• Columnists

Pam Ray, Lobbyist

COLUMN = GOVERNMENT RELATIONS

Pam has more than three decades of in-depth experience in policy and politics, with expertise in congressional budget/appropriations and federal grant programs.

Her select policy experience includes housing and community development, housing finance, transit/transportation, taxes, and trade.

With a focus on bridging the knowledge gap between elected officials and their constituents, Pam has achieved success in her own government relations business for 16 years and for elected officials in the US Senate, US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs (1989-95), and the NYS Senate Federal Affairs Office (1986-1989).

For more information, visit www.pamrayllc.com.

Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do.
 Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.”

– Ella Fitzgerald

Do one thing every day that scares you.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!”

– Andrew Carnegie

Friendship is the only cement that will hold the world together.”

– Woodrow Wilson

The person who makes a success of living is the one who see his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication.”

– Cecil B. DeMille

I always maintained that the greatest obstacle in life isn’t danger, it’s boredom. The battle against it is responsible for most of the events in the world — good or ill.”

– Dr. Evelyn Vogel, Dexter

Challenge is a dragon with a gift in its mouth. Tame the dragon and the gift is yours.”

– Noela Evans

Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds.”

– Thomas Dunn

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.”

– Abraham Lincoln

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

– Robert Louis Stevenson

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

You’ve got to be willing to crash and burn. If you’re afraid of failing, you won’t get very far.”

– Steve Jobs

4oz tequila + 1oz TripleSec + 2oz lime juice + 1oz simple syrup (sugar=water), 1 cup crushed ice. Shake + dance around the kitchen.

– Avenida Margarita

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”

– Friedrich Nietzsche

The world I believed in, back in my most innocent, uninformed, childish mind—is real.”

– Martha Beck

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”

– Anais Nin

The fixity of a habit is generally in direct proportion to its absurdity.”

– Marcel Proust

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

– Thomas Edison

Most people never pick up the phone and call. Most people never ask, and that’s what separates the people who do things from the people who just dream about them.”

– Steve Jobs

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

Letting go of expectations is a ticket to peace. It allows us to ride over every crisis—small or large—like a beach ball on water.”

– Martha Beck

An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he’ll quickly learn how to chew it.“


– Roy Ash, co-founder of Litton Industries

When I was younger I thought success was being a star, driving nice cars, having groupies. But today I think the most important thing is to live your life with integrity.

– Ellen DeGeneres

You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing.”

– Maya Angelou

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

– T.S. Eliot

Don’t follow your dreams. Chase them.”

– Richard Dumb

‎Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.”

– Booker T. Washington

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

– William Butler Yeats

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

– Albert Einstein

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try going to sleep with a mosquito in your room.”

– A wisdomism

Do not say, ‘why were the former days better than these,’ for it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”

– Ecclesiastes, 7:10

When you are asked if you can do a job, tell ‘em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.”

– Theodore Roosevelt

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

I’ve come to confirm that one’s title, even that of president, says little about how well one’s life has been led. No matter how much you’ve done, or how successful you’ve been, there’s always more to do, to learn, and to achieve.”

– Barack Obama

Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes.”

– Benjamin Disraeli

I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than any other ability under the sun.”

– John D. Rockefeller

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”

– Jimi Hendrix

The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.”

– Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., U.S. Supreme Court justice

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

– Charles Darwin

Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it.”

– Debbi Fields, Mrs. Fields Cookies

The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.”

– Henry Miller

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

– African Proverb

I may not be able to change what takes place, but I can always choose to change my thinking.”

– Michelle Sedas

Inspiration and genius — one and the same.”

– Victor Hugo

Don’t follow, lead. Don’t copy, create. Don’t start, finish. Don’t sit still, move. Don’t fit in, stand out. Don’t sit quietly, speak up. (Not all the time, sure, but more often.)”

– Seth Godin

You don’t love someone because of their looks or their clothes or their car. You love them because they sing a song only your heart can understand.”

– L.J. Smith

Success is about finding a livelihood that brings joy, self-sufficiency, and a sense of contributing.”

– Anita Roddick

Do not be afraid of mistakes, providing you do not make the same one twice.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt

I don’t do very well without fear. There needs to be a part of me saying, ‘That’s going to fail,’ so I can prove myself wrong.”

– Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe

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

– Charles Dickens