goal, purpose

Not failure, but low aim, is a crime.

- James Russell Lowell

The secret of success is constancy to purpose.

- Benjamin Disraeli

The most important thing must be to hold and keep high aim.
It is easy to say, but difficult to do.

the greatest mistake

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.

- Elbert Hubbard

If you fear you will make mistakes, you would fail to do that. It's not easy for me to get rid of fear when I do something, but I should,

Weed

And what is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not been discovered.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are many weeds in the world. And some of them might be precious. It is the same as we talk about people. An ordinary person might be an extraordinary person. He or she is ordinary just because no one has not realized that he or she has a special feature.

Difficulty is

Difficulty is, for the most part, the daughter of idleness.

- Samuel Johnson

Yew, that's true. But it's also true that getting over idleness is very difficult. So I should try hard to conquer it.

Life's failure

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

- Thomas A.Edison

I was encouraged by this words. When I give up, I can get nothing. But if I do not give up, I might be able to get something important.

Now I'm in a very severe situation. My TOEFL score is still below my goal. And the application deadlines are getting closer. Every day I feel much anxiety.

Sometimes I feel that I want to run away from this situation, although I hate to think like that.

I think it is very important time for me. All I have to do is keep trying hard until I reach to success.

Action

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.

- Thomas Henry Huxley

Knowledge exists to be used to do something.
Knowledge itself is not the goal of life.

What I'm doing now is accumulating knowledge.
For what?
To do something important for the future.

However, it's too late to get knowledge just before I do something important, because getting knowledge takes a lot of time. In fact, studying English is a long way. Studying English is only one example. If you want to learn world history, it also takes you a lot of time. If you want to learn camera, it also takes you a long time although learning camera is interesting. As the proverb says, Roma was not built in a day.

The most important thing is to clear the goal. Then, accumulate knowledge for that.

Persistence and determination

Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

- Calvin Coolidge(30th U.S. President)

Unfortunately, I don't have talent. I know a lot of people who have more significant talent than I.
Unfortunately, I'm not genius. If I were genius, I would do my job much easier.
Unfortunately, I don't have good education. Although I had an opportunity to take a good education, I missed it.

Thus, I have to obtain persistence and determination in order to live in this world. And according to Coolidge, nothing is more important than persistence and determination. That means, fortunately, I still have a chance to get the most important things in my life.

To love life

To love life is to love time. Time is the stuff life is made of.

- Benjamin Franklin

Time is precious because time is limited.
Time is precious because time makes us grow.
Time is precious because time makes our dreams come true.

So, the most important thing is whether we can use time efficiently.

the anniversary of the end of the Pacific War

August 15th is the anniversary of the end of the Pacific War. It has passed 64 years since then.

How do you think of wars?

Abraham Lincoln said, 'There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.'

That's true. There's nothing good in war. There are a lot of conflicts around the world. And those living in a war zone suffer from unstable situation. They may be dead tomorrow, or get injured at best.

I hope every war ends and everyone has a peaceful life.

Strong man

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I can't progress if I judge the result only from the luck.
However, I will progress if I realize cause and effect of the result.

Cause and effect is much more important than just the result itself.

So, I want to be a strong man.

Don't judge each day by harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant

Don't judge each day by harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

When something happy happens or I get a reward, I feel it is a good day.
On the other hand, when something unhappy happens or I lose, I feel it is a bad day.

Although I think that it might be true in the short-term, it is a big misunderstanding in the long-term.
Because whether I get a reward or not is the result of the accumulation of what I have done.
It is not the result of the day.

So what I do today is the most important of all.
I may feel it is a bad day if I had a bad result even though I studied hard.
But I shouldn't give up, because it is not a real result. It is only a process.

Keep trying hard whatever happens today!

Opportunity

Opportunity rarely knocks on your door. Knock rather on opportunity's door if you ardently wish to enter.
- B.C.Forbes

Yes, I agree with this sentence.
So I have to step forward to knock the door!

fear

You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind.
  - Dale Carnegie

Yes. It is true. But when you feel fear and you want to conquer, it's much better if you have someone who will strongly support you. Because sometime it's hard to make up your mind to conquer your fear.

Believe in yourself

And what really counts is to believe in yourself.
Believe in yourself, and your dream will come true.

～ Charo Episode 18

If you want to make your dream come true, you need the extra power. And it is you who can bring out that power.

Unless you can believe in yourself, it is no possibility that you can bring out that power. On the contrary, if you believe in yourself, you might draw out the extra power.

It is very difficult to avoid being depressed and losing your self-confidence. But it is very important to keep believing in yourself. 

The winners in the Olympic Games must believe in themselves. That's why they won.

bicycle

Life is like riding a bicycle: you don't fall off unless you stop pedaling.
　～　Claude Pepper

I agree with this opinion.
I rode a bicycle for 8 hours last weekend. It was a really hard way.
While I was riding a bicycle, I was thinking and thinking about this words. And I believe it's true. But it is not only this words but a lot more aspects that describe 'Life is like a riding a bicycle'. For example, when I had a flat tire, or when I saw a beautiful sunset at the end.