PERSEVERANCE, OR, KEEP ON TRUCKIN'

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If we are facing in the right direction,

all we have to do is keep on walking.

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Buddhist Saying

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The difference between perseverance and obstinacy

is that one comes from a strong will, and the other

from a strong won't.

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Henry Ward Beecher

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Perseverance is the hard work you do

after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.

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Newt Gingrich

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The race is not always to the swift,

but to those who keep on running.

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Author unknown,

in reference to Ecclesiastes 9:11,

"I returned, and saw under the sun,

that the race is not to the swift,

nor the battle to the strong,

neither yet bread to the wise,

nor yet riches to men of understanding,

nor yet favour to men of skill;

but time and chance happeneth

to them all."

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  To expect that any road you travel will be

a cake walk is not only naïve and foolish,

but is the fast track to failure. Not one of us is
 immune to the obstacles that life throws our
 way, but each of us does hold the power to
 choose what we do with whatever it is  that
 lands in our lap. 

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 So what about you….do you give up when
 times are tough? Or do you pause to assess the
 obstacle and determine if you are being
 challenged with a test, a lesson or an opportunity
 that can lead to your growth and
 fulfillment? 

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 Let’s face it, we live in a society of instant
 gratification, and unfortunately it seems more
 and more people are treating their goals and
 dreams in this same manner. We want instant
 mastery, flawless performances and overnight
 success. The truth is, our true character and potential

are determined by how we deal with our
 obstacles. It is in these moments that we are
 required to step up or give up! 
 *
From BethAllen.com.

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You can't go through life quitting everything.

If you're going to achieve anything,

you've got to stick with something.

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From the television show Family Matters

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Most people never run far enough on their first wind

to find out they've got a second.

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William James

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"He not busy being born,
 is busy dying."
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  Bob Dylan  

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SO HERE COMES 2011!!!

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New Year's eve is like every other night;

there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights.

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Hamilton Wright Mabie

American Writer, 1845-1916

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The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year.

It is that we should have a new soul.

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G.K. Chesterton

English Novelist, Essayist, and Poet, 1874-1936

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PHILOSOPHY 101

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Philosophy asks the simple question:

What is it all about.

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Alfred North Whitehead

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The philosopher has to be the

bad conscience of his age.

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Fredrich Nietzsche
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Any two philosophers can tell each other

all they know in two hours.

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Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

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I have tried too in my time to be

a philosopher; but I don't know how,

cheerfulness was always breaking in.

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Oliver Edwards

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When he who hears does not know what

he who speaks means, and when he who speaks

does not know what he himself means,

that is philosophy.

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Voltaire
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Philisophy, rightly defined, is simply the

love of wisdom.

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Cicero
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Philosophy is the stray camel of the faithful;

take hold of it wherever ye come across it.

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Muhammad

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I doubt, therefore I think;

I think, therefore I am.

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Descartes

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THOUGHTS ON PRAYER - 2

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Prayer is when you talk to God;

meditation is when you listen to God.

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Diana Robinson

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In prayer it is better to have a heart without words

than words without a heart.

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Mahatma Gandhi

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Pray as though everything depended on God.

Work as though everything depended on you.

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Saint Augustine

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Most people do not pray; they only beg.

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George Bernard Shaw

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Many people pray as if God were a big aspirin pill;

they come only when they hurt.

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B. Graham Dienert

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I have had prayers answered -

most strangely so sometimes -

but I think our heavenly Father's loving-kindness

has been even more evident in what he has refused me.

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Lewis Carroll

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Do not pray for easy lives.

Pray to be stronger men!

Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers.

Pray for power equal to your tasks.

*

Phillip Brooks

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