The Bluegrass state also known as Kentucky gave us two awesome people. Colonel Harland Sanders and Abraham Lincoln. One helped us fill out stomachs with fried poultry while the other filled our human race with the importance of the pursuing what is moral rather than what is popular. Ok...I confess, Sanders has nothing to do with this post but think about how awesome it would be when the next time you order food at KFC you share this illuminating nugget of wisdom to the counter staff there.
Right on... I have read a little about Lincoln when I was in school but it was my recent Lincoln Blu Ray experience that shook and touched me deeply. If you have not watched it please find some quiet time and do. It's amazing. https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/lincoln/id589893613
I learnt three invaluable lessons.
- If you want to achieve a Goal, be prepared that almost everyone you encounter can and possibly will say something that you ill consider discouraging BUT press on.It's VERY easy to be discouraged and lose focus.No matter how severe it seems, its nearly impossible to touch the heart of change if you are not convinced within yourself that it will be done.. (Refer to quotes 13, 28,29)
- You cannot force people to change, you can only share your experience, tell a story or build a metaphor so sincere that it occurs to them to change, for change.
- Do what is right because it is right.
Since watching the movie I have started studying some of Lincoln's speeches and have complied 35 of his quotes that resonated with me. Hope you enjoy reading and learning from this compilation. What I find fascinating is how modern many of them sound. Really powerful reminders.,
1. Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.
2.And in the end it is not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years.
3.My Best Friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read.
4.Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all.
5.Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. (special shoutout to leaders)
6.Those who look for the bad in people will surely find it.
7.We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses. (Oh yes.. it was one of his)
8.When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
9.I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.
10.Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
11.There are no bad pictures; that's just how your face looks sometimes. (This is so farny!)
12.Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is and the tree is the real thing.
13.Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.
14.I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. (Humility personified)
15. The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.
16. I will prepare and some day my chance will come. (I dedicate this to all the underdogs)
17. The best way to predict your future is to create it.
18. The better part of one's life consists of his friendships.
19. You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry
20. I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer.
21. The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
22. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.
23. Achievement has no colour.
24. My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.
25. When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say. (powerful reminder for those of us who do training, give speeches and do negotiations)
26. Be with a leader when he is right, stay with him when he is still right, but, leave him when he is wrong
27. Get books, sit yourself down anywhere, and go to reading them yourself. (I might be retro but this one reflects my life)
28. Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed.
29.If there is anything that links the human to the divine, it is the courage to stand by a principle when everybody else rejects it.
30. You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.
31. Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality.
32. I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.
33. Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
34. The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for to-morrow which can be done to-day ( I must thank my mentor Stuart Tan for teaching me this. http://stuarttan.com)
35. If you think you can you can, if you think you can't you're right!
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