The Road Less Traveled
- Two roads diverged
in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler; long I
stood and looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth;
- Then took the other, as just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim,
because it was grassy and wanted wear; though as for that, the passing there had
worn them really about the same.
- And both that morning equally lay, in
leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet
knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
- I
shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence; two roads
diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made
all the difference. (Robert Frost)
It is not the critic that counts. The
credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by
dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short
again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcoming; but
who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the
great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best, knows in the
end the triumphs of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least
fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and
timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. (Theodore Roosevelt - Sorbonne
- 23 April 1910)
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance
to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and
creation), 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 and 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)
When man knows how to live dangerously, he is not afraid to die.
When he is not afraid to die, he is, strangely, free to live. When he is free to
live, he can become bold, courageous, self-reliant. There are many ways to learn
how to live dangerously. If the youth of the nation accept the challenge the
mountains offer, they will help keep alive in our people the spirit of
adventure. That spirit is a measure of the vitality of both nations and men. A
people who climb the ridges and sleep under the stars in high mountain meadows,
who enter the forest and scale the peaks, who explore glaciers and walk ridges
buried deep in snow - these people give their country some of the indomitable
spirit of the mountains. (W.O. Douglas)
Always in the big woods when you
leave familiar ground and step off alone into a new place there will be, along
with the feelings of curiosity and excitement, a little nagging of dread. It is
the ancient fear of the unknown, and it is your first bond with the wilderness
you are going into. What you are doing is exploring. You are undertaking the
first experience, not of the place, but of yourself in that place. It is an
experience or our essential loneliness; for nobody can discover the world for
anybody else. It is only after we have discovered it for ourselves that it
becomes a common ground and a common bond, and we cease to be alone. (W.
Berry)
If the going is tough and the pressure is on; if reserves of
strength have been drained and the summit is still not in sight; then the
quality to see in a person is neither great strength nor quickness of hand, but
rather a resolute mind firmly set on its purpose that refuses to let its body
slacken or rest. (Sir Edmund Hillary)
Men wanted for hazardous journey,
small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger,
safe return doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success. (Sir Ernest
Shackleton)
All men dream - but not equally. Those who dream by night in
the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was in
vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their
dreams with open eyes to make it possible. (T.E. Lawrence)
Be tough, yet
gentle, humble, but bold, swayed always by beauty and truth. (unknown)
Oh
Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done, the ship has weather’d every
rack, the prize we sought is won. (Walt Whitman)
He who would travel happily must travel light.
(Antoine de Saint Exupéry)
Because it’s there.
(George Leigh Mallory)
It is only with the heart that one can see
rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. (St. Exupery)
We are
never given a dream without also being given the power to make it true. You may
have to work for it, however. (Richard Bach - contributed by Reinhard
Braunstingl)
Accept on trust and work in darkness, strike at venture,
stumble forward, make your mark. (R. Kipling)
One sees great things from
the valley, only small things from the peak. (G.K. Chesterton)
Never
confuse motion with action (Ernest Hemingway)
You can’t have an active
mind in an inactive body (Patton)
Do what you can, with what you have,
where you are. (Theodore Roosevelt)
Play for more than you can afford to
lose, and you will learn the game (Churchill)
Luck is what happens when
preparation meets opportunity. (Wrestling room wall)
A ship in harbor is
safe, but that is not what ships are built for (William Shedd)
Make no
little plans: they have no magic to stir men’s blood. (Daniel H.
Burnham)
Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he
could only do a little. (Edmund Burke)
Waitings which ripen hopes are not
delays (Edward Benlowes)
He who goes to the place of fears has overcome
fear. (Puer Aeternus - Marie-Louis von Franz)
The race is not always to
the swift... but to those who keep on running (chap in South Africa)
You
find good people on the bad roads (D.Joubert, Botswana)
Never let
success hide its emptiness from you, achievement is nothingness, toil its
desolation. And so keep alive the incentive to push on further, and that pain in
the soul which drives us beyond ourselves. (Dag Hammarskjold)
The only
joy in the world is to begin. (Cesare Pavese)
Plot is character.
(Aristotle)(your actions determine your character)
Man’s loneliness is
but his fear of life. (Eugene O’Neill)
No attachments; everything
changes; live always in the moment. (Tao Te Ching, from Jack
Crutchley)
The mountaineer returns to his hills because he remembers
always that he has forgotten so much. (Goeffrey Winthrop Young)
Love
many, trust few, and paddle your own canoe... (chap I once met)
Festina
lente (Latin - hasten slowly)(Seutonius - Divus Augustus, 120 AD)
Carpe
Diem (Latin - seize the day)
You can’t get there from here. (Ludwig
Wittgenstein)
Godspeed (God Spede you. God prosper you. 15th century
Middle English expression of good wishes to a person starting a
journey)
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. (Anais
In)
Der weg ist das ziel. (German - the way is the aim) (the journey is
important, not the destination)
Je hoeher wir fliegen, desto kleiner
erscheinen wir fuer diejenigen die nicht fliegen koennen. (Nietzsche - The
higher we soar, the smaller we look to those who cannot fly - why some people
can’t understand what you do).
Das vermaechtness von Kolumbus ist nicht,
dass er Amerika endekte, sondern, dass er los fuhr. (German – the real testament
to Columbus is not that he discovered America, but that he set off in search for
it).
El que persevera vence. (Spanish)
Les vrais voyageurs sont
ceux-la seuls qui partent pour partir; coeurs legers, semblables aux ballons de
leur fatalite jamais ils ne s’ecartent et, sans savoir pourquoi, disent
toujours: allons! (Charles Baudelaire)
Only the mediocre are always at
their best. (Jean Giraudoux).
Live as if you die tomorrow, learn as if
you were to live forever (Gandhi)
Fortune favors the bold.
(Virgil)
The beginning is the most important part of the work.
(Plato)
To gain that which is worth having, it may be necessary to lose
everything else (Bernadette Devlin)
Let me listen to me and not to them.
(Gertrude Stein)
In the long run we get no more than we have been willing
to risk giving. (Sheldon Kopp)
I try to avoid looking forward or
backward, and try to keep looking upward. (Charlotte Bronte)
Security is
mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men
as whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than
outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. (Helen
Keller)
Good hunting to all - that keep the jungle law!
(Kipling)
The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too
strong to be broken. (Samuel Johnson)
The “Lone Ranger Creed” (Clayton
Moore)
- I believe that to have a friend, a man must be one.
- That all
men are created equal and that everyone has within himself the power to make
this a better world.
- That God put the firewood there but that every man
must gather and light it himself.
- In being prepared physically, mentally,
and morally to fight when necessary for that which is right.
- That a man
should make the most of what equipment he has.
- That 'This government, of
the people, by the people and for the people' shall live always.
- That men
should live by the rule of what is best for the greatest number.
- That
sooner or later... somewhere... somehow... we must settle with the world and
make payment for what we have taken.
- That all things change but truth, and
that truth alone, lives on forever.
- In my Creator, my country, my fellow
man. (Col. Art Bradshaw, U.S.Army War College)
When starting out, don't
worry about not having enough money. Limited funds are a blessing, not a curse.
Nothing encourages creative thinking in quite the same way.
Never give up
on what you really want to do. The person with the big dreams is more powerful
than the one with all the facts
Be bold and courageous. When you look
back on life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you
did.
Don’t waste time waiting for inspiration. Begin, and inspiration
will find you.
Forget committees. New, noble, world-changing ideas come
from one person working alone.
Only as far as we seek, can we go. Only as
much as we dream, can we be.
What you are is what you have been; what you
will be is what you do now. (Buddhist)
He who gains victory over other
men is strong; but he who gains victory over himself is all powerful.
(Lao-Tzu)
When the way comes to an end, then change - having changed, you
pass through. (I Ching).
Jan Dee Gao, Kander YuEn. (Mandarin - If you
stand high, you will see far)
Chu Kou Shu Feu. (Mandarin - Eat bitterness
is enlightenment) (through hardship, we can find enlightenment - on
temples)
Shun Je, Boo Pa, Yeng Dzu Why. (Mandarin - body straight not
scared shadow crooked)(The body that stays straight does not fear a crooked
shadow)(You are scared of what you can’t see)
Do not seek to follow in
the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought. (Matsuo
Basho)
Kokoro Wa Katachee Nee, Tsueeteykuru. (Japanese - Mind follow
form!) (katachee=form, comes from experience, you see it outside)
Kata Oh
Manna Dey, Kata Oh Kwey Ta. (Japanese - Learn form then exceed) (Learn the rules
well, and then forget them – Matsuo Basho told his students this)
Lo
Teypi Mi Gi Nha Ing Ku (Dzonghka – A trustworthy person steals one’s
heart)
There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it.
(Edith Wharton)
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