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| Photo by Dmitry Ratushny on Unsplash |
It is impossible to discount the importance of what we learn from others. And while much of what we learn comes in the form of long lunches, good books or meaningful presentations, in the end what we remember tends to be key ideas . . . quotes. So these are some of the key ideas that jumped out at me in 2023. I hope they are a blessing to you as you launch into 2024.
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” – Benjamin Franklin
While in a conversation, if you are intently listening for a pause, so that you can speak, then you are not really listening. – Vala Afshar
"There are more than 7,000 languages in the world today and each of these languages is somebody's mother tongue. Each language matters, because all people matter." – Dr. Michel Kenmogne
"If your doorstep is clean, then your city will be clean." – Greek Proverb
“Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. I have found it is small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
"Our social skills are currently inadequate to the pluralistic societies we are living in.... Many of our big national problems arise from the fraying of our social fabric. If we want to begin repairing the big national ruptures, we have to learn to do the small things well." — David Brooks
"Strong relationships don't need agreement. They need alignment." – Adam Grant
"Everything grows from the inside out.Nothing grows from the outside in." – Peter Scazzero
“Dissatisfaction is a torment , but it is also a teacher. It’s a cautionary of the life we think we want, and in that sense, it’s a grace.” – Sharon Hodde Miller
"Learn to listen. Opportunity sometimes knocks very softly." – H. Jackson Brown Jr.
"Old age needs the visions of youth; youth needs the dreams of old age." – E. Stanley Jones
“To honor a value we need to be willing to incur costs and constraints. We must choose one direction at the expense of another, or stay mired and lost, unable to move forward.That’s why the change conversation needs to focus on what you value. Values are how an enterprise honors its mission.” – Greg Satell
"There is no hospitality like understanding." – Vanna Bonta
"The value of pure knowledge decreases; the importance of what is done with that knowledge rises." – Bipul Sinha
“The nonmonstrous parts of ourselves, the parts we consider angelic, are parts that separate us from others; they make for distinction, not unity. These parts give us pride because they make us different, not because they unite us with the common lot of humankind. Our successes and our glories are not the stuff of community, but our sins and our failures are.” – Parker Palmer
"It's hard to build momentum if you're dividing your attention." – James Clear
When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills." – Chinese Proverb, author unknown
“Keep in mind that imagination is at the heart of all innovation. Crush or constrain it and the fun will vanish.” – Albert-Laszlo Barabasi
“If I’m going to get to know you, it’s not because I have the magical ability to peer into your soul; it’s because I have the skill of asking the sorts of questions that will give you a chance to tell me about who you are.” – David Brooks
"Fast learns, slow remembers. Fast proposes, slow disposes. Fast is discontinuous, slow is continuous. Fast and small instructs slow and big by accrued innovation and by occasional revolution. Slow and big controls small and fast by constraint and constancy. Fast gets all our attention, slow has all the power." – Stewart Brand
Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.” – Fred Rogers
"There seemed to be endless obstacles preventing me from living with my eyes open, but as I gradually followed up clue after clue it seemed that the root cause of them all was fear." – Marion Milner
"Everything that's anything starts out as a little thing. It just needs a little time and room to grow." – Brad Paisley
"At all times, an old world is collapsing and a new world arising; we have better eyes for the collapse than the rise, for the old one is the world we know." – John Updike
"If creativity is the idea of bringing a new perspective to anything and having it add value, innovation is the process of transforming that creativity into value...The distinction between creativity and innovation is important because one can’t exist without the other in any environment." – Carla Johnson
“An idea without action is like a bow without an arrow.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Your past is not your prison; your past is a predictor." – Dr. Henry Cloud
"The only thing worse than starting something and failing...is not starting something." – Seth Godin
"Disneyland will never be completed, as long as there is imagination left in the world." – Walt Disney
What is Christmas? It is the tenderness of the past, the courage for the present and the hope for the future." – Agnes Pahro
"Gratitude is the ability to experience life as a gift. It liberates us from the prison of self-preoccupation." – John Ortberg
"Culture is observational not aspirational!" – Marc Randolph
“Disunity isn’t just ugly; it makes us dysfunctional. We cannot be the presence and force in this world that God intended if we’re actively jettisoning essential parts of our Body.” – Francis Chan
"It's a proven fact that military might makes so little difference in the world and its also a proven fact that the greatest instrument of change is love. So I'm thinking that if we were busier loving people than we are killing them, then maybe the world would really change. But the problem is that love is a lot more of a risk and very few people want to take those kinds of risks..." – Rich Mullins
“Love and truth form a good leader; sound leadership is founded on loving integrity.” – King Solomon
"The paradox of hospitality is that it wants to create an emptiness, not a fearful emptiness, but a friendly emptiness where strangers can enter and discover themselves as created free; free to sing their own songs, speak their own languages, dance their own dances; free also to leave and follow their own vocations. Hospitality is not a subtle invitation to adopt the lifestyle of the host, but the gift of a chance for the guest to find his own." – Henri Nouwen
“No action will have lasting effects if it is inconsistent with reality.” – Parker Palmer
“What a privilege to be able to look for the good in our neighbor!” – Mr. Rogers
“This is the paradox of freedom and virtue. Virtue is a second nature. A second freedom…You submit yourself to the discipline of learning in order to freely practice it.” – NT Wright
“Walking organizes the world around us; writing organizes our thoughts.” – Ferris Jabr
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