Thursday, May 26, 2011

Great quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson

Just come across this great quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882), an American lecturer, essayist and poet.

"To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, —that is genius. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost,— and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment. Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is, that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, to-morrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another."

Here is the Chinese translation.

“相信你自己的思想,相信你內心深處認為是正確的,對所有的人也是正確的——那就是天才。說你潛在地有罪,是有普通意義的;因為最內心的東西在適合的的候會成為最表面的東西,當末日審判來臨時,我們最初的思想復歸於我們。正如心靈的呼聲屬於每個人,我們認為最高的功績屬於摩西、柏拉圖和彌爾頓,他們蔑視任何書籍和傳統,講的不是人們的想法,而是他們自己的想法。一個人應該學會發現和觀察自己內心深處閃爍的微弱的光亮,而不僅僅是注意詩人和聖賢者輝耀天空的光彩。他也不可忽視自己的思想,因為它是他自己的。在天才的每個作品中,我們都會看到我們自己拋棄了的想法;但當它們回到我們這裡時卻帶上了某種陌生的崇高感。藝術的偉大作品並不會對我們有更多的教益。它們教導我們,當所有喊聲都在另一方時,要心平氣和地、堅定不移地堅持我們自己的看法。而明天一個外鄉客會非常高明地說出恰恰是我們一宜想到和感到的東西,我們會被迫為我們的意見來自他人而感羞赧。”

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Great tool for writers - Netspeak

Thanks to Seth who recommends this cool tool in his blog:

Netspeak

For example, not sure you should write a meeting is "scheduled for" or "scheduled on" a date?  Try using this site.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Do the work - notes

Thanks to Ivana Sendecka who created this wonderful Do the Work notes deck.  The notes together with the pictures make the key points of the book very easy to be absorbed.  Of couse, it is highly recommended to read the original book. 

I also highly recommend Ivana's website at http://ivanasendecka.com/

Monday, May 2, 2011

Do the work

This is new book from author Steven Pressfield on recognizing and overcoming resistance while you are going great works. 

Go get the Kindle version fast as it is now free for a limited time only.

There is no need to own a Kindle to read Kindle books.  For example, here is the Kindle for PC which allows you to read Kindle books on PC.