My Commonplace Book

I have lots of commonplace books that I have used over the years, but I have also been creating digital commonplace books. I finally decided to put all the digital quotes that I have clipped over the years into one easily accessible place.

Discipline

• Discipline is choosing between what you want NOW and what you want most. ~Augusta F Kantra
• Better not to give in to it.  It takes ten times as long to put yourself together as it does to fall apart.  ~Finnick O-Dair (Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay)
• You may not feel like making the effort. But you can do it. There may be plenty of excuses, plenty of reasons for not taking the time. But you can do it. It may be uncomfortable, inconvenient and perhaps even a little painful. But you can do it. You know it needs to be done, and you know that you can do it. You know that once you have it done, you’ll be thankful that you took the time. So go ahead now, get up, step forward, and get moving. The sooner you get started, the sooner you will have it done. You can do it, and you know you can. So go ahead and make it happen. ~Ralph Marston

Education

• The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking. ~Albert Einstein
• The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. ~Albert Einstein
• Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts. (Sign hanging in Einstein’s office at Princeton)

Habits

• Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character. ~Albert Einstein

Courage

• Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. ~Albert Einstein

Spirituality

• The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. ~Albert Einstein
• Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. ~Albert Einstein
• A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. ~Albert Einstein
• Find joy in everything you choose to do. Every job, relationship, home… it’s your responsibility to love it, or change it. ~Chuck Palahniuk
• The best portion of a good man’s life – his little, nameless, unremembered, acts of kindness and of love. ~William Wordsworth

Relationship

• A person isn’t who they are during the last conversation you had with them. They’re who they’ve been throughout your whole relationship. ~Rainer Maria Rilke

Self-Care

• It is important that when pursuing our own self-interest we should be “wise selfish” and not “foolish selfish”. Being foolish selfish means pursuing our own interests in a narrow, shortsighted way. Being wise selfish means taking a broader view and recognizing that our own long-term individual interest lies in the welfare of everyone. Being wise selfish means being compassionate. ~Dalai Lama