“I have orders to be awakened at any time in the case of a national emergency, even if I’m in a cabinet meeting.”
- Ronald Reagan (Former US President)

The West Wing is/was one of my all time favorite TV shows and there never ceases to be great dialogue that is also great advice for everyday life.

This is a particularly potent one for me:

In #32 Noël, Leo tells Josh the following story (Josh refers to it when talking to Leo in “Bartlet for America”):

“This guy’s walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can’t get out.
“A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, ‘Hey you. Can you help me out?’ The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on.
“Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, ‘Father, I’m down in this hole can you help me out?’ The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on
“Then a friend walks by, ‘Hey, Joe, it’s me can you help me out?’ And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, ‘Are you stupid? Now we’re both down here.’ The friend says, ‘Yeah, but I’ve been down here before and I know the way out.’”

“When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.”
- Wayne Dyer

There’s so many ways of saying this sentiment, but regardless of the words used, the meaning is so important to remember.

“You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.”

You are, quite simply, who you choose to be.

“I have never been hurt by what I have not said.”
- Calvin Coolidge

“Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.”

- Dan Stanford

“You can’t be brave if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you.”

- Mary Tyler Moore

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.”

- Mark Twain

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

- Winston Churchill

“The only place where your dream becomes impossible is in your own thinking.”

~ Robert H. Schuller