Quotes, Poems, & Sayings...

[Metro]

“feminism is for everybody”

“If any female feels she need anything beyond herself to legitimate and validate her existence, she is already giving away her power to be self-defining, her agency.”

“Love is a combination of care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect and trust.”

“To love well is the task in all meaningful relationships, not just romantic bonds.”


—Gloria Jean Watkins a.k.a. "bell hooks"

[puddin']

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

[Janstevie]

Promises are like babies…Fun to make but hell to deliver.

[Katniss]

In the summer
I stretch out on the shore
And think of you
Had I told the sea
What I felt for you,
It would have left its shores,
Its shells,
Its fish,
And followed me.



Katniss~~

[Janstevie]

It does'nt matter if the glass is half empty or half full, there is clearly room for more wine.

[sara-bera]

“The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.” -Neil deGrasse Tyson

[JAGG]

Money is to be respected. Never handle another persons money, without respect for how hard it was to earn it. -T Boone Pickens Jr

He who says there is no such thing as an honest man, you may be sure is himself dishonest. - B Berkeley


To him that watches, everything is revealed.- Italian proverb

[Fatale]

That's the thing about ephemera, isn't it?
Here then gone.

Fleetingly of foot, afoot,
Corner of the eye glimpsed,
There then gone.

Did you see her?
Do you think you know her?
A filamentary figment stealing your breath,
Near then gone.

Was she, were you
ever
really
there?

~Fatale

[Kätzchen]

It Doesn't Matter To Me

-Oriah Mountain Dreamer-
(Native American Elder)


It doesn't matter to me what you do for a living:
I want to know what you ache for and if you dare of meeting your hearts' longing.

It doesn't matter to me how old you are:
I want to know if you would risk looking like a fool for love,
for your dreams, for the adventures of being alive.

It doesn't matter to me which planets are squaring with your moon:
I want to know if you have touched the center of your sorrow,
if you have been opened by life's betrayals
or have become shriveled from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain:
-mine and your own-
without moving to hide it, fade it or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy:
-mine and your own-
if you can dance with wildness and ecstacy,
fill the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us to be careful or to be realistic
or to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't matter to me if the story you are telling me is true:
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself,
if you can bear the causation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.
I want to know if you can live with failure:
-yours and mine-
and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon,
"Yes!"

It doesn't matter to me where or what or with whom you have studied:
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself,
and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/45/172610908_e7260e7cd0.jpg

[JAGG]

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.- Einstein

A kite only rises against the wind. - Hamilton Mable

Patience has its limits. Taken too far and it's cowardice.- George Jackson

[Spirit Dancer]

One of the paradoxes of our time is that
we have more power at our disposal than
ever before, and yet we seem more powerless than ever.

Ralph W. Sockman (1953)

[Spirit Dancer]

The cure for all the illness of life is stored in the inner depth of life itself, the access to which becomes possible when we are alone. This solitude is a world in itself, full of wonders and resources unthought of. It is absurdly near; yet so unapproachably distant.

Rabindranath Tagore

[Kätzchen]

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
-Ghandi-

[JAGG]

We can do anything we want if we stick to it long enough. -Helen keller


Never never never never , give up. - Winston Churchill


A single sunbeam drives away many shadows.- ST. Francis of Assisi

[ntxgirl]

“I would thank you from the bottom of my heart, but for you my heart has no bottom.”
- Anonymous

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
- John F. Kennedy

“Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don’t unravel.”
- Unknown

[Spirit Dancer]

Love is a force. . . . It is not a result;
it is a cause. It is not a product.
It is a power, like money, or steam
or electricity. It is valueless unless you
can give something else by means of it.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

[Spirit Dancer]

“Not all those who wander are lost.”

J.R.R. Tolkien

[Tommi]

“Friends are helpful not only because they will listen to us, but because they will laugh at us; Through them we learn a little objectivity, a little modesty, a little courtesy; We learn the rules of life and become better players of the game”

Will Durant

[MissItalianDiva]

Trouble comes to pass, not to stay. You can trust life to give you the courage that is required to do anything or face anything. Challenge comes to make you, not break you. ~ Iyanlan Vanzant

[MissItalianDiva]

You do not have to love what is going on in your life, but you must accept that it, whatever it is, is going on. As long as you do not accept reality, you are powerless to define the role you will play.

~Iyanlan Vanzant

[Spirit Dancer]

Reason and Passion
BY
Khalil Gibran


And the priestess spoke again and said: "Speak to us of Reason and Passion."

And he answered saying:

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against passion and your appetite.

Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.

But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements?

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.

If either your sails or our rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.

For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.

Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion; that it may sing;

And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.

I would have you consider your judgment and your appetite even as you would two loved guests in your house.

Surely you would not honour one guest above the other; for he who is more mindful of one loses the love and the faith of both.

Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows - then let your heart say in silence, "God rests in reason."

And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky, - then let your heart say in awe, "God moves in passion."

And since you are a breath In God's sphere, and a leaf in God's forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion.

[Kent]

Faith sees God
Intellect does not

[Estella]

The pump don't work 'cause the vandals took the handle.

[Duchess]

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

~Dalai Lama (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/dalailama101711.html)(f)

[JAGG]

Procrastination is the thief of time. - Edward Young

Restleness and discontent are the first necessities of change. -Thomas Edison

Never answer a question until it's asked . - Unknown

[Katniss]

The Surgery of the Sea

At the furthermost reach of the sea
where Atlantis sinks under the wake of the waves,
I have come to heal my life.

I knit together like a broken arm.
The salt fills the crevices of bone.
The sea takes all the fragments of my lives
& grinds them home.

I wake up in a waterbed with you.
The sea is singing & my skin
sings against your skin.
The waves are all around us & within.
We sleep stuck to each other's salt.

I am healing in your arms.
I am learning to write without the loss of love.
I am growing deeper lungs here by the sea.
The waves are knives; they glitter & cut clean.

This is the sea's surgery.
This is the cutting & the healing both.
This is where bright sunlight warms the bone,
& fog erases us, then makes us whole.

Erica Jong


Katniss~~ (tonight, dreaming the sea)

[Fancy]

"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not."

-Barry (Dinner for Schmucks)


....the only one.

[lusciouskiwi]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/547969_465726650114788_2111996786_n.jpg

[Butterbean]

If you just set people in motion they'll heal themselves. ~Gabrielle Roth

[Duchess]

Today, more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense of Universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life.

~Dalai Lama (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/dalailama139179.html) (f)

(http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/d/dalai_lama_2.html#)

[JAGG]

Conceal a flaw and the world will imagine the worst.- Martial

There is hardly any grief that an hour of reading won't dissipate. Montesquieu

The heart has its reasons which reason does not know.- Blaise Pascal

[Kätzchen]

http://images.firstcovers.com/covers/userquotes/a/a_friend_is_someone-68820.jpg

[FeminineAllure]

"Relationships--of all kinds--are like sand held in your hand. Held loosely, with an open hand, the sand remains where it is. The minute you close your hand and squeeze tightly to hold on, the sand trickles through your fingers. You may hold onto some of it, but most will be spilled. A relationship is like that. Held loosely, with respect and freedom for the other person, it is likely to remain intact. But hold too tightly, too possessively, and the relationship slips away and is lost."
-Kaleel Jamison

[Spirit Dancer]

That’s my gift. I let that negativity roll off me like water off a duck’s back.
If it’s not positive, I didn’t hear it. If you can overcome that, fights are easy.
~ George Foreman

[Katniss]

young girl
with her south china sea
eyes
where an ocean wind
sighs
stands as she tries.

in the silence
between day and night
between hope and dreaming,
water is carved
deep
in where a poet grows
in where a child to woman
perceives.

a young girl dares
to paint
her colors true
to dance
her words free.

when only a poet believes
a young girl bleeds
her south china sea eyes
open
standing
where only a poet
dares to see.


Katniss~~

[Ms. Meander]

By not knowing, not hoping to know and not acting like we know what's happening, we begin to access our inner strength.
Pema Chodron

[stargazingboi]

Body of a woman, white hills, white thighs,
you look like a world, lying in surrender.
my rough peasant's body digs in you
and makes the son leap from the depth of the earth.

I was alone like a tunnel. The birds fled from me,
and night swamped me with its crushing invasion.
To survive myself I forged you like a weapon,
like an arrow in my bow, a stone in my sling.

But the hour of vengeance falls, and I love you.
Body of skin, of moss, of eager and firm milk.
Oh the goblets of the breast! Oh the eyes of absence!
Oh the roses of the pubis! Oh your voice, slow and sad!

Body of my woman, I will persist in your grace.
My thirst, my boundless desire, my shifting road!
Dark river-beds where the eternal thirst flows
and the weariness follows, and the infinite ache.

[Fatale]

Many a good friend will help you move. Truly good friends help you move the bodies.

Me~

[Kätzchen]

THE WILD SWANS AT COOLE

*-*-* W. B. Yeats *-*-*

The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
Are nine-and-fifty swans.

The nineteenth autumn has come upon me
Since I first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.

I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
And now my heart is sore.
All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,
The first time on this shore,
The bell-beat of their wings above my head,
Trod with a lighter tread.

Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.

But now they drift on the still water,
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake's edge or pool
Delight men's eyes when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?



http://www.berro.com/beautiful_nature_photos_scenery/swans_lake_forest_autumn_majestic.jpg

[Talon]

Our hearts are drunk with a beauty that our eyes could never see.

G. Russell

[Nomad]

'freedom is what you do with what's been done to you' - unknown

[JAGG]

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religous conviction.- Blaise Pascal

Well done is better than well said.- Ben Franklin

A ship in a harbor is safe. But that is not what ships are built for.- John A Shedd

[Kätzchen]

That’s my gift. I let that negativity roll off me like water off a duck’s back.
If it’s not positive, I didn’t hear it. If you can overcome that, fights are easy.
~ George Foreman


Float like a butterfly;
Sting like a bee.

Cassius Clay ~>> Muhammed Ali

[Kätzchen]

"Love the ones you love and serve them well..."

-- Ray LaMontagne (Crazy Dreamers)

kY3W86c8VrQ

[sara-bera]

“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” -Robert A. Heinlein

[sara-bera]

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” -Rainer Maria Rilke

[grenade]

If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.

[grenade]

Sonnet XVII by Pablo Neruda


I don't love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries
hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving
but this, in which there is no I nor you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I sleep it is your eyes that close.

[Hollylane]

The character Don Baker sings:

"I knew the day you met me, I could love you if you'd let me, Though you touched my cheek and said how easy you'd forget me. You said: butterflies are free, and so are we. "

[Trey339]

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.
Confucius~

[Janstevie]

A true friend is a work of heart.

[WingsOnFire]

"Relationships--of all kinds--are like sand held in your hand. Held loosely, with an open hand, the sand remains where it is. The minute you close your hand and squeeze tightly to hold on, the sand trickles through your fingers. You may hold onto some of it, but most will be spilled. A relationship is like that. Held loosely, with respect and freedom for the other person, it is likely to remain intact. But hold too tightly, too possessively, and the relationship slips away and is lost."
-Kaleel Jamison

This is so beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

[Talon]

The heart has it's reasons that reason does not know.

~Pascal

[Trey339]

"Ill ask the questions",,,,,

[FeminineAllure]

“A soulmate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and keys to fit our locks. When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and not for who we’re pretending to be. Each unveils the best part of the other. No matter what else goes wrong around us, with that one person we’re safe in our own paradise. Our soulmate is someone who shares our deepest longings, our sense of direction. When we’re two balloons, and together our direction is up, chances are we’ve found the right person. Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life.”

Richard Bach

[FeminineAllure]

“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

[JAGG]

Accepting mediocrity will wither the soul.- Unknown

There is no use in trying to help someone what so ever if they won't help themselves.- Andrew Carnegie


Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice.- Henry Ford

[sara-bera]

“Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell.” -Joan Crawford

[Talon]

We can choose to be true to ourselves and risk the ridicule of others,
or choose to be false, and risk losing our self-respect.

[thedivahrrrself]

http://pull.imgfave.netdna-cdn.com/image_cache/1316435879376910.jpg

[JAGG]

Golden shackles are far worse than iron ones. - Mahatma Gandhi


Silence is powerful. -Unknown


A little spark kindles a great fire. -Italian proverb

[Ginger]

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing" (don't make assumptions on too narrow a base of evidence)

"Never write anything you wouldn't want your mother to read."



My mom used to say those quotes to me when I was growing up.

The first one, I still find a useful reminder.

The other one, not so much.

[Spirit Dancer]

Life is made up of small pleasures.
Happiness is made up of those tiny
successes. The big ones come too
infrequently. And if you don't collect
all these tiny successes, the big ones
don't really mean anything.

Norman Lear

[Spirit Dancer]

When I begin to sit with the
dawn in solitude, I begin to
really live. It makes me treasure
every single moment of life.

Gloria Vanderbilt



I have found the paradox
that if I love until it hurts,
then there is no hurt,
but only more love.

Mother Teresa

[JAGG]

You can not climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets. - Unknown
One today is worth two tomorrows. -Ben Franklin

A half truth is a whole lie. - Unknown

[FeminineAllure]

Friends can help each other. A true friend is someone who lets you have total freedom to be yourself - and especially to feel. Or, not feel. Whatever you happen to be feeling at the moment is fine with them. That's what real love amounts to - letting a person be what he really is.
Jim Morrison

[Kent]

The only thing you can't recycle is wasted time...

[Spirit Dancer]

One's friends are that part
of the human race with
which one can be human.

George Santayana

[Spirit Dancer]

Know that compassion for others begins
with being able to accept and forgive
yourself. As long as you judge others
for their imperfections, you will never
be able to truly accept and love yourself.

Susan Santucci

[JAGG]

Truth needs no memory.- Unknown

It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.- Roy Disney

That which is easy to aquire, is easily disgarded. - Unknown

[Ms. Meander]

Never discourage anyone...who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.
Plato

[Fatale]

Love gauze,
At first so gossamer,
Filmy and light, lightly filtering,
Cleanly fresh, offering romantic packing
for the wounds of a still beating heart.

Love gauzed,
At last bitumen soaked,
Clingy and dark, darkly wrapping,
Uncleanly ancient, offering mummied coverings
for the wounds of a still beating heart.

[feminality]

“Beneath the makeup and behind the smile I am just a girl who wishes for the world.”
― Marilyn Monroe

:blueheels:

[Fatale]

When you hear, "It's not you, it's me." don't believe it. It's you.

~Fatale

[Talon]

Speak from the heart.
It's risky.
It's unrehearsed.
It's spontaneous.
But it's honest.

[Trey339]

All that we are is a result of all we have thought
Buddha~

[Fancy]

"This is a great irony — people who have every reason to be content seldom are. Though happiness is their aim, it seems always out of reach. I wonder if gratefulness is the bridge from sorrow to joy, spanning the chasm of our anxious striving. Freed from the burden of unbridled desires, we can enjoy what we have, celebrate what we've attained, and appreciate the familiar. For if we can't be happy now, we'll likely not be happy when."
-Phillip Gulley - Porch Talk

[stargazingboi]

Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies. ~ Aristotle (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/aristotle143026.html)
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. ~ Lao Tzu (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/l/laotzu101043.html)

[JAGG]

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.-Unknown

Where there is a will there is a way.- Unknown

An unfullfilled vocation drains the color from a persons existence. - Honore de Balzac

[grenade]

Allen Ginsberg - Song


The weight of the world
is love.
Under the burden
of solitude,
under the burden
of dissatisfaction

the weight,
the weight we carry
is love.

Who can deny?
In dreams
it touches
the body,
in thought
constructs
a miracle,
in imagination
anguishes
till born
in human--
looks out of the heart
burning with purity--
for the burden of life
is love,

but we carry the weight
wearily,
and so must rest
in the arms of love
at last,
must rest in the arms
of love.

No rest
without love,
no sleep
without dreams
of love--
be mad or chill
obsessed with angels
or machines,
the final wish
is love
--cannot be bitter,
cannot deny,
cannot withhold
if denied:

the weight is too heavy

--must give
for no return
as thought
is given
in solitude
in all the excellence
of its excess.

The warm bodies
shine together
in the darkness,
the hand moves
to the center
of the flesh,
the skin trembles
in happiness
and the soul comes
joyful to the eye--

yes, yes,
that's what
I wanted,
I always wanted,
I always wanted,
to return
to the body
where I was born.

[grenade]

No painter's brush, nor poet's pen. In justice to her fame. Has ever reached half high enough. To write a mother's name. ~Author Unknown

[cinnamongrrl]

Revelation

We make ourselves a place apart
Behind light words that tease and flout,
But oh, the agitated heart
Till someone really find us out.

'Tis pity if the case require
(Or so we say) that in the end
We speak the literal to inspire
The understanding of a friend.

But so with all, from babes that play
At hide-and-seek to God afar,
So all who hide too well away
Must speak and tell us where they are.
Robert Frost

[grenade]

How Will You Kiss?

Lilt me your lips,
our lost breath intermingling.

Synchronize our silence
as lazy hours ease by.

Waft cocoa, hazelnut, cinnamon,
scents around me.

Tremble with me
in paralyzing pauses.

I may no longer breathe
without breathing you.


- Judith Pordon



Como Besaras?


Enciendanme tus labios
Nuestros alientos perdidos entremezclandose

Sincroniza nuestro silencio
al perezoso pasar de las horas.

LLeva el aire aromas de cacao,
nuez, canela que me rodean

Tiembla conmigo
con pausas paralizantes

Quizá no pueda respirar más
sin respirarte a ti.


-Judith Pordon

-Translated by John Ramos

[grenade]

AMANTE

A waterfall of hair
cascades
down your shoulders.

Silence breathes us,
butterflies
in our hands.

Our dinners
half eaten
packed for later.

A five star meal
relished
on our warm spines.

While we languish
on rented sheets.
No bickering moments,

dismal doubts,
or monotonous chores
shudder our cloistered moments.

Eternity is not
a diamond ring.
It is here.


Grace Ezequiel

[sara-bera]

“Love doesn't just sit there like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.” -Ursula K. Le Guin

[Ms. Meander]

--- writers do not write to impart knowledge to others; rather, they write to inform themselves.
- Judith Guest

[Spirit Dancer]

If I had two loaves of bread,
I would sell one and buy hyacinths.
For they would feed my soul.

the Qur'an

[Spirit Dancer]

A loving person lives in a loving
world. A hostile person lives
in a hostile world. Everyone you
meet is your mirror.

Ken Keyes, Jr.

[Kätzchen]

I wouldn't know how to live in a treeless country, and where I live now, the compass of my dreams always points north.

-- Czeslaw Milosz
(Symbolic Mountains and Forests)

[Kätzchen]

On bigotry: I spent a little bit of time researching the term bigotry: how the term bigotry is defined, how it operates, its etymology. Results of my limited research include a commonly held definition (wiki):
Bigotry is the state of mind of a bigot, defined by Merriam-Webster as "a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially: one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance." [1] Bigotry may be based on real or perceived characteristics, including age, disability, dissension from popular opinions, economic status, ethnicity, gender identity, languag, nationality, personal habits, political alignment, race, region, religious or spiritual belief, sex, species, or sexual orientation. Bigotry is sometimes developed into an ideology or world view (Wikipedia).
And, an illustration:
The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye:
The more light you pour upon it, the more it will contract.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

[Kätzchen]

Tell me, if I caught you one day
And kissed the sole of your foot,
Wouldn't you limp a little then,
Afraid to crush my kiss?

― Nichita Stănescu ―

[Katniss]

You Who Never Arrived

You who never arrived
in my arms, Beloved, who were lost
from the start,
I don't even know what songs
would please you. I have given up trying
to recognize you in the surging wave of
the next moment. All the immense
images in me -- the far-off, deeply-felt
landscape, cities, towers, and bridges, and
unsuspected turns in the path,
and those powerful lands that were once
pulsing with the life of the gods--
all rise within me to mean
you, who forever elude me.

You, Beloved, who are all
the gardens I have ever gazed at,
longing. An open window
in a country house-- , and you almost
stepped out, pensive, to meet me.
Streets that I chanced upon,--
you had just walked down them and vanished.
And sometimes, in a shop, the mirrors
were still dizzy with your presence and,
startled, gave back my too-sudden image.
Who knows? Perhaps the same
bird echoed through both of us
yesterday, separate, in the evening...


Katniss~~

[JAGG]

There is no substitute for hard work.- Thomas Edison

If you can't heal a wound don't tear it open. -Irish Proverb

A moment in time can make some unhappy forever. - Unknown

[sara-bera]

“Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get - only with what you are expecting to give - which is everything” -Katharine Hepburn

[Novelafemme]

Tell me, if I caught you one day
And kissed the sole of your foot,
Wouldn't you limp a little then,
Afraid to crush my kiss?

― Nichita Stănescu ―


I adore this, Katzchen <3

[Talon]

She was passion's child, born where showers triple light, and scorches even the kiss. She was one made but to love, to feel that she was his, who was her chosen one. What was said elsewhere was nothing--she had not to fear, hope, care, nor love beyond..her heart beat here. :heartbeat:

~Lord Byron

[UofMfan]

"As cicatrizes falam mais alto que a lâmina da espada que as causou". ~ Paulo Coelho

[FeminineAllure]

The right wing would love nothing more than for us to spend all of our airtime discussing distractions such as polygamy and other from their point of view doomsday scenarios rather than engage the public about committed same-sex couples being discriminated against.

Evan Wolfson quotes

[FeminineAllure]

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.
Richard David Bach

[JAGG]

“Everything you can imagine is real.” -― Pablo Picasso

“If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.” - Lewis Carro
I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.”― Albert Einstein

[gaea]

gossip spreads like wild fires while the truth is often times smothered-Author Unknown

[SleepyButch]

Splendidis longum valedico Nugis

Leave me, O Love, which reaches but to dust,

And thou, my mind, aspire to higher things!

Grow rich in that which never taketh rust:

Whatever fades, but fading pleasure brings.

Draw in thy beams, and humble all thy might

To that sweet yoke where lasting freedoms be;

Which breaks the clouds and opens forth the light

That doth both shine and give us sight to see.

O take fast hold! let that light be thy guide

In this small course which birth draws out to death,

And think how evil becometh him to slide

Who seeketh Heaven, and comes of heavenly breath.

Then farewell, world! thy uttermost I see:

Eternal Love, maintain thy life in me!


Sir Philip Sidney

[Jesse]

"He is my other eyes that can see above the clouds; my other ears that hear above the winds. He is the part of me that can reach out into the sea. He has told me a thousand times over that I am his reason for being; by the way he rests against my leg; by the way he thumps his tail at my smallest smile; by the way he shows his hurt when I leave without taking him. (I think it makes him sick with worry when he is not along to care for me.) When I am wrong, he is delighted to forgive. When I am angry, he clowns to make me smile. When I am happy, he is joy unbounded. When I am a fool, he ignores it. When I succeed, he brags. Without him, I am only another man. With him, I am all-powerful. He is loyalty itself. He has taught me the meaning of devotion. With him, I know a secret comfort and a private peace. He has brought me understanding where before I was ignorant. His head on my knee can heal my human hurts. His presence by my side is protection against my fears of dark and unknown things. He has promised to wait for me... whenever... wherever - in case I need him. And I expect I will - as I always have.
He is my dog."
- Gene Hill

[Spirit Dancer]

Time is the coin of your life. It is the
only coin you have, and only you can
determine how it will be spent. Be careful
lest you let other people spend it for you.

Carl Sandberg

[Spirit Dancer]

Let go. Why do you cling to pain? There is nothing
you can do about the wrongs of yesterday. It is
not yours to judge. Why hold on to the very thing
which keeps you from hope and love?

Leo Buscaglia

[Talon]

Tenacity is never giving up on yourself or your dreams, it is telling people to shove it up their arse when they're trying to deter or disuade you from what you really want or need. It is also standing firm when you really believe in something. Frankly, it is being a dog with a bone. It is the dogs with bones that change the world. And we should all aspire to that.


~T. Coffey

[sara-bera]

"There is no room in my body for anything but you. My arms love you, my ears adore you, my knees shake with blind affection. My mind begs you to ask it something so it can obey. Do you want me to follow you for the rest of your days? I will do that. Do you want me to crawl? I will crawl. I will be quiet for you or sing for you, or if you are hungry, let me bring you food, or if you have thirst and nothing will quench it but Arabian wine, I will go to Araby, even though it is across the world, and bring a bottle back for your lunch. Anything there is that I can do for you, I will do for you; anything there is that I cannot do, I will learn to do." -William Goldman, The Princess Bride

[JAGG]

“People aren't born good or bad. Maybe they're born with tendencies either way, but its the way you live your life that matters.”― Cassandra Clare

“It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime...” ― Khaled Hosseini

“I can choose either to be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It's all a question of how I view my life.” ― Paulo Coelho

[Jesse]

“The Roots of Violence: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principles”

http://thinkexist.com/i/sq/as4.gif Mahatma Gandhi (http://thinkexist.com/quotes/mahatma_gandhi/)


“The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do.”

http://thinkexist.com/i/sq/as0.gif John W. Holt, Jr. (http://thinkexist.com/quotes/john_w._holt,_jr./)


"Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world right in the eye."
- Helen Keller

You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him. ~James D. Miles

[Spirit Dancer]

The most valuable thing we can do
for the psyche, occasionally, is to let
it rest, wander, live in the changing
light of a room, not try to be
or do anything whatever.

May Sarton

[Spirit Dancer]

When we have painful memories
from hurting experiences, we may
feel justified in holding on to the
resentment. But resentment is
corrosive. It doesn't affect the person
we feel anger toward, it destroys the host.

Susan L. Taylor

[JAGG]

"The best of us must sometimes eat our words.” ― J.K. Rowling

“Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss.- Eric Roth


“The right thing and the easy thing are never the same.” ― Kami Garcia

[Kobi]

Create each day anew by clothing yourself with heaven and earth,
bathing yourself with wisdom and love,
and placing yourself in the heart of Mother Nature.

~Morihei Ueshiba

[MissItalianDiva]

Harmony means creating a life in which everything gives to and supports every other aspect of your life. It requires that your mind and heart, your work and play, your physical reality and spiritual reality enhance each other and add value to others.

~Iyanla Vanzant

[MissItalianDiva]

“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”
~Mother Teresa

[Talon]

Travel light,
live light,
spread the light,
Be the light. :candle:

[FeminineAllure]

A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend, one human soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults.
Charles Kingsley

[Kätzchen]

Dreams

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

-Langston Hughes-

http://hardrockheavymetal.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/sunstorm-house-of-dreams.jpg

[Angeltoes]

"Every single person has at least one secret that would break your heart. If we could just remember this, I think there would be a lot more compassion and tolerance in the world." ― Frank Warren

"We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us" - President Obama

"I was born with an enormous need for affection, and a terrible need to give it."
― Audrey Hepburn

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress"― Fredrick Douglass

[sara-bera]

"I was thorough when I looked for you. And I feel justified lying in your arms. 'Cause I got here on my own terms and I have no question about some place I didn't look. And for me that makes all the difference." - Alyssa in Chasing Amy

[Angeltoes]

"Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss." - Benjamin Button

[UofMfan]

"Podran cortar todas las flores, pero no podran detener la primavera". ~ Pablo Neruda

[sara-bera]

“If you could only love enough, you could be the most powerful person in the world.” -Emmet Fox

[Spirit Dancer]

Cease trying to work everything out with your minds. It will get
you nowhere. Live by intuition and inspiration and let your
whole life be Revelation.

Eileen Caddy

[Spirit Dancer]

For whereas the mind works in possibilities, the intuitions work in
actualities, and what you intuitively desire, that is possible to you.
Whereas what you mentally or "consciously" desire is nine times
out of ten impossible; hitch your wagon to a star,
or you will just stay where you are.

D.H. Lawrence

[sara-bera]

We don't make love - love makes us.

[JAGG]

“Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn't have the power to say
yes.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt

“I know that the whole point—the only point—is to
find the things that matter, and hold on to them, and fight for them, and refuse to let them go.” ― Lauren Oliver

“Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five.” ― Benjamin Franklin

[Talon]

Those who know others are intelligent, those who know themselves are truly wise. Those who master others are strong, those who master themselves have true power.

~Lao-Tzu

[Trey339]

Learn to follow and trust your intuition,,its will lead you to where you need to be~

[MissItalianDiva]

When you shut your heart down, or live life on the defensive, there is absolutely no way healing or light or love can get in. When you shut down, you are going to keep hurting.

~Iyanla Vanzant

[Kent]

Offer yourself no reasons, no excuses and no justifiers for your life. You are in charge of your own destiny. No one or no thing is to blame for you not getting what you can have. When you offer up excuse, you offer yourself defeat. You will never be beaten until you say you are beaten. You must become unreasonable. No reasons, no excuses and no justifiers. You are what and where you are by your own choices. Accept this and trust the process.
Dalai Lama

[JAGG]

“It's not what you say out of your mouth that determines your life,it's what you whisper to yourself that has the most power!” ― Robert Kiyosaki


“All paths are present, always... and we can but choose among them.”― Jacqueline Carey

“You’re not obligated to win. You’re obligated to keep trying. Do the best you can do everyday.” ― Jason Mraz

[Talon]

The shallow-rooted tree is threatened by even the gentlest breeze.~

[JAGG]

“No matter how qualified or deserving we are, we will never reach a better life until we can imagine it for ourselves and allow ourselves to have it.”
― Richard Bach

The only real limitation on your abilities is the level of your desires. If you
want it badly enough, there are no limits on what you can achieve.”― Brian Tracy

“I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.” ― Mary Anne Radmacher

[Angeltoes]

"Hope is the thing with feathers / That perches in the soul, / And sings the tune without the words, / And never stops at all"

Emily Dickinson


"Conventions, like cliches, have a way of surviving their own usefulness."

Desert of the Heart, Jane Rule

[MissItalianDiva]

People love to tell how life is unfair, unjust and inequitable. Here is the real story. Life is a process of sowing and reaping! A focused, consistent, positively motivated and disciplined character is essential to making your life story have a happy ending. Till your mental soil with determination. Fertilize your emotional soil with positive words. And plant the seed of your heart's desire with your disciplined efforts.

~Iyanla Vanzant

[Spirit Dancer]

The old woman I shall become
will be quite different from the
woman I am now.
Another I is beginning.

George Sand

[Spirit Dancer]

Real development is not leaving
things behind, as on a road, but
drawing life from them,
as from a root.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton

[lusciouskiwi]

“I won’t kiss you. It might get to be a habit and I can’t get rid of habits.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald

[Talon]

When through the old oak forest I am gone,
Let me not wander in a barren dream,
But when I am consumed in the fire,
Give me new Pheonix wings to fly at my desire.

~J. Keats

[CharmingButch25]

Fairy tales are more than true,not because they tell us that dragons exist,but because they tell us dragons can be beaten.
G.K Chesterton

[CharmingButch25]

Doesnt Being scared let you know you'r on to something important?
If your not scared your not taking a chance,if your not taking a chance than what the hell are you doing?

Author Unknown

[CharmingButch25]

No matter how good or bad life is
WAKE up each day and be thankful for life
SOMEONE somewhere else is fighting to survive

[CharmingButch25]

Dear God….


When my eyes are closed
And my head is clear
I can hear your words
Whispered in my ear

I refuse to feel worry
I set aside my troubles
I pray for peace
And my reward always doubles

You come to me
And fill my soul
You take away pain
And make me whole

Nothing else in life
Could ever fill your shoes
With the comfort you give me
I will never loose

So when the day is over
And the night has come
If I’ve put you first
In the end I’ve won

Author Me

[Kobi]

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

~Buddha

[JAGG]

“To travel is to live.” ― Hans Christian Andersen

You often meet your fate on the road you take to avoid it.” ― Goldie Hawn

“Whatever you believe with feeling becomes your reality.” ― Brian Tracy

[Kobi]

I held a moment in my hand,
brilliant as a star,
fragile as a flower,
a tiny sliver of one hour.
I dripped it carelessly,
Ah! I didn't know, I held opportunity.

~Hazel Lee

[Spirit Dancer]

We need a reason for speaking; we need none for keeping silent.
Pierre Nicole

[Spirit Dancer]

Keep me away from the wisdom
which does not cry, the
philosophy which does not laugh,
and the greatness which does
not bow down before children.

Khalil Gibran

[LoyalWolfsBlade]

The forceps of our minds are clumsy forceps, and crush the truth a little in taking hold of it.

H.G. Wells 1903

[Talon]

And I said hold tight. Can't you see that it's hunting me?
But I've got the buzz..like Marlon Brando.
Yes...straight-faced with misery tonight. (w)

[Electrocell]

The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives the passion that she shows. The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years.
Audrey Hepburn

[Kätzchen]

Two years ago, I came across a group of artists called Project: Mooncircle at Bandcamp.com ... So I searched for the group on YouTube and the first hit for them was a song called The Last Astronaut (Robot Koch ft. Lako). Below, is the following excerpt that is provided with that particular song:

This is a story about a young Russian girl named Jinna Morocha who had a vision of one day flying to the Moon.

Many years ago during the hard times of life in Moscow, the young girl saw the Moon consciously for the first time and at that very moment the dream began. These vivid thoughts remained in her mind and she started to ask herself "How can I get to the Moon?".

Soon she found the label Project: Mooncircle over the internet and told them her story, at once she saw a chance to come a few steps closer to her dream. By now Jinna lived in Germany and it was possible for her and the label to meet, her key question was "Can you bring me to the Moon?".

The answer was a faltering "No," but maybe we can let you fly to the Moon in your mind. Let's build the soundtrack to this vision, close your eyes, clear your thoughts and let us begin on your journey". That was the beginning of "The Moon Comes Closer." Come embark upon this voyage with us lead by the next level soundscapes of: Robot Koch, fLako, Pavel Dovgal, I.D. 4 Windz, John Robinson, Lambent, Nienvox, Juj, Mr Cooper, MyOwn, Long Arm, Daisuke Tanabe, Graciela Maria, Scienz Of Life, Andy Kayes, Abnormal, Capella, Comfort Fit, Kan Sano, Gards From KC, Puzzle, Sense of The Q4, Sotu The Traveller, V. Raeter, Himuro Yoshiteru, Skyence, Dexter, Portformat, 40 Winks, Dela, Brazzaville & Killing Skills (Project Mooncircle: November 13th, 2010; Album: The Moon Comes Closer).

*I've been a fan of their music, since the day I found them*

[Electrocell]

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
Leo Buscaglia

[MissItalianDiva]

When something someone says or does upsets you, your upset is not about the other person. Feelings are triggered within you when an external source bumps into something that is already there.

~Iyanla Vanzant

Feel what you feel and allow it to pass. Don't judge your feelings or yourself for having them. Do not label your feelings good or bad, right or wrong. Drop your hands to your sides and give yourself permission to ride out the emotional tidal waves that are sure to surface every now and then. Each time an emotion surfaces, this is a sure sign that you are working through it in order to release it.

~Iyanla Vanzant

[Trey339]

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.
Buddha~

[JAGG]

She is on the way. Sometimes I can feel her in the stillness . Sometimes on a quiet night I can hear her breath. - Unknown

If you don't like the road you're walking start paving another one. -Dolly Parton

“I want to live my life in such a way that when I get out of bed in the morning, the devil says, "aw shit, he's up!” ― Steve Maraboli

[Kobi]

Caffeine is my shepherd; I shall not doze.
It maketh me to wake in green pastures:
It leadeth me beyond the sleeping masses.
It restoreth my buzz:
It leadeth me in the paths of consciousness for its name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of addiction,
I will fear no Equal™:
For thou art with me; thy cream and thy sugar they comfort me.
Thou preparest a carafe before me in the presence of The Starbucks:
Thou anointest my day with pep; my mug runneth over.
Surely richness and taste shall follow me all the days of my life:
And I will dwell in the House of Mochas forever.

~Author Unknown

[Electrocell]

Caring about others, running the risk of feeling, and leaving an impact on people, brings happiness.
Harold Kushner

[Nat]

"If you do a good job for others you heal yourself at the same time, because a dose of joy is a spiritual cure - it transcends all barriers."

- Ed Sullivan

[-Red-Flag-]

Ode to an Apple


You, apple,
are the object
of my praise.
I want to fill
my mouth
with your name.
I want to eat you whole.
You are always
fresh, like nothing
and nobody.
You have always
just fallen
from Paradise:
dawn’s
rosy cheek
full
and perfect!
Compared
to you
the fruits of the earth
are
so awkward:
bunchy grapes,
muted
mangos,
bony
plums, and submerged
figs.
You are pure balm,
fragrant bread,
the cheese
of all that flowers.
When we bite into
your round innocence
we too regress
for a moment
to the state
of the newborn:
there’s still some apple in us all.
I want
total abundance,
your family
multiplied.
I want
a city,
a republic,
a Mississippi River
of apples,
and I want to see
gathered on its banks
the world’s
entire
population
united and reunited
in the simplest act we know:
I want us to bite into an apple.
~ Pablo Neruda

[-Red-Flag-]

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]
BY E. E. CUMMINGS
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

[LoyalWolfsBlade]

your words speak to me
no matter where I find them
your words call out to me
yet I remain silent

For one that is usually so self assured
your words make me stumble
your words speak to me
no matter where I find them

author...me Alix (TBW) 9/28/2012

[LoyalWolfsBlade]

Household tasks are easier quicker when they are done by someone else.
James Thrope

All you touch and all you see, is all your life will ever be.
Roger Waters Pink Floyd

Conformity is the jailer of freedom, and the enemy of growth.
John F. Kennedy

[Electrocell]

Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway.
John Wayne

[MissItalianDiva]

“We change our behavior when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing. Consequences give us the pain that motivates us to change.”
― Henry Cloud

Boundaries aren't all bad. That's why there are walls around mental institutions.”
― Peggy Noonan, Patriotic Grace: What It Is and Why We Need It Now

[JAGG]

“It's such a shame to waste time. We always think we have so much of it.”
― Mitch Albom

It is said that a frog will jump out of a pot of boiling water. Place him in a pot and turn it up a little at a time, and he will stay until he is boiled to death. - Deb Coletta

“If he loved you with all the power of his soul for a whole lifetime, he couldn’t love you as much as I do in a single day.” ― Emily Brontë

[Angeltoes]

"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."
Walter Winchell

[LoyalWolfsBlade]

..why is the why important

Peter Masters The Curious Human Phenomenon

[-Red-Flag-]

“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh?" he whispered.
"Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's hand. "I just wanted to be sure of you.”
― A.A. Milne

“If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together... there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart... I'll always be with you.”
― A.A. Milne

[-Red-Flag-]

“We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them in mutual weirdness and call it love.” – Dr. Seuss

[Electrocell]

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.
- Albert Einstein

Without a rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

[MissItalianDiva]

Deep within our being is a place of peace, joy and knowing. It is a place called love. We are love from the core of our being. If we can live from our being of love, we can't help but attract more of what we are.

~Iyanla Vanzant

Each of us was born to fulfill a divine purpose. As we open our hearts and minds to a new way of being, the purpose of our lives unfolds organically.

~~Iyanla Vanzant

[little_ms_sunshyne]

There is nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline no matter how many times it is sent away...

[-Red-Flag-]

“I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.”
― Marilyn Monroe


well isnt this the truth !
“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.”
― Neil Gaiman

[Kobi]

Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words.
Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior.
Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits.
Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values.
Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.

Mahatma Gandhi

[JAGG]

“Sometimes it's the same moments that take your breath away that breathe purpose and love back into your life.”― Steve Maraboli

“What you have to decide, is how you want your life to be. If your life was ending tomorrow, would this be the way you'd want to have spent it?”
― Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever

“A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of
confidence and personal power.” ― Brian Tracy

[Angeltoes]

"If you dream of a world in which you can put your partner’s picture on your desk, then put her picture on your desk…and you will live in such a world.
And if you dream of a world in which you can walk down the street holding your partner’s hand, then hold her hands…and you will live in such a world.
If you dream of a world in which there are more openly gay elected officials, then run for office…and you will live in such a world.
And if you dream of a world in which you can take your partner to the office party, even if your office is the US House of Representatives, then take her to the party. I do, and now I live in such a world. Remember, there are two things that keep us oppressed – them and us. We are half of the equation."


Tammy Baldwin,
The first out lesbian and the first openly gay non-incumbent elected to the United States Congress

[Kobi]

The best kind of rain, of course, is a cozy rain. This is the kind the anonymous medieval poet makes me remember, the rain that falls on a day when you'd just as soon stay in bed a little longer, write letters or read a good book by the fire, take early tea with hot scones and jam and look out the streaked window with complacency.

~Susan Allen Toth, England For All Seasons

[weatherboi]

You all laugh at me because I am different, I laugh at you because you are all the same.
John Davis

[Ms. Meander]

I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in.
Virginia Woolf

[Rook]

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/485654_4619599205470_351960890_n.jpg

[Electrocell]

If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost.
Barack Obama


I have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not looking you in the face. Don't trust that conventional idea. Dishonesty will stare honesty out of countenance any day in the week, if there is anything to be got by it.
Charles Dickens


A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend, one human soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults.
Charles Kingsley

[Angeltoes]

The more rules you have about how people have to be, how life has to be for you to be happy--the less happy you're going to be. - Anthony Robbins

[Angeltoes]

Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk. -Dalai Lama

And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk more.-Erica Jong

There are no mistakes: everything—even bumps in the road—provides a lesson that’s necessary or us to evolve, and to get wherever it is we need to be. – Diane Burnett

[Katniss]

"The most beautiful people are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” C.S. Lewis


Katniss~~(loving the scar tissue of life....)

[JAGG]

"It’s what you do in your free time that will set you free—or enslave you.
”
― Jarod Kintz

To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow - this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert

“Would he find her?
Without question.
Would he save her?
Always.” ― Lauren Kate

[Scuba]

"Everything will be all right in the end... if it's not all right then it's not the end." Sonny

"But it's also true that the person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing. All we know about the future is that it will be different. But perhaps what we fear is that it will be the same. So we must celebrate the changes." Evelyn

[Dance-with-me]

As someone who clearly loves butches/TG/transmen, and who is helping to raise a gender-variant child, I love how this poem speaks to the inherent strength of these kids (and adults) who dare to just be themselves in a world that's so openly hostile to who they are:

Bedecked
By Victoria Redel

Tell me it’s wrong the scarlet nails my son sports or the toy
store rings he clusters four jewels to each finger.
He’s bedecked. I see the other mothers looking at the star
choker, the rhinestone strand he fastens over a sock.
Sometimes I help him find sparkle clip-ons when he says
sticker earrings look too fake.
Tell me I should teach him it’s wrong to love the glitter that a
boy’s only a boy who’d love a truck with a remote that revs,
battery slamming into corners or Hot Wheels loop-de-looping
off tracks into the tub.
Then tell me it’s fine—really—maybe even a good thing—a boy
who’s got some girl to him,
and I’m right for the days he wears a pink shirt on the seesaw in
the park.
Tell me what you need to tell me but keep far away from my son
who still loves a beautiful thing not for what it means—
this way or that—but for the way facets set off prisms and
prisms spin up everywhere
and from his own jeweled body he’s cast rainbows—made every
shining true color.
Now try to tell me—man or woman—your heart was ever once
that brave.

http://rinabeana.com/poemoftheday/index.php/2009/11/09/bedecked-by-victoria-redel/

[Kobi]

The healthy and strong individual is the one who asks for help when he needs it. Whether he's got an abscess on his knee or in his soul.

~Rona Barrett

[Spirit Dancer]

I do my thing and you do your thing.
I am not in this world to live up to your
expectations, and you are not in this
world to live up to mine. You are you
and I am I. And if by chance we find
each other, it's beautiful. If not,
it can't be helped.

Frederick Salomon Perls

[Talon]

Romantic love reaches out in little ways, showing attention and admiration. Romantic love remembers what pleases a woman, what excites, and what suprises her. It's actions whisper...you are the most special person in my life.

~C. Stanley

[macele]

i've waited longer for lesser things,
but here i am. -- mary chapin carpenter

[JAGG]

"The most beautiful people are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” C.S. Lewis


Katniss~~(loving the scar tissue of life....)

I love this KAT

[MissItalianDiva]

When confronted with a difficulty, we must immediately shift our attention from the problem to the solution. We can think, speak and bring the best possible outcome into existence by focusing on where we are going, not on where we think we are.


~~Iyanla Vanzant

You give issues, fears, and ideas power by virtue of your thoughts. As you strive to become a spiritual being, taking time to pray or meditate is the perfect way to keep your head and mind clear.

~~Iyanla Vanzant

Until and unless you know that you are enough just the way you are, you will continue to look for more. Until you wholeheartedly believe in your own value, worth, and worthiness, in spite of your accomplishments and posessions, or lack thereof, there will always be a void in your spirit.

~Iyanla Vanzant

[JAGG]

“Don't give up! It's not over. The universe is balanced. Every set-back bears with it the seeds of a come-back.” ― Steve Maraboli

“Nothing is ever enough when what you are looking for isn't what you really want.” ― Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington

“Be tough minded but tenderhearted.”― H. Jackson Brown Jr.,

[Kobi]

Trust your hunches. They're usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level.

~Joyce Brothers

[Talon]

I was interested by the idea that artists working in a totalitarian dictatorship or tsarist autocracy are secretly and slightly shamefully envied by artists who work in freedom.
They have the gratification of intense interest: the authorities want to put them in jail, while there are younger readers for whom what they write is pure oxygen.

~Tom Stoppard

[LoyalWolfsBlade]

All which isn't singing is mere talking

all which isn’t singing is mere talking

and all talking’s talking to oneself
(whether that oneself be sought or seeking
master or disciple sheep or wolf)

gush to it as diety or devil
-toss in sobs and reasons threats and smiles
name it cruel fair or blessed evil-
it is you (ne i)nobody else

drive dumb mankind dizzy with haranguing
-you are deafened every mother’s son-
all is merely talk which isn't singing
and all talking’s to oneself alone

but the very song of(as mountains
feel and lovers)singing is silence

E. E. Cummings

[Electrocell]

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”

― Mother Teresa

[prettyboyreg]

Never love anybody who treats you like your ordinary. -Oscar Wilde

[sara-bera]

“Unless you love someone, nothing else makes sense.” -E.E. Cummings

[JAGG]

“Be wise enough not to be reckless, but brave enough to take great risks.”
― Frank Warren

“When you know what you want, and you want it bad enough, you'll find a way to get it.” ― Jim Rohn

“Never confuse someone else's inability to do something with its inability to be done.” ― Steve Maraboli

[Duchess]

Many a man has fallen in love with a girl in a light so dim he would not have chosen a suit by it.

~Maurice Chevalier(f)

[Kent]

When things start to go wrong
Lord don't let it last too long
And when I think I'll go astray
Please don't let me drift from my faith.

If someone doesn't seem to understand
Lord help me so that I won't demand
Open my eyes and help me to see
Just maybe the reason is me.

Lord if someone says that we're losing touch
If it's someone I love so very much
With a gentle whisper give me a lift
Lord, please help me if I start to drift.


Esther Lorenz

[Kent]

I got up early one morning
and rushed right into the day.
I had so much to accomplish
that I didn't have time to pray.
Problems just tumbled about me,
and heavier came each task.
"Why doesn't God help me?"
I wondered.
He answered, "You didn't ask."
I wanted to see joy and beauty,
but the day toiled gray and bleak;
I wondered why God didn't show me.
He said, "But you didn't seek."
I tried to come into God's presence;
I used all my keys at the lock.
God gently and lovingly chided,
"My child, you didn't knock."
I woke early this morning,
and paused before entering the day;
I had so much to accomplish
that I had to take time to pray.

[macele]

“Whatever you proclaim as your identity here in the material realm is also your drag. You are not your religion. You are not your skin color. You are not your gender, your politics, your career, or your marital status. You are none of the superficial things that this world deems important. The real you is the energy force that created the entire universe!”

-- RuPaul

[Trey339]

I will not let anyone walk thru my mind with their dirty feet ~Ghandi

[Duchess]

If you don't like how things are, change it! You're not a tree.

~Jim Rohn(f)

[JAGG]

Love is trembling happiness.- Kahlil Gibran


And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.- Paulo Coelho


I do not care so much what I am to others as I care what I am to myself.- Michel de Montaige

[Talon]

For me the best times are always going to be the most intense,
the ones with the highest highs and the lowest lows.


~Fiona Apple

[Novelafemme]

My soul is poured into yours and is blended.
Because my soul has absorbed your fragrance, you are precious to me.

~ Rumi

[-Red-Flag-]

one cannot take pleasure without giving pleasure, and that every gesture, every caress, every touch, every glance, every last bit of the body has its secret, which brings happiness to the person who knows how to wake it

~ hermann hesse

[Kent]

The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others, rather than his own; and who appears well in any company, a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe.

- John Walter Wayland
(VA-OM 1899)

[Jesse]

http://media-cache-ec4.pinterest.com/upload/78672324711767285_WXMVsEqv_b.jpg

[JAGG]

“I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it.” ― Mae West

“Believe you can and you're halfway there.”― Theodore Roosevelt


“Don't be afraid of your fears. They're not there to scare you. They're there to let you know that something is worth it.”― C. JoyBell C.

[Kätzchen]

Three quotes tonight by Shirley Chisholm: In 1968, Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to US Congress. In her prior political career, Chisholm represented New York's 12th district for seven consecutive terms and was formerly an educator.

1) "Tremedous amounts of talent are lost to our society just because that talent wears a skirt."

2) "There is little in the political scheme of things for an independent, creative personality, for a fighter. Anyone who takes that role must pay a price."

3) "In the end, anti-black, anti-female, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing: Anti-humanism."

[FeminineAllure]

"If I'm not with a butch, everyone just assumes I'm straight. It's like I'm passing too, against my will. I'm sick of the world thinking I'm straight. I've worked hard to be discriminated against as a lesbian"

Stone Butch Blues, Leslie Feinberg

[LoyalWolfsBlade]

Hurt-Trent Reznor 1994
"What I have become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
goes away in the end

You can have it all
My empire of dirt

I will let you down
I will make you hurt

If I could start again
a million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way."

performed by Nine Inch Nails 1994 and Johnny Cash 2002

[Kobi]

Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation... tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego. His anxiety subsides. His inhuman void spreads monstrously like a gray vegetation.

~Jean Arp

[Electrocell]

"It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about." - - Dale Carnegie

The same girl who laughs and talks a lot and seems very happy is also the girl who may cry herself to sleep... - Unknown

If you think sunshine brings you happiness, then you haven't danced in the rain. - unknown

[Duchess]

A woman can say more in a sigh than a man can say in a sermon.


~Arnold Haultain http://www.quotegarden.com/images/bfly2.gif

[JAGG]

“You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.” ― H.L. Mencken

“Stop giving meaningless praise and start giving meaningful action.” ― Steve Maraboli

“I want morning and noon and nightfall with you. I want your tears, your smiles, your kisses...the smell of your hair, the taste of your skin, the touch of your breath on my face. I want to see you in the final hour of my life...to lie in your arms as I take my last breath.” ― Lisa Kleypas

[Hollylane]

http://i45.tinypic.com/2hqqtxt.jpg

[Reader]

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone


W. H. Auden


Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

[Duchess]

We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls. (f)

~Robert J. McCracken

[Duchess]

I don't discriminate - I'm an equal-opportunity hugger. (f)

~Author Unknown

[Angeltoes]

Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female - whenever she behaves as a human being she is said to imitate the male. - Simone de Beauvoir

Friendship isn't about whom you have known the longest... It's about who came, and never left your side. - Unknown

It is not the length of life, but the depth. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be happy. It's one way of being wise. - Collette

My dog, she looks at me sometimes with that look, and I think maybe deep down inside she must know exactly how I feel. But then maybe she just wants the food off my plate. - Unknown

[Kent]

IF GOD BRINGS YOU TO IT
HE WILL BRING YOU THROUGH IT

[JAGG]

“I'm hungry for a juicy life. I lean out my window at night and I can taste it out there, just waiting for me.” ― Brigid Lowry

“The universe is so well balanced that the mere fact that you have a problem also serves as a sign that there is a solution.”― Steve Maraboli


“When was the last time you woke up and realized that today could be the best day of your life?” ― Steve Maraboli

[Rook]

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/536107_366462810105488_56398310_n.jpg

[Kobi]

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, 1955

[JAGG]

“The life you have left is a gift. Cherish it. Enjoy it now, to the fullest. Do what matters, now.” ― Leo Babauta


“When you make a choice, you change the future.” ― Deepak Chopra


“Self-talk reflects your innermost feelings.” ― Asa Don Brown

[Katniss]

Letter From Under The Sea

If you are my friend...
Help me...to leave you
Or if you are my lover...
Help me...so I can be healed of you...
If I knew....
that the ocean is very deep...I would not have swam...
If I knew...how I would end,
I would not have began

I desire you...so teach me not to desire
teach me...
how to cut the roots of your love from the depths
teach me...
how tears may die in the eyes
and love may commit suicide

If you are prophet,
Cleanse me from this spell
Deliver me from this atheism...
Your love is like atheism...so purify me from this atheism

If you are strong...
Rescue me from this ocean
For I don't know how to swim
The blue waves...in your eyes
drag me...to the depths
blue...
blue...
nothing but the color blue
and I have no experience
in love...and no boat...

If I am dear to you
then take my hand
For I am filled with desire...from my
head to my feet

I am breathing under water!
I am drowning...
drowning...
drowning...



Katniss~~

[Trey339]

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
― Plato

[Trey339]

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
― Oscar Wilde

“To conceal anything from those to whom I am attached, is not in my nature. I can never close my lips where I have opened my heart.”
― Charles Dickens

[Electrocell]

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.
Robert Frost


Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
Buddha


Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you too.
Will Smith

[mustangjeano]

Either you run the day or the day runs you. Jim Rohn


Worry is like a rocking chair- it gives you something to do but it does not get you anywhere-- Anonymous

[FeminineAllure]

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken. You'll fight with your best friend. You'll blame a new love for things an old one did. You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love. ~Author Unknown

[Kobi]

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.

~Dinah Craik

[Talon]

However fragmented the world, however intense the national rivalries, it is an enexorable fact that we become more interdependent every day.


~Jaques Yves Cousteau

[CharmingButch25]

Don't chase me anymore, unless you're ready to catch me.

[grenade]

Choice

I'd rather have the thought of you
To hold against my heart,
My spirit to be taught of you
With west winds blowing,
Than all the warm caresses
Of another love's bestowing,
Or all the glories of the world
In which you had no part.

I'd rather have the theme of you
To thread my nights and days,
I'd rather have the dream of you
With faint stars glowing,
I'd rather have the want of you,
The rich, elusive taunt of you
Forever and forever and forever unconfessed
Than claim the alien comfort
Of any other's breast.

O lover! O my lover,
That this should come to me!
I'd rather have the hope of you,
Ah, Love, I'd rather grope for you
Within the great abyss
Than claim another's kiss-
Alone I'd rather go my way
Throughout eternity.


Angela Morgan

[Kätzchen]

True Love

True love. Is it normal
is it serious, is it practical?
What does the world get from two people
who exist in a world of their own?

Placed on the same pedestal for no good reason,
drawn randomly from millions but convinced
it had to happen this way - in reward for what?
For nothing.
The light descends from nowhere.
Why on these two and not on others?
Doesn't this outrage justice? Yes it does.
Doesn't it disrupt our painstakingly erected principles,
and cast the moral from the peak? Yes on both accounts.

Look at the happy couple.
Couldn't they at least try to hide it,
fake a little depression for their friends' sake?
Listen to them laughing - its an insult.
The language they use - deceptively clear.
And their little celebrations, rituals,
the elaborate mutual routines -
it's obviously a plot behind the human race's back!

It's hard even to guess how far things might go
if people start to follow their example.
What could religion and poetry count on?
What would be remembered? What renounced?
Who'd want to stay within bounds?

True love. Is it really necessary?
Tact and common sense tell us to pass over it in silence,
like a scandal in Life's highest circles.
Perfectly good children are born without its help.
It couldn't populate the planet in a million years,
it comes along so rarely.

Let the people who never find true love
keep saying that there's no such thing.

Their faith will make it easier for them to live and die.

~ Wislawa Szymborska-Wlodek
(Kraków, Poland: July 2, 1923 - February 1, 2012)

[JAGG]

The best way to predict your future is to create it” ― Abraham Lincoln


I am the me I choose to be.” ― Sidney Poitier


When I saw you I was afraid to meet you... When I met you I was afraid to kiss you... When I kissed you I was afraid to love you... Now that I love you I m afraid to lose you. ” ― Some Emo Kid

[grenade]

Alone by Maya Angelou


Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don't believe I'm wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

There are some millionaires
With money they can't use
Their wives run round like banshees
Their children sing the blues
They've got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
But nobody
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Now if you listen closely
I'll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
'Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

[JAGG]

Choice

I'd rather have the thought of you
To hold against my heart,
My spirit to be taught of you
With west winds blowing,
Than all the warm caresses
Of another love's bestowing,
Or all the glories of the world
In which you had no part.

I'd rather have the theme of you
To thread my nights and days,
I'd rather have the dream of you
With faint stars glowing,
I'd rather have the want of you,
The rich, elusive taunt of you
Forever and forever and forever unconfessed
Than claim the alien comfort
Of any other's breast.

O lover! O my lover,
That this should come to me!
I'd rather have the hope of you,
Ah, Love, I'd rather grope for you
Within the great abyss
Than claim another's kiss-
Alone I'd rather go my way
Throughout eternity.


Angela Morgan

I love this Grenade!!! It is sad but beautiful.

[girl_dee]

Stop giving your life away to other people.” ― Steve Maraboli

[JAGG]

Right now we are here, and nothing can mar this evening, or steal the joy of this perfect moment.”― Audrey Niffenegger


“Be sure it's your real self you're showing. Because it is your real self that needs to be loved.” ― Daphne Rose Kingma


“When what you hear and what you see don't match, trust your eyes.”
― Dale Renton

[Duchess]

Human beings need pleasure the way they need vitamins.:bunchflowers:

~Lionel Tiger