Short Stories To Live By

There was a couple who used to go to shop in the beautiful stores. They both liked antiques and pottery and especially teacups. One day in this beautiful shop they saw a beautiful teacup. They said, "May we see that? We've never seen one quite so beautiful." As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke. "You don't understand," it said. "I haven't always been a teacup. There was a time when I was red and I was clay." My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over and I yelled out, "let me alone", but he only smiled, "Not yet." "Then I was placed on a spinning wheel," the teacup said, "and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. Stop it! I'm getting dizzy!" I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, 'Not yet." Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I wondered why he wanted to burn me, and I yelled and knocked at the door. I could see him thr...

Once upon a time an old man spread rumors that his neighbor was a thief. As a result, the young man was arrested. Days later the young man was proven innocent. After been released he sued the old man for wrongly accusing him.   In court the old man told the Judge: 'They were just comments, didn't harm anyone.'   The judge, before passing sentence on the case, told the old man: 'Write all the things you said about him in a piece of paper. Cut them up and on the way home, throw the pieces of paper out. Tomorrow, come back to hear the sentence.'   Next day, the judge told the old man: 'Before receiving the sentence, you will have to go out and gather all the pieces of paper that you threw out yesterday.'   The old man said: 'I can't do that! The wind spread them and I won't know where to find them.'   The judge then replied: 'The same way, simple comments may destroy the honor of a man to such an extent that one is not ab...

Once there was a wise old man who could answer any question anyone asked him. Two young men decided to trick him. "We're going to fool that old man. We'll catch a bird and go to the old man and say, "This that we hold in our hands today, is it alive or is it dead?" "If he says 'Dead', we'll turn it loose and let it fly, and if he says 'Alive', we'll crush it." So they caught a bird and carried it to the old man. "This that we hold in our hands today, is it alive or is it dead?" they asked The old man looked at the men, smiled and replied: "It's in your hands." Smite or let go, so simple yet so devastating.

  Dunning-Kruger effect , in  psychology , a  cognitive   bias  whereby people with limited knowledge or competence in a given  intellectual  or social domain greatly overestimate their own knowledge or competence in that domain relative to objective  criteria  or to the performance of their peers or of people in general.  According to the researchers for whom it is named, psychologists  David Dunning and  Justin Kruger, the effect is explained by the fact that the  metacognitive ability to recognize deficiencies in one’s own knowledge or competence requires that one possess at least a minimum level of the same kind of knowledge or competence, which those who exhibit the effect have not attained.  Because they are unaware of their deficiencies, such people generally assume that they are not deficient, in keeping with the tendency of most people to “choose what they think is the most reasonable and optimal option.”...

There was a good-natured millionaire in the town. Three beggars thought of approaching him for help.  The first man went to the millionaire and said: "O Lord! I want five rupees. Please give me." The millionaire was taken aback at this man's impudence. "What! You demand five rupees from me as though I owe you the money! How dare you? Here, take these two rupees and get away," he said. The man went away with the two rupees. The next beggar went to the millionaire and said: "Oh Lord! I have not taken a square meal for the past ten days. Please help me." "How much do you want?" asked the millionaire. "Whatever you give me, Maharaj," replied the beggar. "Here, take this ten rupee note. You can have nice food for at least three days." The beggar walked away with the ten rupee note.   The third beggar came. "Oh Lord, I have heard about your noble qualities. Therefore, I have come to see you. Men of such charitab...

Son: "Daddy, may I ask you a question" Daddy: "Yeah sure, what it is?" Son: "Dad, how much do you make an hour" Daddy: "That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?" Son: "I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?" Daddy: "I make Rs. 500 an hour" "Oh", the little boy replied, with his head down. Looking up, he said, "Dad, may I please borrow Rs. 300?" The father was furious, "if the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or other nonsense, then march yourself to your room and go to bed. Think why you are being so selfish. I work hard everyday for such this childish behavior" The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy's questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money? After about an hour o...

A man stopped at a flower shop to order some flowers to be wired to his mother who lived two hundred miles away.   As he got out of his car he noticed a young girl sitting on the curb sobbing. He asked her what was wrong and she replied, "I wanted to buy a red rose for my mother. But I only have seventy-five cents, and a rose costs two dollars."   The man smiled and said, "Come on in with me. I'll buy you a rose." He bought the little girl her rose and ordered his own mother's flowers.   As they were leaving he offered the girl a ride home. She said, "Yes, please! You can take me to my mother." She directed him to a cemetery, where she placed the rose on a freshly dug grave.   The man returned to the flower shop, canceled the wire order, picked up a bouquet and drove the two hundred miles to his mother's house. Moral: Don't Send Artificial Loves to your parents. Give them the respect and courtesy they desire. They are your most precious Tre...

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.  The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down.  He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all.  He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like ...

Your beliefs don't make you a better person,  your behavior does.

 "There is a price to pay to make the changes you want in life. There is also a price you’re already paying for staying the way you are. You have to weigh these two prices and decide what to do based on that comparison and no one can do that for you."

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. ~Friedrich Nietzsche

A young man was proud of his healthy and beautiful heart. One day, standing in the middle of the town, he proclaimed that he had  the most beautiful heart in the whole valley. A large crowd gathered to have a look at his heart.  His heart was smooth, shiny and looked very healthy.  Indeed, the man had the most beautiful heart in the valley, everyone agreed. The proud young man felt delighted and boasted his perfect heart which everyone admired. Suddenly, a voice from the crowd said, “Your heart is not as beautiful as mine.” The young man searched for the person behind the voice and an old man appeared in front him. “Show us your heart if you believe you have got more beautiful heart than mine.” said the young man. The old man carefully showed his heart. The crowd and the young man looked at the old man’s heart.  The heart was beating strongly and healthily but it was not smooth and shiny as the young man’s heart. Instead, it had scars all over it. It had places where...

  When You Thought I Wasn't Looking (A message every parent or adult should read, because children are watching you and doing as you do, not as you say.)   When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you hang my first painting on the refrigerator, and I immediately wanted to paint another one. ********* When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you feed a stray cat, and I learned that it was good to be kind to animals. ********* When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw tears come from your eyes and I learned that sometimes things hurt, but it's all right to cry. ********* When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you make my favorite cake for me and I learned that the little things can be the special things in life. ********* When you thought I wasn't looking, I heard you say a prayer, and I knew there is a God I could always talk to and I learned to trust in God. ********* When you thought I wasn't looking, I felt you ki...

  When you were born, you didn't come with an owner's manual; these guidelines make life work better.   1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it's the only thing you are sure to keep for the rest of your life.   2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called "Life on Planet Earth". Every person or incident is the Universal Teacher.   3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of experimentation. "Failures" are as much a part of the process as "success."   4. A lesson is repeated until learned. It is presented to you in various forms until you learn it: then you can go on to the next lesson.   5. If you don't learn easy lessons, they get harder. External problems are a precise reflection of your internal state. When you clear inner obstructions, your outside world changes. Pain is how the universe gets your attention.   6. You will know you've learned a lesson when...

I got up early one morning And rushed right into the day; I had so much to accomplish That I didn't have time to pray. Problems just tumbled about me, And heavier came each task; 'Why doesn't God help me?' I wondered. He answered, 'You didn't ask.' I wanted to see joy and beauty But the day toiled on gray and bleak I wondered why God didn't show me He said, 'But you didn't seek', I tried to come into God's presence; I used all my keys in the lock. God gently and lovingly chided, 'My child, you didn't knock.' I woke up early this morning, And paused before entering the day; I had so much to accomplish That I had to take time to pray.

The difference between negativity and positivity is simple:  Negativity, is when you start assuming that things will go wrong even before they do.  Positivity, is when you remain calm when things go wrong, knowing there is a solution lurking around somewhere just waiting to be found.

  "Of everyone that shares my blood and my name from this point on, I would prefer it if I was the least valuable."

For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. Racism and homophobia are real conditions of all our lives in this place and time. I urge each one of us here to reach down into that deep place of knowledge inside herself and touch that terror and loathing of any difference that lives here. See whose face it wears. Then the personal as the political can begin to illuminate all our choices. ~ Audre Lorde

 What Is the Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns? The law of diminishing marginal returns is a theory in economics that predicts that after some optimal level of capacity is reached, adding an additional factor of production will actually result in smaller increases in output. For example, a factory employs workers to manufacture its products, and, at some point, the company operates at an optimal level. With all other production factors constant, adding additional workers beyond this optimal level will result in less efficient operations.  The law of diminishing returns is related to the concept of diminishing marginal utility. It can also be contrasted with economies of scale. KEY TAKEAWAYS The law of diminishing marginal returns states that adding an additional factor of production results in smaller increases in output.  After some optimal level of capacity utilization, the addition of any larger amounts of a factor of production will inevitably yield decreased per-un...

“In battle, in forest, at the precipice in the mountains, On the dark great sea, in the midst of javelins and arrows, In sleep, in confusion, in the depths of shame, The good deeds a man has done before defend him.” ~ Robert Oppenheimer

  A crow lived in the forest and was absolutely satisfied in life. But one day he saw a swan. "This swan is so white," he thought, "and I am so b lack. This swan must be the happiest bird in the world." He expressed his thoughts to the swan. "Actually," the swan replied, "I was feeling that I was the happiest bird around until I saw a parrot, which has two colors. I now think the parrot is the happiest bird in creation." The crow then approached the parrot. The parrot explained, "I lived a very happy life—until I saw a peacock. I have only two colors, but the peacock has multiple colors." The crow then visited a peacock in the zoo and saw that hundreds of people had gathered to see him. After the people had left, the crow approached the peacock. "Dear peacock," the crow said, "you are so beautiful. Every day thousands of people come to see u. When people see me, they immediately shoo me away. I think u are the...