"Still, the most powerful form of helping others comes down to helping ourselves. When we do our own work and are honest and open about it, we impact others more than by our most well intentioned "helping" gesture. We cannot change others, but when we change ourselves, we may end up changing the world." - Melody Beattie
I have to explain that this is an incomplete and dishonest quote. I'll put the full quote afterwards. I was looking for a certain Steve Earle song yesterday on my phone, and in the limited space on the phone's screen, I came across this in the google search results: Just about died laughing, clicked through to the article and found that the full first sentence reads: I still like the first version best.
Over the last couple of years, the photos of me when I was a kid... well, they've started to give me a little pang or something - not unhappiness, exactly, but some kind of quiet, deep regret... I keep wanting to apologize to the little guy: "I'm sorry, I've let you down. I was the person who was supposed to look after you, but I blew it: I made wrong decisions at bad times, and I turned you into me". - Nick Hornby
"[The Broomhandle Mauser] tends to work, most of the time, if taken good care of..." -Source linked above As a Broomhandle owner, I can attest to the veracity of this statement.
"We feel safe around direct, honest people. They speak their minds, and we know where we stand with them. Indirect people, people who are afraid to say who they are, what they want, and what they're feeling, cannot be trusted. They will somehow act out their truth even though they do not speak it. And it may catch everyone by surprise. Directness saves time and energy. It removes us as victims. It dispenses with martyrdom and games. It helps us own our power. It creates respectful relationships. It feels safe to be around direct, honest people. Be one. "We have already spent too much time being ashamed, being apologetic and doubting the beauty of ourselves. Be done with it. Let it go. It is an unnecessary burden. Others have rights, but so do we. We are neither less than nor more than. We are equal. We are who we are. That is who we were created and intended to be. That, my friend, is a wonderful gift." - Melody Beattie
Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt. - Sun Tzu
From a (lengthy) internet list of Murphy's Laws of War: Incoming fire has the right of way. If you can't remember, the Claymore is pointed toward you. Don't ever be the first, don't ever be the last and don't ever volunteer to do anything. The most dangerous thing in the world is a Second Lieutenant with a map and a compass.
I hope this was on that longer list: "Once you have pulled the pin from Mr. Hand Grenade, he is no longer your friend."
"All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times, but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience." - Johann von Goethe
"I am learning to understand rather than immediately judge or to be judged. I cannot blindly follow the crowd and accept their approach. I will not allow myself to indulge in the usual manipulating game of role creation. Fortunately for me, my self-knowledge has transcended that and I have come to understand that life is best to be lived and not to be conceptualized. I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies. To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery. I treasure the memory of the past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude." - Bruce Lee
"To defeat the darkness out there, you must first defeat the darkness inside yourself." ~ Coriarkin, The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader. "Well, we have nothing if not belief." ~ Reepicheep, The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader.
