Death

Quotes on Death

It;s not that I am afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens.

-Woody Allen

Death has got something to be said for it:
There is no need to get out of bed for it.

-Kingsley Amis

Books

Quotes on Books

A good book is the best of friends, the same to-day and for ever.

-Martin Tupper

All books are divisible into two classes, the books of the hour, and the books of all time.

-John Ruskin

Gratitude

Story of Gratitude

A boy was drowning in a river and he shouted for help. A man passing by jumped in the river and saved the boy’s life. As the man was leaving the boy said, “Thank you” The man asked, “For what?” The boy replied, “For saving my life.” The man looked into the boy’s eyes and said, “Son, make sure when you grow up that your life was worth saving.”

Story of making difference

A man was taking a morning walk on the beach. He saw that hundreds of starfish came in with the tide, and when the tide receded, the starfish were left behind on the beach. With the sun’s rays, they would die. The tide had just gone out and the starfish were still alive. The man took a few steps, picked one up, and threw it into the water. He did that repeatedly. Another man came along who couldn’t understand what this man was doing. He asked, “What are you doing? There are hundreds of starfish. How many can you help? What difference does it make?” This man did not reply, took two more steps, picked up another one, threw it into the water, and said, “It makes a difference to this one.”

What difference are we making? Big or small, it does not matter.

Alfred Nobel

Story of Alfred Nobel

About a hundred years ago, a man looked at the morning newspaper and to his surprise and horror, read his name in the obituary column. The newspapers had reported his death by mistake. His first response was shock. Am I here or there? When he regained his composure, his next thought was to find out what people had said about him. The obituary read, “Dynamite king Dies,” and, “He was the merchant of death.” This man was the inventor of dynamite and when he red the words “merchant of death,” he asked himself, “Is this how I am going to be remembered?” He decided that this was not the way he wanted to be remembered. From that day on, he started working towards peace. He, the Dynamite King, was Alfred Nobel and he is remembered today by the great Nobel Prizes.

Greed

The Greedy King

We all know the story of the greedy king named Midas. He had a lot of gold and the more he had, the more he wanted. He would spend his days in his vaults counting his gold.

One day a stranger appeared and told king Midas he would grant him a wish. The king was delighted and immediately said: “I would like everything I touch to turn to gold.” The stranger asked the king, “Are you sure?” The king replied, “Yes.” So the stranger said, “Starting tomorrow morning, with the first rays of the sun, you will have the golden touch.”

The king thought he must have been dreaming that this couldn’t be true. But the next day when we woke up, he touched the bed and it turned to gold. It was true – everything he touched did turn to gold. He looked out of the window and saw his daughter playing in the garden. He decided to give her a surprise and thought she would be happy. But before he went to the garden, he decided to read a book. The moment he touched it, it turned into gold and he couldn’t read it. He sat down to breakfast and the moment he touched the fruit and the glass of water, they turned to gold. He was hungry and he said to himself, “I can’t eat and drink gold.” Just then his daughter came running into the room and King Midas hugged her and she turned into a gold statue. There were no more smiles left.

The king bowed his head and started crying. The stranger who had granted him the wish appeared again and asked the king if he was happy with his golden touch. The king said he was the most miserable man in the world. The stranger asked, “What would you rather have, food and loving daughter or lumps of gold and her golden statue?” The king cried and asked for forgiveness. He said, “I will give up all my gold. Please give me my daughter back because without her I have lost everything worth having.” The stranger said to the king, “You have become wiser than before” and he reversed the spell. King Midas got his daughter back in his arms and the king learned a lesson that he never forgot for the rest of his life.

Goal

Story of Goal

An ancient Indian age was teaching his disciples the art of archery. He put a wooden bird as the target and asked his disciples to aim at the eye of the bird. The first disciple was asked to describe what he saw. He said, “I see the trees, the branches, the leaves, the sky, the bird and its eye.”

The sage asked this disciple to wait. Then he asked the second disciple the same question and he replied, “I only see the eye of the bird.” The sage said, “Very good. Now shoot.” The went straight and hit the eye of the bird.”