1. Keith Ferrazzi on poverty

“Poverty, I realized, wasn’t only a lack of financial resources; it was isolation from the kind of people that could help you make more of yourself.” – Keith Ferrazzi

This is one of society’s greatest challenges. It takes someone really exceptional to escape an impoverished childhood.

2. Maria Bezaitis on the surprising need for strangeness

It isn’t the ordinary and mundane that shapes our lives. It’s the unusual.

3. Cornelia Funke on fear

“Fear kills everything. Your mind, your heart, your imagination.” – Cornelia Funke

It is a true individual triumph to overcome something you’re afraid of and see it for what it truly is.

4. Sir Ken Robinson on changing educational paradigms

Education today was designed for an industrial economy. Today, we have an information economy. How do we cross that bridge?

5. Thomas Carlyle on idleness

“In idleness there is a perpetual despair.” – Thomas Carlyle

One of the few things I fear is sitting still.

6. Beth Fantaskey on fear

“Fear is the worst kind of grave, because it buries one alive.” – Beth Fantaskey

The problem with fear is that it bends so many of the choices you make in life. When you’re afraid of something, it bends all choices you make related to that fear, altering your life profoundly.

7. John Perkins on economic hitmen

It’s an economic model that keeps the rich rich and keeps the poor poor.

8. Thomas Harms on answers

“Saying ‘I don’t know’ doesn’t mean you stop searching for an answer. A lot of people misunderstand that bit. Accepting your own bounds without shame or guilt allows you to see more clearly when your first urge may be to deny your ignorance to yourself or others, and instead admit your limitations and seek the solution from someone or somewhere.” – Thomas Harms

We are all limited. Saying that you don’t know something isn’t a sign of weakness. It is a sign of being a human.

9. Tony Robbins on why we do what we do

He really is the master of motivational speaking, and this is a prime example.

10. Aldo Leopold on the land around us

“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” – Aldo Leopold

What right do I have to say I truly own the land that I hold a deed for? It was here long before humans appeared on this planet.

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1. Samuel Johnson on habits

“The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.” – Samuel Johnson

I wouldn’t quite call them unbreakable, but they can become incredibly strong.

2. Angela Lee Duckworth on the key to success

If you aren’t adept at overcoming the small difficulties, you’re going to struggle deeply with overcoming the big ones.

3. Tao te Ching on what we give each other

“What is a good man but a bad man’s teacher? What is a bad man but a good man’s job? If you don’t understand this, you will get lost, no matter how clever you are. It is the great secret.” – Tao Te Ching

In the end, we are all in service to each other.

4. Children at play

I couldn’t help but see my daughter and youngest son in this picture.

Thanks to the State Library and Archives of Florida for this image.

5. Kurt Vonnegut on little things

“Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you’ll look back and realize they were big things.” – Kurt Vonnegut

I hear this quote and I think about rocking my children to sleep when they were infants.

6. Ayrton Senna on idols

“I have no idols. I admire work, dedication and competence.” – Ayrton Senna

Those traits are ones worth admiring.

7. Tulips

Our tulips have started blooming. I took several pictures, but none quite as good as this wonderful image by Kivanç Nis.

8. Emerson on superiors

“In my walks, every man I meet is my superior in some way, and in that I learn from him.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

What do you learn from the people you meet?

9. More tulips

Another great view of tulips in bloom, this one by Alexandre Dulaunoy.

10. J. D. Salinger on reverse paranoia

“I am a kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.” — J. D. Salinger

It’s an interesting take on human interaction.

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1. Renoir on beauty

“The pain passes, but the beauty remains.” – Pierre Auguste Renoir

Everything painful in life leaves behind a powerful imprint when the pain fades away.

2. Rita Pierson on why every kid needs a champion

In order to teach effectively to a wide group of people, you have to connect with people on a human level. If there’s an innate dislike or a lack of common ground, teaching is completely ineffective.

3. Charles Kuralt on everyday kindness

“The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.” – Charles Kuralt

When you think about a tragedy or a cruelty, think not of the evil that caused it. Think instead of the heroism and good that responded to it.

4. More

I’m often blown away by the deep meaning that can be passed along through unexpected forms of media. Just watch this brilliant little film by Mark Osborne on the eternal search for happiness.

5. Wordsworth on things left behind

““Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower; We will grieve not, rather find, strength in what remains behind.” – William Wordsworth

Beauty, much like pain, leaves a permanent imprint on us. Expose yourself to as much beauty as you can find.

6. Epictetus on having hopes

“A ship ought not to be held by one anchor, nor life by a single hope.” – Epictetus

If your entire life is centered around one thing and that thing collapses, you’re left with a very empty life.

7. David Pogue on 10 top time-saving tech tips

The things that really save money and time are the things that we do over and over again each day. If we can shave ten seconds off of something we do a hundred times a day, we’re saving a quarter of an hour. If we can shave five cents off of something we do fifty times a day, we’re talking about $75 a month.

8. Thoreau on a different drummer

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away…” – Henry David Thoreau

Life is not just about keeping pace with those around you. Whenever you’re focused on “beating them” or “showing them,” then your life is all about the pace of those around you. Find a new drummer.

9. Steel Homes

“Self-storage units are windows into human histories: their discarded objects and dust-covered furniture are inscribed with past dreams, secret hopes, and lives we cannot let go of.”

10. Stephen King on vocabulary

“Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.” – Stephen King

Long words that force you to break away from what you’re reading to figure out what they mean might make the writer sound intelligent, but it ensures that the reader won’t be able to follow his argument. Maybe that’s the goal, at least sometimes, when people use complex and obscure words.

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1. Abraham Lincoln on friendship

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” – Abraham Lincoln

People who politically disagree with you are not evil. They are not your enemies. They are people who often want the same end goal as you do but just see a different path to getting there. By casting them as “evil,” you take yourself out of the conversation and out of the decision-making process.

2. Chess

I play board games with my children many days after school. It’s a great way to bond with them and get them to have some very interesting conversations about their life.

Thanks to Martin Lopatka for the picture.

3. Martin Luther on looking ahead

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” – Martin Luther

No one can accurately see the future, but we can take actions today that are certain to make the future a brighter place.

4. April showers

This has been an incredibly wet month – and a cold one, too. Rivers have been running high and it’s been challenging to find time to get outside where everything isn’t drenched.

Thanks to ginny for the image.

5. Soren Kierkegaard on understanding life

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” – Soren Kierkegaard

That’s why we must mine our past for clues as to how to live our lives better today and tomorrow.

6. Albert Einstein on following your own path

“The one who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. Those who walk alone are likely to find themselves in places no one has ever been before.” – Albert Einstein

Follow your own path. Don’t worry too much about the path that others around you are following.

7. John McWhorter on texting and language

I really enjoyed this and thought you might as well.

8. Frank Warren on children

“The children almost broken by the world become the adults most likely to change it.” – Frank Warren

I take this to mean that you need to make sure your children face challenges and that you don’t solve all of their problems. Sometimes, your children need to lose. Sometimes, your children need to fail. That way, they know how to deal with it and come back from adversity. If you don’t teach them that lesson, they won’t deal with failures and setbacks in adulthood very well.

9. Eisenhower’s farewell address

This is an incredible speech. I deeply wish we had heeded his words over this past half-century.

10. J.D. Salinger on marriage

“Make sure you marry someone who laughs at the same things you do.” – J.D. Salinger

I am a huge proponent of marrying your best friend. Physical attraction fades away, but a strong friendship lasts.

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1. Tao Te Ching on mastering yourself

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.” – Tao Te Ching

You are the key.

2. Dan Ariely on our personal connection to work

People care about more than money when it comes to their work. Money does not work as a sole professional motivator.

3. Max Lucado on accomplishment

“If you want to lead the orchestra, you must turn your back on the crowd.” – Max Lucado

Sometimes, you have to stop listening to others and start listening to yourself.

4. Child having fun

This child looks like he/she’s having the time of his/her life. I love the smiles that small children get when they’re first exploring the world.

Thanks to the Library of Congress for this image.

5. William Gibson on the future

“The future is already here; it’s just not evenly distributed.” – William Gibson

Virtually every social problem in the world is a distribution problem. Education isn’t evenly distributed. Neither is police protection. Neither is food or water. Those are the big problems of the future.

6. David Foster Wallace on the dangers of perfectionism

“The perfectionism is very dangerous, because of course if your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything.” – David Foster Wallace

Perfect is the enemy of the good.

7. General store, circa 1936

This is what a grocery store looked like for many people in the mid 1930s. Things seem drastically different now, but in a lot of ways, it’s not really that different at all.

Thanks to the Library of Congress for this image.

8. Hines Ward on building yourself up

“To build yourself up, first you gotta break yourself down. Ring it out. Get empty; Then get ready to do it again the next day.” – Hines Ward

It’s the “do it again the next day” that people struggle with the most, I think.

9. Boy pilots sailboat/wagon hybrid

My own children tried to do something very similar to this just last summer. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Thanks to Upper Arlington History for the image.

10. Descartes on overcoming challenges

“Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.” – Rene Descartes

Take things one day at a time.

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1. Seneca on wanting more

“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.” -Seneca

If you can keep your cravings under control, success is much easier to find.

2. “The Weight” by The Band

This was performed at their “Last Waltz” concert in 1976. It has always been one of my favorite songs. It strongly evokes a certain very happy period in my life.

3. F. Scott Fitzgerald on the journey

“It was always the becoming he dreamed of, never the being.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

This can be interpreted a lot of ways. Is it good to dream of the journey instead of the destination, or is it dangerous to constantly yearn for change and upheaval?

4. A child headed to the beach

Remove the swimming cap and this could easily be my youngest child. The more things change, the more some things stay the same.

Thanks to the State Library of Queensland for this image.

5. Epicurius on enough

“Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.” – Epicurus

If you can’t control your desires, you’ll never be satisfied.

6. Salman Khan on the problems of the world

“The world’s problems can be solved faster if we increase the number of people capable of solving them.” – Salman Khan

The single area that I feel is most underfunded in the United States is education. How can we expect to have the problems in life solved if we don’t strongly educate our children?

7. Sopwith Camel

My two oldest children are really interested in how “weird” airplanes and cars looked a hundred years ago. The Sopwith Camel depicted here is a familiar example, as it’s the plane Snoopy claims to fly in the Peanuts comic strips.

Thanks to the San Diego Air and Space Museum for the image.

8. Socrates on contentment

“He is richest who is content with the least, for contentment is the wealth of nature.” – Socrates

It feels good to be happy with what you have.

9. Sufjan Stevens performing “Chicago“

I absolutely love how this song gradually adds a variety of instruments and just grows and grows.

10. Betsy Brown on parenting

“Be the person you want your child to be.” – Betsy Brown

I try to live by this statement.

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1. James Baldwin on reading

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the world, but then you read.” – James Baldwin

To me, books make the world much smaller, not bigger. Without them, I would have a very difficult time understanding the plight of someone down the street, let alone someone halfway across the world.

2. Ken Jennings on the usefulness of human knowledge

What good is knowledge in the era of Wikipedia and other online sources that can help us find any fact almost immediately? It’s the human mind’s ability to reprocess it.

3. Howard Zinn on the future

“I wonder how the foreign policies of the United States would look if we wiped out the national boundaries of the world, at least in our minds, and thought of all children everywhere as our own.” – Howard Zinn

I also wonder what the world would be like if people realized that giving children the best education possible would have at least as big of an impact on their retirement as Social Security does.

The children that are starting school today are going to be running the world when we retire and the quality of their education is going to determine how they run it.

Social Security is without value in a malfunctioning world.

4. Welcome home

Sometimes there is nothing greater than simply returning home.

5. Cicero on a content life

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” – Cicero

This sounds like a pretty wonderful life to me.

6. Vincent van Gogh on spring

“It is sometimes so bitterly cold in the winter that one says, ‘The cold is too awful for me to care whether summer is coming or not; the harm outdoes the good.’ But with or without our approval, the severe weather does come to an end eventually and one fine morning the wind changes and there is the thaw. When I compare the state of the weather to our state of mind and our circumstances, subject to change and fluctuation like the weather, then I still have some hope that things may get better.” – Vincent van Gogh

The seasons change and so do we.

7. Your Victory Garden counts more than ever!

The idea of a “victory garden” is still inspiring to me. A garden still eases your need for outside sources for food, which increases your independence and decreases the strain on the food delivery network. That’s a victory.

8. Upton Sinclair on motivation

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!” – Upton Sinclair

An awful lot of people’s livelihoods rely on someone else not knowing something.

9. Haydn’s String Quartet No.3 in C major, Op.76 ‘Emperor’

Two violins, a cello, and a viola create amazing music together.

10. Roger Ebert on our abilities

“I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do.” – Roger Ebert

In the early to mid-1990s, Roger Ebert (along with Gene Siskel) introduced me to at least a dozen amazing films that I would have never otherwise watched. I’d see something really interesting on their television show, hunt it down in the recesses of the local video rental stores (or request it), and spend two or three hours deeply engaged in something amazing.

Thank you, guys, for changing a rural teenager’s life.

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1. Joseph Addison on happiness

“Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.” – Joseph Addison

Something to love builds from your past. Something to do fills up your present. Something to hope for projects to the future.

2. Baseball game

Few things feel like spring to me like baseball. I spent most of the late afternoon in the yard playing ball with my children.

Thanks to the Library of Congress for the image.

3. John Paul Jones on risk

“It seems to be a law of nature, inflexible and inexorable, that those who will not risk cannot win.” – John Paul Jones

Every time you try something new in life, there’s a risk. There’s a pretty nice reward, too.

4. Seminary baseball team

I spent so many afternoons of my life in the backyard of my parents house, trying to master hitting a ball with my bat. I dreamed of being a great baseball player. I wasn’t.

Thanks to the Library of Congress for the image.

5. Earl Nightingale on time

“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” – Earl Nightingale

The next ten years will pass whether you work on a big ten year goal or not. The only difference is that when you get there, you’ll either have something amazing or you’ll look back at a bunch of time wasted.

6. Carl Sagan on first steps

“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” – Carl Sagan

The first step in your project often isn’t the real first step. To really do it well, sometimes you have to go back further than you think.

7. Kids playing baseball

Now, I just enjoy watching my children run and play. They’ll want to hit the ball fifty times in a row, then they’ll want to actually go out there and try to chase the ball for a while so I’ll hit grounders and popups to them.

Thanks to the Nantucket Historical Association for this image.

8. Gandhi on making mistakes

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.” – Mohandas K. Gandhi

I make mistakes all the time. Without friends that forgave them, I would be nowhere.

9. Centerfield by John Fogerty

Whenever I hear this song and I think about playing baseball with my kids, I just wish my dad was in great health and out there with us, and that my grandfather was out there, too.

10. Theodore Roosevelt on responsibility

“If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your troubles you wouldn’t sit for a month.” – Theodore Roosevelt

The world would be much better off if people accepted that they often cause their own troubles.

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I’ve been showing my children a lot of pictures of modes of transportation that they’ve never used. They’ve been captivated by the zeppelins… as have I.

1. Mary Anne Radmacher on courage

“Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’” – Mary Anne Radmacher

It doesn’t take real courage to leap. It takes real courage to land flat on your face, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and try again.

2. Graf zeppelin

Thanks to the San Diego Air and Space Museum for this image.

3. Fred Rogers on reading the news

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” – Fred Rogers

This is a wonderful perspective on the news. Look for the people who are doing the right thing, particularly in the face of overwhelming crises. Those people are the heroes.

4. Billie Holiday singing Strange Fruit

She had such an amazing and interesting voice.

5. George Jackson on patience and cowardice

“Patience has its limits. Take it too far, and it’s cowardice.” – George Jackson

Patience doesn’t have to be wholly passive, either. Preparation and patience go hand in hand.

6. Charles Dickens on the lessons of suffering

“Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape.” – Charles Dickens

Failure can make us greater.

7. The length of a zeppelin

Again, thanks to the San Diego Air and Space Museum for this image.

8. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry on love

“Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

This is the best description of love I’ve ever read.

9. Lester Young performing Lester Leaps In circa 1939

This music sounds so alive to my ears.

10. Leo Tolstoy on change

“Everyone thinks of changing the world but no one thinks of changing himself.” – Leo Tolstoy

You can’t change the world if you’re not already living that change.

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1. Sarah Markley on close relationships

“The people closest to us have the ability to hurt us the most and yet also have the ability to heal us the best.” – Sarah Markley

Relationships involve trust, but you are rewarded for that trust.

2. A baseball glove

March gets me incredibly wound up for baseball season. I just can’t get enough of the beautiful game.

Thanks to Sean Winters for the picture.

3. Jack Johnson on worrying about yourself

“People don’t know anything about themselves, because they’re all worried about everyone else.” – Jack Johnson

The more I worry about myself, the more I realize how incredibly flawed I am, which makes the flaws in others seem relatively unimportant by comparison.

4. Dan Pallotta on rethinking charity

The best charity you can give someone is an opportunity to be successful at something on their own merits.

5. Sidney Morgenbesser on overcomplaining

“And if there were nothing? You’d still be complaining!” – Sidney Morgenbesser

Never look a gift horse on the mouth.

6. Tim Jackson on money and persuasion

“People are being persuaded to spend money we don’t have, on things we don’t need, to create impressions that won’t last, on people we don’t care about.” – Tim Jackson

Introspection about why you’re spending money is one of the most valuable money skills a person can have today.

7. Baseball diamond sky

There are few things better than a baseball game on a clear day.

Thanks to Elias Daniel for the picture.

8. Tom Robbins on love

“The highest function of love is that it makes the loved one a unique and irreplaceable being.” – Tom Robbins

Knowing that others love you and need you is transformative.

9. Boys playing marbles

I found this photograph after a long discussion with my children about what children did with their time in the past. I love old photographs like this, ones that show a touch of today with a touch of an unreachable past.

10. William Inge on worry

“Worry is the interest paid on trouble before it is even due.” – William Inge

If you’ve got a worry, you’ve got a problem that needs solving.

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1. Ellen Goodman on the personal finance “normal”

“Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for – in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.” – Ellen Goodman

I was once in that cycle. I never, ever want to return to anything like that cycle ever again.

2. Mozart’s String Quartet #15 in D Minor

This is one of those pieces that deserves to be listened to with your eyes closed, giving it your full attention, but it also works quite well as the light background music for a dinner or an afternoon of work.

The performers here are regrettably unknown.

3. Herman Melville on the poor

“Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed.” – Herman Melville

Few things irritate me more than people tritely suggesting that other people “get a job” or “earn more,” as though it’s as simple as flipping a switch. It’s not.

4. Melting snow

Winter recedes and gives way to spring.

Thanks to Russ for the image.

5. Carl Jung on knowing yourself

“Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.” – Carl Jung

Knowing that you have flaws and inperfections makes it substantially easier to deal with the world around you.

6. Neil DeGrasse Tyson on the value of literature

“The greatest poetry is revealing to the reader the beauty of something so simple you had taken it for granted.” – Neil DeGrasse Tyson

There’s nothing better than reading something that makes you re-examine the world.

7. Flowers

Life appears in unexpected places.

Thanks to Jay Santiago for the image.

8. Sam Ewig on hard work

“Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses and some don’t turn up at all.” – Sam Ewig

I think most of us perceive ourselves to be hard workers, but the reality isn’t in our own perception here.

9. Spring flowers in the snow

For a moment, spring seems to emerge, then winter returns unexpectedly.

Thanks to J.C. Winkler for the image.

10. Yeats on education

“Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” – William Butler Yeats

This is what the best educator does. He or she does something that gets a student to make a life change or to embark on an independent path of study.

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1. Gloria Steinem on looking for the right person

“Far too many people are looking for the right person, instead of trying to be the right person.” – Gloria Steinem

This is perhaps the best dating advice I’ve ever heard. If you genuinely improve yourself as a person instead of just hunting for a mate, you’re more likely to find what you’re looking for.

2. Bruce Feiler on agile programming for your family

This is a really thoughtful approach to family life.

3. Anaïs Nin on seeing the world

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” – Anaïs Nin

Everything we think about or do is imbued by the experiences of our lifetimes, and that set of experiences is unique. Why would you ever assume that someone else would think exactly like you?

4. Petula Clark’s downbeat rendition of “Downtown”

Almost everyone in the world knows the 1964 original. This downbeat version just transforms the song. I didn’t like it at first, but it has absolutely stuck with me all week long.

5. Kofi Annan on choice

“To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.” – Kofi Annan

This quote strongly resonates with me. Every instant of our lives is filled with choice. The better we understand ourselves, the more likely we are to make better choices.

6. E. O. Wilson on the human condition

“The Human still has stone age feelings, medieval institutions and god-like technology. That’s what we have to deal with.” – Edward O. Wilson

I think the biggest challenge is the distance between our internal emotions – still pretty primitive – and the technologies we have for communicating with each other. They’re far out of whack, and people get hurt because of it.

7. The battle when winter gives way to spring

That late winter to early spring transition is just about to start. I thought I was seeing hints of it last week before the most recent snow.

Thanks to Dan Heatherly for the image.

8. George Bernard Shaw on progress and the unreasonable man

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” – George Bernard Shaw

It’s the people who demand that the world change to meet their needs without changing themselves that hinder progress.

9. Kronos Quartet – Lux Aeterna

This is an incredibly haunting and powerful string quartet piece.

10. Kurt Lewin on understanding and change

“If you want to truly understand something, try to change it.” – Kurt Lewin

If you want to truly understand yourself, try to change yourself.

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This past week, our family has been talking about places in the world that we’d like to visit. As I often do, I pulled out a bunch of photographs of things I wanted to see in the world to show to my children. Six of them are present here.

1. King’s College Chapel, Cambridge

The fan vaults on the ceiling here are, for me, the most beautiful architectural feature I’ve ever seen.

Thanks to Seier and Seier for the image.

2. Bruce Lee on simplicity

“Simplicity is the key to brilliance.” – Bruce Lee

The simpler you make something, the more people it reaches and affects.

3. The Temple of Heaven, Beijing

Depicted above is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. I find something deeply beautiful about the great works of various religious faiths in the world. Religion can reach such beautiful artistic heights.

Thanks to Arian Zwegers for the image.

4. John Steinbeck on advice

“No one wants advice – only corroboration.” – John Steinbeck

This is one of the trickiest parts of giving advice to people. Generally, they want reinforcement of the plan they already have in their head. If you don’t give them that, then your advice will largely be ignored. I try to seed any advice I might give with hard principles that people might draw on later.

5. Arc de Triomphe, Paris

Not only is this an amazing work, it is also the home of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for World War I, and WWI is something that I’ve studied and been deeply affected by over the last several years.

Thanks to Stephen Carlile for the image.

6. Mount McKinley, Alaska

This is the one place that my wife seems intimidated to go for some reason. I’ve suggested several times that we take a getaway to Denali National Park, just the two of us. I’d really like to just take a road trip there, or perhaps fly and acquire some camping gear upon arrival. It’s a dream of mine.

Thanks to Harvey Barrison for the image.

7. Coco Chanel on life’s progress

“Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.” – Coco Chanel

Coco Chanel inhabited a cultural area that I have little interest in, yet I find her very interesting as a person.

8. Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Norway

This is a place that I’ll almost assuredly never gain access to. Not only is it rather difficult to get to, they don’t just let you in for a visit when you get there (hence the photo of the door). This is the “fail safe” for crop seeds in the world. It’s probably a sign of my quirkiness that I’d rather visit this place than any other “secure” place in the world.

Thanks to Dag Endresen for the image.

9. Stephen Jay Gould on obscurity

“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” – Stephen Jay Gould

I suspect that the greatest minds humanity has ever produced, the ones that could have solved many of humankind’s problems, were left to waste because of a lack of opportunity. The most brilliant people in the world will never achieve great things if they don’t have good food and water and they don’t have access to challenging education.

10. Teotihuacan, Mexico

I’ve actually visited this place before, but it has stuck in my memory more powerfully than perhaps any location I’ve ever visited. I’m not sure why. I want to take my family here someday.

Thanks to fklv for the image.

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1. Gandhi on action

“Action expresses priorities.” – Mahatma Gandhi

There is no clearer representation of what you truly value than what you actually do with your time and energy.

2. Artur Schnabel plays Beethoven’s Sonata #32 in C-minor

This is just one of those gorgeous pieces that fills the background wonderfully, whether you’re writing or doing the dishes or relaxing with friends. It’s just wonderful from beginning to end (with a few segments that actually make me wonder how one person with two hands played it).

3. Dr. Joshua Akey on what makes good science

“A reflection of good science is that a step forward opens up a lot more questions.” – Dr. Joshua Akey

I think this is true for almost everything in life. If you don’t have questions and don’t seek answers to questions you do have, you can’t grow. Your ideas and beliefs don’t match with what the world is revealing to us.

This quote was the last sentence in this New York Times article, by the way.

4. Carolina Chocolate Drops – Jackson

The Carolina Chocolate Drops are my favorite musical discovery of the past few years. I’m just in love with their music and I’d love to see them live at some point. This is a great cover of a classic.

5. Oscar Wilde on price and value

“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.” – Oscar Wilde

You might instinctively know the financial cost of an iPad, but can you express the value of a relationship with a coworker? It’s easy to know prices. It’s harder – but much more worthwhile – to know values.

6. Lao Tzu on little steps

“Great acts are made up of small deeds.” – Lao Tzu

Every great accomplishment rests on a throne built out of little actions.

7. John Wooden on the difference between winning and succeeding

This man is a national treasure.

8. John Steinbeck on ideas

“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” — John Steinbeck

Get a couple ideas in your head and you begin to think about them. The more you think, the more ideas you have. The more ideas you have, the more you think. A curious mind never rests, but it does sometimes find itself astonished by how little it actually knows.

9. Old records

There’s something I deeply love about digging through boxes of old records. The art on the records, for one, appeals to me, but I love finding something strange or interesting, pulling it out of the sleeve, and setting it on a turntable… and then I’m taken away to another place and time.

Thanks to Orin Zebest for the image.

10. Barack Obama on being a father

“What makes you a man isn’t the ability to conceive a child; it’s having the courage to raise one.” – Barack Obama

Truer words have never been spoken.

The post Ten Pieces of Inspiration #113 appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

1. Henry Stimson on trust

“The only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him.” – Henry Stimson

It can be very difficult to extend trust to someone that you don’t know or, even worse, someone with a less-than-stellar reputation. Yet, time and time again, I’ve found that extending a bit of trust in those situations pays off with such incredible returns that it far overshadows the relatively rare occasion where someone violates that trust.

2. Michael Litt on why you have to fail to have a great career

Failure teaches you far more than success does. The catch, of course, is that you have to be willing to learn the lessons. If you fail and learn from it, you’re going to be very well equipped to succeed the next time around.

3. Martin Luther King Jr. on our shared journey

“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

We are all people who are on this planet at the same time. Is there something so wrong with extending each other a bit of trust and a bit of respect?

4. Pews

Lately, I’ve been fascinated by the variety and beauty of different religious experiences in our world. Every person is on a journey to understand the “why” of their life and religion is one powerful expression of that search.

Thanks to Vinoth Chandar for the image.

5. Jose Mujica on feeling poor

“I don’t feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more.” – Jose Mujica

To be poor simply means that you feel as though you don’t have enough. People who have absurd amounts of wealth can be poor, simply because they feel compelled to keep buying more and more and more things. They don’t have enough.

6. Jerry Rice on walking a different path

“Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.” – Jerry Rice

Every great achievement is accomplished thanks to a lot of very hard work. Rarely do we ever see that work.

7. Religious building as community center

One of the greatest values that religious experience can provide is a sense of community. A church, a mosque, a synagogue, a temple – these are all places people go to seek that sense of community and connection with others who are seeking the same answers.

Thanks to seier for the image.

8. G. K. Chesterton on education

“The chief object of education is not to learn things but to unlearn things.” – G. K. Chesterton

Most of what I thought I knew twenty years ago had to be unlearned, because so much of it was completely wrong. There is nothing more powerful in education than removing an incorrect fact from your mind.

9. A journey begins in childhood

I see my own children starting to ask deep questions about their own lives, ones that I cannot easily answer for them. What I do know is that they have to seek their own answers and make up their own minds. All I can do is give them the tools to go on that journey.

Thanks to Steve Evans for the image.

10. Robert Heinlein on art

“An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become. A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl she used to be. A great artist can look at an old woman, portray her exactly as she is, and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be.” – Robert A. Heinlein

Great art conveys meaning on many different levels.

The post Ten Pieces of Inspiration #110 appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

This past week, I finally hit my limit on winter and I’m ready for spring and summer to return. In order to make myself feel better about it, I filled up my screensaver with pictures of summer.

1. Tomatoes

There is almost nothing quite like fresh vegetables pulled from the garden and put almost directly into the mouth. A salad with a tomato on it that was in the garden just a few moments before sounds tremendous right now.

Thanks to Ajith Kumar for the image.

2. Caroline Zelonka on the opposition of others

“People aren’t against you; they are for themselves.” – Caroline Zelonka

If you feel like the world’s against you, stop raging at everyone else and put yourself in their shoes for a bit. What are they gaining from you? They are gaining something or else they wouldn’t bother. Fix that, and you’ve fixed your problem.

3. State and community fairs

I love wandering around community fairs on a warm summer evening, watching the children enjoy the rides and just holding hands with my wife.

Thanks to Lee Burchfield for the image.

4. Alexis Carrel on the challenge of remaking yourself

“Man can not remake himself without suffering for he is both the marble and the sculptor.” – Alexis Carrel

Changing who you are is hard, but it’s supposed to be. If it were easy, that would mean there was nothing resolute or strong within us. We are already strong – the challenge of self-improvement is becoming stronger still.

5. Swimming

I love long swims in the pool with my children, enjoying the warmth of a summer day and playing a game of water polo with them.

Thanks to Jesus Solana for the image.

6. Lawn sprinklers

A lawn sprinkler might be useful for keeping one’s yard wet, but it’s also a wonderful way to get drenched with your children. A walk at about five in the evening in our neighborhood means a couple dozen water sprinklers to run through and laugh.

Thanks to Todd Morris for the image.

7. Winston Churchill on opportunity and difficulty

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill

Whenever there is something difficult you must face, there is always a way to make it easier. Whenever there is an simple task in your way, there’s always a way to make it harder.

8. Corn fields

There are few things that feel more alive to me than a field of bright green corn plants swaying in a summer breeze.

Thanks to Nur Atikah Rashidan for the image.

9. Nietzsche on the cost of a lie

“Not that you lied to me but that I no longer believe you has shaken me.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

The painful part of a lie isn’t that you’ve been deceived, but that you can no longer trust.

10. Camp fires

I love a long day at a state park, capped off with an evening of sitting around a campfire roasting marshmallows and telling stories with people whose company you enjoy.

Thanks to Matt Reinbold for the image.

The post Ten Pieces of Inspiration #109 appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

1. Paulo Coelho on ideas for living

“Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.” – Paulo Coelho

This is something that’s always been a challenge for me when writing for The Simple Dollar. I try very hard to only write about things that have resulted in positive change in my own life, and I want to present it in a “take it or leave it” way, not in a “you must do this or your life will be worse” fashion.

2. Adam Baker on freedom from debt and constraints

Adam makes a ton of great points in this video. It’s well worth watching from beginning to end, as he tells a great story, too.

3. Gandhi on forgiveness

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” – Mahatma Gandhi

It is incredibly hard to forgive someone for a perceived wrong. To do so requires a great deal of strength, not weakness.

4. Lindsey Sterling – Phantom of the Opera

I absolutely love Lindsey Sterling. She’s amazing at making instrumentals and violin work exciting and accessible to pretty much everyone while still performing technically demanding pieces. Here, she takes the theme from Phantom of the Opera and recasts it in a rock concert – and that’s just the first third of it.

5. Dr. Seuss on today

“Today I shall behave, as if this is the day I will be remembered.” – Dr. Seuss

How would you live today if you knew that everyone in your life would judge you solely based on today? Why not apply that standard to every day?

6. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. on expanding your mind

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

A wide diversity of experiences and knowledge causes you to look at the world in completely new and different ways. I find that the more I know and see, the harder it is to hold an “absolutely yes” or an “absolutely no” stance on most issues.

7. The House of the Seven Gables

I’ll confess to a bit of ignorance here. I did not realize until just a few days ago that the titular “House of the Seven Gables” from the Nathaniel Hawthorne novel was actually a real house that he inhabited in his youth. Even more amazing, it’s still standing.

8. C. S. Lewis on childish things

“When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” – C. S. Lewis

I feel far more creative and alive when I play with my children than I do at almost any other time. There’s something magical in letting go of your inhibitions.

9. Bruce Muzik on the devastating impact of secrets

Don’t let secrets build up. They can rise up and destroy things in your life. You’re far better putting everything out in the open with the people you value and trust the most.

10. George Watsky on self-improvement

“I won’t? be happy until I’m the best version of myself when I’m alone.” – George Watsky

What kind of person are you when no one else is looking? That’s the true sign of the person you are, because that’s how you’ll naturally react to every situation.

The post Ten Pieces of Inspiration #108 appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

1. Michael J. Fox on doing it right the first time

“If you don’t take the time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?” – Michael J. Fox

If you take this idea to its logical conclusion, it strongly encourages you to be mindful with the small things in life. For example, people are often thoughtless without malice, but others might not interpret the thoughtlessness that way. If you are mindful, you’re not going to be thoughtless in your day-to-day interactions.

2. Brian Wilson – Our Prayer

I am a big fan of the late 1960s and early 1970s Beach Boys albums and everything that Brian Wilson did as a solo artist. I’m sharing some of my favorite ones here today, starting with this.

3. Jon Krakauer on desire

“It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly enough, it is your God-given right to have it.” -Jon Krakauer