“When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but so often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”—Helen Keller 

“For, under God, we are determined that whatsoever, whensoever, or howsoever we shall be called to make our exit, we will die free men.”—Josiah Quincy

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”—Thomas Paine

“The happiness of society is the end of government.”—John Adams 

“Let us contemplate our forefathers and posterity and resolve to maintain the rights bequeathed to us from the former, for the sake of the latter.”—Samuel Adams 

They may see the good you do as self-serving.
     Continue to do good.
They may see your generosity as grandstanding.
     Continue to be generous.
They may see your warm and caring nature as weakness.
     Continue to be warm and caring.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them, anyway.

"Whatever Fortune brings, don't be afraid of doing things."
     — A.A. Milne, "King Hilary and the Beggarman"

"Truth, Justice, and The Constitution" — John C. Calhoun

"All life is an experiment.  The more experiments you make the better.  What if they are a little coarse, and you may get your coat soiled or torn?  What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice?  Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble"
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Courage doesn't always roar.  Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, I will try again tommorrow." — anon

"Any person who has the brains to think and the nerve to act for the benefit of the people of the country is considered a radical by those who are content with stagnation and willing to endure disaster." — William Randolph Hearst

"There is nothing more difficult to carry out, more doubtful of success, or more dangerous to handle than to initiate a new order of things." —Niccolo Machiavelli

Excellence can be attained if you....

     Care more than others think wise
     Risk more than others think safe
     Dream more than others think practical
     Expect more than others think possible
                    — sent by T.J Ray

“ The surest signs of a healthy society are open and free debates.  We must  be able to agree to disagree.  In a democracy protecting the rights of our adversaries is as important and protecting the rights of our advocates.”
— Thomas Jefferson

“All I want is the same thing you want:  To have a nation with a government that is as good and honest and decent and competent and compassionate and as filled with love as are the American people.” — Jimmy Carter

“There are those, I know, who will reply that the liberation of humanity, the freedom of man and mind, is nothing but a dream ... they are right. It is the American dream.”
—Archibald MacLeish

Prohibitionists generally subscribe to the proposition that all human rights dervive, ultimately, from a Creator and not from man-made government. This idea was well stated by Senator Joseph Biden:

    "As a child of God, I believe my rights are not derived from the Constitution. My rights are not derived from any government. My rights are not derived from any majority. My rights are because I exist. They were given to me and each of my fellow citizens by our Creator and they represent the essence of human dignity."

“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore, we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint; therefore, we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.”—Reinhold Niebuhr.

“Invictus”
William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be,
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance,
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears,
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years,
Finds, and shall, find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

—Shakespeare's "Macbeth," Act V

The Quitter, by Robert Service

When you're lost in the Wild, and you're scared as a child,
    And Death looks you bang in the eye,
And you're sore as a boil, it's according to Hoyle
    To cock your revolver and ... die.
But the Code of a Man says" `Fight all you can,'
    And self-dissolution is barred.
In hunger and woe, oh, it's easy to blow ...
    It's the hell-served-for-breakfast that's hard.

`You're sick of the game!' Well, now, that's a shame.
    You're young and you're brave and you're bright.
`You've had a raw deal!' I know -- but don't squeal,
    Buck up, do your damndest, and fight.
It's the plugging away that will win you the day,
    So don't be a piker, old pard!
Just draw on your grit; it's so easy to quit:
    It's the keeping-your-chin-up that's hard.

It's easy to cry that you're beaten -- and die;
    It's easy to crawfish and crawl;
But to fight and to fight when hope's out of sight --
    Why, that's the best game of them all!
And though you come out of each gruelling bout,
    All broken and beaten and scarred,
Just have one more try -- it's dead easy to die,
    It's the keeping-on-living that's hard.

“The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from support of a cause we believe to be just.”— Abraham Lincoln

Look to this day....
For it is Life, the very Life of Life,
In its brief course lie all the verities and
Realities of your existence:
The Bliss of Growth;
The Growth of Action;
The Splendor of Beauty.
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And Tommorrow is only a Vision.
But today well-lived makes every
Yesterday a Dream of Happiness and
Every Tommorrow a vision of Hope.
Look well, therefore, to this Day!

— The Sanskrit

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