Aspiration

It is better for the blind man to see than a seen person who is blind.SOMETIMES...you see better when your eyes closed.

You aspire to great things? Begin with the little ones.

Faith is not a way of knowing. It is a way of yearning, of aspiring, and so, a way of creating.

Change the story and you change perception; change perception and you change the world.

At first dreams seem impossible, then improbable, then inevitable.

If you have built castles in the air your work need not be lost. That is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

We must build a new world, a far better world - one in which the eternal dignity of man is respected. -

Failure is an event, never a person.

Daring to dream what is deepest in our collective longings is what makes us most human and fully alive.

We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we made."

Ideals are like stars: you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but like the seafarer on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you reach your destiny.

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life... as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.

A deeply felt sense of purpose is as necessary as hunger and thirst--all are universally necessary for survival and homeostasis.

We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise . . . It is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations.

Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are setting out into an unknown country, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle.

Grace, growth, and gratitude: these are my highest aspirations.

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, they make them.

The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life. And see if I could not learn what it had to teach and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

On the plains of hesitation bleach the bones of countless millions who, at the dawn of victory, sat down to rest - and there resting, died.

It's stasis that kills you off in the end, not ambition.

When you meet someone better than yourself, turn your thoughts to becoming his equal. When you meet someone not as good as you are, look within and examine your own self.

It is a grand thing to rise in the world. The ambition to do so is the very salt of the earth. It is the parent of all enterprise, and the cause of all improvement.

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

"Dr. King didn't get famous giving a speech that said,"I have a complaint."

We know what we are, but know not what we may be.

What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.

A man may fulfill the object of his existence by asking a question he cannot answer, and attempting a task he cannot achieve.

The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible -- and achieve it, generation after generation.

Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living.

The things that one most wants to do are the things that are probably most worth doing.

One must desire something to be alive.

Our calling is where our deepest gladness and the world's hunger meet.

Superior luck is not human greatness, only a stepping stone toward it. The stone is given; the stepping is done by the sweat of one’s brow and is made of a million steps, uphill. To work one’s way up to greatness is comparable to conquering Mount Everest, the highest peak of the Himalayas. It is an outstanding achievement with a sense of pride to match.

There are only 3 colors, 10 digits, and 7 notes; it's what we do with them that is important.

Without a vision, the people perish.

Dreams are extremely important. You can't do it unless you imagine it.

The Question: What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

What you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

It is not the "courage to be" that we must develop as much as the "courage to become." We are responsible for our destiny. The meaning of life is not located in some hidden crevice in the womb of nature but is created by free persons, who are aware that they are responsible for their own futures and have the courage to take this project into their own hands.

The credit belongs to those who are actually in the arena, who strive valiantly, who know the great enthusiams, the great devotions, and spend themselves in a worthy cause; who, at the best, know the triumph of high achievement and who, at the worst, if they fail, fail while daring greatly so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.

The point of life is not to meet society's standards, but to exceed your own goals.

Love of country cannot be a supersized version of individual narcissism.  True love of country--of this country--is love of our children, of a creed that promises them a better life before it promises us anything, and embraces the sacrifices needed to make that better life. True love of country is giving ourselves to a cause and a purpose larger than ourselves.  And that cause is to make liberty worth having, to make the pursuit of happiness deeper than the quest for personal pleasure, and to leave a legacy of progress and possibility. 

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are alive.  There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger for them.

It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly.  Never mistake activity for achievement.

Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book.

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 dreamed would come his way. I 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. Begin it now.

Please know that I am aware of the hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others. (--in a letter to her husband, before her last flight)

But never forget that you can only stumble if you are moving.

One starts an action simply because one must do something.

Live for an ideal and leave no place in the mind for anything else.

The first principle of ethical power is Purpose. By purpose, I don't mean your objective or intention--something toward which you are always striving. Purpose is something bigger. It is the picture you have of yourself--the kind of person you want to be or the kind of life you want to lead.'

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.

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

A faith to live by, a self to live with, and a purpose to live for.

Faith is love taking the form of aspiration.

All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them.

The most noteworthy thing about gardeners is that they are always optimistic, always enterprising, and never satisfied. They always look forward to doing something better than they have ever done before.

When you have a dream you've got to grab it and never let go.

Our aspirations are our possibilities.

What we truly and earnestly aspire to be, that in some sense we are. The mere aspiration, by changing the frame of the mind, for the moment realizes itself.

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.

The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

One can never consent to creep when one feels the impulse to soar.

Dreams come a size too big so that we can grow into them.

Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.

Longing performs all things

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.