Being Kind

"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible."

Chasing a Dream

“You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream”

It doesn’t matter how old you are, you can achieve any goal you set your mind too. This quote tells you to never give up on something. If you work hard enough you can do anything you want. The harder you work the better the pay off will be. For example, if you work really hard in school this year it pays off in the long run. The harder you worked this year the better the school. Even when your older even retired if you have a dream you should always try and chase it because you never know what can happen. And if you fail so what, you get on with your life and try to succeed at another one of your dreams. Never give up it will pay off in the long run.

Making a Difference

“be the change you want to see in this world” by Mahatma Grandhi

This quote is used to inspire people and to really motivate people to make a difference in the world. Your not suppose to wait around and wait for someone to make a difference or help the world. You do it yourself to make are world a better place. If you have strong feeling about something you should always go with your heart. Never let anyone take what you want without a fight.

"Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous." ~ Confucius, Chinese thinker and social philosopher

Connecting with a post that Hunter made (viewable here, click!), we can say that we must always be engaged and soak up knowledge that comes our way. In this quote from Confucius we learn that if we do not take in what we are learning then we are just simply wasting our time, and that if we think without any knowledge then we are dead. What good is life if we do not fully learn what we need to in order to survive, and what good is being ignorant? Theses are questions that lead us to ponder this quote and Hunter's quote. If we do not learn and take in knowledge from the valuable lessons we are given everyday then we are hopeless to survive in this world. If we do not learn but instead think without knowledge then we are simply being ignorant. We are then not living up to our full potential and so we must strive to first learn and then think.

Companionship

"Knowledge talks, wisdom listens." ~Unkown

The Nature of Genius

"Genius must burst on the ordinary air, native and untaught, and it must instantly convert all those who behold it."

-J. Bronowski and B. Mazlish

The Western Intellectual Tradition

For Those who Covet Inspiration

"We can't all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by."
-Will Rogers

This quote has the possibility to strike you in two ways: you can think "That's crazy! Everyone can be a hero" or you can think "Actually, that makes a bit of sense". It is true that everyone can be someone else's hero, but for the most part this exists on a much smaller scale, like a dad idolized by his young son. It is indisputable that "average" or "everyday" people can inspire us all through things like battling cancer, saving a baby from a fire, or investing their time in a worthwhile charitable cause. These "heroes" are certainly out there.

However, I don't believe these are the heroes that Rogers somberly speaks of. He talks of politicians, artists, scholars, and athletes; those who have contributed on a larger scale (in his opinion) to society. There must be those who watch and idolize, rather than take action, in order for heroes to exist. Do you think Che Guevara could have led the Cuban Revolution and become a national hero if he did not have any followers? Certainly not. It is not meant to discourage ambition, but there are people that are meant to lead and people who are meant to follow. We are always preached leadership, but who will we lead if there are no followers. There are people who have become heroes by their own accord; think of Heracles or Tiger Woods. The thing is: if everyone tried completing the Twelve Labours or winning the Masters there would be no spectators, just competitors.

Rogers's quote might come across as negative or discouraging, but I see it merely as an observation of a society that craves the next big thing, someone to insipire them and launch them out of a life of mundaneness, if even for a minute.