipline which has formed the greatest characters.
— James Alexander

All the wonders of Greek civilization were not as wonderful as this single book of Psalms.
— William Gladstone

So great is my veneration for the Bible that the earlier my children begin to read it, the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens to their country, and respectable members of society.
— John Quincy Adams

The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword.
— Hebrews 4:12

Hold fast to the Bible as the anchor of your liberties; write its precepts in your hearts, and practice them in your lives. To the influence of this book we are indebted for all the progress made in true civilization, and to this we must look as our guide in the future.
— Ulysses S. Grant