Changing

Everyone thinks of changing the world,
but no one thinks of changing himself.

- Leo Tolstoy

Be Content

For I have learned,
in whatsoever state I am,
therewith to be content.

- St. Paul [Philippians 4:11]

Grace in Giving

There is nothing forced or self-disciplined
about [generosity] ...
[A generous person] goes out of his way
not because his parents taught him
that's how good [people] behave,
but because he has chosen to be alert
to the circumstances in which he can be supportive.

- Tibor R. Machan

Choose Your Attitude

Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself:
I, not events, have the power to
make me happy or unhappy today.
I can choose which it shall be.
Yesterday is dead,
tomorrow hasn't arrived yet.
I have just one day, today,
and I'm going to be happy in it.

~ Groucho Marx

Choose

Choose
The single clenched fist lifted and ready,
Or the open hand held out and waiting.
Choose: For we meet by one or the other.

- Carl Sandburg

Last of Human Freedoms

"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances - to choose one's own way."

- Victor Frankl

Attitude of Hope

The road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveler
than the road built in despair,
even though they both lead to the same destination.

~Marian Zimmer Bradley

The Last of the Human Freedoms

Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress. We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread ... they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing:
the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances,
to choose one’s way.

The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity—even in the most difficult circumstances—to add a deeper meaning to life.

- Viktor Frankl