Words of Inspiration ...

As I was researching quotes for my blog banner ... I started wondering about the quotes that others find inspirational ... from movies to books to public addresses. So ... I'm opening up the floor for contributions. What are some of your favorite quotes (aside from the Bible) that inspire or give you cause to pause and reflect? I'll share a few of mine here ...

-It takes courage to push yourself to places that you have never been before... to test your limits... to break through barriers. And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. *Anais Nin

-I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naïve or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman. *Anaïs Nin

-War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature, and has no chance of being free unless made or kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. *John Stuart Mill

-Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to.*A Few Good Men

-Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.*Abraham Lincoln

-When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.*Anais Nin

-And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.*Friedrich Nietzsche

-It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of truth.*John Locke

-Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one. *Friedrich Nietzsche

-You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.*Friedrich Nietzsche

-After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands.*Friedrich Nietzsche

- Power Corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.*Lord Acton

-Come quickly! I am tasting stars!*Dom Perignon

-You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.*Margaret Thatcher

-"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."*Galileo Galilei

-"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
*Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

-"When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite." Sir Winston Churchill

-In True Love one finds Courage*Asian saying

- To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage.*Confucius

-Silence is a true friend who never betrays*Confucious