Maybe So, Maybe Not. - Ancient Taoist Proverb

Maybe So, Maybe Not.
- Ancient Taoist Proverb

One day, a farmer's horse ran away. His neighbors expressed sympathy, "What terrible luck that you lost your horse!" The farmer replied, "Maybe so, maybe not."

A few days later, the horse returned, leading several wild horses. The neighbors shouted, "Your horse has returned, and brought more with him. What great fortune!" The farmer replied, "Maybe so, maybe not."

Later that week, the farmer's son was trying to break one of the wild horses and got thrown to the ground, breaking his leg. The villagers cried, "Your son broke his leg, what a calamity!" The farmer replied, "Maybe so, maybe not."

A few weeks later, soldiers from the national army marched through town, conscripting all the able-bodied young men for the army. They did not take the farmer's son because of his broken leg. Friends shouted, "Your boy is spared, what tremendous luck!" To which the farmer replied, "Maybe so, maybe not."

Moral: Everything is not what it appears to be.

Further reading: Jimmy Yen - My Personal Greatest Hero

Lao Tzu: The words of truth are always paradoxical.

Aesop: Gentleness and kind persuasion win where force and bluster fail

How To Talk Yourself Into Making Personal Changes

Albert Camus: Life is a sum of all your choices.

Life is a sum of all your choices. - Albert Camus

To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there. - Kofi Annan

It is our choices ... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. - J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets)

Affirmation: I make my life choices with intention, and not from habit. 

  Further reading: Practice makes perfect - sometimes 

  Aristotle: We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. 

  Stand up for what you want 

CHOICE - the fourth Point of Simply An Inspired Life

Life is like a box of chocolates. - Forrest Gump

Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.
- the movie Forrest Gump

What a positive upbeat way to describe the uncertainty of life. I have no idea what life will give me next, but whatever it is, it will be sweet.

Further reading: Aesop's Fables: The Miller, His Son, and the Ass

Elbert Hubbard quote: Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Living Your Inspired Life - video

Martin Luther King, Jr. - A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Your example is far more influential and inspiring than any words of instruction, or threats, or even words of encouragement.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You do not lead by hitting people over the head — that's assault, not leadership.
- Dwight Eisenhower

I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself.
- Robert E. Lee

Further reading: Leadership quotes

LtG. Hal Moore: When we step on the battlefield, I will be The First Boots On and the Last Boots Off.

John F. Kennedy: Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth

Mahatma Gandhi quote: We must be the change we wish to see

Albert Schweitzer: Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
- Albert Schweitzer

Working at a job you hate is unlikely to bring you either happiness or success. Do what you love. Whether wealth follows or not, you will be happy. And, you are far more likely to also gain financial reward if you are working at something that inspires and excites you.

Further reading: Albert Schweitzer: At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person

Martin Luther King, Jr. - If a man is called to be a street sweeper

Happiness is not the absence of problems, but the willingness to deal with them joyfully. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Gandhi quote: A 'No' uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.