Quotes to live by, or that I try to live by....

I know many of you may have heard or read the quotes that follow but I think they all have invaluable lessons - some are heartbreaking, or beautiful, or sad, or the absolute truth, or just funny.  I hope you enjoy reading them as I have enjoyed (and continue to...) collecting them.  There are blanks after some quotes only because I can't remember who said them or they have been repeated so often, the world has forgotten who said the wise words.

It's a hot day in the summer of 2010 - August 5, to be exact - but I hope these quotes give my readers a pause to think and comment on the quotes below.  The quotes in bold and italics are my personal favorites, though technically I love them all since I collected them through 4 years!
Here they are:

"I believe that addicts are not responsible for their addictions, but they ARE responsible for their actions, just like everyone else." - Susan Cheever


The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is indifference. - Maggie Scarf

Having the right to do something doesn't mean it’s the right thing to do. - WSJ 8/3/10

"90 percent of life is just showing up. The other 10 percent might be knowing when to leave." - Woody Allen

"Fast ripe, Fast rotten" - Japanese Proverb

Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true." - Demosthenes

"You have to accept that on the Internet there is no erase button." - Sandra Zoratti, vp of global solutions at InfoPrint Solutions Co.

Work is the rent you pay for life – Queen Mary of England

"It isn't enough to succeed; your friends must fail" - Gore Vidal

"Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt" Abraham Lincoln

We don't play God when we take terminal patients off life support; we play God when we put them on it. Norris Church Mailer - "A Ticket to the Circus: A ...."

It’s our choices that make us who we are.

"Los hombres teneis muy poca memoria" - MJPerez Meler - "Dias de otono...donde esta el Rey?"

A death unseen is a death unrealized.

The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor: She said, "If you were my husband I'd poison your tea." He said, "If you were my wife, I'd drink it."

A member of Parliament to Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease." "That depends, Sir," said Disraeli, "whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." - Winston Churchill

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).

45 THOUGHTS TO PONDER AND LIVE BY -
1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But, don't worry, God never blinks.

16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But, the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ''In five years, will this matter?".

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time, time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

42. The best is yet to come.

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

Patriotsm means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president. - T. Roosevelt

......Everytme you think you are in control, God taps you on the shoulder - or kicks you in the ass, depending on what you need - and shows you who is really in charge. - Melissa Gilbert

Marriage changes passion. Suddenly, you're in bed with a relative.

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

"Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent." Marilyn von Savant

Remember where you're standing when the spotlight goes off. You'll have to find your own way off the stage - Lovell

To name a demon is to make it yours.

Let another hail him dear -
Little chance that he'll forget me!
Only need I curse and fear
Her he loved before he met me - Dorothy Parker

Because your eyes are slant and low
Because your hair is sweet to touch
My heart is high again, but, oh,
I doubt if this will get me much – Dorothy Parker

Scratch a lover, and find a foe - Dorothy Parker

Where's the man could ease the heart like a satin gown? – Dorothy Parker

The sun's gone dim and the moon's turned black, for I loved him and he didn't love back – Dorothy Parker

Say "I love you only when you really mean it, and learn to say "I'm sorry" even when you don't.

Never take something from someone that was never yours to begin with.

"You're one decision away from disaster....." Kathy Lee Gifford

"A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child." Sofia Loren

"I didn't know how to ask for what I wanted for fear of losing what I had." Jane Fonda

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" John F. Kennedy

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length.

I'd rather have three minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special. (“Shelby” –Steel Magnolias )

It’s hard to shine when you stand next to the sun - TIME re Bill Clinton and Hillary

"Susanne, if sex were fast food there'd be an arch over your head" (Designing Women)

"For those who know me, no explanation is necessary. For those who don't, no explanation is possible." - Yogi Berra

"Pity goes hand in hand with contempt."

"He looks at me like he's the spoon and I'm a dish of ice cream"

You don't get rich doing what you love. You get rich doing what no one else wants to do.

".....its what you don't choose that makes you who you are" Ben Affleck in "Gone Baby Gone"

A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out - Walter Winchell

Statistics are no substitute for judgment - Henry Clay

Meetings are indispensible when you don't want to do anything - John Kenneth Galdbraith

I'm always fascinated by the way memory diffuses fact - Diane Sawyer

Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in – (Michael Corleone -Godfather III)

I've always depended on the kindness of strangers...(Blanche Dubois - A Streetcar Named Desire)

Sometimes people who really love each other have the knack of making each other uncannily miserable.....

To understand a man, you must know his memories. The same is true of a nation. - Anthony Quale

Any child can tell you that the sole purpose of a middle name is so he can tell when he's really in trouble.

There ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them - Mark Twain

When all else fails read the instructions.

Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them - Lady Bird Johnson

NOTHING MAKES A PERSON MORE PRODUCTIVE THAN THE LAST MINUTE

Any time you think you have influence, try ordering around someone else's dog

Other things may change us, but we start and end with family - Anthony Brandt

It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it - W. Somerset Maugham

It infuriates me to be wrong when I know I'm right - Moliere

Never let people see how you feel, it gives them too much power. - Mike Nichols

The problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you're finished. "Night Fall" Nelson DeMille

Be careful whom you choose for an enemy because that is who you become most like - Nietzsche

Provided you have enough courage or money, you can do without a reputation - Margaret Mitchell

Oh let's don't ask for the moon.....we have the stars – (Bette Davis in Now Voyager)

I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last for days – (Kevin Costner in Bull Durham)

Children are paparazzi. They take your picture when you don't want them to, and then they show it to you. - Jamie Lee Curtis in AARP May/June issue.

The value of education is not in learning of the facts, but in training of the mind to think.

Statistics is like a bikini. What it reveals is suggestive. What it conceals is vital.

One doesn't plan to fail, one fails to plan.

Take what man makes and use it, But do not worship it, For it shall pass. - Anonymous

"Say hello to my leetle friend." – (Al Pacino in Scarface)

Do not mistake coincidence with fate.

You want to risk a no if you ever want to hear a yes.

It’s not our abilities that show us who we truly are – it’s our choices.

Though you can't change a situation, you can control how you respond.

Bad table manners have ruined more marriages than infidelity - "Gigi"

Romantic is the life you want to live. Sexy is the night you want to have.

Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want - Krutch

Time spent with cats is never wasted. - Colette

There are many intelligent species in the universe. They are all owned by cats. - Anonymous

There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats. - A. Schweitzer

You will always be lucky if you know how to make friends with strange cats. - proverb

There are few things in life more heart-warming than to be welcomed by a cat. - Tay Hohoff

The Present is the living sum-total of the Past. - Thomas Carlyle "Characteristics"

Perception is the ultimate truth.

Never interrupt an enemy while he's making a mistake - Napoleon Bonaparte

Man plans, God laughs.

Diplomacy is the art of saying nice doggy, until you can find a rock. (Nelson De Mille - Plum Island)

"You can never be lonely if you read." - Brooke Astor

There comes a point where life stops giving you things and starts taking them away – (Indiana Jones - Kingdom of the Crystal Skull)

We are the choices we have made – ("Francesca" - Bridges of Madison County)

I don't want to need you if I can't have you – (Robert to Francesca – BOMC)

This kind of certainty comes but once in a lifetime – (Robert to Francesca BOMC)

I watched him walk away and all the blood in my veins followed him. Anita Shreve

'People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But, people will never forget how you made them feel'.

"After the first death, there is no other" - Dylan Thomas