Catalyst Quotes

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)

“Impossible – I’m Possible”

“One of the annoying things about believing in free will and individual responsibility is the difficulty of finding somebody to blame your problems on.  And when you do find somebody, it’s remarkable how often his picture turns up on your driver’s license.    (P. J. O’Rourke)

“Watch your thoughts, they become words.

Watch your words, they become actions.

Watch your actions, they become habits.

Watch your habits, they become character,

Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”            (Frank Outlaw)

“Any time you’re tempted to say ‘Impossible’, add an apostrophe and a space, and say, ‘I’m possible.’”     (Al Secunda)

“Let us remember that within us there is a palace of immense magnificence.”     (Teresa of Avila)

“Misshapen, Imperfect, Scarred – Extraordinary”

“The fir tree has no choice about starting its life in the crack of a rock . . . .  What (nourishment) it finds is often meager, and above the ground appears a twisted trunk, grown in irregular spurts, marred by dead and broken branches, and bent far to one side by the battering winds.  Yet at the top . . . some twigs hold their green needles year after year, giving proof that – misshapen, imperfect, scarred – the tree lives.”     (Harriet Arrow)

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“It takes more courage to reveal insecurities than to hide them, more strength to relate to people than to dominate them, more ‘manhood’ to abide by thought-out principles rather than blind reflex.  Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles and an immature mind.”     (Alex Karras)

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“It is extraordinary how extraordinary the ordinary person is.”      (George F. Will)

“Wake Up – You Are a Child of the Universe”

“When you hear ‘Repent for your past,’ realize it’s a great religious distraction from waking up. Wake up!  That’s what repent means.  Not ‘weep for your sins.’  Wake up!  Stop all the crying.  Understand!  Wake up!     (Anthony De Mello)

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“One must not hold one’s self so divine as to be unwilling occasionally to make improvements in one’s creations.”    (Ludwig van Beethoven)

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“Every time I close the door on reality, it comes in through the window.”     (Ashleigh Brilliant)

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“Courage is fear that has said its prayers.”      (Author Unknown)

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“You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.”        (Max Ehrmann)

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“Change – Too Many People Grow Up”

“We cannot change our past.  We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.  We cannot change the inevitable.  The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude.”     (Charles Swindoll)

“The Six Phases of Change:   1) Not me!    2) Why me?    3) Deal with me!    4) Oh me!    5) Now me!    6) It’s up to me!”      (Luke De Sadeleer & Joseph Sherren, ‘Vitamin C for a Healthy Workplace’)

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;

Courage to change the things I can; and

Wisdom to know the difference.”      (Reinhold Niebuhr)

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world.  Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”       (Margaret Mead)

“Too many people grow up.  That’s the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up.  They forget.”      (Walt Disney)

“Trolls, Respect, and Remedies”

“The master was certainly not a stickler for etiquette and good manners but there was always a natural courtesy and grace in his dealings with others.

A young disciple once was very rude to a toll collector as he drove the Master home one night.  In self-defense he said, “I’d rather be myself and let people know exactly how I feel.  Politeness is nothing but a lot of hot air anyway.”

“True enough,” replied the Master pleasantly, “but that’s what we have in our automobile tires and see how it eases the bumps.”      (Anthony de Mello, SJ)

“Some will tell you that treating people with respect is just an old-fashioned notion.   Everyone wants to be treated with respect — all the time.   In fact, when we treat people with respect, they’re more likely to do what we want.”     (Seth Godin)

“Lots of things about work are hard.  Dealing with trolls is one of them.  Trolls are critics who gain perverse pleasure in relentlessly tearing you and your ideas down.  Here’s the thing(s):

 1.   trolls will always be trolling

2.   critics rarely create

3.   they live in a tiny echo chamber, ignored by everyone except the trolled and the other trolls

4.   professionals (that’s you) get paid to ignore them.  It’s part of your job.

‘Can’t please everyone,’ isn’t just an aphorism, it’s the secret of being remarkable.”    (Seth Godin)

“I never blame myself when I’m not hitting. I just blame the bat and if it keeps up, I change bats.  After all, if I know it isn’t my fault that I’m not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?”    (Yogi Berra)

“Don’t find fault, find a remedy.”     (Henry Ford)

“The great secret to people excellence is treat people with manifest respect and appreciation and trust, and give them a chance to express the best in themselves and dramatically broaden their horizons — and ‘the rest’ will take care of itself.”     (Tom Peters)

“Everything is Accomplished”

“No man, with a man’s heart in him gets far on his way without some bitter, soul-searching disappointment.  Happy is he who is brave enough to push on to another stage of the journey.”     (John Mason Brown)

“Welcome every morning with a smile.  Look on the new day as another special gift from your Creator, another golden opportunity to complete what you were unable to finish yesterday.  Be a self-starter.  Let your first hour set the theme of success and positive action that is certain to echo through your entire day.  Today will never happen again.  Don’t waste it with a false start or no start at all.  You were not born to fail.”      (Og Mandino)

“This bright, new day … complete with 24 hours of opportunities, choices, and attitudes … a perfectly matched set of 1440 minutes. This unique gift, this one day, cannot be exchanged, replaced or refunded.  Handle with care.  Make the most of it.  There is only one to a customer.”     (Author Unknown)

“Goals are a means to an end, not the ultimate purpose of our lives.  They are simply a tool to concentrate our focus and move us in a direction.  The only reason we really pursue goals is to cause ourselves to expand and grow.  Achieving goals by themselves will never make us happy in the long term; it’s who you become, as you overcome the obstacles necessary to achieve your goals, that can give you the deepest and most long-lasting sense of fulfillment.”    (Anthony Robbins)

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”     (Lao Tzu)

“Begin at the Beginning”

“He who is silent is forgotten; he who does not advance falls back; he who stops is overwhelmed; out distanced, crushed; he who ceases to grow becomes smaller; he who leaves off, gives up; the condition of standing still is the beginning of the end.”      (Henri Frédéric Amiel)

“You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

You’re on our own.

And you know what you know.

And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go …”      (Dr. Seuss)

“Live out of your imagination, not your history.”      (Stephen Covey

“Begin at the beginning… and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”      (Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll)

“It all begins when the soul would have its way with you.”      (Emerson)

“I’ve always felt it was not up to anyone else to make me give my best.”     (Akeem Olajuwon)

“One of the commonest mistakes and one of the costliest is thinking that success is due to some genius, some magic — something or other which we do not possess.  Success is generally due to holding on, and failure to letting go.  You decide to learn a language, study music, take a course of reading, train yourself physically.  Will it be success or failure?  It depends upon how much pluck and perseverance that word ‘decide’ contains.  The decision that nothing can overrule, the grip that nothing can detach will bring success.  Remember the Chinese proverb, ‘With time and patience, the mulberry leaf becomes satin.’”       (Maltbie Davenport Babcock)

“You Have Not Done Enough”

“You must know that in any moment a decision you make can change the course of your life forever: the very next person stand behind in line or sit next to on an airplane, the very next phone call you make or receive, the very next movie you see or book you read or page you turn could be the one single thing that causes the floodgates to open, and all of the things that you’ve been waiting for to fall into place.”      (Anthony Robbins)

“Whatever you do, you need courage.  Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you you are wrong.  There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right.  To map out a course of action and follow it to an end, requires some of the same courage which a soldier needs.  Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men to win them.”            (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

“The adventure of life is to learn.  The purpose of life is to grow.  The nature of life is to change. The challenge of life is to overcome.  The essence of life is to care.  The opportunity of life is to serve. The secret of life is to dare.  The spice of life is to befriend.  The beauty of life is to give. The joy of life is to love.”    (William Arthur Ward)

“You have not done enough; you have never done enough so long as it is still possible that you have something of value to contribute.”     (Dag Hammarskjold)