“Too Much Snapping and Not Enough Shining”
“The legendary country singer, Johnny Cash was addicted to drugs in the 1960s and went to jail several times. Cash says he overcame his addiction by renewing his faith. He tells how a shoeshine man taught him a lesson for living back in 1956 but, unfortunately, it took several more years for him to really understand the lesson.
‘I was expecting a fast, snappy job like the young folks do,” Cash said, “and he was going about his job real slow. I said to him, ‘You don’t seem to be doing too much snapping.’
“That shoeshine man looked up at me sort of sideways and said, That’s the problem with the world these days — there’s too much snapping and not enough shining.“ (Lesson for Living, Apple Seeds, May, 1999)
“Most great accomplishments, throughout the course of history, began with one individual’s inspiration, idea or a desire to change a negative situation for the better.
What transforms thought into concrete achievement is the determination, perseverance, and patience of the individual.
The achievement of any goal often involves setbacks and failures, large and small. But by letting failures educate rather than discourage, you can increase your chances of achieving your objective. The only real failure occurs when you give up on an attainable goal.” (Christopher News Notes
“The question was once asked of a highly successful businessman:
‘How have you done so much in your lifetime?’
He replied, ‘I have dreamed. I have turned my mind loose to imagine what I wanted to do. Then I have gone to bed and thought about my dreams. In the night I dreamt about my dreams. And when I awoke in the morning, I saw the way to make my dreams real. While other people were saying, You can’t do that, it isn’t possible, I was well on my way to achieving what I wanted.”
As Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the U.S., said: ‘We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire on a long winter’s evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nourish them through bad days until they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true.”
So please, don’t let anyone steal your dreams, or try to tell you they are too impossible. “Sing your song, dream your dreams, hope your hope and pray your prayer.” (Grow Great By Dreams, Anonymous)
“Everyone knows on any given day that there are energies slumbering in him which the incitements of that day do not call forth …. Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources…. Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives far within his limits; he possesses powers of various sorts he habitually fails to use.” (William James)
“All know the way, few actually walk it.” (Bodhidharma)
Catalyst Quotes 