"The quotes of the wise."


Friday I expected to have the day to work on personal projects. I was scheduled as on-call, and so following the trend of the last two months or so, I assumed I would be forced to take the day off. As luck would have it, I listened to the voice on the other end of the phone when I called in and hour before my shift was to start, "...Yeah, Jon, we need you. Come in."

So, I happily went in for a full day of work on Friday. Unfortunately, it was a day full of stress, repeating 'retail phrases' over and over again and again, and an often non-stop stream of customers at the sales register, all of them asking the same question, "How are you doing today?" By the end of my shift, I almost didn't care to respond. By the end of the day I had become a robot caring only about getting out of there. Had I the chance, I would probably have hit the door running.

I'll be getting eight more hours on my next paycheck, so I guess that'll help my pocketbook. However considering the rediculous stresses I had to go through to 'earn' it, I once again wonder, why the heck did I get into retail?.... Oh, yeah, that's right.... I needed an immediate job, and they offered me one. ... [sigh]

But, anyway, moving on to lighter things, there was one interesting that came out of working on Friday. When I first got there, business was slow. Afterall, it was still mid-morning. So, out of boredom at the time, I happened to spot a book displayed on a shelf behind the register. It was a book of quotes. I glanced through it when business was slow, and jotted down a few that I really liked. I actually found that they seemed to keep me sane as I trudged through the muck of a daily routine that has grown way too old. I thought I'd share a selection of them with you -- words of the wise, and optimistic, if you will. You might actually like some of these.

"If you do what you've always done, then you'll get what you've always gotten."
-- a proverb

"Your mind is like a parachute: it works better when it is open."
-- author unknown

"If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words."
-- Chinese proverb

"Your life is an expression of all your thoughts."
-- Marcus Aurelius

"I don't sing becasue I'm happy. I'm happy becasue I sing."
-- William James

"Many of life's failures are people who do not realize how close they were to success when they gave it up."
-- Thomas Edison

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living; the world owes you nothing; it was here first."
-- Mark Twain

And my personal favorite....

"An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pesimist always run to blow it out?"
-- Michel de Saint-Pierre

Have a wonderful weekend all,

Your happily blogging friend,
-Jon
posted by Jon at 11:05 PM  I   I  0 comments