Important Ideas Can Come From Unexpected People

Important ideas can come from unexpected places. We tend to label people - Genius, Idiot, Socialist, Right Wingnut, Freedom Fighter, Terrorist. But it is helpful to remind ourselves to be open to good ideas - whatever their source. It is equally important to avoid accepting any idea merely because we respect that person's other ideas or accomplishments. A further complication is that many quotes are falsely attributed - Thomas Jefferson, for example, didn't say half of what he is quoted as saying.

Here are some unexpected quotes - both important insights from infamous mouths and off-the-wall ideas from honored people...

Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights, because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
- Larry Flynt (creator and publisher of Hustler magazine)

What the Larry Flynn quote means to me...
A democratically-elected government is probably necessary to protect Human Rights, but it is not sufficient. Majorities protect their own rights, but not necessarily the rights of minorities.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Not only do wise words come from unexpected mouths, but those people who we consider wise don't always live up to our expectations...

I consider my greatest accomplishment to be lifelong celibacy.
- Isaac Newton (discoverer of the laws of gravitation and motion, famous mathematician, and perhaps the greatest scientist ever)

If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.
- attributed to Joseph Goebbels (Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany)

Social progress can be measured by the social position of the female sex.
- Karl Marx (German philosopher and political economist whose ideas are credited as the foundation of modern communism)

Spurious Quotations: Here are a couple of great quotes - except that they weren't said by who everybody thinks they were...

It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.
- Josh Billings (not Mark Twain)

"Mother Teresa Prayer"
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; ... Forgive them anyway.
- Kent Keith (Mother Teresa kept a copy on the wall of her orphanage)

Further reading: Mother Teresa quotes: Love begins at home

Nobody is Self-Made

 

Your talent is God's gift to you.
- Leo Buscaglia

None of us got where we are solely by
pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.
- Thurgood Marshall

Ingratitude often hides behind a mask of independence or self-sufficiency.
An assertion of being "self-made" is a rejection of God, one's ancestors, and society.
Your Genes, Place of Birth, and Upbringing are God's Gift to You.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Those who have succeeded at anything
and don't mention luck
are kidding themselves.
- Larry King

If I have seen further, it is
by standing on the shoulders of giants.
- Isaac Newton

The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness
of the interdependence of all these living beings,
which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.
- Thomas Merton

Civilization is not a spontaneous generation
with any race or nation known to history,
but the torch to be handed down from race to race from age to age.
- Kelly Millar

Success is a result of hard work,
plus being blessed with good genes, food,
a good country, an opportunity for education,
and much more which we never "earned"
or "deserved," and for which we owe
everlasting gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Debt to Those Who are Kind

Appreciating Our Blessings

Give Thanks

Gratitude for This Food
     

Be Open to Unexpected Ideas

Important ideas can come from unexpected places. We tend to label people - Genius, Idiot, Socialist, Right Wingnut, Freedom Fighter, Terrorist. But it is helpful to remind ourselves to be open to good ideas - whatever their source. It is equally important to avoid accepting any idea merely because we respect that person's other ideas or accomplishments. A further complication is that many quotes are falsely attributed - Thomas Jefferson, for example, didn't say half of what he is quoted as saying.

Here are some unexpected quotes - both important insights from infamous mouths and off-the-wall ideas from honored people...

Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights, because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
- Larry Flynt (creator and publisher of Hustler magazine)

What the Larry Flynn quote means to me...
A democratically-elected government is probably necessary to protect Human Rights, but it is not sufficient. Majorities protect their own rights, but not necessarily the rights of minorities.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Not only do wise words come from unexpected mouths, but those people who we consider wise don't always live up to our expectations...

I consider my greatest accomplishment to be lifelong celibacy.
- Isaac Newton (discoverer of the laws of gravitation and motion, famous mathematician, and perhaps the greatest scientist ever)

If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.
- attributed to Joseph Goebbels (Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany)

Social progress can be measured by the social position of the female sex.
- Karl Marx (German philosopher and political economist whose ideas are credited as the foundation of modern communism)

Spurious Quotations: Here are a couple of great quotes - except that they weren't said by who everybody thinks they were...

It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.
- Josh Billings (not Mark Twain)

"Mother Teresa Prayer"
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; ... Forgive them anyway.
- Kent Keith (Mother Teresa kept a copy on the wall of her orphanage)

Further reading: Mother Teresa quotes: Love begins at home

"Self-Made" is a Fallacy

Your talent is God's gift to you.
- Leo Buscaglia

None of us got where we are solely by
pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.
- Thurgood Marshall

Ingratitude often hides behind a mask of independence or self-sufficiency.
An assertion of being "self-made" is a rejection of God, one's ancestors, and society.
Your Genes, Place of Birth, and Upbringing are God's Gift to You.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Those who have succeeded at anything
and don't mention luck
are kidding themselves.
- Larry King

If I have seen further, it is
by standing on the shoulders of giants.
- Isaac Newton

The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness
of the interdependence of all these living beings,
which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.
- Thomas Merton

Civilization is not a spontaneous generation
with any race or nation known to history,
but the torch to be handed down from race to race from age to age.
- Kelly Millar

Success is a result of hard work,
plus being blessed with good genes, food,
a good country, an opportunity for education,
and much more which we never "earned"
or "deserved," and for which we owe
everlasting gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Debt to Those Who are Kind

Appreciating Our Blessings

Give Thanks

Gratitude for This Food
     

Unexpected Quotes...

Important ideas can come from unexpected places. We tend to label people - Genius, Idiot, Socialist, Right Wingnut, Freedom Fighter, Terrorist. But it is helpful to remind ourselves to be open to good ideas - whatever their source. It is equally important to avoid accepting any idea merely because we respect that person's other ideas or accomplishments. A further complication is that many quotes are falsely attributed - Thomas Jefferson, for example, didn't say half of what he is quoted as saying.

Here are some unexpected quotes - both important insights from infamous mouths and off-the-wall ideas from honored people...

Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights, because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
- Larry Flynt (creator and publisher of Hustler magazine)

What the Larry Flynn quote means to me...
A democratically-elected government is probably necessary to protect Human Rights, but it is not sufficient. Majorities protect their own rights, but not necessarily the rights of minorities.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Not only do wise words come from unexpected mouths, but those people who we consider wise don't always live up to our expectations...

I consider my greatest accomplishment to be lifelong celibacy.
- Isaac Newton (discoverer of the laws of gravitation and motion, famous mathematician, and perhaps the greatest scientist ever)

If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.
- attributed to Joseph Goebbels (Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany)

Social progress can be measured by the social position of the female sex.
- Karl Marx (German philosopher and political economist whose ideas are credited as the foundation of modern communism)

Spurious Quotations: Here are a couple of great quotes - except that they weren't said by who everybody thinks they were...

It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.
- Josh Billings (not Mark Twain)

"Mother Teresa Prayer"
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; ... Forgive them anyway.
- Kent Keith (Mother Teresa kept a copy on the wall of her orphanage)

Further reading: Mother Teresa quotes: Love begins at home

On the Shoulders of Those Who Came Before

 

Your talent is God's gift to you.
- Leo Buscaglia

None of us got where we are solely by
pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.
- Thurgood Marshall

Ingratitude often hides behind a mask of independence or self-sufficiency.
An assertion of being "self-made" is a rejection of God, one's ancestors, and society.
Your Genes, Place of Birth, and Upbringing are God's Gift to You.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Those who have succeeded at anything
and don't mention luck
are kidding themselves.
- Larry King

If I have seen further, it is
by standing on the shoulders of giants.
- Isaac Newton

The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness
of the interdependence of all these living beings,
which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.
- Thomas Merton

Civilization is not a spontaneous generation
with any race or nation known to history,
but the torch to be handed down from race to race from age to age.
- Kelly Millar

Success is a result of hard work,
plus being blessed with good genes, food,
a good country, an opportunity for education,
and much more which we never "earned"
or "deserved," and for which we owe
everlasting gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Debt to Those Who are Kind

Appreciating Our Blessings

Give Thanks

Gratitude for This Food
     

We Owe Everlasting Gratitude

 

Your talent is God's gift to you.
- Leo Buscaglia

None of us got where we are solely by
pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.
- Thurgood Marshall

Ingratitude often hides behind a mask of independence or self-sufficiency.
An assertion of being "self-made" is a rejection of God, one's ancestors, and society.
Your Genes, Place of Birth, and Upbringing are God's Gift to You.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Those who have succeeded at anything
and don't mention luck
are kidding themselves.
- Larry King

If I have seen further, it is
by standing on the shoulders of giants.
- Isaac Newton

The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness
of the interdependence of all these living beings,
which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.
- Thomas Merton

Civilization is not a spontaneous generation
with any race or nation known to history,
but the torch to be handed down from race to race from age to age.
- Kelly Millar

Success is a result of hard work,
plus being blessed with good genes, food,
a good country, an opportunity for education,
and much more which we never "earned"
or "deserved," and for which we owe
everlasting gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Debt to Those Who are Kind

Appreciating Our Blessings

Give Thanks

Gratitude for This Food
     

Your Talent is God's Gift to You

Your talent is God's gift to you.
- Leo Buscaglia

None of us got where we are solely by
pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.
- Thurgood Marshall

Ingratitude often hides behind a mask of independence or self-sufficiency.
An assertion of being "self-made" is a rejection of God, one's ancestors, and society.
Your Genes, Place of Birth, and Upbringing are God's Gift to You.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Those who have succeeded at anything
and don't mention luck
are kidding themselves.
- Larry King

If I have seen further, it is
by standing on the shoulders of giants.
- Isaac Newton

The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness
of the interdependence of all these living beings,
which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.
- Thomas Merton

Civilization is not a spontaneous generation
with any race or nation known to history,
but the torch to be handed down from race to race from age to age.
- Kelly Millar

Success is a result of hard work,
plus being blessed with good genes, food,
a good country, an opportunity for education,
and much more which we never "earned"
or "deserved," and for which we owe
everlasting gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Debt to Those Who are Kind

Appreciating Our Blessings

Give Thanks

Gratitude for This Food
     

Too Many Walls and Not Enough Bridges

When the winds of change blow,
some people build walls while others build windmills.
- Chinese Proverb

There are no constraints on the human mind,
no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our
progress except those we ourselves erect.
- Ronald Reagan

We build too many walls and not enough bridges.
- Isaac Newton

The walls we build around us
to keep sadness out
also keep out the joy.
- Jim Rohn

Kindness is the light that dissolves
all walls between souls, families, and nations.
- Paramahansa Yogananda

Photo is of the Berlin Wall in the 1960s.

Further reading: The Human Race is Our Family Circle

New Ideas

Perspective on Tradition: An Open Mind
              

Forget Your Separateness

We build too many walls and not enough bridges.
- Isaac Newton

The walls we build around us
to keep sadness out
also keep out the joy.
- Jim Rohn

Love recognizes no barriers.
It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls
to arrive at its destination full of hope.
- Maya Angelou

Looking at a sunset, just for a second
you forget your separateness:
you are the sunset.
That is the moment when you feel the beauty of it.
But the moment you say that it is a beautiful sunset,
you are no longer feeling it;
you have come back to your separate,
enclosed entity of the ego.
Now the mind is speaking.
- Osho

Further reading: Living from Your Heart

Another Door

Rattlesnake of the Mind

Progress
     

Your Genes, Place of Birth, and Upbringing are God's Gift to You

None of us got where we are solely by
pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.
- Thurgood Marshall

Your talent is God's gift to you.
- Leo Buscaglia

Ingratitude often hides behind a mask of independence or self-sufficiency.
An assertion of being "self-made" is a rejection of God, one's ancestors, and society.
Your Genes, Place of Birth, and Upbringing are God's Gift to You.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness
of the interdependence of all these living beings,
which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.
- Thomas Merton

Those who have succeeded at anything
and don't mention luck
are kidding themselves.
- Larry King

Civilization is not a spontaneous generation
with any race or nation known to history,
but the torch to be handed down from race to race from age to age.
- Kelly Millar

If I have seen further, it is
by standing on the shoulders of giants.
- Isaac Newton

Success is a result of hard work,
plus being blessed with good genes, food,
a good country, an opportunity for education,
and much more which we never "earned"
or "deserved," and for which we owe
everlasting gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Debt to Those Who are Kind

Appreciating Our Blessings

Give Thanks

Gratitude for This Food
     

No Walls

Kindness is the light that dissolves
all walls between souls, families, and nations.
- Paramahansa Yogananda

Love recognizes no barriers.
It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls
to arrive at its destination full of hope.
- Maya Angelou

The walls we build around us
to keep sadness out
also keep out the joy.
- Jim Rohn

We build too many walls and not enough bridges.
- Isaac Newton

Looking at a sunset, just for a second
you forget your separateness:
you are the sunset.
That is the moment when you feel the beauty of it.
But the moment you say that it is a beautiful sunset,
you are no longer feeling it;
you have come back to your separate,
enclosed entity of the ego.
Now the mind is speaking.
- Osho

Further reading: Another Door

Progress

Rattlesnake of the Mind

Living from Your Heart
    

Ingratitude

Ingratitude is a painter of hard lines on the face.
- Emma Curtis Hopkins

Talent is God-given; be humble.
Fame is man-given; be thankful.
Conceit is self-given; be careful.
- John Wooden

The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness
of the interdependence of all these living beings,
which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.
- Thomas Merton (American Catholic writer and monk 1915-1968)

The debt of gratitude we owe our mother and father
goes forward, not backward.
What we owe our parents is the bill presented to us by our children.
- Nancy Friday

None of us got where we are solely by
pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.
- Thurgood Marshall

If I have seen further, it is
by standing on the shoulders of giants.
- Isaac Newton

Ingratitude often hides behind a mask of independence or self-sufficiency.
An assertion of being "self-made" is a rejection of God, one's ancestors, and society.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Pay It Forward

Zero-Based Gratitude

Feeling Blessed

Thanksgiving

Gratitude for Our Blessings

Ingratitude

Gratitude for Our Blessings

None of us got where we are solely by
pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.
- Thurgood Marshall

Those who have succeeded at anything
and don't mention luck
are kidding themselves.
- Larry King

If I have seen further, it is
by standing on the shoulders of giants.
- Isaac Newton

Civilization is not a spontaneous generation
with any race or nation known to history,
but the torch to be handed down from race to race from age to age.
- Kelly Millar

The debt of gratitude we owe our mother and father
goes forward, not backward.
What we owe our parents is the bill presented to us by our children.
- Nancy Friday

Success is a result of hard work,
plus being blessed with good genes, food,
a good country, an opportunity for education,
and much more which we never "earned"
or "deserved," and for which we owe
everlasting gratitude.

Further reading: Appreciating Our Blessings

Gratitude for This Food

Debt to Those Who are Kind

Give Thanks

Bounty of the Earth

Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Larry Flynt

Important ideas can come from unexpected places. We tend to label people - Genius, Idiot, Socialist, Right Wingnut, Freedom Fighter, Terrorist. But it is helpful to remind ourselves to be open to good ideas - whatever their source. It is equally important to avoid accepting any idea merely because we respect that person's other ideas or accomplishments. A further complication is that many quotes are falsely attributed - Thomas Jefferson, for example, didn't say half of what he is quoted as saying.

Here are some unexpected quotes - both important insights from infamous mouths and off-the-wall ideas from honored people...

Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights, because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
- Larry Flynt (creator and publisher of Hustler magazine)

I consider my greatest accomplishment to be lifelong celibacy.
- Isaac Newton (discoverer of the laws of gravitation and motion, famous mathematician, and perhaps the greatest scientist ever)

If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.
- attributed to Joseph Goebbels (Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany)

Social progress can be measured by the social position of the female sex.
- Karl Marx (German philosopher and political economist whose ideas are credited as the foundation of modern communism)

Spurious Quotations: Here are a couple of great quotes - except that they weren't said by who everybody thinks they were...

It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.
- Josh Billings (not Mark Twain)

"Mother Teresa Prayer"
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; ... Forgive them anyway.
- Kent Keith (Mother Teresa kept a copy on the wall of her orphanage)

Further reading: Mother Teresa quotes: Love begins at home