[WNC Seabee]

What has someone written or said that most inspired you to make a change?

For me, it was reading Edmund Morris' 3 part series on Theodore Roosevelt and subsequently being introduced to TR's speech, "Citizenship in a Republic". It contains this passage...

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt, April 1910

It has truly changed my approach to life. I'm no longer content to just put in my time, I'm trying to figure out how to best use what I've been given even if it means failing.

I suspect a good number of you will say The Bible. If so, what particular passage?

 

[GoWolfpack]

As far as the Bible, it's a pretty short list.
"If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat." 2 Thessalonians 3:10
"And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God" Micah 6:8

For just all around motivation, my favorite is this video. If you watch that video and don't have to fight a strong urge to tear something apart, then you're not a man. End of discussion.

 

[Timor]

Fron a speech I heard my senior year in high school ('73). "Today is the first day of the rest of your life."

 

[shrek]

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

If you've never seen it, it is worth the time.

 

[John Connor]

Hands down best message/music combo ever. Say what you will about the man (I don't care), the message still stands.

Don't click the link if you are scarred of those black helicopters coming for you.

 

[Guest]

Recently this piece by Judge Napolitano -really- hit home with me:

 

[John Connor]

Judge Napolitano is my hero.

 

[TLV]

Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it.

 

[camron1039]

Obamas SOTU address from last week. Bahagahahaha.

 

[chiefjason]

Here are a couple.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein

To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882) American Essayist

 

[nick9]

My daughters, "Daddy we love you."

 

[Tbone]

There are many quotes that come to mind...here are a couple.

When you're through improving, you're through. Casey Stengel

Always do right. It will gratify some and astonish the rest. Mark Twain

 

[Flashpoint]

At the risk of sounding narrow minded, I still think these are some of the best and most important quotes ever.

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, — go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!” - Samuel Adams

 

[Winchester]

My favorite has always been The Gettysburg Address. Eloquent in it's brevity.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

 

[THE PUNISHER]

sit by the river long enough and you`ll see your enemies float by...

 

[bigbrownbear]

Don't sweat the petty and don't pet the sweaty

Not really knew to most people, but really makes me remember the little stuff aint worth getting worked up about

 

[THE PUNISHER]

all of the Murphy laws

 

[RugerWes]

For me there are too many things to even try to list. But the easy top 3 for me are:

The Bible-Galatians 5:1
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery

The Declaration of Independence
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

The U.S. Constitution
Primarily the ''Bill of Rights''


If we got back to the tenets and the core of these, most of our problems would go away very quickly.

 

[Chdamn]

"Laugh, Love, and above all else, live each minute as if it is your last" in loving memory of ***** ****

It was a dedication plaque on a wagon in the cardiac NICU at Duke. Donated by the family of a child that didn't make it. I was in the room by myself at the time with my 3 month old son, awaiting his open heart surgery. A lot of emotions hit me at once and there wasn't anybody in the room at the time that I had to be strong for. It was the first time I cried in a very long time.

 

[Chdamn]

I will add, the letter to the editor turned into a book, "A message to Garcia".

You either are or are not a man that can take a message to Garcia. I have striven every day since the age of 12 when my father asked me to read that book the first time to be that type of man.