My good friend brought this book all the way from Thailand for me.
She purposefully handed this book to me, assuring me that this is a good read.
I am still struggling with my concentration level but I promised her that I 'd read it.
I have turned the last page and now I'm flipping the pages again to jot down some notes.
It really means a lot that I have such a friend.
**Grin**

"All the energy and influence we ever want in life is controlled by one thing : whether or not we are purposefully acting as our highest selves. From that place of character flows grace and love, and in that place we find happiness and meaning"

 It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, 

or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. 

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, 

whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; 

who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; 

but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; 

who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

--Excerpt from the speech "Citizenship In A Republic" by Theodore Roosevelt - delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910

""Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead US anthropologist & popularizer of anthropology (1901 - 1978)