Quotations of a Lifetime
collected over a period of 13 years by Elizabeth Dodge
dodge@pnet1.pnet.com
The Quotations of a Lifetime
THE WISDOM OF THE WISE AND THE EXPERIENCE OF THE AGES MAY BE PRESERVED BY QUOTATION Quote from - Benjamin Disraeli
- The individual is responsible for what happens in the future,
no matter what has happened in the past... and as long as people
are bound by the past, they are not free to respond to the needs
and aspirations of those in the present.
SUCCESS
Success is speaking words of praise
In cheering other peoples ways
In doing just the best you can
With every task and every plan.
It's silence when your speech would hurt.
Politeness when your neighbor's curt.
It's deafness when the scandal flows
and sympathy with other's woes
It's loyalty when duty calls
It's courage when disaster falls
It's politeness when the hours are long
It's found in laughter and in song.
It's in the silent time of prayer
In happiness and in despair
In all of life and nothing less
We find the thing we call success.
If you search for truthfulness
you might just as well be blind.
It always seems to be so hard to find.
Honesty is such a lonely word
everyone is so untrue.
Honesty is hardly ever heard
but mostly what I need from you.
- Billy Joel "Honesty"
A smile at the right moment
can act like sunlight
on a closed up flower.
It may be the turning point
for a struggling life.
The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and
the dreams shall never die.
- Edward Kennedy
To those who do not count their life in years, but in how life
has touched them in the past and how much it can hold in the
future; -- Youth is forever.
PROVERBS
- Wisdom is knowing the truth, and telling it.
- The ability to ask questions is the greatest resource in
learning the truth.
- Understanding is sometimes the most difficult thing to
comprehend.
- Seldom are things as simple as they look.
- Life consists of successes and failures, should you fail do
not dwell on it, but learn from it; it's a fact of life that you
lose more than you win.
- Do not strive to become one of the masses, lest you forget who
you are.
- You are your own best teacher, so go forth into life and learn
as you live and maybe by the day you die you will have attained
infinite wisdom.
It's my job to be different from the rest
It's my job to be better than the best
and that makes a day for me.
- Jimmy Buffitt "It's my Job"
A picture postcard, a folded stub
A program of the play
File away the photographs of your holiday
And your mementos will turn to dust
But that's the price you pay
Because every year's a souvenir
that slowly fades away.
- Billy Joel "Souvenir"
You can choose a ready guide
In some celestial voice
If you choose not to decide
You still have made a choice
You can choose from phantom fears
and kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that's clear
I will chose free will.
- RUSH "Free Will"
The headlines read these are the worst of times
I do believe that it's true.
- Styx " Worst of Times "
I am shielded in my armor
hiding in my room
safe within my womb
I touch no one
and no one touches me.
I am a rock
I am an island
and a rock feels no pain
and an island never cries.
- Simon and Garfunkle "I am a Rock"
You can and you can't
You will and you won't
You'll be damned if you do
You'll be damned if you don't
- L. Dow
There is so much good in the worst of us
and so much bad in the best of us
that it ill behooves any of us
to find fault with the rest of us.
Doubt who you will, but never yourself.
- Bovee
And ye shall know the truth,and the truth shall make you free -
John VII
No man should part with his individuality and become that of
another.
- Channing
Think wrongly if you please, but in all cases think for yourself.
- Lessing
You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.
I have noticed that nothing I have never said ever did me any
harm.
Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know
the difference.
- St. Francis of Assisi
You are never given a wish without being given the power to make
it true....you may have to work for it however.
It's gonna be a long, long time.
- "Rocket Man"
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
- William Blake "A Poison Tree"
Now, here, you see, it takes all of the running you can do to
keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else you
must run at least twice as fast as that.
- Lewis Carroll "Through the Looking Glass"
Let no man imagine that he has no influence. Whoever he may be,
and where ever he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a
light and a power.
- Henry George
Faith may defined briefly as an illogical belief in the
occurrence of the impossible.
- H.L. Mencken
Those who apply themselves too closely to little things often
become incapable of great things.
- Francois DeLaRochefoucard
He who stops being better stops being good.
-Oliver Cromwell
Happiness is not in our circumstance but in ourselves. It is not
something we see, like a rainbow, or feel, like the heat of a
fire. Happiness is something we are.
- John B. Sheerin
Go placidly amid the noise and haste and remember what peace
there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be
on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and
clearly; and listen to others; even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their stories.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons they are vexations to the
spirit. If you compare yourself to others you may become vain
and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons
than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble, it is a real
possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in
business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let
this not blind you to what virtue there is: many persons strive
for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be
cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and
disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly to the council of the years, gracefully surrendering
the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in
sudden misfortune; but do not distress yourself with these
imaginings; many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the
stars you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is
clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you perceive him to
be, and whatever your aspirations in the noisy confusion of
life, keep peace with your soul.
With all of it's sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a
beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy.
That which happens in life is not as important as how you accept
it.
Nothing's gonna change my world.
- John Lennon (1941-1981)
All we are saying is give peace a chance.
- John Lennon
I'm just sittin' here watching the
wheels go 'round and 'round
I really love to watch them roll.
No longer riding on the merry-go-round.
I just had to let it go.
- John Lennon "Watchin' the Wheels"
Outside the pull of gravity
beyond the spectro-veil
within our careful reasoning
we search to no avail
for the constant in the chaos
for the fulcrum in the void
following a destiny
our steps cannot avoid
- Dan Fogelburg "Nexus"
A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in
spite of obstacles and dangers - and this is the basis of all
human morality.
- John F. Kennedy
Some of us will lose
Some of us will win
but to know where you are goin'
you have to know where you've been
- Dave Mason "Bird on the Wind"
Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity; the most important
thing in life is knowing when to forgo an advantage.
- Disraeli
Does anybody really know what time it is; Does anybody really
care?
- Chicago
There is a period of life when we go backwards as we advance.
- J. Rousseau
One half the troubles in the world can be traced to saying "yes"
too quickly and not saying "no" soon enough.
- J. Billings
Life is short, but it is long enough to ruin any man who wants
to be ruined.
- J. Billings
The hardest tumble a man can take is to fall over his own bluff.
- A. Bierce
The best you can get is an even break.
- F.P. Adams
Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.
- Janice Joplin
A brief candle; both ends burning
An endless mile; a bus wheel turning
A friend to share the lonesome times
A handshake and a sip of wine
So say it loud and let it ring
We are all a part of everything
The future, present and the past
Fly on proud bird
You're free at last.
If you overcome someone else you are strong.
If you overcome yourself you are mighty.
To everything there is a season
and a time to every purpose under heaven.
- " Turn, Turn, Turn"
The choice not to make a decision is a decision in itself.
Be still sad heart, and cease repining
behind the clouds the sun is shining
Thy fate is the common fate of all
Into each life some rain must fall.
- Longfellow
If your lips would keep from slips
Five things observe with care
to whom you speak, of whom you speak
and how, and when, and where.
So much of life is in pictures
So many things don't come through
It's hard when you're young
and you're out on your own
But someday the dreams will come true.
- B. Dodge
You, who are on the road
must have a code
that you can live by.
And so become yourselves
because the past is just a good-bye.
- Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Accept me as I am. Only then will we discover each other.
Hold fast to dreams
for if dreams die
life is a broken winged bird
that cannot fly.
- Langston Hughes
Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see
It's getting hard to be someone
But it all works out
It doesn't matter much to me.
- John Lennon
The minute you stop thinking you can be more, you become less
- B. Dodge
When things go wrong; as they sometimes will
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill
When the funds are low and the debts are high
and you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
when care is pressing you down a bit -
Rest if you must, but don't you quit
Life is queer with it's twists and turns
as everyone of us sometimes learns
and many a person turns about
when they might have won had they stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow.
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the struggler has given up
when he might have captured the victors cup;
and he learned too late
when the night came down
how close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out -
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit
It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit.
- " Don't Quit "
Now and then we are aliens
feeling like we don't belong
have mercy cried the alien
Help me find my way back home.
- Atlanta Rythem Section
In men whom men condemn as ill
I find so much of goodness still,
In men whom men pronounce divine
I find so much of sin and blot
I do not dare to draw the line
between the two where God has not.
- Byron
The world should be a little bit better because a man has lived.
- "Little Lord Fauntleroy"
No problem is insurmountable. With a little courage, teamwork
and determination a person can overcome anything.
- B. Dodge
It is easier to fight for principles then it is to live up to
them.
- Alfred Adler
Look to the future
Not to the past
to find the things
You want to make last
Age is a quality of mind.
If you have left your dreams behind.
If hope is cold,
If you no longer look ahead,
If your ambitions' fires are dead
Then you are old.
But if from life you take the best
If in life you keep the jest,
If love you hold;
No matter how the years go by,
No matter how the birthdays fly -
You are not old.
- H.S. Fritsch
Youth is not a time of life - it is a state of mind. It is not a
matter of red cheeks, red lips and supple knees. It is a temper
of the will; a quality of imagination; a vigor of emotions; it
is a freshness in the deep springs of life. Youth means a
temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of appetite
for adventure over a life of ease. This often exists in a man of
fifty more than a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old by merely
living a number of years; people grow old by deserting their
ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm
wrinkles the soul. Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair
- these are the long, long years that bow the head and turn the
growing spirit back to dust.
You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young
as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your
hope, as old as your despair.
- Samuel Ullman
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I..... I took the one less
traveled by, and that has made all the difference.
- From "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost
You know sometimes it feels like it's movin' way too fast
- "Shadows in The Night"
A fool will lose tomorrow,
reaching back for yesterday.
- "I'll Never Love This Way Again"
People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Love them anyway
If you do good people will accuse you of selfish ulterior
motives.
Do good anyway
If you are successful you win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for some underdogs anyway
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway
People really need help but may attack you if you help them.
Help people anyway
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the
teeth.
Give the world the best you've got anyway
- "Anyway"
The line is drawn
the curse is cast
the slow one now
will later be fast.
As the present now
will later be past.
The order is rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
will later be last.
For the times they are a changin'
- Bob Dylan
...Come mothers and fathers
through out the land.
And don't criticize
what you can't understand.
Your sons and your daughters
are beyond your command.
Your old road is rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
if you can't lend a hand.
For the times they are a changin'
- Bob Dylan
Before the rising sun , we fly
So many roads to choose
We start out walking, and learn to run
And yet we've just begun
- The Carpenters
If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don't;
If you'd like to win, but think you can't,
It's almost a cinch you won't.
If you think you'll lose, you're lost,
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow's will;
It's all in the state of mind.
If you think you're outclassed, you are;
You've got to think high to rise.
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man;
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.
- Walter D. Wintle
So much time to make up
everywhere we turn.
Time we have wasted on the way
So much water runnin' underneath the bridge
Let the water come and carry us away.
- Crosby, Stills and Nash
You know that it never has been easy
Whether you do or do not resign
Whether you travel the breadth
of the extremities
Or stick to some straighter line.
- Joni Mitchell
It is the heart afraid of breaking
that never learns to dance
It is the dream afraid of waking
that never takes a chance
It is the one who won't be taken
who cannot seem to give
And the soul afraid of dying
that never learns to live.
- "The Rose" by Bette Midler
One man scorned and covered with scars still strove with his
last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars; and the
world will be better for this.
- "The Impossible Dream" Cervantes
I have to live with myself, and so
I want to be fit for myself to know.
I want to be able, as days go by,
Always to look myself straight in the eye;
I don't want to stand with the setting sun
And hate myself for the things I've done.
I don't want to keep on a closet shelf
A lot of secrets about myself,
And fool myself as I come and go
Into thinking no one else will know
The kind of man that I really am;
I don't want to dress myself up in a sham.
I want to go out with my head erect
I want to deserve all men's respect.
But here in the struggle for fame and pelf
I want to be able to like myself.
I don't want to look at myself and know
That I'm bluster and buff and empty show.
I can never hide myself from me;
I see what others may never see;
I know what others may never know
I can never fool myself, and so
Whatever happens I want to be
Self-respecting and conscious free.
- Edgar A. Guest "Myself"
He who knows not; and knows not that he knows not
is a fool, shun him.
He who knows not; and knows that he knows not
is a child, teach him.
He who knows; and knows not that he knows
is asleep, wake him.
He who knows; and know that he knows
is wise, follow him.
- Persian proverb
I see no harm or danger in escaping
If the method suits the style
We put the mind on idle
And let the others take it for a while
When the pace is too fast
And I think it won't last
You know where I'll be found
I'll be standing here beside myself
Getting ready for the final round.
- Saga "On the Loose"
Any time you feel the pain, hey Jude refrain, don't carry the
world upon your shoulders.
- The Beatles
Be understanding to your enemies
Be loyal to your friends
Be strong enough to face the world each day
Be weak enough to know that you cannot do everything alone
Be generous to those who need your help
Be frugal with what you need yourself
Be wise enough to know that you do not know everything
Be foolish enough to believe in miracles
Be willing to share your joys
Be willing to share the sorrows of others
Be a leader when you see a path others have missed
Be a follower when you are shrouded by the mists of uncertainty
Be the first to congratulate an opponent who succeeds
Be the last to criticize a colleague who fails
Be sure where your next step will fall so that you will not
stumble.
Be sure of your final destination in case you are going the
wrong way.
Be loving to those who love you
Be loving to those who do not love you
and they may change
Above all be yourself.
- "Be" From Ann Landers Column
Only as far as we seek
can we go
Only as much as we dream
can we be
Imagine no possession
I wonder if you can
no need for greed or hunger
a brotherhood of man.
-John Lennon
He drew a circle that shut me out -
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had wit to win
we drew a circle that took him in.
- Edwin Markham "Outwitted"
I think it's gonna be all right
Yea, the worst is over now
The morning sun is shining
Like a red rubber ball.
- The Beatles
Whatever your mind can conceive and believe it will achieve.
Dream great dreams and make them come true. Do it now.
You are unique. In all the history of the world there was never
anyone else exactly like you, and in all the infinity to come
there will never be another you. Never affirm self-limitations.
What you believe yourself to be, you are.
To accomplish great things, you must not only act but also
dream, not only plan but also believe. If you have built castles
in the air your work need not be lost - put foundations under
them, Yes you can, believing is magic.
You can always better your best. You do not know what you can do
until you try. Nothing will come of nothing. if you don't go out
on a limb, you're never going to get the fruit. There is no
failure except in no longer trying.
Hazy goals produce hazy results. Clearly define your goals.
Write them down, make a plan for achieving them, Just don't look
back unless you want to go that way.
Defeat may test you; it need not stop you. If at first you don't
succeed, try another way. For every obstacle there is a
solution. Nothing in the world can take the place of
persistence. The greatest mistake is giving up.
Wishing will not bring success but planning, persistence and a
burning desire will. There is a goldmine within you from which
you can extract all of the necessary ingredients.
Success is an attitude. Get yours right. It is astonishing how
short a time it takes for very wonderful things to happen. Now
show us the colors of your rainbow.
Now who do you think you're foolin'
you say you're havin' fun
But you're really goin' nowhere
just lyin' in the sun.
You try to be the hero
commit the perfect crime
But the dollar has got you dancin'
and you're runnin' out of time.
- Supertramp
I'm gonna go there free
like the fool I am and I'll always be
I've got a dream
I've got a dream
They can change their minds but they can't change me
I've got a dream
I've got a dream
I know I could share it if you want me to
If you are goin' my way
I'll go with you.
Give a moment or two to the angry young man
with his foot in his mouth and his heart in his hand
He's been stabbed in the back
He's been misunderstood
It's a comfort to know his intentions are good
And he sits in a room with a lock on the door
with his maps and his medals laid out on the floor
And he likes to be known as the angry young man.
- "Angry Young Man" Billy Joel
Now we are forced to recognize our inhumanity
A reason coexists with our insanity
And though we choose between reality and madness
It's either sadness or euphoria.
- "Summer Highland Falls" Billy Joel
We light our lamps
for atmosphere
and hang our hopes on chandeliers
We're going wrong
We're gaining weight
We're sleeping long
and far too late
And so it's time to change our ways
But I've loved these days.
- "I've Loved These Days" Billy Joel
When all else is lost, the future still remains.
- Bovee
Someday love shall claim his own,
Someday right ascend his throne,
Someday hidden truth be known
Someday - Some sweet day
- Lewis J. Bates
You're lost little girl
You're lost little girl
You're lost tell me who are you
I think that you know what to do
Impossible, yes but it's true
I think that you know what to do, girl
Sure that you know what to do.
- "You're Lost Little Girl" The Doors
When you get what you want in your struggle for self,
and the world makes you king for a day,
just go to a mirror and look at yourself,
and see what that man has to say.
For it isn't your father or mother or wife,
whose judgement upon you must pass,
the fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
is the one staring back from the glass.
Some people might think you're a straight shootin' chum,
and call you a wonderful guy
but the man in the glass says you're only a bum,
if you can't look him straight in the eye
He's the fellow to please, never mind all the rest,
for he's with you straight up to the end.
And you've passed your most dangerous difficult test,
if the guy in the glass is you friend.
You may fool the whole world
down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
if you cheated the man in the glass.
- "The Man In The Glass" From Ann Landers 10/05/83
No one knows what it's like
to be hated
to be fated
to telling only lies
but my dreams
they aren't as empty
as my conscious seems to be
I have hours
only lonely
My love is vengeance
that is never free.
- The Who ( Tim's Song 1983 )
He's old enough
to know
what's right
and weak enough
Not to choose it
He's wise enough
to win the world
And fool enough
to lose it
He's a New World Man
- "New World Man" Rush
There's always a place for the angry young man
with his fist in the air and his head in the sand
And he's never been able to learn from mistakes
So he can't understand why his heart always breaks
And his honor is pure and his courage is well
And he's fair
And he's true
And he's boring as hell
- "Angry Young Man" Billy Joel
We find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on
our point of view.
- Ben Kenobi " Return Of The Jedi "
Do you know where you are going to?
Do you like the things that life is showing you?
Where are you going to?
Do you know?
Do you get what you are hoping for,
when you look behind you there are no open doors.
What are you hoping for?
Do you know?
- "Theme from Mahogony" Diana Ross
So many times it happens too fast
you trade your passion for worry
Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past
you must fight just to keep them alive.
- "Eye of The Tiger" Survivor
There are times when all the world's asleep
The questions run so deep
for such a simple mind
Won't you please, please tell me what you've learned
I know it sounds absurd
please tell me who I am.
- "The Logical Song" Supertramp
Still 'round the corner there may wait
a new road or a secret gate
and though I oft have passed them by
a day will come when I
shall take the hidden paths that run
west of the moon, east of the sun.
- Tolkien M/3
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you.
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
but make allowances for their doubting too.
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies.
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good nor talk too wise.
If you can dream and not make dreams your master.
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim.
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
and treat the two imposters just the same.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools.
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken
and stoop and build them up with worn out tools.
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
and risk it on one turn of pitch and toss
And lose and start again at your beginnings
and never breathe a word about your loss.
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
to serve your turn long after they are gone
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
except the will which says to them "Hold On"
Then yours is the earth
and everything that is in it.
- Ruyard Kipling
I was a king, I can do anything.
- "Not to Touch the Earth" The Doors
We are not crazy, we are having a normal reaction to a sick
society.
- Written on New Haven Courthouse Steps
I don't need to fight
to prove I'm right
I don't need to be forgiven.
- "Baba O'Riely" The Who
Just when I thought it was going all right
found out I was wrong
when I thought I was right
It's always the same
It's just a shame
That's all
- " That's All " Genesis
I wish, I wish that I could know
The places I have yet to go,
The ways I'll change, the things I'll do,
The special dreams I'll make come true,
I wish, I wish that I could see
The life that lies ahead of me.
I've used my talents as I could
I've done some bad
I've done some good
I did a whole lot better than they
thought I would
So come on and treat me like you should.
- "Everybody Loves Me" Don McLean
You know I've heard about people like me,
but I never made the connection.
They walk one road to set them free,
and find they've gone the wrong direction.
But there's no need for turning back
'cause all roads lead to where I stand
And I believe I'll walk them all;
no matter what I may have planned.
-" Crossroads " Don McLean
Follow your dream
Take one step at a time
don't settle for less
just continue to climb.
Follow your dream...
If you stumble don't stop
Keep your eye on the goal
press on to the top.
For only on top can we see the whole view
can we see what we've done
and what we can do
can we then have the vision
to seek something new.
Press on and follow your dream.
- Amanda Bradley
I believe there comes a time
when everything just falls in line
We live and learn from our mistakes
our deepest wounds are healed by faith.
- "All Fired Up" Pat Benetar
Get up
Get back on your feet
You're the one they can't beat
and you know it.
Come on
Let's see what you've got
Just take your best shot
and don't blow it.
- "Foolin' Yourself" Little River Band
All my life's a circle
Sunrise and sundown
Moon rolls through the night time
'till the daybreak comes around.
All my life's a circle
And I can't tell you why
Seasons spinnin 'round again
Years keep rollin' by
- Harry Chapin
It's not always easy to be livin' in this world of pain
You're going to be crashing into stone walls again
it's all right
it's all right
Though you feel your heart break
you're only human
you're going to have to deal with heart break.
- "Only Human" Billy Joel
Man is nothing else but his plan; He exists only to the extent
that he fulfills himself; he is therefore nothing else than the
ensemble of his acts, nothing else than his life.
- Sarte
In fact, in creating the man that we want to be, there is not a
single one of our acts which does not at the same time create an
image of man as we think he ought to be.
- Sarte
We shall not cease from exploration; and the end of all our
exploring will be to arrive where we started and to know the
place for the first time.
- "Little Gidding" T.S. Elliot
Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.
- Sarte
Time it was, and what a time it was
It was a time of innocence,
A time of confidences.
Long ago, it must be,
I have a photograph,
Preserve your memories,
They're all that's left you.
- "Old Friends" Paul Simon
We come on a ship they call the Mayflower
We come on a ship that sailed the moon
We've come in the age's most uncertain hour
And sing an American tune.
- "American Tune" Paul Simon
To stand still on the summit of perfection is difficult, and in
the natural course of things, what cannot go forward - slips
back.
- Gaius V. Paterculus
Begin at once to live, and count each day as a separate life.
- Sececa
Unrest is the mark of existence.
- Arthur Schopenhauer
Did is a word of achievement,
Won't is a word of retreat,
Might is a word of bereavement,
Can't is a word of defeat,
Ought is a word of duty,
Try is a word each hour,
Will is a word of beauty,
Can is a word of power.
Persecution is the first law of society because it is always
easier to suppress criticism than to meet it.
- Howard Jones
For men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness
to believe, but in proportion to their willingness to doubt.
- H.L. Mencken
A smile costs nothing but gives so much. It enriches those who
receive without making poorer those who give. it takes but a
moment but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so
rich or so mighty that he can get along without it and none so
poor that he cannot be made richer by it. A smile creates
happiness in the home, fosters goodwill in business and is the
countersign of friendship. It brings rest to the weary, cheer to
the discouraged, sunshine to the sad and it is natures best
antidote for trouble. Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed
or stolen, for it is given away. Some people are too tired to
give you a smile - give them one of yours, as none need a smile
as much as he who has no more to give.
How much trouble he avoids who does not look to see what his
neighbor says, does or thinks.
- Marcus A. Antonius
That life is worth living is the most necessary of assumptions,
and, were it not assumed, the most impossible of conclusions.
- George Santayana
The future of civilization depends on our overcoming the
meaninglessness and hopelessness that characterizes the thoughts
of men today.
- Albert Schweitzer
It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.
- Herman Melville
The game of life is a game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds
and words return to us sooner or later with outstanding accuracy.
-Florence Schovel
All of us get lost in the darkness
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars
All of us do time in the gutter
Dreamers turn to look at the cars
- "The Pass" Rush
O what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.
- Sir Walter Scott
The greatest friend of truth is time, her greatest enemy is
prejudice, and her constant companion humility.
- Charles Colton
In life you find that one of the most desirable qualities you
can find in a person is flexibility. The ability to change with
changing times, to face adversity with the same attitude one
would have in facing victory.
A GUIDE TO A HAPPY LIFE
No one will ever get out of this world alive. resolve therefore
to maintain a reasonable sense of values.
Take care of yourself. Good health is everyone's major source of
wealth. Without it, happiness is almost impossible.
Resolve to be cheerful and helpful, people will repay you in
kind.
Avoid angry and aggressive persons. They are generally vengeful.
Avoid Zealots, they are generally humorless.
Resolve to listen more and talk less. No one learns anything by
talking.
Be chary of giving advice. Wise men don't need it and fools
won't heed it.
Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the
aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and
the wrong. Sometime in life you will have been all of these.
Do not equate money with success. There are many successful
money makers who are miserable failures as human beings. What
counts most about success is how a person achieves it.
- Lloyd Schearer,
Parade Magazine (Dec 1989)
We can run
but we can't hide from it
of all possible worlds, we've only got one
we've got to ride on it
What ever we've done
we'll never get far from what we leave behind
baby we can run, run, run
but we can't hide
Oh no we can't hide.
- "We Can Run" Grateful Dead
There are times when you get hit upon
you try hard but you cannot give
Other times you'd gladly part
with what you need to live.
Don't waste your breath....
....to save your face
When you have done your best
If even more is asked of you
fate will decide the rest.
- "Built To Last" Grateful Dead
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps this petty pace
from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time...
- Wm. Shakspeare, from "McBeth"
If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is a part
of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us.
- Herman Hesse, from "Demian"
When one door shuts, another opens.
- Proverb
Truth fears no trial.
- Proverb
A man should never be ashamed to admit that he has been in the
wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser
today than he was yesterday.
- Alexender Pope
Sleep is good, death is better; but of course, the best thing
would to have never been born at all.
- Heinrich Heine "Morphine"
Razors pain you
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramps.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.
- Dorothy Parker "Enough Rope"
I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain
There's more than one answer to these questions
pointing me in a crooked line.
The less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine.
- " Closer to Fine " Indigo Girls
Believe me, every man has his secret sorrows, which the world
knows not; and oftentimes we call a man cold, when he is only
sad.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you
just sit there.
One of the things I learned the hard way was that it does not
pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way
of life can restore your faith in yourself.
- Lucille Ball
It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be
sometimes cheated than not to trust.
- Samuel Johnson
The appearance of things change according to the emotions and
thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty
are really in ourselves.
- Kahlil Gilbran
And now someone's on the telephone desperate in his pain
Someone's on the bathroom floor doing her cocaine
Someone's got his finger on the button in some room
No one can convince me we aren't gluttons for our doom
- "Prince Of Darkness" Indigo Girls
All of us encounter, at least once in our life, some individual
who utters words that make us think forever. There are men whose
phrases are oracles; who can condense in one sentence the
secrets of life; who blurt out an aphorism that forms a
character, or illustrates an existence.
- Disraeli
With lies you may go ahead in the world.....
....but you can never go back.
- Russian Proverb
Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of
traveling.
- Margaret Runbeck
The fact is, that to do anything in the world worth doing, we
must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and
danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.
- Richard Cushing
When you are disposed to be vain of your mental acquirements,
look up those who are more accomplished than yourself, that you
may be fired with emulation; but when you feel dissatisfied with
you circumstances, look down on those beneath you, that you may
learn contentment.
- Hannah More
Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is
unattainable; however, they who aim at it, and persevere, will
come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondancy
make them give it up as unattainable.
- Lord Chesterfield
Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or to keep one.
- Robert E. Lee
That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease
the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily
please them by doing what you know is wrong.
- William J.H. Boetcker
May you find serenity and tranquility in a world you may not
always understand. May the pain you have known and the conflict
you have experienced give you the strength to walk through life
facing each new situation with courage and optimism. Always know
that there are those whose love and understanding will always be
there, even when you feel most alone. May you discover enough
goodness in others to believe in a world of peace. May a kind
word, a reassuring touch, and a warm smile be yours every day of
your life, and may you give these gifts as well as receive them.
Remember the sunshine when the storm seems unending. Teach love
to those who hate, and let that love embrace you as you go out
into the world. May the teachings of those you admire become
part of you, so that you may call upon them. Remember, those
whose lives you have touched and whose have touched yours are
always a part of you, even if the encounters were less than you
would have wished. It is the content of the encounter that is
more important than the form. May you not become too concerned
with material matters, but instead place immeasurable value on
the goodness in your heart. Find time each day to see beauty and
love in the world around you. Realize that each person has
limitless abilities, but each of us is different in our own way.
What you feel you lack in the present may become one of your
strengths in the future. May you see your future as one filled
with promise and possibility. Learn to view everything as a
worthwhile experience. May you find enough inner strength to
determine your own worth by yourself, and not be dependent on
another's judgment of your accomplishments. May you always feel
loved.
Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who
dared believe that something inside them was superior to
circumstance.
- Bruce Barton
Men are not against you; they are merely for themselves.
- Gene Fowler
Never explain - your friends don't need it, and your enemies
won't believe you anyhow.
- Elbert Hubbard
We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.
- Talmudic saying
Winners take chances.
Like everyone else, they fear failing,
but they refuse to let fear control them.
Winners don't give up.
When life gets rough, they hang in
until the going gets better.
Winners are flexible.
They realize there is more than one way
and are willing to try others.
Winners know they are not perfect.
They respect their weaknesses
while making the most of thier strengths.
Winners fall, but they don't stay down.
They stubbornly refuse to let a fall
keep them from climbing...
Winners don't blame fate for thier failures
nor luck for thier successes.
Winners accept responsibility for thier lives.
Winners are positive thinkers
who see good in all things.
>From the ordinary, they make the extraordinary.
Winners believe in the path they have chosen
even when it's hard,
even when others can't see where they are going.
Winners are patient.
They know a goal is only as worthy
as the effort that is required to achieve it.
Winners are people like you.
They make the world a better place to be.
- Nancy Simms
Let us then, be up and doing,
with a heart for any fate;
still achieving, stll pursuing,
learn to labor and to wait.
- Longfellow
Whatever task that you undertake, do it with all your heart and
soul. Always be courteous, never be discouraged. Beware of him
who promises something for nothing. Do not blame anybody for
your mistakes and failures. Do not look for approval except in
the consciousness of doing your best.
- Bernard M. Baruch
Nothing can stop the man with the right attitude from achieving
his goal; and nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong
attitude.
- W.W. Ziege
The universe is infinite in all directions, not only above us in
the large but also below us in the small. If we start from our
human scale of existence and explore the content of the universe
further and further, we finally arrive, both in the large and
the small, at misty distances where first our senses and then
even our concepts fail us.
- Emil Wiechert
Consider how much more you often suffer from your anger and
grief, than from those very things for which you are angry and
grieved.
- Marcus Antonius
We are young
Wandering the face of the earth
Wondering what our dreams might be worth
Learning we are only immortal
For a limited time.
- RUSH from "Dreamline"
We travel on the road to redemption
On a desert highway, straight to the heart of the sun
Like lovers and heros, and the restless part of everyone.
We're only at home when we're on the run.
- RUSH from "Dreamline"
All Finite things have their roots in the infinite, and if you
wish to understand life at all, you cannot tear out it's
context. And that context, astounding even to bodily eyes is the
heaven of stars and the incredible procession of the great
galaxies.
- W. MacNeile Dixon
It's easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn't.
- Martin Van Buren
Research teaches a man to admit he is wrong and to be proud of
the fact that he does so, rather than try with all his energy to
defend an unsound plan because he is afraid that admission of
error is a confession of weakness when rather it is a sign of
strength.
- Prof. H.E. Stocher
Doubt is the disease of this inquisitive, restless age. It is
the price we pay for our advanced intelligence and civilization
- the dim night of the resplendent day. But as the most
beautiful light is born of darkness, so the faith that springs
from conflict is often the strongest and the best.
- R. Turnbull
You get all squeezed up inside
Like the days were carved in stone
You get all wired up inside
And it's bad to be alone
You can go out, you can take a ride
And when you get out on your own
You get all smoothed out inside
And it's good to be alone
- RUSH from "Face Up"
The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one
story, and writes another, and his humblest hour is when he
compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.
- Jim Barrie
We go out in the world and take our chances
Fate is just the weight of circumstances
That's the way that lady luck dances
Roll the Bones
Roll the Bones
Why are we here?
Because we're here.
Roll the Bones
Why does it happen?
Because it happens.
Roll the Bones
- RUSH from "Roll the Bones"
Undertake something that is difficult; it will do you good.
Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already
mastered, you will never grow.
- Ronald E Osborn
If you can't get enthusiastic about your work, it's time to get
alarmed - something is wrong. Compete with yourself; set your
teeth and dive into the job of breaking your own record. No one
keeps up his enthusiasm automatically. Enthusiasm must be
nourished with new actions, new aspirations, new efforts, new
vision. It is one's own fault if his enthusiasm is gone; he has
failed to feed it. If you want to turn hours into minutes, renew
you enthusiasm.
- Papyrus
You may know for a certainty that if your work is becoming
uninteresting, so are you; for work is an in animate thing and
can be made lively and interesting only by injecting yourself
into it. Your job is only as big as you are.
- George C. Hubbs
It's not enough to listen
It's not enough to see
When the hurricane is coming on
It's not enough to flee
It's not enough to be in love
we hide behind that word
It's not enough to be alive
when your future's been deferred
- Harry Chapin
My enemy is hopelessness
My ally, honest doubt
The answer is a question
that I never will find out.
- Harry Chapin
Consider how many do not even know your name, and how many will
soon forget it, and how those who now praise you will presently
blame you.
- Marcus Antoninus
In a life well lived, each succeeding day becomes better than
the last. Each day, each year, each experience does not stand
alone; it cannot be separated from what has happened before or
what may happen after. Yesterday determines today, and today
helps determine tomorrow.
- John Homer Miller
Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us
bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For
the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that
the setbacks and griefs which we endure help us in our marching
onward.
- Henry Ford
He who fancies himself very enlightened, because he sees the
deficiencies of others, may be very ignorant, because he has not
studied his own.
- Bulwer
When a man is wrong and won't admit it, he always gets angry.
- Haliburton
You see things; and you say "Why?" But I dream things that never
were; and say "Why Not?".
- George B. Shaw
Miracles seem to rest, not so much upon faces or voices or
healing power coming suddenly near to us from far off, but upon
our perceptions being made finer so that for a moment our eyes
can see and our ears can hear that which is about us always.
- Willa Cather
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Up to his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
- Emily Dickinson
When trouble comes your soul to try,
You love the friend who just "stands by."
Perhaps there's nothing he can do -
The thing is strictly up to you;
For there are troubles all your own,
And paths the soul must tread alone;
Times when love cannot smooth the road
Nor friendship lift the heavy load,
But just to know you have a friend
Who will "stand by" until the end,
Whose sympathy through all endures,
Whose warm handclasp is always yours -
It helps, someway, to pull you through,
Although there's nothing he can do.
And so with fervent heart you cry,
"God bless the friend who just 'stands by'!"
- B.Y. Williams
I would be true, for there are those who trust me;
I would be pure, for there are those who care;
I would be strong, for there is much to suffer;
I would be brave, for there is much to dare.
I would be friend of all - the foe, the friendless;
I would be giving and forget the gift.
I would be humble, for I know my weakness;
I would look up - and laugh - and love - and lift.
- Howard A. Walter
Through this toilsome world, alas!
Once and only once I pass;
If a kindness I may show,
If a good deed I may do
To a suffering fellow man,
Let me do it while I can.
No delay, for it is plain
I shall not pass this way again.
- Unknown
The wise old owl lived in an oak;
The more he saw the less he spoke;
The less he spoke the more he heard:
Why can't we all be like that bird?
- Edward H. Richards
Strive valiantly; live with great enthusiasm and devotion; know
the triumph of high achievement; if you fail, fail while daring
so greatly. Your place is never among the cold and timid souls
who never know victory or defeat, anytime or anywhere.
- N.E Wear Slogan on T-Shirt
All success consists in this: You are doing something for
somebody - benefiting humanity - and the feeling of success
comes from the consciousness of this.
- Elbert Hubbard, 1923
Character isn't inherited. One builds it daily by the way one
thinks and acts, thought by thought, action by action. If one
lets fear or hate or anger take possession of the mind, they
become self-forged chains.
-Helen Douglas
You know, I do believe in magic. I was born and raised in a
magic time, in a magic town, among magicians. Oh, most everybody
else didn't realize we lived in that web of chance and
circumstance. But I knew it all along. When I was twelve years
old, the world was my magic lantern, and by it's spirit glow I
saw the past the present and into the future. You probably did
too; you just don't recall it. See, this is my opinion: we all
start out knowing magic. We are born with whirlwinds, forest
fires, and comets inside us. We are born able to sing to birds
and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But
then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. We get it
churched out, spanked out, washed out, and combed out. We get
put on the straight and narrow and told to be responsible. Told
to act out age. Told to grow up for God's sake. And you know why
we were told that? Because the people doing the telling were
afraid of our wildness and youth, and because the magic we knew
made them ashamed and sad of what they'd allowed to wither in
themselves.
After you go so far away from it, though, you can't really get
it back. You can get seconds of it. Just seconds of knowing and
remembering. When people get weepy at movies, it's because in
that dark theater the golden pool of magic is touched, just
briefly. Then they come out into the hard sun of logic and
reason again and it dries up, and they are left feeling a little
heartsad and not knowing why. When a song stirs a memory, when
motes of dust twirling in a shaft of light takes your attention
from the world, when you listen to a train passing on a track in
the distance and wonder where it might be going, you step beyond
who you are and where you are. For the briefest of instants, you
have stepped into the magic realm.
That's what I believe.
The truth of life is that every year we get a little farther
away from the essence that is born within us. We get shouldered
with burdens, some of them good, and some of them not so good.
Things happen to us. Loved ones die. People get in wrecks and
get crippled. People lose their way, for one reason or another.
It's not hard to do, in this world of crazy mazes. Life itself
does it's best to take that memory of magic away from us. You
don't know it is happening until one day you feel you have lost
something but you're not sure what it is. It just happens.
Advice is cheap, you can take it from me
It's yours to keep
' cause opinions are free
Nobody knows ' bout the trouble I've seen
Nobody's perfect, mister,
nobody's clean.
You take a piece, of whatever you touch
Too many pieces means you're touching too much
You'll never win if you can't play it straight
You only beat me if you get me to hate.
- From "GreatWall of China" by Billy Joel
In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the valley of fear
To a river so deep
And I've been searching
for something
Taken out of my soul
Something I'd
never lose
Something somebody
stole.
- From "River of Dreams" by Billy Joel
Shades of grey
whereever I go
The more I find out
the less that I know
Black and white is how
it should be
But shades of grey are
the colors I see
Shades of grey are all
that I find
When I come to the
enemy line
Black and white was so
easy for me
But shades of grey are
the colors I see
Now with the wisdom of years, I try to reason things out
And the only people I fear are those who never have doubts
Save us all from arrogant men, and all the causes they're for
I won't be righteous again
I'm not that sure anymore
- From " Shades of Grey" by Billy Joel
There's something wrong with the world today
I don't know what it is
Something wrong with our eyes
We're seeing things in a different way
And God knows it ain't His
It sure ain't no surprise.
- From "Livin' on the Edge" by Aerosmith
I kept the right ones out
And let the wrong ones in
Had an angel of mercy to see me
through all my sins
There were times in my life
When I was goin' insane
Trying to walk through
The pain
When I lost my grip
And I hit the floor
Yeah, I thought I could leave but
couldn't get out the door
I was so sick and tired
Of livin' a lie
I was wishin' that I
Would die.
- From "Amazing" by Aerosmith
...
feel free to cut and paste :-)
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E. Dodge krisis dodge@pnet.com
Consider how much more you often suffer from your anger and grief,
than from those very things for which you are angry and grieved.
-Marcus Antonius
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