Happy people

If we observe genuinely happy people, we shall find that they do not just sit around being contented. They make things happen. They pursue new understandings, seek new achievements, and control their thoughts and feelings. In sum, our intentional, effortful activities have a powerful effect on how happy we are, over and above the effects of our set points and the circumstances in which we find themselves. If an unhappy person wants to experience interest, enthusiasm, contentment, peace, and joy, he or she can make it happen by learning the habits of a happy person.

Sonja Lyubomirsky
The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want

Look, but don't touch

An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument.
Isaac Stern takes good care of his violin.
What if everybody jumped on his violin?

        Marilyn Monroe, Life magazine 1962

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, to be in England

The English winter — ending in July,
To recommence in August.  

        Lord Byron, from Don Juan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You gotta love it

When you leave New York,
you are astonished at how clean the rest of the world is.
Clean is not enough.

        Fran Lebowitz, reported in Rand Lindsly's Quotations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Common weal

To the ignorant and bawling fanatics who stun you with their pother about liberty, political or civil liberty seems to be the principal end for which government ought to exist. But the final cause or purpose for which government ought to exist, is the furtherance of the common weal to the greatest possible extent.

            John Austin, The Province of Jurisprudence Determined 

 

 

 

 

 

E Pluribus Unum

America is woven of many strands;
I would recognize them and let it so remain.
It's "winner take nothing" that is the great truth
of our country or of any country.
Life is to be lived, not controlled;
and humanity is won by continuing to play
in face of certain defeat.
Our fate is to become one, and yet many—
This is not prophecy, but description.

            Ralph Ellison, The Invisible Man

 

 

 

 

Hold fast to the dream

The republic is a dream
Nothing happens unless first a dream.

    Carl Sandburg, Washington Monument by Night, stanza 4