Life changing quotes (Maybe, "life lessons" would be a better fit?)

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done 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 and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows 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 know neither victory nor defeat.

– Theodore Roosevelt
From a speech given in Paris at the Sorbonne in 1910
 
My grandpa (John Freeman) was the best gunsmith of his time in Stockton, CA. He told me that if another guy knows you have a gun, he'll be more likely to use his gun (on you).
 
My dad always said, "you plant corn... you get corn."




Meaning, Life is what you put into it. :)
 
My squad leader, Sgt Hayward, told me on my first patrol after I survived a grenade at 10'.... "Freeman, you gonna be alright..."
 
"If it's broke hit it with a rock until you either fix it or break it" - Major Bryant, :D Nice guy like his methodology.
 
Another one, from my dad (I've posted this one before)

"You're not stupid if you learn a lesson the hard way. You're only stupid if you have to learn a lesson the hard way, more than once."

thx - cpr
 
Cosmopolitan Magazine, the 70's:

"There is One Rule: Never Postpone Your Life for a Man."

It may sound funny, but I made myself a sign with that saying on it and kept it posted by my desk at work and at home. When I was younger, it was too easy to want to stay home by the phone just in case "HE" might call. Not going out with friends hoping you might be able to go out with HIM. Arranging your life for HIM. Scheduling your life for HIM.

Hey. Get on with life. Basically, don't postpone your life for ANYONE. Live your life, one day at a time, and plan for the future
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"It just doesn't matter." This has really helped me over the years when I have battled serious depression and a jerk of a boss. I have this printed out and taped inside my top middle desk drawer. When things would get tough, I would open my drawer and read the saying. It just doesn't matter. No matter how bad it seems, how tough the day, what an ass my boss is being, it just doesn't matter. Sort of along the lines of "This too shall pass." In the scheme of things, it just doesn't matter. I have had the same desk for 20 years - that saying is still taped inside my desk drawer!
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"Principles only mean something when you stick to them when it's inconvenient." - Laine Hanson, "The Contender"

This one has helped me many times in my union activities and during life struggles and decisions. You may be up against everyone else and they disagree with you, but when you know you are right, your principles are right on, it's sort of like "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" Being an activist means that you probably are going to piss a lot of people off when you stand up for what is fair, what is right.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I didn't do anything wrong. Why do I have to get married?" hehehe.... I was married. ONCE. So why do I have to do it again? I am happily single, independent, and self-sufficient. I own my home, I have a good job, I have lifetime health benefits, I am planning for my retirement, I am in good health, I have good friends. So why do I have to get married to satisfy some outdated society ideal? Answer? I don't!
 
life is action and passion,
and that a man fails to
take part in the action and passions of his times,
at the peril of boing judged not to have lived.

the art of living is living your art.
art should be worn and art should adorn
all the sacred places of the heart
kernanaus(probably spelled wrong)
 
"The World is perishing in an orgy of self-sacrifice."
-Any Rand in Atlas Shrugged

"Do. Or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

"I may be an idiot, but at least I ain't lived no humdrum life."
-spoken by the title character in Forest Gump
Oddly enough, this one has had a surprising impact on my life. I read the book back in the mid-80's on a lark. I picked up the paperback at Wal-Mart because I needed some thing to read one weekend. The movie never really did justice to the outlandish and whimsical nature of the book. Something about that book helped me to see the wisdom of sometimes just going with the flow and seeing where it takes you.

"When you come to the end of all the light you know, and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: Either you will be given something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly."
-Edward Teller

"Revolution begins at home, preferably in the bathroom mirror"
-Bob Mould

Last but not least, here's one (paraphrased) from my Dad: "Other than your family, you should never care about anything so much that you can't turn your back on it and walk away."
 
"If the government offers you something sweet, count on it being poisoned."

- my grandfather, who died a year ago

"Avoid humans = avoid problems"

- myself, a lesson I learned in grade school, and it has always proven true
 
Definition of Insanity:

Doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.
 
A couple from my old dad
Can'ts a cowards word
And when I was doing my apprenticeship
The fastest way to do something is to do it properly the first time
 
It is not important to be better than someone else, but to be better than yesterday.
 
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