Tell me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream!--
For the soul is dead that slumbers
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not the goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than today.

Art is long , and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle, In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead! Act,--act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.

-- Helen Keller

Don't say things. What you are stands over you the while and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I can complain because rose bushes have thorns . . .or rejoice because the thornbush has a rose . . . It is all up to me.

-- Anonymous

God knows the secret plan of the things He will do for the world, Using my hand.

-- Toyohiko Kagawa

Above all, seek within, and bow at no human shrine. You have the same fountain of truth from which to draw as has the most favored individual on this planet, and you will never get unadulterated truth, until you evoke it within your own soul. This is the road all must eventually travel.

-- Charles Fillmore

. . . Some things . . . arrive in their own mysterious hour, on their own terms and not yours, to be seized or relinquished forever.

-- Gail Godwin

Opposition brings together, and from discord comes perfect harmony.

-- Heraclitus

Lecturer, entrepreneur and MBA business consultant, John Harricharan is the author of the award-winning book, "When You Can Walk on Water, Take the Boat." Spiritual Simplicity The Real Secret http://www.spiritual-simplicity.com/