Catalyst Quotes

“No More ‘Supposed Tos,’ OK?”

“Sometimes the truth isn’t good enough, sometimes people deserve more.  Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.”    (The Dark Knight movie)

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“Passion is passion.  It’s the excitement between the tedious spaces, and it doesn’t matter where it’s directed … It can be coins or sports or politics or horses or music or faith … the saddest people I’ve ever met in life are the ones who don’t care deeply about anything at all.”    (Nicholas Sparks, Dear John)

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“To hold our tongues when everyone is gossiping, to smile without hostility at people and institutions, to compensate for the shortage of love in the world with more love in small, private matters; to be more faithful in our work, to show greater patience, to forgo the cheap revenge obtainable from mockery and criticism:  all these are things we can do.”    (Hermann Hesse)

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“I used to think I knew everything.  I was a ‘smart person’ who ‘got things done,’ and because of that, the higher I climbed, the more I could look down and scoff at what seemed silly or simple, even religion.

But I realized something as I drove home that night:  that I am neither better nor smarter, only luckier.  And I should be ashamed of thinking I knew everything, because you can know the whole world and still feel lost in it.  So many people are in pain – no matter how smart or accomplished – they cry, they yearn, they hurt.  But instead of looking down on things, they look up, which is where I should have been looking, too.  Because when the world quiets to the sound of your own breathing, we all want the same things:  comfort, love, and a peaceful heart.”    (Mitch Albom, Have a Little Faith: a True Story)

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“Don’t lose your focus, anticipate your future, activate your faith then pursue your dreams.”    (Doctor Tawandia Smith-Daniel)

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“No more ‘supposed tos,’ OK?

You’re not supposed to work harder, look better, sleep less, sell more, run faster, talk slower, be happier, stay longer, leave earlier, cook, clean, negotiate, settle, start, stop, move, try, win, shake, rattle or roll.

Other people made all that up.

I love you the way you are.

  (signed) The Universe”    (Mike Dooley, Notes from the Universe, 8.6.13)                                         

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‘I Was Put on This Earth to Accomplish Certain Things’

“Every single morning I wake with a bang,’ he said.  ‘It’s as though the fact that I am alive is injected into me; I am a character in a fairytale, bursting with life.”    (Jostein Gaarder, The Solitaire Mystery)

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“He awoke each morning with the desire to do right, to be a good and meaningful person, to be, as simple as it sounded and as impossible as it actually was, happy.”    (Jonathan Safran Foer)

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“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so let us all be thankful.”    (Buddha)

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“One must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind him to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery.”     (Robin S. Sharma, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari)

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“Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.”    (Dalai Lama XIV)

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“God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things.  Right now I am so far behind that I will never die.”    (Bill Watterson)

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“The Boss of My Underpants”

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“The book that I shall make people read
is the book of the heart,
which holds the key
to the mystery of life.” (Meher Baba)

‘Alter Your Life by Altering Your Attitude of Mind’

“Fear is like being invited to a party by a complete stranger to celebrate the life of someone you’ve never met, when you had other plans.

Should you choose to attend, however irrational it may surely seem, upon presenting your invitation at the gate you’d notice that it was in your own handwriting.  Then you’d be warmly greeted by the most wonderful, familiar faces – everyone so excited, like you, because, it turns out, you’re about to meet the person you’ve always dreamed you’d one day become.

Surprise!!

Fear, good.

  (signed)  The Universe”    (Mike Dooley, Notes from the Universe, June 21, 2013)

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“The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitude of mind.  If you can change your mind, you can change your life.”    (William James, psychologist)

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“I dream.  Sometimes I think that’s the only right thing to do.”    (Haruki Murakami)

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“If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.”    (Marcus Aurelius)

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“What we think or what we know or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence.  The only thing of consequence is what we do.”    (John Ruskin)

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“Your own words are the bricks and mortar of the dreams you want to realize.  Your words are the greatest power you have.  The words you choose and use establish the life you experience.” (Sonia Croquette)

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“It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy.  It is what you think about.”    (Dale Carnegie)

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“Be Daring, Be Different; And I Hope You Surprise Yourself.”

“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the common place, the slaves of the ordinary.”    (Cecil Beaton)

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“You are a hero who helped her people.  You are a beautiful woman who loved an ugly man. Really, really loved me. You find goodness in others, and when it’s not there you create it. You make me want to go back – back to the best version of me.  And that never happened to me before. …  So when you look in the mirror, and you don’t know who you are, that’s who you are.”    (Rumple)

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“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness.  I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art – write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can.  And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”    (Neil Gaiman)

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“Every act of kindness gets the nod, opens the heart, dampens the fear, turns the page, ups the ante, tips the point, heightens the joy, changes the world, rows the boat, adds to the love, and if you’ve been rather extraordinary lately, turns Thursdays into Fridays.  See?” (signed)  The Universe    (Mike Dooley, Notes from the Universe, June 12, 2013)

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“Life, he realized, was much like a song.  In the beginning there is mystery, in the end there is confirmation, but it’s in the middle where all the emotion resides to make the whole worthwhile.”    (Nicholas Sparks)

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“That’s the thing about the Earth:  It doesn’t stop to acknowledge the daily disasters of the living.  It just keeps spinning and sucking.  I think that’s what drives people towards faith, that unsettling realization that the physical world goes on without them, before them, after them, without recognition or sympathy.”     (Jim Lynch, The Highest Tide)

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“An Explanation of Human Behavior?”

“I am convinced that attitude is the key to success or failure in almost any of life’s endeavors.  Your attitude – your perspective, your outlook, how you feel about yourself, how you feel about other people – determines your priorities, your actions, your values.  Your attitude determines how you interact with other people and how you interact with yourself.”  (Carolyn Warner)

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“It’s a common belief that positive thinking leads to a happier, healthier life.  As children we are told to smile, be cheerful and put on a happy face.  As adults we are told to look on the bright side, to make lemonade and see glasses as half full.  Sometimes reality can get in the way of our ability to act the happy part though.  Your hope can fail, boyfriends can cheat, friends can disappoint … In these moments, when you just want to get real, drop the act, and be your true scared unhappy self.”    (Meredith Grey)

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“One thing:  you have to walk, and create the way by your walking; you will not find a ready-made path.  It is not so cheap, to reach to the ultimate realization of truth.  You will have to create the path by walking yourself; the path is not ready-made, lying there and waiting for you.  It is just like the sky: the birds fly, but they don’t leave any footprints.  You cannot follow them; there are no footprints left behind.”    (Osho)

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“Nothing has turned out as we expected!  It never does.  Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect.  We take what we get and are thankful it’s no worse than it is.”    (Gone With the Wind)

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“We must remember that all these things, the nuances, the anomalies, the subtleties, which we assume only accessorize our days are in fact here for a much larger and nobler cause.  They are here to save our lives.”    (Emma Thompson)

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“Are you expecting me to offer an explanation of human behavior?”    (Sheldon Cooper)

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“A Simple Philosophy – Fill …, Empty … and Scratch … .”

“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 am living for, in detail, 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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“There are powers far beyond us, plans far beyond what we could have ever thought of, visions far more vast than what we can ever see on our own with our own eyes, there are horizons long gone beyond our own horizons.  This is courage – to throw away what is our own that is limited and to thrust ourselves into the hands of these higher powers – God and Destiny.  To do this is to abide in the realm of the eternal, to walk in the path of the everlasting to follow in the footprints of God and demi-gods.  The hardest part for man is the letting go.  For some reason, he thinks himself big enough to know and to see what’s good for him.  But in the letting go … is found freedom.  In the letting go …  is found the flight!”   (C. JoyBell C.)

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“We are the makers of our own lives.  There is no such thing as fate.  Our lives are the result of our previous actions, our karma, and it naturally follows that, having been ourselves the maker of our karma, we must also be able to unmake it.”    (Vivekananda)

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“What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.”    (Charles Bukowski)   

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“The most valuable possession you can own is an open heart.  The most powerful weapon you can be is an instrument of peace.”    (Carlos Santana)

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“I have a simple philosophy:  Fill what’s empty.  Empty what’s full.  Scratch where it itches.”  (Alice Roosevelt Longworth)

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“The Mystery of Human Existence”

“The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it – basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.”    (Charles Bukowski, Tales of Ordinary Madness)

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“My soul will find yours.”   (Jude Deveraux, A Night in Shining Armor)

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“I don’t believe in circumstances.  The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for circumstances they want.”    (George B. Shaw)

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“There are moments when troubles enter our lives and we can do nothing to avoid them.  But they are there for a reason.  Only when we have overcome them will we understand why they were there.”    (Paulo Coelho, The Fifth Mountain)

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“The past has no power over the present moment.”    (Eckhart Tolle)

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“Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice.  It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved.”    (William J. Bryan)

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“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”    (Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov)

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