Thursday 17 April 2014

A-Z quotes for today!



Action is eloquence. --William Shakespeare


Be what you are. This is the first step toward becoming better than you are. 

--Julius Charles Hare


Where there is Charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.

--St. Francis of Assisi


Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.
--Jim Rohn

Ego has a voracious appetite, the more you feed it, the hungrier it gets.
--Nathaniel Bronner Jr.
A Friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.-- Unknown


Goodness is the only investment that never fails.
--Henry David Thoreau


Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you
--Nathaniel Hawthorne


Intellectuals solve problems. Geniuses prevent them.
-- Albert Einstein


Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.
--Mother Teresa of Calcutta


Kindness is a language the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
-- Mark Twain
A Leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. --Lao Tzu


Mother - that was the bank where we deposited all our hurts and worries. --T. DeWitt Talmage


Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. --Lao Tzu


Only when the last river has been polluted, and the last tree been cut down, and the last fish been caught, will we realise we cannot eat money.
--cree native saying

The Purpose of life is a life of purpose. --Robert Byrne


Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten.--Gucci Family Slogan 


Responsibility: A detachable burden easily shifted to the shoulders of God, Fate, 
Fortune, Luck or one's neighbor. In the days of astrology it was customary to unload it upon a star. --Ambrose Bierce


Don't Smother each other. No one can grow in the shade. --Leo Buscaglia


Teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success.-- Author Unknown


Understanding is a two-way street.--Eleanor Roosevelt


Vision looks inward and becomes duty.Vision looks outward and becomes aspiration.Vision looks upward and becomes faith.--Stephen S. Wise 


When Words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain--William Shakespeare
Mozart's music is like an X-ray of your soul - it shows what is there, and what isn't.
--Isaac Stern


You are only young once, and if you work it right, once is enough.--Joe E. Lewis


Zeal will do more than knowledge.--William Hazlitt
Sources:(worldofquotes.com,quotegarden.com ,boardofwisdom.com ,forbes.com,brainyquote.com)

Saturday 29 March 2014

Colours:dynamic;ebullient!


Well its only a few days ago that we celebrated the festival of Holi or the festival of colours and all the fun and frolic during these couple of days made me wonder;What do colours signify?What if the world was black and white!Imagine the boring and dull life without colours.
What would we say when someone would get angry?That  ''the person is seeing charcoal-gray ''!! Or how would ''out of the gray'' sound like?  

So how would we express the innumerable emotions that we feel,the situations we face,the moods that we go through all which are best described by colours and nothing else...?

This made me realize our dependency on colours and their effect on our minds,on our emotions and on the different reactions that we exhibit to the same object in different colours. Our brains perceive each colour differently.The sun so bright and the sky so blue,the trees so green,ideas flow anew!What a sight to behold is the rainbow during the monsoons!

There is a way of healing based on colours called colour therapy which uses the very fact mentioned above to reduce stress,rejuvenate us and boost our energy. 

Even Pablo Picasso has said:
Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions. 

So which colour do we prefer the most?It depends on our own mindset but when we consider a general view it has been found that green is most pleasing to the eye while yellow can be quite stressful.Let us view some quotes on colours:
  • Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways. --Oscar Wilde
  • Colour in a picture is like enthusiasm in life--Vincent Van Gogh

     
  • Color is joy. One does not think joy. One is carried by it. -- Ernst Haas
  • You have your brush, you have your colors, you paint paradise, then in you go. -- Nikos Kazantzakis
  • Life is a celebration of passionate colors. -- Leialoha Cator
  • Each of us makes his own weather, determines the color of the skies in the emotional universe which he inhabits. -- Fulton Sheen
  • Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul. -- Wassily Kandinsky
  • Don't miss all the beautiful colors of the rainbow looking for that pot of gold.
  • It's hard to live your life in color, and tell the truth in black and white.--Gregg Allman
      
  • We should all learn from crayons: some are dull,some are beautiful,some are ugly, some are bright,but they all manage to live together in one box--Anonymous
  • So paint the canvas of your life with the proper colours and spread cheers :)
And finally we all love colours and the joy they provide to our senses but the blind cannot distinguish between all those.Does that mean,we who can,start separating people into sections based on colours?
Not at all isn't it?Then why do some of us do it?

Remember:
We are all equal in the fact that we are all different. We are all the same in the fact that we will never be the same. We are united by the reality that all colours and all cultures are distinct & individual. We are harmonious in the reality that we are all held to this earth by the same gravity. We don't share blood, but we share the air that keeps us alive. I will not blind myself and say that my black brother is not different from me. I will not blind myself and say that my brown sister is not different from me. But my black brother is he as much as I am me. But my brown sister is she as much as I am me --C.Joybell C.


(Check this links if you are interested in colour therapy:
http://www.beliefnet.com/Health/Healthy-Living/How-Color-Can-Change-Your-Life.aspx
http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/a/colorpsych.htm
http://www.lightandcolour.net/colour/how.html
http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/meaning-of-colors.html
http://www.sensationalcolor.com/color-meaning/color-messages-meanings-gallery)

Sunday 16 March 2014

Patience pays off in the long run,doesn't it?

Hello friends! Its been a long time since my last interaction with you all!

The world is changing at an unimaginable pace and surely people too have become nimble-footed. Everywhere in Mumbai,I see people rushing on the streets,running behind trains,buses and so on.Even the food that we eat has become fast food.Everything gets cooked up in minutes;you just have to buy the respective ready to make sachets;gadgets have made our lives easier,the internet provides almost all the information that is needed,smartphones and apps have transformed our way of living.Rate of information transfer is increasing by leaps and bounds and it is not an easy period to possess the virtue that I am speaking about!

You already know what I am talking about :Its Patience !

Friends,haven't you ever felt that you should have waited for some more time before leaving some work at half stage?Even in relationships forming conclusions within a few meetings can be drastic most of the times.We need to give some time to the work or person in front and even ourselves to understand our own prejudices that are acting as roadblocks in the path to success on both the fronts.

Don't you feel it is important to be patient when you do not get what you want in few attempts?Just think what would happen if the construction laborers and engineers rushed forth with a project and built it for the sake of timely completion neglecting its proper foundation?It would surely meet its end rather quickly causing unnecessary loss of people and huge monetary losses.

Also imagine the stress we put on ourselves while trying to hasten up something.A work done in haste never gives satisfaction both while being completed and even after completion.We have to develop patience for the seed of our work to grow into full-fledged tree of success in the future.If we stop midway just because we cannot see anything positive happening we might lose out on something great!

To experience pleasure we need to experience pain.Avoiding it only prolongs the period of pain and the imminent occurrence of pleasure.We need to endure our lives and accept situations so that when the period of bliss comes we can keep our arms wide open and embrace it.

Well the importance of patience in life can be found out from the fact that it takes nine months for the making of a conducive environment for the birth of a child!We surely want everything good to happen at once but anything good requires time.The person who has learnt patience wants nothing else.Such a person lives in the present without grieving about the past or worrying about the future.

So friends let us all be more patient with our lives but also let us not be lethargic in the name of patience!!

Here are some quotes for you all :)

  • He is happy whose circumstances suit his temper; but he is more excellent who can suit his temper to any circumstances.--David Hume
  • Genius is nothing but a great capacity for patience.--Georges-Louis Leclerc Buffon
  • Adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience.--Ralph Waldo Emerson 
  • A moment of patience in a moment of anger can help us avoid a thousand moments of sorrow.--Imam Ali (A.S.)
  • With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown.--Chinese Proverb
  • Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them; but do not let them master you. Let them teach you patience, sweetness, insight... When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.--Helen Keller 
  • Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them--every day begin the task anew.--Saint Francis de Sales
  • There is no never... just long periods of not yet.--Solenn Heussaff 
  • Rivers know this: There is no hurry. We shall get there.--A. A. Milne 
  • Follow your heart, but be quiet for a while first. Ask questions, then feel the answer. Learn to trust your heart.--Unknown
  • Patience has its limits. Take it too far, and it's cowardice.--George Jackson



  • You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. --Franklin P. Jones
  • How poor are they that have not patience!
       What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
       
--William Shakespeare, Othello


And finally :

Patience does not mean to passively endure. It means to be farsighted enough to trust the end result of a process. What does patience mean? It means to look at the thorn and see the rose, to look at the night and see the dawn. Impatience means to be so shortsighted as to not be able to see the outcome. The lovers of God never run out of patience, for they know that time is needed for the crescent moon to become full.--Elif Shafak

Saturday 8 February 2014

Do we really pray?

I have felt many a times that even if we put in all our efforts we can't exercise control over certain situations.Yes that does not mean we stop persevering and blame our fate for the consequences.
But there is a universal form of behaving in situations where we have little control over the outcome.We....
Pray!Atleast I do!
And believe it or not,the very belief gives us the strength to tackle the result,whether it be in our favour or not.
My personal opinion about whether God exists or not is that we humans require a source of motivation for all our actions.When we have a goal in our mind,even not so pleasant things go unnoticed in front of it.The sheer motivation to achieve the goal is enough for us to achieve it in the end.
Similarly in life too we go through unpleasant situations.Here we tend to get demoralized.And that's when the concept of Prayer must have come into existence.Some wise people saw this a way to thank mother Nature for helping us in our survival and also to divert the attention of the mind from the negative thoughts about the outcomes.
Moreover mystery attracts.
But prayers are normally performed during our most trying periods.So why not pray even when we are happy?Why only spend time in asking for more and instead spend time in thanking for what we have got?Let us pray in the real sense.

Some quotes that describe the power and actual meaning of prayers:

  • The fruit and the purpose of prayer is to be oned with and like God in all things.--Julian of Norwich
  • Prayer is not a check request asking for things from God. It is a deposit slip – a way of depositing God’s character into our bankrupt souls.--Dutch Sheets
  • You may pray for an hour and still not pray.
          You may meet God for a moment and then

          be in touch with Him all day.-- Fredrik Wisloff
  • Work as if you were to live a hundred years, pray as if you were to die tomorrow.-- Benjamin Franklin
  • Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue; God’s voice is its most essential part. Listening to God’s voice is the secret of the assurance that He will listen to mine.-- Andrew Murray
    • In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.-- John Bunyan
    • To have God speak to the heart is a majestic experience, an experience that people may miss if they monopolize the conversation and never pause to hear God's responses.-- Charles Stanley
    • The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.--Soren Kierkegaard
    • When we pray to God we must be seeking nothing - nothing.--Saint Francis of Assisi
    • The value of consistent prayer is not that He will hear us, but that we will hear Him.-- William McGill
    • Most men pray for power, the strength to do things. Few people pray for love, the quality to be someone.--Robert Foster
    • We can be tired, weary and emotionally distraught, but after spending time alone with God, we find that He injects into our bodies energy, power and strength. --Charles Stanley
    • Not in tears should we pray,
              But in hope, smiling bright,

              When the glory of day

              Has forgotten the night!--Edwin Leibfreed
    • Before you speak, it is necessary for you to listen, for God speaks in the silence of the heart.--Mother Teresa
    Prayer quote

    Hence friends find out your own reason for praying and keep praying,keep reading!!And yes you can send me in any quotes you like and I will make it a point to include them in my future posts :)

    Sunday 2 February 2014

    There's no one like a Sister!!

    Of course our mother's role in our life cannot be replaced by anyone else but a sister is more easy-to-approach kind of person because of her proximity to us and lesser generation gap.

    What joy you feel when you fight with your sister or even talk to her for a while!It is said that girls develop more quickly in maturity than boys.No doubt that's why even a little sister can give you a lot of good advice.

    Some quotes that stress on the importance of respecting and caring for your sisters:
    (Source:quotegarden.com)
    • Having a sister is like having a best friend you can't get rid of. You know whatever you do, they'll still be there.--Amy Li
    • Is solace anywhere more comforting than in the arms of a sister.--Alice Walker
    • You can kid the world. But not your sister.--Charlotte Gray
    • Brothers and sisters are as close as hands and feet.--Vietnamese Proverb
    • A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves - a special kind of double.--Toni Morrison
    • My sister taught me everything I really need to know, and she was only in sixth grade at the time. --Linda Sunshine
    • When mom and dad don't understand, a sister always will.--Author Unknown
    • More than Santa Claus, your sister knows when you've been bad and good. --Linda Sunshine
    • The mildest, drowsiest sister has been known to turn tiger if her sibling is in trouble.--Clara Ortega
    • An older sister is a friend and defender - a listener, conspirator, a counsellor and a sharer of delights. And sorrows too.--Pam Brown
    • Our siblings push buttons that cast us in roles we felt sure we had let go of long ago - the baby, the peacekeeper, the caretaker, the avoider.... It doesn't seem to matter how much time has elapsed or how far we've traveled.--Jane Mersky Leder
    • Sisters annoy, interfere, criticize. Indulge in monumental sulks, in huffs, in snide remarks. Borrow. Break. Monopolize the bathroom. Are always underfoot. But if catastrophe should strike, sisters are there. Defending you against all comers. --Pam Brown
    This quote reflects my state although I have awesome cousin sisters and brothers:
    • I, who have no sisters or brothers, look with some degree of innocent envy on those who may be said to be born to friends. --James Boswell
      That's why in India,we have special festivals that make the bonding between brothers and sisters even more stronger like Raksha Bandhan where a sister ties a knot of protection on her brother's wrist and prays for his well-being and prosperity while the brother takes a vow to protect his sister in turn, from all kinds of adversities.

      So friends like many of those in the society who have already accepted the girl child go ahead and change your views about the girl child.For there's no one like a Sister!

      Thursday 30 January 2014

      Love all!!

      The feeling that is inherent;that innate emotion dwelling in all of us and making us what we basically are(human)-Love 

      Millions of pages have been written based on this in the form of poetry,novels,short stories,quotes,cinema and what not.It is worth all the efforts,isn't it?I haven't been in love with someone yet but I still know that whatever your family does for you is out of love,when you get scolded for your little mistakes or maybe blunders that is out of love,when you feel hurt to see someone less fortunate than you it is yet again compassion arising out of love.

      Mother Teresa is a great and well-known example of a person who had love for mankind.It is not only her but all of us who possess this ability but somewhere we get lost and forget to listen to the voice of our heart thereby ending up hurting both ourselves and others.

      Love is not possessiveness as some people tend to do with their loved ones.This instead creates resentment.

      As rightly said by Paulo Coelho,"If you Love someone,you must be prepared to set them free."  


      • Love cannot be felt by a person who is selfish or egocentric.It has to come out of selflessness,for selflessness is the essence of love--Me(This is my first ever quote!) 
      Some wonderful quotes for you all:

      • Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.--Rumi

      • And remember, as it was written, to love another person is to see the face of God.--Les Miserables

      • The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart.--Helen Keller 

      • The most important gifts you can give are your love,time and attention.Slow down,take time to smile and enjoy loved ones...life goes by way too fast.--Carla White

      • Two of the most important things a person should bear in mind:Use things,not people;Love people,not things.--Unknown

      • Love and respect are the most important aspects of parenting and of all relationships--Jodie Foster

      • Love is energy: it can neither be created nor destroyed. It just is and always will be, giving meaning to life and direction to goodness... Love will never die.--Bryce Courtney

      • Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.--Lao Tzu

      • Those who love deeply never grow old; they may die of old age, but they die young.--Sir Arthur Wing Pinero

      • When you love someone, you love the whole person, just as he or she is, and not as you would like them to be.--Leo Tolstoy

      • Everyone says that loves hurts, but that’s not true. Loneliness hurts. Rejection hurts. Losing someone hurts. Everyone confuse these things with love but reality, love is the only thing in this world that covers up all the pain and makes us feel wonderful again.

      • Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.--James Baldwin

      • The only thing we never get enough of is love; and the only thing we never give enough of is love.-- Henry Miller

      And here's the final one for today:
      • We’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we’re not alone.-- Orson Welles

      Monday 27 January 2014

      Lovely lessons from life...

      Well no amount of words or posts can be sufficient to describe the importance of the most precious Life that we have got!Just think of the nine crucial months that your mother went through and the pains that she took to bring you into this world.

      Here comes the first lesson:
      Respect your Mother and Father more than anything else in the world!

      What to do with our lives?I would just say Live It For the Experience.Take everything that you encounter as an addition to the already gained lessons..What better way to understand these lessons than from the quotes of people who have realized them?Some lessons that I would like to share with you all today:

      • A life without cause is a life without effect.--Barbarella
      • Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are good is like expecting the bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian.--Dennis Wholey
      • There are no extra pieces in the universe. Everyone is here because he or she has a place to fill and every piece must fit itself into the big jigsaw puzzle.--Deepak Chopra
      • To know the road ahead, ask those who are coming back.--Chinese proverb
      • Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live.--Goethe
      • The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.--Ben Stein
      • The most important single ingredient in the formula for success is knowing how to get along with people.--Theodore Roosevelt
      • Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.--Theodore Roosevelt
      • Dreams don’t work unless you do.--John C. Maxwell
      • Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another.--Marquis De Condorcet
      And the final one for today:
      • Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared; but only men of character are trusted.--Unknown
      I will be coming with more sometime later :)

      Tuesday 21 January 2014

      Read on...

      (Today I have formed a link between all my quotes;something new for you all.So read them one after another and my message will be clear)

      There might be many of us who just tend to pass on their lives waiting for a miracle to happen and make their lives more meaningful,more productive and worth-living.Most of us just exist,we do not live.In fact,I observed that in my 20 years of life,I have hardly achieved what I had dreamed of achieving in my past.In my case,it is lack of pro-activity that is doing the harm.

      People speak highly but when it comes to putting their thoughts into actions many of us lack behind.So friends,next time you do any thing BE PROACTIVE and not REACTIVE.Your life is in your hands,make it happen.

      And yes do not forget yourself in the process of running behind success because:
      • Our lives are waves that come up out of the ocean of eternity, break upon the beach of earth, and lapse back to the ocean of eternity. Some are sunlit, some run in storm and rain; one is a quiet ripple, another is a thunderous breaker; and once in many centuries comes a great tidal wave that sweeps over a continent; but all go back to the sea and lie equally level there.--Austin O'Malley 

      • How small a portion of our life it is that we really enjoy. In youth we are looking forward to things that are to come; in old age, we are looking backwards to things that are gone past; in manhood, although we appear indeed to be more occupied in things that are present, yet even that is too often absorbed in vague determinations to be vastly happy on some future day, when we have time.--Charles Caleb Colton 




      • That is why it is so important to let certain things go. To release them. To cut loose. People need to understand that no one is playing with marked cards; sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Don't expect to get anything back, don't expect recognition for your efforts, don't expect your genius to be discovered or your love to be understood. Complete the circle. Not out of pride, inability or arrogance, but simply because whatever it is no longer fits in your life. Close the door, change the record, clean the house, get rid of the dust. Stop being who you were and become who you are.--Paulo Coelho,The Zahir 

      Saturday 11 January 2014

      Courage...

      Haven't you ever thought of doing something different than your routine life,something challenging,something which pushes you to the limits?It may be any physical activity or maybe on the intellectual level.What is the thing that makes or breaks our decision in such cases?What is it that appears to be a gateway or adversely a roadblock to our evolution?

      It is Courage..Courage to do something different..Courage to conquer the internal negative forces that thwart your development.There is always a fear in each one of us (at least in me) that if we try to do what nobody has done before then we may be laughed at,What if I don't succeed?What will others say?This is why so many people never reach their true potential.

      So friends..Muster up courage if you wish to improve yourselves;fight your fears,move towards your goals with the right combination of determination and dedication and eventually you will reach where you are supposed to...

      Here are some quotes which may boost you up:

      • Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.--Anais Nin

      • Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality of those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.-- Ernest Hemingway

      • Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.--John Quincy Adams

      • Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.--Mark Twain





      • Courage is the discovery that you may not win and trying when you know you can lose--Thomas Krause

      • With courage you will dare to take risks,have the strength to be compassionate and the wisdom to be humble.Courage is the foundation of integrity.--Mark Twain

      • Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.They somehow already know what you truly want to become--Steve Jobs


      And here is the last one:


      • With hope you gain courage,with courage you gain confidence and with confidence there are no limits to what you can do.--Unknown