Famous People Category Archives :: Consider This

Banjo's 'The Man From Ironbark'

This is me, Rich Wersinger, reciting The Man From Ironbark (4m21s) by A. B. Banjo Paterson, the beloved Australian poet and author.
See:
> The biography of Andrew Barton (Banjo) Paterson by the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Online Edition
> Online edition of The Man From Ironbark

Mr. Rogers and Success

The thing I remember best about successful people I've met through the years is their obvious delight in what they're doing...and it seems to have very little to do with worldly success. They just love what their doing and they love it in front of others.
—Fred Rogers

Source: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 Teachers: Jokes, Quotes, and Anecdotes 2008 Calendar by Andrews McMeel Publishing ISBN-13: 978-0-7407-6680-0
See also:
> The World According to Mr. Rogers by Fred Rogers 2003 ISBN 1-4013-0106-1
> Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

Is Your Aim Too High?

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.
—Michaelangelo

Source: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 Teachers: Jokes, Quotes, and Anecdotes 2008 Calendar by Andrews McMeel Publishing ISBN-13: 978-0-7407-6680-0

How Sweet It is To Love Someone...

How right it is to care...

John Denver sings "Poems, Prayers and Promises."
How we miss you so, John.

Lyrics: Poems, Prayers and Promises

Isabelle Anna's First Birthday

July 5^th, 2008 was Isabelle Anna's first birthday.

Here's a slide show of her birthday photos.

Why Do You Do Good?

If people are good only because they fear punishment and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.
—Albert Einstein

Source: The Best Liberal Quotes Ever: Why the Left is Right by Wlliam Martin. Sourcebooks, Inc. 2004 ISBN: 1-4022-0309-8

You Tread on My Dreams

He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

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.
—William Butler Yeats

Source: Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Friday, June 13, 2008.
> It's the birthday of Irish poet William Butler Yeats, born 1865 in Sandymount, Ireland, a suburb of Dublin. Yeats died in 1939 at the Hôtel Idéal Séjour, in Menton, France.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

A Spitfire like the one flown by John Magee

He was flying Spitfire VZ-H, serial number AD-291 on Dec. 11, 1941.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds,—and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air….

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor ever eagle flew—
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
— JOHN G. MAGEE, JR., “High Flight,” September 3, 1941.

Source: Bartleby.com's Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations 603.John Gillespie Magee, Jr. (1922–41)
See also:
> It is the birthday of John Gillespie Magee, Jr. He was born in 1922 in Shanghai, China, of missionary parents—an American father and an English mother—and spoke Chinese before English. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in late 1940. In Britain he flew in a Spitfire squadron and was killed on a routine training mission on December 11, 1941. He wrote the above sonnet and sent it to his parents on a back of a letter.

Joy, Shipmate, Joy

JOY, shipmate, joy!
(Pleas'd to my soul at death I cry,)
Our life is closed, our life begins,
The long, long anchorage we leave,
The ship is clear at last, she leaps!
She swiftly courses from the shore,
Joy, shipmate, joy.
—Walt Whitman

Source: The Walt Whitman Archive, Leaves of Grass (1881–1882) JOY, Shipmate, Joy
See also:
> Walt Whitman was born on this day in 1819 in West Hills, Long Island, New York. He died on March 26, 1892 in Camden, New Jersey.
> Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Saturday, May 31, 2008.

We Sail the Ocean Blue

We sail the ocean blue,
And our saucy ship's a beauty;
We're sober men and true,
And attentive to our duty.
When the balls whistle free
O'er the bright blue sea,
We stand to our guns all day;
When at anchor we ride
On the Portsmouth tide,
We have plenty of time to play.

Ahoy! Ahoy! The balls whistle free.
Ahoy! Ahoy! O'er the bright blue sea,
We stand to our guns, to our guns all day.

We sail the ocean blue,
And our saucy ship's a beauty;
We're sober men and true,
And attentive to our duty;
Our saucy ship's a beauty,
We're attentive to our duty;
We're sober men and true,
We sail the ocean blue!
—Arther Seymour Sullivan (Of Gilbert & Sullivan) from their opera H.M.S. Pinafore

Source: Lyricsandsongs.com's We Sail the Ocean Blue Lyrics
See also:
> It's the birthday of one half of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera writing team, Arthur Seymour Sullivan, born in London in 1842. He died in England on November 22, 1900.
> See: Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac for Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Stupid is as Stupid Does

It is so pleasant to come across people more stupid than ourselves. We love them at once for being so.
— Jerome K. Jerome

Source: Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac for Friday, May 2, 2008

Do You Keep the Channel Open?

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.
—Martha Graham

Source: Garr Reynold's blog: Presentation Zen, April 12, 2008 entry Ichi-nichi issho: Each day is a lifetime
See also:
> The incredibly inspiring The Last Lecture | Randy Pausch and the lecture itself :
(about 76 minutes you can't miss!)

Update: July 25, 2008
Randy Pausch, 47, Dies; His ‘Last Lecture’ Inspired Many to Live With Wonder
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: July 26, 2008 (NY Times Online)
Dr. Pausch was the Carnegie Mellon University professor whose “last lecture” made him a Lou-Gehrig-like symbol of the beauty and briefness of life.

Happy Birthday William Shakespeare

The quality of mercy is not strain'd;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation; we do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea,
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.
—Portia in Shakespeare's The Merchant Of Venice Act 4, scene 1, 180–187

Source: Shakespeare Quotes at enotes.com The quality of mercy is not strained.
> Also: The Merchant Of Venice Act 4, scene 1, 180–187
> It is the believed to be birthday of William Shakespeare, born in Stratford-on-Avon, England in 1564. He died on April 23, 1616.
> See: Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac for Wednesday, April 23, 2008

A Friendship Blessing

May you be blessed with good friends.
May you learn to be a good friend to yourself.
May you be able to journey to that place in your soul
   where there is great love, warmth, feeling, and forgiveness.
May this change you.
May it transfigure that which is negative, distant, or cold in you.
May you be brought in to the real passion, kinship, and affinity of belonging.
May you treasure your friends.
May you be good to them and may you be there for them;
   may they bring you all the blessings, challenges, truth,
   and light that you need for your journey.
May you never be isolated.
May you always be in the gentle nest of belonging with your anam cara.
—John O'Donohue

Source: Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O'Donohue Harper Perennial 1998 & 2004 ISBN-13: 978-0-06-092943-5

Light Within You

The more light you allow within you, the brighter the world you live in will be.
—Shakti Gawain

Source: Spirit window card series, by Compendium, Inc.
See also: Shakti Gawain's Web site

Never Eat at a Restaurant Called Mom's

Never eat at a place called Mom's, never play cards with a guy named Doc, and never go to bed with anyone who has more troubles than you.
—Nelson Algren

Source: Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac for Friday, Mar. 28, 2008
See also:
> It is the birthday of Nelson Algren born in Detroit, Michigan in 1909. He died In Long Island, New York on May 9, 1981

Love: Not Perfect Caring

Love isn't a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.
—Fred Rogers

Source: The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember by Fred Rogers 2003 ISBN 1-4013-0106-1
Today is the birthday of Fred Rogers, producer, writer, puppeteer, composer, lyricist, ordained minister and devoted student of child development. Mister Rogers was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania in 1928. He died on February 27, 2003 at his home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
See also:
> Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac for Thursday, Mar. 20, 2008
> Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
> About Fred Rogers

Who, if not I?

I am the wind on the sea.
I am the ocean wave.
I am the sound of the billows.
I am the seven-horned stag.
I am the hawk on the cliff.
I am the dewdrop in sunlight.
I am the fairest of flowers.
I am the raging boar.
I am the salmon in the deep pool.
I am the lake on the plain.
I am the meaning of the poem.
I am the point of the spear.
I am the god that makes fire in the head.
Who levels the mountain?
Who speaks the age of the moon?
Who has been where the sun sleeps?
Who, if not I?
—The Song of Amergin

Source: Speaking of Faith Public Radio show of Feb. 28, 2008 (and repeated on Sunday, Mar. 2, 2008) The Inner Landscape of Beauty | Program Particulars, a program interviewing the late Celtic poet John O'Donohue.
See also:
> Amergin, Amirgin, Amairgen by Dedanaan: Myth Is What We Call Other People's Religion.
> Short biographical sketch of John O'Donohue.

Do What You Can

Do what
You can,
Where
You are,
With what
You have!
—Theodore Roosevelt

Source: quotablecards: A card I gave myself on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008 in Portland, Oregon.

Happy Birthday, Banjo Paterson

I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better
Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago,
He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,
Just on spec, addressed as follows, "Clancy, of The Overflow"

And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected,
(And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar)
Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:
"Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know where he are."

* * * * * * * * *

In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy
Gone a-droving "down the Cooper" where the Western drovers go;
As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,
For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.

And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him
In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,
And at night the wond'rous glory of the everlasting stars.

* * * * * * * * *

I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy
Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,
And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city
Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all

And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle
Of the tramways and the buses making hurry down the street,
And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,
Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.

And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me
As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,
With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,
For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.

And I somehow rather fancy that I'd like to change with Clancy,
Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go,
While he faced the round eternal of the cash-book and the journal
--But I doubt he'd suit the office, Clancy, of The Overflow.
—A. B. (Andrew Barton) "Banjo" Paterson

Source: A.B. Paterson: Selected Poems published 1992 by Angus & Robertson Book ISBN 0-207-1726-4
> Today, Sunday, February, 17, 2008, I recited this poem to my Mom, Minna, whilst on a visit with her (and my sister, Sue and Dave) in Houston, Texas. She was filled with emotion and was well pleased. I also recited Paterson's The Man From Ironbark and Mulga Bill's Bicycle
> Today, February 17^th, is "Banjo" Paterson's birthday. He was born Andrew Barton Paterson in Narrambla, New South Wales, Australia in 1864. He died in Sydney, New South Wales Australia on February 5, 1941.
See also:
> Garrison Keillor's The Wrtier's Almanac for Sunday, February 17, 2008
> University of Queensland, Australia "Banjo" Paterson's Cancy of the Overflow First published in the The Bulletin in 1889.

Finish Each Day

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Source: Teachers: Jokes, Quotes, and Anecdotes Daily calendar Thursday, February 7, 2008 Andrews McMeel Publishing ISBN-13: 9780-7407-6680-0

The Future - Tomorrow

The future will be better tomorrow.
—Dan Quayle

Source: Teachers: Jokes, Quotes, and Anecdotes Daily calendar Wednesday, February 6, 2008 Andrews McMeel Publishing ISBN-13: 9780-7407-6680-0

The Day the Music Died

If you knew Peg – gy Sue
Then you'd know why I feel blue with – ou – out Peg – gy,
my Pe – eg – gy Su – u – ue
Oh well I love you girl, yes I love Peggy Sue.
—Charles (Buddy Holly) Hardin Holley

Source: Wilkipedia's article Peggy Sue
> Buddy Holly (and other performers Ritchie Valens, J. P. Richardson, and the 21-year-old pilot, Roger Peterson) was killed in an airplane crash on February 3, 1959.
> Don McLean referred to that day as "the Day the Music Died."
> Holly was born Charles Hardin Holley in Lubbock, Texas on September 7, 1936.
> See Wilkipedia's article Buddy Holly

To Be Not Afraid

I will not serve that in which I no longer believe whether it call itself my home, my fatherland or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use - silence, exile, and cunning. ... I do not fear to be alone or to be spurned for another or to leave whatever I have to leave. And I am not afraid to make a mistake, even a great mistake, a lifelong mistake and perhaps as long as eternity too.
—james Joyce

Source: Garrison Keillor's The Wrtier's Almanac for Saturday, February 2, 2008
> Today is the birthday of James Joyce, born in Rathgar, a suburb of Dublin (1882). Joyce died on January 13, 1941 in Zürich.

Are You a Leader?

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.
—John Quincy Adams

Source: Teachers: Jokes, Quotes, and Anecdotes Daily calendar Monday, January 28, 2008 Andrews McMeel Publishing ISBN-13: 9780-7407-6680-0

Who is What and What is Who

On Wednesday, when the sky is blue,
And I have nothing else to do,
I sometimes wonder if it's true
That who is what and what is who.
—Pooh (from Winnie-the-Pooh)

Source: books and writers bio of A(lan) A(lexander) Milne (1882-1956
It is the birthday of A.A. Milne born London, England on this day in 1882. He died in Hartfield, Sussex, on January 31, 1956.
See also:
> Garrison Keillor's The Wrtier's Almanac for Friday, January 18, 2008

Happy Birthday, Robert W. Service, 2008 Anniversary

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.
—Robert W. Service

Source: Extract from The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service in his collection poems The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses published 1907
Today is the birthday of Robert W. Service, born in Preston, England in 1874 and died in Lancieux, C�tes-d'Armor, in Brittany, France on September 11, 1958.
It has been a tradition and an honor of mine to recite this poem (from the heart) at the campfire during our Annual Men's Gatherings, for the last 15 years at Buffalo Gap Camp, Capon Bridge, West Virgina.

Hate Corrodes - Hate Destroys

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.
—Martin Luther King, Jr.

Source: The Quotations Page – Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes
Today, Jan. 15^th is the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, USA in 1929. He died in Memphis, Tennessee having been assassinated on April 4 , 1968.
See also:
> Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008.
> New York Times Obituary Martin Luther King Jr.: Leader of Millions in Nonviolent Drive for Racial Justice by Murray Schumach published April 5, 1968

Falling from High Places

A fall from the third floor hurts as much as a fall from the hundredth. If I have to fall, may it be from a high place.
—Paulo Coelho

Source: Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better. Herter Studio. Running Press. 2006 ISBN 13: 978-0-7624-2514-3
See also:
> Official site of Paulo Coelho

Giving Credit

If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
—Sir Isaac Newton

Source: Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Friday, January 4, 2008
It is the birthday of Sir Isaac Newton who was born in Woolsthorpe, England in 1643. He died on 31 March 1727 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
See also:
> The BBC's Historic figures: Isaac Newton

Loving Ourselves

When we love ourselves, we refuse to allow others to manage our emtions from afar. Forgiveness is our means to that end.

Source: Everyday Wisdom by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer published by Hay House 1993 ISBN 1-56170-076-2
See also:
> Dr. Dyer's Official Web site

Purpose: What?

Your purpose is always about giving, loving and serving in some capacity.
—Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Source: Everyday Wisdom by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer published by Hay House 1993 ISBN 1-56170-076-2
See also:
> Dr. Dyer's Official Web site

Let's Dance

It may be that we are doomed, that there is no hope for us, any of us, but if that is so then let us set up a last agonizing, bloodcurdling howl, a screech of defiance, a war whoop! Away with lamentation! Away with elegies and dirges! Away with biographies and histories, and libraries and museums! Let the dead eat the dead. Let us living ones dance about the rim of the crater, a last expiring dance. But a dance!
—Henry Miller in Tropic of Cancer

Source: Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Wednesday, December 26, 2007
It is the birthday of Henry Miller who was born in New York City in 1891. He died June 7, 1980 in Pacific Palisades.
See also:
> Valentine Miller's Henry Miller: A Personal Collection
> Wikipedia's Henry Miller

Scrooge on the Eve of Christmas

Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to.' Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
—Charles Dickens, the beginning of A Christmas Carol

Source: Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Monday, December 24, 2007
See also:
> Biographical sketch of Charles Dickens
> Wikipedia's A Christmas Carol

Thousands of Small, Routine Tasks

And tragically, since the onset of the scientific and technological revolution, it has seemingly become all too easy for ultrarational minds to create an elaborate edifice of clockwork efficiency capable of nightmarish cruelty on an industrial scale. The atrocities of Hitler and Stalin, and the mechanical sins of all who helped them, might have been inconceivable except for the separation of facts from values and knowledge from morality. In her study of Adolf Eichmann, who organized the death camp bureaucracy, Hannah Arendt coined the memorable phrase "the banality of evil" to describe the bizarre contrast between the humdrum and ordinary quality of the acts themselves—the thousands of small, routine tasks committed by workaday bureaucrats—and the horrific and satanic quality of their proximate consequences. It was precisely the machinelike efficiency of the system that carried out the genocide which seemed to make it possible for its functionaries to separate the thinking required in their daily work from the moral sensibility for which, because they were human beings, they must have had some capacity. This mysterious, vacant space in their souls, between thinking and feeling, is the suspected site of the inner crime. This barren of the spirit, rendered fallow by the blood of unkept brothers, is the precinct of the disembodied intellect, which knows the way things work but not the way they are.

It is my view that the underlying moral schism that contributed to these extreme manifestations of evil has also conditioned our civilization to insulate its conscience from any responsibility for the collective endeavors that invisibly link millions of small, silent, banal acts and omissions together in a pattern of terrible cause and effect. Today, we enthusiastically participate in what is in essence a massive and unprecedented experiment with the natural systems of the global environment, with little regard for the moral consequences. But for the separation of science and religion, we might not be pumping so much gaseous chemical waste into the atmosphere and threatening the destruction of the earth's climate balance. But for the separation of useful technological know-how and the moral judgments to guide its use, we might not be slashing and burning one football field's worth of rain forest every second. But for the assumed separation of humankind from nature, we might not be destroying half the living species on earth in the space of a single lifetime. But for the separation of thinking and feeling, we might not tolerate the deaths everyday of 37,000 children under the age of five from starvation and preventable diseases made worse by failures of crops and politics.
—Al Gore, Earth in the Balance, 1992

Source: Quotations Collected by David Conner, Part 2

More Nothing Than Something

An atom (and thus all matter) is mostly empty space.
—Encyclopedia Britannica

Contrary to our perception and belief, there is more nothing than something, even in things that appear to have more something than nothing.
—Peter McWilliams

Everything is always in motion, even things that don't appear to have moved in millions of years.
—Peter McWilliams

The perception that things are solid and stationary is an illusion.
—Peter McWilliams

Source: The Portable Life 101: 179 essential lessons from the New York Times bestseller Life 101: Everything We Wish We Had Learned in Life In School—But Didn't by Peter McWilliams 1995 ISBN: 0-931580-41-2

In The Yukon Wild

You know what it's like in the Yukon wild
When it's sixty-nine below;
When the ice-worms wriggle their purple heads
Through the crust of the pale blue snow;
When the pine-trees crack like little guns In the silence of the wood,
And the icicles hang down like tusks Under the parka hood;
When the stove-pipe smoke breaks sudden off,
And the sky is weirdly lit,
And the careless feel of a bit of steel Burns like a red-hot spit;
When the mercury is a frozen ball,
And the frost-fiend stalks to kill --
Well, it was just like that that day when I Set out to look for Bill.
—Robert W. Service in The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill

Source: Online copy of The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill by Robert W. Service

THE Something I Can Do

I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something I will not refuse to do the something I can do.
—Helen Keller

Source: Because of You series window card by Compendium, Inc.

Service

What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult for each other?
—George Eliot

Source: The Best Liberal Quotes Ever: Why the Left is Right by Wlliam Martin. Sourcebooks, Inc. 2004 ISBN: 1-4022-0309-8

Who said, "Lost!"?

I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks.
—Daniel Boone

Source: Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Friday, November 1, 2007
⇒ Today is the birthday of Daniel Boone, born near Reading, Pennsylvania in 1734. He died in 1819.

Making Mistakes and Feeling Good About Them

While one person hesitates because he feels inferior; the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior.
—Henry C. Link

Source: The Portable Life 101: 179 essential lessons from the New York Times bestseller Life 101: Everything We Wish We Had Learned in Life In School—But Didn't by Peter McWilliams 1995 ISBN: 0-931580-41-2

Human Doing?

You are not a human doing but rather a human being.
—Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Source: Everyday Wisdom by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer published by Hay House 1993 ISBN 1-56170-076-2
See also Dr. Dyer's Official Web site

Point of Philosophy

The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.
—Bertrand Russell

Sourrce: 50 philosophy ideas you really need to know by Ben Dupré. Quercus 2007 ISBN-13: 978-1-84724-149-8

Our Own Behavior

We create our fate every day . . . most of the ills we suffer from are directly traceable to our own behavior.
—Henry Miller

Source: The Best Liberal Quotes Ever: Why the Left is Right by Wlliam Martin. Sourcebooks, Inc. 2004 ISBN: 1-4022-0309-8

Change My Mind?

Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.
—John Kenneth Galbraith

Source: The Portable Life 101: 179 essential lessons from the New York Times bestseller Life 101: Everything We Wish We Had Learned in Life In School—But Didn't by Peter McWilliams 1995 ISBN: 0-931580-41-2

Wasting Our Brains

That image of a $6 million high-tech U.S. helicopter with a highly trained pilot blowing an insurgent off his bicycle captures the absurdity of our situation in Iraq. The great Lebanese historian Kamal Salibi said it best: “Great powers should never get involved in the politics of small tribes.”

That is where we are in Iraq. We’re wasting our brains. We’re wasting our people. We’re wasting our future.
—Thomas L. Friedman

Source: Iraq Through China’s Lens by Thomas L. Friedman. Published Sep. 12, 2007 in the New York Times. [Requires subscription]

WashingtonPost.com's Faces of the Fallen: By Age | 36-year-olds
U.S. Service members who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom

Gather Rosebuds While You May

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying,
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.
—Robert Herrick

Source: Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Friday, August 24, 2007
⇒ Today is the birthday of Robert Herrick, born in London in 1591. He was buried at Devon on October 15, 1674.

Victor Hugo's Exclamation Point

Victor Hugo, when he wanted to know how Les Miserables was selling, reportedly telegraphed his publisher with the single inquiry "?" and received the expressive "!".
—Lynne Truss in her book Eats, Shoots & Leaves

Source: Eats, Shoots & Leaves daily calendar, Thursday, August 16, 2007 entry.
See also:
⇒ Lynne Truss's Home page and;
⇒ Her Eats, Shoots & Leaves page.

WashingtonPost.com's Faces of the Fallen: By Age | 35-year-olds
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Okay to Make Mistakes?

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
—George Bernard Shaw

Source: Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better. Herter Studio. Running Press. 2006 ISBN 13: 978-0-7624-2514-3
⇒ See also: George Bernard Shaw

Wrestle a Pig?

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.
—George Bernard Shaw

Source: Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Thursday, July 26, 2007
⇒ Today is the birthday of George Bernard Shaw, born in Dublin, Ireland in 1856. he died at Ayot St. Lawrence, Hertfordshire, on November 2, 1950.

Serve and Thou Shall Be Served

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself ... Serve and thou shall be served.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Source: The Power of Intention: Learning to Co–create Your World Your Way by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. Hay House 2004 ISBN 13: 978-1-4019-0216-2 (tradepaper)

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Three "Rs" Enough?

The three Rs — reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic — are no longer enough. We must add the three C's — computing, critical thinking, and capacity for change.
—Fred Gluck, former manager director, McKinsey & Co.

Source: Number 164: The Pursuit of WOW!: Every Person's Guide to Topsy-Turvy Times by Tom Peters Vintage 1994. ISBN: 0-679-75555-1

Children Never Listen

children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they never fail to imitate them.
—James Baldwin

Source: A Hand to Guide Me: Legends and Leaders Celebrate the People Who Shaped Their Lives by Denzel Washington, Meredith Books 2006 ISBN 13: 978-0-696-23049-3

My Chief Duty

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.
—Helen Keller

Getting Up in the Morning

I get up every morning determined both to change the world and to have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning the day difficult.
—E. B. White, writer (1899–1985)

Source: Java House counter on June 25, 2007.
Java House
210 W Evergreen Blvd # 400
Vancouver, WA 98660
(360) 737-2925
See also:
⇒ Wikipedia's E.B. White

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To Attempt Tetrameter

Why, asks a friend, attempt tetrameter?
Because it once was noble, yet
Capers before the proud pentameter,
Tyrant of English. I regret
To see this marvelous swift meter
Deamean its heritage, and peter
Into mere Hudibrastic tricks,
Unapostolic knacks and knicks.
But why take all this quite so badly?
I would not, had I world and time
To wait for reason, rhythm, rhyme,
To reassert themselves, but sadly,
The time is not remote when I
Will not be here to wait. That's why.
—Vikram Seth in his The Golden Gate: A Novel in Verse

Source: Rice University's Minstrels Why, Asks a Friend, Attempt Tetrameter?
⇒ British Council: Arts, ComtemporaryWriters Vikram Seth Biography
⇒ Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Give & Take in Life

The idea that life is take, take, take (learn, learn, learn) needs to be balanced with the idea that life is also giving (teaching). Receiving and giving (learning and teaching) are two parts of a single flow, like breathing in (receiving) and breathing out (giving). One cannot take place without the other.
—Peter McWilliams

Life is something like a trumpet.
If you don't put anything in,
you won't get anything out.
—W. C. Handy

Source: The Portable Life 101: 179 essential lessons from the New York Times bestseller Life 101: Everything We Wish We Had Learned in Life In School—But Didn't by Peter McWilliams 1995 ISBN: 0-931580-41-2
See also:
⇒ University of North Alabama Library's W. C. Handy Biography
⇒ Memorial for Peter McWilliams, 1950—2000

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The Nature of Courage

Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared.
—Eddie Rickenbacker

Source: The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader by John C. Maxwell 1999. Thomas Nelson, Inc. ISBN: 0-7852-7440-5, page 39.
See also:
⇒ Auburn University's biographical sketch, Edward Vernon "Eddie" Rickenbacker.

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
—Eleanor Roosevelt

Source: The Quotations Page on Eleanor Roosevelt.
See also:
⇒ Biography of Eleanor Roosevelt at WhiteHouse.gov.

As I Grow Older

The older I grow, the more I listen to people who don't talk much.
—Germain G. Glien

Source: Java House counter on June 8, 2007.
Java House
210 W Evergreen Blvd # 400
Vancouver, WA 98660
(360) 737-2925

Don't Give Up the Ship

US Navy Historical Center

USS Lawrence (DDG-4) underway

USS Lawrence (DDG-4) underway near Cape Henry, VA May 3, 1973. DDG-4 was one of five US Navy ships named in honor of Captain James Lawrence, War of 1812 naval hero.

Fight her 'til she sinks and don't give up the ship
—James Lawrence, Captain, USN

Source: New York Times On This Day for June 1, 2007: See 1813.
See also:
⇒ Wikipedia's James Lawrence.
⇒ Wikipedia's USS Chesapeake.

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Smoke Rings of My Mind

Then take me disappearin' through the smoke rings of my mind,
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves,
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach,
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow.
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free,
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands,
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves,
Let me forget about today until tomorrow.

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.
—Bob Dylan in Mr. Tambourine Man

Source: Bob Dylan: Mr. Tambourine Man lyrics.
See also: It is the birthday of Bob Dylan, born Robert Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota (1941).
⇒ Wikipedia's bob Dylan.
⇒ Sony Record's BOBDYLAN.COM

Letters We Should Have Burned

'Lives' of great men oft remind us as we o'er their pages turn,
That we too many leave behind us –
Letters that we ought to burn.
—Thomas Hood

Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Wednesday, May 23, 2007.
See also:
⇒ Wikipedia's Thomas Hood who was born on this day in London in 1799. He died on May 3, 1845 in Camberwell, England.
⇒ Consider This March 10, 2004 entry Lives Sublime quote by Longfellow.

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Fear Thought?

Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam

Mount St. Helens in early morning sunlight

Today is the 27th anniversary of the Sunday morning eruption of this Cascade Mountain range volcanoe in Southwest Washington. Photo grabbed 0748 May 18, 2007.

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth—more than ruin—more even than death. ... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.
—Bertrand Russell

Source: Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Friday, May 18, 2007.

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You Count

When you become part of something, in some way you count. It could be a march; it could be a rally, even a brief one. You're part of something, and you suddenly realize you count. To count is very important.
—Studs Terkel

Source: BrainyQuote.com's Studs Terkel Quotes.
It is the birthday of StudsTerkel, born Louis Terkel in the Bronx, New York City in 1912.
See also:
⇒ Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Wednesday, May 16, 2007.
⇒ Wikipedia.org's Studs Terkel

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Tears and Sweat

All I have to offer is blood, toil, tears, and sweat.
—Winston Churchill, Acceptance Speech, 1940

Source: Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Thursday, May 10, 2007
⇒ It was on this day in 1940 that Winston Churchill took power as the prime minister of Great Britain, a position he would hold for the rest of World War II. He came to power at a very dark moment for Europe. In less than two years, almost all of Western Europe's mainland was either controlled by or allied with Nazi Germany. And then, on this day in 1940, Churchill became the prime minister.
⇒ See also: NobelPrize.org's Winston Churchill – Biography, Churchill was awarded The Nobel Prize in Literature for 1953

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Religion: Man-Made

The mildest criticism of religion is also the most radical and the most devastating one. Religion is man-made. Even the men who made it cannot agree on what their prophets or redeemers or gurus actually said or did. Still less can they hope to tell us the "meaning" of later discoveries and developments which were, when they began, either obstructed by their religions or denounced by them. And yet—the believers still claim to know!
—Christopher Hitchens

Source: Slate.com's blog Fighting Words: from: Christopher Hitchens Religion Poisons Everything; excerpt from Christopher Hitchens' book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

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Hijacking of Morality

The greatest tragedy in mankind's history may be the hijacking of morality by religion.
—Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction writer (1917–

Source: Java House counter on May 1, 2007.
Java House
210 W Evergreen Blvd # 400
Vancouver, WA 98660
(360) 737-2925