Quotes, Poems, & Sayings...

[JakeTulane]

“Sometimes it’s easy to feel like you’re the only one in the world who’s struggling, who’s frustrated, or unsatisfied, or barely getting by. But that feelings a lie. And if you just hold on, just find the courage to face it all for another day and someone, or something, will find you and make it all okay. Because we all need a little help sometimes. Someone to help us hear the music in our world. To remind us that it won’t always be this way. That someone is out there, and that someone will find you.” - from One Tree Hill

[femmedyke]

“You may as well memorize this sentence now: If it’s to be, it’s up to me.” – Wendy Robbins

[violaine]

"...a strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. it can afford to extend a helping hand to others. it's a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.”

--Jimmy Carter

[justkim]

“I must learn to love the fool in me the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries”

- Theodore Isaac Rubin -

[Janstevie]

A friend is someone who will help you move, A good friend is someone who will help you move a body.

[Elijah]

"When we were children, we used to think that when we grew up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability, to be alive is to be vulnerable."

~Madeleine L'Engle

[Diva]

If you let a bully come in your front yard, he'll be on your porch the next day and the day after that he'll rape your wife in your own bed.

~Lyndon B. Johnson

[Ms. Meander]

Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous - to poetry. But also, it gives birth to the opposite: to the perverse, the illicit, the absurd.
- Thomas Mann

[Ms. Tabitha]

Jealousy is the pain which a man feels from the apprehension that he is not equally beloved by the person whom he entirely loves
~ Joseph Addison

(f)

[Ms. Tabitha]

"The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole,but true beauty in a Woman is reflected in her soul.
It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she knows."
~ Audrey Hepburn

(f)

[JakeTulane]

"Happiness is excitement that has found a settling down place. But there is always a little corner that keeps flapping around." ~E.L. Konigsburg

[JakeTulane]

Every now and then,
when the world sits just right,
a gentle breath of heaven
fills my soul with delight...
~Hazelmarie ‘Mattie’ Elliott, A Breath of Heaven

[JakeTulane]

"If you search the world for happiness, you may find it in the end, for the world is round and will lead you back to your door." ~Robert Brault

[UofMfan]

“We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.” ~ Tom Robbins

[Elijah]

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

~George Orwell

[JakeTulane]

"Learning to let things go and forgive isn't always easy, but when we truly forgive, it helps foster better health, better relationships, a deeper sense of purpose and self worth and a feeling of connection to others." -- Robert Alan

[JakeTulane]

"We cannot change the past, but we can change our attitude toward it. Uproot guilt and plant forgiveness. Tear out arrogance and seed humility. Exchange love for hate --- thereby, making the present comfortable and the future promising." -- Maya Angelou

[JakeTulane]

"Our anger and annoyance are more detrimental to us than the things themselves which anger or annoy us." --Marcus Aurelius

[Sparkle]

the lesson of the moth
by don marquis

i was talking to a moth
the other evening
he was trying to break into
an electric light bulb
and fry himself on the wires

why do you fellows
pull this stunt i asked him
because it is the conventional
thing for moths or why
if that had been an uncovered
candle instead of an electric
light bulb you would
now be a small unsightly cinder
have you no sense

plenty of it he answered
but at times we get tired
of using it
we get bored with the routine
and crave beauty
and excitement
fire is beautiful
and we know that if we get
too close it will kill us
but what does that matter
it is better to be happy
for a moment
and be burned up with beauty
than to live a long time
and be bored all the while
so we wad all our life up
into one little roll
and then we shoot the roll
that is what life is for
it is better to be a part of beauty
for one instant and then cease to
exist than to exist forever
and never be a part of beauty
our attitude toward life
is come easy go easy
we are like human beings
used to be before they became
too civilized to enjoy themselves

and before i could argue him
out of his philosophy
he went and immolated himself
on a patent cigar lighter
i do not agree with him
myself i would rather have
half the happiness and twice
the longevity

but at the same time i wish
there was something i wanted
as badly as he wanted to fry himself

archy

[hpychick]

The invisible man and the invisible woman got married and had a few children. Their kids were nothing to look at.

[Elijah]

"Nothing is so strong as gentleness and nothing is so gentle as real strength."

~Ralph W. Sockman

[hpychick]

Not all scars show,
not all wounds heal
Sometimes you can't always see
The pain someone feels

[Janstevie]

Growing old is like being increasingly punished for a crime you did'nt commit.

[Fancy]

Campers: Nature's way of feeding mosquitoes.


~Author Unknown

[jenny]

"You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you." ~ Maya Angelou

[Arwen]

Only the good doubt their own goodness, which is what makes them good in the first place. The bad know they are good, but the good know nothing. They spend their lives forgiving others, but they can't forgive themselves. -Paul Auster, novelist and poet (b. 1947)

[Kätzchen]

STRAWBERRIES

There were never strawberries
like the ones we had
that sultry afternoon
sitting on the step
of the open French window
facing each other
your knees held in mine
the blue plates in our laps
the strawberries glistening
in the hot sunlight
we dipped them in sugar
looking at each other
not hurrying the feast
for one to come
the empty plates
laid on the stone together
with the two forks crossed
and I bent towards you
sweet in that air
in my arms
abandoned like a child
from your eager mouth
the taste of strawberries
in my memory
lean back again
let me love you
let the sun beat
on our forgetfulness
one hour of all
the heat intense
and summer lightning
on the Kilpatrick hills

let the storm wash the plates.

~ Edwin Morgan

http://www.strawberryplanters.net/rw_common/images/how%20to%20grow%20strawberries%20in%20hanging%20po ts.jpg

[Kobi]

Try not to confuse enjoying attention
with enjoying the person providing it.
:|

[JakeTulane]

"Feeling sorry for yourself, and you present condition, is not only a waste of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have." - Unknown

[JakeTulane]

"You may be sorry that you spoke, sorry you stayed or went, sorry you won or lost, sorry so much was spent. But as you go through life, you’ll find – you’re never sorry you were kind." - Anonymous

[JakeTulane]

"The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love." - W. Somerset Maugham

[Elijah]

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe."

~Friedrich Nietzsche

[Mister Bent]

"Don't go into Papa Smurf's lab without permission."

- Smurfette, et al.

[Ms. Meander]

Power is the faculty or capacity to act, the strength and potency to accomplish something. It is the vital energy to make choices and decisions. It also includes the capacity to overcome deeply embedded habits and to cultivate higher, more effective ones.
- Stephen R. Covey

[Fancy]

“People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.”

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQJxFKh8Y18D3aUwsNLkaZs3EiW2hRR6 GvrgPpVT8PWwSPY3VV0

[Sparkle]

One Art
By Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.


--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

[JakeTulane]

"He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery." ~Harold Wilson

[JakeTulane]

"Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer." ~Shunryu Suzuki

[JakeTulane]

What can we take on trust
in this uncertain life? Happiness, greatness,
pride - nothing is secure, nothing keeps.
~Euripides, Hecuba

[cinderella]

The visionary is the only true realist.
~Federico Fellini

[Soon]

"I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else's whim or to someone else's ignorance."

— bell hooks

[pajama]

"The Fountain does tests you, Gibbs. But better to not know which moment may be your last, every morsel of your entire being alive to the infinite mystery of it all. And whose to say I won't live forever, eh? Discoverer of the Fountain of Youth. I have no saying it, Gibbs. It's a pirate's life for me. Savvy?"

Captain Jack Sparrow - Pirates of the Carribean - On Stranger Tides

[Diva]

Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.

~Albert Einstein

[Diva]

Whoever undertakes to set himself [or HERself] up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

~Albert Einstein

[Elijah]

Male and female represent the two sides of the great radical dualism. But in fact they are perpetually passing into one another. Fluid hardens to solid, solid rushes to fluid. There is no wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman.

Margaret Fuller (1810 - 1850), Woman in the Nineteenth Century, 1845

[femmedyke]

The great lesson...is that the sacred is in the ordinary, that it is to be found in one's daily life, in one's neighbors, friends, and family, in one's back yard. ~Abraham Maslow

[JakeTulane]

"Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring." - Oscar Wilde

[JakeTulane]

"Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, a touch that never hurts." - Charles Dickens

[JakeTulane]

"Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds! Shine... Meditate. Live purely. Be quiet. Do your work with mastery." - Buddha

[girl_dee]

Look, if you want to torture me, spank me, lick me, do it. But if this poetry shit continues just shoot me now please.
~ Lori Petty in Tank Girl

[femmedyke]

Here is the test to find whether or not your mission on earth is finished: If you are alive, it isn't. ~ Richard Bach

[Latino.Hrt]

-Being present lets us experience each moment in our lives in a way that cannot be fully lived through memory or fantasy-

[UofMfan]

Como un vaso albergaste la infinita ternura, y el infinito olvido te trizó como a un vaso. ~ Pablo Neruda

[dixie]

"Who's the bitch now"
The New Guy

(playing on the tv when I got to work, dorky movie but it makes me laugh lol)

[Elijah]

In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true either is true or becomes true.

~John Lilly

[DoReMiFemme]

"The Abandoned Valley"
Jack Gilbert

Can you understand being alone so long
you would go out in the middle of the night
and put a bucket into the well
so you could feel something down there
tug at the other end of the rope?

[JakeTulane]

"It is so rare...to find a complete person, with a soul, a heart and an imagination; so rare for characters as ardent and restless as ours to meet and to be matched together, that I hardly know how to tell you what happiness it gives me to know you." --Hector Berlioz

[JakeTulane]

"Experience is in the fingers and the head. The heart is inexperienced." --Henry David Thoreau

[JakeTulane]

"Love cannot accept what it is. Everywhere on earth it cries out against kindness, compassion, intelligence, everything that leads to compromise. Love demands the impossible, the absolute, the sky on fire, inexhaustible springtime, life after death, and death itself transfigured into eternal life." --Albert Camus

[gotoseagrl]

"Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."
W.B. Yeats

[always2late]

You have freedom when you're easy in your harness. - Robert Frost

[JakeTulane]

"Anyone can carry his burden, however hard, until nightfall. Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely, till the sun goes down. And this is all life really means." ~Robert Louis Stevenson

[Diva]

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.

~Buddha

[JakeTulane]

"Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace." ~Victor Hugo

[JakeTulane]

"Practical life teaches us that people may differ and that both may be wrong: it also teaches us that people may differ and both be right. Anchor yourself fast in the latter faith, or the former will sweep your heart away." ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare

[Ms. Tabitha]

Sometimes in our flower bed of life, we have to get rid of the weeds

(f)

[always2late]

Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in strangers' gardens. - Douglas Jerrould

[Elijah]

“I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you”

~Friedrich Nietzsche

[Elijah]

I Crave Your Mouth, Your Voice, Your Hair

I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day
I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.

I hunger for your sleek laugh,
your hands the color of a savage harvest,
hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.

I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body,
the sovereign nose of your arrogant face,
I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes,

and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,
hunting for you, for your hot heart,
like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.

Translated by Stephen Tapscott

~Pablo Neruda

[Reader]

Someone I know said to me recently:

"Sure. It's easy to love someone who's lovable. But, it's hard to love someone who is difficult. The real challenge is to try and love a difficult person."

[jenny]

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." ~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy

[FeminineAllure]

Some pursue happiness, others create it.

[JakeTulane]

"Sad will be the day for any man when he becomes contented with the thoughts he is thinking and the deeds he is doing - where there is not forever beating at the doors of his soul some great desire to do something larger; which he knows he was meant and made to do." - Phillips Brooks

[JakeTulane]

"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves." - Carl Jung

[JakeTulane]

"Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you’ll see the way to fly." - Richard Bach

[always2late]

What is a friend? A single soul shared by two people. - Aristotle

[Fancy]

“Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths.” Etty Hillesum

[Elijah]

Spanish Moss

hangs in the heavy night air
haunting and beguiling
I watch
enamored
she begins to sway
to call out
almost taunting
I hesitate
watching her sultry dance
pulling Me to her
I take refuge
under her canopy
I lie under her
staring up
into her
most
intimate places
I feel her
all around Me
and drift
off
to sleep

in the morning
slivers of light
awaken Me
and I know
I must go

I now know
too much
you see

~ERS

[JakeTulane]

"All men should strive
to learn before they die
what they are running from, and to, and why." ~James Thurber

[JakeTulane]

"No single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born." ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

[JakeTulane]

"To dare to live alone is the rarest courage; since there are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy in the field, than their own hearts in their closet." ~Charles Caleb

[Latino.Hrt]

-while it is always important to honor what we’ve lost-sometimes a loss can also represent a chance for a new beginning-

[Janstevie]

War will cease when people refuse to fight.

[gotoseagrl]

Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.
James Baldwin

[gotoseagrl]

Real love is a pilgrimage. It happens when there is no strategy, but it is very rare because most people are strategists.
Anita Brookner

[Sparkle]

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself;
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

Song of Myself - Leaves of Grass

Walt Whitman

[smouldering]

You can have anything you want if you want it desperately enough. You must want it with an exuberance that erupts through the skin and joins the energy that created the world. ~Sheila Graham

[Elijah]

It Is Spring Again

It is spring, And the ledger is opened again.
From the abyss where they were frozen,
those days suddenly return, those days
that passed away from your lips, that died
with all our kisses, unaccounted.
The roses return: they are your fragrance;
they are the blood of your lovers.
Sorrow returns. I go through my pain
and the agony of friends still lost in the memory
of moon-silver arms, the caresses of vanished women.
I go through page after page. There are no answers,
and spring has come once again asking
the same questions, reopening account after account.


~Faiz Ahmed Faiz

[StillettoDoll]

I don't have hobbies, I have interests. Hobbies cost money. Interests are free.
George Carlin

[StillettoDoll]

Capitalism tries for a delicate balance: It attempts to work things out so that everyone gets just enough stuff to keep them from getting violent and trying to take other people's stuff.

George Carlin
http://images-partners-tbn.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT0nKjKsUusDGjuEjpqWptps8BhyQsyV nhoQegfWzlcszqid0LWuY5T-CA:members.cox.net/jritland1/images/GeorgeCarlin/GeorgeCarlin-L2.jpg (http://aolsearcht5.search.aol.com/aol/imageDetails?s_it=imageDetails&q=carlin&img=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.cox.net%2Fjritland1%2Fima ges%2FGeorgeCarlin%2FGeorgeCarlin-L2.jpg&v_t=keyword_rollover&host=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.cox.net%2Fjritland1%2FGe orgeCarlin%2FGeorgeCarlinPhoto2.html&width=101&height=127&thumbUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fimages-partners-tbn.google.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AANd9GcT0nKjKsU usDGjuEjpqWptps8BhyQsyVnhoQegfWzlcszqid0LWuY5T-CA%3Amembers.cox.net%2Fjritland1%2Fimages%2FGeorge Carlin%2FGeorgeCarlin-L2.jpg&b=image%3Fpage%3D3%26v_t%3Dkeyword_rollover%26q%3D carlin%26count_override%3D18%26s_it%3Dsearchtabs%2 6oreq%3D3b42830811d546bd9a6c71c7614b1202%26oreq%3D cf627a9a134046919e3e5da716bca505&imgHeight=441&imgWidth=350&imgTitle=George+Carlin+-+photo+2&imgSize=21239&hostName=members.cox.net)

[shadows papa]

"And it all comes true,yes it all comes true, like a wheel inside a wheel it turns on you. And you think 'what have I done? What can I do?'. What you believe about yourself it all comes true" John Mellencamp

[JakeTulane]

"A great novel is concerned primarily with the interior lives of its characters as they respond to the inconvenient narratives that fate imposes on them. Movie adaptations of these monumental fictions often fail because they become mere exercises in interior decoration." - Richard Schickel

[JakeTulane]

"Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate... but with his other hand he can note down what he sees among the ruins." - Franz Kafka

[JakeTulane]

"And if you cannot remain indifferent, you must resolve to throw your weight into that balance in which the fate and condition of man is weighed." - Lajos Kossuth

[always2late]

Everyone is trying to accomplish something big, not realizing that life is made up of little things. - Frank A. Clark

[UofMfan]

Quiza fue una hecatombe de esperanzas
un derrumbe de algun modo previsto
ah pero mi tristeza solo tuvo un sentido

todas mis intuiciones se asomaron
para verme sufrir
y por cierto me vieron

hasta aqui habia hecho y rehecho
mis trayectos contigo
hasta aqui habia apostado
a inventar la verdad
pero vos encontraste la manera
una manera tierna
y a la vez implacable
de desahuciar mi amor

con un solo pronostico lo quitaste
de los suburbios de tu vida posible
lo envolviste en nostalgias
lo cargaste por cuadras y cuadras
y despacito
sin que el aire nocturno lo advirtiera
ahi nomas lo dejaste
a solas con su suerte
que no es mucha

creo que tenes razon
la culpa es de uno cuando no enamora
y no de los pretextos
ni del tiempo

hace mucho muchisimo
que yo no me enfrentaba
como anoche al espejo
y fue implacable como vos
mas no fue tierno

ahora estoy solo
francamente
solo

siempre cuesta un poquito
empezar a sentirse desgraciado

antes de regresar
a mis lobregos cuarteles de invierno

con los ojos bien secos
por si acaso

miro como te vas adentrando en la niebla
y empiezo a recordarte. ~ Mario Benedetti

[Arwen]

The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else. -George Bernard Shaw, writer, Nobel laureate (1856-1950)

[Fancy]

"Since we live in the heads of those who remember us, we lose control of our lives and become who they want us to be."

— David M. Eagleman (Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives)

[FeminineAllure]

“Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength.”
August Wilson

[Nat]

"You may not have a son, but you have a symbolic son. I have been the avatar of several people's symbolic son. You can have many avatars of a symbolic person in your life."

- something I wrote down from a dream in the middle of the night

[femmedyke]

The Stolen Child
William Butler Yeats

Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we've hid our faery vats,
Full of berries
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And anxious in its sleep.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Away with us he's going,
The solemn-eyed:
He'll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest.
For he comes, the human child,
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than he can understand.

[dixie]

It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day to day basis.
~Margaret Bonnano

[dixie]

The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved - loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.
~Victor Hugo

[dixie]

Being vulnerable doesn't have to be threatening. Just have the courage to be sincere, open and honest. This opens the door to deeper communication all around. It creates self-empowerment and the kind of connections with others we all want in life. Speaking from the heart frees us from the secrets that burden us. These secrets are what make us sick or fearful. Speaking truth helps you get clarity on your real heart directives.
~Sara Paddison

[Diva]

This is the mark of a really admirable [person]: steadfastness in the face of trouble.

~Ludwig van Beethoven

[RamblinStar]

Your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending.

E. E. Cummings

[JakeTulane]

"As I go through all kinds of feelings and experiences in my journey through life -- delight, surprise, chagrin, dismay -- I hold this question as a guiding light: "What do I really need right now to be happy?" What I come to over and over again is that only qualities as vast and deep as love, connection and kindness will really make me happy in any sort of enduring way." - Sharon Salzberg

[JakeTulane]

"What would our world be like if we ceased to worry about "right" and "wrong," or "good" and "evil," and simply acted so as to maximize well-being, our own and that of others? Would we lose anything important?" - Sam Harris

[JakeTulane]

"Peace is the highest and most strenuous act of the soul, but an entirely harmonious act, in which all our powers and affections are blending in a beautiful proportion, and sustain and perfect one another. It is more than the silence after storms. It is as the concord of all melodious sounds ... an alliance of love with all beings, a sympathy with all that is pure and happy, a surrender of every separate will and interest, a participation of the spirit and life of the universe.... This is peace, and the true happiness of humanity." - William Ellery Channing

[Ms. Tabitha]

"I don't pretend to know what love is for everyone, but I can tell you what it is for me.
Love is knowing all about someone and still wanting to be with them more than any other person. Love is trusting them enough to tell them everything about yourself, including the things you might be ashamed of.
Love is feeling comfortable and safe with someone, but still getting weak in the knees when they walk into a room and smile at you" ~ Unknown

(f)

[Ms. Tabitha]

Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life! ~Albert Einstein

(f)

[Ms. Tabitha]

It goes without saying that you should never have more children than you have car windows ~ Erma Bombeck

(f)

[Diva]

I do respect people's faith, but I don't respect their manipulation of that faith in order to create fear and control.

~Javier Bardem

[Diva]

To say "we" and mean "I" is one of the most recondite insults.

~Theodor Adorno

[Diva]

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice.

~Meister Eckhart

[kannon]

All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring.

Chuck Palahniuk

[gotoseagrl]

Not all of us have to possess earthshaking talent. Just common sense and love will do.
Myrtle Auvil

[gotoseagrl]

To try to write love is to confront the muck of language: that region of hysteria where language is both too much and too little, excessive and impoverished.
Roland Barthes

[Tommi]

"It's always necessary to seek for perfection. Obviously, for us, this word no longer has the same meaning. To me, it means: from one canvas to the next, always go further, further...."

Pablo Picasso

[miss entycing]

Close to the Edge, red, one of a kind, Discipline, and the sound of surprise,
all seem to me to be her willingness to submit, that captured the essence and decadence of the intention above her.
Bill Bruforde

[The_Lady_Snow]

Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?

~Ernest Gaines

[Soon]

Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.

~Plato

[Diva]

Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change - this is the rhythm of living. Out of our over-confidence, fear; out of our fear, clearer vision, fresh hope. And out of hope, progress.

~Bruce Barton

[Diva]

Change is the only constant. Hanging on is the only sin.

~Denise McCluggage

[JakeTulane]

“Learn to appreciate the things you have before time makes you appreciate the things you had.” — Unknown

[JakeTulane]

“In the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take, relationships we were afraid to have, and the decisions we waited too long to make.” — Unknown

[JakeTulane]

“Try to expect nothing, but be open for anything. Don’t look for happiness, but don’t settle for anything less.” — Unknown

[UofMfan]

"In what language does rain fall over tormented cities?" ~ Pablo Neruda

[Semantics]

Implacable self-possession can be attained by all, not by pretending to look absorbed in what's clearly a blank spiral notebook; not by trying to convince yourself you're an undiscovered rock star, movie star, top model, tycoon, Bond, Bond Girl, Queen Elizabeth, Elizabeth Bennett or Eliza Doolittle at the Ambassador's Ball; not by imagining you're a long lost member of the Vanderbilt family, nor by tilting up your chin fifteen to forty-five degrees and pretending to be Grace Kelly in her prime. These methods work in theory, but in practice they slip away, so one is left hideously naked with nothing but the stained sheet of self-confidence around one's feet.

Instead, stately dignity can be possessed by all, in two ways:

1. Diverting the mind with a book or play.
2. Reciting Keats.

[Tommi]

"The imagination is the spur of delights... all depends upon it, it is the mainspring of everything; now, is it not by means of the imagination one knows joy? Is it not of the imagination that the sharpest pleasures arise?"

— Marquis de Sade

[Arwen]

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. -Aristotle, philosopher (384-322 BCE)

[Kätzchen]

"Failure is a condiment that gives success it's flavor,"
~ Truman Capote

http://www.highcountryphotos.com/cache/appalachian-mountain-photography-competition/2009/blue-ridge-parkway-vistas/peterson-sunrise-brm.jpg_w400.jpg

[Fancy]

Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.

~Phyllis Diller

[The_Lady_Snow]

War. Rape. Murder. Poverty. Equal rights for gays. Guess which one the Southern Baptist Convention is protesting?

~The Value of Families

[Diva]

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.

~Leonardo da Vinci

[femmedyke]

"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."
— E.B. White

[Diva]

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.

~Mark Twain

[JAGG]

"Your are as close to perfect as I've ever seen, your only flaw is that you can't accept mine."

[Janstevie]

Friends and family are a haven in what can sometimes seem a heartless world.

[Tommi]

Women are made to be loved not understood.
:moonstars:



Oscar Wilde

[The_Lady_Snow]

Everybody's journey is individual. If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality.

~James Baldwin

[JakeTulane]

"We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment." - Jim Rohn

[JakeTulane]

"It is a curious sensation: the sort of pain that goes mercifully beyond our powers of feeling. When your heart is broken, your boats are burned: nothing matters any more. It is the end of happiness and the beginning of peace." -George Bernard Shaw

[JakeTulane]

"Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself." - Walter Anderson

[UofMfan]

“Our Similarities bring us to a common ground; Our Differences allow us to be fascinated by each other” ~ Tom Robbins

[hpychick]

"Denial,they say, stands for"Don't even notice I am lying." Human beings are the only animals who are happily lied to by our own minds about what is actually happening around us." Cesar Millan

[Ms. Tabitha]

"To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world"
~ Josephine Billings
(f)

[Ms. Tabitha]

“The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes"


~ Frank Lloyd Wright


(f)

[Ms. Tabitha]

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.
- Jimi Hendrix

:hippie:

[2myladyblue]

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:

in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,

you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,

as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:

whose texture compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands

the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands.

[Elijah]

Last Night...

Last night, your long-lost memory came back to me as though
Spring stealthily should come to a forsaken wilderness
A gentle breeze its fragrance over burning deserts blow
Or, all at once be soothed somehow the sick soul’s distress.

~Faiz Ahmed Faiz

[Fancy]

"Uh, I got your rug all wet."

-Eric to Sookie (True Blood)

[Janny]

In this world you must be oh so smart, or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me.
-Jimmy Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd in HARVEY-

[dixie]

"MAKE THEM ALLLLLL WISH THEY HAD A SECOND WITH YOU!!!"

This came from someone who is fast becoming a dear friend. It totally made me smile. :)

[Softhearted]

"It is better to debate a question without setting it than to settle a question without debating it" - Joseph Joubert (1754-1824)

[JakeTulane]

"The purpose of life is simply to live a life of purpose. With no reason to get up in the morning life can start to really get you down. Watch out retirees! Make sure you retire to something instead of from something." - Ricky K.

[JakeTulane]

"My life experience is that I am learning to become more of myself rather than comparing myself with other people. Other people expect me to be like them, but I don't want to be like them, I just want to be more of myself and to accept myself for who I am." - Sharon N.

[JakeTulane]

“Try to expect nothing, but be open for anything. Don’t look for happiness, but don’t settle for anything less.” — Unknown

[Andrew, Jr.]

"In war, there are no unwounded soldiers."

~ Jose Narosky

[Andrew, Jr.]

"Who is not broken in some way or another? Wounded people need healing, not additional bruises....The healing begins when I encounter someone who simply accepts me, listens to my story, and is willing to accompany me in the life I find myself in. Often it is a life without any joy or satisfaction, but it is a life that I have been entrapped in."

~Virgilio Elizondo in Virgilio Elizondo: Spiritual Writings, edited by Timothy Matovina (Orbis)

[Diva]

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.

~Lao Tzu

[Diva]

Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.

~Seneca

[Mr.Nobody]

We can be knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom. ~Michel de Montaigne

[Mr.Nobody]

The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend. ~Aristotle

[Fancy]

Having a grievance or resentment is like drinking poison and thinking it will kill your enemy. - Nelson Mandela

[JakeTulane]

"I don't understand
And I look up and around me
As if my surroundings would tell me the answers
The wind whisper it in my ear
The stars twinkle it in morse code
I catch myself
Silly to think I could find any answers
Any reasons for what happens in this life
I don't understand " - Anonymous

[JakeTulane]

"Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity. " - Unknown

[JakeTulane]

”Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain. The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life. What is it you would let go of today?" --Mary Manin Morrissey

[Nat]

Our humanity is not an attribute that we have received once and forever with our conception - it is a potentiality which we discover within us and progressively develop or destroy through our confrontation with the different experiences of suffering that will meet us through our life.

(Xavier Le Pichon, Geophysicist)

[Andrew, Jr.]

"A man may die, nations may rise & fall, but an idea lives on."

"The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are. The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission."

"Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others."

[Fancy]

Never limit yourself because of others' limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination.

~ Mae Jemison

[Ebon]

Go with the version of your story that feels best to you when you tell it. Make yourself happy and please yourself. Let everyone off the hook from having to please you or from having to change in order for you to be happy. Don’t blame, complain, explain, ...or apologize. Appreciate what shows up in your life, acknowledging that you called it to you. Let go of perceived offenses quickly. Don’t harbor negative thoughts or feelings. Don’t get trapped in the mental tyranny of stuff you can’t do anything about. Pull back and generalize more when the details become too much for you. Find something to appreciate, praise, celebrate and get excited about. Identify your deal breakers, dealmakers, and personal requirements. Assess your strengths and weaknesses, and then go with your strengths. Be more concerned with being real than being good. If it’s not working for you, don’t export it. Know that the power of your Presence speaks volumes. Have faith that things will get done even if you don’t do it. Invoke joy and freedom by acknowledging your personal power. When your inner being decides to move on, go with her. --Ajike Kendrick

[The_Lady_Snow]

We must make it clear that a platform of 'I hate gay men and women' is not a way to become president of the United States.

-Jimmy Carter

[dixie]

One of my dear friends who has not been in the bestest mood lately just posted this on fb and I had to steal it...

"I was going to wear my happy pants today, but they're in the laundry...hmm"

I can totally see her finishing this sentence up with "sucks for you"...LOL

[JakeTulane]

"You can succeed if nobody else believes it, but you will never succeed if you don't believe in yourself." - William J. H. Boetcker

[JakeTulane]

"Do not attempt to do a thing unless you are sure of yourself, but do not relinquish it simply because someone else is not sure of you." - Stewart E. White

[JakeTulane]

"Do not let your peace depend on the hearts of men; whatever they say about you, good or bad, you are not because of it another man, for as you are, you are." - Thomas a Kempis

[shadows papa]

" I had reached that zone of pain where riding was all there was; like all I had ever done was ride,all I would ever do is ride,and everything would be all right, if I just KEEP PEDALING" Anonymous

[Tommi]

Nemo me impune lacessit ! < --- No one provokes me with impunity !

"can someone help carry me over the next public house, I seem to have lost me legs at this one"

MacDougal

[jenny]

"All we are, basically, are monkeys with car keys." ~ Grandma Woody, "Northern Exposure"

[Arwen]

“Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy.” Wayne Dyer

[Ms. Meander]

Written by a dear friend, for me, in response to one I sent her (my most recent 9 Words post):


in the evening cloud shadowed meadow
of the brook whose source is unknown
a woman dressed in
tattered thread-web flowing rags
stood swaying with the spires of grasses

most of the passers-by on the road above ...
the one that leads to the city …
saw a beggar and a fool

but the moon, the brook and i
(i, whose heart has been broken
by the kiss of God)
beheld a solitary, a woman of the coven of the wind
a woman who, as is known by the wanderers of the deserts,
is a darvish, a madjub,
a queen in beggars rags,
a soul gifted with the banishment
of those who are by birth forbidden
to walk the road from town to town
and must, therefore, live
in the meadows of the moon
where there is no path to define her way
no sign to distract her view
and only the nourishment of the brook
whose source and destiny is unknowable

[Diva]

On thy grave the rain shall fall from the eyes of a mighty nation! ~Thomas

~William Parsons

[gotoseagrl]

"What I need is perspective. The illusion of depth, created by a frame, the arrangement of shapes on a flat surface. Perspective is necessary. Otherwise there are only two dimensions. Otherwise you live with your face squashed up against a wall, everything a huge foreground, of details, close-ups, hairs, the weave of the bedsheet, the molecules of the face. Your own skin like a map, a diagram of futility, criscrossed with tiny roads that lead nowhere. Otherwise you live in the moment. Which is not where I want to be"

Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale)

[gotoseagrl]

"We thought we were running away from the grownups, and now we are the grownups."

Margaret Atwood

[gotoseagrl]

"I wonder which is preferable, to walk around all your life swollen up with your own secrets until you burst from the pressure of them, or to have them sucked out of you, every paragraph, every sentence, every word of them, so at the end you're depleted of all that was once as precious to you as hoarded gold, as close to you as your skin - everything that was of the deepest importance to you, everything that made you cringe and wish to conceal, everything that belonged to you alone - and must spend the rest of your days like an empty sack flapping in the wind, an empty sack branded with a bright fluorescent label so that everyone will know what sort of secrets used to be inside you?"

Margaret Atwood

[CrankyOldGuy]

"Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Choose your words, for they become actions. Understand your actions, for they become habits. Study your habits, for they will become your character. Develop your character, for it becomes your destiny."
- Anonymous

[CrankyOldGuy]

"I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think or speak or write with moderation. I am in earnest-- I will not equivocate-- I will not excuse-- I will not retreat a single inch-- AND I WILL BE HEARD!" -William Lloyd Garrison

[Tommi]

Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.


St. Francis of Assisi

[FeminineAllure]

“Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway.” :floatbee:
Mary Kay Ash

[Ms. Meander]

The opening line from one of my favorite films, Off the Map:

"The summer my father was depressed, the face of our lord Jesus Christ appeared on a tortilla at the Taos Junction Cafe."

[Ms. Meander]

"We are all strangers in a strange land, longing for home, but not quite knowing what or where home is. We glimpse it sometimes in our dreams, or as we turn a corner, and suddenly there is a strange, sweet familiarity that vanishes almost as soon as it comes."


also:

"When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability... To be alive is to be vulnerable."

[JakeTulane]

"Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them -- every day begin the task anew." - Saint Francis de Sales

[JakeTulane]

"To change one's life:
1. Start immediately.
2. Do it flamboyantly.
3. No exceptions." - William James

[JakeTulane]

"Let go of the past and go for the future. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you imagined." - Henry David Thoreau

[The_Lady_Snow]

I'm a supporter of gay rights. And not a closet supporter either. From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community. There are so many qualities that make up a human being... by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant.

~Paul Newman

[Janstevie]

I’m cle’a[ni.ng m'y' ke]yb36oa;rd.

[Mr.Nobody]

Never point a finger where you've never lent a hand

[theoddz]

"Every one of us has in him a continent of undiscovered character. Blessed is he who acts the Columbus to his own soul." ~ Unknown

~Theo~ :bouquet:

[Nat]

"The entire cosmos is a cooperative. The sun, the moon and the stars live together as a cooperative. The same is true for humans and animals, trees and the earth. Our bodily parts function as a cooperative. When we realize the world is an interdependent cooperative enterprise, that human beings are all mutual friends in the process of old age, suffering and death - then we can build a noble, healthy environment. If our lives are not based on this truth, then we will all perish." -Buddhadasa

[Arwen]

Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others. -Fyodor Dostoevsky, novelist (1821-1881)

[JakeTulane]

"Living the past is a dull and lonely business; looking back strains the neck muscles, causing you to bump into people not going your way." ~Edna Ferber

[JakeTulane]

"We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday's burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it." ~John Newton

[JakeTulane]

"Our past is like a footprint. It only confirms we were there. No burden on our future does it bear. Bring the rain, clear the pane of clutter." ~Jeb Dickerson

[The_Lady_Snow]

You don't have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight. (http://www.searchquotes.com/quotation/You_don%27t_have_to_be_straight_to_be_in_the_milit ary%3B_you_just_have_to_be_able_to_shoot_straight./268829/)


Rita Mae Brown
(http://www.searchquotes.com/quotes/author/Rita_Mae_Brown/)

[Janstevie]

A laugh is a smile that bursts.

[Janstevie]

There are two ways to rule a women and nobody knows them.

[Diva]

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.

~André Gide

[Arwen]

Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives. -William C. Dement, professor of psychiatry (b. 1928)

It seriously tickles me that his name is Dement as in dementia. :)

[rainintothesea]

‎"Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears." --Barbara Johnson

[Latino.Hrt]

-the roles we play in each others lives are only as powerful as the trust and connection between us___________

[Diva]

It is the calm and silent water that drowns a man.

~African proverb

[Diva]

I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar.

~Robert Brault

[Strappie]

“We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It's one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it's another to think that yours is the only path.”
~ Paulo Coelho ~

[wolfbittenpoet]

"I saw that my life was a vast glowing empty page and I could do anything I wanted."-Jack Kerouac

[Fancy]

If you can't be in awe of Mother Nature, there's something wrong with you.

-Alex Trebek

[JakeTulane]

"Love has its ups and downs, its twists and turns. Love leaves you pain, teaches you until you learn and even if love takes so long, it always takes you to where you belong." - Anonymous

[JakeTulane]

“Do more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practice. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget. Do more than dream: work.” - William Arthur Ward

[JakeTulane]

“If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself. If you are accompanied by even one companion you belong only half to yourself, or even less, in proportion to the thoughtlessness of his conduct; and if you have more than one companion you will fall more deeply into the same plight.” - Leonardo da Vinci

[WolfyOne]

"The opposite of loneliness, it's not togetherness. It is intimacy." ― The Bridge Across Forever

[gotoseagrl]

I imagine that yes is the only living thing.
e. e. cummings

[gotoseagrl]

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

e. e. cummings

[Mr.Nobody]

whenever I hear the phrase "Anything is possible" I say "Have you ever tried to pull a push open door?"

[JakeTulane]

"Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death." ~Anaïs Nin

[JakeTulane]

"Bypasses are devices that allow some people to dash from point A to point B very fast while other people dash from point B to point A very fast. People living at point C, being a point directly in between, are often given to wonder what's so great about point A that so many people from point B are so keen to get there and what's so great about point B that so many people from point A are so keen to get there. They often wish that people would just once and for all work out where the hell they wanted to be." ~Douglas Adams

[JakeTulane]

"Driving down the wrong road and knowing it,
The fork years behind, how many have thought
To pull up on the shoulder and leave the car
Empty, strike out across the fields; and how many
Are still mazed among dock and thistle,
Seeking the road they should have taken?"
~Damon Knight

[UofMfan]

"Conocer el amor de los que amamos es el fuego que alimenta la vida." ~ Pablo Neruda

[The_Lady_Snow]

"Some people won't be happy until they've pushed you to the ground. What you have to do is have the courage to stand your ground and not give them the time of day. Hold on to your power and never give it away."


— Donna Schoenrock

[JakeTulane]

“The supreme object of life is to live. Few people live. It is true life only to realize one's own perfection, to make one's every dream a reality.” - Oscar Wilde

[JakeTulane]

“The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.” - Albert Ellis

[JakeTulane]

“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” - Marcus Aurelius

[Mr.Nobody]

Lakota Instructions for Living

Friend do it this way - that is,
whatever you do in life,
do the very best you can
with both your heart and mind.

And if you do it that way,
the Power Of The Universe
will come to your assistance,
if your heart and mind are in Unity.

When one sits in the Hoop Of The People,
one must be responsible because
All of creation is related.
And the hurt of one is the hurt of all.
And the honor of one is the honor of all.
And whatever we do effects everything in the universe.

If you do it that way - that is,
if you truly join your heart and mind
as one - whatever you ask for,
that's the way it's going to be.

[Mr.Nobody]

When all the trees have been cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover you cannot eat money.

[Mr.Nobody]

An old Cherokee chief was teaching his grandson about life...

"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.
"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.

"One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego.

"The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.

"This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather,
"Which wolf will win?"

The old chief simply replied,
"The one you feed."

[Tommi]

http://www.life.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/insurance-quote-life.co_.za_.jpg

[Diva]

There is no fire like passion
No crime like hatred,
No sorrow like separation,
No sickness like hunger,
And no joy like the joy of freedom.

~Buddha

[Diva]

Only do what your heart tells you.

~Princess Diana

[Duchess]

"Laughter is a form of internal jogging. It moves your internal organs around. It enhances respiration. It is an igniter of great expectations."(f)
Norman Cousins (http://www.great-quotes.com/quote/515637)

[wimsiclegirl]

Intelligence is knowing that tomatoes are a fruit....but wisdom is knowing not to put them in your fruit salad....

[tapu]

There is nothing in the dark that isn't there when the lights are on.
–Rod Serling




:chainsaw:
thanks a lot, Rod

[Mr.Nobody]

...if writers wrote as carelessly as some people talk, then mcgdhfuvn3kjre edjcmm 0s0)smdmmd.

[JakeTulane]

“There comes a time when you have to stand up and shout:

This is me damn it! I look the way I look, think the way I think, feel the way I feel, love the way I love! I am a whole complex package. Take me... or leave me. Accept me - or walk away! Do not try to make me feel like less of a person, just because I don't fit your idea of who I should be and don't try to change me to fit your mold. If I need to change, I alone will make that decision.

When you are strong enough to love yourself 100%, good and bad - you will be amazed at the opportunities that life presents you.” - Stacey Carter

[JakeTulane]

“The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.” - Mitch Albom

[JakeTulane]

“People who love only once in their lives are. . . shallow people. What they call their loyalty, and their fidelity, I call either the lethargy of custom or their lack of imagination.” - Oscar Wilde

[Fancy]

With children no longer the universally accepted reason for marriage, marriages are going to have to exist on their own merits.

~Eleanor Holmes Norton

http://www.onbeingablacklawyer.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/chisolmnortonking.jpg
Shirley Chisholm, Coretta Scott King, Eleanor Holmes Norton

[jenny]

"You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you." ~ Maya Angelou

[Mister Bent]

"Our minds are small, but our hearts are big."

- Dear Sugar (therumpus.net)

[Arwen]

I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him. -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer (1564-1642)

[Arwen]

"If the history of the American sentence were a John Ford movie, its second act would conclude with the young Ernest Hemingway walking into a saloon, finding an etiolated Henry James slumped at the bar in a haze of indecision, and shooting him dead."
Adam Haslett; The Art of Good Writing (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/8c60799c-24e2-11e0-895d-00144feab49a.html); Financial Times (London, UK); Jan 21, 2011.

[robbrt]

“It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens down the temper; so cry away.” Charles Dickens