Great Life-Lesson Quotes

Today, more than ever, we need some source of unity, a method by which we can better understand our world and find some sense of hope. This is not a means of total resolve, but a way that may help to ease tension, restore a little hope, give us a better focus on issues and provide a path by which we can learn from the past to change the future.

Regardless of the type of negative(s) we face, it is important that whatever has happened in our lives, either by own actions or the actions of others, we must take responsibility to face the issues intellectually and mindful of the impact that will be made resulting from the issue(s).

The following quotes are from individuals considered to be part of our history. These indivduals left us profound words to guide and direct us. Some of these people provide us with words to ponder regarding our attitudes, outlook and future resolve.

When reading the quotes, I have chosen to list, keep in mind the people and the impact they had on our society and in our history. It would be advantageous to understand how, even a quote from long ago, can still be a benchmark for the lifestyle of today. Words are powerfull in and of themselves and should not be taken lightly. When words are linked together in a sentence or quote, they become highly charged tools of thoughts and action.

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind."
--- Rudyard Kipling, 1865 -

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." (Confucius, 551 BC-479)

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." (Bill Cosby)

"Don't let yesterday use up too much of today." (Will Rogers)

"You can't say civilization don't advance ... in every war they kill you in a new way." (Will Rogers)

"The things that will destroy America are property-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life." (Theodore Roosevelt)

"Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are." (Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1882 - 1945, 32nd U.S. President)

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right--for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't." (Eleanor Roosevelt)

"Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both." (Eleanor Roosevelt)

"We are afraid to care too much, for fear that the other person does not care at all." (Eleanor Roosevelt)

"Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared." (Eddie Rickenbacker)

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." (Aristotle)

"Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right." (Isaac Asimov)

"Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress." (Thomas Alva Edison)

"Look at life through the windshield, not the rear-view mirror." (Byrd Baggett)

"Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain -- and most fools do." (Dale Carnegie)

"Great spirits have always faced voilent protest from mediocre minds." (Albert Einstein)

"Those that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." (Benjamin Franklin)

"We must all hang together or assuredly we will all hang seperately." (Benjamin Franklin

"Anxiety is the price we pay for civilization." (Sigmund Freud)

"If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing." (Anatole France)

"Be the change that you want to see in the world." (Mohandas Gandhi)

"There are seven sins in the world: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice and politics without principle." (Mohandas Gandhi)

"When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost." (Billy Graham)

" Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined." (Patrick Henry)

"An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded." (Pope John Paul II)

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." (Thomas Jefferson, to Archibald Stuart, 1791)

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." (Thomas Jefferson)

"That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves." (Thomas Jefferson

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)

"Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom." (Raymonde Uy)

"When you resort to attacking the messenger and not the message, you have lost the debate." (Addison Whithecomb)

"Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the people's liberty's teeth." (George Washington)

"The truth is more important than the facts." (Frank Lloyd Wright)

I am all to aware of one specific time in our history that made a great impact on my life as well as many others throughout the United States and abroad. Although, many days, months and years have passed, the horror of that day, remains with me still and I am certain, will always be crystal clear in my mind and heart.
September 11, 2001.... was a day that changed my life forever.

The results of 9/11 have been bitter-sweet for the United States and have caused a backlash of monumental discource and unbelieveable dismay. How we as a Nation, could on one hand unite and be so totally supportive for the days and weeks after that day of horror, then, turn so drastically against each other, blaming, ranting, judging, accusing and hating, is so terribly wrong and unjust.

As a person, who saw first hand, the horror of 9/11 and saw the distruction of the Pentagon, learned of the loss of life of seven co-workers in my agency at the Pentagon... and reminded daily of the scars to the Pentagon itself. Daily, as the bus rode by the Pentagon, on the way to the Pentagon City Subway Stop, we could see that mighty building with the vacant area where once stood a strong, mighty granite wedge that was hit and destroyed by a passenger plane, filled with innocent people. The individuals working in the Pentagon, as well as those passengers on the plane, were simply going about their daily lives and did not deserve to be targets and captives of brutal and hateful people.

The memory of those lost on 9/11 should be forever held in high respect, but as these past months and years have shown, it is unfortunate that their lives have been subjected to pompus, inconsiderate slander and misguided, foolish mind-craft. I resent anyone who feels 9/11 was a conspiracy and a product of our own Federal Goernment. As a former Federal Employee, I can only show distain for those who so freely accuse.
It is almost laughable, when I hear so-called learned people lash out with their "Ideas and Reasons" of how the actions of 9/11 unfolded.

Read the Quotes I have posted, look at the names of those who made those quotes and relate those quotes to the terror of 9/11. Can we, as a Nation ever feel safe again? NO. We are a nation of people, who, up until 9/11, felt untouched by evil and attack. We had never seen the horror of brutal, terrorists in action. We were a naive nation, suddenly forced to grow up and mature. In what takes most nations years to accept and deal with, we had to come to realize in a matter of a few short hours!

For those of you who continue to believe the U.S. Government was responsible, please look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself these questions... If you had the opportunity to speak to even one person, who lost their life on 9/11, what would you say to them? How would you explain the events of that day? How would you justify your beliefs? How would you tell them that you believe they died because their country was responsible? How would you explain, how the U.S. master-minded foreign people to come into this country, overtake planes, crash into buildings all within a few months?

How would you feel, if that person could tell you, you were wrong? How would you feel, if that person could prove to you that your idea of 9/11 was so off the wall, that YOU were the one to sorry for?

Whatever comes of our world as we know it, after 9/11, I continue to believe, that whatever strides are taken in the months and years to come, there will be another 9/11 and let us hope, by then we are more mature and mindful of how to deal with that horrible day, more effectively than in 2001 and not as eager to lay blame as we have do so since 9/11.