Laws are sand, customs are rock.
Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped,
but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment.
The penalty may be unfair, unrighteous, illogical, and a cruelty;
no matter, it will be inflicted, just the same.
Certainly, then, there can be but one wise thing
for a visiting stranger to do -
find out what the country's customs are,
and refrain from offending against them.
- Mark Twain
Customs do not concern themselves
with right or wrong or reason.
But they have to be obeyed;
one reasons all around them until he is tired,
but he must not transgress them, it is sternly forbidden.
- Mark Twain
Adventure is not outside man; it is within.
- George Eliot
The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
- Henry David Thoreau
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Thank you for joining me on this journey we call life,
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
- Lao Tzu
Love means not ever having to say you're sorry.
- Erich Segal
The world is perfect. It's a mess.
It has always been a mess.
We are not going to change it.
Our job is to straighten out our own lives.
- Joseph Campbell
One does not discover new lands without consenting
to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
- Andre Gide
A good traveler has no fixed plans,
and is not intent on arriving.
- Lao Tzu
Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing,
of just going along,
listening to all the things you can't hear,
and not bothering.
- A. A. Milne (Winnie-The-Pooh)
I am not afraid of storms
for I am learning how to sail my ship.
- Louisa May Alcott
To know yet to think that one does not know is best;
Not to know yet to think that one knows
will lead to difficulty.
- Lao Tzu
Love one another but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea
between the shores of your souls.
- Khalil Gibran
Stand Tall, Stand Proud.
Know that you are unique and magnificent.
You do not need the approval of others.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Life is not supposed to be fair.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The mind is not a vessel to be filled
but a fire to be kindled.
- Plutarch
A ship in harbor is safe -
but that is not what ships are for.
- John A. Shedd
Do not blame the thistle that you see no beauty.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The true meaning of life is to plant trees,
under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
- Nelson Henderson
To the people who love you,
you are beautiful already.
This is not because they're
blind to your shortcomings
but because they so clearly see your soul.
- Victoria Moran
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us.
- Marianne Williamson
We are not held back by the love we didn't receive in the past,
but by the love we're not extending in the present.
- Marianne Williamson
It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.
- Edmund Hillary
Everything has beauty,
but not everyone sees it.
- Confucius
Lord, grant that I might not so much
seek to be loved as to love.
- St. Francis of Assisi
The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
- Rabindranath Tagore
A bird does not sing because it has an answer.
It sings because it has a song.
- Chinese Proverb
You do not need anyone's permission to be your true self.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom.
- Rabindranath Tagore
Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession
as they torment us with their loss.
- Epicurus
Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek,
but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition,
is not only a waste of energy
but the worst habit you could possibly have.
- Dale Carnegie
Treat those who are good with goodness,
and also treat those who are not good with goodness.
Thus goodness is attained.
Be honest to those who are honest,
and be also honest to those who are not honest.
Thus honesty is attained.
- Lao Tzu
Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.
I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty,
believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
- Louisa May Alcott
Sometimes we need the fog to remind ourselves
that all of life is not black and white.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
I am not a slave to my thoughts or emotions.
- Richard Carlson
One can not reflect in streaming water.
Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.
- Lao Tzu
You will not be punished for your anger,
you will be punished by your anger.
- The Buddha
I do not need anyone's permission to be my true self.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Am I not destroying my enemies
when I make friends of them?
- Abraham Lincoln
The ache for home lives in all of us,
the safe place where we can
go as we are and not be questioned.
- Maya Angelou
When dealing with people, remember you are
not dealing with creatures of logic,
but creatures of emotion.
- Dale Carnegie
Do not let Sunday be taken from you.
If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.
- Albert Schweitzer
Self-respect is not a function of size, age, or wealth.
Breathe deep, sing loud and sweet,
"I am me, I am unique, I am magnificent."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The possession of knowledge does not
kill the sense of wonder and mystery.
There is always more mystery.
- Anais Nin
Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle,
and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared.
- The Buddha
Let parents bequeath to their children
not riches, but the spirit of reverence.
- Plato
The beauty does not live out there;
the beauty's in my eyes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The essence of life is not in
the great victories and grand failures,
but in the simple joys.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Every child comes with the message
that God is not yet discouraged of man.
- Rabindranath Tagore
If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant.
If we did not sometimes taste of adversity,
prosperity would not be so welcome.
- Anne Bradstreet
"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly,
"one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."
- Hans Christian Andersen
The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
- Oscar Wilde
The world is a dangerous place,
not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing.
- Albert Einstein
A ship in port is safe,
but that's not what ships are built for.
Sail out to sea and do new things.
- Grace Hopper
Do not do to others what would anger you
if done to you by others.
- Isocrates (Ancient Greek)
If a man does not know what port he is steering for,
no wind is favorable to him.
- Seneca
Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth.
- Publius Cornelius Tacitus
The worst sin toward our fellow creatures
is not to hate them,
but to be indifferent to them:
that's the essence of inhumanity.
- George Bernard Shaw
The wise man looks back into the past,
and does not grieve over what is far off,
nor rejoice over what is near;
for he knows that time is without end.
- Lao Tzu
That which is hateful to you,
do not do to your fellow.
That is the whole Torah;
the rest is the explanation.
- Talmud (Jewish Wisdom)
We should take care not to make the intellect our god;
it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
- Albert Einstein
An idea that is not dangerous is
unworthy of being called an idea at all.
- Oscar Wilde
No, they don't appreciate you - and it's not their job.
It's your own job to appreciate yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
We learn more by looking for the answer
to a question and not finding it
than we do from learning the answer itself.
- Lloyd Alexander
The best of a book is not the thought which it contains,
but the thought which it suggests;
just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones
but in the echoes of our hearts.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
If you have built castles in the air,
your work need not be lost;
that is where they should be.
Now put foundations under them.
- Henry David Thoreau
We still do not know one thousandth of one percent
of what nature has revealed to us.
- Albert Einstein
It is not our circumstances that create
our discontent or contentment.
It is us.
- Vivian Greene
When you are impeccable, you take
responsibility for your actions,
but you do not judge or blame yourself.
- don Miguel Ruiz
Men are born to succeed, not to fail.
- Henry David Thoreau
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May the world be kind to you, and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
All materials & writings are copyright © Jonathan Lockwood Huie, except for quotes and other specifically identified material which belong to their respective copyright holders if applicable.
Jonathan Huie jlh(at)jlhuie(dot)com - About & Disclosure