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When you read a quotation from some enlightened author, you’re getting right down into their best material. There’s no need to sift through hours of pages in order to find the best stuff; the best stuff is in the quote!

This is why I’ve spent years reading books of quotations. Can you imagine the wisdom buzz a person can get from that? Sure, you often have to read boring quotes, but every little while you’ll run into a real good one! And when this happens, your mind is stretched, your eyes are opened, and it can become an amazing intellectual or spiritual experience. And then you start over, because it becomes addictive.

Here are ten motivational quotes based on the topics of aspiration and life that I have always loved. Take the time to dig through them and glean the great lessons that they hold.

1. When a young man sets out to learn something of his own free will, he marks himself out as an exceptional man. And he begins to rise in the world. -Herbert N. Casson

2. Life is a petty thing unless it is moved by the indomitable urge to extend its boundaries. Only in proportion as we are desirous of living do we really live. - Jose Ortega y Gasset

3. It is asked, how can the laboring man find time for self-culture? I answer that an earnest purpose finds time or makes it. It seizes on spare moments and turns fragments to golden account. A man who follows his calling with industry and spirit, and uses his earnings economically, will always have some portion of the day at command. And it is astonishing how fruitful of improvement a short season becomes when eagerly seized and faithfully used. It has often been observed, that those who have the most time at their disposal profit by it the least. A single hour a day, steadily given to the study of some interesting subject, brings unexpected accumulations of knowledge. -Channing

4. Restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure. -Thomas Edison

5. I am suffocated and lost when I have not the bright feeling of progression. -Margaret Fuller

6. I know of no more encouraging fact than the ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor. It is something to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so make a few objects beautiful. It is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look. This morally we can do. -Thoreau

7. What would be the use of immortality to a person who cannot use well a half hour? -Emerson

8. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. -Mark Twain

9. If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. -Thoreau

10. 1) Sit quietly for a moment, and you realize how you have been foolishly running about.
2) Learn to keep your mouth shut, and you realize you have been talking too much.
3) Avoid getting involved in too many things, and you realize that you have been wasting your time in unnecessary things.
4) Close the door, and you realize that you have been mixed up with too many kinds of people.
5) Have few desires, and you realize why you have had so many ills.
6) Be human, and you realize that you have been too critical of others. -Chen Chiju (1588-1639)

If you liked these motivational quotes, make sure to sign up for the thought for the day at HappyPublishing.com. There’s a great new quotes page there on hardship quotes.

Sterling silver charms seem to be in a renaissance right now. Everywhere you go I see people wearing these jingly bracelets or not so jingly bracelets, depending on the number and size of the charms.

I’ve gleaned some interesting facts about charm bracelets over the years:

• Queen Victoria popularized them over a hundred years ago

• The original charm was a talisman or spiritual aid

• Egyptians often wore bracelets with charms

But when, really, did the first charm bracelet appear? I can imagine a young man or young girl in Neolithic times wearing a leather strap around the wrist with a tiny representation of something important to him or her tied to it. Would this be considered a charm bracelet? In the strictest sense of the word, I think it would. I imagine a charm would have a great deal of significance to a primitive human.

It’s fascinating because significance can easily be attached to anything. Especially since we humans are capable of great creativity. I suppose it was handier to decide a small object would bring good luck than one’s favorite oak tree - shells and rocks were a lot more portable..

And did our ancestors have pockets? I suspect that was a later invention. Without a handy place to slip a special shell or stone into, it was necessary to tie it to one’s body. Perhaps this is what led to drilling holes in objects. That would certainly make it easier to carry them around.

Early man was at the mercy of so many dangers. Naked, without fur or sharp teeth, he depended on his skill and ability to think to see him through the day. A harmless pebble blessed with the power to keep him safe must have been some, if not great comfort.

From that beginning it was a short jump to adornment. Sometimes charms fulfilled both requirements. They could beautify the wearer and protect him or her at the same time. By the time the Egyptians figured out the technique of lost wax casting, jewelry making had grown into an art form. Charms by then (mostly gold charms) were worn by the wealthy and coveted by the poor. Many of them were representative of the environment around them- scarab beetles, vultures and snakes rated heavily in the jewelry of those ancients.

Even today charms are often created in the image of animals. And I’d say that charms are still symbolic. If you ask a woman about her charm bracelet, I can practically guarantee you that each and every charm has some special significance for her.

And most other charms are representative of a place, an object or a person. Perhaps they don’t have the idea of luck or protection still surrounding them, but they are nonetheless viewed with affinity by the wearer. Charms placed on one’s bracelet mean something, of that I’m quite sure.

For quite a while now Merry Rosenfield has been creating unique sterling silver charms. Many of her charm designs have earned her the reputation of being one of the most collectible of all animal jewelry artists. Others have written about why so many people have fallen in love with charm bracelets and what contributes to their ever increasing popularity.