OlsenClan.com


Sometimes people believe they are ready until they meet someone that truly is. -Andrea Williams


A  bad day for the ego is a great day for the hero inside of us. - Robin Sharma

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing. - Theodore Roosevelt

Luck is what you have left over after you give 100 percent. —Langston Coleman

"True deep lasting peace comes from understanding the stream of life. The divine influence on our life is like a stream. Like life, sometimes it's fast, sometimes it's slow, sometimes it's smooth, sometimes it's rocky, sometimes it's REALLY rocky. The peace comes from understanding that whether the flow is quiet or turbulent, all of it, every bit of the riverbed is moving us in a single direction, toward a destination. Without that perspective it doesn't feel like we're getting anywhere... We'll know, that everything I get through gets me a little closer to the destination, and a destination that's very much worth the journey." -Curtis Childs.

Real strength is not just a condition of one's muscle, but a tenderness in one's spirit. - McCallister Dodds

The opposite of success is mediocrity - Unknown

Fear only exists in situations that count; it is a personal guide to freedom. - Unknown

If two people care about each other, the choice to love should transcend timing.  Anything less is cowardice. -Capt. Mercer

Guilt should only be the result of a DELIBERATE and INTENTIONAL action. - Unknown

I didn't do this to be normal, I did this to be exceptional. - Phil Olsen

Everything is unfolding exactly as it should, exactly when it should. - Unknown

Accept the world as it is, not as you would have it be. - Unknown

Dignity comes not from control, but from understanding who you are and taking your rightful place in the world. - Unknown

Deliberate with caution, but act with decision; and yield with graciousness, or oppose with firmness. - Charles Caleb Colton

It seems to be a law of nature, inflexible and inexorable, that those who will not risk cannot win. - John Paul Jones

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. - Mark Twain

You get what you pay for. - Unknown

Where facts are few, experts are many. - Donald R. Gannon

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory. - Friedrich Engels

People can change, but not that much. - Loeb's Law

If it seems too be good to be true it is! - Unknown

Nothing is free. - Unknown

When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear. - Mark Twain

Everything takes longer than it takes. - Bill De Matte

You can't measure moderation without excess. - T.J. Brownfield

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. - Thomas Paine

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm. - Abraham Lincoln

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein

Those that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Ben Franklin

I haven't failed; I've found 10,000 ways that don't work. - Thomas Edison

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. - Mother Teresa

Do what you can with what you have where you are. - Theodore Roosevelt

The worse thing you can do in life is to stop learning. - Vincent Demanuele

Do not do what you would most like to do. Do what your adversary would least like you to do. - Sun Tzu

You can't expand small minds with logical argument. - Unknown

A day cannot live in infamy without the nourishment of rage. - Lance Morrow

The difference between being a coward and a hero is not whether you're scared; it's what you do while you’re scared. - Sgt. Jeff Struecker

We all live, we all die, but love for the people we leave behind transcends space and time, life and death, rooms and worlds. - Kevin Lasit

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it. - Abraham Lincoln

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. - Lao Tze

Not people die but worlds die in them. - Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Nepotism reigns amidst incompetents. - William Bostjan

It's the supply of money that allows you to learn patience. - Jason Richard Evans

Everything looks greener on the other side...until you're knee deep in the swamp. - William Bostjan

Political Correctness: the elevation of sensitivity over truth. - Bill Maher

A sword is never the killer; it’s a tool in the killer’s hands. - Lucious Annaeus Seneca

It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them. - Mark Twain

You will never know how much it cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you make good use of it. - John Quincy Adams

In time, you will learn that an old friend is very much like a good mirror. The longer you stare into it, the harder it is to find the flaws. - Patricia A. Jackson

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

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas A. Edison

What may be done at any time will be done at no time. - Scottish Proverb

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment. - Barry LePatner

Better be ill spoken of by one before all than by all before one. - Scottish Proverb

Always and never are two words you should always remember never to use. - Wendell Johnson

Bees that have honey in their mouths have stings in their tails. - Scottish Proverb

I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it. - Rita Mae Brown

The past is indestructible. - Robert Mclaughlin

Wait...Does this story end any other way than you being an asshole? - Bill De Matte

In the end it all piles up so tall to one big nothing...One big nothing at all. - Dave Matthews

When there is no peril in the fight there is no glory in the triumph. - Pierre Corneille

The highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless power without abusing it. - Lord Macaulay

You must learn to face the fact, always, that you choose to do what you do, and that everything you do affects not only you but others. - Holly Lisle

Never be haughty to the humble; never be humble to the haughty. - Jefferson Davis

The time is now, the place is here. Stay in the present. You can do nothing to change the past, and the future will never come exactly as you plan or hope for. - Dan Millman

Resolve to be thyself: and know, that he who finds himself, loses his misery. - Matthew Arnold

Scars are souvenirs you never lose. - Johnny Rzeznik

Mistakes, obviously, show us what needs improving. Without mistakes, how would we know what we had to work on? - Peter McWilliams

Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised. - Marilyn Manson

The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come. When in a state of security he does not forget the possibility of ruin. When all is orderly, he does not forget that disorder may come. Thus his person is not endangered, and his States and all their clans are preserved. - Confucius

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. - Thomas Jefferson

Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.' - Mary Anne Radmacher-Hershey

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming WOO HOO WHAT A RIDE! - Unknown

I've always followed my father's advice: he told me, first to always keep my word and, second, to never insult anybody unintentionally. If I insult you, you can be goddamn sure I intend to. - John Wayne

What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece. - Ralph Charell

The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive. - Robert Heinlein

No good deed goes unpunished. - Clare Boothe Luce

I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars. - Og Mandino

It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop. - Confucius

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher. - Socrates

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. - Abraham Lincoln

Hope dangles on a string like slow spinning redemption, winding in and winding out. The shine of it has caught my eye. - Dashboard Confessional

Great stones they lay upon his chest until he plead aye or nay. They say he give them but two words. More weight, he says. And died. - Arthur Miller

The greatest conflicts are not between two people but between one person and himself. - Garth Brooks

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself. - Michel de Montaigne

A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day. - Andre Maurois

A great writer reveals the truth even when he or she does not wish to. - Tom Bissell

Not to be crude, but 99% of most men's problems are caused by the woman he came out of or the one he's trying to get into. - Telford Campbell

Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. - Eleanor Roosevelt

The easiest way to tell the Right Thing from the Wrong Thing, is 99.9% of the time the Right Thing is always the hard thing to do. - Phil Olsen

What you are is a question only you can answer. - Lois McMaster Bujold

Luck is what you have left over after you give 100 percent. - Langston Coleman

Darkness does not happen overnight; darkness is a journey. - Unknown

In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day. - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Listen, I can't fight your demons 'cause I have to fight you. - Joe Purdy

With female menopause you gain weight and get hot flashes. Male menopause: you get to date young girls and drive motorcycles. - John Wayne

The things we carry; the things we take with us, are the things we are, not the things we leave behind. - David Galbreath

I like being a little bit drunk, even if I’m a little bit sad and it makes you a little bit mad, I don’t mind so much but I wonder why I still can’t find by sight or by touch the way out. - David Galbreath

Whether he likes it or not, a man's character is stripped bare at the poker table; if the other players read him better than he does, he has only himself to blame. Unless he is both able and prepared to see himself as others do, flaws and all, he will be a loser in cards, as in life. - Anthony Holden

Poker is a microcosm of all we admire and disdain about capitalism and democracy. It can be rough-hewn or polished, warm or cold, charitable and caring or hard and impersonal. It is fickle and elusive, but ultimately it is fair, and right, and just. - Lou Kriege

There is a thin line between not listening and not caring. I like to think I walk that line everyday - Griff (of Red vs. Blue)

Could you put that in a memo titled: "Shit I already know?" - Griff (of Red vs. Blue)

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. - John Stuart Mill

Calculate the changes, that in time, turn to nothing and then multiply yourself by my pain. - Ryan Adams

It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage. - Indiana Jones

When you vote, you are exercising political authority, you're using force. And force my friends is violence. The supreme authority from which all other authorities are derived. - Jean Rasczak

Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent. - Fredrick Nietzsche

I need to be a lot less Han Solo and a bit more Obi-Wan Kenobi; less "Never tell me the odds!" more "Use the Force...Let Go!". - Phil Olsen

Worry is interest paid in advance on a debt that never comes due. - David Mamet

When you dance with the Devil, the Devil don't change, the Devil changes you. - Andrew Kevin Walker

People pay for what they do, and still more, for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it simply: by the lives they lead. - Edith Wharton

It's easy to stand for what is right when there is no cost but hot air and brave words. - Unknown

Nothing is gained without loss to balance the scales. - Laren Miller

Mastery of self is the only mastery that matters. - Unknown

“One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.”  ―Leonardo da Vinci

You can close your eyes to the things you do not want to see, but you cannot close your heart to the things you do not want to feel. - Unknown

Love me when I least deserve it, because that's when I really need it. - Unknown

Any woman who asks for equality deserves the demotion. - Oscar Wilde

Chivalry isn't dead, it's just taking a vacation until women realize that equality sucks. - Daniel Tosh

We all — in the end — die in medias res. - Mona Simpson

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way. - Mark Twain

Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom. - George S. Patton

Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company. - Mark Twain

How someone fights is as important as how they love; for one can be the undoing of the other. - Phil Olsen

I can't think of anything in life that I wanted that I have not gotten; but I can remeber anyone ever giving it to me. - T.J. Brownfield

"A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined..." - George Washington, First Annual Address, to both House of Congress, January 8, 1790

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." - Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Constitution, Draft 1, 1776

"I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery." - Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison, January 30, 1787

"What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms." - Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison, December 20, 1787

"The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." - Thomas Jefferson, Commonplace Book (quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria), 1774-1776

"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks." - Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, August 19, 1785

"The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed." - Thomas Jefferson, letter to to John Cartwright, 5 June 1824

"On every occasion [of Constitutional interpretation] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying [to force] what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, [instead let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed." - Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Johnson, 12 June 1823

"I enclose you a list of the killed, wounded, and captives of the enemy from the commencement of hostilities at Lexington in April, 1775, until November, 1777, since which there has been no event of any consequence ... I think that upon the whole it has been about one half the number lost by them, in some instances more, but in others less. This difference is ascribed to our superiority in taking aim when we fire; every soldier in our army having been intimate with his gun from his infancy." - Thomas Jefferson, letter to Giovanni Fabbroni, June 8, 1778

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

"To disarm the people...[i]s the most effectual way to enslave them." - George Mason, referencing advice given to the British Parliament by Pennsylvania governor Sir William Keith, The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, June 14, 1788

"I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers." - George Mason, Address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 4, 1788

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops." - Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, October 10, 1787

"Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of." - James Madison, Federalist No. 46, January 29, 1788

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country." - James Madison, I Annals of Congress 434, June 8, 1789

"...the ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the people alone..." - James Madison, Federalist No. 46, January 29, 1788

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." - William Pitt (the Younger), Speech in the House of Commons, November 18, 1783

“A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves…and include, according to the past and general usuage of the states, all men capable of bearing arms…  "To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." - Richard Henry Lee, Federal Farmer No. 18, January 25, 1788

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined.... The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun." - Patrick Henry, Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1778

"This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty.... The right of self defense is the first law of nature: in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction." - St. George Tucker, Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1803

"The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms, like law, discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. The balance ofpower is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside. And while a single nation refuses to lay them down, it is proper that all should keep them up. Horrid mischief would ensue were one-half the world deprived of the use of them; for while avarice and ambition have a place in the heart of man, the weak will become a prey to the strong. The history of every age and nation establishes these truths, and facts need but little arguments when they prove themselves." - Thomas Paine, "Thoughts on Defensive War" in Pennsylvania Magazine, July 1775

"The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." - Samuel Adams, Massachusetts Ratifying Convention, 1788

"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them." - Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, 1833

"What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty .... Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins." - Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, I Annals of Congress 750, August 17, 1789

"For it is a truth, which the experience of ages has attested, that the people are always most in danger when the means of injuring their rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the least suspicion." - Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 25, December 21, 1787 

"If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no resource left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government, and which against the usurpations of the national rulers, may be exerted with infinitely better prospect of success than against those of the rulers of an individual state. In a single state, if the persons intrusted with supreme power become usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions, or districts of which it consists, having no distinct government in each, can take no regular measures for defense. The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource; except in their courage and despair." - Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 28

"[I]f circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens, little, if at all, inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights and those of their fellow-citizens. This appears to me the only substitute that can be devised for a standing army, and the best possible security against it, if it should exist." - Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 28, January 10, 1788

"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms." - Tench Coxe, Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789