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"Nothing in the Golden Rule says that others will treat us as we have treated them. It only says that we must treat others in a way that we would want to be treated." ~ Rosa Parks "If we don't manage to implement the Golden Rule globally, so that we treat all peoples, wherever and whoever they may be, as though they were as important as ourselves, I doubt that we'll have a viable world to hand on to the next generation." ~ Karen Armstrong "The golden rule of conduct is mutual toleration, seeing that we will never all think alike and we shall see Truth in fragment and from different angles…

"The past is never dead. It's not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born, webs of heredity and environment, of desire and consequence, of history and eternity. Haunted by wrong turns and roads not taken, we pursue images perceived as new but whose providence dates to the dim dramas of childhood, which are themselves but ripples of consequence echoing down the generations. The quotidian demands of life distract from this resonance of images and events, but some of us feel it always." ~ William Faulkner The experiences you inherit from your social environment can…

"In order to be effective truth must penetrate like an arrow - and that is likely to hurt." ~ Wei Wu Wei "The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it." ~ George Orwell Currently reading "The Prince" "Effective truth," a concept from Renaissance thinker Niccolò Machiavelli's writings, especially in "The Prince," focuses on the results of actions rather than their adherence to absolute truth or morality. Machiavelli believed leaders should prioritize practicality and adaptability, even if it means using tactics that might be seen as dishonest or…

"The assertion that 'all men are created equal' was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use." ~ Abraham Lincoln "I have always wanted to deal with everyone I meet candidly and honestly. If I have made any assertion not warranted by facts, and it is pointed out to me, I will withdraw it cheerfully." ~ Abraham Lincoln American politics will soon immerse everyone into the debate cycle with many assertions. An assertion is a statement as true without providing evidence.  An individual's…

"No love is greater than that of a father for His son." ~ Dan Brown "The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty with the son who neglects them." ~ Confucius "All children need their fathers, but boys especially need fathers to teach them how to be men." ~ Dwyane Wade A conversation with my 16-year-old boy, grade 11, on the way to his college basketball identification camp tryout. Dad: My young man. You know what you have to do today. What is your goal today? Parker: I want those coaches to see my skill sets. I want to plant seeds with those coaches about my…

"Your head is a living forest full of songbirds." ~ e. e. cummings "Instead of weeping when a tragedy occurs in a songbird's life, it sings away its grief. I believe we could well follow the pattern of our feathered friends." ~ William Shakespeare "My grandmother told me once that when you lose somebody you think you've lost the whole world as well, but that's not the way things turn out in the end. Eventually, you pick yourself up and look out the window, and once you do you see everything that was there before the world ended is out there still. There are the same apple trees and the…

The United Nations has numerous important initiatives aimed at promoting peace and justice worldwide. United Nations Peacekeeping Operations International Criminal Court (ICC) Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG 16) UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) United Nations Mediation Support Unit (MSU) United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) UN Women’s Peace and Security Agenda United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) United Nations Peacebuilding…

"Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life." ~ Steve Jobs "To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man's injustice to woman. If by strength is meant brute strength, then, indeed, is woman less brute than man. If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man's superior. Has she not…

"I believe strongly in what John Keats called negative capability: the trait or practice that allows a poet to remain in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason. For Keats, William Shakespeare exemplified negative capability, and I do think it's extraordinary that for all the thousands of pages Shakespeare left behind, we really don't know much about Shakespeare's own personality or opinions." ~ James Arthur "it struck me what quality went to form a Man of Achievement, especially in Literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously -…

"Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice." ~ Steve Jobs "Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance." ~ Plato Here are some strategies to overcome the fear of other people's opinions and achieve personal growth and fulfillment. Knowing your core values and what truly matters to you is a compass. When you understand your principles and strategies for attaining your goals, other people's opinions become less relevant to your journey. Develop Resiliency & Antifragility Life always throws challenges your way, including criticism. Develop…

Cutting corners on non-high-tech, non-computer-related physical products for an organization can have drawbacks and, in some cases, minimal benefits.  Cheaper products are often made with lower-quality materials or with less attention to detail. This could lead to the need for earlier replacements, negating any initial savings. Additionally, flimsy materials or poor construction could pose safety hazards, potentially leading to injuries or accidents.  It's important to remember that a cheaper product may not perform as well as a higher-quality one.  This could affect efficiency and user…

"People like to say that the conflict is between good and evil. The real conflict is between truth and lies." ~ Miguel Angel Ruiz "Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson "Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." ~ Marcus Aurelius "The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him." ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky The world isn't always black and white!  Truth can be…

"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." ~ Nelson Mandela "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. "This is why the anti-discrimination principle being enforced is important. Because it won't stop if some of the…

"A good essay must have this permanent quality about it; it must draw its curtain round us, but it must be a curtain that shuts us in not out." ~ Virginia Woolf "In effect I am not a novelist, but rather a failed essayist who started to write novels because he didn't know how to write essays." ~ Jose Saramago "The essay is a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything" ~ Aldous Huxley "An essay is a work of literary art which has a minimum of one anecdote and one universal idea." ~ Carol Bly Many high school English teachers struggle to help students write a…

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." ~ Peter Drucker "Educationists should build the capacities of the spirit of inquiry, creativity, entrepreneurial and moral leadership among students and become their role model." ~ Abdul Kalam "Be strong, but not rude; Be kind, but not weak; Be bold, but not bully; Be humble, but not timid; Be proud, but not arrogant." ~ Zig Ziglar Whenever I think about leaders, not managers, in medium—to large organizations and businesses, non-financial characteristics come to mind. These characteristics motivate ethical leaders…