...the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing.  But the man who lives that life, he is something.  He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant.,  A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life.  It is hard work to fill one's life with meaning.

Chaim Potok

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

Dwight Eisenhower

War is mankind’s most tragic and stupid folly; to seek or advise its deliberate provocation is a black crime against all men.

Dwight Eisenhower

The spirit of the poet craves spectators...

even if only buffaloes.

Friedrich Nietzsche

When I admit to myself that I will have each of the possible consequences from every choice I make... positive, negative and indifferent... then (and only then)  I have a chance to choose the consequences I want.

Chuck Britt

I can choose to remember...

development needs a model not a push.

Chuck Britt

"Too bad!  What?  Isn't he going back?"

"Yes, But you understand him badly when you complain.  He is going back like anybody who wants to attempt a big jumb."

Friedrich Nietzsche

I say unto you:  One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.  I say unto you:  you still have chaos in yourselves.

Friedrich Nietzsche

The soul that has the longest ladder and reaches down deepest... the most comprehensive soul, which can run and stray and roam farthest within itself; the most necessary soul that plunges joyously into chance; the soul that, having being, dives into becoming; the soul

that has, but wants to want and will; the soul that flees itself and catches up with itself in the widest circles; the wisest soul that folly exhorts most sweetly; the soul that loves itself most, in which all things have their sweep and countersweep and ebband flood...

Friedrich Nietzsche

Note:  My reading of FN notices that he does not see those of us who have, "the longest ladder and reaches down deepest..." as a nationality or  a racial group but as a random sprinkling of individuals across the world who refuse to believe that what they have become so far is all that they are, and who feel compelled to find out. CMB

The man who would not belong in the mass needs only cease being comfortable with himself;  he should follow his conscience which shouts at him:  "Be yourslef!  You are not really all that which you do. think and desire now.

Friedrich Nietzsche

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

Friedrich Nietzsche

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

Friedrich Nietzsche

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

Friedrich Nietzsche

God has created the world as one—the boundaries are marked out by man.

'Abdu'l-Baha

I feel so strongly that deep and simple is far more essential than shallow and complex.

Mr. Rodgers

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping."

Mr. Rodgers

I used to think a good parent was one who had well behaved children. Now I know a good parent is one who is well behaved when the children are not.

Mount Vernon Parent’ s Night Parent

Education... is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.

John Dewey

Happiness is not the reward of virtue, but is virtue itself; nor do we delight in happiness because we restrain from our lusts; but on the contrary, because we delight in it, therefore we are able to restrain them.

Baruch Spinoza

The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.

John Dewey

God is the indwelling and not the transient cause of all things.

Baruch Spinoza

I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.

Baruch Spinoza

Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.

Baruch Spinoza

There is no hope unmingled with fear, and no fear unmingled with hope.

Baruch Spinoza

The more clearly you understand yourself and your emotions, the more you become a lover of what is.

Baruch Spinoza

I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light.

Miles Davis

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Jesus

New Testament, Matthew 10:16, King James Bible

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn: for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they will be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful: for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus

Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 5:3–12

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.

Crowfoot

Blackfoot warrior and orator

A man (person) perceives the universe, acts in it, organizes it, comprehends it, all from the locus of his being, his time-space location. To exist is to have this being, this unique organizing spot which is one's own and. no other. Other beings occupy their respective spots. Each being, in turn, composes the universe from its particular location.

Ross L. Mooney

(His work on perception, relationships, creativity and education at Ohio State University helped me decide what to do with my life. I met him briefly in 1970.  CMB)

Keeping the goings-on going on inside the system of a man depends upon the synchronous relations with the goings-on outside the system.

Ross L. Mooney

The function of perceiving is therefore to establish relationships with what extends beyond man's skin, and to allow these relationships to be fitted into the relationships that are forming within his specific energy system.

Ross L. Mooney

Where mental health exists, it arises from an expression of one's own being. The healthy individual possesses a sense of personal security and recognizes the value of self-respect and self-confidence. Both creativity and mental health involve mutual respect, confidence, and deep contentment.

Ross L. Mooney

...let us define 'man' as a poet perpetually conspiring against himself."

Lawrence Durrell

...... everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.

Morning Dove (Christine Quintasket)

Salish

I can not control my feelings like driving them around like so many little cars with tiny steering wheels.

But... I can change my self-care in this moment and feel different in the next moment.

When I call myself names to push myself around, I feel increasing self doubt, frustration, and bitterness.  The people around me feel an increasing need to defend themselves and keep their distance as I continue treating myself that way.  Few of my plans seem to work out.

But then, when I notice I am calling myself names and interrupt myself... and then replace the self abuse with simple true statements like: ("I can choose to keep trying to be less impulsive. " Or, "I can choose to treat myself with self respect." Or, "I can choose to notice, interrupt and replace my self abuse.")  I will feel increasingly calm, better about myself, and less impulsive. As I continue remembering to notice self abuse, interrupt self abuse  and then replace it with affirmation over months and years, my self image will be stronger, my plans will begin to work better and people will feel safer around me.

Chuck Britt

There's no "should" or "should not" when it comes to having feelings. They're part of who we are and their origins are beyond our control. When we can believe that, we may find it easier to make constructive choices about what to do with those feelings.

Mr. Rodgers

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Martin Luther King Jr.

... I have seen that in any great undertaking it is not enough for a man to depend simply upon himself.

Lone Man (Isna-la-wica)

Teton Sioux

The aim of education is vitalization, not socialization. Socialization can be valuable only when it is also vitalization. Otherwise the social order dies.  America dies.

Laura Zirbes

(She was the Mentor of Ross L. Mooney at Ohio State University.)

... children come with especially sensitive detectors for the beings around them: they need to know the persons on whom they can depend for their nourishment and care. They automatically appraise their teachers, not as teachers, but as persons on whom they can depend for their nourishment and care.

Laura Zirbes

The first duty of love is to listen.

Paul Tillich

Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes.

Confucius

Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.

Confucius

The million little things that drop into our hands

The small opportunities each day brings

He leaves us free to use or abuse

And goes unchanging along his silent way

Helen Keller

Failure is not the falling down, but the staying down.

Mary Pickford

Let us put our minds together and see what kind of life we can make for our children.

Sitting Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake)

You negotiate in bad faith if you do not forgive your adversary.

Nelson Mandela

I had no time to hate, because The grave would hinder me, And life was not so ample I Could finish enmity Nor had I time to love: but since Some industry must be, The little toil of love, I thought, Was large enough for me.

Emily Dickinson

When I am vulnerable with God the risk is infinite, though I have never been hurt.

When I am vulnerable with my child... it can not really be avoided.

When I am vulnerable with humans at large the risk is always real and often foolish.

When I am vulnerable with my Beloved, I am the most fragile organism, the bravest adventurer, and the discoverer of some astonishment about myself.

Chuck Britt

You can never loose a thing If it belongs to you.

Abbey Lincoln

Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

Abraham Lincoln

Plainly, the central idea of secession, is the essence of anarchy.

Abraham Lincoln

I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.

Abraham Lincoln

Art is not made to decorate rooms. It is an offensive weapon in the defense against the enemy.

Pablo Piccaso

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

Mahatma Gandhi

Nobody can hurt me without my permission.

Mahatma Gandhi

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.

Mahatma Gandhi

Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.

Mahatma Gandhi

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.

Mahatma Gandhi

The absurd duty, too often inculcated, of obeying a parent only on account of his being a parent shackles the mind and prepares it for a slavish submission to any power but reason.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Nothing about me… without me!

Amanda Baggs

I went and sowed corn in my enemy’s field that God might exist.

Johan Bojers

To aim at the best and to remain essentially ourselves is one and the same thing.

Janet Erskine Stuart

My luck runs out when I choose to make plans that can work only when I am lucky.

Chuck Britt

It is not so much what we say or do that educates; what really educates is who we are.

Janet Erskine Stuart

INVICTUS "undefeated"

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell 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.

By the English poet William Ernest Henley (1849–1903).

While incarcerated on Robben Island prison, Nelson Mandela recited the poem to other prisoners and was empowered by its message of self-mastery.

William Ernest Henley

Rememberance of Don Taves:

Dr. Taves was our Clinical Supervior and Consulting Psyciagrist at Catholic Community Services in Mount Vernon in 1989 / 1991 while I was there.  He, along with the other professionals around that weekly consultation table, taught me the power of co-respecrtful teamwork and concensus building.  We learned not to waste any team member's feelings.  If we wanted an intervention to work we needed to find a way to integrate each participant's feelings into the plan.

Chuck Britt