Friendship Friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation. (George Washington) How many people have you “friended” on Facebook? How long have you known them—and how well? It’s easy...
Courage II Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die. (G. K. Chesterton, 19th-20th century English writer) Surely every soldier who considered a so-called “fox-hole decision” wanted to live. He or...
Courage I Have the courage to act instead of react. (Oliver Wendell Holmes, 19th poet) A lot of us procrastinate and then end up reacting to situations rather than being ready for them. Too often, then, it’s a knee-jerk response that may be more harmful than helpful....
Choices In every single thing you do, you are choosing a direction. Your life is a product of choices. (Kathleen Hall, author) What will it be? Bacon and eggs? Just toast and coffee? Or a full-blown breakfast smorgasbord? That may be the first choice of the day (after...
Joy Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. (Anthony J. D'Angelo, educator and author) Have you ever known someone who seemed to bring gloom and doom wherever he or she went? You knew that when that person joined the crowd, things...
Wisdom In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted. (Bertram Russell) It’s important to have confidence in what you think and believe, but it’s foolish to think that you know it all or that...
Endurance I changed what I could, and what I couldn’t, I endured. (Dorothy Vaughn, late mathematician) Vaughn was a mathematical genius who provided significant help to NASA in the launching of early space flights. Her amazing story was told in the compelling movie,...
Veterans Day America’s veterans embody the ideals upon which America was founded more than 243 years ago. (Steve Buyer, former Indiana congressman) It’s Veterans Day in the U.S., a time to honor the men and women who have served in the military to protect and preserve...
Learning The illiterate of the future are not those who cannot read or write. They are those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. (Alvin Toffler, late futurist author) Millions of illiterate people around the world no doubt long for the opportunity to learn how to...
Education’s Purpose Education is more than the accumulation of knowledge or the mastery of skills, honorable objectives but different from the “drawing out” by which education changes who we are. (Source unknown) We’d like to think that learning a lot about a given...
Don’t Fear Fearlessness is not the absence of fear. It's the mastery of fear. It's about getting up one more time than we fall down. (Arianna Huffington, Greek-American author) The fear of failure seems to be universal. No one really wants to fall short of his hopes...
Creativity Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. (Pablo Picasso, 20th century Spanish artist) Scribbling all over the paper, learning to keep in the lines, drawing weird pictures—all the creativity of young, growing minds....