GREAT BY CHOICE

"We sense a dangerous disease infecting our modern culture and eroding hope: an increasingly prevalent view that greatness owes more to circumstance, even luck, than to action and discipline—that what happens to us matters more than what we do. In games of chance, like a lottery or roulette, this view seems plausible. But taken as an entire philosophy, applied more broadly to human endeavor, it's a deep debilitating life perspective, one that we can't imagine wanting to teach young people."

"They don't merely react; they create. They don't merely survive; they prevail. They don't merely succeed; they thrive. They build great enterprises that can endure. We do not believe that chaos, uncertainty, and instability are good; companies, leaders, organizations, and societies do not thrive on chaos. But they can thrive in chaos."

— Jim Collins, Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck—Why Some Thrive Despite Them All (2011)

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders

Let me walk upon the waters

Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith will be made stronger

In the presence of my Savior

— Hillsong United, Zion (2013), Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

"And in the odd chance
there are any Astronomy aficionados amongst you,
the North Star is... that one."

— Dr. King Schultz (to the slaves after freeing them), Django Unchained

NAKED GREED

"Why can't anyone in the grip of greed see it? The counterfeit god of money uses powerful sociological and psychological dynamics. Everyone tends to live in a particular socioeconomic bracket. Once you are able to afford to live in a particular neighborhood, send your children to its schools, and participate in its social life, you will find yourself surrounded by quite a number of people who have more money than you. You don't compare yourself to the rest of the world, you compare yourself to those in your bracket. The human heart always wants to justify itself and this is one of the easiest ways. You say, 'I don't live as well as him or her or them. My means are modest compared to theirs.' You can reason and think like that no matter how lavishly you are living. As a result, most Americans think of themselves as middle class, and only 2 percent call themselves 'upper class.' But the rest of the world is not fooled. When people visit here from other parts of the globe, they are staggered to see the level of materialistic comfort that the majority of Americans have come to view as a necessity."

— Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods (2009)

"I just want to be inspired."

— Dorothy Boyd (Renée Zellweger), Jerry Macguire