Quotes About Priorities

What a peculiar civilisation this was: inordinately rich, yet inclined to accrue its wealth through the sale of some astonishingly small and only distantly meaningful things, a civilisation torn and unable sensibly to adjudicate between the worthwhile ends to which money might be put and the often morally trivial and destructive mechanisms of its generation.

The essence of the charge made against the modern high-status ideal is that it is guilty of effecting a gigantic distortion of priorities, of elevating to the highest level of achievement a process of material accumulation that should instead be only one of many factors determining the direction of our lives under a more truthful, more broadly defined conception of ourselves.

How we feel about 'the nature of existence' is largely determined by what we have to do in the next few hours.

The clue to dieting: ensuring (not always easy) one has more exciting things to do than eat.

It is significantly more important to Rabih now that he remains attractive to Kirsten than that he is a truthful correspondent of the reality of his inner life.

The Key to a healthy no is to remember the yes that the no is making space for.

People find money for the things they value. They do not find money for things they don't value. It's as simple as that. All else is excuse, distraction, complication, and smoke and mirrors.

We are all smart enough to do what we value doing. We find the time, money, and means to achieve what is important to us. We are not motivated to do the things that other people tell us we should do or we should want to do.

Children starve while boots costing many thousands of dollars leave their mark upon the surface of the moon. We have labored long to build a heaven, only to find it populated with horrors.

As priorities change, regrets may surface. Bronnie Ware, an Australian nurse working in palliative care, recorded what she perceived to be the top five regrets of the dying. They were: I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. I wish I hadn't worked so hard. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Last December I saw an advertisement outside an electronics store. There was a little boy, delirious with delight, surrounded by computers, stereos, and other gadgets. The text read: "We know what your child wants for Christmas." I stared at the poster, then said to no one in particular, "What your child wants for Christmas is your love, but if he can't get that, he'll settle for a bunch of electronic crap.

The impression forces itself upon one that men measure by false standards, that everyone seeks power, success, riches for himself, and admires others who attain them, while undervaluing the truly precious thing in life.

When I get a little money I buy books and if any is left I buy food and clothes.

Dharma must be valued over family or friends,' he

We will do whatever it takes to get what we think we want. We get it, but then we wake up with thorns to pick out and bills to pay. But even when we've spent so much time seeking the wrong things, we will find relief in our hearts when we fall into God's arms and allow him to guide us.

Marry, don't marry,' Auntie Aya says as we unfold layers of dough to make an apple strudel. Just don't have your babies unless it's absolutely necessary .' How do I know if it's necessary?' She stops and stares ahead, her hands gloved in flour. 'Ask yourself, Do I want a baby or do I want to make a cake? The answer will come to you like bells ringing.' She flickers her fingers in the air by her ear. 'For me, almost always, the answer was cake .

Generally office and home were far apart, and home was much more important than office. I was not ashamed of valuing my private life more highly than my work; that, to my mind, is what everyone ought to do.

When I get a little money I buy books," he confessed to a friend. "If any is left, I buy food and clothes."13

How do you know you're in love?" I asked her. "Because if it's determined by how willing you are to give up everything for the other person, I think it's a flawed system.

The secret to surviving heartbreak is finding more pressing drama.

Pretty show, but you're wasting energy and time," Max said. "Mind if we get back to saving Horngate? You can go postal later.

I'm a parent, and I try to take care of my health and keep my life in order. In the last few years I've really had to decide what's important to me, and it seems to me that my family and my health are top on the list. And those have nothing to do with show business.

But somethings are just too important to let fear stand in the way.

I recently turned down a film that I didn't want my kids to see. Priorities shift. Sometimes I'm sad about that, but not enough to do anything about it.