The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any- price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.
-- Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), U.S. Republican (later Progressive) politician, president. letter (Jan. 10, 1917).
The great pagan world of which Egypt and Greece were the last living terms ... once had a vast and perhaps perfect science of its own, a science in terms of life. In our era this science crumbled into magic and charlatanry. But even wisdom crumbles.
-- D.H. (David Herbert) Lawrence, (1885–1930), British author. Originally published by T. Seltzer (1922). Fantasia of the Unconscious, foreword, Viking Compass (1960).
In his father's opinion Jimmy couldn't screw in a light bulb. So who wants to screw in a light bulb? says the voice in Snowman's head, a stand-up comic this time. I'd rather do it in bed.
-- Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake
This is really dumb just stated outright, but it was hilarious in context.
My Beautiful! My beautiful! that standest meekly by With thy proudly-arch'd and glossy neck, and dark and fiery eye, Fret not to roam the desert now, with all thy winged speed; I may not mount on thee again--thou'rt sold, my Arab steed!
The word serendipity was formed by English author Horace Walpole (1717-1797) from Serendip (also Serendib), an old name for Sri Lanka, in reference to a Persian tale, The Three Princes of Serendip, whose heroes "discovered, quite unexpectedly, great and wonderful good in the most unlikely of situations, places and people."
The most important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative, and the second disastrous.
Now, that caught me by surprise (appearing as it did at the end of a discussion on Sigmund Freud) and made me laugh out loud, guffaw, even... Most unlady-like.
Enjoy the simple things. When the children are young, that is all that you can afford. When they are in college, that is all that you can afford. When you are on retirement, that is all that you can afford.
I am thankful for small mercies. I compared notes with one of my friends who expects everything of the universe, and is disappointed when anything is less than the best, and I found that I begin at the other extreme, expecting nothing, and am always full of thanks for moderate goods.
We come into this world crying while all around us are smiling. May we so live that we go out of this world smiling while everybody around us is weeping.
1. Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco. 2. Never kick a cow chip on a hot day. 3. There are 2 theories to arguing with a woman . .. neither works. 4. Never miss a good chance to shut up. 5. Always drink upstream from the herd. 6. If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. 7. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back in your pocket. 8. There are three kinds of men: The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves. 9. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. 10. If you're riding' ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there. 11. Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier'n puttin' it back. 12. AND FINALLY: After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him . The moral : When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.
AND, ABOUT GROWING OLDER . . .
1) Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it. 2) The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for. 3) Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know why I look this way: I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved. 4) When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to youth, think of Algebra. 5) You know you are getting old when every thing either dries up or leaks. 6) I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top. 7) One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it is such a nice change from being young. 8) One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been. 9) Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable. 10) Long ago when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft. Today it's called golf. 11) And finally, If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have anything to laugh at when you are old.
My soul is my great asset and my great misfortune.
-- D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930), British author. Letter, 13 May 1908 (published in The Letters of D. H. Lawrence, vol. 1, ed. by James T. Boulton, 1979).
-- Stéphane Mallarmé, (1842-98), French Symbolist poet. Variations sur un sujet, "Crise de Vers" (first published in La Revue Blanche, Paris, Sept. 1895).
Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself - and be lenient to everybody else.
"The stars are not mere points of light; they are huge balls of fiery gas, unimaginably distant Olympian campfires around which other worlds might huddle."
-- Robert K. J. Killheffer, August, 2002, Fantasy & Science Fiction, p. 22.
Current Music
Every Now And Then -- Art Garfunkel, Maia Sharp & Buddy Mondlock
The autumn colors reflected in the lake, And little leaves floating about Like mighty sailboats With everywhere to go; My hearty steed and I, like the leaves, With everywhere to go!
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with such applause in the lecture room, How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick; Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
-- Walt Whitman
Current Music
Every Now And Then -- Art Garfunkel, Maia Sharp & Buddy Mondlock
Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances -- it was somebody's name, or he happened to be there at the time, or it was so then, and another day would have been otherwise. Strong men believe in cause and effect.
"If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be no help." - From the address President Kennedy never got to deliver in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
Trials, temptations, disappointments -- all these are helps instead of hindrances, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fibre of a character, but strengthen it. Every conquered temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.
My vision is to make the most diverse state on earth, and we have people from every planet on the earth in this state. We have the sons and daughters of every, of people from every planet, of every country on earth.
-— Former California Gov. Gray Davis, during the recall campaign
Current Music
Hear and Heaven -- Stuart Duncan, Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer, Yo-Yo Ma & Aoife O'Donovan
I want to remind you that success in life is based on hard slogging. There will be periods when discouragement is great and upsetting, and the antidote for this is calmness and fortitude and a modest yet firm belief in your competence. Be sure that your priorities are in order so that you can proceed in a logical manner, and be ever mindful that nothing will take the place of persistence.
-- Publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg in a letter to his son.
Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success. No other element can do so much for a man if he is willing to study them and make capital out of them.
The life that conquers is the life that moves with a steady resolution and persistence toward a predetermined goal. Those who succeed are those who have thoroughly learned the immense importance of plan in life, and the tragic brevity of time.
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
In doing your work in the great world, it is a safe plan to follow a rule I once heard on the football field: Don't flinch, don't fall; hit the line hard.
There are moments in life when true invective is called for, when it becomes an absolute necessity, out of a deep sense of justice, to denounce, mock, vituperate, lash out, in the strongest possible language.
-- Charles Simic, quoted in "The Argument Culture", Irish Times, December 17, 1998