Catalyst Quotes

Compiled by Alex Pena ~ ‘Catalyst’: “to spark, to ignite, energize, mobilize; something that accelerates a reaction (DDI)." Thought-provoking & motivational quotes and stories for you to read, reflect on and move forward in making creative and positive changes in your life.

Archive for the category “Perception”

“The Road to Wisdom / Your Intentions Create the Reality”

 

 

“There is freedom waiting for you,
On the breezes of the sky,
And you ask,  ‘What if I fall?’
Oh, but my darling,
What if you fly?”     (Erin Hanson)

 

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“You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”     (Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet)

 

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“Sometimes, divine revelation simply means adjusting your brain to hear what your heart already knows.”     (Dan Brown)

 

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The Road to Wisdom

“The road to wisdom?
Well, it’s plain and simple to express:
Err
and err
and err again
but less
and less
and less.”     (Piet Hein)

 

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“Nothing of me is original.  I am the combined effort of everyone I’ve ever known.”     (Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters)

 

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“Your intentions create the reality that you experience.”     (Gary Zukav)

 

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“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.   It’s not.”     (Dr. Seuss)

 

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“The Little Boy and the Old Man

Said the little boy, ‘Sometimes I drop my spoon.’
Said the old man, ‘I do that too.’
The little boy whispered, ‘I wet my pants.’
‘I do that too,’ laughed the little old man.
Said the little boy, ‘I often cry.’
The old man nodded, ‘’So do I.’
‘But worst of all,’ said the boy, ‘”it seems
Grown-ups don’t pay attention to me.’
And he felt the warmth of a wrinkled old hand.
‘I know what you mean,’ said the little old man.’”     (Shel Silverstein)

 

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“to live in this world

you must be able
to do three things
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.”     (Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems, Volume One)

 

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“life’s not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis”     (e. e. cummings)

 

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“A New Reality is Born”

 

“It’s one kind of victory to slay a beast, move a mountain, and cross a chasm, but it’s another kind altogether to realize that the beast, the mountain, and the chasm were of your own design.

Now you can move dem’ mountains or just make ’em disappear… by looking the other way.     (signed)  The Universe”   (Mike Dooley, ‘Notes from the Universe’, 4.2.14)

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“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”  

(Wayne W. Dyer)

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“Reality is what we take to be true.

What we take to be true is what we believe.

What we believe is based upon our perceptions.

What we perceive depends upon what we look for.

What we look for depends upon what we think.

What we think depends upon what we perceive.

What we perceive determines what we believe.

What we believe determines what we take to be true.

What we take to be true is our reality.”

(Gary Zukav, Dancing Wu Li Masters:  An Overview of the New Physics)

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“A mind set in its ways is wasted.  Don’t do it.”  

(Eric Schmidt)

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“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”  

(Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan)

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“Perception is transformed, and a new reality is born.”   

(Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol)

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“Trying to Find Out Who We Are”

 

“Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not.  Make it your strength.  Then it can never be your weakness.  Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.”   (George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones)

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“O me!  O life! … of the questions of these recurring;

Of the endless trains of the faithless —of cities fill’d with the foolish;

Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)

Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—of the struggle ever renew’d;

Of the poor results of all—of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;

Of the empty and useless years of the rest—with the rest me intertwined;

The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

 Answer:

That you are here—that life exists, and identity;

That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.”   (Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass)

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“We can spend our lives letting the world tell us who we are.  Sane or insane.  Saints or sex addicts.  Heroes or victims.  Letting history tell us how good or bad we are.  Letting our past decide our future.  Or we can decide for ourselves.  And maybe it’s our job to invent something better.”   (Chuck Palahniuk, Choke)

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“In most of our human relationships, we spend much of our time reassuring one another that our costumes of identity are on straight.”   (Ram Dass)

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“I mean, we’re all trying to find out who the hell we are, aren’t we?”   (Robert Ludlum, The Bourne Identity)

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“Leader, Boss, Manage”

 

“My completely random thought for today has been about the features of the best and worst bosses I had during my long … career.

My best bosses:

▪  inspired confidence

▪  were humble

▪  had integrity

▪   knew what they were talking about

▪  let me get on with things

▪  were always there when I needed help

▪  usually said ‘yes, try it’

 

My worst bosses:

▪  never seemed to be around when I needed them

▪  always asked me to justify what I wanted to do

▪  always wanted to know what I was doing

▪  often said ‘no, we can’t do that’

▪  gave the impression of being distrustful

▪  didn’t smile much

▪  talked about themselves a lot”   (Trevor Gay, Simplicity Blog)

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“The boss drives people; the leader coaches them.  The boss depends on authority; the leader on good will.  The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm.  The boss says ‘I’; the leader says ‘WE’.  The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown. The boss says, ‘GO’; the leader says ‘LET’S GO!’    (H. Gordon Selfridge)

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“A boss creates fear, a leader confidence.  A boss fixes blame, a leader corrects mistakes.  A boss knows all, a leader asks questions.  A boss makes work drudgery, a leader makes it interesting.  A boss is interested in himself or herself; a leader is interested in the group.”   (Russell H. Ewing)

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“People ask the difference between a leader and a boss.  The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives.”    (Theodore Roosevelt)

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“You manage things; you lead people.”    (Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper)

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“Vision or Hallucination?”

 

“Not everyone you influence will think the same way you do.  You have to help them not only believe that they can succeed, but also show them that you want them to succeed.  How do you do that?

  •  Expect it:  People can sense your underlying attitude no matter what you say or do.  If you have  an expectation for your people to be successful, they will know it.
  • Verbalize it:  People need to hear you tell them that you believe in them and want them to succeed.  Become a positive prophet of their success.
  • Reinforce it:  You can never do too much when it comes to believing in people.

Once people recognize and understand that you genuinely want to see them succeed and are committed to helping them, they will begin to believe they can accomplish what you give them to do.”       (John C. Maxwell, Becoming a Person of Influence)

 

 

“Tell me and I forget.  Show me and I remember.  Let me do and I understand.”       (Confucius)

 

 

“Vision without execution is hallucination.”       (Thomas Edison)

 

“Insanely Awesome”

 

 “Lighten up.   Take in some fresh air and sunlight.    Face challenges eagerly.    Look through the eyes of appreciation.    Relish adventure.    Forgive your parents and cut yourself some slack.    Make someone happy.    Never be disheartened.    Re-invent.    Reach.    Risk.    Refuse, resist and re-use.    Walk the dog.    Surrender.    Do not wait for a better world.    Dance with the stars.    Let it go.    Expect the best.     Know all difficulties in your life have purpose.”     (The Body Shop)

   

“One of the Nintendo game designers asked the company’s chief, ‘What should I make?’   He replied, ‘Make something great!’   Can there be a more powerful response?”     (Attributed to Nintendo’s President Hiroshi Yamauchi by Tom Peters)

  

“Why settle for being effective when you could be insanely awesome?”    (Zenith Data Systems)

 

Be Like Children

“You can understand and relate to most people better if you look at them – no matter how old or impressive they may be – as if they are children.  For most of us never really grow up or mature all that much – we simply grow taller.   Oh, to be sure, we laugh less and play less and wear uncomfortable disguises like adults, but beneath the costume is the child we always are, whose needs are simple, whose daily life is still best described by fairy tales.”     (Leo Rosten)

 

“The great enemy of creativity is fear.   When we’re fearful, we freeze up … .   Creativity has a lot to do with a willingness to take risks.   Think about how children play.   They run around the playground without thinking about where they’re going.   They trip, they fall down, and then they get back up again and run some more.   They have a wonderful belief:  that everything will be all right.   They feel capable; they let go; they play … .   No matter how many facts and figures you have, you can’t predict the future.   There will always be surprises … .   Creativity helps us realize that we don’t have to understand everything.   We can enjoy something – feel it and use it – without ever fully comprehending it.”    (Faith Ringgold, Fast Company, April 2000)

 

“All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten.   Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile ….   These are the things I learned:

  • Share everything.
  • Play fair.
  • Don’t hit people.
  • Put things back where you found them.
  • Clean up your own mess.
  • Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
  • Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
  • Wash your hands before you eat.
  • Flush.
  • Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
  • Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
  • Take a nap every afternoon.
  • When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
  • Be aware of wonder.
  • And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all  – LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.   The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation.   Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.”    (All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum)

“A Thief or Maybe Not”

“Once a man found that his axe was missing, and suspected his neighbor’s son of having taken it. Observing the youth walking around, the man was convinced that his was the walk of a thief. The youth looked like a thief and talked like a thief; everything he did pointed to his having stolen the axe.

 Then one day the man happened to find his missing axe.   After that, he noticed his neighbour’s son wasn’t behaving like a thief anymore.”     (Lieh-tzu)

How many times have we looked at people and automatically developed an image of who they are and what characteristics that person has?   How can we do that?   Experience?   Gut feeling? 

Isn’t every person unique in their own way?   Don’t we owe it to others to look at them without judging them initially?   Look at it from their side – how are you perceived the first time they see you?   Think about this:  The reality of life is that your perceptions – right or wrong – influence everything else you do.   When you get a proper perspective of your perceptions, you may be surprised how many other things fall into place.”  (Roger Birkman) 

Let’s remember to “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”  (Wayne Dyer)  

          ~  GMUniverse

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