Saturday, July 31, 2010

Meandering down the path . . .

Today is the birthday of Joanne "Jo" Murray (née Rowling; born 31 July 1965), author. She is best known as the creator of the Harry Potter fantasy series and for her rags to riches life story, in which she progressed from living on welfare to multi-millionaire status within five years.

"It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be." - J. K. Rowling

"We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better." - J. K. Rowling

"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default." - J. K. Rowling

"It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but even more to stand up to your friends." - J. K. Rowling

"It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." - J. K. Rowling

"The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and must therefore be treated with great caution." - J. K. Rowling

"Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike." - J. K. Rowling

"You sort of start thinking anything's possible if you've got enough nerve." - J. K. Rowling

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live." - J. K. Rowling

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Friday, July 30, 2010

Meandering in the stacks . . .

Today is the birthday of Emily Jane Brontë (July 30, 1818 – December 19, 1848), novelist and poet. She is best known for her novel Wuthering Heights. She published under the pen name Ellis Bell.

"A person who has not done one half his day's work by ten o clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone." - Emily Brontë

"I cannot express it: but surely you and everybody have a notion that there is, or should be, an existence of yours beyond you." - Emily Brontë

"I have dreamed in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind." - Emily Brontë

"Having leveled my palace, don't erect a hovel and complacently admire your own charity in giving me that for a home." - Emily Brontë

"I'll walk where my own nature would be leading: It vexes me to choose another guide." - Emily Brontë

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Thursday, July 29, 2010

Meandering in peace . . .

Today is the birthday of Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld (July 29, 1905 – September 18, 1961), diplomat, economist and author. He was the second Secretary-General of the United Nations and the only person to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously.

"Forgiveness breaks the chain of causality because he who 'forgives' you--out of love--takes upon himself the consequences of what you have done. Forgiveness, therefore, always entails a sacrifice. - The price you must pay for your own liberation through another's sacrifice is that you in turn must be willing to liberate in the same way, irrespective of the consequences to yourself." - Dag Hammarskjöld

"Life only demands from you the strength that you possess. Only one feat is possible; not to run away." - Dag Hammarskjöld

"The more faithfully you listen to the voices within you, the better you will hear what is sounding outside." - Dag Hammarskjöld

"Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road." - Dag Hammarskjöld

"Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again." - Dag Hammarskjöld

"The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have." - Dag Hammarskjöld

"In the last analysis, it is our conception of death which decides our answers to all the questions that life puts to us." - Dag Hammarskjöld

"Is life so wretched? Isn't it rather your hands which are too small, your vision which is muddled? You are the one who must grow up." - Dag Hammarskjöld

"Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was." - Dag Hammarskjöld

"Freedom from fear could be said to sum up the whole philosophy of human rights." - Dag Hammarskjöld

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Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Meandering in the studies . . .

Today is the birthday of Karl Raimund Popper (July 28, 1902 – September 17, 1994), philosopher. He is oft referred to as one of the greatest philosophers of science of the 20th century.

"Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite." - Karl Popper

"If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

"Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve." - Karl Popper

"We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than only freedom can make security more secure." - Karl Popper

"True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it." - Karl Popper

"Always remember that it is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood: there will always be some who misunderstand you." - Karl Popper

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Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Meandering while we wander . . .

Today is the birthday of Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (July 27, 1870 – July 16, 1953), writer and historian.

"Any subject can be made interesting, and therefore any subject can be made boring." - Hilaire Belloc

"Loss and possession, death and life are one, There falls no shadow where there shines no sun." - Hilaire Belloc

"I have wandered all my life, and I have also traveled; the difference between the two being this, that we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment." - Hilaire Belloc

"Oh, you should never, never doubt what nobody is sure about." - Hilaire Belloc

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Monday, July 26, 2010

Meandering, meandering, meandering we go . . .

Today is the birthday of George Bernard Shaw (July 26, 1856 – November 2, 1950), playwright. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925.

"I hear you say Why? Always Why? You see things; and you say Why? But I dream things that never were; and I say Why not?" - George Bernard Shaw

"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity." - George Bernard Shaw

"The liar's punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe any one else." - George Bernard Shaw

"A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out." - George Bernard Shaw

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." - George Bernard Shaw

"Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed." - George Bernard Shaw

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Today is the birthday of Carl Gustav Jung (July 26, 1875 – June 6, 1961), psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology.

"Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart ... Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens." - Carl Jung

"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being." - Carl Jung

"The dream is the small hidden door in the deepest and most intimate sanctum of the soul, which opens to that primeval cosmic night that was soul long before there was conscious ego and will be soul far beyond what a conscious ego could ever reach." - Carl Jung

"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves." - Carl Jung

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Today is the birthday of Aldous Leonard Huxley (July 26, 1894 – November 22, 1963), writer. He is best known for his novel, Brave New World.

"To see ourselves as others see us is a most salutary gift. Hardly less important is the capacity to see others as they see themselves." - Aldous Huxley

"There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self." - Aldous Huxley

"Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting." - Aldous Huxley

"Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him." - Aldous Huxley

"The trouble with fiction... is that it makes too much sense. Reality never makes sense." - Aldous Huxley

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." - Aldous Huxley

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Sunday, July 25, 2010

Meandering along . . .

Today is the birthday of Eric Hoffer (July 25, 1902 – May 21, 1983), social writer and philosopher. He is oft referred to as the longshoreman philosopher.

"Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature." - Eric Hoffer

"Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken. Humanness came of age when man asked the first question. Social stagnation results not from a lack of answers but from the absence of the impulse to ask questions." - Eric Hoffer

"In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists." - Eric Hoffer

"There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem." - Eric Hoffer

"Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know." - Eric Hoffer

"It is futile to judge a kind deed by its motives. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind." - Eric Hoffer

"It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities." - Eric Hoffer

"Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing." - Eric Hoffer

"Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there." - Eric Hoffer

"We run fastest and farthest when we run from ourselves." - Eric Hoffer

"How much easier is self-sacrifice than self-realization." - Eric Hoffer

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Saturday, July 24, 2010

Meandering forever . . .

Today is the birthday of Amelia Mary Earhart (July 24, 1897; missing July 2, 1937; declared legally dead January 5, 1939), aviation pioneer and author.

"In soloing - as in other activities - it is far easier to start something than it is to finish it." - Amelia Earhart

"Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do." - Amelia Earhart

"No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves." - Amelia Earhart

"Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn't be done." - Amelia Earhart

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure , the process is its own reward." - Amelia Earhart

"I want to do it because I want to do it." - Amelia Earhart

"The most effective way to do it, is to do it." - Amelia Earhart

"Adventure is worthwhile in itself." - Amelia Earhart

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Friday, July 23, 2010

Meandering here and there . . .

Today is the birthday of Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959), author of crime stories and novels. He is best known as the creator of the fictional character Philip Marlowe.

"Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." - Raymond Chandler

"Without magic, there is no art. Without art, there is no idealism. Without idealism, there is no integrity. Without integrity, there is nothing but production." - Raymond Chandler

"There are two kinds of truth; the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Without art science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery." - Raymond Chandler

"Woe, woe, woe... in a little while we shall all be dead. Therefore let us behave as though we were dead already." - Raymond Chandler

"There is no trap so deadly as the trap you set for yourself." - Raymond Chandler

"The more you reason the less you create." - Raymond Chandler

"To say goodbye is to die a little." - Raymond Chandler

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Thursday, July 22, 2010

Meandering . . .

Today is the birthday of Stephen Vincent Benét (July 22, 1898 – March 13, 1943), author and poet. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1929 for his epic poem, John Brown's Body and in 1944 he was posthumously awarded his second Pulitzer Prize for his work, Western Star.

"Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways." - Stephen Vincent Benét

"I'm waiting. ... For something new and strange, Something I've dreamt about in some deep sleep, Truer than any waking . . ." - Stephen Vincent Benét

"Rise up! The loves we had were not enough. Something is loosed to change the shaken world, And with it we must change." - Stephen Vincent Benét


"We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom." - Stephen Vincent Benét

"Dreaming men are haunted men." - Stephen Vincent Benét

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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Meandering in the stacks . . .

Today is the birthday of Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961), writer and journalist. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.

"I know now that there is no one thing that is true - it is all true." - Ernest Hemingway

"All my life I've looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time." - Ernest Hemingway

"All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you: the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was." - Ernest Hemingway

"I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen." - Ernest Hemingway

"Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another." - Ernest Hemingway

"The man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without." - Ernest Hemingway

"All things truly wicked start from innocence." - Ernest Hemingway

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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Meander with me . . .

Today is the birthday of Francesco Petrarca (July 20, 1304 – July 19, 1374), scholar, poet and one of the earliest Renaissance humanists. In 1341, he was crowned as a poet laureate in Rome. Francesco Petrarch is oft referred to as the Father of Humanism.

"Books have led some to learning and others to madness, when they swallow more than they can digest." - Petrarch

"Man has no greater enemy than himself. I have acted contrary to my sentiments and inclination; throughout our whole lives we do what we never intended, and what we proposed to do, we leave undone." - Petrarch

"Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the heart to life, and is prophetic of eternal good." - Petrarch

"True, we love life, not because we are used to living, but because we are used to loving. There is always some madness in love, but there is also always some reason in madness." - Petrarch

"It is more honorable to be raised to a throne than to be born to one. Fortune bestows the one, merit obtains the other." - Petrarch

"All pleasure in the world is a passing dream." - Petrarch

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Monday, July 19, 2010

Meandering about . . .

Today is the birthday of Archibald Joseph Cronin (July 19, 1896 – January 6, 1981), physician and novelist.

"The virtue of all achievement is victory over oneself. Those who know this can never know defeat." - A. J. Cronin

"Above all am I convinced of the need, irrevocable and inescapable, of every human heart, for God. No matter how we try to escape, to lose ourselves in restless seeking, we cannot separate ourselves from our divine source. There is no substitute for God." - A. J. Cronin

"Life is no straight and easy corridor along which we travel free and unhampered, but a maze of passages, through which we must seek our way, lost and confused, now and again checked in a blind alley. But always, if we have faith, God will open a door for us, not perhaps one that we ourselves would ever have thought of, but one that will ultimately prove good for us." - A. J. Cronin

"Nothing is more limiting than a closed circle of acquaintanceship where every avenue of conversation has been explored and social exchanges are fixed in a known routine."- A. J. Cronin

"Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, but only saps today of its strength." - A. J. Cronin

"Hell is the place where one has ceased to hope."- A. J. Cronin

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Sunday, July 18, 2010

Meandering on the edge . . .

Today is the birthday of Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005), journalist and author. He is best known as the inventor and chief exponent of Gonzo journalism.

"Buy the ticket, take the ride." - Hunter S. Thompson

"Like most of the others, I was a seeker, a mover, a malcontent, and at times a stupid hell-raiser. I was never idle long enough to do much thinking, but I felt somehow that my instincts were right. I shared a vagrant optimism that some of us were making real progress, that we had taken an honest road, and that the best of us would inevitably make it over the top. At the same time, I shared a dark suspicion that the life we were leading was a lost cause, that we were all actors, kidding ourselves along on a senseless odyssey. It was the tension between these two poles--a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other--that kept me going." - Hunter S. Thompson

"No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master." - Hunter S. Thompson

"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming Wow! What a Ride!." - Hunter S. Thompson

"The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over." - Hunter S. Thompson

"Fear is just another word for ignorance." - Hunter S. Thompson

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Saturday, July 17, 2010

Meandering while we wander . . .

Today is the birthday of Joseph Michael Straczynski (born July 17, 1954), writer and television producer. He is best known as the creator of Babylon 5 and author of The Complete Book of Scriptwriting.

"Understanding is a three edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth." - J. Michael Straczynski

"We are not powerless. We have tremendous potential for good or ill. How we choose to use that power is up to us; but first we must choose to use it. We're told every day, You can't change the world. But the world is changing every day. Only question is...who's doing it? You or somebody else?" - J. Michael Straczynski

"They told us not to wish in the first place, not to aspire, not to try; to be quiet, to play nice, to shoot low and aspire not at all. They are always wrong. Follow your dreams. Make your wishes. Create the future. And above all, believe in yourself." - J. Michael Straczynski

"People spend too much time finding other people to blame, too much energy finding excuses for not being what they are capable of being, and not enough energy putting themselves on the line, growing out of the past, and getting on with their lives." - J. Michael Straczynski

"The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast terrible in-between. But there is still time to seize that one last fragile moment." - J. Michael Straczynski

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Friday, July 16, 2010

Meandering in the galaxy . . .

Today is the birthday of Robert Sheckley (July 16, 1928 – December 9, 2005), author of Science Fiction. He also wrote under the pen names Finn O'Donnevan, Ned Lang and Phillips Barbee.

Robert Sheckley was given the Author Emeritus honor by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2001.

"Once you find you can’t walk as far and as fast as you were able, life becomes more complicated. Also, once you find out the problems of the world you saw as a young man are not about to be solved in your lifetime (if ever), you start to ask, ‘Well, what can be done?’ Of course there’s always this doctrine of almost infinite improvability, but that’s an old one. Now it’s made even more complicated by all the scenarios of doom we have on all sides, from big things like asteroids to small things like anthrax. Yet somehow it doesn’t look quite hopeless. That may be built into our condition. A lot of us don’t want to be quite that serious about world problems. Our life is there to enjoy, not to be an eternal dissident, eternally unhappy with how things are and with the state of mankind." - Robert Sheckley

"I like to think that I have no single view nor any single situation that I think things arrive from. I try to give examples of what I think are interesting questions for me." - Robert Sheckley

"A novel is often a longer process in handling self-doubt." - Robert Sheckley

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Thursday, July 15, 2010

Meandering freely . . .

Today is the birthday of Jean Iris Murdoch (July 15, 1919 – February 8, 1999), author and philosopher.

"Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real." - Iris Murdoch

"Perhaps when distant people on other planets pick up some wavelength of ours all they hear is a continuous scream." - Iris Murdoch

"How different each death is, and yet it leads us into the self-same country, that country which we inhabit so rarely, where we see the worthlessness of what we have long pursued and will so soon return to pursuing." - Iris Murdoch

"We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality." - Iris Murdoch

"The most essential and fundamental aspect of culture is the study of literature, since this is an education in how to picture and understand human situations." - Iris Murdoch

"Man's creative struggle, his search for wisdom and truth, is a love story." - Iris Murdoch

"One should go easy on smashing other people's lies. Better to concentrate on one's own." - Iris Murdoch

"One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats." - Iris Murdoch

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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Meandering here and there . . .

Today is the birthday of Irving Stone (born Tannenbaum, July 14, 1903 – August 26, 1989), writer. He is known for his novelized accounts of real people, based on meticulous research, especially his works, Lust for Life, a biographical novel about the life of Vincent van Gogh, and The Agony and the Ecstasy, a biographical novel about Michelangelo.

"There are no faster or firmer friendships than those between people who love the same books." — Irving Stone

"One should not become an artist because he can, but because he must. It is only for those who would be miserable without it." — Irving Stone

"Drawing is the poet's written line, set down to see if there be a story worth telling, a truth worth revealing." — Irving Stone

"To try to understand another human being, to grapple for his ultimate depths, that is the most dangerous of human endeavors." — Irving Stone

"In order to paint life one must understand not only anatomy, but what people feel and thing about the world they live in. The painter who knows his own craft and nothing else will turn out to be a very superficial artist." — Irving Stone

"Art is a staple, like bread or wine or a warm coat in winter. Man's spirit grows hungry for art in the same way his stomach growls for food." - Irving Stone

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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Meandering in the stacks . . .

Today is the birthday of John Dee (July 13,1527 – 1608/09), mathematician, astronomer, and author. He is oft referred to as a remarkable scholar and an excellent example of a Renaissance Man.

"It is by the straight line and the circle that the first and most simple example and representation of all things may be demonstrated, whether such things be either non-existent or merely hidden under Nature's veils." - John Dee

"There is (gentle reader) nothing (the works of God only set apart) which so much beautifies and adorns the soul and mind of man as does knowledge of the good arts and sciences. Many arts there are which beautify the mind of man; but of all none do more garnish and beautify it than those arts which are called mathematical, unto the knowledge of which no man can attain, without perfect knowledge and instruction of the principles, grounds, and Elements of Geometry." - John Dee

Trivia bit: In his lifetime John Dee amassed the largest library in England and one of the largest in Europe.

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Monday, July 12, 2010

Meandering in the woods . . .

Today is the birthday of Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862), writer and philosopher.

"Be not simply good - be good for something." - Henry David Thoreau

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." - Henry David Thoreau

"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives." - Henry David Thoreau

"Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations." - Henry David Thoreau

"Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?" - Henry David Thoreau

"I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." - Henry David Thoreau

"Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." - Henry David Thoreau

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined." - Henry David Thoreau

"In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high." - Henry David Thoreau

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Sunday, July 11, 2010

Meandering in style . . .

Today is the birthday of Elwyn Brooks "E. B." White (July 11, 1899 – October 1, 1985), writer. He is best known as a co-author of a widely used writing guide, The Elements of Style, popularly referred to by its authors' names, as Strunk & White. He is also the author of the children's classics Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little.

"Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one." - E. B. White

"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." - E. B. White

"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority." - E. B. White

"The terror of the atom age is not the violence of the new power but the speed of man's adjustment to it, the speed of his acceptance." - E. B. White

"There's no limit to how complicated things can get, on account of one thing always leading to another." - E. B. White

"The only sense that is common in the long run, is the sense of change and we all instinctively avoid it." - E. B. White

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Saturday, July 10, 2010

Meandering to and fro . . .

Today is the birthday of Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (July 10, 1871 – November 18, 1922), novelist, critic and essayist. He is best known as Marcel Proust, author of the novel, À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time; earlier translated as Remembrance of Things Past).

"A change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves." - Marcel Proust

"In theory one is aware that the earth revolves, but in practice one does not perceive it, the ground upon which one treads seems not to move, and one can live undisturbed. So it is with Time in one's life." - Marcel Proust

"A powerful idea communicates some of its strength to him who challenges it." - Marcel Proust

"If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time." - Marcel Proust

"In theory one is aware that the earth revolves, but in practice one does not perceive it, the ground upon which one treads seems not to move, and one can live undisturbed. So it is with Time in one's life." - Marcel Proust

"Only through art can we emerge from ourselves and know what another person sees." - Marcel Proust


"The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." - Marcel Proust

"Our intonations contain our philosophy of life, what each of us is constantly telling himself about things." - Marcel Proust

"The only paradise is paradise lost." - Marcel Proust

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Friday, July 9, 2010

Meander with me . . .

Today is the birthday of Mervyn Laurence Peake (July 9, 1911 – November 17, 1968), writer, artist, poet and illustrator. He is best known for the Gormenghast trilogy.

"Lingering is so very lonely when one lingers all alone." - Mervyn Peake

"Why break the heart that never beat from love?" - Mervyn Peake

"As I see it, life is an effort to grip before they slip through one's fingers and slide into oblivion, the startling, the ghastly or the blindingly exquisite fish of the imagination before they whip away on the endless current and are lost for ever in oblivion's black ocean." - Mervyn Peake

"Each day I live in a glass room unless I break it with the thrusting of my senses and pass through the splintered walls to the great landscape." - Mervyn Peake

"For death is life. It is only living that is lifeless." - Mervyn Peake

"To live at all is miracle enough." - Mervyn Peake

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Thursday, July 8, 2010

Meandering . . .

Today is the birthday of Jean de La Fontaine (July 8, 1621 – April 13, 1695), fabulist and poet.

"A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it." - Jean de La Fontaine

"Beware, so long as you live, of judging men by their outward appearance." - Jean de La Fontaine

"Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish." - Jean de La Fontaine

"Nothing is more dangerous than a friend without discretion; even a prudent enemy is preferable." - Jean de La Fontaine

"Never sell the bear's skin before one has killed the beast." - Jean de La Fontaine

"People must help one another; it is nature's law." - Jean de La Fontaine

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Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Meandering in the stars . . .

Today is the birthday of Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988), science fiction writer. He is oft referred to as the dean of science fiction writers.

"A generation which ignores history has no past — and no future." - Robert A. Heinlein

"Once you can honestly say, "I don't know", then it becomes possible to get at the truth." - Robert A. Heinlein

"To be matter of fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy — and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful." - Robert A. Heinlein

"A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity." - Robert A. Heinlein

"One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others." - Robert A. Heinlein

"Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own." - Robert A. Heinlein

"Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it." - Robert A. Heinlein

"Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done." - Robert A. Heinlein

"Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again." - Robert A. Heinlein

Heinlein image source (1)

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Just meandering . . .

Today is the birthday of Lhamo Döndrub - Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, usually shortened to Tenzin Gyatso (born July 6, 1935), the 14th Dalai Lama.

In 1989, the Dalai Lama received the Nobel Prize in Peace.

"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." - Dalai Lama

"I believe that the very purpose of life is to be happy. From the very core of our being, we desire contentment. In my own limited experience I have found that the more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being. Cultivating a close, warmhearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease. It helps remove whatever fears or insecurities we may have and gives us the strength to cope with any obstacles we encounter. It is the principal source of success in life. Since we are not solely material creatures, it is a mistake to place all our hopes for happiness on external development alone. The key is to develop inner peace." - Dalai Lama

"If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them." - Dalai Lama

"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions." - Dalai Lama

"Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck." - Dalai Lama

"We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves." - Dalai Lama

"With realization of one's own potential and self-confidence in one's ability, one can build a better world." - Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama image source (1)

Monday, July 5, 2010

Meandering down the path . . .

Today is the birthday of Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 12, 1891), showman, businessman, politician, entertainer and writer. He is best known as P. T. Barnum, founder of the circus that became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

"If I shoot at the sun I may hit a star." - P. T. Barnum

"Money is a terrible master but an excellent servant." - P. T. Barnum

"Those who really desire to attain an independence, have only set their minds upon it, and adopt the proper means, as they do in regard to any other object which they wish to accomplish, and the thing is easily done." - P. T. Barnum

"The desire for wealth is nearly universal, and none can say it is not laudable, provided the possessor of it accepts its responsibilities, and uses it as a friend to humanity." - P. T. Barnum

"More persons, on the whole, are humbugged by believing in nothing, than by believing too much." - P. T. Barnum

"The truth is, the more kind and liberal a man is, the more generous will be the patronage bestowed upon him." - P. T. Barnum

"Without promotion something terrible happens... Nothing!" - P. T. Barnum

"Every crowd has a silver lining." - P. T. Barnum

Barnum image source (1)

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Meandering around . . .

Today is the birthday of Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864), novelist and short story writer. He is best known for as the author of The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables.

"Every individual has a place to fill in the world and is important in some respect whether he chooses to be so or not." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of it." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

"No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which one is true." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

"There is so much wretchedness in the world, that we may safely take the word of any mortal professing to need our assistance; and, even should we be deceived, still the good to ourselves resulting from a kind act is worth more than the trifle by which we purchase it." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Eager souls, mystics and revolutionaries, may propose to refashion the world in accordance with their dreams; but evil remains, and so long as it lurks in the secret places of the heart, utopia is only the shadow of a dream." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hawthorne image source (1)



Saturday, July 3, 2010

Meandering in the stacks . . .

Today is the birthday of Franz Kafka (July 3, 1883 – June 3, 1924), novelist and writer of short stories.

"A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die." - Franz Kafka

"Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old." - Franz Kafka

"A man of action forced into a state of thought is unhappy until he can get out of it." - Franz Kafka

"You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet." - Franz Kafka

"A stair not worn hollow by footsteps is, regarded from its own point of view, only a boring something made of wood." - Franz Kafka

"He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek will be found." - Franz Kafka

"By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired." - Franz Kafka

Kafka image source (1)

Friday, July 2, 2010

Meandering while we wander . . .

Today is the birthday of Wisława Szymborska (born July, 2, 1923), poet, essayist and translator. She was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature.

"How can we talk of order overall when the very placement of the stars leaves us doubting just what shines for whom?" - Wisława Szymborska

"Contemporary poets are skeptical and suspicious even, or perhaps especially, about themselves … in our clamorous times it's much easier to acknowledge your faults, at least if they're attractively packaged, than to recognize your own merits, since these are hidden deeper and you never quite believe in them yourself." - Wisława Szymborska

"In every tragedy, an element of comedy is preserved. Comedy is just tragedy reversed." - Wislawa Szymborska

"Inspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists. There is, there has been, there will always be a certain group of people whom inspiration visits. It's made up of all those who've consciously chosen their calling and do their job with love and imagination. It may include doctors, teachers, gardeners — I could list a hundred more professions. Their work becomes one continuous adventure as long as they manage to keep discovering new challenges in it. Difficulties and setbacks never quell their curiosity. A swarm of new questions emerges from every problem that they solve. Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous I don't know." - Wisława Szymborska

"It's just not easy to explain to someone else what you don't understand yourself." - Wislawa Szymborska

"The world — whatever we might think when terrified by its vastness and our own impotence, or embittered by its indifference to individual suffering, of people, animals, and perhaps even plants, for why are we so sure that plants feel no pain; whatever we might think of its expanses pierced by the rays of stars surrounded by planets we've just begun to discover, planets already dead? still dead? we just don't know; whatever we might think of this measureless theater to which we've got reserved tickets, but tickets whose lifespan is laughably short, bounded as it is by two arbitrary dates; whatever else we might think of this world — it is astonishing." - Wisława Szymborska

"Our snakes have shed their lightning,
our apes their flights of fancy,
our peacocks have renounced their plumes.
The bats flew out of our hair long ago.

We fall silent in mid-sentence,
all smiles, past help.
Our humans
don't know how to talk to one another."
- Wisława Szymborska
An Unexpected Meeting

Szymborska image source (1)

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Meander with me . . .

Today is the birthday of Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin (July 1, 1804 – June 8, 1876), novelist. She is best known by her pseudonym George Sand.

"The truth is too simple: one must always get there by a complicated route." - George Sand

"One is happy as a result of one's own efforts, once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness — simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self denial to a point, love of work, and, above all, a clear conscience. Happiness is no vague dream, of that I now feel certain." - George Sand

"Life resembles a novel more often than novels resemble life." - George Sand

"The truth is too simple: one must always get there by a complicated route." - George Sand

"One changes from day to day, and... after a few years have passed one has completely altered." - George Sand

"The beauty that addresses itself to the eyes is only the spell of the moment; the eye of the body is not always that of the soul." - George Sand

"The artist vocation is to send light into the human heart." - George Sand

Sand image source (1)