Transform Your Life with Thought-Provoking Quotes

There is no way to even come close to sharing a small fraction of quotes I'd like to share; So, this is a more or less random sampling of mostly newer ones I like with just a few of the very, very most useful oldies but goodies peppered along with them.

"We [humans] are perhaps the only stop on this evolutionary train that is outside the tunnel of darkness, able to take the material of everything and make it into something beautiful or helpful or interesting, to understand and create the meaning of meaning itself. And to do so just because we can, because the universe, for some reason, gave us a blank page to write on."

Author: Robert Pantano in "The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think"

The first spark of life on any planet is such an absurdly low probability event... and it must occur on a planet that can sustain it. We have the technology to see for light-years and know that there are nearly no other planets that can sustain life as we know it. The fact that you and I are a life-form at all is amazing. But what is far more amazing is the fact that we are conscious. That uniquely allows us to NOT simply react (according to the defaults of our personal, unique, genetic programming) to situations and events that impact us. Living with consciousness provides at least the possibility of bending our own genetic programming. We humans, to varying degrees no-doubt, can lead better, more interesting lives by learning to change our own default genetic reactions into "most appropriate" (for us) responses. And if we become really skilled, even change what some of those defaults are. Amazing stuff!

Chauncey

"The meek shall inherit the Earth, by being trampled into it."

Author: Too many to know which is real.

One of my principal wisdoms is that "Life is not Fair". The science of evolution and psychiatry make it regrettably clear that, on average, over a long-enough timeframe, aggression will win over passivity. This works at the individual level as well as the societal level where dominant societies take over (and spread their genes more successfully) until another society over-throws [kills] the less-passive of them. We can learn from this that while passivity IS a terrific default mode it cannot be your only mode. Creating your own best life requires that others are clear that, while you don't want to, you WILL get nasty if you need to [protect your young children for example. Or fight for the last drink of available water in a dessert]. 

The only real question is whether you choose to roll out that nastiness for selfish and superficial "wants" like yet more money, or to win your position in some debate, or if you have the desire and discipline to roll it out much more judiciously for less selfish motives.

Chauncey

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."

Author: John Wooden

Nuff said. Chauncey