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4 December 2009
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New Year inspiration from the Desktop Guru

Searching for a new year resolution? Draw some inspiration from the quotations of the wise and the witty, gathered by our Desktop Guru, on health, smoking, success, learning and developing better attitudes...

    HAPPINESS:
Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. – Abraham Lincoln
 

Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it
shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it. - Groucho Marx

Yesterday is a dream, tomorrow but a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of
hope. Look well, therefore to this day. - Sanskrit proverb

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up. - Mark Twain

Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy. - Mahatma Gandhi

Ten steps to happiness
Raising a smile with the BBC

   

SMOKING:
When I was young, I kissed my first woman, and smoked my first cigarette on the same day. Believe me, never since have I wasted any
more time on tobacco. - Arturo Toscanini

Breaking the habit

    IMPROVE YOUR KARMA:
From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life. - Arthur Ashe
 

Do something for somebody every day for which you do not get paid. - Albert Schweitzer

If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one. – Mother Teresa

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. - Mother Teresa

 

    SUCCESS:
So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable. - Christopher Reeve
 

Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little. - Edmund Burke

Continuous effort, not strength or intelligence, is the key to unlocking our potential. - Winston Churchill

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small
manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one. - Mark Twain

Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm. - Winston Churchill

You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down. - Mary Pickford

 

    HEALTH:
Look to your health; and if you have it, praise God and value it next to conscience; for health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable
of, a blessing money can't buy. - Izaak Walton

Be careful about reading health books. You might die of a misprint. - Mark Twain

Your health and wellbeing

    ONE FOR THE BOSS:
Take care of those who work for you and you’ll float to greatness on their achievements. - H.S.M. Burns, President, Shell Oil

 

   

LEARNING:
Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen, even so does inaction sap the vigour of the mind. - Leonardo Da Vinci

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. - Mahatma Gandhi

A world of learning

    ATTITUDE:
It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves. - William Shakespeare
 

The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases. - Carl Jung

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can
become great. - Mark Twain

Dwelling on the negative simply contributes to its power. - Shirley MacLaine

There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age. - Sophia Loren

Any fool can criticise, condemn, and complain, and most fools do. - Benjamin Franklin


   

ONE RULE TO RULE THEM ALL:
Always go to the bathroom when you have a chance. - King George V

   
 


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