Reflections of a Survivior

Mathew had tagged me in August 2008, but I was out of commission, out of the blogosphere and hence didn’t even know I had been tagged. Now, while I was catching up with the unread posts, I found the tag. It is a quotations tag, and I love quotes. So with an apology to Mathew being late, I am posting my favorite quotes.

1.
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!
(Rudyard Kipling in If)

2.
What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
(William Wordsworth in Ode on Intimations of Immortality)

3.
My strength is as the strength of ten,
Because my heart is pure.
(Lord Alfred Tennyson in Sir Galahad)

4.
When you consider the opportunity and power He had to really do a job, and then look at the stupid, ugly little mess He made of it instead, His sheer incompetence is almost staggering.
(Joseph Heller in Catch-22)

5.
You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.
(Paulo Coelho)

6.
You learn most, when you play against an opponent who can beat you.
(Richard Bach in Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah)

7.
Never give in–never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
(Sir Winston Churchill, in his Speech at Harrow School in1941)

8.
Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.
(Robert Brault)