Find the lessons within your failures

It's unrealistic to expect to have success in meaningful things you do and not have failures along the way. It's the way of life.

Instead of fighting it or feeling ashamed or guilty, accept this with grace. Look for the lessons to be learned - lessons not to be repeated and lessons showing you how to do it right the next time.

Any failures that you experience can be transformed into something of worth. It all depends on how you look at it.

If you remain focused and determined, these lessons become stepping-stones to the success that you seek.

I always seek the hidden lessons in my failures and learn from them.

Love & Love Only

True love has no boundaries; it only has depth

Cultivate your sense of humor

A sense of humor is recognized as one of the key attributes that builds personal resiliency. It's instrumental in helping us cope with change and other challenges, it’s not really surprising, and we all know how much better we feel after a good laugh. It releases the tension, puts things back in perspective and generally helps us take a more positive attitude,

Seek ways to bring out your sense of humor, rent comedies, read the comics, watch children at play, and spend time with friends who see the funny side of life.

Laughter is wonderfully contagious. Why not spread some yourself?

I see and enjoy the funnier side of life

GOD to be with thee in all times

GOD pls be with me in all my works.
Lying your shoulder would make me to think.
So pls be with me

Theres no end for anything

The world is round, and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.

Reciprocating the LOVE

* Rule 1: If people treat you nicely, treat them nicely.
* Rule 2: If people treat you badly, continue to treat them nicely, turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, and love those who trespass against you, for a reasonable period of time.
* Rule 3: If people treat you badly, and the second principle does not work, treat them badly
with approximately equal intensity, and without anger.

30 Things to Do to Keep From Getting Bored Out of Your Skull at Work

The war between being and nothingness is the underlying illness of the twentieth century. Boredom slays more of existence than war. - Norman Mailer
I’m not one to get bored, ever … but a number of readers have written in with the question: What do I do if I’m bored out of my skull at work?
It gave me pause, to think about why I can’t recall ever getting that bored at work. And I realized: I always keep myself busy, doing something, whether it’s productive or not.
Sometimes, I’m creating a new project, or improving myself somehow … but sometimes I just find interesting stuff to read online or find a cool solitaire game to play. (Well, I haven’t played any games in awhile, but Freecell used to be my poison of choice a few years ago.)
So the short answer: just find things to entertain yourself. Keep your mind busy. Challenge yourself. Talk to somebody. Break out of your mold.
The longer answer has to do with analyzing why you’re bored in the first place. Is your job that boring? Are you really doing what you want to be doing? Is there a way to start pursuing something better? Or are you already in a great job, but something or someone is holding you back? And what can you do to improve the situation?
I’m not going to pursue the longer answer in this post, but give you some ideas for the shorter answer. It’s not an exhaustive list of ideas. Just some things I’ve done to keep my mind busy — pick and choose those that might work for you.

1) Create a new challenge.
I think this is by far the best thing on the list, but you may differ. Many times we’re bored because we don’t have a challenge — things are too easy or routine. So instead of waiting for someone to create a challenge for you, do it yourself. How can you challenge yourself? Set a new goal at work. Challenge yourself to produce more than ever. Explore new projects. Set personal goals and pursue them. Whatever excites you.
2) Pursue your next job.
If your job is so boring you don’t know what to do with yourself, you may need to move on. But instead of quitting right away, start lining up your next gig first. Look around for openings, call people, update your resume and submit it to a few places, pick up a few applications, send out some email feelers. Find something that will never get you bored, something you’ll be passionate about.
3) List your life goals.
What is it you want to accomplish in life? Not just with work, but personally? If you’ve listed them before, it’s always good to update them. Then choose one of those goals to achieve this year. Now think about what you can do today to move closer to that goal, even if it’s just a small thing. Get the ball rolling. Do this every day — move yourself closer to that goal.
4) Read Zen Habits.
Or whatever your favorite distraction is. If it’s something that will improve your life, even better. Just limit how long you read at one time, so you’re not reading through the Zen Habits archives in one sitting.
5) Declutter your workspace.
If I’ve got nothing better to do, I’ll clear off my desk (if there’s anything there), or start looking around critically at everything in view and asking myself, “Does that really need to be there? How can I simplify this?” Weird, I know, but I have an oddly uncluttered workspace. Right now my desk is a table, my iMac, an nothing else. No files, no papers, no office supplies, nothing. Everything is done on my computer, and I love it that way. Nothing on my walls. You may not need anything as spartan as that, but decluttering can be a lot of fun.
6) Pursue a hobby.
My hobby (until it became a profession) was blogging … I would do it at work in my spare time, or before or after work. Not everyone can pursue their hobby at work — the model airplane glue might bother your coworkers, for example — but sometimes you can just read about it while at work. I was upfront about my blogging and freelancing at work with my boss, btw, but many people get away with doing it on the sly. I won’t make a recommendation, but just don’t get fired.
7) Make your work a game.
You can make a game out of anything. See how many widgets you can crank in 10 minutes. Pretend that your coworkers are evil villains. Imagine that you are a CIA agent in disguise, and no one knows. Or a fairy princess. Whatever floats your boat. :)
8) Educate yourself.
On Guam, this is called “edumacation” — it’s not a real word, but we like to play with English. Whatever you call it, you can improve your knowledge online in any area — whether that be work-related or not. Be your own college instructor. Wikipedia is a great place to start, but if you’re going to have a specialized knowledge in anything, branch out from there.
9) Improve your skills.
Along the same lines: choose a skill that needs sharpening, and challenge yourself to get better at it. Whether that’s computer programming, writing, working with Adobe InDesign, or whatever. Perfect your skills — you can use it to further your career, get a new job, or become self-employed. Or just have the satisfaction of knowing you’re the best you can be at that skill.
10) Play Sudoku.
Perhaps not the most intellectual game of all time, or the most exciting … but I still find it a lot of fun. I only played it a little while and didn’t get addicted like other people I know, but I have to admit it’s a fun way to pass the time.
11) Choose a soothing desktop picture.
I like to do this when I’m procrastinating. I will go online, to flickr or some desktop wallpaper website and browse around until I find a very simple, soothing picture. I do this maybe every month or so. In fact, I’m going to go do that right now!
12) Do some pushups and crunches.
If you’re bored, you might as well start getting in shape. You can do pushups and crunches right there on the floor next to your desk (or go outside if you’re worried about your coworkers seeing you). Or walk up some steps, or do squats and lunges without weights, or dips in your chair, or butt squeezes (that means squeeze your own butt, not your coworkers’).
13) Take a day or two off.
Sometimes you just need to refresh yourself, recharge your batteries before starting again. Don’t do any work while you’re out. Veg out, or read, or sleep, or exercise, or whatever. Get your mind off work. Think about your priorities. Get out in nature. Reconnect with your life.
14) Take a walk.
Often this is all I need, especially if I’ve been sitting all day and my blood is pooling up in my butt and legs. I need to get that blood circulating! Go outside, walk around, look at people, look at nature, think about your day and your life and the people in it.
15) Drink some water.
Dehydration can make us tired and sluggish. Water can refresh us. Keep that water coming all day long — you may need to pee more though.
16) Call a loved one.
What better time to call someone to catch up, to tell them you love them, to just say hi … than when you’ve got nothing better to do. It’s a nice way to stay connected.
17) Read.
I like to carry a novel everywhere I go. Then I whip it out anytime I have spare time, waiting at the doctor’s office, in line at the post office, driving in the Indy 500 … you know. If not a novel, carry around a “to read” folder with stuff you want or need to read but don’t have time for right now … then whip it out at your desk when you’re bored. You could have a “to read” folder on your computer too.
18) Start writing your novel.
Many of us have a novel that’s tossing itself around in our heads and hearts, waiting to come out. Well, start getting it out, mister. Just start by writing some notes, thinking about characters and plot and what the hell this book is about anyway. It’s not going to come out by itself.
19) Take a nap.
If you don’t have a good place to do this, you can curl up under your desk with a sweater, or go to your car and sleep. I’ve learned how to fall asleep at my chair, but thank goodness I’m working at home and can go to the couch in a napping emergency.
20) Create a new project or role.
If things are stagnating at work, start something new. Create and innovate. What can you do that has a lasting impact for your company and for yourself, for your career? If you’re stuck in a dead-end role, create a new role for yourself. It doesn’t matter if it’s not in the job description. Find something that’s not being done by someone else, something that needs to be done or that hasn’t been thought of yet, but that would really benefit the company — and take it upon yourself to do it. You might need to talk to your boss, but sometimes you can just start doing something and inform the higher-ups later. If it’s good for the company, and if they’re smart, they’ll be happy.
21) Write a love letter.
If you have a significant other, write a letter telling them why you love them. They’ll love it. Email is fine, but pen and paper are even better. Dear JI why dont you try this
22) Do one small thing to make yourself wealthier.
That might be creating a savings account if you don’t have one yet, or setting up an automatic transfer between checking and savings every payday, or researching a money market fund or index fund, or simply reading Get Rich Slowly or The Simple Dollar for personal finance basics.
23) Write a blog post.
This is something I love to do when things get slow. I’ll just call up a text file and start writing. I love lists, of course (you guys should know that by now), so often I’ll just start making a list, and writing down my thoughts. If things are really slow, I’ll do the whole blog post. I can always post it later if necessary. Make sure you love what you’re writing about.
24) Do an errand.
This can either be in the office (”Where’s that ink cartridge I’ve been needing all week?”) or outside the office (”I really should buy toilet paper today!”). It gets you moving, it gets you away from the scene of your boredom, and it accomplishes something useful.
25) Update your personal finances.
I used to track my finances through Microsoft Money, but I’ve since switched to using a Google spreadsheet, so that it’s online and accessible from anywhere. I considered other online solutions, but personally, I like to keep things as simple as possible. However you do it, it’s a good idea to update your financial tracking system once a week or so, so that you know where you stand and you don’t overspend. Got some spare time? Update.
26) Meditate at your desk.
Some people would say this is just a fancy term for taking a nap. But for me the key is not to fall asleep, but to close my eyes and focus on my breathing. Nothing new-agey about this — it brings your focus back to the present and calms you. Sometimes it’ll calm you so much you’ll fall asleep. I say, two birds, one stone.
27) Organize your files.
OK, this might seem boring to many people, but I like to organize things. I get a perverse satisfaction from purging useless stuff and having everything be smaller, neater, and in order. And it doesn’t take long.
28) Clear out your inbox.
I get joy out of an empty inbox, whether that’s my email inbox or physical one. Crank through it until it’s empty — you don’t have to do everything in the inbox, but just make a note of it on your to-do list if you plan to do it later (or delete, file, forward, or do it now). Got a thousand or two emails in your inbox? Put them in a temporary folder and do them later, starting with a fresh inbox. Chances are, you won’t need to do them at all. Now just keep your inbox empty from here on out.
29) Crank up the tunes.
Some funky or upbeat tunes might just do the trick. They can make any job much more fun. Either play it on your speakers if your coworkers don’t mind, or plug in the earbuds. Currently on my playlist: Radiohead, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jack Johnson, Snow Patrol … I could go on and on.
30) Get wild! Sometimes we just need to let loose. Start singing at the top of your lungs, or dance around the office. Sure, people might stare or laugh, but a little fun in the office isn’t a bad thing. Or get out of the office and do something fun or crazy. One afternoon of wildity isn’t going to hurt you.

No belief is right or wrong. It is either empowering or limiting

Ever heard the story of the four-minute mile? For years people believed that it is impossible for a human being to run a mile in less than four minutes until Roger Banister proved it wrong in 1954. Within one year, 37 runners broke the belief barrier. And the year after that, 300 other runners did the same thing.

What happens if you put an animal in a pond? Any animal, big or small, will swim its way through. What happens when someone, who does not know how to swim, falls in deep waters? You drown. If an animal who has not learned swimming could escape by swimming, why not you? Because you believe you will drown while the animal does not.

You have used a computer keyboard or a typewriter. Ever wondered why the alphabets are organized in a particular order in your keyboard? You might have thought it is to increase the typing speed. Most people never question it. But the fact is that this system was developed to reduce the typing speed at a time when typewriter parts would jam if the operator typed too fast.

These three cases show the power of our beliefs. There is no other more powerful directing force in human behavior than belief. Your beliefs have the power to create and to destroy. A belief delivers a direct command to your nervous system.

Have you heard about the placebo effect? People who are told a drug will have a certain effect will many times experience that effect even when given a pill without those properties.

I use a snake in my workshops for children to show them how unrealistic some of their beliefs are. Students of a school in New Delhi, India, said snakes are slippery, slimy and poisonous. After doing an exercise for changing beliefs, they handled my snake and found it to be dry and clean. They also remembered that only three types of poisonous snakes exist in India. Have you ever scanned the 'to-let' advertisements in newspapers? Many say 'South Indians preferred'. Why? Many house owners told me that it is easier to get South Indians to vacate. The belief was that South Indians do not have the guts to fight. Now you figure out the impact of LTTE supremo Prabhakaran and Southern sandalwood smuggler Veerappan in changing this belief! It is also our belief that determines how much of our potential we will be able to tap. So you better examine some of your beliefs minutely. For example, do you believe that you can excel in whatever you do? Do you believe you are bad in mathematics? Do you believe that other people don't like you? Do you believe life is full of problems? What are your beliefs about people? No belief is right or wrong. It is either empowering or limiting. A belief is nothing but the generalization of a past incident. As a kid if a dog bit you, you believed all dogs to be dangerous. To change a particular behavior pattern, identify the beliefs associated with it. Change those beliefs and a new pattern is automatically created. I read this incident in a New York newspaper. "She met him in a singles' bar and they talked for a while. He offered her a drink and she enjoyed his company. Then he offered to drop her back home. While driving back, she realized that they were moving through narrow and strange roads. 'Oh God where is he taking me?' she thought but did not have the guts to ask. She cursed her decision to get into his car. All of a sudden she saw him taking a turn back into the highway just near her house. Smiling, he said: 'I took a short cut'." Did this story end the way you thought? Review your beliefs now and find out which ones are empowering and which ones you need to change.

Scientific Career of APJ

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, an Indian scientist, who played a leading role in the development of India’s missile and nuclear weapons programs.
Kalam earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Madras Institute of Technology and in 1958 joined the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). He soon moved to the Indian Space Research Organisation, where he was project director of the SLV-III, India’s first indigenously designed and produced satellite launch vehicle. Rejoining DRDO in 1982, Kalam planned the program that produced a number of successful missiles, which helped earned him the nickname “Missile Man.”
From 1992 to 1997 Kalam was scientific adviser to the defense minister, and he later served as principal scientific adviser (1999-2001) to the government with the rank of cabinet minister. His prominent role in the country’s 1998 nuclear weapons tests established Kalam as a national hero, although the tests caused great concern in the international community. In 1998 Kalam put forward a countrywide plan called Technology Vision 2020, which he described as a road map for transforming India from a less-developed to a developed society in 20 years. The plan called for, among other measures, increasing agricultural productivity, emphasizing technology as a vehicle for economic growth, and widening access to health care and education.

APJ's College Experience

I had a great teacher, who is a living legend now; his name is Prof. Rev. Father Chinnadurai. He taught me Physics in 1952, particularly nuclear physics and light. The way the Professor taught, many students started loving physics, particularly nuclear physics. Now Rev Father Chinnadurai in his 90’s is staying in Dindugal, whenever I visit southern region, I meet him and pay my respects.Now I would like to discuss about my mathematics teacher Prof Thothatri Iyengar. As a young science student, I had an opportunity at St. Joseph’s College to witness a unique scene of divine looking personality walking through the college campus every morning, and teaching Mathematics to various degree courses. Students looked at the personality who was a symbol of our own culture, with awe and respect. When he walked, knowledge radiated all around. The great personality was, Prof Thothatri Iyengar, our teacher. At that time, ‘Calculus Srinivasan who was my mathematics teacher, used to talk about Prof Thothatri Iyengar with deep respect. They had an understanding to have an integrated class by Thothatri Iyengar for first year B.Sc. (Hons) and first year B.Sc. (Physics). Thus, I also had the opportunity to attend his classes, particularly on modern algebra, statistics and complex variables. When we were in the B.Sc first year, Calculus Srinivasan used to select top ten students to the Mathematics Club of St. Joseph’s, whom were addressed by Prof Thothatri Iyengar. I still remember, in 1952, he gave a lecture on ancient mathematicians and astronomers of India. In that lecture, he introduced four great mathematicians and astronomers, which is still ringing in my ears.
Prof. Thothatri Iyengar explained, based on his analysis, that Aryabhata was both an astronomer and mathematician, born in 476 AD in Kusuma-pura (now called Patna). He was known to represent a summary of all Maths at that point of time. Just when he was only 23 years old, he wrote his book ARYABHATIYAM in two parts. He covered important areas like arithmetic, algebra (first ever contributor), trigonometry and of course, astronomy. He gave formulae for the areas of a triangle and a circle and attempted to give the volumes of a sphere and a pyramid. He was the first to give value of Pi.

Father & Mother

Every child is born with some inherited characteristics. Child’s growth and molding depends upon the environment and the socio-economic conditions. More so, it also depends on the emotional environment of the parents, as how they shape, train and educate the child. I was fortunate and blessed to have had all these. I had very loving parents, very good friends and very amicable social atmosphere around me in my childhood
I inherited honesty and self-discipline from my father and goodness and kindness from my mother. My father, Jainulabdeen and mother Ashamma were widely regarded as ideal couple. I got my first inspirations from my parents.
My father though a deeply religious person, he himself practiced and taught us the goodness in all religion. A lot of people from all religion would come to him for removing their ills and pains. He would chant prayer and dip his fingertips in a bowl of water. People took that water for the sick and invalids to be cured at home. When they come to offer thanks, my father always smiled and asked them to thank the Allah, the benevolent and merciful. My father’s close friend was the high priest of Rameswaram temple, Sri Pakshi Lakshmana Sastry. I remember them seeing in their traditional dresses, discussing the spiritual matters. I had been taught that true reality lay beyond the material world in the spiritual realm , and that knowledge could be obtained only through inner experience
I have throughout my life tried to emulate my father in my own world of science and technology. I have endeavoured to understand the fundamental truths revealed to me by my father.
I always felt convinced that there exists a divine power that can lift up from confusion, misery, melancholy and failure and guide one to one’s true place.
Now, when I think of my loving mother and father, I have all the sweetest loving memories revolve around my mind. I am here because of them. When the time has changed, so many other things have changed with it. But our Indian culture is that of strong bond in relationships that will never change. That makes our homes, happy homes. It is my endeavour to tell the parents to give the children a broad outlook to view the beautiful world from their eyes. Take them away from the narrow walls of caste, creed and religion and develop positive and constructive thoughts in their mind. It is also my endeavour to tell the children that you are hope of our country. Be sincere to your parents, teachers and to the Almighty. … for you have promises to keep.. and dreams to realize

Political system for Youth

Political System
The youth should take up politics as their career in large numbers. Political Science should form part of the curriculum from secondary to college level for all students with development politics as the focus. Citizens should proactively cast their votes to select candidates of known performance with honesty as the focus. Legal personalities, experts and professionals should educate citizens about the political process, constitution, procedures and their rights and responsibilities.
Similarly there are many more important tasks like making education accessible to every citizen, uplifting citizens below the poverty level through a focused mission and accelerating agriculture reforms. In the same way, there can be a movement in the judiciary for time bound clearance of pending cases in District Courts and High Courts within the next 3 years. The Judiciary and Bar should ensure that the common citizen gets speedy justice with nobility. While citizens demand that our Police Force has to be transparent and action oriented, it is also essential that police stations are electronically connected and simultaneously they should be empowered with better quality of life, like proper housing, sanitary facilities, medical cover and children’s education. This will enable them to concentrate in their work with peace of mind and thereby output from the police would increase. Above all our women folk constitute fifty percent of our population. Their dignity should be protected and they should get proper representation in all decision making institutions like Panchayat systems. Our Panchayat Boards really represent the village citizens and they should ensure that all development funds allotted for rural development in their area are properly utilised for the intended purpose without dilution. Dear friends, there are many more areas in which citizens can participate towards the national development movement. Now let me focus on national security.

Nothing is impossible

Nothing is impossible
Human flight is nothing but creativity of human mind and it undergoes several struggles to achieve excellence. In 1895, a great well-known scientist Lord Kelvin, who was the President of Royal Society of London said, “any thing heavier than air cannot fly, and cannot be flown.” Within a decade, Wright Brothers proved man could fly of course at heavy risk and cost.
On the successful completion of Moon Mission in 1969, Von Braun, a very famous rocket designer, who built Saturn-V, to launch the capsule with astronauts and made moon walk a reality, in 1975 said “If I am authorized, I will remove the word impossible”.
In ancient days, Ptolemaic astronomy is a widely used system in calculating the dynamics of various stars and planets. Assumption by then was that the earth is flat. What a scientific struggle had to take place to prove that the earth is spherical in shape orbiting around the sun. The three great astronomers Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler had to give a new dimension to the world of astronomy. Today we take it for granted that earth is a globe, orbiting around the sun, and the sun orbits in the Milky Way. All the technological advancements we have today are the outcome of scientific exploration of scientists of earlier centuries. At no time, man was beaten by problems. He strives continuously to subjugate impossibility and then succeeds.
According to the laws of aerodynamics the bumble bee should never be able to fly. Because of the size, weight, and shape of its body in relationship to the total wing span, flying is scientifically impossible. The bumble bee, being ignorant of scientific theory, goes ahead and flies anyway.

Life Time Mission

Life Time Mission
Science as a Life time mission
Chandrasekhar Subramanyan’s most famous discovery was the astrophysical Chandrasekhar limit. The limit describes the maximum mass (~1.44 solar masses) of a white dwarf star, or equivalently, the minimum mass for which a star will ultimately collapse into a neutron star or black hole following a supernova. The limit was first calculated by Chandrasekhar while on a ship from India to Cambridge, England. The Chandrasekhar Limit led to the determination of how long a star of particular mass will shine. In 1983, Chandrasekhar Subramanyan got the Nobel Price for this discovery.
Two of Chandrasekhar’s students in 1947 were the doctoral candidates Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang in Particle Physics research. Even though Chandrasekhar Subramanyan maintained his office at the Yerkes Observatory in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, he would regularly drive the one hundred miles to Chicago to guide and teach Lee and Yang and others many a times in difficult weather conditions. In 1957, these two of his students won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in particle physics research. This also brings out Chandrasekhar Subramanyan’s commitment to science and there by to his students. Science indeed is a life time mission for Chandrasekhar. It is this characteristic which makes youth to become passionate towards science.
Teaching is a life time mission
To enable development of youth first and foremost, the teacher’s love for teaching is essential, with teaching as the soul of the teacher. The teacher must realize that they are responsible for shaping not just students but ignited youth who are the most powerful resource under the earth, on the earth and above the earth. With their full commitment to the great mission of teaching, the teacher transforms himself or herself as a great teacher only when he or she is capable of elevating the average student to high performance. The teacher conducting himself or herself in a noble way itself is a lifetime message for students. They should encourage the students and children to ask questions and develop the spirit of enquiry, so that they blossom into creative enlightened citizens. They should treat all the students equally and should not support any differentiation on account of religion, community or language and continuously upgrade the capacities in teaching so that they can impart quality education to the students. They should realize by being a teacher, they are making an important contribution to the efforts of national development. The teachers must constantly endeavour to fill their mind, with great thoughts and spread the nobility in thinking and action among the students. Teacher should celebrate the success of the students.

Where are we now

Where are we now? APJ

Where are we now, dear friends,In the Maha Sabha that shapes as history,The call of heart beats of Indian people,People ask us, people ask us;“Oh! Parliamentarians, the sculptors of Mother India,Lead us unto light, enrich our lives.Your righteous toil, is our guiding light,If you work hard, we all can prosper.”Like King, so the people,Nurture great thoughts, rise up in actions,May righteous methods be your guide;May you all prosper ever with Almighty’s grace.

Amazing Quotes

“Thinking should become your capital asset, no matter whatever ups and downs you come across in your life.”
“Thinking is progress. Non-thinking is stagnation of the individual, organisation and the country. Thinking leads to action. Knowledge without action is useless and irrelevant. Knowledge with action, converts adversity into prosperity.”
“When you speak, speak the truth; perform when you promise; discharge your trust?. Withhold your hands from striking, and from taking that which is unlawful and bad?”
“What actions are most excellent? To gladden the heart of a human being, to feed the hungry, to help the afflicted to lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful and to remove the wrongs of injured?”
“All God’s creatures are His family; and he is the most beloved of God who tries to do most good to God’s creatures.”
“Away! Fond thoughts, and vex my soul no more! Work claimed my wakeful nights, my busy days Albeit brought memories of Rameswaram shore Yet haunt my dreaming gaze!”
“I will not be presumptuous enough to say that my life can be a role model for anybody; but some poor child living in an obscure place in an underprivileged social setting may find a little solace in the way my destiny has been shaped. It could perhaps help such children liberate themselves from the bondage of their illusory backwardness and hopelessness?..”

Evergreen Quotes

1. Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve through a positive mental attitude - Napoleon Hill

2. Happiness is the object and design of our existence - Joseph Smith

3. Cheer on all success - Gordon B. Hinckley

4. Youth is for the moment, there is always time to grow old - Unknown

5. You can be a victor without having victims - Unknown

6. Never grow a wishbone where your backbone ought to be - Unknown

7. Hope is the magical ingredient of motivating yourself and others
- Unknown

8. Young and old begin with the end in mind - James M. Paramore

9. One kind word can warm three winter months - Japanese Saying

10. Be respectful and listen to those who have experience - Unknown

11. Look hot but don't burn, stay cool but keep warm - Jessica Woodly

12. Do or do not, there is no try - Yoda

13. Give in, and take the journey - Eddie Murphy in Holy Man

14. Your good is better, your better is blessed
- Eddie Murphy in Holy Man

15. Faith gets most, humility keeps most, love works most - Unknown

16. Life is a masterpiece but you must be the one who allows the brush to touch the canvas - Tony Sinclair

17. There is no chance, no fate, no destiny that can circumvent, hinder, or control the firm resolve of a determined soul - Dead Poets Society

18. When people are bored, it is primarily with their own selves that they are bored - Eric Hoffer

19. If you really put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price - Unknown

20. A singer cannot delight you with his singing unless he himself delights to sing - Kahlil Gabran

21. A wise man gets more out of his enemies than a fool gets out of his friends - Baltasar Gracian

22. Wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss, but cheerily seek how to redress their harms - William Shakespeare

23. We become what we give ourselves the power to be - Unknown

24. A positive attitude is like a fire: unless you continue to add fuel, it goes out - Alexander Lockheart

25. Success has a simple formula: do you best, and people may like it
- Sam Ewing

26. He that's content hath enough, he that complains hath too much
- Benjamin Franklin

27. We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are
- Kare Anderson

28. Attitude is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than what people do or say. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. The remarkable thing is, we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past, we cannot change the fact that people act in a certain
way. We cannot change the inevitable, the only thing we can do is play on the one string that we have, and that is our attitude - Charles Swindoll

29. True happiness depends on our actions and attitudes, not our circumstances - The New Era

30. The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will - Vince Lambardi

31. Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it - Lou Holtz

32. I pride myself on my success in doing not the things I like to do, but the things I don't like to do - William M. Evarts

33. Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall - Confucius

34. Sometimes we stare so long at the door that is closing that we see to late that one is open - Alexander Graham Bell

35. There is no danger in developing eye strain from looking on the bright side of things - Alexander Lockheart

36. We all have inconveniences of one kind or another. How you deal with them determines how successful you are - Craig McFarlane

37. There are two ways of spreading light. To be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it - Edith Wharton

38. If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence you have won before you have started
- Marcus Garvey

39. It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness - Charles Spargeon

40. Yesterday can be forgotten and tomorrow can be better
- Ruth Anne Sheilds

41. Where you've been is not nearly as important as where you are and where you are going - Marvin J. Ashton

42. Nothing is too late 'till the tired heart shall cease to palpate
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

43. Security is not born of inexhaustible wealth, but of unconquerable faith
- Spencer W. Kimball

44. The discipline of the mind is the essence of culture - John A. Widtsoe

45. Omission of duty leads to commission - Brigham Young

46. A coward gets scared and quits, a hero gets scared, but still goes on
- Unknown

47. Those who deny agency for others, deserve it not for themselves
- Unknown

48. Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off your goal
- George Hasley

49. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent
- Eleanor Roosevelt

50. Smile; If you can't lift the corners, let the middle sag - Unknown

51. It is wise for us to forget our troubles, there are always new ones to replace them - Brigham Young

52. Happiness is a state of activity - Aristotle

53. A smile is a curve that sets everything strait - Unknown

54. A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks - Unknown

55. Don't be so humble, you're not that great - Golda Meir

56. Only a fool knows everything, a wise man knows how little he knows
- Unknown

57. When we become aware of our humility, we've lost it - Unknown

58. Hardening of the heart ages people faster than hardening of the arteries - Unknown

59. Knowledge is proud that she knows so much; wisdom is humble that she knows no more - Cowper

60. He who knows all the answers has not yet been asked all of the questions - Unknown

61. The secret to happiness is not in doing what ones likes to do, but in liking what one has to do - Unknown

62. The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart - Helen Keller

63. A man is not old until regrets start taking place of dreams - Unknown

64. A man convinced against his will; is of the same opinion still
- Unknown

65. Truth comes only to a prepared mind - Unknown

66. In order to be walked on, you have to be lying down - Brian Weir

67. If you don't learn from your mistakes, there's no sense making them
- Unknown

68. You haven't failed 'till you quit trying - Unknown

69. My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure - Abraham Lincon

70. If our thoughts or hopes are elsewhere, it is impossible to set our faces steadily toward the work required of us - Unknown

71. Experience is not what happens to a man, it's what a man does with what happens to him - Auldous Huxley

72. There are times when a man should be content with what he has, but never with what he is - William George Jordan

73. Some make it happen, some watch it happen, and some say "What happened?" - Unknown

74. The will to prepare is more important than the will to win
- Levell Edwards

75. Live as though you'd die tomorrow, but learn as though you'd live forever. - Folk saying

76. Who tries, can
Who wills, does
Who learns, lives
- Unknown

77. You can't change the past, but you can ruin a perfectly good present by worrying about the future - Unknown

78. When we fill our hearts with regrets over the failures of yesterday, and with the worries over tomorrow, we have no today in which to be thankful
- Unknown

79. Never live in the past, but always learn from it - Unknown

80. Fear is the tax that the conscience pays to guilt - Zachary Taylor

81. The best remedy for anger is delay - Brigham Young

82. Anger is never without a reason, but seldom a good one
- Benjamin Franklin

83. The wind of anger blows out the lamp of intelligence - Unknown

84. A spirit to find fault is an enemy to your peace and comfort, and also the happiness of those around you. It is the key to your destruction
- Unknown

85. How a man plays a game shows something of his character, how he looses shows all of it - Unknown

86. You have the power to think what you want. No matter what the circumstance - Unknown

87. Why should we worry about what others think of us? Do we have more confidence in their opinions than we do in our own? - Brigham Young

88. When a man finds no peace within himself, it is useless to seek it elsewhere - L.A. Rouchefolicauld

89. Of all the things you were, your expression is most important
- Unknown

90. One cannot think crooked and walk strait - Unkown

91. The only difference between a rut and a groove is their dimensions
- Unknown

92. If you feel you have no faults, there's another one - Unknown

93. Some minds are like concrete, all mixed up and permanently set
- Unknown

94. What you see depends mainly upon what you look for - Unknown

95. Pride is a my will rather than a thy will approach to life
- Ezra Taft Benson

96. Rather than prepare a talk, prepare yourself - Unknown

97. It is bad enough to see young fools, but worse to see old fools
- Brigham Young

98. Minds are like parachutes, they function only when open - Unknown

99. The heart is wiser than the intellect - J.G. Holland

100. The task ahead of us is never greater than the power behind us
- Unknown

101. Your failures won't hurt until you start blaming them on others
- Unknown

102. Do the thing, and you shall have the power - Emerson

103. You're on the road to success when you realize that failure is only a detour - Unknown

104. People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing
- Dale Carnegy

105. Always aim for the moon; Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars - Unknown

106. If you think you can or think you can't, you're right - Unknown

107. Laugh, and the world laughs with you. Cry, and the world laughs at you - Unknown

108. Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt
- Cardinal John Henry Newman

109. Be resolute, fear no sacrifice and surmount every difficulty to win victory - Mao Tse-Tung

110. I've taken my fun where I've found it - Rudyard Kipling

111. How awful to reflect that what people say of us is true
- Logan Pearsall Smith

112. For some, retirement begins at puberty - Gary Bishop

113. Some things are interesting and enticing, while other things are important - William R. Bradford

114. There is no defeat except for those who give up - Joseph B. Wirthlin

115. Some suffer from real misfortunes. Sadly, others only imagine that they do - Boyd K. Packer

116. Rudeness is the weak mans imitation of strength - Unknown

117. He who acts like a hot dog generally ends up in hot water - Unknown

118. Excuses are bridges to nowhere, people who use excuses are monuments to nothing - Unknown

119. Of all the influences which cause men to do wrong, selfishness is surely strongest - William R. Bradford

120. You either live in hope, or you live in despair - James E. Faust

121. He whose face gives no light shall never become a star - William Blake

122. Happy are those who dream dreams, and are willing to pay the price to see them come true - Unknown

123. It's to dark at night to walk with your eyes closed - Sturm Brightblade

124. Learn to control the power, never let it control you - Raistlin Majere

125. Standing in our own sunshine causes most of the shadows in this life
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

126. The world is wide, and I will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum - Frances Willard

127. Man is always such a fool. When it is hot, he wants it cool. When it is cool, he wants it hot. Always wanting what is not - Unknown

128. My strength is as the strength of ten, because my heart is pure
- Alfred Lord Tennyson

129. It's too dark at night to walk with your eyes closed
- Sturm Brightblade

130. Learn to control the power, never let it control you - Raistlin Majere

131. To open your eyes and see the sky is not enough. To open our ears is still not enough. For only if you open your mind will you hear the clouds whispering love's sweet songs and dancing together across the noisy sea
- Karolina

132. Most of the shadows in this life are caused by standing in our own sunshine - Ralph Waldo Emerson

133. You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it - Charles Buxton

134. Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today – Unknown

135. You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist – Unknown

136. Wonder rather than doubt is the route to all knowledge – Unknown

Writer's Excersise - Try it out - Give a Try

After I had been writing for a short time, I came across this writing challenge posted by another poet on this one website I used to frequent. The challenge - Why I write. Now I had been writing a number of poems, essays and the like, but it had never occurred to me to even try this topic, so I thought, why not give it a try? After all, how hard could it be, right? Let me tell you, it wasn't any bed of roses, and I think the only reason I was able to get it done was the simple fact that I love writing just that much! Anyway, this was what I came up with. Maybe it will give you an idea for doing it yourself:
In those early days, in the days when the darkness first made itself known to me, I remember the change overtaking me. The emptiness, the hollow despair, the terrible, sudden inadequacy of being me...Of simply being me.
When only days, weeks before I had been so near to perfect, at least for me, as far as I was concerned. Another birthday had come and gone when suddenly my wife from cancer was taken away. Now 31, my youth seemed all spent, and alone was I now...Alone, facing this pain.
That was the hardest part, the aloneness of it all, the inability to verbalize to anyone just what was going on inside of me. So instead I said nothing and suffered in silence, letting them wonder - and I knew they were wondering - "What the bejeezes has got into that boy?! He cries at the drop of a hat, He doesn't talk to anyone anymore, Has he said anything to you?"
Eventually, I started to look for death, a way out - tho not by my own hands. I would cross the street when the light was green, not looking both ways. So if somebody running a red light wanted to hit me, well, it was on their head! I would jump into subway tracks for money, always making sure no trains were coming, and climb out when one did. My hope was that one day I might slip climbing out...But this did not happen.
It was after 4 years of this descent into hell when I started writing. It was also a time when I started hearing voices on top of everything else. Voices shouting from out of nowhere, voices calling out my name. Nothing else, just my name...
And then something, I don't know what, a message from God, for all I know, told me to write, just start writing. Now I hadn't written a thing since college. Even then I was terrible with poems and had only a so-so vocabulary. But I set out writing...And writing...And by God if I wasn't half-way through with this epic poem that came from I know not where when suddenly I looked up, listened and realized, the voices were gone! They would come back, yes, but while I wrote I could keep them from calling me.
And I also learned that the more I wrote the more I was able to lift myself from, or at least keep me from sinking deeper into the despair in which I had fallen so many years ago. I learned soon enough, tho, it was not a cure. For there were many days when I couldn't write, days when nothing came to me. Then there were the nights...Always there would come those long, lonely, dark and oppressive nights, each one seemingly setting me back 5 days worth of writing. Still though, it was something...A glimmer of light, of hope finally making its way into this life of mine where for years there had been only darkness.
That is the story behind what got me started writing. What keeps me writing now that I am no longer in the darkness and no longer hearing the voices, where writing as a therapeutic aid is no longer the necessity it once was, is the simple fact that it's fun. The challenge of finding new uses for old words and new stories using untried plot-lines is what writers live for - what they would die for, and what I constantly search for!
So then, what is your story?

- source exiarticles.com

Secret of Highly Successful Authors

The more I read how the successful authors do it, the more I realise that, like successful people in all walks of life, they all do things in common that contribute enormously to their success. So how can we learn from successful authors to ensure our own success in 2008 and beyond?
We can start by adopting what I call "The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Authors". Adopt these 7 habits and you just may find that 2008 is the year you break through your own writing barriers!
1. Write about something you care about.
Whether you are writing fiction or non fiction, it is imperative you write about something you care about. The successful authors have some emotional connection to their content or story. If you are writing fiction, then write from a place of emotional familiarity. Your genuine experience will come through in your writing and your readers will connect with that. If you are writing a non fiction piece, choose a topic you are passionate or enthusiastic about. After all, if you are going to invest your precious time in what you are writing, you owe it to yourself to write with passion, feeling and enthusiasm.
2. Take risks
Don't be afraid to put your head, or your hands, on the chopping block when you write. In the world of fiction, you will have no doubt heard about creating characters that are "larger than life". That doesn't mean they are giants, it means they go above and beyond and take risks and make decisions that we would not have the courage to take in our own lives. After all, it's not about what we would do when we are tethered by the restrictions of polite behaviour, it's what we would do in our wildest imaginations that make our readers sit up and take notice.
For the non fiction writer, it's time for you to take a stand. Take a view and stick with it, presenting your case with conviction and vigour. No one listens to someone who writes meekly, or with a wishy washy hand. Stick your neck out, and don't be afraid to get it chopped off. All the greatest journalists are the ones who are not afraid to speak their minds. Get into that habit and you're well on your way to being that next great journalist.
3. Plan
This is definitely the most ignored but equally the most important phase of the writing process. Planning is essential to the success of any undertaking and writing is no different. J.K. Rowling spent 5 years planning the entire Harry Potter series before she put pen to paper on a single word that appeared in the books. If you are writing a short story, novel or screenplay, planning the story before you begin writing is as essential to your success as ink in your pen or power to your laptop. There are some writers who claim to just start with an image or a sentence and then the whole thing just unfolds before them, but the writers who can do this with any degree of success are few and far between. Take the time to plan out your story, at the very least know where your beginning, middle and end are. The more planning you do, the more enjoyable the writing process and the less rewriting and editing you will have to do. The same goes for non fiction pieces, where it's always advisable to have an outline in place before you write your article or book.
4. Write every day
Joyce Carol Oates said that she would write, even when her soul felt as thin as a playing card, because somehow the act of writing would set it aright. There are going to be times when you just "don't feel like it", but like any other job or activity that is important to you, you must still, somehow, sit down every day and write. It has been said that it is by sitting down every day to write that one becomes a writer. Stephen King writes every day, including Christmas Day. Whether you are working on a book, story, article or nothing, still sit down and write something every single day. Even if you only write one page every day, that's 365 pages in a year and that's a whole book, isn't it? When you are a writer, you cannot not write, and writing is like breathing. You have an urge to put things down in print, so to keep that fresh and alive, you need to turn that tap on every day. It's more than practice. It's life.
5. Be prepared to work hard
I read somewhere once that John Grisham worked for 4 hours per day and made $20 million per year. Whether that is true or not (about the hours worked or the money he makes) doesn't matter. It is far more common to hear tales today of the world's most popular commercial authors working their proverbial butts off to keep up with deadlines, promotional commitments and the ins and outs of their everyday lives. Janet Evanovich gets up and writes every morning at 5am so she can get a full day's writing in before she has to answer mail, emails and deal with her other affairs of business, Jodi Picoult has a wonderful stay-at-home husband who allows her the luxury of writing through school pick ups and travelling for long periods to do research for her novels. J.K. Rowling also said she (misguidedly) thought that life as an author would be a Jane Austen-type of affair, sitting in a room overlooking a field and writing in anonymity. Of course her life is a whirlwind of book launches, movie premieres, media commitments, school commitments, and of course she has a family with three children. And while we all no doubt wish we had her "problems" it is very obvious that in the early part of the 21st century, the life of an author, successful or not, is a hard-working life. We are either working hard to get noticed, working hard to stay noticed, or working hard to avoid being noticed. Any way you look at it, if you have an aversion to hard work, you need to look elsewhere. Successful authors work hard. Period.
6. Persistence
It is said that persistence outstrips all other virtues. I have a card propped up on my desk that says, "Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go". Almost every successful author I have studied has said that their success is due, at least in some part, to pure persistence and determination. If your manuscript or article is rejected, rewrite it and submit it again. Or submit it to someone else. The first Harry Potter novel was rejected by every major publishing house before Bloomsbury picked it up for a song. Even so called "overnight successes" have a story behind them about how many times they were rejected, or how many novels or articles they've written that have no value other than as fire kindling. The authors that succeed are the ones who don't stop until they do. It's that simple. Never give up. Winners never quit, and quitters never win.
7. Let it go
And finally when you have written your article, book or screenplay and have submitted it for publication or approval, let it go. If you've done the best you can with it, let it go and trust that it will make its way to where it needs to be. And start something else straight away. Regardless of whether what you have submitted is accepted or rejected, you are a writer and a writer writes. Once you finish one manuscript start immediately on another. If the one you've sent is picked up, they'll be happy that you've got something new already, and if not you're well on your way to finishing your next manuscript.

Attitude is Everything - Right Attitude Right Place

Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"

He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, 'Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.' I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life."

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested. "Yes, it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life."

I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. "The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live." "Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked. Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, 'He's a dead man.' "I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry.

"She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes,' I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breathe and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them. 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead." Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.

Team Work Works

Teamwork Quotes and Proverbs

Unknown
It is amazing how much you can accomplish when it doesn't matter who gets the credit.

Unknown
There is no "I" in "TEAMWORK".

Unknown
Teamwork: Simply stated, it is less me and more we.

Unknown
TEAM = Together Everyone Achieves More

Andrew Carnegie
Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.

Unknown
The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Unknown
Teamwork is working together — even when apart.

Unknown
A job worth doing is worth doing together.

Unknown
Coming together, sharing together, working together, succeeding together.

Unknown
A successful team beats with one heart.

Unknown
Teamwork divides the task and doubles the success.

Unknown
Teamwork doesn't tolerate the inconvenience of distance.

Ken Blanchard
None of us is as smart as all of us.

Vince Lombardi (1913-1970), football coach for the NFL
People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society."

Henry Ford
Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is progress.
Working together is success.

Bruce Coslet, Coach, Bengals
The era of the rugged individual is giving way to the era of the team player.
Everyone is needed, but no one is necessary.

Vince Lombardi (1913-1970), football coach for the NFL
Teamwork is what the Green Bay Packers were all about. They didn't do it for individual glory. They did it because they loved one another…

Susan Gerke, IBM, Leadership Development
Conflict is inevitable in a team ... in fact, to achieve synergistic solutions, a variety of ideas and approaches are needed. These are the ingredients for conflict.

Coach Dean Smith to Michael Jordan in his freshman year at UNC
Michael, if you can't pass, you can't play.

Benjamin Franklin
We must all hang together,
or assuredly, we shall all hang separately.

Thomas Edison, when asked why he had a team of twenty-one assistants
If I could solve all the problems myself, I would.

Lewis B. Ergen
The ratio of We's to I's is the best indicator of the development of a team.

Stephen Covey
Synergy is the highest activity of life; it creates new untapped alternatives; it values and exploits the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people.

Max DePree
The key elements in the art of working together are how to deal with change, how to deal with conflict, and how to reach our potential...the needs of the team are best met when we meet the needs of individuals persons.

R. Meredith Belbin
Do you want a collection of brilliant minds or a brilliant collection of minds?

Baltasar Gracion, Spanish Priest
The path to greatness is along with others.

Doug Smith
Teams share the burden and divide the grief.

Tom Bouchard
Teams are successful when they are focused, have a short cycle time, and are supported by the executives.

Coach Phil Jackson Chicago Bulls
The strength of the team is each individual member...the strength of each member is the team.

Norman Shidle
A group becomes a team when each member is sure enough of himself and his contribution to praise the skills of the others.

Robert F. Bales
Effective teamwork will not take the place of knowing how to do the job or how to manage the work. Poor teamwork, however, can prevent effective final performance. And it can also prevent team members from gaining satisfaction in being a member of a team and the organization.

Dennis Kinlaw
Teamplayer: One who unites others toward a shared destiny through sharing information and ideas, empowering others and developing trust.

Buchholz and Roth
Wearing the same shirts doesn't make you a team

Jason Kidd upon being drafted to the Dallas Mavericks
We're going to turn this team around 360 degrees.

Buchholz and Roth
Synergism is the simultaneous actions of separate entities which together have greater total effect than the sum of their individual effects.

Casey Stengel
Gettin' good players is easy. Gettin' 'em to play together is the hard part.

Katzenbach & Smith
A demanding performance challenge tends to create a team.

Marvin Weisbord
Teamwork is the quintessential contradiction of a society grounded in individual achievement.

Will Schutz
Team members who feel threatened but who are not aware of it become rigid — and that stops teamwork.

Barbara Glacel & Emile Robert Jr.
A team is more than a collection of people. It is a process of give and take.

Mark Twain
Synergy — the bonus that is achieved when things work together harmoniously.

Ned Lautenbach
Teamwork is the lynchpin in our long term success.

Michael Jordan
Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.

Joe Paterno
When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter
A self-reinforcing upward spiral: performance stimulating pride stimulating performance.

Max DePree
Without forgiveness, there can be no real freedom to act within a group.

Katzenbach & Smith
The same dynamics that promote performance also support learning and behavioral change.

Dennis Kinlaw
Work and self-worth are the two factors in pride that interact with each other and that tend to increase the strong sense of pride found in superior work teams. When people do something of obvious worth, they feel a strong sense of personal worth.

Dr. Rob Gilbert
Working together works.

H.E. Luccock
No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it.

Richard Wellins, William Byham, Jeanne Wilson
Teams are not ends in themselves; they are a means by which to achieve other organizational goals.

Sandra Richardson, OD Consultant
Effective teamwork is all about making a good, well-balanced salad not whipping individuals into a single batch of V8.

Reinhold Niebuhr
Men have never been individually self-sufficient.

Douglas McGregor
Most teams aren't teams at all but merely collections of individual relationships with the boss. Each individual vying with the others for power, prestige and position.

Katzenbach & Smith
Overcoming barriers to performance is how groups become teams.

Paul McCartney
I love to hear a choir. I love the humanity... to see the faces of real people devoting themselves to a piece of music. I like the teamwork. It makes me feel optimistic about the human race when I see them cooperating like that.

Benjamin Franklin
We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.

Lou Holtz, former Notre Dame football coach
All winning teams are goal-oriented. Teams like these win consistently because everyone connected with them concentrates on specific objectives. They go about their business with blinders on; nothing will distract them from achieving their aims.

Paul Bear Bryant
In order to have a winner, the team must have a feeling of unity; every player must put the team first-ahead of personal glory.

Bud Wilkinson, football coach (1916 )
If a team is to reach its potential, each player must be willing to subordinate his personal goals to the good of the team.

Vince Lombardi (1913-1970), football coach for the NFL
Individual commitment to a group effort — that is what makes a team work a company work, a society work, a civilization work.

Katzenbach & Smith
Teamwork represents a set of values that encourage behaviors such as listening and constructively responding to points of view expressed by others, giving others the benefit of the doubt, providing support to those who need it, and recognizing the interests and achievements of others.

Vince Lombardi, football coach for the NFL (1913-1970)
The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.

Robert Yates
It is amazing what can be accomplished when nobody cares about who gets the credit.

Margaret Carty
The nice thing about teamwork is that you always have others on your side.

A Harvey Block
The ideas that come out of most brainstorming sessions are usually superficial, trivial, and not very original. They are rarely useful. The process, however, seems to make uncreative people feel that they are making innovative contributions and that others are listening to them.

Katzenbach & Smith
Fun is only real and sustainable if it feeds off the team's purpose and performance aspirations.

Vince Lombardi, football coach for the NFL (1913-1970)
Individual commitment to a group effort-that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.

Robert Crandall
You put together the best team that you can with the players you've got, and replace those who aren't good enough.

B. Dodge
No problem is insurmountable. With a little courage, teamwork and determination a person can overcome anything.

Dr. Allan Fromme
People have been known to achieve more as a result of working with others than against them.

Debra Mancuso
Win together, lose together, play together, stay together.

Katzenbach & Smith
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Teams do not go physically flat, they go mentally stale.

Gandhi's Vegetarianism Vegetarianism

Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 10:46:40 EDT

From: wheeler@super.org (Ferrell S. Wheeler)

To: tms@cs.umd.edu

Subject: Gandhi's Vegetarianism Vegetarianism:

The Road to Satyagraha by Arun M. Sannuti "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be measured by the way in which its animals are treated."

-- Mahatma Gandhi.

The world remembers Mohandas K. Gandhi as a great man, who taught the power of peace. Without this message, Gandhi would have just been another revolutionary, just another nationalist, in a country that was struggling to throw off the rule of a foreign nation. Where did Gandhi discover this message? How was he able to learn his method when all the other nationalists were learning to fight? He learned it one step at a time, and as one of his first steps, he became a true vegetarian, someone who chose vegetarianism because of beliefs and morals, not due simply to a cultural heritage. Vegetarianism is rooted in Indian culture and religion as a part of the doctrine of ahimsa, which the Vedas espouse and which Gandhi later appropriated for his own Satyagrahi movement. Ahimsa, in the Vedic tradition, means "having no ill feeling for any living being, in all manners possible and for all times ... it should be the desired goal of all seekers."(1) The Laws of Manu, one of the sacred texts of the Hinduism, states that "Without the killing of living beings, meat cannot be made available, and since killing is contrary to the principles of ahimsa, one must give up eating meat."(2) Jainism, which is prominent in Gandhi's home state of Gujarat, espouses strict vegetarianism and restraint from the use of any products made from the slaughter of animals. Vegetarianism pervades the life of all Indians, for even those who do not entirely believe in the religious reasons for avoiding meat, live in a culture where, due to the economics of meat-eating, vegetarianism is a part of life. In India, meat is expensive, a luxury which is not part of the normal lifestyle, and thus difficult to find. Gandhi, when explaining the vegetarian practices of India to his vegetarian friends in England, put it this way: "In practice, almost all the Indians are vegetarians. Some are so voluntarily, and others compulsorily. The latter, though always willing to take, are yet too poor to buy meat. This statement will be borne out by the fact that there are thousands in India who have to live on one pice a day. These live on bread and salt."(3) This was the culture into which Gandhi was born. Some Indians wanted to discard the old traditions and thus espoused meat-eating, since they believed that the ancient customs made Indians weak and allowed the British to conquer and rule them. Since Britons ate meat, some Indian nationalists pounced on vegetarianism as a deleterious habit. Gandhi's childhood friend, the "tragedy" in his life, Sheik Mehtab believed in the powers of meat-eating. He told the young Gandhi: "We are a weak people because we do not eat meat. The English are able to rule over us, because they are meat-eaters. You know how hardy I am, and how great a runner too. It is because I am a meat-eater. Meat- eaters do not have boils or tumours, and even if they sometimes happen to have any, these heal quickly. Our teachers and other distinguished people who eat meat are no fools. They know its virtues. You should do likewise. There is nothing like trying. Try, and see what strength it gives."(4) Mehtab also argued that meat-eating would cure Gandhi's other problems, including his irrational fear of the dark. Gandhi observed that both Mehtab and Gandhi's brother, also a meat-eater, possessed greater physically strength and athletic ability than himself. Gandhi saw indications that meat-eating produced stronger and more courageous men, not only in the British culture, but in India as well. The Kshatriyas, the warrior caste of India, had always eaten meat, and it was generally thought that their diet was one of the sources of their strength.(5) With these arguments, Mehtab eventually convinced Gandhi, well hidden from his parents, to eat meat. At first, Gandhi abhorred it. "The goat's meat was as tough as leather. I simply could not eat it. I was sick and had to leave off eating."(6) However, now that Mehtab knew that Gandhi was convinced of the benefits of eating meat, he would surrender. At extraordinary expense, he managed to get a room in a restaurant and have meat expertly prepared by a trained chef. After eating meat in this manner, hidden from his parents, Gandhi "became a relisher of meat- dishes, if not the meat itself."(7) Yet this came at a price for the painfully honest young Gandhi. He knew that every time he ate meat, he broke an implicit promise to his parents, especially his mother, who would have regarded her youngest son's meat-eating with horror. Gandhi vowed to give up meat, though he thought at the time, as he said in his autobiography, that "it is essential to eat meat, and also essential to take up food 'reform' in the country." He tempered his decision by promising himself that "when they are no more and I have found my freedom, I will eat meat openly, but until that moment arrives, I will abstain from it."(8) Thus, Gandhi based his decision not on the morals or ideals of vegetarianism, but on his desire to honor his parents. Gandhi, by his own admission, was not a true vegetarian. Only his respect for his parents forced him to remain a vegetarian. Gandhi believed in eating meat, because he believed that only by fighting, through physical strength, would his country be free. So, where did Gandhi learn his vegetarianism? From his descriptions of his mother, one can conclude that religion and its culinary aspects occupied a very important portion of her life. Gandhi remembered in his autobiography, "The outstanding impression of my mother has let on my memory is that of saintliness...She would take the hardest vows and keep them without flinching."(9) He goes on to mention her devotion to God through fasting. Fasting was at the core of her religious life. Yearly, she would fast during Chaturmas, and she often subjected herself to fasting more rigorous than was required by religion or tradition. No doubt, this tradition of renunciation of culinary pleasure included her vegetarianism, though her upbringing was probably such that she never consciously thought of vegetarianism as a sacrifice. Just as his father's proclivity for carnal pleasure and Gandhi's fundamental disrespect for that aspect of his father's psyche, led to brahmacharya, the renunciation of sexual activity, Gandhi's love for his mother and his respect for her fasting capabilities led to his realization that moral strength can be achieved through vegetarianism and fasting. In other ways, Gandhi's true vegetarianism was implicitly tied with his feelings for his mother. As he prepared to study for his law degree in England, others warned him repeatedly that he would end up eating meat, since it was required of those living in England. His mother did not want her son to become a meat-eater, and forced a vow from him; under the administration of a Jain monk, Gandhi vowed to his mother that he would not touch wine, women or meat, and thus secured her permission to go to England. Without this oath, Gandhi might not have ever become a true vegetarian. En route and within England, he had to refuse to eat meat repeatedly. He was told, "It is all very well so far but you will have to revise your decision in the Bay of Biscay. And it is so cold in England that one cannot possibly live there without meat."(10) When he finally reached England, he discovered the difficulty of continuing the practice of vegetarianism. His landladies, who agreed to provide board as well as housing, did not know what to cook except for boiled vegetables and bread; he described himself as starving at times. Although he had eaten meat previously and considered it a good substance, he stuck to his vow. As he once tearfully told a friend who was badgering him to eat meat, "I also know that you are telling me again and again about [eating meat] because your feel for me. But I am helpless. A vow is a vow. It cannot be broken."(11) As Erikson explains, the vow represented not simply a promise to Gandhi's mother, but a connection to her, and to his motherland and mother-religion. As long as Gandhi held to his vow, he could escape his homesickness, since he was linked to home through his vow to his mother. Thus, he continually challenged his female associates to help him keep his vow, forcing them to become vicariously his mother, while subtly demanding his male associates to play the part of Mehtab and attempt to convince him to eat meat.(12) In all of his descriptions of England, men were the ones who attacked his vegetarian practices, and women, even meat- eating ones, who tried to support him, at least in some small way. When he returned from England to discover that his mother had died during his absence, his vegetarianism became a permanent connection to her and her memory. No longer could he think of eating meat, even though his parents were "no more" and he had found his "freedom." But Gandhi could not think of eating meat for a more basic reason than an ethereal connection with his mother. In England he received a revelation, which helped form his vision of the Satyagrahi movement. As Gandhi indicated in the chapter of his autobiography entitled "My choice," his lifelong vegetarianism did not result from his mother's feelings on the matter; rather, he made a moral decision to keep the practice of vegetarianism. This decision was a necessary change in his life, for if he were simply to be a vegetarian due to his mother's influence, he would not have been a person capable of his own choices. As Erikson posits, "the future Satyagrahi had to learn to choose actively and affirmatively what not to do- an ethical capacity not to be confused with the moralistic inability to break a prohibition."(13) And choose he did. Even though Gandhi resisted the temptation to break his vow, he still faced the practical problem of finding food for himself. After hearing of vegetarian restaurants in the city from his landlady, he searched for one, and when his quest was over, he said, "The sight of it filled me with the same joy that a child feels on getting a thing after its own heart."(14) This feeling prophesied the change of heart he was about to experience. In the restaurant, he bought a copy of Salt's _Plea_for_Vegetarianism_(*), which he read cover to cover. The book discussed the moral reasons for being a vegetarian - the inherent violence present in the eating of meat, and the non- violence that could be achieved from abstaining from it. No longer was Gandhi a vegetarian wishing he were a meat-eater. "The choice was now made in favour of vegetarianism, the spread of which henceforward became my mission."(15) Gandhi had decided that ahimsa was his goal. It became the core of his Satyagrahi movement, and the core of his life. Gandhi had desired meat because he thought that it would provide the strength that Indians would need that type of strength to overcome the rule of the British. Yet with his choice for vegetarianism, he realized there are other sources of strength - satyagraha, which had the power to end the British raj, while physical strength alone would have been defeated. After his first step towards this moral strength, he started to study Christianity, Hinduism and the other religions of the world. As he soon found through his studies, "renunciation [is] the highest form of religion."(16) Renunciation of pleasure became his highest goal, and he delighted in the pursuit of this goal as an origin of satyagraha. Vegetarianism was his first source of this new force, since it was a type of self-control, and fasting, as an extension of vegetarianism, later became the ultimate symbol of his self-control. Once Gandhi abandoned of his idea that abstinence from meat made India weak, he realized some of the truths about his country, which he had been blinded from before. In an article for The Vegetarian, the newsletter of the Vegetarian Society in England, he wrote of other reasons why the British could conquer India and hold it so easily, arguing against his own previous theories: "One of the most important reasons, if not the most important one, is the wretched custom of infant marriages and its attendant evils. Generally, children when they reach the great age of nine are burdened with the fetters of married life ... Will not these marriages tell upon the strongest constitutions? Now fancy how weak the progeny of such marriages must be."(17) This freedom allowed him to see the other social ills that were stripping the nation of India of its strengths, problems that he had not noticed before, including the caste system. It also allowed him to reverse around the traditional western definition of strength, turning it into the definition that made his movement so powerful. Meat- eating was a type of aggression, which Gandhi once thought was the only key to mastery. After becoming a true vegetarian, and thus discovering the ideas of ahimsa, he realized that aggression is a path to mastery for those without self- control. Ahimsa, non-violence, is the path to mastery for those with self-control. The idea of renunciation, also part of the revelation that brought him to vegetarianism, eventually brought him to another major philosophy in his life, that of brahmacharya. Gandhi's choice to become vegetarian started him on the road towards ahimsa, renunciation, and finally, satyagraha itself. Without it, he would have never realized the power of morality and never would have become the Mahatma. (1)Patanjali Yoga Sutras, 2.30, as quoted in Steven Rosen, Food for the Spirit; Vegetarianism and the World Religions, (New York, Bala Books,1987) p. 72. (2)Quoted in Rosen, p. 72 (3)Quoted in Erik H. Erikson, Gandhi's Truth, (New York, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1969) p. 151. (4)Quoted in Mohandas K. Gandhi, Autobiography, Trans. Mahadev Desai, (New York, Dover Publications, Inc., 1983) p. 17. (5)Susanne Hoeber Rudolph and Lloyd I. Rudolph, Gandhi, The Traditional Roots of Charisma, (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1983) p. 23. (6)Gandhi, p. 19. (7)Ibid. (8)Ibid. p 20. (9)Ibid. p. 2. (10)Ibid. p. 38. (11)Ibid. p. 42. (12)Erikson, p. 142-145. (13)Ibid., p. 144. (14)Gandhi, p. 43. (15)Ibid. (16)Ibid. p. 60. (17)Quoted in Erikson, p. 150. (*) Henry Salt was an English philosopher who published the now classic book _Animals' Rights: In Relation to Social Progress_ in 1892.

- source - unreasonable.org

Quotes on Vegetarianism - Vegeterianism

A vegetarian is a person who won't eat anything that can have children. --David Brenner

Animals are my friends...and I don't eat my friends. --George Bernard Shaw

How can you eat anything with eyes? --Will Kellogg

Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child, as it is to the caterpillar. -- Bradley Miller

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. --Paul McCartney

I do not like eating meat because I have seen lambs and pigs killed. I saw and felt their pain. They felt the approaching death. I could not bear it. I cried like a child. I ran up a hill and could not breathe. I felt that I was choking. I felt the death of the lamb. --Vaslav Nijinsky (dancer and choreographer)


Now I can look at you in peace; I don't eat you anymore. -- Franz Kafka-Novelist (to the fishes in his aquarium)

People often say that humans have always eaten animals, as if this is a justification for continuing the practice. According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people, since this has also been done since the earliest of times. --Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904- )
For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love. --Pythagoras (6th century BC)


A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. --Leo Tolstoy

Nothing more strongly arouses our disgust than cannibalism, yet we make the same impression on Buddhists and vegetarians, for we feed on babies, though not our own. --Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

Recognize meat for what it really is: the antibiotic- and pesticide-laden corpse of a tortured animal. ~Ingrid Newkirk, National Director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them. -- Samuel Butler, Note-Books, 1912


Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. --Albert Einstein

Nothing more strongly arouses our disgust than cannibalism, yet we make the same impression on Buddhists and vegetarians, for we feed on babies, though not our own. -- Robert Louis Stevenson


The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined. If beef is your idea of "real food for real people" you'd better live real close to a real good hospital. --Neal Barnard, M.D.

We all love animals. Why do we call some "pets" and others "dinner?" --k.d. lang

Dear Lord, I've been asked, nay commanded, to thank Thee for the Christmas turkey before us... a turkey which was no doubt a lively, intelligent bird... a social being... capable of actual affection... nuzzling its young with almost human-like compassion. Anyway, it's dead and we're gonna eat it. Please give our respects to its family. --Berke Breathed, Bloom County Babylon

We pray on Sundays that we may have light/To guide our footsteps on the path we tread;/We are sick of war, we don't want to fight,/And yet we gorge ourselves upon the dead. -- George Bernard Shaw

We don't need to eat anyone who would run, swim, or fly away if he could. --James Cromwell


If you knew how meat was made, you'd probably lose your lunch. --k.d. lang

A man of my spiritual intensity does not eat corpses. --George Bernard Shaw

As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields. --Leo Tolstoy, author

The eating of meat extinguishes the seed of great compassion. --Mahaparinirvana (Buddhist)

I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants. -- Gandhi

I will not eat anything that walks, runs, skips, hops or crawls. God knows that I've crawled on occasion, and I'm glad that no one ate me. -----Alex Poulos

We don't need to eat anyone who would run, swim, or fly away if he could. --James Cromwell


If you knew how meat was made, you'd probably lose your lunch. --k.d. lang

A man of my spiritual intensity does not eat corpses. --George Bernard Shaw

As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields. --Leo Tolstoy, author

The eating of meat extinguishes the seed of great compassion. --Mahaparinirvana (Buddhist)

I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants. -- Gandhi

I will not eat anything that walks, runs, skips, hops or crawls. God knows that I've crawled on occasion, and I'm glad that no one ate me. -----Alex Poulos


One farmer says to me, "You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make the bones with;" and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying himself with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle. --Henry David Thoreau


Think of the fierce energy concentrated in an acorn! You bury it in the ground, and it explodes into an oak! Bury a sheep, and nothing happens but decay. --George Bernard Shaw


My situation is a solemn one. Life is offered to me on condition of eating beefsteaks. But death is better than cannibalism. My will contains directions for my funeral, which will be followed not by mourning coaches, but by oxen, sheep, flocks of poultry, and a small traveling aquarium of live fish, all wearing white scarfs in honor of the man who perished rather than eat his fellow creatures. --George Bernard Shaw


I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens. --Isaac Bashevis Singer, quoted in You Said a Mouthful edited by Ronald D. Fuchs

Suppose that tomorrow a group of beings from another planet were to land on Earth, beings who considered themselves as superior to you as you feel yourself to be to other animals. Would they have the right to treat you as you treat the animals you breed, keep and kill for food? --John Harris (1946- )


Heart attacks... God's revenge for eating his little animal friends. --Author Unknown

Vegetarian food leaves a deep impression on our nature. If the whole world adopts vegetarianism, it can change the destiny of humankind. -- Albert Einstein

Our task must be to free ourselves... widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. -- Albert Einstein

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. -- Gandhi

If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalist for the same reasons. -- C. S. Lewis

Among the noblest in the land - Though man may count himself the least - That man I honor and revere, Who without favor, without fear, In the great city dares to stand, The friend of every friendless beast. --Henry W. Longfellow

A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral. -- Leo Tolstoy


Tongue - a variety of meat, rarely served because it clearly crosses the line between a cut of beef and a piece of a dead cow. --Bob Ekstrom

While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth? --George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)


Coexistence... what the farmer does with the turkey - until Thanksgiving. --Mike Connolly


A mind of the calibre of mine cannot derive its nutriment from cows. --George Bernard Shaw


It is strange to hear people talk of Humanitarianism, who are members of societies for the prevention of cruelty to children and animals, and who claim to be God-loving men and women, but who, nevertheless, encourage by their patronage the killing of animals merely to gratify the cravings of appetite. --Otoman Zar-Adusht Ha'nish (1844-1936)

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian. We feel better about ourselves and better about the animals, knowing we're not contributing to their pain.
--Paul (1942- ) and Linda McCartney

You put a baby in a crib with an apple and a rabbit. If it eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, I'll buy you a new car. --Harvey Diamond

A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral.--Leo Tolstoy

But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy. --Plutarch (c.AD 46-c.120)

Flesh eating is simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act, which is contrary to moral feeling: killing. By killing, man suppresses in himself, unnecessarily, the highest spiritual capacity, that of sympathy and pity towards living creatures like himself and by violating his own feelings becomes cruel. -- Leo Tolstoy

Flesh eating is unprovoked murder. -- Benjamin Franklin

I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men. --Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)

To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body. --Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948)

We stopped eating meat many years ago. During the course of a Sunday lunch we happened to look out of the kitchen window at our young lambs playing happily in the fields. Glancing down at our plates, we suddenly realized that we were eating the leg of an animal who had until recently been playing in a field herself. We looked at each other and said, "Wait a minute, we love these sheep--they're such gentle creatures. So why are we eating them?" It was the last time we ever did. --Linda and Paul McCartney (musicians)

"Those who, by their purchases, require animals to be killed have no right to be shielded from the slaughterhouse or any other aspect of the production of the meat they buy. If it is distasteful for humans to think about, what can it be like for the animals to experience it?" --Peter Singer

"My dream is that people will come to view eating an animal as cannibalism." --Henry Spira

In every respect, vegans appear to enjoy equal or better health in comparison to both vegetarians and non-vegetarians. --T. Colin Campbell, PhD Professor of Nutrition, Cornell University (letter dated 3/29/98)

"Awareness is bad for the meat business. Conscience is bad for the meat business. Sensitivity to life is bad for the meat business. DENIAL, however, the meat business finds indispensable." --John Robbins, Diet for a New America

"There will come a time...when civilised people will look back in horror on our generation and the ones that preceded it: the idea that we should eat other living things running around on four legs, that we should raise them just for the purpose of killing them! The people of the future will say "meat-eaters!" in disgust and regard us in the same way we regard cannibals and cannibalism" --Dennis Weaver

"The animals you eat are not those who devour others; you do not eat the carnivorous beasts, you take them as your pattern. You only hunger after sweet and gentle creatures who harm no one, which follow you, serve you, and are devoured by you as the reward of their service" --John Jacques Rousseau

"The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined. If beef is your idea of `real food for real people,' you'd better live real close to a real good hospital." --Neal D. Barnard, M.D., President, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Washington, D.C.

"When we kill the animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fat, was never intended for human beings." --William C. Roberts, M.D., editor of The American Journal of Cardiology

"All red meat contains saturated fat. There is no such thing as truly lean meat. Trimming away the edge ring of fat around a steak really does not lower the fat content significantly. People who have red meat (trimmed or untrimmed) as a regular feature of their diets suffer in far greater numbers from heart attacks and strokes."
--Michael Klaper, M.D., Medical Director, EarthSave Foundation, Santa Cruz, California

"If you step back and look at the data, the optimum amount of red meat you eat should be zero."
--Walter Willett, M.D., of Brigham and Women's Hospital, director of a study that found a close correlation between red meat consumption and colon cancer.

"Usually, the first thing a country does in the course of economic development is to introduce a lot of livestock. Our data are showing that this is not a very smart move and the Chinese are listening. They are realizing that animal-based agriculture is not the way to go.... We are basically a vegetarian species and should be eating a wide variety of plant food and minimizing our intake of animal foods.... "Once people start introducing animal products into their diet, that's when the mischief starts." --T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., of Cornell University, director of a study of 6,500 Chinese that found a close correlation between meat consumption and the incidence of heart disease and cancer.

"The thousands of people who have suffered food poisoning after eating beef will, no doubt, appreciate that their beef was aesthetically acceptable, even though it made them ill. `Lovely to look at, dangerous to eat' is not a standard that is likely to help beef sales." --Carol Tucker Foreman, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture during the Carter administration, commenting on the inadequacy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Streamlined (Meat) Inspection System (SIS).

If man wants freedom why keep birds and animals in cages? Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them. We live by the death of others. We are burial places! I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men. -- Leonardo da Vinci

Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. -- Albert Einstein

Men dig their graves with their own teeth and die by those fated instruments more than the weapons of their enemies. -- Thomas Moffett

You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher animals in their mental faculties... The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery. -- Charles Darwin

When it comes to having a central nervous system, and the ability to feel pain, hunger, and thirst, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. -- Ingrid Newkirk

If experiments on animals were abandoned on grounds of compassion, mankind would have made a fundamental advance. -- Richard Wagner

For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love. -- Pythagoras

It were much better that a sentient being should never have existed, than that it should have existed only to endure unmitigated misery. -- Percy Bysshe Shelley

What I think about vivisection is that if people admit that they have the right to take or endanger the life of living beings for the benefit of many, there will be no limit for their cruelty. -- Leo Tolstoy

I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. -- Ecclesiastes

Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. -- St. Francis of Assisi

I have no doubt that it is part of the destiny of the human race in its gradual improvement to leave off eating animals. -- Henry David Thoreau

Your choice of diet can influence your long term health prospects more than any other action you might take. -- Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop

Until he extends the circle of compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace. -- Albert Schweitzer

If you have men who will exclude any of god's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewisewith their fellow men. -- St. Francis of Assisi

Basically we should stop doing those things that are destructive to the environment, other creatures, and ourselves and figure out new ways of existing. -- Moby

Plant life instead of animal food is the keystone of regeneration. Jesus used bread instead of flesh and wine in place of blood at the Lord's Supper. -- German Composer Richard Wagner

It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions. --Mark Twain

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever does. -- Margaret Mead

We consume the carcasses of creatures of like appetites, passions and organs with our own, and fill the slaughterhouses daily with screams of pain and fear. -- Robert Louis Stevenson

To a man whose mind is free there is something even more intolerable in the sufferings of animals than in the suffering of man. For with the latter it is at least admitted that suffering is evil and that the man who causes it is a criminal. But thousands (now billions) of animals are uselessly butchered every day without a shadow of remorse. If any man were to refer to it, he would be thought ridiculous. And that is the unpardonable crime. -- Romain Rolland--Nobel 1915

Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages. -- Thomas Edison

To become vegetarian is to step into the stream which leads to nirvana. -- Buddha

40 years ago on the set of Gunsmoke I read the book The Holy Science. Since then I have not eaten meat. -- Dennis Weaver

Since visiting the abbatoirs of S. France I have stopped eating meat. -- Vincent Van Gogh (in a letter to his brother Theodore)

The most energetic workers I have encountered in my world travels are the vegetarian miners of Chile. -- Charles Darwin

I feel very deeply about vegetarianism and the animal kingdom. It was my dog Boycott who led me to question to right of humans to eat other sentient beings. -- Cesar Chavez (pacifist head of the United Farm Workers)

Love animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled. Do not trouble their joy, don't harass them, don't deprive them of their happiness, don't work against God's intent. Man, do not pride yourself on superiority to animals; they are without sin, and you, with your greatness, defile the earth by your appearance on it, and leave the traces of your foulness after you-alas, it is true of almost every one of us! -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them, that's the essence of inhumanity. -- Isaac Bashevis Singer

It is man's sympathy with all creatures that first makes him truly a man. -- Dr. Albert Schweitzer--Nobel 1952