Becoming A Brilliant Star

Cultural/Historical Resources

Compiled 

By 

William G. Huitt

Valdosta, GA

Last Revised: May 2012

General (N = 48)
Character (N = 28)
Style (N = 06)
Spiritual (N = 04)
Physical (N = 06)
Cognition (N = 50)
Affect (N = 40)
Conation (N = 69)
Citizenship/Family (N = 19)
Citizenship/Friendship (N = 26)
Citizenship/Finances (N = 17)
Citizenship/Work & Career (N = 17)
Citizenship/SocioCultural (N = 36)
Total (N = 366)

General

I change myself, I change the world.
Gloria Anzaldúa (Author)

It is axiomatic that the prevention of any disorder is better than its cure.
Roberto Assagioli (Scientist)

When we are really honest with ourselves we must admit that our lives are all that really belong to us.
	Cesar Chavéz (Activist)

Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still. 
Chinese Proverb
 
Nothing happens without transformation.
W. Edwards Deming (Businessman)

You are not judged by the height you have risen, but from the depth you have climbed.
Frederick Douglas (Activist and Author)

We can change our whole life and the attitude of people around us simply by changing ourselves.
Rudolf Dreikurs (Scientist)

To go to a new level on the outside you have to go to a new level on the inside.
Todd Duncan (Business Leader)

I believe in the promise of America. My political credo is very simple; to return something for what you have received. 
Larry Echohawk (Tribal Leader)

Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind. 
	Albert Einstein (Scientist)

The religion that is afraid of science dishonors God and commits suicide. 
Ralph Waldo Emerson (Author)

You never change something by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
Buckminster Fuller 

When planning for a year, plant corn. When planning for a decade, plant trees. When planning for life, train and educate people. 
Chinese proverb: Guanzi (c. 645BC) 

Almost everything we do is insignificant, but it’s very important that we do it. 
Mohandas Gandhi (Activist)

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.
Andre Gide (Author)

All things good to know are difficult to learn. 
Greek Proverb

Nothing endures but change. 
Heraclitus (Greek Philosopher, 4th/5th BCE)

You must live your life from beginning to end. No one else can do it for you. 
Hopi Proverb 

Experience is not what happens to you. Experience is what you do with what happens to you.
Aldous Huxley (Scientist)

If you run, you might lose. If you don't run, you're guaranteed to lose.
Jesse Jackson (Activist and Religious Leader)

You can't win unless you know how to lose.
Kareem Abdul Jabbar (Athlete)

Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.
Pope John Paul II [Karol Wojtyla] (Religious Leader)

The challenge is to keep moving and learning, never to settle for any of the same until you’re rotting in your own comfort.
Raúl Julia-Levy (Entertainer)

Sometimes you have to look reality in the eye and deny it.
Garrison Keillor (Entertainer)

All the significant battles are waged within the self.
Sheldon Kopp (Author and Scientist)

Though many have tried, no one has ever yet explained away the decisive fact that science, which can do so much, cannot decide what it ought to do. 
Joseph Wood Kruch (Scientist)

People change when they…
Hurt enough that they have to,
Learn enough that they want to, and
Receive enough that they are able to.
John C. Maxwell (Motivational Speaker and Religious Leader)

The circumstances of our lives have as much power as we chose to give them.
David McNally (Author and Motivational Speaker)

Politics and religion are obsolete; the time has come for science and spirituality. 
Jawaharlal Nehru (Indian Prime Minister)

A man would do nothing, if he waited until he could do it so well that no one at all would find fault with what he has done.
Cardinal Newman (Religious Leader)

That which does not destroy me, makes me stronger.
Friedrich Nietsche (Philosopher)

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.
Richard Nixon (U. S. President)

There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.
Norwegian saying

A little bit of science takes us away from God, but a lot of it gets us closer. 
Louis Pasteur (Scientist)

The life which is not examined is not worth living.
Plato (Philosopher)

It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.
Agnes Repplier (Author)

The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn ... and change.
Carl Rogers (Scientist)

What distinguishes the human being from an ape is the power of ideation, the ability to be conscious of our consciousness, a free will and a spiritual dimension.
Nathan Rutsein (Journalist and Educator)

A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
George Bernard Shaw (Playwright)

If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living.
Gail Sheehy

The work done by each one of us is what makes mankind advance. 
Igor Sikorsky (Businessman)

You never know a line is crooked unless you have a straight one to put next to it.
Socrates (Philosopher)

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.
Traditional saying

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. 
United Nations: Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
U.S. Constitution, Article I

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
U.S. Declaration of Independence

Character

A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
James Allen (Philosopher)

Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character…
Stephen R. Covey (Author and Motivational Speaker)

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (Author)

What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
	Ralph Waldo Emerson (Author)

He who is present at a wrongdoing, and lifts not a hand to prevent it, is as guilty as the wrongdoers.
Estamaza [Iron Eyes] (Tribal Leader) 

If you tell the truth and live with the truth, you have the right to be believed every time.
José León Flores (Diplomat)

As a splendid palace deserted by its inmates looks like a ruin, so does a man without character, all his material belongings notwithstanding.
Mohandas Gandhi (Activist)

Be known for your courtesy; it alone can make you worthy of praise.
Baltazar Gracián (Author and Religious Leader)

The most painful moral struggles are not those between good and evil, but between the good and the lesser good.
Barbara Grizzuti Harrison (Author and Publicist)

The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don’t know what to do.
John Holt (Author and Educator)

Lose your temper and you lose a friend; lie and you lose yourself. 
Hopi Proverb

Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.
Thomas Jefferson (U. S. President)

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.
Helen Keller (Author and Motivational Speaker)

Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' 
Expediency asks the question, 'Is it polite?' 
Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' 
But conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' 
And there comes a point when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor polite, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells him or her that it is right.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (Activist and Religious Leader)

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (Activist and Religious Leader)

We intuitively know that we are different from the animals, and that this difference is located in our ability to know right from wrong.
Howard Kushner (Scientist)

There is a hole at the end of the thief’s path.
Lakota Proverb

The reason people blame things on the previous generations is that there’s only one other choice.
Doug Larson (Entertainer and Religious Leader)

The tree is known by its fruit.
Latin American proverb

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
Abraham Lincoln (U. S. President)

The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.
Thomas B. Macaulay (Author)

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.
Nelson Mandela (Activist and South African Prime Minister)

Kindness is to use one’s will to guard one’s speech and conduct so as not to injure anyone.
Omaha Oral Tradition

We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions. 
Ronald Reagan (U. S. President)

It is not fair to ask others what you are not willing to do yourself.
Eleanor Roosevelt (Activist and Motivational Speaker)

Dreams are the touchstones of our character. 
Henry David Thoreau (Author and Philosopher)

The needle of our conscience is as good a compass as any.
Ruth Wolff (Author)

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there. 
John Wooden (Athlete and Coach)

Style

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.
H. Jackson Browne (Entertainer)

There are three things extremely hard: steel, diamond, and to know one’s self.
Benjamin Franklin (Businessman and Politician)

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
Mahatma Gandhi (Attorney and Social Activist)

You must be the change you want to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi (Attorney and Social Activist)

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Thomas Jefferson (U. S. President)

Two hundred cattle are under one stick, but two hundred human beings are under two hundred sticks. 
Nupe Proverb (Nigeria)

Spiritual

After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box.
Italian Proverb
 
A wide chasm separates knowing what is the right thing and actually doing the right thing. Spiritual intelligence bridges that chasm.
Khalil Khavari (Scientist)

I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit.
John F. Kennedy (U. S. President)

I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.
Mother Teresa (Activist)

Physical

Be happy in order to live long. Worry makes you sick.
Hopi Proverb

The body is a sacred garment.
Martha Graham (Dancer and Choreographer)

Many people treat their bodies as if they were rented from Hertz—something they are using to get around in but nothing they genuinely care about understanding.
Chungliang Al Huang (Scientist)

Your eyes are the mirror of your soul. 
When you sparkle your eyes, whether you think you are beautiful or not, you are. 
Twylah Nitsch (Educator)

If anything is sacred the human body is sacred.
Walt Whitman (Poet)

We are truly indefatigable in providing for the needs of the body, but we starve the soul.
Ellen Wood (Scientist)

Cognition

Ask the experienced rather than the learned. 
Arabic Proverb
 
There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere. 
Isaac Asimov (Author)

In the land of opportunity, only those who don’t see it are doomed to mediocrity.
	Fransisco Avelar (Educator)

The tree, which moves some to tears of joy, is, in the eyes of others, only a green thing that stands in the way. As a man is, so he sees.
William Blake (Author and Poet)

If you’re tired of fighting battles with yourself
If you want to be somebody else
Change your mind...
Ken Block of Sister Hazel (Entertainer)

I have learned to use the word “impossible” with the greatest of caution.
Werner von Braun (Scientist)

The real failure is not to learn.
Jimmy Carter (U. S. President)

Concentration is inspiration. You must be completely overtaken by your work and your subject. Only then do all your influences and experience come up to the surface.
Cesar Chávez (Activist)

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
Sir Winston Churchill (British Prime Minister)

Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
William Cowper (Religious Leader)

It is all right to say exactly what you think if you have learned to think exactly.
Marcelene Cox (Author)

It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.
Rene Descartes (Philosopher)

Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination. 
John Dewey (Educator and Philosopher)

Nurture your thoughts with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic, makes heroes.
Benjamin Disraeli (Israeli Prime Minister)

Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Albert Einstein (Scientist)

You don’t really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.
Albert Einstein (Scientist)

Intellectual freedom, of course, implies intellectual diversity.
Frances Fitzgerald (Author)

Being bilingual and bicultural is an asset. It is having twice as much as most folks.
Bettina Flores (Author)

Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently begin again.
Henry Ford (Businessman)

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason so few engage in it.
Henry Ford (Businessman)

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. 
Galileo Galilei (Scientist)
 
To be able to be caught up in the world of thought—that is to be educated.
Edith Hamilton (Author and Educator)

Every thought we think is creating our future.
Louise L. Hay (Author)

Never be afraid to sit awhile and think.
Lorraine Hansberry (Artist and Author)

Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (USA Supreme Court Justice)

Wisdom denotes the pursuing of the best ends by the best means.
Francis Hutcheson (Philosopher)

We live in our minds…Understanding how the mind works is crucial for understanding ourselves, dealing with others and leading a happier and more successful life.
Khalil Khavari (Scientist)

A child miseducated is a child lost. 
John F. Kennedy (U. S. President)

The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.
John Maynard Keynes (Scientist)
 
You can make your world so much larger simply by acknowledging everyone else’s.
Jeanne Marie Laskas (Author)

There is no blinder person than the one who does not want to see.
Latin American proverb

All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers.
Orison Swett Marden (Philosopher)

We are what we imagine. Our very existence consists in our imagination of ourselves...The greatest tragedy that can befall us is to go unimagined.
N. Scott Momaday (Author)

There are no facts, only interpretations. 
Friedrich Nietzsche (Philosopher)

Chance favors the prepared mind. 
Louis Pasteur (Philosopher)

Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first that carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence.
Louis Pasteur (Scientist)

There is one thing even more vital to science than intelligent methods; and that is, the sincere desire to find out the truth, whatever it may be.
Charles Sanders Pierce (Philosopher)

It is as impossible to withhold education from the receptive mind, as it is impossible to force it upon the unreasoning.
Agnes Repplier (Author and Social Critic)

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
William Shakespeare (Playwright and Poet)

My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose—somehow we win out.
Ronald Reagan (U. S. President)
 
Don’t let your learning lead to knowledge; let your learning lead to action.
Jim Rohn (Businessman and Motivational Speaker)

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt (Activist and Author)

Education is what survives when what has been learned is forgotten.
B. F. Skinner (Scientist)
Knowledge is healing. If you help someone to a better knowledge so they can make a better life and living, then you are healing them.
Sun Bear (Chippewa) (Educator and Entertainer)

To have ideas is to gather flowers. To think is to weave them into garlands.
Anne-Sophie Swetchine (Author)

Intelligence is the best indicator of life success for school-aged students and young adults.
Lewis Terman (Scientist)

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
Henry David Thoreau (Author and Philosopher)

In science, mistakes always precede the truth.
Horace Walpole (Author)

We must make decisions about our own destinies. We must be able to learn and profit from our mistakes. Only then can we become competent and prosperous...
Clyde Warrior (Activist)

Never confuse knowledge with wisdom. By wisdom I mean wrestling with how to live.
Cornel West (Philosopher and Activist)

Affect

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
Louisa May Alcott (Author)

Work joyfully and peacefully, knowing that right thoughts and right efforts will inevitably bring about right results.
James Allen (Philosopher)

Write the bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble. 
Arabian Proverb

You’re more likely to act yourself into a feeling than feel yourself into action.
Jerome Bruner (Scientist)

The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.
Dale Carnegie (Businessman)

All our dreams can come true—if we have the courage to pursue them.
Walt Disney (Businessman)

Don’t let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.
Richard L. Evans (Religious Leader)

Love is something that you can leave behind you when you die. It’s that powerful.
John Fire [Lame Dear] (Author and Religious Leader)

Fear makes come true that which one is afraid of.
Victor Frankl (Scientist)

Only by having faith in ourselves can we be faithful to others.
Erich Fromm (Scientist)
 
Where there is love there is life...
Mohandas Gandhi (Activist)

Whatever you can do,
   or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius,
   power and magic in it.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Author)

What factors are at play…when people of high IQ flounder and those of modest IQ do surprisingly well?…the difference quite often lies in the abilities of emotional intelligence…
Daniel Goleman (Scientist)

Success...seems to be connected with action. Successful [people] keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.
Conrad Hilton (Businessman)

It sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents.
Eric Hoffer (Philosopher)

Getting mad is a bad habit.
Hopi Proverb 

Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work.
H. L. Hunt (Businessman)

What we pay attention to, spend time with, or serve, we become attached to…feelings follow behavior.
James C. Hunter (Author and Motivational Speaker)

May serenity circle on silent wings and catch the whisper of the wind.
Cheewa James (Tribal Leader)

If you only care enough for a result, you will almost certainly attain it.
William James (Scientist and Philosopher)

Dreams will get you started; discipline will keep you going.
Michael Johnson (Athlete)

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched...but are felt in the heart.
Helen Keller (Author and Motivational Speaker)

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit. 
Helen Keller (Author and Motivational Speaker)

Determine the thing that can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.
Abraham Lincoln (U. S. President)

While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior.
Henry C. Link (Author)

Truly successful people have learned to do what does not come naturally. Real success lies in experiencing fear or aversion and acting in spite of it.
Joseph Mancusi (Motivational Speaker and Scientist)

To conquer fear, you have to feel the fear and take action anyway.
John C. Maxwell (Motivational Speaker and Spiritual Leader)

People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going.
Earl Nightingale (Author and Motivational Speaker)

Love and intimacy are at a root of what makes us sick and what makes us well, what causes sadness and what brings happiness, what makes us suffer and what leads to happiness.
Dean Ornish (Scientist)

A man’s dreams are an index to his greatness.
Zadok Rabinowitz (Religious Leader)

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (U. S. President)

People who blame themselves when they fail…think they are worthless, talentless, unlovable. People who blame external events do not lose self-esteem when bad events strike.
Martin E. Seligman (Scientist)

All the joys the world contains
Has come through wishing happiness to others.
All the misery the world contains
Has come through wanting pleasure for oneself [at the expense of others].
Shantideva (Religious Leader)

When we run away from fear, it gets bigger, but when we advance toward it, it shrinks.
Laurie Skreslet (Adventurer)

The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.
Herbert Spencer (Philosopher)

Free yourself from negative influence.
Negative thoughts are the old habits that gnaw at the roots of the soul.
Moses Shongo (Educator and Religious Leader)

Some people live by default; other people live by design.
Tim Storey (Motivational Speaker and Religious Leader)

Don’t be afraid to cry. It will free your mind of sorrowful thoughts.
Don Talayesva (Healer and Tribal Leader)

There is no future without forgiveness. 
Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Religious Leader)

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.
Mark Twain (Author)

Conation

He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.
Muhammed Ali (Athlete)

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.
Anonymous
 
Dwell not upon thy weariness, thy strength shall be according to the measure of thy desire. 
Arabian Proverb

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. 
Aristotle (Philosopher)

You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it, however.
Richard Bach (Author)

Action is the antidote to despair.
Joan Baez (Activist and Entertainer)

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself.
Henry Ward Beechen (Religious Leader)

Struggle to learn; learn to struggle.
Frank Bonilla (Educator)

When you are not practicing, remember someone, somewhere, is practicing; and when you meet him, he will win.
Bill Bradley (Athlete and Politician)

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp. Or what's a heaven for?
Robert Browning (Poet)

Destiny is not just a matter of chance, it’s a matter of choice; 
It’s not a thing to be waited for, it’s a thing to be achieved.
William Jennings Bryant (Attorney and Politician)

To struggle and battle and overcome and absolutely defeat every force designed against us is the only way to achieve.
Nannie Burroughs (Activist)

The man who is prepared has his battle half fought.
Miguel de Cervantes (Author)

Talk does not cook rice. 
Chinese Proverb 

It is no use saying, ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
Sir Winston Churchill (British Prime Minister)

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.
Peter F. Drucker (Author and Business Leader) 

We first make our habits, and then our habits make us. 
John Dryden (Philosopher)
 
Decide whether or not the goal is worth the risks involved. If it is, stop worrying.
Amelia Earhart (Adventurer)

There is no victory at bargain basement prices. 
Dwight D. Eisenhower (Military Leader and U. S. President)
 
The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.
George Elliott (Author)

You don’t need anything else more than the desire to learn…
Jaime Escalante (Educator)

If you have a great canoe, great will be your labour too.
Fijian proverb

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. 
F. Scott Fitzgerald (Author)

To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream, not only plan but believe.
Anatole France (Author)

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
Anne Frank (Author)

By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail.
Benjamin Franklin (Businessman and Politician)

You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result.
Mahatma Gandhi

Lose not courage, lose not faith, go forward.
Marcus Garvey (Author)

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them. 
Kahlil Gibran (Author and Poet)

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.
Johann von Goethe (Author)

The beginning is the half of every action. 
Greek Proverb 

Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.
Napoleon Hill (Author and Motivational Speaker)

Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving.
Conrad Hilton (Businessman)

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. 
Elbert Hubbard (Author and Businessman)

Dream power is stronger than will power. A clear vision of what we want makes it possible to develop the self-discipline required to get it.
William G. Huitt (Scientist)

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die,
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Langston Hughes (Poet)

Folks, there are only two things in life you have to do. You have to die and you have to make choices. From those you cannot escape.
James C. Hunter (Author and Motivational Speaker)

When legends die, there are no more dreams.
When there are no more dreams, there is no more greatness.
Indigenous American Proverb 

Success isn't something you chase. It's something you have to put forth the effort for constantly. Then maybe it'll come when you least expect it. Most people don't understand that. 
Michael Jordan (Athlete)

It is not how planful and willful you are that matters, it is how you have designed your plans and will to that of the Creator’s.
Khalil Khavari (Scientist)

The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark. 
Michelangelo (Artist)

Volition connects rational intelligence and emotional intelligence to spiritual intelligence and the material world.
Khalil Khavari (Scientist)

It is not always physical bravery that counts. One must have the courage to face life as it is, to go through sorrows and always sacrifice oneself for the sake of others. 
Kipsigis Saying (Kenya)

Diligence is the mother of industry.
Latin American proverb

Work to be worth more, study to know more.
Latin American proverb

The setting of a great hope is like the setting of the sun. The brightness of our life is gone.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Poet)
 
I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do something I can do. 
Helen Keller (Author and Motivational Speaker)

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
Robert F. Kennedy (U. S. President)

Always bear in mind that your resolution to succeed is more important than any other thing.
Abraham Lincoln (U. S. President)

We must dare to dream great dreams--and then we must dare to put them into action.
Peter MacDonald (Tribal Leader)

More than anything else, what keeps a person going in the midst of adversity is having a sense of purpose. It is the fuel that powers persistence.
John C. Maxwell (Motivational Speaker and Religious Leader)

It takes courage to do the seemingly impossible.
Yolanda Nava

To live is to make choices continually that shape the very essence of who we are.
David McNally (Author and Motivational Speaker)

Every struggle, whether won or lost, strengthens us for the next to come. 
Victorio Mimbres (Tribal Leader)

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. 
Thomas Paine (Activist)
It’s always too early to quit. 
Norman Vincent Peale (Motivational Speaker and Religious Leader)

A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.
Colin Powell (Military Leader and Politician)

When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you’ll dance.
Mark Sanders and Tia Sillers (Song Writers)

We always hear about the haves and have-nots. Why don’t we hear about the doers and do-nots?
Thomas Sewell (Author)

Learning is defined as a change in behavior. You haven’t learned a thing until you can take action and use it.
Don Shula and Ken Blanchard (Coach and Businessman)

You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.
Beverly Sills (Entertainer)

I believe in the motto, “Try and try again.” But the way I read it, it says “Try, then stop and think. Then try again.”
William Dean Singleton (Businessman)

It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of our responsibilities.
Sir Josiah Stamp (Businessman)

Going in with your mind set on winning is the first essential to making a success in any work you may undertake.
Roderick Stevens (Author and Motivational Speaker)

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage, against the dying of the light.
Dylan Thomas (Poet)
The highest-quality power…comes from the application of knowledge.
Alvin Toffler (Author)

As human beings, we are endowed with freedom of choice, and we cannot shuffle off our responsibility upon the shoulders of God or nature. We must shoulder it ourselves. It is our responsibility. 
Arnold J. Toynbee (Scientist)

If you always do what you’ve always done, then you will always get what you’ve always gotten.
Traditional Saying
 
There are victories of the soul and spirit. Sometimes, even if you lose, you win. 
Elie Wiesel (Activist)

It is better to die on our feet, than live on our knees.
Emiliano Zapata (Politician)

Citizenship/Family

You leave home to seek your fortune and, when you get it, you go home and share it with your family.
Anita Baker (Entertainer)

Other things may change us, but we start and end with family.
Anthony Brandt (Composer)

To understand your parents’ love you must raise children yourself.
Chinese Proverb

If you do bad things your children will follow you and do the same. If you want to raise good children, be decent yourself.
Chris [In The Middle] (Rancher and Scientist) 

The family is the nucleus of civilization.
William J. Durant (Philosopher)

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.
Jane Howard (Author)

Black goats must be caught early, before it is dark. 
Igala Proverb (Nigeria) 

Marriage is a good thing. Like any good thing, it exacts a price. To receive the reward of marriage, both wife and husband should pay their share of the costs.
Khalil Khavari (Scientist)

Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege, than the raising of the next generation.
C. Everett Koop (Scientist)

The family you come from isn’t as important as the family you’re going to have.
Ring Lardner (Author)

The family unit plays a critical role in our society and in the training of the generation to come.
Sandra Day O’Connor (Supreme Court Judge)

See how the boy is with his sister and the other ones of his home lodge and you can know how the man will be with your daughter.
Plains Sioux Proverb  

The family is one of nature’s masterpieces.
George Santayana (Philosopher)

Parents lend children their experience and a vicarious memory; children endow their parents with a vicarious immortality.
George Santayana (Philosopher)

A family is a place where principles are hammered and honed on the anvil of everyday living.
Charles Swindoll (Author and Religious Leader)

Love begins by taking care of the closest ones—the ones at home.
Mother Teresa (Activist) 

A person who does evil things…has disgraced his family.
Tlingit Moral Tradition

Children are the clothes of a man. 
Yoruba Proverb (Nigeria)

Citizenship/Friendship

Yearn to understand first and to be understood second.
Becca Lewis Allen

It is because one antelope will blow the dust from the other’s eye that two antelopes walk together. 
Akan Proverb (Ghana)

Discretion is being able to raise your eyebrow instead of your voice. 
Anonymous

Friends are treasures. 
Horace Bruns 

Tell me with whom you travel, and I will tell you who you are.
Miguel de Cervantes (Author)

Behind an able man there are always other able men. 
Chinese Proverb

The only way to have a friend is to be one. 
Ralph Waldo Emerson (Author)

My children, listen well. Remember that you are brothers, that the downfall of one means the downfall of all. You must have one fire, one pipe, one war club. 
Hiawatha (Tribal Leader)

Argument doesn’t pay: you don’t come home happy.
Hopi Proverb 

A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same. 
Elbert Hubbard (Author and Businessman)

Ask about your neighbors, then buy the house. 
Jewish Proverb
 
You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.
Harper Lee (Author)

When you choose your friends, don’t be short-changed by choosing personality over character. 
W. Somerset Maugham (Author)

The dog says, “If you fall down, and I fall down, the play will be enjoyable.” 
Nupe Proverb (Nigeria)

People give words to people just like they give gifts. You have to decide whether to accept the gift.
Bubba Pratt (Businessman and Motivational Speaker)

When somebody tries to put you down, they’re trying to build themselves up.
Bubba Pratt (Businessman and Motivational Speaker)

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with other people.
Theodore Roosevelt (U. S. President)

Be slow in choosing a friend, but slower in changing him. 
Scottish Proverb

My heart is filled with joy when I see you here, as the brooks fill with water when the snow melts in the spring…
Ten Bears (Tribal Leader)

Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him. 
Booker T. Washington (Educator)
 
The love of our neighbor in all its fullness simply means being able to say to him, “What are you going through?”
Simone Weil (Author and Philosopher)

True friends stab you in the front. 
Oscar Wilde (Author and Playwright)

Do not wrong or hate your neighbor, for it is not him that you wrong, you wrong yourself. 
Thomas Wildcat Alford (Educator and Translator) 
 
Good and evil cannot dwell together in the same heart, so a good man ought not to go into evil company.
Wingenim (Tribal Leader) 

Offend me and I will question you—this is the medicine for friendship. 
Yoruba Proverb (Nigeria)

Citizenship/Finances

If money be not they servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that may be said to possess him.
Francis Bacon (Philosopher)

It’s important to me that money not be important to me.
Les Brown (Author and Motivational Speaker)

If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.
Edmund Burke (Philosopher and Statesman)

The only thing money gives you is the freedom of not worrying about money.
Johnny Carson (Entertainer)

Money never starts an idea; it is the idea that starts the money.
W. J. Cameron (Adventurer and Businessman)

To have and not to give is often worse than to steal.
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (Author)

Choice has always been a privilege of those who could afford to pay for it.
Ellen Frankfort (Author and Educator)

The use of money is all the advantage there is in having money.
Benjamin Franklin (Businessman and Politician)

If a person gets his attitude toward money straight, it will help straighten out almost every other area in his life.
Billy Graham (Religious Leader)

In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later. 
Harold Green (Businessman)

Money without brains is always dangerous.
Napoleon Hill (Author and Motivational Speaker)

Whatever you have, spend less.
Samuel Johnson (Author)

Don’t be too busy earning a living to make any money.
Joe Karbo (Author and Businessman)

A person’s treatment of money is the most decisive test of his character; how he makes it and how he spends it.
James Moffatt (Theologian)

The buck stops with the guy who signs the checks.
Rupert Murdoch (Businessman)

Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think.
Ayn Rand (Philosopher and Businesswoman)

Poverty is a noose that strangles humility and breeds disrespect for God and man.
Wilbur Riegert (Activist) 

Adversity makes a man wise, not rich. 
Romanian Proverb

Citizenship/Career & Work

Cessation of work is not accompanied by cessation of expenses.
Cato The Elder (Philosopher)

I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.
Thomas A. Edison (Inventor)

Laziness may appear attractive but work gives satisfaction.
Anne Frank (Author)

Work relieves us from three great evils, boredom, vice, and want.
French Proverb

Like the bee, we should make our industry our amusement.
Oliver Goldsmith (Author)

Labor disgraces no man, but occasionally men disgrace labor.
Ulysses S. Grant (Military Leader and U. S. President)

Every calling is great when greatly pursued.
Oliver Wendell Holmes (Author)

The highest reward that God gives us for good work is the ability to do better work.
Elbert Hubbard (Author and Businessman)

The work praises the man.
Irish Proverb

If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.
Sir Isaac Newton (Scientist)

No one can arrive from being talented alone. God gives talent; work transforms talent into genius.
Anna Pavlova (Ballerina)

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.
Eleanor Roosevelt (Activist)

When I think of work, it’s mostly about having control over your destiny, as opposed to being at the mercy of what’s out there.
Gary Sinise (Entertainer)

Anything that comes easy, comes wrong.
Josephine Tessier (Artist)

Pennies do not come from heaven—they have to be earned here on earth.
Margaret Thatcher (British Prime Minister)

Nothing ever comes to one that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.
Booker T. Washington (Educator)

Weeping is not the answer to poverty; a lazy man who is hungry has no one to blame but himself. 
Yoruba Proverb (Nigeria)

Citizenship/SocioCultural

We should acknowledge differences, we should greet differences, until difference makes no difference anymore.
Adela Allen (Educator)

We made the world we're living in and we have to make it over.
James Baldwin (Author and Playwright)

The test of a civilization is in the way that it cares for its helpless members.
Pearl S. Buck (Author)

The pebbles are the strength of the wall. 
Buji Proverb (Nigeria)

When people are treated with dignity and given a chance to speak in their own way, barriers can be broken down, if not overcome.
John Frances Burke

The company that can demonstrate that it is blind to color, gender, age, and culture will have the greatest success and appeal to the broadest population.
Ted Childs (Businessman)

There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies and that is fighting without them.
Winston Churchill (British Prime Minister)

The best way to predict the future is to create it.
Peter F. Drucker (Author and Business Leader)

So long as we defile our sacred mother earth, as long as the elderly go without health care, as long as men and women labor for bare subsistance, the pain goes on, and the promise is unfulfilled. 
Larry Echohawk (Tribal Leader)

Peace and justice are two sides of the same coin.
Dwight Eisenhower (Military Leader and U. S. President)

No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helps you. 
Althea Gibson (Athlete)

Nobody’s a hero who does it for himself…People who in life help others, they are heroes, anywhere in the world.
Peter Habeler (Adventurer)

Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. 
Indigenous American Proverb

Let [people] treat their black neighbors as equals not because they want to but only because the law requires it. Their hearts and minds will follow their behavior soon enough.
Lyndon Johnson (U. S. President)

The respect for the rights of others is peace.
Benito Juárez (President of Mexico)

If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.
John Lennon
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
Abraham Lincoln (U. S. President)

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
John F. Kennedy (U. S. President)

I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!
Martin Luther King, Jr. (Activist and Religious Leader)

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (Activist and Religious Leader)

You can make your world so much larger simply by acknowledging everyone else’s.
Jeanne Marie Laskas (Author)

We are born helpless. As soon as we are fully conscious we discover loneliness. We need others physically, emotionally, intellectually; we need them if we are to know anything, even ourselves.
C. S. Lewis (Author)

We must seek unity within. The time for division and dissension is over. We must reach out to each other, come together and unite.
Peter MacDonald (Tribal Leader)

Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.
Margaret Mead (Scientist)

Generous people are rarely mentally ill people.
Karl Menninger (Scientist)

The greatest honor history can bestow is that of peacemaker. 
Richard Nixon (U. S. President)

You cannot be witness to the human suffering and not be convinced of the existence of social sin. We are all responsible unless we take a stand and speak out against it.
Father Luis Olivares (Religious Leader)

What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal. 
Albert Pike (Author and Military Leader)

We who are clay blended by the Master Potter, come from the kiln of Creation in many hues. How can people say one skin is colored, when each has its own coloration? 
Polingaysi Qoyawayma (Tribal Leader)

Experience is the wisest teacher, and history does not furnish an example of a forced civilization being permanent and real.
Pleasant Porter [Crazy Bear, Talof Harjo] (Educator and Tribal Leader) 

When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.
John M. Richardson, Jr. (Professor, International Development)

I do not think that the measure of a civilization is how tall its buildings of concrete are, but rather on how well its people have learned to relate to their environment and fellow man.
Sun Bear (Educator and Entertainer) 

A single twig breaks, but the bundle of twigs is strong. 
Tecumseh (Tribal Leader)

In the last analysis civilization itself is measured by the way in which children will live and what chance they will have in the world.
Mary Heaton Vorse (Author)

If the citizens of the United States should not be free and happy, the fault is entirely their own.
George Washington (Military Leader and U. S. President)

You can get everything in life you want if you help enough people get what they want.
Zig Ziglar (Author and Motivational Speaker)