Urban Fox: A poem for a modern phenomenon 

04/26/2025 by

Today’s theme is the urban fox.

In my younger days, here in England, the red fox was associated with sprawling woodlands and open fields in the countryside. 

I remember once being on a train to Cornwall and seeing one in the wild for the first time. It was such an impressive sight. It was running across farmland, probably chasing a rabbit or something it hoped to eat for lunch. 

Fast forward to modern times, and foxes have been driven from their natural habitat, which has resulted in the phenomenon of the urban fox.

We get them in our garden every day nowadays. They’re just creatures looking for food. 

Most people seem to regard them as a nuisance, but my wife, Joan, and I are animal lovers, and we can’t help but leave a little food out for them. 

They mean no harm; they’re just hungry. 

If some scraps of food help them a little, we will always try to help them. 

These days, they come right up to our living room window, looking forlorn and hungry. What can I say? We’re suckers for a sad face.

Anyway, I wrote today’s poem based on recent experiences. I hope you like it. 

Feel free to share it. And if you see an urban fox, leave some food out for it.

Urban Fox Poem:

Please share this post with your friends:

If you did enjoy this urban fox poem, please share it with your friends on social media.

Remember, when you share, everyone wins.

So go on, please share this post now.

If you can do that for me, I’ll be forever grateful, and you’ll be helping a keen blogger reach a wider audience.

Thank you.

Other articles with poems you might appreciate:

© Mann Island Media Limited 2025. All rights reserved.

Filed Under: Poetry Tagged With: , , , ,

30 Best Quotes from Lucius B. Wack

04/26/2025 by

In a previous post, I introduced readers to an old friend of mine, Lucius B. Wack. Today, I offer you 30 of his best quotes about life and the human condition.

Affectionately known as Lucky, he’s someone who has greatly influenced my thinking of late.

So, I’ve put together these quotes as I think they might appeal to readers. I hope so anyway.

Grab a coffee and take a few moments to read some more of Lucky’s observations.

Please feel free to use any of these quotes. Lucky would be flattered to know he’s being quoted.

And please pass them on.

Best Quotes
Make Money

Best Quotes (1-10):

To believe is to accept as fact that which cannot be proven.

If you want your life to change, don’t make a wish list; make a to-do list.

Never be willing to die for your beliefs because you might just be wrong.

If you have a few loved ones and a special friend or two, you have all you need. 

Question the orthodoxy, and you’ll be dismissed as a bigot. That’s how the debate is shut down.

Anything can be yours, but nothing’s free. There’s always a price to pay, and it must be paid first.

You make choices, and you must accept the consequences. And there will always be consequences.

The only thing that virtue signallers achieve is a demonstration of their shallowness, vanity, and hypocrisy.

If you’re not hurting anyone else, you don’t need anyone’s permission to live your life in a way that suits you. 

Don’t just let life happen to you. Decide what it is you want, and then go out there and make sure you get it. 

Best Quotes (11-20):

When people try to curtail our way of life, don’t be afraid to push back. Who gave them permission to dictate how others should live?

Everyone has feelings, and most people are decent and doing their best. Remember that next time you’re inclined to be mean or spiteful. 

Arguing on social media with people you don’t know about things that don’t matter is my idea of a waste of time. Life is too short. 

Nothing matters more than our loved ones and friends. Jobs and careers won’t look after you if you’re ill or infirm. So, get your priorities right. 

Never be afraid to push back. You don’t have to accept the unacceptable. If you don’t push back, those with a more sinister agenda will win.

People are free to live their lives in any way they choose, providing, in doing so, their actions don’t conflict with the established rights of others.

Beware the caustic influence of cynics. They add no value, and they have no ideas for making life better. They just want to rain on everyone’s parade. 

You can be more than you are, and you can do more than you think. Add value by being the solution to people’s problems, and you can earn more than you thought possible. 

Those in power, and indeed those seeking power, don’t want you thinking for yourself. And if that’s not a compelling reason to think for yourself, I don’t know what is. 

We live in an age of shallow gestures. An age where people are constantly trying to make themselves look good through gestures they think are virtuous, when in fact they are just self-promotion.

Make Money

Best Quotes (21-30):

Being economically dependent on someone else means your life will be controlled by someone else. 

Death awaits us all. There’s no escaping it. However, before death, there’s life, and life must be lived to the full. 

Boldly go in the direction of your dreams. You may succeed, or you may not, but either way, you won’t spend your life wondering what might have been.

Do what you’re good at and you’ll do it well; do it well and people will notice. And once you get noticed, you have every chance of earning a decent income. 

Know your value. Employers will pay you as little as they can get away with. It’s down to you to ensure you’re being rewarded properly for the value you’re adding.

We live in an age where a caustic remark is considered an appropriate response to an innocent comment made on social media. Whatever happened to civility? 

In a democracy, everyone gets a vote, the votes are counted, and there’s a winner. And once there’s a winning outcome, we’re stuck with it, whether we like it or not. 

Criticize not those who make mistakes, for mistakes are an inevitable part of the human condition. Show me someone who never makes mistakes, and I’ll show you someone who’s never done anything. 

You’ll be easily conned if you let others do your thinking for you. Think for yourself and question everything. Never accept anything at face value. The new Puritans don’t have your interests at heart. 

Zealots see themselves as virtuous. They believe they’re doing good work, regardless of whether they belong to an organized religion or they just have a religious commitment to a cause. They see themselves as somehow superior to everyone else. 

Please share these quotes:

If you found Lucky’s best quotes inspiring and interesting, please share this post on social media with your friends. When you share, everyone wins.

So go on, please share this post now. If you do, I’ll be forever grateful, and you’ll be helping a keen blogger reach a wider audience.

Thank you for your support.

Articles you might enjoy:

© Mann Island Media Limited 2025. All rights reserved.

Filed Under: Quotes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

23 great stay focused quotes to help you pursue success

04/25/2025 by

If you don’t know exactly what you want, then you’ll never get it. I’m sure that much is philosophically self-evident to you, dear reader. However, how can you know what you want?

Well, if necessary, keep trying stuff until you find something you really enjoy and at which you excel.

And once you’ve found something you love, stay focused on it and take it as far as you can possibly go.

That’s the way to achieve real success.

Here are 23 great stay-focused quotes to help you on your way.

stay-focused-quotes
Make Money

Stay focused quotes (1-7):

  1. Stay focused on the mission. ~Naveen Jain
  2. Stay focused, go after your dreams and keep moving toward your goals. ~LL Cool J
  3. Know what you want, and focus on how you’ll get it. And never, ever give up. ~Roy Sutton
  4. Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them. ~Albert Einstein
  5. Aim higher; stay focused. ~Brandon Adams
  6. I always want to stay focused on who I am, even as I’m discovering who I am. ~Alicia Keys
  7. Stay focused on your mission, remain steadfast in your pursuit of excellence, and always do the right thing. ~Mark Esper

Stay focused quotes (8-15):

  1. Stay true to yourself, yet always be open to learning. Work hard and never give up on your dreams, even when nobody else believes they can come true but you. These are not cliches, but real tools you need no matter what you do in life to stay focused on your path. ~Phillip Sweet
  2. Stay focused, believe that you can achieve at the highest level, surround yourself with others who believe in you, and do not stray from your goal. ~Zach Ertz
  3. Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them. They stay focused on their past successes rather than their past failures, and on the next action steps, they need to take to get them closer to the fulfilment of their goals rather than all the other distractions that life presents to them. ~Jack Canfield
  4. It’s a long road, so we are just trying to stay focused and grounded and keep moving forward. ~Sturgill Simpson
  5. My key to dealing with stress is simple: just stay cool and stay focused. ~Ashton Eaton
  6. You have to stay focused and be mentally tough. That’s what I’ve really learned: every day is a grind, and you have to go hard. ~Chris Gronkowski
  7. Stay open-minded; stay focused. Train hard and train smart. For me, the older I get, the smarter I have to train because the recovery time is longer. Work on everything: become a well-rounded fighter; don’t just be good at one thing; be good at everything. ~Brock Lesnar
  8. As I get older, the more I stay focused on the acceptance of myself and others and choose compassion over judgment and curiosity over fear. ~Tracee Ellis Ross

Stay focused quotes (16-23):

  1. The best career advice I’ve gotten is to stay focused and keep moving forward. ~Tyga
  2. My only goal is to stay focused on my craft and make sure my life is as sharp as it can be to attack any character that is given to me. ~Michael K. Williams
  3. I have to make sure I stay focused, have the same ambition I’ve always had, and work hard; that’s the key to success. ~Romelu Lukaku
  4. What I’ve learned is that if you stay focused, believe, and actually walk the walk, anything is possible. ~Craig David
  5. I like to stay busy, I like to stay focused, and I like to stay creative. Without being creative, I’d be dead. ~Jeremy Renner
  6. Starting a business and building a product is not for the faint of heart. You have to learn to not let little disappointments get you down and to stay focused on the big picture. ~Gillian Tans
  7. You have to stay in the moment. Stay focused. Know what you’re going to do. ~Dave Martinez
  8. As for the stage fright, it never goes away. When I’m waiting in the wings to go on, it’s agony every single time, but I stay focused, and I know that once I’m on stage, it’ll be fine; I’ll be in my happy little bubble. ~Britt Ekland

Please share this post with your friends:

So, dear reader, was this post worth a little piece of your time?

If it was, please share it with your friends on social media. When you share, everyone wins.

If you could share it now, then I’d be ever so grateful. You’d be helping a keen blogger reach a wider audience.

Thank you for your support, dear reader.

Articles you might enjoy:

© Mann Island Media Limited 2025. All rights reserved.

Filed Under: Quotes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

21 quotes to live by each and every day

04/24/2025 by

Living life by simple mantras and affirmations can make a positive difference to us all. Having a few quotes to live by each day helps us focus on the things that matter.

We’re not given a life that’s good or bad. We’re just given a life to make of it what we can.

There will be moments that are good and bad, but overall, the life we lead is the one we create for ourselves.

Only you can create a life that’s right for you.

Life offers an endless stream of opportunities, and it’s up to you to grab them and make the most of your life.

So today I offer you 21 quotes to live by that should help you in setting your priorities.

Make Money

Quotes to live by (1-10):

  1. In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity. ~Albert Einstein
  2. Don’t worry about what others are doing. Do you! ~Russell Simmons
  3. If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything. ~Mark Twain
  4. Just remember: The people that say, ‘your dreams are impossible’ have already quit on theirs. ~Grant Cardone
  5. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. ~Eleanor Roosevelt
  6. On Spaceship Earth, we’re all crew. We all have a contribution to make. We’re all here to make a difference. ~Roy Sutton
  7. You were born with the ability to change someone’s life. Don’t ever waste it. ~Dale Partridge
  8. If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. ~Booker T. Washington
  9. To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart. ~Eleanor Roosevelt
  10. Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there’s no path and leave a trail. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quotes to live by (11-21):

  1. The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that’s guaranteed to fail is not taking risks. ~Mark Zuckerberg
  2. If you really want to do something you’ll find a way, if you don’t you’ll find an excuse. ~Jim Rohn
  3. You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you. ~John Bunyan
  4. I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. ~Jimmy Dean
  5. Never fear failure. Fear only that you could miss out on what might have been. ~Roy Sutton
  6. There’s only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure. ~Paulo Coelho
  7. Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace. ~Jonathan Lockwood Hule
  8. Love the moment. Flowers grow out of dark moments. Therefore, each moment is vital. It affects the whole. Life is a succession of such moments and to live each is to succeed. ~Corita Kent
  9. It’s just a process that you’re going through to get you to the next level. ~D. Jakes
  10. The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away. ~Marcus Aurelius
  11. Your time is limited; don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma; which is living the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. ~Steve Jobs

Please share this post with your friends:

Did you find this post interesting and useful? I hope so.

If you did, then please share this post with your friends on social media because when you share, everyone wins.

So go on, please share this post now. If you can do that for me, I will be forever grateful, and you’d be helping a keen blogger reach a wider audience.

Thank you for your support, dear reader.

Articles you might enjoy:

© Mann Island Media Limited 2025. All rights reserved.

quotes to live by, quotes to live by, quotes to live by

Filed Under: Quotes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

30 quotes to make you think about life

04/23/2025 by

If you’re looking for quotes to make you think, dear reader, look closely at the 30 I’ve put together for you today.

They are all observations about life as we know it today. We live in strange times, and they appear to be getting stranger as each day passes.

In my experience, each decade has a unique feel, and the one in which we now live is no different. The 2020s are shaping up to be unique, that’s for sure.

On the positive side, nothing lasts forever. So, we have every reason to believe that life can improve. However, it will only improve if we challenge the orthodoxy and refuse to accept that which is unacceptable.

So, grab a coffee, relax, and see what you make of these 30 excellent quotes.

And please feel free to share them.

QUOTES TO MAKE YOU THINK

Quotes to make you think (1-15):

The silent majority is irrelevant.

Just because you believe it doesn’t mean it’s true. 

Import the world, and you import the world’s problems. 

A fact will always be a fact, however much you wish it were not. 

There’s never a time when everything’s done. There’s always more to do.

To believe is to accept as fact that which cannot be proven with certainty.

We appear to have sleepwalked into allowing the lunatics to run the asylum.

Beware the useful idiots with a reckless commitment to a questionable cause. 

There’s no obligation for people to adjust their lives to suit your life preferences. 

Who among us has not done something in our youth that we now know to be wrong? 

The lives we experience are a consequence of the choices we make. Bad choices lead to bad outcomes.

Just because bad ideas are accepted into mainstream thinking doesn’t mean they cease to be bad ideas. 

An inconvenient truth may be inconvenient, but that doesn’t mean it’s not the truth. A fact is a fact, whether we like it or not. 

When selection is based on tokenism rather than talent and ability, then the tokens will always struggle to be taken seriously.

If a politician’s explanation is vague and lacks clarity, then it’s wise to be suspicious. What is it they’re trying to keep from us, and why?

Make Money

Quotes to make you think (16-30):

Just because your intentions are good doesn’t mean the outcome will be good. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

Increasingly, the Western world is controlled by ideologues whose aim is to crush dissent and anyone who questions the orthodoxy. 

You cannot have democracy without free speech. Curtail the freedom to express alternative opinions, and democracy ceases to exist. 

If democracy is to work, then there must be a winner. And once there is a winner, the loser must accept the winner’s right to govern.

A peaceful life can come at a high price. Think twice before you choose a peaceful existence over standing up for what you know is right. 

If developing critical thinking skills is not the primary purpose of education, then you would have to question the value of education. 

Anyone who travels regularly in a private jet is in no position to lecture other people about the impact of carbon emissions on climate change.

Fashion is an industry that exploits a natural, youthful need to fit in while causing enormous environmental damage in its pursuit of profit. 

Politicians think only in terms of actions that will get them credit in the short term. Those who would do our country harm know this and exploit it quite effectively. 

When politicians refer to zero tolerance for misinformation online, what they mean is that dissent and any questioning of their worldview will not be tolerated.

If politicians are trying to stop us from questioning the views they’re promoting, that’s a very good reason to keep asking awkward questions and refusing to be fobbed off with polite but meaningless answers. 

Haters just want to destroy. They have no real idea as to how life might be made better. They have no vision, only a thirst for destruction. Don’t be fooled by claims that they’re acting in everyone’s interests. They’re not!

If we allow the world to go fully cashless, are we blindly handing over control of our lives to ‘Big Tech’? Giving away our financial freedom so cheaply is probably a mistake from which it will be impossible to recover. 

The problem with the notion of a hate crime is who gets to define the term hate. Mostly, it appears to be those with a vested interest in establishing themselves as victims and therefore deserving of special treatment. 

Equity of outcome might seem like a good idea, but if we go down that road, it will not end well. Equity of opportunity is beyond question, but to guarantee an outcome regardless of effort and enterprise is simply a race to the bottom. 

Make Money

Please share these quotes:

If you found these quotes inspiring and interesting, please share this post on social media with your friends.

When you share, everyone wins.

So go on, please share this post now. If you do, I’ll be forever grateful, and you’ll be helping a keen blogger reach a wider audience.

Thank you for your support.

Articles you might enjoy:

© Mann Island Media Limited 2025. All rights reserved.

Filed Under: Quotes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

19 quotes about change and why it’s important

04/22/2025 by

Today I’m exploring quotes about change.

One of the most fundamental human needs is the need for certainty. We all need certainty because we need to feel secure.

As a species, human beings are programmed to ensure we survive. If we don’t feel secure, then we are constantly on our guard, which drains our energy.

That’s why change can be an uncomfortable experience because it makes us feel insecure, and feeling insecure means we can’t relax.

Most of us can feel uncomfortable with change, at least to some degree, and that’s perfectly natural when you think about it.

However, change is important.

Through change comes opportunity, and if we can embrace change, then opportunity can be ours for the taking.

Most people tend to be slow in their response to change because it’s such an uncomfortable experience. However, if we respond quickly, we can grasp those opportunities just waiting for the fleet-footed.

Think about this: everything we take for granted today once didn’t exist.

QUOTES ABOUT CHANGE
Make Money

When change is ignored:

A good example of things that once didn’t exist would be computers. Today, most households have several of them in the form of desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

Certainly, this is the situation in my home, and I’m sure that’s true in your home too, dear reader.

However, as recently as 1943, Thomas Watson, then chairman of IBM, said, “I think there’s a world market for maybe five computers.”

Well, there are more than five computers in my home alone, and there will be billions more around the world.

As recently as 1977, Ken Olson, then president, chairman, and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), the leading supplier of minicomputers at the time, said, “There’s no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.”

We’re lucky that neither Bill Gates nor Steve Jobs listened to those gentlemen.

However, in business terms, these examples are even more significant.

Failure to recognize the changing nature of the computer market had almost catastrophic consequences for IBM as a business.

They did manage to adapt eventually, but not before their business went through a major wobble and at one point looked like it might even fold completely.

And where is Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) now? It disappeared long ago and is now nothing more than a footnote in the history of digital technology.

So my message to you today, dear reader, is this:

You ignore change at your peril.

Embrace change:

It’s better to embrace change, however uncomfortable it may feel, and be ready to grab those opportunities as they come along.

The most successful people in business are adept at exploiting opportunities brought about by change.

Change is synonymous with opportunity. It’s that simple.

Here are 19 inspirational quotes about change to help you reflect on what it means and why it’s important. 

Quotes about change (1-10):

  1. Change before you have to. ~Jack Welch
  2. Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change. ~Stephen Hawking
  3. To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. ~Winston Churchill
  4. If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. ~Lao Tzu
  5. If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. ~Wayne Dyer
  6. The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance. ~Nathaniel Branden
  7. The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. ~Alan Watts
  8. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. ~John F. Kennedy
  9. Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. ~Barack Obama
  10. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. ~Reinhold Niebuhr

Quotes about change (11-19):

  1. There is nothing so stable as change. ~Bob Dylan
  2. There is nothing permanent except change. ~Heraclitus
  3. Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change. ~Confucius
  4. You must be the change you wish to see in the world. ~Mahatma Gandhi
  5. Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. ~Leo Tolstoy
  6. The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change. ~Carl Rogers
  7. They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. ~Andy Warhol
  8. You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of. ~Jim Rohn
  9. It is change, continuing change, inevitable change that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account, not only the world as it is but the world as it will be. ~Isaac Asimov

Please share these quotes with your friends:

If you found these quotes inspiring and interesting, then please share this post on social media with your friends. When you share, everyone wins.

So go on, please share this post now. If you do, I’ll be ever so grateful, and you’ll be helping a keen blogger reach a wider audience.

Thank you.

Articles you might enjoy:

© Mann Island Media Limited 2025. All rights reserved.

Filed Under: Quotes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

7 funny story jokes that might just tickle you

04/21/2025 by

Funny story jokes always get a great response from readers. So today, I’m offering you seven of them, which I hope you’ll find amusing.

They all made me smile, so I hope at least one or two of these funny story jokes might tickle you

Enjoy them all.

And please, feel free to pass them on.

FUNNY STORY JOKES
Make Money

Funny story jokes:

1. The hospital visits:

US President Donald Trump is visiting a local hospital in Washington, DC.

Naturally, he’s determined to meet as many patients as possible, regardless of their ailments.

As he’s walking around the hospital, he eventually arrives at old Charlie’s bed.

“Hello there, buddy,” says the President, “what’s wrong with you?”

“I’ve got an enormous boil on my ass,” old Charlie responds, “and I’m here to have it lanced.”

Looking a little embarrassed, the president smiles at Charlie, then quickly moves on to the next patient.

As soon as he’s out of earshot, the nurse scolds old Charlie for his comment to the president: “Now that wasn’t very diplomatic of you, Charlie, was it? He didn’t need the detail. You could just have said you had a bad back.”

The following day, the Vice President, JD Vance, is visiting the same hospital.

As he’s walking around, he arrives at old Charlie’s bed.

“And how are you today?” the Vice President asks warmly with a smile.

“Oh, I’ve got a bad back,” says old Charlie.

“Oh dear,” the Vice President responds sympathetically. “What with that enormous boil on your ass, you’re not having much luck, are you?”

2. The Sunday service:

It was a Sunday morning, and the pastor noticed little Johnny standing in the foyer of the church staring up at a large plaque. It was covered with a list of names and bearing symbols in the form of American flags in each corner.

The seven-year-old had been staring at this plaque for some time when the pastor walked up and said, “Hello, Johnny.”

“Good morning, Reverend,” Johnny responded. “Can you tell what this is meant to be?”

“Well, son,” said the pastor, “that’s a memorial to those young men and women who died in service.”

“Really?” said Johnny. “Which service, the 8 o’clock or the 10.30?”

3. Miscommunication:

An old man was visiting his daughter and infant grandson.

During the visit, the little boy says, “Hey, Grandpa, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure!” the old man responds.

“Can you make a noise like a frog?” the boy asks.

“Well, I think so,” the old man responds. And with that, he starts making croaking ribbit sounds.

The little boy is delighted and immediately runs out of the living room before returning a few minutes later, dragging a suitcase behind him.

“Why do you need the suitcase?” the old man asks the little boy.

“Because Mom says we can go to Disneyland the day you croak,” the little boy replied.

4. Tricky question:

Son: Mom, how did humans come to exist?

Mother: Well, you see, God created Adam and Eve…..

Son: But Dad said we came from apes

Mom: He was talking about his family; I am telling you about mine.

5. A bit of fun:

A boy is jumping up and down on a big box in the middle of a street in Manhattan, yelling, “Nine!“

An old man is walking down the street, and he stops momentarily to watch what the boy is doing.

“Hey, kid,” says the old man. “What are you doing?“

“Hey, mister,” the kid responds. “You’ve got to try this. It’s so much fun.”

“Fun? Really?” says the old man. “It doesn’t look like fun to me.”

“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it,” the kid responds. “Maybe you’re just too old to try something new.”

Well, the old man couldn’t let that comment go without showing that he could still compete with the best of them.

“Okay, kid,” says the old man, “let me have a go.”

With that, the old man climbs on the box, starts jumping up and down, and yells, “Nine!“

“Louder!” shouts the kid.

Raising his voice, the old man jumps up again and yells, “Nine!“

“Again!” the kid shouts.

The old man jumps a third time, but as he does so, the kid whips the box from under him, exposing an open manhole.

With that, the old man disappears down the manhole, and the boy quickly moves the box back over the top of it.

The kid then gets back on the box, jumps up and down, and shouts, “Ten!”

6. The construction site:

A group of guys working on a construction site were all sitting around drinking coffee and moaning about how their boss still owed them for the last big job.

One of the guys was talking on a cellphone, and his colleagues couldn’t help but listen to him talking

“$1,000?” they heard him say. “Honey, that’s no problem. If you like the coat, go ahead and buy it.”

A few moments pass, and the conversation continues.

“You want a new BMW?” he continued. “It’s $125,000? That’s fine, but make sure you get it fully loaded with all the extras.”

His workmates were looking at each other, thinking how surprisingly generous this guy was being, and wondering how he could afford it all anyway.

Then they heard him say, “It’s now on the market? How much is it? $950,000? Go ahead, but offer $900,000 and see what they say.”

Staring in disbelief, his workmates looked at him as he terminated his call.

He looked at them all, smiled, and then said, “Tell the boss I’ve found his cell phone, his wife called, and I quit.”

7. The golfing accident:

Jack is on a golfing holiday, and he manages to overturn his golf cart accidentally whilst playing a quick 18 holes.

Olivia, a stunningly attractive woman and a keen golfer herself, lives in a villa right next to the golf course, and she hears Jack shouting for help.

Without hesitation, but dressed only in a flimsy bathrobe, she rushes out through her garden gate onto the golf course to assist.

“Are you okay?” asks Olivia as she tries to help. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Jack,” he responds, as he manages to crawl out from beneath the golf cart. “I’m a bit bruised, but otherwise I’m fine.”

Jack couldn’t help but notice how beautiful Olivia was, and he couldn’t take his eyes off her as she said to him, “Look, Jack, you may have some hidden injuries. Come back to my villa and rest for a while. I’ll help you turn the golf cart over later.”

“That’s kind of you,” says Jack, “but I don’t think my wife would be happy if I did that.”

“Oh, nonsense,” Olivia responded warmly, “your wife won’t mind.”

Olivia was so attractive with such a warm and friendly nature that Jack quickly weakened and said, “Well, if you’re sure.”

As they sat in Olivia’s living room, she offered Jack a restorative Scotch and water, and then they chatted for a while.

An hour went by, but eventually, Jack thanked Olivia, saying, “I feel a lot better now, but my wife will be really upset, so it’s best if I go now.”

“Oh, don’t be silly,” Olivia responded with a smile. “Your wife won’t even know you’ve been here. By the way, where is she?”

“Probably still under the golf cart, I would guess,” Jack says sheepishly.

Please share this post with your friends:

If you enjoyed these funny story jokes, dear reader, then please share this post on social media with your friends.

Share the fun, and everyone wins.

Put a smile on someone else’s face, and you’ve done your good deed for the day.

So go on, please share this post now. If you could do that for me, I’d be forever grateful, and you’ll be helping a keen blogger reach a wider audience.

Thank you.

More fun you might enjoy:

© Mann Island Media Limited 2025. All rights reserved.

Filed Under: Funny Jokes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The importance of making mistakes to achieving success

04/20/2025 by

Today, I want to explore the importance of making mistakes, particularly concerning achieving success

As children, we’re often taught that making mistakes is a bad thing.

For instance, many parents will actively discourage their children from doing anything that might lead to them making what, from the parents’ standpoint, appears to be a serious mistake.

Would this be an experience with which you’re familiar, dear reader? Well, I am, let me tell you.

Making mistakes:

The importance of making mistakes to achieving success

The human experience:

However, I’ve learned that making mistakes is an essential element of the human experience as we progress down life’s highway.

There’s no road map for this journey; you learn as you go along and use what you’ve learned to improve your life as best you can.

As you journey down life’s highway, of course, you face an endless stream of choices at various times in your life.

A decision must be made each time you come to a fork in the road.

Daunting as this may be at times, you must always remember that every decision you make will be a valid one. It may not prove to be the right one, but that doesn’t make it any less valid based on what you knew at the time.

Allow me to explain.

Almost every decision you have to make will have been based on imperfect information. That’s the nature of life in the modern world.

So, all you can do is to use your judgement, weigh up the pros and cons, and act in good faith.

Inevitably, outcomes won’t always be favourable to you, but that doesn’t mean you’ve made a bad choice. It just means life has a lesson you must learn.

That’s the thing about mistakes: they’re just lessons that, over time, provide you with that valuable commodity known as experience.

And never, ever underestimate the importance of experience when it comes to achieving success.

Lessons learned won’t be forgotten:

What you learn from your mistakes is far more important to you than anything anyone can tell you in a classroom. You’ll never forget those things you’ve had to learn the hard way.

Life is not called the ‘School of Hard Knocks’ for nothing.

If you believe in yourself and your ability to use your judgement, and you accept that you’ll make mistakes occasionally, then you can cope with just about everything life throws at you.

Just make decisions to the best of your ability and knowledge, and then, if they don’t work out, just look for the lesson and learn it well.

Never let anyone tell you that making mistakes is a bad thing because it’s not.

Despite anything people will tell you to the contrary, there’s nothing wrong with making mistakes because that’s how you gain experience and that’s how you’ll grow in character.

Once is fine; twice is not:

That said, while making a mistake is perfectly reasonable, making the same mistake frequently is not.

Make a mistake once, and that’s fine; make it twice, and you’re starting to look a little bit careless. Make the same mistake three times, and people will start to have serious doubts about you.

An essential element of success:

No one ever mastered anything without making mistakes.

Whatever you choose to do in life, you start as a complete beginner like everyone else.

If you aim to be a success in your chosen profession, then you must get out there, have a go, make mistakes, learn from them, and keep refining your craft until you’re the best, or at least as good as the very best.

It can be done, and people do. You can too.

However, you must accept that you’ll make mistakes, and as long as you don’t make the same mistakes too often, you’ll be fine.

REMEMBER: There’s no such thing as failure, only outcomes you didn’t want and lessons to be learned. Learn the lessons, and you’ll be better prepared when you have another go.

Please share this post on social media

So, dear reader, was this post worth a few minutes of your time?

If the idea of the importance of making mistakes resonated with you in some way, please share this post with your friends on social media.

When you share, everyone wins.

So go on, please share this post now, and I’ll be forever grateful. You’ll be helping a keen blogger reach a wider audience.

Thank you.

Make Money

Articles you might also find interesting:

© Mann Island Media Limited 2025. All rights reserved.

Filed Under: Wisdom Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

21 powerful quotes by F. Scott Fitzgerald to inspire you

04/19/2025 by

Today I thought it would be interesting to explore some of the great quotes by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age, a term he popularized.

During his lifetime, he published four novels, four story collections, and 164 short stories. Although he achieved temporary popular success and fortune in the 1920s, Fitzgerald received critical acclaim only after his death and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.

In 1920, he published the commercially successful This Side of Paradise. The novel became a cultural sensation and cemented his reputation as one of the eminent writers of the decade.

By any measure, he was a successful man, and, as I’ve said before, it’s always worth listening to successful people.

So here are 21 quotes by F. Scott Fitzgerald to inspire you.

Take a few moments to be inspired, and please feel free to pass them on.

21 Quotes by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Quotes by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1-10):

  1. Action is character.
  2. Forgotten is forgiven.
  3. You can stroke people with words.
  4. Show me a hero, and I’ll write you a tragedy.
  5. Nothing is as obnoxious as other people’s luck.
  6. Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.
  7. Great art is the contempt of a great man for small art.
  8. Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind.
  9. Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.
  10. In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o’clock in the morning, day after day.
Make Money

Quotes by F. Scott Fitzgerald (11-21):

  1. No grand idea was ever born in a conference, but a lot of foolish ideas have died there.
  2. Men get to be a mixture of the charming mannerisms of the women they have known.
  3. No such thing as a man willing to be honest. That would be like a blind man willing to see.
  4. You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.
  5. At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide.
  6. An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmaster of ever afterwards.
  7. Some men have a necessity to be mean, as if they were exercising a faculty which they had to partially neglect since early childhood.
  8. Either you think, or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize, and sterilize you.
  9. The easiest way to get a reputation is to go outside the fold, shout around for a few years as a violent atheist or a dangerous radical, and then crawl back to the shelter.
  10. My idea is always to reach my generation. The wise writer writes for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterwards.
  11. Family quarrels are bitter things. They don’t go according to any rules. They’re not like aches or wounds, they’re more like splits in the skin that won’t heal because there’s not enough material.

Please share this post:

Did you find these quotes by F. Scott Fitzgerald as interesting and inspirational as you’d hoped, dear reader?

I hope so.

If that’s the case, then please share this post with your friends because when you share, everyone wins.

So go on, please share this post now on social media. If you can do that for me, I will be truly grateful.

Thank you for your support.

Articles you might enjoy:

© Mann Island Media Limited 2025. All rights reserved.

quotes by F. Scott Fitzgerald, quotes by F. Scott Fitzgerald, quotes by F. Scott Fitzgerald, quotes by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Filed Under: Quotes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

33 thought-provoking Quotes by Thomas Sowell to make you think

04/18/2025 by

Today I am exploring some thought-provoking quotes by Thomas Sowell, who is, in my opinion, one of the great American thinkers of his time.

If you’re not familiar with Thomas Sowell, he is an American economist, economic historian, social philosopher, and political commentator. He is also a well-known voice in the American conservative movement and a prominent black conservative.

Thomas Sowell was born into a poor family in segregated Gastonia, North Carolina. Despite his humble beginnings, he graduated from Harvard University in 1958, which is a truly remarkable achievement, given the challenges he would have faced at that time.

To me, Thomas Sowell is an impressive character quite simply because he rose above the obvious disadvantages he faced and proved that, if we are prepared to take personal responsibility for our lives, we all have the power to achieve our full potential.

Thomas Sowell is the author of more than 45 books on a variety of subjects, including politics, economics, education, and race, and he has been a syndicated columnist in more than 150 newspapers.

I’ve heard him speak many times and, in my opinion, he has a lot of interesting things to say. There are many videos on YouTube featuring Thomas Sowell and I recommend you check some of them out.

However, not before you’ve read today’s thought-provoking quotes by Thomas Sowell which are listed below.

Make Money

Quotes by Thomas Sowell (1-11):

Liberalism is totalitarianism with a human face.

People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.

There are few things more dishonourable than misleading the young.

The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.

It takes considerable knowledge just to realise the extent of your own ignorance.

There are only two ways of telling the complete truth – anonymously and posthumously.

Too much of what is called education is little more than an expensive isolation from reality.

The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favour of holding meetings.

Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.

If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.

Education is not merely neglected in many of our schools today but is replaced to a great extent by ideological indoctrination.

Quotes by Thomas Sowell (12-22):

You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats’ procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.

The next time some academics tell you how important diversity is, ask how many Republicans there are in their sociology department.

Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good.

Sometimes it seems as if there are more solutions than problems. On closer scrutiny, it turns out that many of today’s problems are a result of yesterday’s solutions.

Elections should be held on April 16th – the day after we pay our income taxes. That is one of the few things that might discourage politicians from being big spenders.

It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

What multiculturalism boils down to is that you can praise any culture in the world except Western culture – and you cannot blame any culture in the world except Western culture.

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.

The problem isn’t that Johnny can’t read. The problem isn’t even that Johnny can’t think. The problem is that Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.

Tariffs that save jobs in the steel industry mean higher steel prices, which in turn means fewer sales of American steel products around the world and losses of far more jobs than are saved.

The people made worse off by slavery were those who were enslaved. Their descendants would have been worse off today if born in Africa instead of America. Put differently, the terrible fate of their ancestors benefitted them.

Quotes by Thomas Sowell (23-33):

The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore, we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.

The welfare state is not really about the welfare of the masses. It is about the egos of the elites.

All the political angst and moral melodrama about getting the rich to pay their fair share is part of a big charade. This is not about economics; it is about politics.

One of the common failings among honourable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonourable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them.

The biggest and most deadly tax rate on the poor comes from a loss of various welfare state benefits – food stamps, housing subsidies and the like – if their income goes up.

Hyperinflation can take virtually your entire life’s savings, without the government having to bother raising the official tax rate at all.

All of us should be on guard against beliefs that flatter ourselves. At the very least, we should check such beliefs against facts.

People who have time on their hands will inevitably waste the time of people who have work to do.

Even if the government spends itself into bankruptcy and the economy still does not recover, Keynesians can always say that it would have worked if only the government had spent more.

Like a baseball game, wars are not over till they are over. Wars don’t run on a clock like football. No previous generation was so hopelessly unrealistic that this had to be explained to them.

Being willing to donate the taxpayers’ money is not the same as being willing to put your own money where your mouth is.

Please share this post with your friends:

Were these thought-provoking quotes by Thomas Sowell interesting to you, dear reader?

If they were, then perhaps they might interest others, you know, too.

Please share them with your friends on social media because when you share, everyone wins. If you could share them now, I’d be ever so grateful.

Like every blogger, I can only keep doing what I do if readers are viewing my blog posts. So you really can help me, dear reader.

Thank you for your support, dear reader.

Articles you might enjoy:

© Mann Island Media Limited 2025. All rights reserved.

Filed Under: Quotes Tagged With: , , , , , ,
Next Page »