'The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on' —
and only then do you find out if it goosed you in passing.
Robert A. Heinlein, Farnham’s Freehold
'The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on' —
and only then do you find out if it goosed you in passing.
Robert A. Heinlein, Farnham’s Freehold
Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced,
not because it has been sober, responsible and cautious,
but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.
Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker
The only thing in the world worth a damn is the strange,
touching, pathetic, awesome nobility of the individual human spirit.
John D. MacDonald, A Deadly Shade of Gold
Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved.
D. H. Lawrence, The Captain's Doll
The fool, with all his other faults, has this also,
he is always getting ready to live.
Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“God is love,” as Scripture says, and that means the revelation is in the relationship.
“God is love” means God is known devotionally, not dogmatically.
“God is love” does not clear up old mysteries; it discloses new mystery.
“God is love” is not a truth we can master; it is only one to which we can surrender.
Faith is being grasped by the power of love.
William Sloane Coffin, Jr, Emmanuel sermon
John Keats
Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self esteem,
first make sure you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes.
2010 Twitter post, Notorious d.e.b. @debihope
How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?
Satchel Paige, It Takes a Long Time to Become Young
I love everything that's old —
old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.
Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer
How did those priests ever get so serious
and preach all that
gloom?
I don't think God
tickled them
yet.
Beloved -- hurry.
St. Teresa of Avila, Love Poems from God
Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
And rise and sink and rise and sink again;
Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath,
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
It well may be that in a difficult hour,
Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,
Or nagged by want past resolution’s power,
I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It well may be. I do not think I would.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Cyberspace is where the bank keeps your money.
William Gibson, 1995 New York Times interview
If you could see the earth illuminated when you were in a place as dark as night,
it would look to you more splendid than the moon.
Galileo Galilei, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
I love thee’I love thee!
’Tis all that I can say;'
It is my vision in the night,
My dreaming in the day;
The very echo of my heart,
The blessing when I pray:
I love thee’I love thee!
Is all that I can say.
I love thee’I love thee!
Is ever on my tongue;
In all my proudest poesy
That chorus still is sung;
It is the verdict of my eyes,
Amidst the gay and young:
I love thee’I love thee!
A thousand maids among.
I love thee’I love thee!
Thy bright hazel glance,
The mellow lute upon those lips,
Whose tender tones entrance;
But most, dear heart of hearts, thy proofs
That still these words enhance,
I love thee’I love thee!
Whatever be thy chance.
Thomas Hood
Theology being the work of males,
original sin was traced to the female.
Barbara W. Tuchman, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
Abraham Lincoln
his hand and pen
he will be good but
god knows When
Written by Abraham Lincoln as a teenager
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln
Why is compassion not part of our established curriculum,
an inherent part of our education?
Compassion, awe, wonder, curiosity, exaltation, humility–
these are the very foundation of any real civilisation,
no longer the prerogatives, the preserves of any one church,
but belonging to everyone, every child in every home, in every school.
Yehudi Menuhin, Compassion: The Ultimate Ethic
I have fallen in love with American names,
The sharp names that never get fat,
The snakeskin-titles of mining-claims,
The plumed war-bonnet of Medicine Hat,
Tucson and Deadwood and Lost Mule Flat.
Seine and Piave are silver spoons,
But the spoonbowl-metal is thin and worn,
There are English counties like hunting-tunes
Played on the keys of a postboy’s horn,
But I will remember where I was born.
I will remember Carquinez Straits,
Little French Lick and Lundy’s Lane,
The Yankee ships and the Yankee dates
And the bullet-towns of Calamity Jane.
I will remember Skunktown Plain.
I will fall in love with a Salem tree
And a rawhide quirt from Santa Cruz,
I will get me a bottle of Boston sea
And a blue-gum nigger to sing me blues.
I am tired of loving a foreign muse.
Rue des Martyrs and Bleeding-Heart-Yard,
Senlis, Pisa, and Blindman’s Oast,
It is a magic ghost you guard
But I am sick for a newer ghost,
Harrisburg, Spartanburg, Painted Post.
Henry and John were never so
And Henry and John were always right?
Granted, but when it was time to go
And the tea and the laurels had stood all night,
Did they never watch for Nantucket Light?
I shall not rest quiet in Montparnasse.
I shall not lie easy at Winchelsea.
You may bury my body in Sussex grass,
You may bury my tongue at Champmedy.
I shall not be there. I shall rise and pass.
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee.
Stephen Vincent Benet
No, I would not want to live in a world without dragons,
as I would not want to live in a world without magic,
for that is a world without mystery,
and that is a world without faith.
R.A. Salvatore, Streams of Silver
At the bottom of every social problem we will find a social wrong.
Henry George, Social Problems
I’ve come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.
Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt
The past is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future.
Jessamyn West, A Matter of Time
I think I exist,
therefore I exist.
I think.
David Gerrod, The Man Who Folded Himself
We all have the same God, we just serve him differently.
Rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, oceans all have different names,
but they all contain water.
So do religions have different names, and they all contain truth,
expressed in different ways forms and times.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Muslim, a Christian, or a Jew.
When you believe in God, you should believe
that all people are part of one family.
If you love God, you can’t love only some of his children.
Muhammad Ali, The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life’s Journey
254
"Hope" is the thing with feathers --
That perches in the soul --
And sings the tune without the words --
And never stops -- at all --
And sweetest -- in the Gale -- is heard --
And sore must be the storm --
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm --
I've heard it in the chillest land --
And on the strangest Sea --
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb -- of Me.
1547
Hope is a subtle Glutton --
He feeds upon the Fair --
And yet -- inspected closely
What Abstinence is there --
His is the Halcyon Table --
That never seats but One --
And whatsoever is consumed
The same amount remain --
Emily Dickinson
From the movie Groundhog Day
The most serious charge
which can be brought against New England
is not Puritanism but February.
Joseph Wood Krutch, The Twelve Seasons