Words To Live By - Thoughts To Ponder by Michael E. Angier (book club recommendations TXT) 📕

or a business. The principles are the same.
The object is to win—to beat the other guy. Maybe that sounds hard or cruel. I
don’t think it is.
It is a reality of life that men are competitive and the most competitive games
draw the most competitive men. That’s why they are there—to compete. To know
the rules and objectives when they get in the game. The object is to win fairly,
squarely, by the rules—but to win.
And in truth, I’ve never known a man worth his salt who in the long run,
deep down in his heart, didn’t appreciate the grind, the discipline. There is something
in good men that really yearns for discipline and the harsh reality of head-tohead
combat.
I don’t say these things because I believe in the “brute” nature of man or that
men must be brutalized to be combative. I believe in God, and I believe in human
decency. But I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour—his greatest fulfillment to
all he holds dear—is that moment when he has to work his heart out in a good cause
and he’s exhausted on the field of battle—victorious.
—Vince Lombardi

The Integrity Of A Smile
It costs nothing, but creates much.
It enriches those who receive without
impoverishing those who give.
It happens in a flash, and the memory of
it sometimes lasts forever.
None are so rich they can get along without
it, and none so poor but are richer for its benefits.
It creates happiness in the home, fosters goodwill
in a business, and is the countersign of friends.
It is rest to the weary, daylight to the discouraged,
sunshine to the sad, and nature's best antidote
for trouble.
Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen,
for it is something that is no earthly good to anyone
until it is given away.
And if in the course of the day some of your friends
should be too tired to give you a smile, why don't
you give them one of yours?
For nobody needs a smile so much as those who have
none left to give!
—author unknown

Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the full 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 punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
—William Ernest Henley

No Easy Road
If you're looking for the easy road
You might be wasting your time.
To reach the most meaningful goals in life
You've got steep hills to climb.
If you're looking for the lazy way
One thing that you will find,
Is that success will never come
Without some daily grind.
If you're looking for some easy wealth
Look somewhere else instead,
Within yourself for energy
To earn your daily bread.
The path to greatness you can't tread
Without some heavy load;
So work your hardest - and your best -
There is no easy road.
—author unknown

Promise Yourself
To be so strong that nothing can disturb
your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity
to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is
something special in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and
make your optimism come true.
To think only the best, to work only for the
best, and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success
of others as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on
to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and
give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself
that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear,
and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact
to the world, not in loud words but great deeds.
To live in faith that the whole world is on your side
so long as you are true to the best that is in you.
—author unknown

Risk
To laugh
Is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep
Is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another
Is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings
Is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas and dreams before the crowd
Is to risk loss.
To love
Is to risk not being loved in return.
To live
Is to risk dying.
To hope
Is to risk in despair.
To try at all
Is to risk failure,
But risk we must
Because the greatest hazard in life
Is to risk nothing.
—author unknown

Take Time
Take time to work—
It is the price of success.
Take time to think—
It is the source of power.
Take time play—
It is the secret of perpetual youth.
Take time to read—
It is the fountain of wisdom.
Take time to be friendly—
It is the road to happiness.
Take time to love and to be loved—
It is nourishment for the soul.
Take time to share—
It is too short a life to be selfish.
Take time to laugh—
It is the music of the heart.
Take time to dream—
It is hitching your wagon to a star.
—author unknown

The Best Within You
In the name of the best within you, do not
sacrifice this world to those who are at its worst.
In the name of the values that keep you alive, do
not let your vision of man be distorted by the
ugly, the cowardly, the mindless in those who
have never achieved his title. Do not lose your
knowledge that man's proper estate is an upright
posture, an intransigent mind and a step that
travels unlimited roads. Do not let your fire go
out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless
swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the
not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in
your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life
you deserved, but have never been able to reach.
Check your road and the nature of your battle.
The world you desired can be won, it exists,
it is real, it's yours.
—Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

This Day
Today is a new day. Fresh, unspoiled and full of promise.
Whatever has happened whether it be a hundred years ago or
last evening has no influence upon this day. The present
knows nothing of the past. The slate is wiped clean and I am
free to write upon it whatsoever I choose.
This is my day. No person has ever lived as I live, felt as I
feel, thought as I think or loved as I love. No one ever will. I
am a unique creation with rare and special combinations of
skills, talents, creativity and features.
Just as we feel great anticipation and expectancy at the
beginning of a new year, I can feel the same with the beginning
of a new day. Every day is a new beginning and I will
treasure it as such.
This day can never be reclaimed. It is an irreplaceable
jewel in the crown of my Sacred Life.
Today, I am a new man.
I begin a new day—yea, a new life.
—author unknown

The Impossible Dream
To dream the impossible dream
to fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star
This is my quest, to follow the star
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far
To fight for the right without question or pause
To be willing to pass into hell for a heavenly cause
And know if I'll only be true to the glorious quest
That my heart lies peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest
And the world will be better for this
That one man scorned and covered in scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star
This is my quest, to follow the star
No matter how hopeless,
no matter how far
To fight for the right without question or pause
And to dream the impossible dream
—Don Quiote
from Man of La Mancha

The Truth About Failure
Failure doesn't mean you are a failure . . . it does mean you
haven't succeeded yet.
Failure doesn't mean you have accomplished nothing . . . it
does mean you have learned something.
Failure doesn't mean you have been a fool . . . it does mean
you had a lot of faith.
Failure doesn't mean you have been disgraced . . . it does
mean you were willing to try.
Failure doesn't mean you don't have it . . . it does mean
you have to do something in a different way.
Failure doesn't mean you are inferior . . . it does mean you
are not perfect.
Failure doesn't mean you've wasted your life . . . it does
mean you've a reason to start afresh.
Failure doesn't mean you should give up . . . it does mean
you should try harder.
Failure doesn't mean you'll never make it . . . it does mean
it will take a little longer.
Failure doesn't mean God has abandoned you . . . it does
mean God has a better idea!
—Robert Schuller,
Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do

What I Lived For
I went to the woods because I wanted
to live deliberately, to front only the essentials
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. I did not
wish to live what was not life, living is so
dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation,
unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to
live deep and suck out all the marrow of life,
to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put
to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad
swath and shave close, to drive life into a
corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms,
and, if it proved to be mean, why then to
get the whole and genuine meanness of it,
and publish its meanness to the world; or if
it were sublime, to know it by experience
and be able to give a true account of it in
my next excursion.
—Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Tomorrow
He was going to be all that a mortal should be
Tomorrow. No one should be kinder or braver than
he Tomorrow. A friend who was troubled and weary
he knew, Who'd be glad of a lift and who needed it,
too; On him he would call and see what he could do
Tomorrow.
Each morning he stacked up the letters he'd write
Tomorrow. And thought of the folks he would fill
with delight Tomorrow. It was too bad, indeed, he
was busy today, And hadn't a minute to stop on his
way; More time he would have to give others, he'd
say, Tomorrow.
The greatest of workers this man would have
been Tomorrow. The world would have known him,
had he ever seen Tomorrow. But the fact is he died
and he faded from