Catalyst Quotes

“Discovering the Limits of the Possible”

“Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.”    (Oliver Wendall Holmes)

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“Where do I find good ideas?  Do you often find ideas that change everything in a windowless conference room, with bottled water on the side table and a circle of critics and skeptics wearing suits looking at you as the clock ticks down to the 60 minutes allocated for this meeting?

If not, then why do you keep looking for them there?

The best ideas come out of the corner of our eye, the edge of our consciousness, in a flash.  They are the result of misdirection and random collisions, not a grinding corporate onslaught.  And yet we waste billions of dollars in time looking for them where they’re not.

A practical tip: buy a big box of real wooden blocks.  Write a key factor/asset/strategy on each block in big letters.  Play with the blocks.  Build concrete things out of non-concrete concepts. 

Uninvite the devil’s advocate, since the devil doesn’t need one, he’s doing fine.

Have fun.    Why not?     It works.”     (Seth Godin)

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“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”    (Arthur C. Clarke)

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“It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.”    (Anthony Robbins)

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“May You Always Feel Loved”

“There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”    (Morpheus in the movie ‘The Matrix’)

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“May you find serenity and tranquility in a world you may not always understand.  May the pain you have known and the conflict you have experienced give you the strength to walk through life facing each new situation with courage and optimism.  Always know that there are those whose love and understanding will always be there, even when you feel most alone.  May you discover enough goodness in others to believe in a world of peace.  May a kind word, a reassuring touch, and a warm smile be yours every day of your life, and may you give these gifts as well as receive them.  Remember the sunshine when the storm seems unending.

Teach love to those who hate, and let that love embrace you as you go out into the world.  May the teachings of those you admire become part of you, so that you may call upon them.  Remember, those whose lives you have touched and whose have touched yours are always a part of you, even if the encounters were less than you would have wished.  It is the content of the encounter that is more important than the form.

May you not become too concerned with material matters, but instead place immeasurable value on the goodness in your heart.  Find time each day to see beauty and love in the world around you. Realize that each person has limitless abilities, but each of us is different in our own way.  What you feel you lack in the present may become one of your strengths in the future.  May you see your future as one filled with promise and possibility.  Learn to view everything as a worthwhile experience.  May you find enough inner strength to determine your own worth by yourself, and not be dependent on another’s judgment of your accomplishments.

May you always feel loved.”    (Sandra Sturtz Hauss)   

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“What Will You Do After Reading This?”

“Fear knocked at the door.  Faith answered.  No one was there.”    (Author Unknown)

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“You may believe that you are responsible for what you do, but not for what you think.  The truth is that you are responsible for what you think, because it is only at this level that you can exercise choice.  What you do comes from what you think.     (‘A Course In Miracles’ Foundation For Inner Peace)

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“If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for, in detail, and ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for.”    (Thomas Merton)

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“Life’s not about expecting, hoping and wishing, it’s about doing, being and becoming.

It’s about the choices you’ve just made, and the ones you’re about to make, it’s about the things you choose to say  –  today.

It’s about what you’re gonna do after you finish reading this.”      (Mike Dooley)

“One Word Frees Us”

“Whatever we’re going through, whatever pains are inviting us to change, whatever love is breathing new life into us, revealing the presence of the divine at our center, we are receiving these transformations of growth and healing not only for ourselves but for everyone, for the whole human race. 

The changes that are alive in us, the love that is reshaping our hearts and restructuring our individual possibilities, are the blueprint of tremendous change for everyone.

Every feather on the bird’s wing carries the beautiful bird a little bit closer to home.  Every moment of love each one of us feels brings us all a little bit closer . . . . “    (365 Days of Love, Daphne Rose Kingma, Conari Press)

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“One word frees us of all weight and pain of life; that word is love.”    (Sophocles, 496 – 406 BC)

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“Images of What Love is About”

“Is it possible for the rose to say, ‘I will give my fragrance to the good people who smell me, but I will withhold it from the bad?’  Or is it possible for the lamp to say, ‘I will give my light to the good people in this room, but I will withhold it from the evil people’?  Or can a tree say, ‘I’ll give my shade to the good people who rest under me, but I will withhold it from the bad’? These are images of what love is about.”     (Anthony De Mello)

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“Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought; our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.”     (Samuel Johnson)

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“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”    (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

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“When your heart speaks, take good notes.”    (Judith Campbell)

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“Four Questions of Value”

“If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.”    (Rabindranath Tagore)

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“There are no extra pieces in the universe.  Everyone is here because he or she has a place to fill, and every piece must fit itself into the big jigsaw puzzle.”    (Deepak Chopra)

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“The lesson which life constantly repeats is to ‘look under your feet.’  You are always nearer to the divine and the true sources of your power than you think.  The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive.  The great opportunity is where you are.  Do not despise your own place and hour.  Every place is under the stars.  Every place is the center of the world.”    (John Burroughs)

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“There are only four questions of value in life …

1.     What is sacred?
2.     Of what is the spirit made?
3.     What is worth living for, and
4.     What is worth dying for?

The answer to each is the same:  only love.”    (Johnny Depp as Don Juan in the movie ‘Don Juan De Marco’)

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“Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow.

Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead.

Walk beside me and be my friend.”     (Albert Camus)

“Inner Value”

“We are told that talent creates its own opportunities.  But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents.”    (Eric Hoffer)

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“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”    (Albert Einstein)

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“Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along.  This applies to play as well as work.  A day merely survived is no cause for celebration.  You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine.  No more busy work.  No more hiding from success.  Leave time, leave space to grow.  Now.  Now!  Not tomorrow!    (Og Mandino)

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“We’re so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it is all about.”    (Joseph Campbell)

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“The words ‘I am …’ are potent words; be careful what you hitch them to.  The thing you’re claiming has a way of reaching back and claiming you.”    (A. L. Kitselman)

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed:  ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’”    (Martin Luther King Jr.)

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“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”   (Martin Luther King Jr.)

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

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 “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.  That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”     (Martin Luther King Jr.)

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“Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve.  You don’t have to have a college degree to serve.  You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve.  You only need a heart full of grace.  A soul generated by love.”    (Martin Luther King Jr.)

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“Life’s most urgent question is: what are you doing for others?”    (Martin Luther King Jr.)

“Light in the Soul – Beauty, Harmony, Order and Peace ”

“An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?”     (Michel De Saint-Pierre)

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“Know that the purpose for which each soul enters a material experience is that it may be as a light unto others . . . Thus, in that consciousness of daily living and being that which is in keeping with the ideal – life and its problems become not a burden, but opportunities.”   (Edgar Cayce)

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“If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person.

If there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house.

If there is harmony in the house, there will order in the nation.

If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world.”     (Chinese Proverb)

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“You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.”    (Oliver Goldsmith)