Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Eknath Easwaran

[M]ost thoughts are neither joyful or necessary....Anxious thoughts—who needs them? Worry—better off without it. Resentments—why ask? Quite a host of our troubles, if you stop to think about it, are due to thinking too much.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Richard Wiseman

After carefully following the recovery rates of patients who had suffered a heart attack, Friedman discovered that those who were dog owners, compared to those without a canine pal, were almost nine times more likely to be alive twelve months later. This remarkable result encouraged scientists to explore other possible benefits of canine companionship, resulting in studies showing that dog owners coped well with everyday stress, were relaxed about life, had high self-esteem, and were less likely to be diagnosed with depression.

--from 59 Seconds

Betty Fridan

Women who do not look for jobs equal to their capacity, who do not let themselves develop the lifetime interests and goals which require serious education and training, who take a job at twenty or thirty or forty to 'help out at home' or just to kill extra time, are walking, almost as surely as the ones who stay inside the housewife trap, to a non-existent future.

--from The Feminine Mystique

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Abraham Hicks

Most people have a hard time delegating, or even wanting to delegate, because they have been justifying their existence through their hard work, and they equate success with struggle; they equate results with struggle. And so, they sort of wear their struggle like a badge of honor. And all of that is opposite of allowing their own well-being.

The only thing that ever matters in success or achievement is achieving the things that you want to achieve.

So if you're feeling uncomfortable about the standards that you've set, tweak the standards back a little bit. Ratchet it back a notch. Give yourself a break. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt. Lighten up. Be easier. Go slower. Take it easy. Have more fun. Love yourself more. Laugh more. Appreciate more.

All is well. You can't get it wrong. You never get it done.

Helen Gurley Brown

Men who help women with their careers are sexier than men with flat stomachs, large biceps, and other remarkable assets. So many women have got all this 'stuff' in them--a book or a play. Or they may have fabulous business or other talent. I want every woman to have a husband like mine, a husband who can be a real friend and companion, who knows how to bring out that secret gift or talent so many women have, but never put to use.

--as quoted in Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown by Jennifer Scanlon

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Johnny Cash

I have no illusions about who I am and how old I am, but that has nothing to do with it when I'm in that studio or on that stage and that thing is coming out of me. That fire is just as bright and hot as when I was 23. I and the song are one-—and whatever I was meant to do with my music, I'm doing it.

Johnny Cash

You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Charlotte Brontë

Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.

--from Jane Eyre

Charlotte Brontë

It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

--from Jane Eyre

Monday, April 12, 2010

Chan in "On A Clear Day"

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Theresa Cheung

Happy people generally know what they want and feel they are moving in the direction of getting it. That's what makes them happy.

from Chocolate Principles to Live By, p. 48

Harold McGee

A soft ganache is made with approximately equal weights of cream and chocolate. To make ganache, the cream is scalded and the chocolate melted into it to form a complex combination of an emulsion and a suspension. The continuous phase of this mixture, the portion that permeates it, is a syrup made from the cream's water and the chocolate's sugar.

from On Food and Cooking, p. 707

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Yvonne Ruperti

I melted a standard ganache mixture of 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate and 2 tablespoons heavy cream (plus 1 tablespoon of confectioners' sugar for an extra hint of sweetness and 2 tablespoons of cream), let the mixture cool until it firmed enough to scoop, and then spooned a teaspoon of it onto the cupcakes before baking. As the cupcakes baked, the ganache gently sank into the batter. As I bit into the rich cake and its trufflelike center gushed slightly, I knew I'd hit chocolate nirvana.

--from "Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes," Cooks Illustrated, May 2010 (emphasis added)