When faced with two choices, simply toss a coin. It works not because it settles the question for you, but because, in that brief moment with the coin is in the air, you suddenly know what you are hoping for.”

— Kevin Purdy
Lifehacker

Become what you already are; find Him Who is already yours; listen to Him Who never ceases speaking to you; own Him Who already owns you.”

— St. Gregory of Sinai (13th century)

You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”

— Arthur Plotnik
Editor and author (b. 1937)

Waiting for inspiration is another way of saying that you’re stalling. You don’t wait for inspiration, you command it to appear.”

— Seth Godin
Random Rules for Ideas Worth Spreading

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

— Kent M. Keith, Speaker and Writer
Often attributed to Mother Teresa
because she posted them on her wall

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

— Winston Churchill (1874–1965)

Frodo: I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.”

Gandalf: “So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.”

— Lord of the Rings
“Fellowship of the Rings”

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they will never sit in.”

— Greek Proverb
Quoted in Mentor Like Jesus
by Regi Campbell

The acquisition of Christian books is necessary for those who can use them; for the very sight of them renders us less inclined to sin and incites us to believe more firmly in righteousness.”

— St. Epiphanius
Daily Readings with the Desert Fathers
Templegate Publishers

It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.”

—Oscar Wilde

Unfermented grape juice is a bland and pleasant drink, especially on a warm afternoon mixed half-and-half with ginger ale. It is a ghastly symbol of the life blood of Jesus Christ, especially when served in individual antiseptic, thimble-sized glasses.

“Wine is booze, which means it is dangerous and drunk-making. It makes the timid brave and the reserved amorous. It loosens the tongue and breaks the ice, especially when served in a loving cup. It kills germs. As symbols go, it is a rather splendid one.”

— Frederick Buechner
Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC

I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning.”

— Peter DeVries

Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”

— Stephen King

. . . the world that throbbed outside the library seemed to be losing its memory, day after day, unknowingly, feeling all the wiser the more it forgot.”

— Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Shadow of the Wind

The best thing a leader can bring to their team is their energy.”

— Bill Hybels
As quoted by Andy Stanley

To reach people no one else is reaching, we must do things no one else is doing.”

— Craig Groeschel
As quoted by Andy Stanley

One day some of the brethren came to see Abba Antony, and among them was Abba Joseph. Wishing to test them, the old man mentioned a text from Scripture, and starting with the youngest he asked them what it meant.

Each explained it the best he could. But to each one the old man said, ‘You have not yet found the answer.’

Last of all he said to Abba Joseph, ‘And what do you think the text means?’

He replied, ‘I do not know.’

Then Abba Antony said, ‘Truly, Abba Joseph has found the way, for he said: I do not know.’”

— The Sayings of the Desert Fathers
As Quoted in The Orthodox Way (p. 11)
Bishop Kallistos Ware

I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do”

— Helen Keller

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creativity there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans:

That the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:

‘Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it; boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.’”

— W.H. Murray

As a leader, you rarely have certainty, but you should always have clarity.”

— Andy Stanley
“Leading in Uncertain Times”
Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast