Welcome to my mind.  I am Thomas J. Aron, author of Sour Rain and many other titles.  This blog is my place to share ideas and articles that influence me and my writing.  Please check in often as I will probably be posting daily!

Monday, February 28, 2011

"No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence."
                                  – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


Thursday, February 24, 2011

"When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself."
– Isak Dinesen

About Isak Dinesen

Isak Dinesen was the pen name of Karen Blixen, the Danish author famously portrayed by Meryl Streep in the film of her best-selling memoir, Out of Africa. She was born near Copenhagen in 1885. In 1914, she and her new husband moved to Kenya to run a coffee plantation. She stayed on after divorcing her husband ten years later, living an unusually independent life. Her book of stories, Seven Gothic Tales, sold well, but Out of Africa made her a worldwide success. She died in 1962.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

"The world stands aside to let anyone pass who knows where he is going."
– David Starr Jordan

About David Starr Jordan

David Starr Jordan, a scientist, educator, author, and ichthyologist, was best known for his work as a peace activist. He was the president of Indiana University from 1885 until 1891, when he became the first president of Stanford University. He coauthored The Fishes of North and Middle America and served on international commissions for fisheries. Later in his career, Jordan became involved in the quest for international peace and served as director of the World Peace Foundation from 1910 to 1914. He died in 1931.




Thursday, February 17, 2011

"Don't let other people tell you what you want."
                                                           – Pat Riley

About Pat Riley

Legendary American sports coach Pat Riley, the three-time NBA Coach of the Year, was drafted by both NBA and NFL teams when he graduated from college. He was born in 1945 in New York. He played with the LA Lakers on their championship-winning 1972 team and retired in 1976, becoming an assistant coach to the same team in 1980. The 1981–82 season began badly, so management fired his boss and promoted Riley, who took the Lakers to the first of their four championships under his guidance. In 1995, Riley resigned from the Knicks and became the head coach of the Miami Heat, advancing the team to the finals for the first time in francise history. He stepped down as head coach in 2008, but still serves as President of the team.


Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Don't be afraid to fail.
  Be afraid not to try.
 

Sunday, February 13, 2011

We each need to let our intuition guide us, and then be willing to follow that guidance directly and fearlessly."
                                       By Shakti Gawain

About Shakti Gawain

American New Age author Shakti Gawain was born in 1948. Raised by atheists who taught her to question everything, she went through an existential crisis after a romantic breakup, which led her on a pilgrimage to India. Her experiences inspired the book Creative Visualization, which became an international best seller. She has been featured in Time magazine and has appeared on such shows as Oprah, Good Morning Americav and The Larry King Show. She currently lives in California with her husband Jim Burns.



With Respect & Gratitude,
                Tom
      
http://aronbestsellers.com

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

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

About Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Churchill was an extraordinary British prime minister; he laid the groundwork for welfare in England, helped set the boundaries in the Middle East, became a symbol of the resistance against the Nazis in Europe, and was a central force in the Allied victory in World War II. He was born in 1874 near Oxford. He was known for his courage, his stubbornness, and his powerful personality. He was also an accomplished painter and writer. He died in 1965.

Monday, February 7, 2011

"The critical ingredient is getting off your butt
and doing something. It's as simple as that. A
lot of people have ideas, but there are few
who decide to do something about them now.
Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The
true entrepreneur is a doer."

- Nolan Bushnell
                

 

Sunday, February 6, 2011

"If one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better."
                                                                    – Jane Austen

About Jane Austen

Jane Austen (1775-1817), the British writer whose sparkling, socially incisive novels remain extremely popular two centuries after her death, is best known for Pride and Prejudice, which she called her "own darling child." She started writing solely for her own family, and her novels, including Sense and Sensibility and Emma, were initially published anonymously (or "By a Lady"). Nevertheless, she won fame later in life, and she earned the high honor of burial in Winchester Cathedral after her death in 1817 at age 41.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will."
                  – George Bernard Shaw

About George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw, the witty British playwright best known for Arms and the Man and Pygmalion, is the only person to win both a Nobel Prize and an Academy Award. He was born in Dublin in 1856 but moved to London in the 1870s to begin his literary career. He wrote five novels, all rejected, before becoming a music critic; he began writing plays after a stint as drama critic. He was an outspoken Democratic Socialist; his plays include highly political prefaces. He died in 1950.


Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The mind is not a vessel to be filled,
but a fire to be kindled."
                                                               Plutarch

About Plutarch

Plutarch, the Greek historian who penned more than 46 anecdote-laced biographies of famous Greek and Roman figures in his Parallel Lives series of books, was more interested in exploring the influence of character on a man's personal destiny than in writing dry histories. He was born in Greece during Roman rule, most likely in the year 46. He traveled extensively through the Roman Empire, finally returning home to become a priest of Apollo at the Oracle of Delphi. He died in the year 120.




Sunday, January 30, 2011

"Far away in the sunshine are my highest inspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead."
                                 – Louisa May Alcott

About Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott, the beloved American author, is best known for her semiautobiographical novel, Little Women, which was made into a movie five different times. Born in 1832 near Philadelphia, she grew up in Massachusetts. Her family lived in the genteel poverty depicted in her fiction. She wrote lurid stories anonymously to bring in money but gained fame under her own name with young adult novels, which held readers with their warm characterizations and simple, engaging style. She died in 1888.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

"Once the 'what' is decided, the 'how' always follows. We must not make the 'how' an excuse for not facing and accepting the 'what.'"
                                                                             – Pearl S. Buck

About Pearl S. Buck

Prolific American author Pearl S. Buck is best known for her 1931 novel, The Good Earth, which depicted peasant life in China; the book, published by the John Day Company, won the Pulitzer Prize. She was born in West Virginia in 1892, but her missionary parents raised her in China. She and her first husband lived in China until 1934, when they had to flee the political strife. She later divorced and married John Day's publisher, Richard Walsh, in 1935. In 1938, she became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature. By the time of her death in 1973, she had published over 70 books, including collections of stories, poetry, and children's literature.


Tuesday, January 25, 2011

   Trust your hunches. They're usually
based on facts filed away just below
the conscious level.




Monday, January 24, 2011

"I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character."
                                                             – Theodore Roosevelt

About Theodore Roosevelt

Known both for his larger-than-life personality and his many achievements, Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest US president at age 42. He was born in 1858 in New York. He led the Rough Riders, a motley volunteer cavalry, to victory in the battle of San Juan Hill. As the "Trust Buster" president, he instigated some 40 lawsuits to break up monopolies. An ardent conservationist, he put 230 million acres under federal protection. The Panama Canal was begun under Roosevelt. He died in 1919.


Thursday, January 20, 2011

"If you judge people,
you have no time to love them."


- Mother Teresa

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

"A good scare is usually worth more
      to a man than good advice."

Monday, January 17, 2011

 "People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things. 
 Sir Edmund Hillary

(First Ascent Mt. Everest)

 




 

Saturday, January 15, 2011

        This worked when I climbed Longs Peak. It worked when I began law studies. It works for me now when I write a novel.
          Finally I applied it to my healing from a near fatal medical injury and, yep, it still works.

                      YARD BY YARD
                    The Going Is Hard
                        INCH BY INCH
                         It's A Cinch!




Friday, January 14, 2011

"If you want to feel rich, just count the things you have that money can't buy."
- Unknown Author



Thursday, January 13, 2011


"Become so wrapped up in something that you forget to be afraid."
                                                    – Lady Bird Johnson

About Lady Bird Johnson

Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson, the wife of President Lyndon Johnson, is known for her concern for the environment. She was born in Texas in 1912. Johnson asked her to marry him seven weeks after they met. She supported his career by keeping his congressional office running after his heart attack, stumping for Democratic candidates, and visiting 33 countries as his emissary. She founded the Wildflower Research Center and worked to pass the Highway Beautification Act. She lived in Texas until her death in 2007.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."

Monday, January 10, 2011

"Action is the antidote to despair."
                                                  – Joan Baez




Saturday, January 8, 2011

  I would rather have my mind
opened by wonder than closed
               by belief.

      

Friday, January 7, 2011

Never confuse a single defeat
        with a final defeat.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

"It is one of the most beautiful compensations in life...than no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself."


Tuesday, January 4, 2011

"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily."
-
Zig Ziglar

Sunday, January 2, 2011

"It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving." 
     - Mother                                                                  --- -Mother Teresa
TMeresa

Friday, December 31, 2010

         Come on 2011!
"Cheers to a new year and
  another chance for us
       to get it right." 
         -Oprah Winfry 
Oprah Winfrey



Thursday, December 30, 2010

        Friendship is like a BOOK.
        It takes few seconds to burn,
        but it takes years to write

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

"A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day."
                                                                          – Albert Schweitzer

About Albert Schweitzer

Albert Schweitzer, the German medical missionary, won the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work at a hospital in French Equatorial Africa, where he treated and operated on thousands of people, including hundreds of people afflicted with leprosy. He was also an organist, famous for his interpretation of J.S. Bach's music. Late in life, he worked with Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell against nuclear proliferation. He was born in 1875 in Kaysersberg and died in 1965.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

          ONE DAY AT A TIME?

"I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the year's."
                                                                       – Henry Moore

About Henry Moore

British sculptor Henry Moore is known for his voluptuous abstract figures. He was born in 1898 to a poor mining family. After Moore served in World War I, he became the first student of sculpture at Leeds School of Art; a sculpture studio was set up specifically for him. As he studied primitive arts, his own work became more abstract. He established The Henry Moore Foundation in 1977 to promote public appreciation of art. He died in 1986. His work can be seen in public spaces all over the world.




 

Friday, December 24, 2010

"The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up."                 

Thursday, December 23, 2010

"My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened."

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

"You already possess everything necessary to become great."

Native American Proverb



Friday, December 10, 2010

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving."
                                                 – St. Francis de Sales

About St. Francis de Sales

St. Francis de Sales (1567–1622), known as the Gentle Saint, was bishop of Geneva. His motto was, "He who preaches with love preaches effectively," and his religious texts, including Introduction to the Devout Life, have resonated with many non-Catholics. Pope Pius IX proclaimed him a patron saint of writers. Some consider him a patron saint of the deaf; he invented a form of sign language to teach a young deaf man how to communicate.




Tuesday, December 7, 2010

"Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for truth."
                                                                     – Benjamin Disraeli

About Benjamin Disraeli

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) was a novelist, dandy, and ultimately a politician — he served twice as prime minister of England, the first (and thus far only) Jewish man to hold that office. He introduced a number of domestic reforms, including the Factory Act, the Public Heath Act, and the Education Act, but is best remembered for his imperialist foreign policies. During his second ministry Britain annexed the Fiji Islands and the Transvaal, purchased a controlling share of the Suez Canal, and declared Queen Victoria the empress of India.

How does this fit with the common attitude about feelings that we encounter in life?

Friday, December 3, 2010

"The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now."

                                                     Ancient Chinese Wisdom

Saturday, November 13, 2010

"Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it.…Success is shy — it won't come out while you're watching."
                                                                  – Tennessee Williams

About Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams was the pen name of Thomas Lanier Williams, the multiple-award-winning Southern Gothic playwright best known for his plays Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie. He was born in 1911 in Mississippi, where he had a difficult childhood with an abusive father, a smothering mother, and a schizophrenic sister. His emotionally honest plays often feature sensitive souls who don't fit into a confining culture. He spent most of his adult life in New York City. He died in 1983.



Thursday, November 11, 2010

"Luck is the by-product of busting your fanny."
                                                   – Don Sutton

About Don Sutton

American Major League baseball player Don Sutton, never a flashy player, was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame after an amazingly consistent winning career as a pitcher. He was born in Alabama in 1945, and broke into the big leagues at age 21. By the time he retired in 1988, he had won 324 games, recorded more than 3,500 strikeouts, racked up a record 21 consecutive 100-plus strikeout seasons, and never missed his turn in the pitching rotation. He is now a TV announcer for the Washington Nationals.




Tuesday, November 2, 2010

"Can anything be sadder than work unfinished? Yes, work never begun."

Monday, November 1, 2010

"Were the diver to think only on the
jaws of the shark, he would never
lay hands on the precious pearl."

Sunday, October 31, 2010

"Believe that you can do it, under any circumstances. Because if you believe you can, then you really will. That belief just keeps you searching for the answers, then pretty soon you get it."
                                                                        – Wally "Famous" Amos




Monday, October 25, 2010

"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves."
-
Sir Edmund Hillary

Monday, October 18, 2010

"Stay committed to your decisions,
but stay flexible in your approach.
It's the end you're after."

-
Anthony Robbins

Monday, October 11, 2010

"A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself."
                                                                      – Alexandre Dumas

About Alexandre Dumas

Popular French author Alexandre Dumas was famed for his adventure stories, including The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. He was born in 1802 near Paris. His mulatto father was a general in the French Army who died young, leaving his family destitute. Dumas began as a playwright, but newspapers were eager for serialized fiction, so he adapted a play into his first novel. He died in 1870; in 2002 his body was moved to the Pantheon to recognize his role in French literature.


Inspiration is a guest that does not
willingly visit the lazy.
                                                            – Pyotr Tchaikovsky

About Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Tchaikovsky, the Russian classical composer best known for the Nutcracker and Swan Lake ballets, was renowned for his passionate melodies and for bringing Western music into the Russian tradition. He was born in Kamsko-Votkinsk in 1840. He taught music until a widow offered her financial patronage, then retired to the country to compose full time. He never met his benefactor. He died in 1893, just after the first performance of his Sixth Symphony, the "Pathétique."



Saturday, October 9, 2010

Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing until it gets there.
                                                                – Josh Billings

About Josh Billings

Josh Billings was the pen name of folksy American humorist Henry Wheeler Shaw. He was born in Massachusetts in 1818. After he was thrown out of college for stealing the clapper from the school bell, he roamed far and wide for 26 years before settling down in Poughkeepsie, New York, as an auctioneer. His essays were initially snubbed; he became successful only after he adopted a more eccentric phonetic spelling. He was best known for his annual Old Farmer's Allminax. He died in 1885.


Thursday, October 7, 2010

"I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well."
                                                                                  – Diane Ackerman

About Diane Ackerman

American poet and nonfiction author Diane Ackerman has written more than 20 books and is best known for the eloquently written best seller The Natural History of the Senses. She was born in Illinois in 1948. While working toward her Ph.D. at Cornell, she studied both arts and sciences, feeling "the universe wasn't knowable from only one perspective." She has a molecule named after her: the dianeacerkone. She lives in upstate New York with her novelist husband.




Tuesday, October 5, 2010

"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg."
                                                                                               – C. S. Lewis

About C. S. Lewis

Anglo-Irish author C. S. Lewis, called Jack by his friends, is best known for his children's fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia. He was born in 1898 in Belfast but settled in England after serving in World War I. He belonged to a writing group with J. R. R. Tolkien, whom he credited for his religious awakening. Lewis went on to write many Christian-themed books. His marriage to Joy Gresham, who died of bone cancer, was memorialized in the movie Shadowlands. He died in 1963.




Tuesday, September 28, 2010

"We learn to walk by stumbling."



Sunday, September 26, 2010

"Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor."
                                       -- Truman Capote

Friday, September 24, 2010

"The foolish person seeks happiness in the distance; the wise person grows it under his feet."
- James Oppenheim

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Luck? I don't know anything about luck. I've never banked on it and I'm afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: hard work — and realizing what is opportunity and what isn't."            
                                                                            – Lucille Ball

About Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball, the beloved redheaded comedian, was born in 1911 in New York. She enrolled in drama school — where she was told she had no acting talent, so she became a model. That career led to her discovery by Hollywood. Ball and her bandleader husband, Desi Arnaz, pitched a sitcom to CBS, which refused it, but they went on the road with it as a vaudeville act. The act — about a ditzy housewife and her bandleader husband — was a success, as was the ensuing TV show, I Love Lucy. The show made TV history when Lucy's sitcom character was pregnant on the air. She died in 1989.




With Respect & Gratitude,
                Tom
      
http://aronbestsellers.com

"Always tell the truth. You may make a hole in one when you're alone on the golf course someday."


- FranklJonesn P. i

Thursday, August 26, 2010

"Mount Everest, you beat me the first time, but I'll beat you the next time because you've grown all you are going to grow...but I'm still growing!" 
                                                                            Sir Edmund Hillary
                                                                         



Monday, August 23, 2010

"The only place where your dream becomes impossible is in your own thinking."
- Robert H. Schuller

Sunday, August 22, 2010

"Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."
                                                                              – Steve Jobs

(This would have helped me in my high school years. Tom Aron)

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Fiction is the truth inside the lie.

                                         -- Stephen King

Monday, August 2, 2010

"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea,
never regains its original dimensions."
                                                    – Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.



Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Everyone wants to see justice done
              to someone else.


Monday, July 26, 2010

"What the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve."
                                                          Napoleon Hill




Wednesday, July 21, 2010

"I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be."
                                                                                              – Groucho Marx

Friday, July 16, 2010

"If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to meet it."
                                                         
-
Jonathon Winters

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Everything comes to him
who hustles while he waits."
                                                         – Thomas A. Edison

Hmmmm, let me think about that, Tom.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

"Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action."
                                                                          – Benjamin Disraeli

About Benjamin Disraeli

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) was a novelist, dandy, and ultimately a politician — he served twice as prime minister of England, the first (and thus far only) Jewish man to hold that office. He introduced a number of domestic reforms, including the Factory Act, the Public Heath Act, and the Education Act, but is best remembered for his imperialist foreign policies. During his second ministry Britain annexed the Fiji Islands and the Transvaal, purchased a controlling share of the Suez Canal, and declared Queen Victoria the empress of India.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted.
- Aesop

Friday, July 9, 2010

Security is a superstition--it does not exist in nature. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. 
                                                                                                             – Helen Keller


Wednesday, July 7, 2010

"One who is not content with what he has will not be content with what he wants to have."
- Socrates

 

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.
                                                                            – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Saturday, July 3, 2010

A good rest is half the work. 
                                             Slavic Proverb


Friday, July 2, 2010

I need to focus not on the many answers that  might be wrong. All I need is the one answer that works.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

I started to become an adult
when I realized that I had a
right not only to be right but
also to be wrong

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

As for worrying about what other people might think - I just forget it. They aren't
concerned about me. They're too busy worrying about what other people
and I think of them.
- Michael le Boeuf

Monday, June 28, 2010

"Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else's life forever."
                                                                                                   – Margaret Cho

About Margaret Cho

Margaret Cho, the outspoken Korean-American comedian and actor, made television history as the first Asian-American with her own TV series, All American Girl. She was born in 1968 in San Francisco and has mined her life for extremely successful one-woman shows, including I'm the One That I Want and Notorious C.H.O., both of which spawned albums, movie versions, and books. When not touring with her comedy, Cho works now in Hollywood as both an actress and a director.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

You can't test courage cautiously



Friday, June 25, 2010

"What is a weed? A plant whose virtues
have not yet been discovered."

-- Ralph Waldo Emersom
- Ralph Waldo Emerson




Sunday, June 20, 2010

             Laugh a lot
              Love a lot
Life is still the best deal around


Thursday, June 17, 2010

"The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it."
                                                                – John Ruskin



Tuesday, June 15, 2010

"Don't let the fear of striking out
hold you back."
                                    - Babe Ruth -
Babe Ruth


Sunday, June 13, 2010

"We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal and then leap in the dark to our success."
                                                               – Henry David Thoreau



Tuesday, June 8, 2010

"This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought."
– Lin Yutang

About Lin Yutang

Chinese author Lin Yutang wrote more than 35 books in English and Chinese, including My Country and My People and The Importance of Living, which brought him international fame. He was born in 1895 in the Fujian province in China. He created a Chinese-American dictionary, an indexing system for Chinese letters, and translated many classic Chinese texts. Written in a humorous, accessible style, his books bridged European and Chinese cultures. He died in 1976.


Monday, June 7, 2010

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
                                                                       – T.S. Eliot

Sunday, June 6, 2010

"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle."
                                                                    – George Orwell

About George Orwell

George Orwell was the pen name of English writer Eric Blair, best known for the satirical Animal Farm and the dystopian 1984. He was born in 1903 in India and raised in England. After school, he joined the Burmese police. He left after five years, disillusioned with colonialism, and lived in poverty while he taught himself to write. Following two rejections for Down and Out in Paris and London, he asked a friend to destroy the manuscript. She gave it to an agent instead, resulting in publication. He died in 1950.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

"When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this — you haven't."
                                                                   – Thomas A. Edison

About Thomas A. Edison

Thomas Edison, the American inventor who made his early fortune with the stock ticker and the phonograph record, is credited with inventing the light bulb — although he simply improved upon the original idea by making the bulb burn longer. Edison was born in 1847 in Ohio. He was a dreamer in school; his teacher called him "addled," and his mother taught him at home. He used the money from his inventions to set up a lab with a number of employees; he held a record 1,093 patents in his name. He died in 1931.

Friday, June 4, 2010

"Every artist was first an amateur."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson


Thursday, June 3, 2010

"Tom, writing is no big deal. The only thing you can do wrong is quit."
                               
Louise Duffy - 1951
                                             Teacher - 6th Grade
                                             Crete Elementary School
                                             Crete, Nebraska

"The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas."
                                                                    – Linus Pauling

About Linus Pauling

American chemist Linus Pauling is the only person ever awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes. He was born in Portland in 1901. He won a Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his breakthrough work on hemoglobins and proteins. He also originated the theory that DNA was formed in a double helix. He became a peace activist after studying fallout from nuclear bombs. His influence and work in concert with other scientists led to a test ban treaty and his second Nobel Prize, for Peace, in 1963. He died in 1994.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

"Sometimes the best helping hand
  you can get is a good, firm push."



Monday, May 31, 2010

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."
- Oscar Wilde



Monday, May 24, 2010

"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible."
                                                             – St. Francis of Assisi

About St. Francis of Assisi

St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and ecology in Catholicism, was born Giovanni "Francesco" Bernardone into a wealthy Italian merchant family in 1181. As a youth, he was known for carousing. After a series of illnesses, one of which occured while a prisoner of war, he had a spiritual awakening. God came to him in a vision and told him to build up his crumbling church. Taking the dream literally, he began rebuilding a local chapel. He took a vow of poverty and began traveling, preaching, and working to help the sick and the poor. A group formed around him, becoming the Franciscan order. He died in 1226.

Friday, May 21, 2010

   In order to live happy, joyous, and free, I had to give up boredom. At first that was not an easy choice to make, but it came out good.
   Even now, however, I occasionally balk at leaving a comfortable rut that I have created. 
   In the morning my left leg goes into my pants first. I brush my teeth with my right hand. My toilet paper unrolls over the top, not from underneath. I go to the grocery the same way every time. My phone answering message has not been changed in more than a year.
   Yesterday I discovered that I always bake potatoes wrapped in tinfoil. When I'm out of tinfoil I don't eat baked potatoes and I go into a funk.   
   None of these on their own are big deals, but I can improve the level of my happiness by changing only one little thing at a time.
   Oh, by the way, this is the first time I posted two entries on my blog on the same day. Ha! The idea still works.
   I can't explain this ... I'm just reporting.
                     Tom           



"Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life — learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some."
                                                               – Robert Fulghum

About Robert Fulghum

American author Robert Fulghum is best known for his book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, which dominated the New York Times best-seller list for nearly two years. He was born in 1937 in Texas. In his youth he worked at odd jobs, including ditchdigger, ranch hand, and singing cowboy. After a short career at IBM, he became a Unitarian minister. He has written eight best-selling books of essays. His anecdotes of everyday life encapsulate his down-home philosophy. He lives in Seattle, Washington and on the Greek Island of Crete.




Thursday, May 20, 2010

"We must dare to think "unthinkable" thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world."
                                                                – James William Fulbright

About James William Fulbright

James William Fulbright, the US senator who represented Arkansas from 1945 to 1975, is memorialized in the Fulbright Prize, the international exchange program he created. He was born in 1905 in Missouri. As a congressman, he sponsored a resolution to form the peace-keeping organization that became the United Nations. As senator, he chaired the Foreign Relations Committee for 15 years. His book The Arrogance of Power critiques the government's involvement in the Vietnam War. He died in 1995.

Friday, May 14, 2010

"If you want something said,
     ask a man.
  If you want something done,
     ask a woman."
                                 -Margaret Thatcher

Monday, May 10, 2010

"Attempt something so large that failure is guaranteed unless God steps in."
                                 --Debra Kloor


Saturday, May 8, 2010

I love this one so I'm repeating it from an earlier blog entry:

"Don't carry a grudge. While you're carrying a grudge, the other guy's out dancing."
                                                                 – Buddy Hackett

About Buddy Hackett

Buddy Hackett, the bawdy American comedian known for his high spirits and expressive face, primarily played comic roles in film and television but shined in his dramatic role in the 1979 TV movie Bud and Lou, about Abbott and Costello. He was born Leonard Hacker in Brooklyn in 1924. He made his reputation performing at nightclubs in the "Borscht Belt" of the Catskills resorts before bringing his act to Las Vegas in 1958. His television work includes the sitcom Stanley, which costarred a young Carol Burnett. He died in 2003.

Friday, May 7, 2010

SUCCESS REQUIRES NO APOLOGIES;
      FAILURE PERMITS NO ALIBIS.

                                  - Think and Grow Rich
                                           Napoleon Hill

Monday, May 3, 2010

"Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough."
Oprah Winfrey

 

Sunday, May 2, 2010

"Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter.
              Try again. 
     Fail again. Fail better."