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Inspirational Phrases.

#2
I've always lived my life by two idioms that I figured out:

on optomism "If you're falling out of an airplane, you might as well scream "WHEE!" because you're going to die anyway"

on general wellbeing "No matter who or where you are, there's someone looking up to you, you're somebody's hero -- act like it"
 
#3
It's a bit lengthy, but one of my favorites by Theodore Roosevelt. It's part of one of his speeches.
"The Man In The Arena"
Speech at the Sorbonne
Paris, France
April 23, 1910

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
 
#11
caesarbass said:
It's a bit lengthy, but one of my favorites by Theodore Roosevelt. It's part of one of his speeches.
"The Man In The Arena"
Speech at the Sorbonne
Paris, France
April 23, 1910

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
Click to expand...


That is very cool, thats going up.
 
#15
Curtis Mayfield has some good quotes.... my current sig is one of his that sticks with me.

"Pardon Me Brother, I Know We've Come A Long Long Way
Let Us Stop Being So Satisfied
For Tomorrow Can Be An Even Brighter Day"




edit: Here is the rest of it
We The People

We The People
Who Are Darker Than Blue
We People Who Are Darker Than Blue
Are We Gonna Stand Around This Town
And Let What Others Say Come True

We're Just Good For Nothing They All Figure
A Boyish Grown Up Shiftless Jigger
Now We Can't Hardly Stand For That
Or Is That Really Where It's At

We People Who Are Darker Than Blue
This Ain't No Time For Segregating
I'm Talking Bout Brown And Yellow Too
High Yellow Gal Can't You Tell
You're Just The Surface Of Our Dark Deep Well
If Your Mind Could Really See
You'd Know Your Color Same As Me

Pardon Me Brother As You Stand In Your Glory
I Know You Won't Mind If I Tell The Whole Story

Get Yourself Together
Learn To Know Your Sign
Shall We Commit Our Genocide
Before We Check Out Our Mind

I Know We've All Got Problems That's Why I'm Here To Say
Keep Peace With Me And I With You
Let Me Love In My Own Way

Now I Know We Have Great Respect For The Sister, And Mother
It's Even Better Yet
But There's The Joker In The Street
Loving One Brother And Killing The Other
When The Time Comes And We Are Really Free
There'll Be No brothers Left You See

We People Who Are Darker Than Blue
Don't Let Us Hang Around This Town
And Let What Others Say Come True
Were Just Good For Nothing They All Figure
A Boyish Grown Up Shiftless Jigger
Now We Can't Hardly Stand For That
Or Is That Really Where It's At

Pardon Me Brother, I Know We've Come A Long Long Way
Let Us Stop Being So Satisfied
For Tomorrow Can Be An Even Brighter Day
1970 Curtom Publishing (Bmi)
Click to expand...

it's from "Curtis Live!" one of my all time favorite albums
 
#18
The Roosevelt quote is brilliant.

Pertaining to music, there's a few...my favourite at the moment is by Charles Mingus, and is currently my signature.

Then...

"Even the dogs in Cuba bark the clave." - Campbell Ryga

A non music one that applies to ALL sections of life, by Dorothy Sarnoff - "Make sure you are done speaking before your audience is done listening."

IMO, if you're looking for stuff that'll really wrack your brain -- a "mindf***" as my brother calls it -- read the Tao te Ching by Lao Tzu. There are any number of translations of it, but the only one I've read in its completion is Sam Hamill's. The original Tao te Ching is, essentially, poetry, and a lot of translations lose that in a quest for literalism. Sam Hamill himself is an accomplished poet and translator and many of the verses are particularly poignant.

Dig some Lao-Tzu here. EDIT: These are translations from the Tao te Ching, translated here as "The Way of Lao-Tzu." This is just an example of a substandard translation, as that is simply...not correct. I'll let you read about the actual name when you buy the book (assuming you do -- please do, it's absolutely wonderful) but "tao" is translated one way as "The Way," while "te" can be considered "power" or "virtue." The thing about Chinese characters is that any character can be translated in a handful of ways, so one of many possible translations of "Tao te Ching" is "The Way of Virtue," or "The Virtuous Way."

In any case, it's awesome. Read it, appreciate it, live it.
 
#19
I have a few depending on what I am doing *L*

At work, as an insurance examiner (sucks to be me) I use 'It's not my money'...

When I am dealing with people in the church who are thankless and just want to complain? 'Treasures in heaven...'

Both are great for mantras!

and every once in awhile, 'll just say 'Charlie Foxtrot' when everything goes to crap... It's usually after something has been horribly mis-managed (by someone above me)... Basically a euphemism for cluster-%^&$.... it's not really motivational... but it makes me (and those around me who know what it means) laugh.
 
#20
For inspiration, I generally look to Bane lyrics, which amongst my favorite is the song "Ali vs Frazier"

(rumble, young man, rumble)
how many more days will you sit
and talk about your ambitions
all that you can be
the person you are dying to be
the place you want to get to
but always out of reach
before that fury swells inside of you
grows so big that it forever quiets you
stand up to your demons
make a run at your goliath
find the best, find the worst
waiting in both of you
it抯 not the who or the what that is lasting
but how you fight
that is the fight
the only mark that will not leave you
and i will feel my heart drum its final beat
if it meant that i have given this my all
there抯 nothing left for me to believe in
if not you, if not this?what else is there but death?
(it抯 your call卛t抯 all on you)
give more
give everything
give blood
 

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