“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward. Maybe they have to be crazy. How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels? While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”— Apple Commercial, 1997
Here is to…
The New Year
We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives…not looking for flaws, but for potential.
Ellen Goodman
Distrust
“The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action.”
Frank Herbert
Mistakes
“If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.”
Tallulah Bankhead
Mind
“If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk?”
Laurence J. Peter
Can you give it up?
The most important thing to remember is this: To be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become.
W.E.B. Du Bois
Living up to…
“I am not in this world to live up to other people’s expectations, nor do I feel that the world must live up to mine.”
Fritz Perls
Greatfulness
Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy — because we will always want to have something else or something more.
–Brother David Steindl-Rast
One Corner
There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.
–Aldous Huxley
The Best You Can Do
The best you can do for anyone is to thrive fully and be willing to explain to anyone who asks how it is that you are thriving, and what it is that you’ve discovered—and then, just relax and trust that all truly is well.
–Esther Hicks