After being nominated, I created a photo logo, seen above, for this challenge and anyone is welcome to use it, if they wish.
I have varied the challenge guidelines slightly, as I will post three quotes on each post – one post over each of three weeks. Please also note that I dislike the term, “Rules,” and so have also customized this aspect of the challenge. Thanks to Millie for the opportunity to showcase some fabulous quotes that I find inspirational.
Confucius is a fascinating character whose quotes have featured strongly for this challenge:
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”
― Confuciusand more…..
“Give a bowl of rice to a man and you will feed him for a day. Teach him how to grow his own rice and you will save his life.”
― Confucius
Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets – Leonardo Da Vinci
As this is the second week of the challenge, I have two nominees and both are in New Zealand:
Ineke has some excellent photography and fiction on her blog
Pop on over to see Raewyn’s excellent photography.
Quotes Challenge Rules – Guidelines
The rules guidelines are simple:
- Post three different quotes on consecutive days/weeks. They can be from any source, or your own. All three quotes can be of a similar theme or can all be completely different/unconnected.
- I am going to post three quotes on each of the three posts, one post per week, but that is my variation on this challenge.
- Nominate 3 people for the challenge. [ In doing this, I just wish to highlight their blog and place no pressure nor expectation that they need to accept or pass on the challenge. N.B. My variation is that I am going to incrementally nominate bloggers for this challenge, but do not feel bound to follow my example.]
Quotes give us profound words to Ponder About
Thanks Amanda for nominating me. Would you mind if I do it in Afrikaans? I’ll explain it in English after each one. I want to attract some Afrikaans friends by doing it.
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Of course that is a gr8 idea. Do it any way you wish. Thanks for accepting!
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Good, I’ll look for something to put in a post.
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Great. I will look forward to reading it!
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Love the Confucious quotes once again, Amanda. The first one: that is something I can certainly relate too as I find my way through the working world and often question how far can I actually go with my writing. Life is indeed simple; happiness lies in the simple, everyday moments. Also, passion is simple. All we have to do is make time to do it. Then again, that isn’t always possible…
The second quote: Self-help is certainly an essential skill to have. When we learn the ropes first hand or have a hands-on shot at something, in a sense that’s a kind of achievement for us – an achievement that can probably leave us hungry to learn and discover more.
The third quote by da Vinci: I never heard of this one before. Learning is one of the most important things in life. It challenges us, and forces us out of our comfort zone more often than not. However, I do think at times the mind might feel tired if we learn something hard to grasp, that might take a toll on us. Bits and pieces of learning would be the way to go, as we all need relaxation too.
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Thank you for your detailed response, Mabel. “Passion is simple too”
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Interestingly that you said that: Passion is also simple. Are you referring to writing as your passion? It is a intriguing quote. I feel that life is very complicated and Confucius challenges me to think about whether we create our own problems and that the rudimentary nature of life is, in fact simple.We breathe, we live and we die. Thinking about thinking is a higher level activity that it seems only humans indulge in. And sometimes, it gets us nowhere but endless worry and angst.
Absolutely agree with the self-help quote. Free rides do not help the long term situation for anyone and may even contribute to a hand=out mentality.
Finally, I have always tried and been interested in being a life long learner. I also have tried to pass on a love of learning to my children, as it can bring such a sense of joy and achievement to a person. Developing a variety of skill sets and knowledge can only bring benefits in handling life’s varied situations.. But then we can’t always have our nose in a book/computer screen. We need a balance. Our social self suffers if we only live the unquenchable thirst for knowledge. And we are social beings, and have to live in society. Getting the balance right is tricky.
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I was actually thinking about passion as a feeling, not just about writing. Passion can be in the form of art, or the form of love we have towards someone else, or even to the work we do on a daily basis to pay the bills. Passion is simple because if we are indeed passionate about something, we just do it or at least make time for it. Simple as that. It could be five minutes or an hour or a whole day.
Passion is simple. No excuses.
No one likes to see others getting a free ride. Unless the latter is incapable of fending for themselves in a certain situation, of course.
Learning is never easy. The hard part of anything is learning it – learning how to do it. That is what I’ve been feeling with something new at work of late… Then again, we learn the most when we feel challenged. The minute we find ourselves on autopilot is usually the time for us to learn something new.
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Jobs can become tedious and it is easy to switch off and not concentrate on the task at hand. Mistakes are easy to make (to tie into the other quote), but give us an opportunity to learn.
I understand what you mean about passion now. Feelings are just that. Automatic reactions in the form of emotions that guide our every decision….mmm Actually, I still don’t feel that I would describe it as simple but rather I feel it would be more instinctive. Which is what I think you might be referring to?
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Yes. That’s it. Instinctive. Gut feeling. Intuition. Follow your heart. Something along those lines, I suppose. Not everything or question has an answer. A bit of mystery and anticipation often makes things exciting – I suppose that’s every part of passion too.
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Mystery? Exciting? You don’t need to convince me, Mabel!!
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Excellent works… 🙂
Agree, Confucious have made mamy great words… 🙂
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Thanks Drake, he certainly inspires me.
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Thanks Amanda. I will start mine next week
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Excellent. Thanks for taking up the challenge, Raewyn! Have fun! I just know you will come up with some interesting photos and quotes.
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Wonderful Confucius quotes – I love the first one, and the second is very meaningful and extremely true. It can be applied so well to all the starving and drought-stricken nations, who desperately need to be shown the best methods of water storage, irrigation and growing more drought-resistant strains. I like and agree with the Da Vinci quote, too.
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Absolutely Millie, except there seems to be some worrying aspects to the dependence on GM strains in terms of bio diversity, wherein the older original genetic crop lines are lost. As you would know, the micro climate can and does mean there are so many individual situations there is no one easy quick fix. (Remember the ‘green revolution’?) Different crops do better in different areas. But, getting back to the quotes, Confucius certainly saw the need and opportunity to foster self-reliance and independence with this quote. Do you think he might have agreed with the Da Vinci quote too?
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I wasn’t really thinking in terms of GM strains as alternatives, Amanda, rather different varieties of seed. But, as you say, many varieties wouldn’t suit the soils and climates/micro climates of particular regions. Alternative seeds would need to be considered very carefully. I suppose my mind was more focused on the problems of water storage and irrigation – which is all to do with how people cultivate the given seed during drought conditions. And yes, I do see it as a means of fostering self-reliance – which is what people in those areas really want.
I think Confucius would definitely have agreed with Da Vinci’s quote. In relation to the rice growing, people taught how to improve the growing conditions that give increased yield aren’t likely to forget. Even failures are likely to remembered too, and would, hopefully, serve as a lesson along the way to greater improvement.
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Many traditional folk have a way of turning a failure into some other kind of sucess, and those are the one who sre truly self-reliant.
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I dis my first day today! https://scrapydo2.wordpress.com/2016/01/25/quote-challenge-friendship/
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Awesome. I will come and take a look
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Thanks Ineke
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