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Andi's avatar

Oh I have a bunch of these saved!

Untie the hands that bind your mind.

--Dishwalla

There is no beautifier of face or form or behavior than the desire to scatter joy.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am a passenger on the spaceship Earth.

--R. Buckminster Fuller

Never grow a wishbone where your backbone ought to be.

--Clementine Paddleford

Never does nature say one thing & wisdom another.

-Juvenal

After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument then why I have one.

-Cato the Elder

The two hardest things to handle in life are failure and success.

-Anonymous

Nothing is interesting if you're not interested.

-Helen Macinnes

The difference between genus and stupidity is that genus has its limits.

-Albert Einstein

"Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies."

--Aristotle

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved"

--Victor Hugo

"Where there is love there is life"

--Mahatma Gandhi

"To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven."

--Karen Sunde

"You don't love a woman because she is beautiful, but she is beautiful because you love her"

--Unknown

"Who travels for love finds a thousand miles not longer than one."

--Japanese Proverb.

"We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly embracing each other."

--Liciano De Crescenzo

"My night has become a sunny dawn because of you."

--Ibn Abbad

Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.

—SAMUEL JOHNSON

Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

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A.J. Jacobs's avatar

These are awesome. I'm putting a whole bunch of them in my rotation. I especially like the Helen Macinnes quote. It reminds me of when Alex Trebek told me, "I'm curious about everything, even those things that don't interest me." (This was meant to reply to Andi)

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MCK Michael Keefrider's avatar

Nice list, Andi! Thanks for sharing some of your wisdom too 🙏🙏

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A.J. Jacobs's avatar

Thank you MCK! And thank YOU for sharing it.

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Les Hall's avatar

You could emulate the digital foto album by using, on a Mac, the screen saver. Create a folder of images with your favourite sayings. Then follow these instructions - https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/use-photos-as-your-screen-saver-mchle95c1370/15.0/mac/15.5

Then set-up when you want the screensaver to kick in - https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/change-lock-screen-settings-on-mac-mh11784/15.0/mac/15.0

You could even set-up a Hot Corner to throw your cursor at so that a random quote pops up when you enter that screen corner. - https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/perform-quick-actions-with-hot-corners-mchlp3000/15.0/mac/15.0

Your idea is great and just what I need. I might turn down the speed of entering screen saver mode because I spend a lot of time just looking at a screen and thinking and not interacting. Having a small pithy fillip pop up might be the kick in the arse I really need...

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A.J. Jacobs's avatar

Love it! I will put it on my screen saver, great idea. Though I also like the frame going when I'm using my computer, so I'll keep both.

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Les Hall's avatar

This isn't as discrete as your idea, but for people like me a more in your face approach might be suitable. I volunteer in a thrift store and we get those foto displays in but the resolution is typically bad. I have a 7" video. monitor screen - I bet I could run Keynote on that and have a nicer alternative....

I could make time today to mess with that for hours - gotta tweak those fonts, size, line spacing - but I am loath to do the stuff I need to do. What I need is a small..........

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Aileen Hewitt's avatar

The wound is where the light enters you. Rumi

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A.J. Jacobs's avatar

Love it! Thanks Aileen

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Lisa Clarke's avatar

Lately I am partial to "Joy is an act of rebellion"

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Sophie S.'s avatar

Oh what a great weekend project!!

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Richie's avatar

It’s funny how things work out sometimes…

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Chris Stanton's avatar

I love this. I use the Post-It Notes' app's widgets to (manually) cycle through my own on my phone and iPad. A few you may like:

"The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.: —Carl Jung

"I don't have problems. I have puzzles." —Quincy Jones

"It's important to keep the inner idiot alive." —Elvis Costello

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." —Albert Einstein

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Penny Bowler's avatar

This is such a good idea! I like this one,

"Inch by inch life is hard. Yard by yard life is hard."

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Tracey Jackson's avatar

You have to have a dream so you can get up in the morning. ~ Billy Wilder

Love this AJ. I have one of those digital photo frames. I may copy this idea. Great idea. We can all use some positive thinking on a loop.

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MCK Michael Keefrider's avatar

What an AWESOME idea, A.J. Can't wait to share this with my #1 human and come up with a collective list we can use to create our own Wisdom Jukebox 🖥🙌

Here's the first three I'd add:

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. -- Friedrich Nietzsche

Common sense is not so common. -- Voltaire

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. -- Winston Churchill

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Bruce Howard's avatar

AJ, what a great idea!

How about: “Well done is better than well said.”

- Ben Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1737

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Bruce Howard's avatar

Okay, one more, by Groucho: “Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.”

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Geoffrey Tanner's avatar

The foundation of all mental illness is the unwillingness to experience legitimate suffering.

Carl Jung

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Geoffrey Tanner's avatar

I have been an avid collector of mottos! Here are some of my faves:

It's better to do nothing than to waste your time

Slow down, I'm in a hurry

Don't believe everything you think

It's better to be uninformed than misinformed

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Julie Stolze's avatar

Thanks for another insightful essay, AJ!

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Allison Weatherly's avatar

I love this idea!

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A.J. Jacobs's avatar

Thank you Allison!

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Bill Brady's avatar

I love this idea. I started my list after reading about yours. One I really like from an author interview (unfortunately I don't recall who) on NPR: "Do your situational best." Helps remind me not to focus on what I could have done better in the past and helps me fight off procrastination.

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