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John Peters, Wine Director, Culinaria Cooking School

COLUMN = WINE

John Peters is the director of wine at Culinaria Cooking School, which is scheduled to open its doors in the fall of 2010.

He has been in the wine business for nearly three decades. With his father and brother, John founded Wide World of Wines in 1982 and ran the retail business through 1989, hand selecting wines from vineyards all over the world. John then went to work for Continental Liquors until 1994, and from 1997 to 2003 he was the Mid-Atlantic marketing manager for DeLoach Vineyards.

John is frequently invited to speak about wine at the National Press Club, the Decanter Club, The Greenbrier, The Homestead, and the French and Australian Embassies in Washington, DC.

“John brings a wealth of knowledge and a passion for the marriage of food and wine to Culinaria Cooking School,” say Culinaria Cooking School co-owners Stephen Sands and Pete Snaith.

The only dream worth having is to live while you’re alive and die only when you’re dead.”

– Arundhati Roy

The mind is everything. What you think, you become.”

– Buddha

We never know how high we are
 till we are called to rise;
 And then, if we are true to plan,
 Our statures touch the skies.”

– Emily Dickinson

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.”

– Winston Churchill

Look at everything as though you were
seeing it either for the first or last time.
Then your time on earth will be filled with glory.”

– Betty Smith

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whosoever knows how to fight well is not angry. Whosoever knows how to conquer enemies does not fight them.”

– Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is most important that you do it.”

– Gandi

The quality of your life is directly related to the amount of uncertainty you can comfortably live with.”

– Tony Robbins

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”

– Carl Rogers

Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt

The awakening to the mystery of life is a revolutionary event; in it an old world is destroyed so that a new and better one may take its place.”

– J.J. Van Der Leeuw, The Conquest of Illusion

When a dog runs at you, whistle for him.”

– Henry David Thoreau

The best reason to start an organization is to create a product or service to make the world a better place.”

– Guy Kawasaki

Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you’re already in heaven now.”

– Jack Kerouac

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”

– Friedrich Nietzsche

Inspiration and genius — one and the same.”

– Victor Hugo

A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.”

– Carlos Castaneda

Tolerance and patience should not be read as signs of weakness. They are signs of strength.”

– The Dalai Lama

If you would create something,
 you must be something.”

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The follow-your-gut mentality of the entrepreneur has the potential to take you anywhere you want to go or run you right out of business.”

– Bill Rancic, "The Apprentice"

When I dare to be powerful—to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”

– Audre Lorde

Remove those ‘I want you to like me’ stickers from your forehead
and, instead, place them where they truly will do the most good—on your mirror.”

– Susan Jeffers

If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.”

– Joseph Addison

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

– Winston Churchill

You must have chaos within you, to create a dancing star.”

– Frederic Nietzsche

If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more.
 If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.”

– Oprah Winfrey

Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.”

– Arthur Rubinstein

Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same.”

– Francesca Reigle

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another.”

– Charles Dickens

Traveling is one way of lengthening life, at least in appearance.”

– Benjamin Franklin

There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”

– Leonard Cohen

You don’t go into a field that requires cracking people’s heads open or operating on something as delicate as the spinal cord unless you are comfortable with taking risks.”

– Dr. Ben Carson

Remember that it’s okay to ask for help when you’re stumped, because sometimes you really can’t be expected to handle everything alone.”

– Martha Beck

As each woman realizes her power, she transforms the world.”

– Patrice Wynne, WomanSpirit Sourcebook

There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”

– JFK

Success is the necessary misfortune of life, but it is only to the very unfortunate that it comes early.”

– Anthony Trollope

You take your life in your own hands, and what happens?
 A terrible thing: no one to blame.”

– Erica Jong

He who wants to tear down a house must be prepared to rebuild it.”

– African Proverb

Do you believe it is important to give back some portion of your wealth to support charitable causes?”

– Steven Schussler

To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.”

– Robert Louis Stevenson

Our deepest wishes are whispers of our authentic selves. We must learn to respect them. We must learn to listen.”

– Sarah Ban Breathnach

Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

– Christopher Robin to Pooh

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.”

– Leon Joseph Suenens

My task is really not to change myself but to become familiar with who I am.”

– Maureen Cook

Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make Me Feel Important.’ Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.”

– Mary Kay Ash

Do you have the desire to create something new; the strength of conviction to believe your creation will be successful, and the reservoir of energy necessary to thrust it into the marketplace?”

– Steven Schussler

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

– Charles R. Swindoll

Many people prefer to play it safe when it comes to business matters. Are you willing to take risks in the pursuit of entrepreneurial success?”

– Steven Schussler

‎No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another.”

– Charles Dickens