The words "espouse" and "spouse" are related, both deriving from the Latin verb "spondēre," meaning "to promise or betroth." In fact, the two were once completely interchangeable, with each serving as a noun meaning "a newly married person" or "a husband or wife" and also as a verb meaning "to marry." Their semantic separation began in the 17th century, when the noun "espouse" fell out of use. Around the same time, people started using the verb "espouse" figuratively to mean "to commit to and support a cause." "Spouse" continued to be used in both noun and verb forms until the 20th century, when its verb use declined and it came to be used mainly as a noun meaning "husband or wife."
Feb 16, 2013
Feb 15, 2013
Homophones and Homographs
aid – to help or assist
aide - assistant
aide - assistant
affect - change
effect – result or consequence
effect – result or consequence
air – atmosphere (the stuff we breathe)
err – to make a mistake
err – to make a mistake
aisle - walkway
I’ll – I will
isle - island
I’ll – I will
isle - island
allowed - permitted
aloud – out loud
aloud – out loud
ant – picnic pest
aunt – relative, as in your mom’s sister
aunt – relative, as in your mom’s sister
arc - curve
ark – Noah’s boat
ark – Noah’s boat
ate – chewed up and swallowed
eight – number after seven
eight – number after seven
bare - uncovered
bear – grizzly animal
bear – grizzly animal
berry – fruit from a bush
bury – to put underground
bury – to put underground
base – bottom part
bass – deep or low
bass – deep or low
be – to exist
bee – buzzing insect
bee – buzzing insect
beach – sandy shore
beech – type of tree
beech – type of tree
beat - to pound
beet – type of edible plant
beet – type of edible plant
berth – tie up
birth – to be born
birth – to be born
bite - nibble
byte – 8 bits (computer data)
byte – 8 bits (computer data)
blew – past of blow
blue – color of ocean
blue – color of ocean
boar - pig
bore – not interesting bore - to drill
bore – not interesting bore - to drill
borough – area or district
burrow – dig through
burro – small donkey
burrow – dig through
burro – small donkey
bough - branch
bow – bend or curtsy
bow – bend or curtsy
buoy - floater
boy – young man
boy – young man
brake – stop pedal
break – smash
break – smash
bread – bakery food
bred – form of breed
bred – form of breed
broach - mention
brooch - pin
brooch - pin
brows - eyebrows
browse – look around
browse – look around
buy - purchase
by - beside
by - originating from,BR. bye – short for goodbye
by - beside
by - originating from,BR. bye – short for goodbye
cell – compartment
sell - vend
sell - vend
cent – penny coin
sent – did send
sent – did send
cereal – breakfast food
serial - sequential
serial - sequential
Chile – country in South America
chili – bean stew
chilly – frosty
chili – bean stew
chilly – frosty
chord – musical tone
cord - rope
cord - rope
cite - quote
site - location
sight - view
site - location
sight - view
close – opposite of open
clothes - clothing
clothes - clothing
complement – enhance; go together
compliment - praise
compliment - praise
council - committee
counsel - guidance
counsel - guidance
creak - squeak
creek – stream of water
creek – stream of water
crews - gangs
cruise – ride on a boat
cruise – ride on a boat
dear - darling
deer – woodland animal
deer – woodland animal
dew – morning mist
do - operate
due - payable
do - operate
due - payable
die – cease to exist
dye - color
dye - color
doe – female dear
dough – uncooked bread
dough – uncooked bread
dual - double
duel - battle
duel - battle
ewe – female sheep
you - second-person personal pronoun
you - second-person personal pronoun
eye – sight organ
I - me
I - me
fair - equal
fare - price
fare - price
fairy – elflike creature with wings
ferry - boat
ferry - boat
faze - impact
phase - stage
phase - stage
feat – achievement
feet – plural of foot
feet – plural of foot
fir – type of tree
fur – animal hair
fur – animal hair
flea – small biting insect
flee - run
flee - run
flew – did fly
flu – illness
flu – illness
flour – powdery, ground up grain
flower – blooming plant
flower – blooming plant
for – on behalf of
fore - front
four – one more than three
fore - front
four – one more than three
forth - onward
fourth – number four
fourth – number four
knew – did know
new – not old
new – not old
gorilla – big ape
guerrilla - warrior
guerrilla - warrior
grease - fat
Greece – country in Europe
Greece – country in Europe
groan - moan
grown – form of grow
grown – form of grow
hair – head covering
hare – rabbit-like animal
hare – rabbit-like animal
hall - passageway
haul - tow
haul - tow
halve – cut in two parts
have - possess
have - possess
hay – animal food
hey – interjection to get attention
hey – interjection to get attention
heal - mend
heel – back of foot
heel – back of foot
hi - hello
high – up far
high – up far
hoarse - croaky
horse – riding animal
horse – riding animal
hole - opening
whole - entire
whole - entire
holey – full of holes
holy - divine
wholly - entirely
holy - divine
wholly - entirely
hour – sixty minutes
our – belonging to us
our – belonging to us
knead - massage
need - desire
need - desire
knight – feudal horseman
night - evening
night - evening
knot – tied rope
not - negative
not - negative
know – have knowledge
no – opposite of yes
no – opposite of yes
lead – metal
led - was the leader
led - was the leader
lessen – make smaller
lesson - class
lesson - class
loan - lend
lone - solitary
lone - solitary
made – did make
maid - servant
maid - servant
mail - postage
male – opposite of female
male – opposite of female
marry – to wed
merry – very happy
merry – very happy
meat – animal protein
meet - encounter
meet - encounter
none – not any
nun – woman who takes special vows
nun – woman who takes special vows
oar – boat paddle
or - otherwise
ore - mineral
or - otherwise
ore - mineral
oh – expression of surprise or awe
owe – be obligated
owe – be obligated
one - single
won – did win
won – did win
overdo – do too much
overdue – past due date
overdue – past due date
pail - bucket
pale – not bright
pale – not bright
pain - hurt
pane – window glass
pane – window glass
peace - calm
piece - segment
piece - segment
peak – highest point
peek - glance
peek - glance
plain - ordinary
plane – flight machine plane - flat surface
plane – flight machine plane - flat surface
pole - post
poll - survey
poll - survey
poor – not rich
pour – make flow
pour – make flow
pray – implore God
prey - quarry
prey - quarry
principal – most important
principle - belief
principle - belief
rain – water from sky
rein - bridle
rein - bridle
rap - tap
wrap – drape around
wrap – drape around
real - factual
reel - roll
reel - roll
right – correct; not left
write - scribble
write - scribble
ring - encircle
wring - squeeze
wring - squeeze
role - function
roll - rotate
roll - rotate
rose - flower
rows - lines
rows - lines
sail – move by wind power
sale – bargain price
sale – bargain price
scene - landscape
seen - viewed
seen - viewed
sea – ocean segment
see – observe with eyes
see – observe with eyes
seam – joining edge
seem - appear
seem - appear
sew – connect with thread
so – as a result
sow - plant
so – as a result
sow - plant
soar - ascend
sore – hurt place
sore – hurt place
sole - single
soul - essence
soul - essence
some – a few
sum - amount
sum - amount
steal - swipe
steel - alloy
steel - alloy
tail – animal’s appendage
tale - story
tale - story
their – belonging to them
there – at that place
they’re – they are
there – at that place
they’re – they are
to - toward
too - also
too - also
toe – foot appendage
tow – pull along
tow – pull along
vary - differ
very - much
very - much
wail - howl
whale – huge swimming mammal
whale – huge swimming mammal
waist – area below ribs
waste - squander
waste - squander
wait – kill time
weight – measurable load
weight – measurable load
war - battle
wore – did wear
wore – did wear
warn - caution
worn - used
worn - used
way - path
weigh – measure mass
weigh – measure mass
we - us
wee - tiny
wee - tiny
weak – not strong
week – period of seven days
week – period of seven days
weather - climate
whether - if
whether - if
which - that
witch – sorcerer
witch – sorcerer
your – belonging to you
you’re – you are
you’re – you are
Feb 12, 2013
Feb 9, 2013
Useful Phrasal Verbs
15 Most Useful Phrasal Verbs
1. “Call off”: to stop–”call off the search”–and used when phoning in to work. “I called off today because I’m sick.”
2. “Look up”: search for. “I’ll go online and look up ‘phrasal verbs’.” “Look me up the next time you’re in town.”
3. “Get away with”: escape blame/punishment. “He sure got away with that”, or “the crook got away with 50 dollars”.
4. “Pull through”: used in discussing health–”The surgery was rough, but he pulled through”, or “the victim of the chicken attack pulled through with no lingering injuries”.
5. “Break up”: usually refers to relationships–”Fred and Matilda are going to break up”–but variations can be used to show an emotional state. “When Matilda dumped Fred, he was pretty broken up about it.”
6. “Blow out”: a tire flattens while driving–”Mel had a blowout on the way to work”–and it indicates a lopsided sports score. “It was a blowout; the Packers beat the Bears 24 to 3.” It is also used to indicate anger: “Ed broke Bob’s window, and Bob had a complete blowout when he saw it”.
7. “Give in/give up”: relent or surrender. “She did not want to go, but the kids pestered her until she gave in.” “The robber gave up when the cops cornered him.”
8. “Put up with”: endure, such as “Tom put up with many jokes when he rode his ostrich to work”.
9. “Look down on”: a person who feels superior to others is said to “look down on” them. “Dog owners sometimes look down on cat owners, which is silly, because cat owners sometimes look down on dog owners.”
10. “Turn into”: become something else–”caterpillars turn into butterflies”. It is also used in driving: “after you pass the park, turn into the school parking lot”.
11. “Carry on”: continue. “After the accident, the police told the bystanders to carry on.” It is also a rant–”when she spilled her milk, she carried on about it for hours”.
12. “Look after”: attend to–”babysitters look after children”, or “please look after that task I gave you”.
13. “Pass out”: faint–”Bennie became dizzy and passed out”–or “to give”: “Frankie passed out newspapers”.
14. “Put off”: postpone. “He put off painting and cut the grass first.” It is also used to describe an aversion: “Norm was stranded in the woods for 3 days with only a box of candy bars, so he’s put off by chocolate for now”.
15. “Look forward to”: anticipate. “I look forward to meeting with you,” or “kids look forward to the holidays”.
1. “Call off”: to stop–”call off the search”–and used when phoning in to work. “I called off today because I’m sick.”
2. “Look up”: search for. “I’ll go online and look up ‘phrasal verbs’.” “Look me up the next time you’re in town.”
3. “Get away with”: escape blame/punishment. “He sure got away with that”, or “the crook got away with 50 dollars”.
4. “Pull through”: used in discussing health–”The surgery was rough, but he pulled through”, or “the victim of the chicken attack pulled through with no lingering injuries”.
5. “Break up”: usually refers to relationships–”Fred and Matilda are going to break up”–but variations can be used to show an emotional state. “When Matilda dumped Fred, he was pretty broken up about it.”
6. “Blow out”: a tire flattens while driving–”Mel had a blowout on the way to work”–and it indicates a lopsided sports score. “It was a blowout; the Packers beat the Bears 24 to 3.” It is also used to indicate anger: “Ed broke Bob’s window, and Bob had a complete blowout when he saw it”.
7. “Give in/give up”: relent or surrender. “She did not want to go, but the kids pestered her until she gave in.” “The robber gave up when the cops cornered him.”
8. “Put up with”: endure, such as “Tom put up with many jokes when he rode his ostrich to work”.
9. “Look down on”: a person who feels superior to others is said to “look down on” them. “Dog owners sometimes look down on cat owners, which is silly, because cat owners sometimes look down on dog owners.”
10. “Turn into”: become something else–”caterpillars turn into butterflies”. It is also used in driving: “after you pass the park, turn into the school parking lot”.
11. “Carry on”: continue. “After the accident, the police told the bystanders to carry on.” It is also a rant–”when she spilled her milk, she carried on about it for hours”.
12. “Look after”: attend to–”babysitters look after children”, or “please look after that task I gave you”.
13. “Pass out”: faint–”Bennie became dizzy and passed out”–or “to give”: “Frankie passed out newspapers”.
14. “Put off”: postpone. “He put off painting and cut the grass first.” It is also used to describe an aversion: “Norm was stranded in the woods for 3 days with only a box of candy bars, so he’s put off by chocolate for now”.
15. “Look forward to”: anticipate. “I look forward to meeting with you,” or “kids look forward to the holidays”.
Feb 5, 2013
Babbling like a child
Babbling like a child
Balmy in manner as a bland southern morning
Be like the granite of thy rock-ribbed land
Beauteous she looks as a water-lily
Beautiful as the dawn, dominant as the sun
Beauty maddens the soul like wine
Beheld great Babel, wrathful, beautiful, burn like a blood-red cloud upon the plain
Beneath a sky as fair as summer flowers
Bent like a wand of willow
Black as a foam-swept rock
Black his hair as the wintry night
Blithe as a bird [blithe = carefree and lighthearted]
Bounded by the narrow fences of life
Bowed like a mountain
Breaking his oath and resolution like a twist of rotten silk
Breathed like a sea at rest
Bright as a diamond in the sun
Bright as a fallen fragment of the sky
Bright as the coming forth of the morning, in the cloud of an early shower
Bright as the sunbeams
Bright as the tear of an angel, glittered a lonely star
Brilliant and gay as a Greek
Brisk as a wasp in the sunshine
Brittle and bent like a bow
Bronze-green beetles tumbled over stones, and lay helpless on their backs with the air of an elderly clergyman knocked down by an omnibus
Brown as the sweet smelling loam
Brute terrors like the scurrying of rats in a deserted attic
Buried in his library like a mouse in a cheese
Burns like a living coal in the soul
But across it, like a mob's menace, fell the thunder
But thou art fled, like some frail exhalation
Butterflies like gems
The Car
Hank lived in a small town, but then he got a job in a big city and moved there with his wife and his two children. On the first Saturday in their new home, Hank took his new red car out of the garage and was washing it when a neighbor came by. When he saw Hank's new car, the neighbor stopped and looked at it for a minute. Then Hank turned and saw him.
The neighbor said," That's a nice car. Is it yours?"
"Sometimes", Hank answered.
The neighbor was surprised. "Sometimes?" he said, "What do you mean?"
"Well", answered Hank slowly, "When there's a party in town, it belongs to my daughter, Jane. When there's a football game somewhere, it belongs to my son, Joe. When I've washed it, and it looks really nice and clean, it belongs to my wife. And when it needs gas it's mine."
* That's what a family car is*.
How much / how many
Find the correct answer:
1. We need some tea. ______ do we need?
A. How much
B. How many
2. We need some eggs. ______ do we need?
A. How much
B. How many
3. We need some paper. ______ do we need?
A. How much
B. How many
4. We need some money. ______ do we need?
A. How much
B. How many
5. ______ cigarettes do you smoke a day?
A. How much
B. How many
6. ______ packets of cigarettes do you have?
A. How much
B. How many
7. ______ work have you got to do?
A. How much
B. How many
8. ______ sleep did you get last night?
A. How much
B. How many
9. ______ children have you got?
A. How much
B. How many
10. ______ bottles of wine are there in the cellar?
A. How much
B. How many
11. ______ English grammar do you know?
A. How much
B. How many
12. ______ Americans do you know?
A. How much
B. How many
13. ______ sugar do you take in your tea?
A. How much
B. How many
14. ______ apples do you eat in an average week?
A. How much
B. How many
15. ______ fruit do you eat in an average week?
A. How much
B. How many
16. ______ chairs are there in your house?
A. How much
B. How many
17. ______ furniture do you have?
A. How much
B. How many
18. ______ traffic was there on the motorway today?
A. How much
B. How many
19. ______ times must I tell you?
A. How much
B. How many
20. ______ real friends do you have?
A. How much
B. How many
1. We need some tea. ______ do we need?
A. How much
B. How many
2. We need some eggs. ______ do we need?
A. How much
B. How many
3. We need some paper. ______ do we need?
A. How much
B. How many
4. We need some money. ______ do we need?
A. How much
B. How many
5. ______ cigarettes do you smoke a day?
A. How much
B. How many
6. ______ packets of cigarettes do you have?
A. How much
B. How many
7. ______ work have you got to do?
A. How much
B. How many
8. ______ sleep did you get last night?
A. How much
B. How many
9. ______ children have you got?
A. How much
B. How many
10. ______ bottles of wine are there in the cellar?
A. How much
B. How many
11. ______ English grammar do you know?
A. How much
B. How many
12. ______ Americans do you know?
A. How much
B. How many
13. ______ sugar do you take in your tea?
A. How much
B. How many
14. ______ apples do you eat in an average week?
A. How much
B. How many
15. ______ fruit do you eat in an average week?
A. How much
B. How many
16. ______ chairs are there in your house?
A. How much
B. How many
17. ______ furniture do you have?
A. How much
B. How many
18. ______ traffic was there on the motorway today?
A. How much
B. How many
19. ______ times must I tell you?
A. How much
B. How many
20. ______ real friends do you have?
A. How much
B. How many
Feb 1, 2013
STRIKING SIMILES
A
A blind rage like a fire swept over him
A book that rends and tears like a broken saw
A breath of melancholy made itself felt like a chill and sudden gust from some unknown sea
A cloud in the west like a pall creeps upward
A cloud like a flag from the sky
A cluster of stars hangs like fruit in the tree
A confused mass of impressions, like an old rubbish-heap
A cry as of a sea-bird in the wind
A dead leaf might as reasonably demand to return to the tree
A drowsy murmur floats into the air like thistledown
A face as imperturbable as fate
A face as pale as wax
A face tempered like steel
A fatigued, faded, lusterless air, as of a caged creature
A few pens parched by long disuse
A figure like a carving on a spire
A fluttering as of blind bewildered moths
A giant galleon overhead, looked like some misty monster of the deep
A glacial pang of pain like the stab of a dagger of ice frozen from a poisoned well
A glance that flitted like a bird
A great moon like a red lamp in the sycamore
A grim face like a carved mask
A hand icily cold and clammy as death
A heart from which noble sentiments sprang like sparks from an anvil
A jeweler that glittered like his shop
A lady that lean'd on his arm like a queen in a fable of old fairy days
A life, a Presence, like the air
A life as common and brown and bare as the box of earth in the window there
A light wind outside the lattice swayed a branch of roses to and fro,
shaking out their perfume as from a swung censer
A lightning-phrase, as if shot from the quiver of infallible wisdom
A list of our unread books torments some of us like a list of murders
A little breeze ran through the corn like a swift serpent
A little weed-clogged ship, gray as a ghost
A long slit of daylight like a pointing finger
A memory like a well-ordered cupboard
A mighty wind, like a leviathan, plowed the brine
A mind very like a bookcase
A mystery, soft, soothing and gentle, like the whisper of a child murmuring its happiness in its sleep
A name which sounds even now like the call of a trumpet
A note of despairing appeal which fell like a cold hand upon one's living soul
A purpose as the steady flame
A question deep almost as the mystery of life
A quibbling mouth that snapped at verbal errors like a lizard catching flies
A radiant look came over her face, like a sudden burst of sunshine on a cloudy day
A reputation that swelled like a sponge
A ruby like a drop of blood
A shadow of melancholy touched her lithe fancies, as a cloud dims the waving of golden grain
A silver moon, like a new-stamped coin, rode triumphant in the sky
A slow thought that crept like a cold worm through all his brain
A smile flashed over her face, like sunshine over a flower
A soft and purple mist like a vaporous amethyst
A soft haze, like a fairy dream, is floating over wood and stream
A soul as white as heaven
A sound like the throb of a bell
A stooping girl as pale as a pearl
A sudden sense of fear ran through her nerves like the chill of an icy wind
A sweet voice caroling like a gold-caged nightingale
A thin shrill voice like the cry of an expiring mouse
A thing of as frail enchantment as the gleam of stars upon snow
A vague thought, as elusive as the smell of a primrose
A vanishing loveliness as tender as the flush of the rose leaf and as ethereal as the light of a solitary star
A voice as low as the sea
A voice soft and sweet as a tune that one knows
A white bird floats there, like a drifting leaf
Against a sky as clear as sapphire
Age, like winter weather
Agile as a leopard
Agitated like a storm-tossed ship
Air like wine
All around them like a forest swept the deep and empurpled masses of her tangled hair
All like an icicle it seemed, so tapering and cold
All my life broke up, like some great river's ice at touch of spring
All silent as the sheeted dead
All sounds were lost in the whistle of air humming by like the flight of a million arrows
All that's beautiful drifts away like the waters
All the world lay stretched before him like the open palm of his hand
All unconscious as a flower
Alone, like a storm-tossed wreck, on this night of the glad New Year
An anxiety hung like a dark impenetrable cloud
An ardent face out-looking like a star
An ecstasy which suddenly overwhelms your mind like an unexpected and exquisite thought
An envious wind crept by like an unwelcome thought
An ideal as sublime and comprehensive as the horizon
An immortal spirit dwelt in that frail body, like a bird in an outworn cage
An impudent trick astal diamond, or serene morning air
And melting like the stars in June
An09174"> An isle of Paradise, fair as a gem
An old nodding negress whose sable head shined in the sun like a polished cocoanut
An omnibus across the bridge crawls like a yellow butterfly
An undefined sadness seemed to have fallen about her like a cloud
An unknown world, wild as primeval chaos
An unpleasing strain, like the vibration of a rope drawn out too fast
And a pinnace like a flutter'd bird came flying from afar
And a tear like silver, glistened in the corner of her eye
And all our thoughts ran into tears like sunshine into rain
And at first the road comes moving toward me, like a bride waving palms
And Dusk, with breast as of a dove, brooded
And eyes as bright as the day
And fell as cold as a lump of clay
And her cheek was like a rose
And here were forests ancient as the hills
And many a fountain, rivulet, and pond, as clear as elemental diamond, or serene morning air
And melting like the stars in June
And night, as welcome as a friend
And silence like a poultice comes to heal the blows of sound
And spangled o'er with twinkling points, like stars
And the smile she softly uses fills the silence like a speech
As a child in play scatters the heaps of sand that he has piled on the seashore
As a cloud that gathers her robe like drifted snow
As a flower after a drought drinks in the steady plunging rain
As a leaf that beats on a mountain
As a lion grieves at the loss of her whelps
As a man plowing all day longs for supper and welcomes sunset
As a sea disturbed by opposing winds
As amusing as a litter of likely young pigs
As arbitrary as a cyclone and as killing as a pestilence
As austere as a Roman matron
As beautiful as the purple flush of dawn
As blind as a mole
As brief as sunset clouds in heaven
As bright as sunlight on a stream
As busy as a bee
As cattle driven by a gadfly
As chimney sweepers come to dust
As clear as a whistle
As clear as the parts of a tree in the morning sun
As close as oak and ivy stand
As delicate and as fair as a lily
As delightful to the mind as cool well-water to thirsty lip
As diamond cuts diamond
As direct and unvarying as the course of a homing bird
As distinct as night and morning
As dry as desert dust
As dumb as a fish
As easily as the sun shines
As easy as a turn of the hand
As elastic as a steel spring
As extinct as the dodo
As faint as the memory of a sound
As familiar to him as his alphabet
As fatal as the fang of the most venomous snake
As fleeting and elusive as our dreams
As foam from a ship's swiftness
As fresh and invigorating as a sea-breeze
As full of eager vigor as a mountain stream
As full of spirit as a gray squirrel
As gay and busy as a brook
As gently as the flower gives forth its perfume
As gently as withered leaves float from a tree
As graceful as a bough
As grave as a judge
As great as the first day of creation
As high as heaven
As I dropped like a bolt from the blue
As I dwelt like a sparrow among the spires
As if a door were suddenly left ajar into some world unseen before
As impossible as to count the stars in illimitable space
As in the footsteps of a god
As inaccessible to his feet as the clefts and gorges of the clouds
As inexorable as the flight of time
As innocent as a new laid egg
As iridescent as a soap bubble
As locusts gather to a stream before a fire
As mellow and deep as a psalm
As men strip for a race, so must an author strip for the race with time
As merry as bees in clover
As nimble as water
As one who has climbed above the earth's eternal snowline and sees only white peaks and pinnacles
As pale as any ghost
As patient as the trees
As quick as the movement of some wild animal
As quiet as a nun breathless with adoration
As radiant as the rose
As readily and naturally as ducklings take to water
As reticent as a well-bred stockbroker
As ruthlessly as the hoof of a horse tramples on a rose
As shallow streams run dimpling all the way
As simple as the intercourse of a child with its mother
As sleep falls upon the eyes of a child tired with a long summer day of eager pleasure and delight
As some vast river of unfailing source
As stars that shoot along the sky
As still as a stone
As stupid as a sheep
As sudden as a dislocated joint slipping back into place
As summer winds that creep from flower to flower
As supple as a step-ladder
As swaggering and sentimental as a penny novellete [novellete = short novel]
As swift as thought
As the accumulation of snowflakes makes the avalanche
As the bubble is extinguished in the ocean
As the dew upon the roses warms and melts the morning light
As the fair cedar, fallen before the breeze, lies self-embalmed amidst the moldering trees
As the light straw flies in dark'ning whirlwinds
As the lightning cleaves the night
As the loud blast that tears the skies
As the slow shadows of the pointed grass mark the eternal periods
As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance
As though a rose should shut, and be a bud again
As though Pharaoh should set the Israelites to make a pin instead of a pyramid
As unapproachable as a star
As weird as the elfin lights
As well try to photograph the other side of the moon
At extreme tension, like a drawn bow
Away he rushed like a cyclone
Awkward as a cart-horse
Jan 16, 2013
Principles of Success
Principles of Success:
1.Develop definiteness of Purpose
2. Establish Mastermind Alliance
3. Assemble an attractive Personality
4. Use Applied Faith
5. Go the Extra mile
6. Create Personal Initiative
7. Build a Positive Mental Attitude
8. Control your Enthusiasm
11.ontrol your Attention
12. Inspire Team Work
13. Learn from Adversity and Defeats
14. Cultivate Creative Vision
15. Maintain Sound Health
16. Budget your Time and Money
17. Use Cosmic Habit Force Definite Purpose of Life:
Definiteness of Purpose:
One should have a high desirable, outstanding goal and keep it ever before you. You can have many non-conflicting goals, which help you to reach your major definite purpose of life. It is advisable to have immediate, intermediate, and distant objectives. Identify your desire with a definite plan for carrying out and achieving your objectives. Put your plan into action at once.
Act Now:
The meaning of life is action. You are known by your actions. You are remembered by your actions. The generations today know Gandhi as a man of peace, Einstein as a man of science, Henry Ford as a man who built a huge fortune. When we remember a man, it is the picture of his actions that come to our mind.
If the meaning of life is action, its natural corollary is you have to act. You have to keep doing the action that is your chosen profession or vocation. There is no escape from it. The very foundation of the Gita is action. Actions can be fruitful or go futile. The ‘Gita’ also talks of attitude. Your attitude towards your action determines the worth of your action. Action without lust, attachment, greed or ego is the best way to perform an action.
A genius is 99 per cent perspiration & one percent inspiration.
........ Albert Einstein
Some of us who believe solely in luck or inspiration are adamant in our belief. The fact is nothing comes without toil and hard work. Even Einstein, the greatest scientist of our times strongly felt the value of perspiration. Nothing substantial has ever been arrived at or achieved without perspiration.
Persistence And Determination
Nothing will take the place of persistence.
Talent will not: Nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.
Genius will not: Unrewarded genius is a proverb only.
Education will not: The world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence & determination alone are omnipotent.
……Calvin Cooli
Resistence is the power to say ‘No’ to a task, comes what may. Persistence is the ability to persevere under thick and thin alike.
You cannot persist in your efforts, if you do not have a single minded determination. People with single minded determination and persistence are too busy. They do not have time for anything else apart from what is their immediate goal or object.
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
......Henry David Thoreau.
If you have a goal or target, a plan of action with single minded determination and persistence, the success is yours. If you have an unwavering faith in yourself and your ability to achieve your goal, it will be easy for you to develop the character of persistence.
Single minded determination calls for mental discipline. Such a discipline is not acquired overnight but comes through strenuous effort inculcated over a long period of time. Single minded determination is a positive catalyst for hard worker. You cannot work hard if you determination is wavering.
Single minded determination or will reflects your thought process. Understanding your thought process and applying it to achieve your goal is the key to success.
Belief & Faith
If you do not believe you will be successful, you will never be. If you doubt yourself and your abilities, the success steps you take will be hesitant and the measures will be half hearted. Belief and faith can do wonders, it can to miracles.
Do you know about faith-healers? Or have you heard about them? Some people are capable of healing themselves merely because they have an unwavering faith in the curative powers of belief system. There are even those people who can heal other.
If You Think
If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don’t!
If you like to win, but think you can’t. It’s almost a clinch you wan’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you are lost. For out in the world we find.
Success begins with a fellow’s will; It’s all in the state of mind.
If you think you are outclassed, you are, you’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be a sure of yourself before. You can ever win a prize.
Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger and faster man,
But sooner or later the man who wins……
Is the man who thinks he can.
SUCCESS : A REPEATED FAILURE WITHOUT QUITTING
This man failed in business at the age of 21: was defeated in a legislative race at age 22: failed again in business at age 24: had his sweetheart die when he was age 26: had a nervous breakdown at age 27: lost a congressional race at age 34: lost a senatorial race at age 45: failed in an effort to become vice-president at age 47: lost a senatorial race at age 49: and was elected president of the United States at age 52. The man was Abraham Lincoln.
In 1913, Lee De Forest, inventor of the triode tube, was charged by the district attorney for using fraudulent means to mislead the public into buying stocks in his company by claiming that he could transmit the human voice across the Atlantic. He was publicly humiliated.
Colonel Sanders, at age 65, had assets of a beat-up car and a $ 100 check from social security. He realized he had to do something to improve his position. He remembered his fried chicken recipe and went out selling. How many doors did he have to knock on before he got his first order? It is estimated that he had knocked on more than a thousand doors before he got his first order.
As a young cartoonist, Walt Disney faced many rejections from Newspaper editors who said he had more talent. One day a minister at a church hired him to draw some cartoons. Disney was working out of a small rodent infested shed near the church. Seeing a small mouse inspired him to draw a new cartoon. That was the start of the Mickey Mouse.
One day a partially deaf four-year old child came home with a note in his pocket from his teacher, “your Tommy is too stupid to learn, get him out of the school.” His mother read the note and answered “My Tommy is not too stupid to learn, I will teach him myself.” and that Tommy grew up to be the great Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison had only three months of formal schooling.
FAILURES, BEFORE SUCCESS
Positive Attitude & Success:
Positive attitude gives hope. Positive attitude reassures you. Positive attitude is a mental trait of seeing light in darkness. If you are a person of positive temperament you always see the brighter side of life. Why is it that?
When most of the people say the glass is half empty, a few people emphasize that that the glass is half full.
When a task is assigned to two persons, one of them says it is difficult and cannot be done, the other person says it requires more effort and can be done.
When the weary army of Alexander the great refused to move beyond Indus, saying fighting any longer was an Impossible task, Alexander said Indus can be crossed and the kings beyond Indus can be defeated and he did.
When Napolean command his army to cross Alps, they said “it was impossible” Napolean replied, “the word impossible is written in the dictionary of fools.”
The answer is positive attitude.
There is an intimate link between success & positive attitude. No one who has ever been successful has in his journey ever said ‘quite’. No one who has ever been successful has ever lost hope in his journey to success. No one who has said ‘impossible’ to a task has ever gone on to make it possible. But the contrary is often true:
If you say, I can, you will
If you say, I cannot, you will never
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare;
It is because we do not dare that they are difficult
…..Seneca
Positive attitude can do wonders. It can make possible what is seemingly impossible for the others. Positive attitude is the seed out of which positive traits, which are essential for success, sprout forth. It is the positive attitude again which waters and feeds the saplings of positive traits.
Your mind is a machine of thoughts and ideas. If you do not fill it up with positive, inspiring and motivating thoughts, it will turn into a jungle of negative thoughts. Your mind is beautiful garden, if you don’t plant and nurture sapling of flowering plants in it, it will turn into mess of wild creepers, bushes and thorny plants.
You mind is a huge factory charming out ideas & thoughts. You are the supervisor of this factory. You have two foremen at your beck and call. They are Mr. Yes and Mr. No. as soon as your factory produces a great idea; you invite both the foreman to discuss its execution. Both of them as their names go, suggest accordingly. It is up to you to follow their advice or not. If you begin to follow the advice of ‘Mr No’ more and more, you begin to develop a negative attitude. A time comes when ‘Mr.No.’ has taken a complete control over your thought process. By and by a time comes then even before you could let a great idea seep within you, ‘Mr No’ comes and thrashes it out of shape, so much so that ‘Mr No’ takes a complete control over you.
If success is what something really attracts you, and sure it does everyone, then you must make a deep association with ‘Mr. Yes’, your foreman.
Dream & Vision
Imagination is everything.
If we can imagine a future, we can create it,
if we can create that future, other will live in it.
That is the essence of success.
Dream is the stuff reality is made of. The message of our President A.P.J. Kalam to children is that they must dream if they want to be successful.
If you have no dream, you not looking forward to anything. Therefore you cannot be successful. Nationalists like Gandhi and Nehru had the dream of a future India. They had the visions of society, polity, economy and constitution that an independent India would have. It was this vision or dream they were working for.
Dream particles and the real ones are not different, when the dream is lively and vivid. The Hindu mythology calls the universe a great cosmic dream of the creator.
When you have a lively vision or dream, you are a creator on way to creation. Let this dream persist. Let your vision grow stronger and stronger each moment of the day. And then one day you will realize your dream has turned into a reality. You may not be surprised by it, but the others will be.
Do not confuse dreams with day-dreams. Day-dreaming is idling. Day dreams lull you into inaction. But dreams are different.
Dream energizes you to activity
Dream strengthens your belief system
Dream adds to your confidence
Dreams puts a goal before you
Therefore, one must not just dream, but make the dream colourful and vivid. If possible, a picture of your dream that you wish to get or attain should be hung in your living room. To make your dream lively:
Remind yourself of your dream constantly
See the picture of your dream everyday
See your dream as the first thing when you get up in the morning
See your dream as the last thing when you go to sleep in the night.
In other words make your dream a living part of your consciousness. Make it the part of your sub consciousness too.
A new level of thinking:
Stephen covey in his illustrious book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People speaks about the new level of thinking which is principle-centered, character-based, inside-out approach to personal and interpersonal and interpersonal effectiveness.
Inside-out means to start first with self; even more fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self-with your paradigms, your character, and your motives.
It says if you want to have a happy marriage, be the kind of person who generates positive energy and side step negative energy rather than empowering it. If you want to have a more pleasant, cooperative teenager, be a more understanding, empathetic, consistent loving parent. If you want to be trusted, be trustworthy. If you want the secondary greatness recognized talent, focus first on primary greatness of character.
The inside-out approach says that private victories precede public victories, that making and keeping promises to ourselves precedes making and keeping promises to the others. It says it is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves. It must always be the Positive Character ahead of Positive Personality.
Source: principles of success
1.Develop definiteness of Purpose
2. Establish Mastermind Alliance
3. Assemble an attractive Personality
4. Use Applied Faith
5. Go the Extra mile
6. Create Personal Initiative
7. Build a Positive Mental Attitude
8. Control your Enthusiasm
9. Enforce Self Discipline
10. Think Accurately11.ontrol your Attention
12. Inspire Team Work
13. Learn from Adversity and Defeats
14. Cultivate Creative Vision
15. Maintain Sound Health
16. Budget your Time and Money
17. Use Cosmic Habit Force Definite Purpose of Life:
Definiteness of Purpose:
One should have a high desirable, outstanding goal and keep it ever before you. You can have many non-conflicting goals, which help you to reach your major definite purpose of life. It is advisable to have immediate, intermediate, and distant objectives. Identify your desire with a definite plan for carrying out and achieving your objectives. Put your plan into action at once.
Act Now:
The meaning of life is action. You are known by your actions. You are remembered by your actions. The generations today know Gandhi as a man of peace, Einstein as a man of science, Henry Ford as a man who built a huge fortune. When we remember a man, it is the picture of his actions that come to our mind.
If the meaning of life is action, its natural corollary is you have to act. You have to keep doing the action that is your chosen profession or vocation. There is no escape from it. The very foundation of the Gita is action. Actions can be fruitful or go futile. The ‘Gita’ also talks of attitude. Your attitude towards your action determines the worth of your action. Action without lust, attachment, greed or ego is the best way to perform an action.
A genius is 99 per cent perspiration & one percent inspiration.
........ Albert Einstein
Some of us who believe solely in luck or inspiration are adamant in our belief. The fact is nothing comes without toil and hard work. Even Einstein, the greatest scientist of our times strongly felt the value of perspiration. Nothing substantial has ever been arrived at or achieved without perspiration.
Persistence And Determination
Nothing will take the place of persistence.
Talent will not: Nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.
Genius will not: Unrewarded genius is a proverb only.
Education will not: The world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence & determination alone are omnipotent.
……Calvin Cooli
Resistence is the power to say ‘No’ to a task, comes what may. Persistence is the ability to persevere under thick and thin alike.
You cannot persist in your efforts, if you do not have a single minded determination. People with single minded determination and persistence are too busy. They do not have time for anything else apart from what is their immediate goal or object.
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
......Henry David Thoreau.
If you have a goal or target, a plan of action with single minded determination and persistence, the success is yours. If you have an unwavering faith in yourself and your ability to achieve your goal, it will be easy for you to develop the character of persistence.
Single minded determination calls for mental discipline. Such a discipline is not acquired overnight but comes through strenuous effort inculcated over a long period of time. Single minded determination is a positive catalyst for hard worker. You cannot work hard if you determination is wavering.
Single minded determination or will reflects your thought process. Understanding your thought process and applying it to achieve your goal is the key to success.
Belief & Faith
If you do not believe you will be successful, you will never be. If you doubt yourself and your abilities, the success steps you take will be hesitant and the measures will be half hearted. Belief and faith can do wonders, it can to miracles.
Do you know about faith-healers? Or have you heard about them? Some people are capable of healing themselves merely because they have an unwavering faith in the curative powers of belief system. There are even those people who can heal other.
If You Think
If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don’t!
If you like to win, but think you can’t. It’s almost a clinch you wan’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you are lost. For out in the world we find.
Success begins with a fellow’s will; It’s all in the state of mind.
If you think you are outclassed, you are, you’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be a sure of yourself before. You can ever win a prize.
Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger and faster man,
But sooner or later the man who wins……
Is the man who thinks he can.
SUCCESS : A REPEATED FAILURE WITHOUT QUITTING
This man failed in business at the age of 21: was defeated in a legislative race at age 22: failed again in business at age 24: had his sweetheart die when he was age 26: had a nervous breakdown at age 27: lost a congressional race at age 34: lost a senatorial race at age 45: failed in an effort to become vice-president at age 47: lost a senatorial race at age 49: and was elected president of the United States at age 52. The man was Abraham Lincoln.
In 1913, Lee De Forest, inventor of the triode tube, was charged by the district attorney for using fraudulent means to mislead the public into buying stocks in his company by claiming that he could transmit the human voice across the Atlantic. He was publicly humiliated.
Colonel Sanders, at age 65, had assets of a beat-up car and a $ 100 check from social security. He realized he had to do something to improve his position. He remembered his fried chicken recipe and went out selling. How many doors did he have to knock on before he got his first order? It is estimated that he had knocked on more than a thousand doors before he got his first order.
As a young cartoonist, Walt Disney faced many rejections from Newspaper editors who said he had more talent. One day a minister at a church hired him to draw some cartoons. Disney was working out of a small rodent infested shed near the church. Seeing a small mouse inspired him to draw a new cartoon. That was the start of the Mickey Mouse.
One day a partially deaf four-year old child came home with a note in his pocket from his teacher, “your Tommy is too stupid to learn, get him out of the school.” His mother read the note and answered “My Tommy is not too stupid to learn, I will teach him myself.” and that Tommy grew up to be the great Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison had only three months of formal schooling.
FAILURES, BEFORE SUCCESS
Positive Attitude & Success:
Positive attitude gives hope. Positive attitude reassures you. Positive attitude is a mental trait of seeing light in darkness. If you are a person of positive temperament you always see the brighter side of life. Why is it that?
When most of the people say the glass is half empty, a few people emphasize that that the glass is half full.
When a task is assigned to two persons, one of them says it is difficult and cannot be done, the other person says it requires more effort and can be done.
When the weary army of Alexander the great refused to move beyond Indus, saying fighting any longer was an Impossible task, Alexander said Indus can be crossed and the kings beyond Indus can be defeated and he did.
When Napolean command his army to cross Alps, they said “it was impossible” Napolean replied, “the word impossible is written in the dictionary of fools.”
The answer is positive attitude.
There is an intimate link between success & positive attitude. No one who has ever been successful has in his journey ever said ‘quite’. No one who has ever been successful has ever lost hope in his journey to success. No one who has said ‘impossible’ to a task has ever gone on to make it possible. But the contrary is often true:
If you say, I can, you will
If you say, I cannot, you will never
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare;
It is because we do not dare that they are difficult
…..Seneca
Positive attitude can do wonders. It can make possible what is seemingly impossible for the others. Positive attitude is the seed out of which positive traits, which are essential for success, sprout forth. It is the positive attitude again which waters and feeds the saplings of positive traits.
Your mind is a machine of thoughts and ideas. If you do not fill it up with positive, inspiring and motivating thoughts, it will turn into a jungle of negative thoughts. Your mind is beautiful garden, if you don’t plant and nurture sapling of flowering plants in it, it will turn into mess of wild creepers, bushes and thorny plants.
You mind is a huge factory charming out ideas & thoughts. You are the supervisor of this factory. You have two foremen at your beck and call. They are Mr. Yes and Mr. No. as soon as your factory produces a great idea; you invite both the foreman to discuss its execution. Both of them as their names go, suggest accordingly. It is up to you to follow their advice or not. If you begin to follow the advice of ‘Mr No’ more and more, you begin to develop a negative attitude. A time comes when ‘Mr.No.’ has taken a complete control over your thought process. By and by a time comes then even before you could let a great idea seep within you, ‘Mr No’ comes and thrashes it out of shape, so much so that ‘Mr No’ takes a complete control over you.
If success is what something really attracts you, and sure it does everyone, then you must make a deep association with ‘Mr. Yes’, your foreman.
Dream & Vision
Imagination is everything.
If we can imagine a future, we can create it,
if we can create that future, other will live in it.
That is the essence of success.
Dream is the stuff reality is made of. The message of our President A.P.J. Kalam to children is that they must dream if they want to be successful.
If you have no dream, you not looking forward to anything. Therefore you cannot be successful. Nationalists like Gandhi and Nehru had the dream of a future India. They had the visions of society, polity, economy and constitution that an independent India would have. It was this vision or dream they were working for.
Dream particles and the real ones are not different, when the dream is lively and vivid. The Hindu mythology calls the universe a great cosmic dream of the creator.
When you have a lively vision or dream, you are a creator on way to creation. Let this dream persist. Let your vision grow stronger and stronger each moment of the day. And then one day you will realize your dream has turned into a reality. You may not be surprised by it, but the others will be.
Do not confuse dreams with day-dreams. Day-dreaming is idling. Day dreams lull you into inaction. But dreams are different.
Dream energizes you to activity
Dream strengthens your belief system
Dream adds to your confidence
Dreams puts a goal before you
Therefore, one must not just dream, but make the dream colourful and vivid. If possible, a picture of your dream that you wish to get or attain should be hung in your living room. To make your dream lively:
Remind yourself of your dream constantly
See the picture of your dream everyday
See your dream as the first thing when you get up in the morning
See your dream as the last thing when you go to sleep in the night.
In other words make your dream a living part of your consciousness. Make it the part of your sub consciousness too.
A new level of thinking:
Stephen covey in his illustrious book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People speaks about the new level of thinking which is principle-centered, character-based, inside-out approach to personal and interpersonal and interpersonal effectiveness.
Inside-out means to start first with self; even more fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self-with your paradigms, your character, and your motives.
It says if you want to have a happy marriage, be the kind of person who generates positive energy and side step negative energy rather than empowering it. If you want to have a more pleasant, cooperative teenager, be a more understanding, empathetic, consistent loving parent. If you want to be trusted, be trustworthy. If you want the secondary greatness recognized talent, focus first on primary greatness of character.
The inside-out approach says that private victories precede public victories, that making and keeping promises to ourselves precedes making and keeping promises to the others. It says it is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves. It must always be the Positive Character ahead of Positive Personality.
Source: principles of success
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