Saturday, May 9, 2009

Meandering to and fro . . .

Today is the birthday of James Matthew Barrie (May 9, 1860 – June 19, 1937), author and playwright. He is best known as J. M. Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan.

"Dreams do come true, if we only wish hard enough, You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it." - J. M. Barrie

"If you have love you don't need to have anything else. If you don't have it it doesn't matter much what else you do have." - J. M. Barrie

"Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else." - J. M. Barrie

"Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves." - J. M. Barrie

"Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight: always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary?" - J. M. Barrie

“It is not in doing what you like, but in liking what you do that is the secret of happiness” - J. M. Barrie

"Do you believe in fairies? Say quick that you believe. If you believe, clap your hands! " - J. M. Barrie

"I'm not young enough to know everything." - J. M. Barrie

Trivia bit: J. M. Barrie generously donated the copyright title to Peter Pan to the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity.

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Today is also the birthday of José Ortega y Gasset (May 9, 1883 - October 18, 1955), philosopher and essayist. He is best known for his influential work on social theory entitled, The Revolt of the Masses.

"We do not know what is happening to us, and this is precisely what is happening to us, not to know what is happening to us: the man of today is beginning to be disoriented with respect to himself, dépaysé, he is outside of his country, thrown into a new circumstance that is like a terra incognita." - Ortega y Gasset

“We live at a time when man believes himself fabulously capable of creation, but he does not know what to create.” - Ortega y Gasset

“The real magic wand is the child's own mind” - Ortega y Gasset

“Excellence means when a man or woman asks of himself more than others do.” - Ortega y Gasset

“We have need of history in its entirety, not to fall back into it, but to see if we can escape from it” - Ortega y Gasset

“We cannot put off living until we are ready.” - Ortega y Gasset

“Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are” - Ortega y Gasset

“To be surprised, to wonder, is to begin to understand.” - Ortega y Gasset

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Barrie image source (1)
Ortega y Gasset image source (1)

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