Inspiration abounds from our Local Heroes

On Sunday we took advantage of the opportunity to learn more about the Wright brothers at the Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center, where guest blogger, MetroMark took us on a tour of the center and the field. It was a fascinating tour that ended with an extremely well done documentary about that Wright Brothers that was narrated by Martin Sheen and filmed in the Dayton area, highlighting the Wright Dunbar neighborhood.

What struck me as extremely relevant was the substantial amount of adversity that the Wright brothers had to overcome in order to be successful… and how very long that road to success was. At one point during the movie there was a quote from the editor of the Dayton Journal about how silly it was that the Wright brothers were putting so much effort into a flying machine. Surely the Wright brothers encountered a lot of squelchers during their efforts. It sure is a good thing for all of us that they were not swayed by the naysayers.

A lot can be learned from our local heroes, and the well of inspiration they provide is deep. From parents to entrepreneurs to urban advocates to aspiring inventors and change agents, surely at least one of the quotes noted below will be relevant to each our readers. Enjoy these nuggets of wisdom from some of our local heroes… and feel free to post some of your personal and local favorites…

“We were lucky enough to grow up in an environment where there was always much encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests; to investigate what ever aroused curiosity.” Orville Wright

“Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.” Charles Kettering

“I object to people running down the future. I am going to live all the rest of my life there.” Charles Kettering

“People are very open-minded about new things - as long as they're exactly like the old ones.” Charles Kettering

“You can't have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time.” Charles Kettering

“I always got my work done before playing.” Edwin Moses

“Lots of people let it go by and never accomplish what they want. I just wanted to see what I could do.” Edwin Moses

“Anybody can be a journalist, even me. Very good idea, because it means you'll have a lot of people being journalists or getting news. If you have a lot of people getting news, somewhere in the collective middle will be found the truth. ” Phil Donahue

“I honestly do not know if civil disobedience has any effect on the government. I can promise you it has a great effect on the person who chooses to do it.” Martin Sheen

“Dreams have only one owner at a time. That's why dreamers are lonely.
It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.” Erma Bombeck

“There are people who put their dreams in a little box and say, 'Yes, I've got dreams, of course I've got dreams.' Then they put the box away and bring it out once in awhile to look in it, and yep, they're still there.” Erma Bombeck

Comments

[metromark]

Shannon,

Here are a few more inspirational quotes--

from Charles Kettering:

Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something,
perhaps when you are least expecting it.
I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down.

If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong.

The Wright brothers flew right through the smoke screen of impossibility.

Problems are the price of progress. Don't bring me anything but trouble. Good news weakens me.

from Orville Wright:

Isn't it astonishing that all these secrets have been preserved for so many years just so we could discover them!

We were lucky enough to grow up in an environment where there was always much encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests; to investigate what ever aroused curiosity.

from Wilbur Wright:

We could hardly wait to get up in the morning.

If I were giving a young man advice as to how he might succeed in life, I would say to him, pick out a good father and mother, and begin life in Ohio.

from Paul Laurence Dunbar:

My mother, who had no education except what she picked up herself, and who is generally conceded to be a very unusual woman, taught me to read when I was four years old. Both my father and she were fond of books and used to read to us as we sat around the fire at night.