The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Khalil Gibran’

I love a good quote because it makes me think. I have been collecting quotes for several years now, but a few years ago it struck me that because I read so much, I should be extracting quotes from the books I read. Below are 21 quotes that I like and some of them I pulled directly from books I read, so the only place you’ll see them is if you read the books they came from.

1. “Within each successful person is an ordinary person who found the courage to act – to face the big challenges and make their dreams come true.” Jinny S. Ditzler, Your Best Year Yet!
2. “No matter what you want in life, you can get it by building rapport. If you can fill the needs of the people who have what you want, bingo – they’ll fill your needs as well. Rapport building works in sales, public relations, and life itself.” Steven Cody & Richard Harte, What’s Keeping Your Customers Up At Night?
3. “… All dreams are meaningful and significant. Meaningful, because they contain a message which can be understood if one has the key for its translation. Significant, because we do not dream of anything that is trifling, even though it may be expressed in a language which hides the significance of the dream message behind a trifling façade.” Erich Fromm, The Forgotten Language
4. “If one has both knowledge and wisdom, the lamp illuminates even the darkest night.” Chao-Hsiu Chen, The Master
5. “Being on the way requires a move forward and sometimes a step of faith into the unknown.” Kavula John, Light For Our Path 2007
6. “One big difference between those who truly succeed in making things happen and the ones who don’t: Those who do, act.” Jinny S. Ditzler, Your Best Year Yet!
7. “Thoughts, feelings and actions are essential to closing a sale, or being successful in public relations, shepherding, bricklaying, you name it. How we think, feel and act will determine everything else.” Steven Cody & Richard Harte, What’s Keeping Your Customers Up At Night?
8. “For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you might need them tomorrow? And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the over-prudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?” Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
9. “We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny, whatever affects one directly, affect all indirectly.” Martin Luther King
10. “As a manager it is extremely important to work hard at uncovering the facts involved in whatever the problem or situation he [or she] faces, and based on those facts, to make the appropriate decision. One must draw a balance, however, between fact-finding and decision-making.” John Gardner
11. “It’s important to understand what’s in people’s minds, and separate it from what they are actually saying and discussing with their peers.” Arunas Chesonis
12. “Worrying about something is like paying interest on a debt you don’t even know if you owe.”  Mark Twain
13. “It’s easy to focus on what you think is important, but it’s always about the other person, and their needs, and this takes you down the right strategic path.” Peter Bouffard
14. “I do not have to do anything extraordinary. All I need to do is wake up and see what’s been here waiting for me all the time. It’s already here and all is well.” Maria Nemeth
15. “If you focus on the goals, you will make your bosses happy, but you sell yourself short – life, love, and work are all a series of journeys. Goals happen, are temporary and then are gone and leave emptiness.” Simon Grant
16. “Recognize the divergence between what you as a professional view as your ethical standard, and what some clients see as merely a stance that is variable on request.” Oliver Campbell
17. “Don’t be afraid to show your vulnerability and ask for help. If your intention is clear and honest, people will rally around you and unify toward a common goal.” Nanci Govinder
18. “As long as you are honest you can resolve 99 percent of all situations amicably and without regret.” Seaton McLean
19. “If you don’t throw up your hands when things go wrong, but think it isn’t over and that you still have a chance, anything is possible.” Claire Hoy
20. “Labour for learning before you grow old, for learning is better than silver and gold. Silver and gold will vanish away, but a good education will never decay.” Popular Jamaican Saying
21. “Miracles rest not so much upon healing power coming suddenly near us from afar, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for the moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what has been there around us always.” Willa Cather

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Over the past month, I have been paying close attention to the analytics for The Invisible Mentor blog, and I am sometimes amazed by what landed readers on the site. Today, I want to highlight some of the posts that landed people on the site from search engines. Next week we’ll return to the regular schedule: Adventures in Learning, Booked for Mentoring, Wisdom of Life and the Invisible Mentor Interviews.

Cover of The Prophet

1. Einstein Distraction Index: A Method of Deep Focus
2. Review: The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, Translated by Edward Fitzgerald
3. Summary of A Technique for Producing Great Ideas by James Webb Young
4. 2011 Interviews for Mentoring
5. 2011 Books for Mentoring
6. How to Analyze Information
7. How to Master a Subject
8. What Did Napoleon Hill Omit? Invisible Counselors vs. Invisible Mentors
9. Wisdom Wednesday: Charles Babbage, Father of the Computer
10. Review of The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
11. Enchiridion By Epictetus: A Book Review
12. Review of The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

In 2012, I will work harder at integrating ancient and modern wisdom to serve you better. The ancient wisdom will be in the people I profile and some of the books I review, and the modern wisdom will be in the people I interview and some of the books I review. If you have other suggestions, please let me know. Please write your thoughts in the comments section below.

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The Prophet, The Prince, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: The Five Authorized Versions (Classics Club).

Where has the 2010 gone? As subscribers to this blog already know, reading is one of life’s simple joy for me. I love to snuggle up with a good book. Science fiction is not a genre that I really like so I have been forcing myself to read more because I think it’s important to stretch myself. I ask you all the time to do so, so it’s important for me to follow the advice that I dispense. Next on my science fiction reading list is the Foundation Trilogy: Foundation, Second Foundation and Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov.

Here are 10 book reviews that I did this year:

1. Innovate The Steve Jobs Way
2. Review: Briefcase Essentials by Susan T. Spenser
3. Have You Found Your Acres of Diamonds?
4. Review of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
5. Review of Linchpin – Are You Indispensable by Seth Godin
6. How to Build a Successful Business by Doing These 10 Things?
7. Want Presentations That Rock? Joey Asher’s 15 Minutes Including Q & A Delivers
8. Review of the Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
9. Review of the Skinny on Networking: Maximizing the Power of Number by Jim Randel
10. Review of Books That Changed the World by Andrew Taylor

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

“Work is love made visible,” says Kahlil Gibran. Reflect on that quote again for a minute. Now read the poem Work below and reflect on it. What does the poem mean to you? What emotions do you feel? How do you feel about Gibran’s quote?

Work by Henry Van Dyke (1852–1933)

Let me but do my work from day to day,
In field or forest, at the desk or loom,
In roaring market-place or tranquil room;
Let me but find it in heart to say,
When vagrant wishes beckon me astray,
“This is my work; my blessing, not my doom;
Of all who live, I am the one by whom
This work can best be done in the right way.”

Then shall I see it not too great, nor small,
To suit my spirit and to prove my powers;
Then shall I cheerful greet the labouring hours,
And cheerful turn, when the long shadows fall
At eventide, to play and love and rest,
Because I know for me my work is best.

Now read and reflect on this quote by Henry Van Dyke ” Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.”

How can you relate the  two quotes to the poem? Are you doing what you love? Are you using your talents to the fullest? Is work “love made visible?” If you loved what you did for a living, would your life be more fulfilled? I am also asking myself  these questions. Think on these things!

Photo credit: Wikipedia, image of Gibran