Berton Braley Quotes

“ Success"If you want a thing bad enoughTo go out and fight for it,Work day and night for it,Give up your time and your peace and your sleep for itIf only desire of itMakes you quite mad enoughNever to tire of it,Makes you hold all other things tawdry and cheap for itIf life seems all empty and useless without itAnd all that you scheme and you dream is about it,If gladly you'll sweat for it,Fret for it,Plan for it,Lose all your terror of God or man for it,If you'll simply go after that thing that you want.With all your capacity,Strength and sagacity,Faith, hope and confidence, stern pertinacity,If neither cold poverty, famished and gaunt,Nor sickness nor painOf body or brainCan turn you away from the thing that you want,If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it,You'll get it!”

“Men crawl in slime and wallow in the mud;The Realist groans: "All life is mud ans slime!"Men lie and steal and shed each other's blood;And Realism sees but blood and crime.Yet Right is just as real as Wrong,The mountain peak is real as the ooze,A curse is no more real than a song;Among realities we need but choose.The cynic sees the failure of To-day,The Prophet cries the triumph of To-morrow,Knowing the spirit in our clogging clayThat masters doubt, disaster, loss and sorrow.Failure is but a passing weariness,There is no final answer but Success.”

“I am an atheist, a rationalist and a humanist.”

“The more I see of the country, the less I feel I know about it. There is a saying that after five years in the north every man is an expert; after ten years, a novice.”

“Racism is a refuge for the ignorant. It seeks to divide and to destroy. It is the enemy of freedom, and deserves to be met head-on and stamped out.”

“I was hated, you know. I made no secret of the fact that I was an atheist. People told me there are no atheists in fox holes. That's nonsense. [interview promoting Marching as to War (2002)]”

“The most important choices we make in life are not the dramatic turning points such as a change of career, the person we marry, the country we emigrate to. The most important choices are the thoughts and feelings we choose to entertain, moment after moment, day after day. They shape our lives more surely than any outward circumstance. So why not opt for an experience of blessing – of blessing life moment after moment? After all, each moment is the repository of infinite possibilities, ever renewed.Pierre Pradervand, The Gentle Art of Blessing”

“[About Pierre de Fermat] It cannot be denied that he has had many exceptional ideas, and that he is a highly intelligent man. For my part, however, I have always been taught to take a broad overview of things, in order to be able to deduce from them general rules, which might be applicable elsewhere.”

“If life is a punishment, one should wish for an end; if life is a test, one should wish it to be short.”

“On awakening, bless the day, for it is already full of unseen good which your blessing will call forth; for to bless is to acknowledge the unlimited good that is embedded in the very texture of the universe and awaiting each and all.To bless is to acknowledge the omnipresent, universal beauty, hidden to material eyes. It is to activate the law of attraction which for the furthest reaches of the universe will bring into your life exactly what you need to experience and enjoy.”