Things I Learned in 2011

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These are some of the things that I learned in 2011. I have this obsessive need to always have to write every-single-thing down :)

On LIFE

1. “What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.”
— Gabriel García Márquez

2. "There were so many of us who would have to live with things done and things left undone that day. Things that did not go right, things that seemed okay at the time because we could not see the future. If only we could see the endless string of consequences that result from our smallest actions. But we can’t know better until knowing better is use less.”
— Looking For Alaska

3. "Happiness is not a destination. It is a mood, it is not permanent. It comes and goes and if people thought that way then maybe people would find happiness more often.”
— Julian Baker

4. “You can never be overdressed or overeducated.” — Oscar Wilde

5.
“To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.”
— Oren Arnold


On LIFE LESSONS

1. “Sacrifice is a part of life. It’s supposed to be. It’s not something to regret. It’s something to aspire to.”
— The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom

2. “If you are still breathing maybe it is not such a bad day after all.”
— Darren Laws

3. “And yet with every bad, there is a worse.”
— Thomas Hardy

4. "Pain is a part of life. Sometimes it’s a big part, and sometimes it isn’t, but either way, it’s a part of the big puzzle, the deep music, the great game. Pain does two things: It teaches you, tells you that you’re alive. Then it passes away and leaves you changed. It leaves you wiser, sometimes. Sometimes it leaves you stronger. Either way, pain leaves its mark, and everything important that will ever happen to you in life is going to involve it in one degree or another.”
— Jim Butcher

5. “For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.” It's about your outlook towards life. You can either regret or rejoice".

"Even when the flower falls, we love it. That’s the heart of the Japanese person. Flowers dying is not a sad thing."
- The Tsunami and The Cherry Blossom

ON LOVE

1. “A heart that hurts, is a heart that works.” — Placebo, Bright Lights

2. “Some of the biggest challenges in relationships come from the fact that most people enter a relationship in order to get something. They’re trying to find someone who’s going to make them feel good. In reality, the only way a relationship will last is if you see your relationship as a place that you go to give, and not a place that you go to take.”
— Anthony Robbin

3. "The hardest-learned lesson: that people have only their kind of love to give, not our kind.”
— Mignon McLaughlin

4. "It's a risk to love. What if it doesn't work out?
Ah, but what if it does?"
- Peter McWilliams

" I’m not the silly romantic you think. I don’t want the heavens or the shooting stars. I don’t want gemstones or gold. I have those things already. I want a steady hand, a kind soul. I want to fall asleep, and wake, knowing my heart is safe.” — Shana Abé

On BOOKS

1. "Bookshelves are trophy cabinets for people who don’t shoot animals.”
— CJ Werleman

2. "The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours.”
— Alan Bennett

3. "Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”
— Charles W. Eliot

"Reading gives us a place to go when we have to

stay where we are."


On COURAGE AND PASSION

1. "Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying :'I'll try again tomorrrow'.
- Mary Radmacher

2. “The saddest people I’ve ever met in life are the ones who don’t care deeply about anything at all. Passion and satisfaction go hand in hand, and without them, any happiness is only temporary, because there’s nothing to make it last.”
— Nicholas Sparks (Dear John)

3. "We all know fear. But passion makes us fearless.” — Paulo Coelho

4. “Without obsession, life is nothing.” — John Waters

“Passion. It’s a force so potent we still remember it long after it’s faded away. A drive so alluring it can push us into the arms of unexpected lovers. A sensation so overwhelming, it can knock down walls we’ve built to protect our hearts. A feeling so intense, it resurfaces even when we try so hard to keep it buried. Yes, of all emotions, passion is the one that gives us a reason to live, and an excuse to commit all sorts of crimes.” — Desperate Housewive

ON GRATITUDE AND DISCOVERY

1. “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”
— William Arthur Ward

2. “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
— Marcel Proust

3. “Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it, and above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light.”
— Joseph Pulitzer

4. "Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

5. “The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” — W.B. Yeats

"...what we've seen is always going to be a very small cup dipped out of a very big ocean, and turning your back on the ocean to stare into the cup can't change that". - Linda Holmes

On FRIENDSHIP

1. "If you judge people, you have no time to love them."
- Mother Teresa

2. “I am a part of all that I have met.” — Alfred Lord Tennyson

3. “Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” — Anais Nin


UNRELATED POST : COOL TIPS ON TRAVELLING :

1. Eat different cuisines than the country you’re in.
And I’m not referring to the lasagna from your hotel restaurant. Thai food in India is different than in Thailand – obviously. But it’s also different than Thai food in Seattle. I’ve had great Mexican food in Athens, great Greek food in Bangkok, and some stuff I didn’t recognize on a Biman Airlines flight while over Pakistan.
But more than good, these meals were interesting — and that’s what travel should be.

2. Send postcards
They’re fun. People like getting them. If you must send an email put all the contents in the subject line: "Mom — I’m alive, in Italy, not going back to school next semester. XO"

3. Steal soap from your hotel and give it to kids in developing countries as a present.
Studies have shown that distributing soap to kids in poor countries saves lives. Travelers are always thinking up things to give to kids that ask for handouts (pencils, erasers, candies) but nothing beats the gift of clean hands. And don’t just collect 1 or 2 from your hotel bathroom. Hit the hallways while the cleaning staff are having a smoke and grab a couple handfuls from the service carts. When you are saving lives, GO BIG.

From
http://mylittlenomads.com/thrilling-amazing-tips-travel-vacationand read the rest of them, they are so cool! I especially love no 2,3,12,13,15


Happy New Year Everyone !!!!! X