Meandering to and fro . . .

Today is the birthday of Thomas Hardy (June 2, 1840 – January 11, 1928), poet and novelist. He is best remembered for his novels, Far from the Maddening Crowd and The Return of the Native.

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Hardy

"A man's silence is wonderful to listen to." - Thomas Hardy

"Everybody is so talented nowadays that the only people I care to honor as deserving real distinction are those who remain in obscurity." - Thomas Hardy

"Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion." - Thomas Hardy

"There is a condition worse than blindness, and that is, seeing something that isn't there." - Thomas Hardy

"Do not do an immoral thing for moral reasons." - Thomas Hardy

“A lover without indiscretion is no lover at all.” - Thomas Hardy

Trivia bit: Thomas Hardy "died in January 1928, having dictated his final poem to his wife on his deathbed. His funeral was on 16 January at Westminster Abbey, and it proved a controversial occasion because Hardy and his family and friends had wished for his body to be interred at Stinsford in the same grave as his first wife, Emma. However, his executor, Sir Sydney Carlyle Cockerell, insisted that he be placed in the abbey's famous Poets' Corner. A compromise was reached whereby his heart was buried at Stinsford with Emma, and his ashes in Poets' Corner." direct quote source (1)

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Meandering . . .

Today is the birthday of John Edward Masefield (June 1, 1878 May 12, 1967), poet, writer and beekeeper. He is best remembered  for his oft quoted poem, Sea-Fever and his classic children's novels, The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights. 

John Masefield was Poet Laureate (UK) from 1930 until his death in 1967.

"I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by." -John Masefield

"Poetry is a mixture of common sense, which not all have, with an uncommon sense, which very few have." - John Masefield

"Once in a century a man may be ruined or made insufferable by praise. But surely once in a minute something generous dies for want of it." - John Masefield

"In this life he laughs longest who laughs last." - John Masefield

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Meandering to and fro . . .

A Birthday salute to Walter Whitman and Norman Vincent Peale.

Today is the birthday of Walter Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892), poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. He is best known as Walt Whitman and is oft referred to as the father of free verse (although he did not invent it).

“Not I - not anyone else, can travel that road for you, / You must travel it for yourself.” - Walt Whitman

“Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.” - Walt Whitman

“A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.” - Walt Whitman

"I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good as belongs to you."
- Walt Whitman

“I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.” - Walt Whitman

"Every moment of light and dark is a miracle." - Walt Whitman

"Be curious, not judgmental." - Walt Whitman

"The habit of giving only enhances the desire to give." - Walt Whitman

"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes." - Walt Whitman

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Today is the birthday of Norman Vincent Peale (May 31, 1898 – December 24, 1993), minister and author. He is best known for his book The Power of Positive Thinking and his belief in "positive thinking".

"Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all." - Norman Vincent Peale

“Our happiness depends on the habit of mind we cultivate. So practice happy thinking every day. Cultivate the merry heart, develop the happiness habit, and life will become a continual feast.” - Norman Vincent Peale

"When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade." - Norman Vincent Peale

"We tend to get what we expect.” - Norman Vincent Peale

“Change your thoughts, and you change your world” - Norman Vincent Peale

“If you have zest and enthusiasm you attract zest and enthusiasm. Life does give back in kind.” - Norman Vincent Peale

Trivia bit: "Norman Vincent Peale wrote 46 books. 'The Power of Positive Thinking' published in 1952, remains his best work. Its record is staggering...20 million copies sold, New York Times bestseller list for 186 consecutive weeks and translated into 41 languages." direct quote source (1)

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Meandering about . . .

A Happy Birthday salute to Bruno Gröning (May 30/31, 1906 — January 26, 1959), mystic and faith healer.

"Bruno Gröning compared a person with a battery. He believed that everyone burns up vital energy. However, new energy to replace it is often insufficiently absorbed. In the same way that an empty battery is incapable of functioning, a body without energy is also unable to fulfill its tasks. He believed the consequences to be the cause of fatigue, exhaustion, nervousness, anxieties and finally, illness." direct quote source (1)

"It is so important which thoughts a person absorbs, for thoughts are energy." - Bruno Gröning

"There is much that cannot be explained, but nothing that cannot occur." - Bruno Gröning

Trivia bit: The Phenomenon Bruno Gröning - On the tracks of the "Miracle Healer" is a documentary film on Bruno Gröning. Trailer Bruno Gröning documentary film (direct download-link)

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Today is the birthday of Joseph Stein (born May 30, 1912), playwright. He best known for writing the books for such musicals as Fiddler on the Roof and Zorba.

"Joseph Stein's book for Fiddler on the Roof represents the author's best known and most successful work in musical comedy. It was one of the last big successes in an era of great musicals on Broadway. Following its debut on September 22, 1964, at the Imperial Theatre, Fiddler ran for 3242 performances, achieving the longest run for a musical up to that time. This success was ironic considering the play's producers' initial fears that, due to the ethnically based story, the musical might not appeal to a broad audience." direct quote source (1)

Trivia bit: Joseph Stein began his career as a social worker, writing comedy on the side.

*****
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Meandering on and on . . .

Today is the birthday of Ebenezer Butterick (May 29, 1826 - March 31, 1903), tailor and inventor, best known for Butterick Patterns. Ebenezer Butterick with his wife Ellen developed printed dress patterns that could be cut for different dress sizes. They are the inventors of the tissue paper dress pattern.

In 1867 Butterick began publishing the Ladies Quarterly of Broadway Fashions, a magazine to promote their patterns and in 1868, a monthly magazine, Metropolitan. Both magazines offered fashion news and advice, as well as mail order services for Butterick's designs.

In 1873, E. Butterick & Co. began publishing the women's magazine The Delineator (subtitled A Journal of Fashion, Culture, and Fine Arts) which, by the turn of the century was a premiere women's fashion magazine in America.

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Meandering about . . .

Today is the birthday of Walker Percy (May 28, 1916 – May 10, 1990), novelist and essay writer, whose interests included philosophy and semiotics.

Walker Percy's works explore "the notion that human beings are out of place in the cosmos, that they have become alienated to the world they inhabit, and that they are searching for ways to bring significance into their lives. In short, as the title of one of his works of non-fiction implies, they are looking for "the message in the bottle" that will bring a salvation of sorts." direct quote source (1)

"Why is it that one can look at a lion or a planet or an owl or at someone’s finger as long as one pleases, but looking into the eyes of another person is, if prolonged past a second, a perilous affair?" - Walker Percy

"I have discovered that most people have no one to talk to, no one, that is, who really wants to listen. When it does at last dawn on a man that you really want to hear about his business, the look that comes over his face is something to see. " - Walker Percy

"You live in a deranged age, more deranged that usual, because in spite of great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing. " - Walker Percy

"Why it is that of all the billions and billions of strange objects in the Cosmos -- novas, quasars, pulsars, black holes -- you are beyond doubt the strangest?" - Walker Percy

"If I had the choice of knowing the truth or searching for the truth, I'd take the search." - Walker Percy

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Meandering on . . .

Today is the birthday of Herman Wouk (born May 27, 1915), author. He received a Pulitzer Prize for his 1951 novel, The Caine Mutiny.

"The imaginative artist willy-nilly influences his time. If he understands his responsibility and acts on it—taking the art seriously always, himself never quite—he can make a contribution equal to, if different from, that of the scientist, the politician, and the jurist. The anarchic artist so much in vogue now—asserting with vehemence and violence that he writes only for himself, grubbing in the worst seams of life—can do damage. But he can also be so useful in breaking up obsolete molds, exposing shams, and crying out the truth, that the broadest freedom of art seems to me necessary to a country worth living in." - Herman Wouk

"Illusion is an anodyne, bred by the gap between wish and reality." - Herman Wouk

"Some people think that all the equipment you need to discuss religion is a mouth." - Herman Wouk

"Write a page a day. It will add up." - Herman Wouk

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