Things That Make You Go Hmmmm . . .
"A summer rain had left the night clean and sparkling with drops of water. I leaned against the end pillar of the gallery, my head touching the soft tendrils of a jasmine which grew there in a constant battle with a wisteria, and I thought of what lay before me throughout the world and throughout time, and resolved to go about it delicately and reverently, learning that from each thing which would take me best to another." - Anne Rice
"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." - Benjamin Franklin
"Good intentions never change anything. They only become a deeper and deeper rut." - Joyce Meyer
"It takes a long time to become young." - Pablo Picasso
"Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy." -
Dale Carnegie
“In marriage do thou be wise: prefer the person before money, virtue before beauty, the mind before the body; then thou hast a wife, a friend, a companion, a second self.” - William Penn
"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad." - C. S. Lewis
"Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering." - Pooh's Little Instruction Book, inspired by A.A. Milne
"Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times." - Mark Twain
"A man watches his pear-tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe pear at length falls into his lap!” – Abraham Lincoln
"The first gatherings of the garden in May of salads, radishes and herbs made me feel like a mother about her baby - how could anything so beautiful be mine. And this emotion of wonder filled me for each vegetable as it was gathered every year. There is nothing that is comparable to it, as satisfactory or as thrilling, as gathering the vegetables one has grown." - Alice B. Toklas
"A life of full and constant employment is the only safe and happy one. If we suffer the mind and body to be unemployed, our enjoyments, as well as our labors, will be terminated. One of the minor uses of steady employment is, that it keeps one out of mischief; for truly an idle brain is the devil's workshop, and a lazy man the devil's bolster. To be occupied is to be possessed as by a tenant, whereas to be idle is to be empty; and when the doors of the imagination are opened, temptation finds a ready access, and evil thoughts come trooping in. It is observed at sea that men are never so much disposed to grumble and mutiny as when least employed. Hence an old captain, when there was nothing else to do, would issue the order to "scour the anchor." - The Royal Path of Life, 1882
“Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good.” - Alice May Brock
“If this country is ever demoralized,it will come from trying to live without work.” - Abraham Lincoln
"The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian, but the fact that I am a Christian makes me a different kind of woman.” - Elisabeth Elliot
“The worst enemy of the government is a free man. The worst enemy of a free man is his own government.” - Unknown
“To those of us who are not theologians, does it matter whether a thing is ordained or merely allowed? Are events that seem out of control caused by God? Or does He allow them to occur at the hands of human beings? You can spend a lot of time pondering that one and end up pretty much where you started. In either case, the purpose remains the same – our sanctification. God is in the business of making us walking, breathing examples of the invisible reality of the presence of Christ in us.” - Elisabeth Elliot
"Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it." - Michael Jordan
"A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love." - Saint Basil
"But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Foxglove
With your speckled throat,
Do you sing clear, silent notes
To winging busy, busy bees,
‘Come partake my honey, please?
- by Sally Plumb.
"Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work." - Booker T. Washington
"All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today." - Pope Paul VI
“Through the blur, I wondered if I was alone or if other parents felt the same way I did — that everything involving our children was painful in some way. The emotions, whether they were joy, sorrow, love or pride, were so deep and sharp that in the end they left you raw, exposed and yes, in pain. The human heart was not designed to beat outside the human body and yet, each child represented just that — a parent’s heart bared, beating forever outside its chest.” - Debra Ginsberg
“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”- Albert Einstein
"The first supermarket supposedly appeared on the American landscape in 1946. That is not very long ago. Until then, where was all the food? Dear folks, the food was in homes, gardens, local fields, and forests. It was near kitchens, near tables, near bedsides. It was in the pantry, the cellar, the backyard." - Joel Salatin
"The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul." - Alfred Austin
"But a weed is simply a plant that wants to grow where people want something else. In blaming nature, people mistake the culprit. Weeds are people's idea, not nature's." - Author Unknown
"The latent self-life needs to be brought down into the place of death before His breath can carry us hither and thither as the wind wafts the seeds. Are we ready for this last surrender?" - Lilias Trotter, from Parables of the Cross
“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” - 1 Corinthians 1:18
"When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost." - Billy Graham
"Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." - Benjamin Franklin
"Make up your mind that no matter what comes your way, no matter how difficult, no matter how unfair, you will do more than simply survive. You will thrive in spite of it." - Joel Osteen
"Nothing that you have not given away will ever truly be yours." - C.S. Lewis
"I had old bunk beds that my dad got from Seabrook Farms. They were first used by German prisoners during World War II, who were sent to work the farms during the war. The metal beds with their thin mattresses could easily be used as a jungle gym and I loved them." - David Mixner
"Winter squashes are the forgotten vegetables. Almost no vegetable is as easy to grow or keep. With fertile soil, full sun and ample water, vines take off. And after plants become established, they're so carefree, it's easy to forget them until fall when their rediscovery makes the harvest that much sweeter." - Andy Tomolonis
“Experience is never limited, and it is never complete; it is an immense sensibility, a kind of huge spider-web of the finest silken threads suspended in the chamber of consciousness, and catching every air-borne particle in its tissue.” - Henry James
"We have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountain, when we have seen things from God’s perspective and have wanted to stay there. But God will never allow us to stay there. The true test of our spiritual life is in exhibiting the power to descend from the mountain. If we only have the power to go up, something is wrong. It is a wonderful thing to be on the mountain with God, but a person only gets there so that he may later go down and lift up the demon-possessed people in the valley. We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life— those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength. Yet our spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mountain. We feel that we could talk and live like perfect angels, if we could only stay on the mountaintop. Those times of exaltation are exceptional and they have their meaning in our life with God, but we must beware to prevent our spiritual selfishness from wanting to make them the only time." - Oswald Chambers
"Wherever you go, go with all your heart." - Confucius
"Genius always finds itself a century too early." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog." - Jack London
"The strawberry grows underneath the nettle And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality." - William Shakespeare
"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney
"An anxious unrest, a fierce craving desire for gain has taken possession of the commercial world, and in instances no longer rare the most precious and permanent goods of human life have been madly sacrificed in the interests of momentary enrichment." - Felix Adler
"Cooking is like painting or writing a song. Just as there are only so many notes or colors, there are only so many flavors - it's how you combine them that sets you apart." - Wolfgang Puck
"Instead of going out to dinner, buy good food. Cooking at home shows such affection. In a bad economy, it's more important to make yourself feel good." -
Ina Garten
"There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction." - John F. Kennedy
"Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood." - George S. Patton
"There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you.... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself." - Ruth Stout
Why Be Afraid?
By Helen Grace Lescheid
My 87-year-old great-aunt, Anna, was a very practical woman more at home with serving up delicious meals than dreaming up stories. But one day, after a scrumptious meal, as we were sitting on a sofa together, she hesitantly began to tell me of an experience in her life, then stopped abruptly as though she were going to change the subject.
"I've told very few people this," she said shyly. "They might not believe me." My curiosity piqued, I encouraged Aunt Anna to continue.
We settled back into the sofa cushions and she began to tell me the following story.
~~~~~
....Three weeks before Christmas 1944--the memory is as vivid today as though it happened yesterday--I was a refugee from the Ukraine living in an old house high up in the Alps near Ratkersburg, Yugoslavia.
World War II had unleashed its fury upon my village of Nieder-Chortitza, west of the Dnieper River in Ukraine. After many months of bombing and shelling, we had fled for our lives. In the dim interior of a freight car, we tried to calm our pounding hearts by singing hymns. Our train, crammed with refugees, had inched its way across the Ukrainian steppes and through Poland. Sometimes the Russian army opened fire on the train. Bombs exploded and rocked the cars. The staccato of machine guns drummed in our heads. We clung to each other.
But we had made it safely to Yugoslavia, now occupied by the Germans. Since the Germans had brought us and treated us favourably, the Yugoslavs hated us. We feared *partisan activity against us. Wild stories circulated about how these men, dressed as firemen, had raped refugee women and plundered their homes at night. Some of our boys had been shot at by them. For that reason we kept our doors bolted shut. Women never travelled alone.
Added to this peril, the fighting front was again too close for comfort. Many nights searchlights fanned the night skies, then explosions rocked the windows as the Russian bombers dropped their deadly cargo.
Once more we feared for our lives and thought about evacuation.
"Come to Germany," my sister Tina had written. "You'll be safer here."
So, on this particular day, a friend and I took a train to Graz, Austria, to fill out application forms for a visa. The long, dangerous journey took all day. On the return trip to Ratkersburg, I noticed how quickly daylight was fading. Then sleet pelted the window.
"A miserable night to be out walking," my friend muttered.
I agreed.
"I'm getting off at the next station to spend the night at my son's house," she said. "Anna, you're welcome to come too."
I shook my head no. My friends at home would worry if I didn't arrive tonight, and I had no way of telling them about a change in plans.
The train slowed and my friend got off. Watching her receding back as she hurried away, I felt desolate. Should I have gone with her? The train lurched and began to move again. At 8 p.m. it chugged into my station. As I descended, an icy wind tore at my threadbare coat and thin kerchief. The sleet stung my face. I hurried into the dimly lit station, sat down on a wooden bench, and deliberated what to do.
To get back to my home up the mountain, I would have to walk ten kilometres, alone, in the pitch darkness. I had no flashlight, and I would have to find my way. Even worse, the narrow path ran past a cemetery, vineyards, and dense forest--the kinds of places partisans might be hiding in. Only a few houses lay scattered on the lonely terrain. Then, too, I would have to ford a rushing mountain stream.
There's no way I can make that trip tonight, I thought.
A middle-aged man busied himself behind the wicket. Timidly I approached him: "Sir, could I spend the night here, please?"
"No, ma'am," he said emphatically.
"I have far to walk..." I began.
"Ma'am, I can't allow it," he said abruptly. He grabbed his coat and hat and fished for the keys in his pocket. Then he headed for the door. Panic kept me rooted to the floor. I can't go up that mountain alone.
At the door the man turned and said impatiently, "C'mon. I'm locking this place up." He must have seen the panic in my eyes, for he said more kindly, "During an air raid, you'll be safer up the mountain anyway."
As I listened to the receding crunch of his boots on gravel, the knot of fear in my stomach tightened. The only man who could have helped me vanished into the night.
What was I to do? For a few moments, I stood under the eaves of the straw roof. Then I lifted my face to the sky and spoke to the only Person who could help me now. "Father," I whispered, "I'm so scared. Take away this terror. Walk with me."
Suddenly a light fanned across the sky.
Oh, no, the bombers! I thought. Knowing that train stations are targeted, I moved away from the building.
The light moved with me, clearly shining on my path.
I waited for the screeching of planes, then the explosion of bombs. Nothing. Instead, a deep quietness. An indescribable peace filled my heart, dispelling every trace of fear. The path lay bright at my feet.
Hymns of praise welled up inside me: "Lass die Herzen immer froehlich und mit Dank erfuellet sein"; (May our hearts be ever joyful and filled with thankfulness.) "So nimm denn meine Haende und fuehre mich." (Take Thou my hand, O Father, and lead me on.) Song after joyous song filled me with praise. I fought a strong urge to sing out loud--after all, one had to be prudent--but I began to hum softly.
Then I realized the wind had stopped--and the rain. In fact, it was as warm as a summer's night. I began to loosen my kerchief. How strange to be so warm in December, I thought.
When I reached the swollen stream, the water glistened like a myriad of diamonds. Sure-footed, I stepped onto the flat rocks sticking out of the foaming water and forded it.
The light guided and cheered me all the way up the mountain. As I neared the old house, I looked back over the treacherous mountain path I had taken. Like a ribbon of light it lay behind me.
Excitedly, I knocked on the door. I wanted my friends to see this awesome sight.
The door opened. A gust of wind grabbed it, almost tearing it off its hinges. "Anna, come in," my friend yelled, pulling me inside.
My friends crowded around me. "Such a terrible storm. Weren't you afraid?" they asked.
"No," I shook my head. "There was no storm."
But I could say no more, for now I could hear it too: the howling wind, the sleet pelting the window panes, the moaning of the house.
While one friend busied herself with my supper, another took my coat. "It's dry," she said. "Anna, your coat is dry."
"I know," I said. I did my best to explain, but my friends looked at me strangely as though they were trying to make sense out of it all.
Aunt Anna finished her story and searched my face. "You do believe this really happened to me, don't you?".
"Yes, I believe you." I took her hand and squeezed it. "I guess what you're telling me is that we've got nothing to be afraid of--ever."
"Yes, yes ," Aunt Anna smiled. "What is there to be afraid of?"
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act“. - George Orwell
"Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love." - Hamilton Wright Mabie
"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home." - Edith Sitwell
"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence." - Vince Lombardi
"Age is not important unless you're a cheese." - Helen Hayes
“Shopping is a woman thing. It's a contact sport like football. Women enjoy the scrimmage, the noisy crowds, the danger of being trampled to death, and the ecstasy of the purchase.” - Erma Bombeck
Thanksgiving Day
By Lydia Maria Child
Over the river, and through the wood,
To grandfather’s house we go;
The horse knows the way
To carry the sleigh
Through the white and drifted snow.
Over the river, and through the wood—
Oh, how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes
And bites the nose
As over the ground we go.
Over the river, and through the wood,
To have a first-rate play.
Hear the bells ring
“Ting-a-ling-ding”,
Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!
Over the river, and through the wood
Trot fast, my dapple-gray!
Spring over the ground,
Like a hunting-hound!
For this is Thanksgiving Day.
Over the river, and through the wood,
And straight through the barn-yard gate.
We seem to go
Extremely slow,—
It is so hard to wait!
Over the river and through the wood—
Now grandmother’s cap I spy!
Hurrah for the fun!
Is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin-pie!
“Every advantage is temporary.” - Katerina Stoykova Klemer
"The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?" - J. B. Priestley
“People who have fully prepared always save time. Albert Einstein was right to teach that if he is given six hours to chop down a tree, he would spend the first four sharpening the axes. When you are done with your action plans, work will be easier!” - Israelmore Ayivor
"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." - Benjamin Franklin
"Good intentions never change anything. They only become a deeper and deeper rut." - Joyce Meyer
"It takes a long time to become young." - Pablo Picasso
"Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy." -
Dale Carnegie
“In marriage do thou be wise: prefer the person before money, virtue before beauty, the mind before the body; then thou hast a wife, a friend, a companion, a second self.” - William Penn
"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad." - C. S. Lewis
"Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering." - Pooh's Little Instruction Book, inspired by A.A. Milne
"Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times." - Mark Twain
"A man watches his pear-tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe pear at length falls into his lap!” – Abraham Lincoln
"The first gatherings of the garden in May of salads, radishes and herbs made me feel like a mother about her baby - how could anything so beautiful be mine. And this emotion of wonder filled me for each vegetable as it was gathered every year. There is nothing that is comparable to it, as satisfactory or as thrilling, as gathering the vegetables one has grown." - Alice B. Toklas
"A life of full and constant employment is the only safe and happy one. If we suffer the mind and body to be unemployed, our enjoyments, as well as our labors, will be terminated. One of the minor uses of steady employment is, that it keeps one out of mischief; for truly an idle brain is the devil's workshop, and a lazy man the devil's bolster. To be occupied is to be possessed as by a tenant, whereas to be idle is to be empty; and when the doors of the imagination are opened, temptation finds a ready access, and evil thoughts come trooping in. It is observed at sea that men are never so much disposed to grumble and mutiny as when least employed. Hence an old captain, when there was nothing else to do, would issue the order to "scour the anchor." - The Royal Path of Life, 1882
“Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good.” - Alice May Brock
“If this country is ever demoralized,it will come from trying to live without work.” - Abraham Lincoln
"The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian, but the fact that I am a Christian makes me a different kind of woman.” - Elisabeth Elliot
“The worst enemy of the government is a free man. The worst enemy of a free man is his own government.” - Unknown
“To those of us who are not theologians, does it matter whether a thing is ordained or merely allowed? Are events that seem out of control caused by God? Or does He allow them to occur at the hands of human beings? You can spend a lot of time pondering that one and end up pretty much where you started. In either case, the purpose remains the same – our sanctification. God is in the business of making us walking, breathing examples of the invisible reality of the presence of Christ in us.” - Elisabeth Elliot
"Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it." - Michael Jordan
"A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love." - Saint Basil
"But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Foxglove
With your speckled throat,
Do you sing clear, silent notes
To winging busy, busy bees,
‘Come partake my honey, please?
- by Sally Plumb.
"Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work." - Booker T. Washington
"All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today." - Pope Paul VI
“Through the blur, I wondered if I was alone or if other parents felt the same way I did — that everything involving our children was painful in some way. The emotions, whether they were joy, sorrow, love or pride, were so deep and sharp that in the end they left you raw, exposed and yes, in pain. The human heart was not designed to beat outside the human body and yet, each child represented just that — a parent’s heart bared, beating forever outside its chest.” - Debra Ginsberg
“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”- Albert Einstein
"The first supermarket supposedly appeared on the American landscape in 1946. That is not very long ago. Until then, where was all the food? Dear folks, the food was in homes, gardens, local fields, and forests. It was near kitchens, near tables, near bedsides. It was in the pantry, the cellar, the backyard." - Joel Salatin
"The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul." - Alfred Austin
"But a weed is simply a plant that wants to grow where people want something else. In blaming nature, people mistake the culprit. Weeds are people's idea, not nature's." - Author Unknown
"The latent self-life needs to be brought down into the place of death before His breath can carry us hither and thither as the wind wafts the seeds. Are we ready for this last surrender?" - Lilias Trotter, from Parables of the Cross
“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” - 1 Corinthians 1:18
"When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost." - Billy Graham
"Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." - Benjamin Franklin
"Make up your mind that no matter what comes your way, no matter how difficult, no matter how unfair, you will do more than simply survive. You will thrive in spite of it." - Joel Osteen
"Nothing that you have not given away will ever truly be yours." - C.S. Lewis
"I had old bunk beds that my dad got from Seabrook Farms. They were first used by German prisoners during World War II, who were sent to work the farms during the war. The metal beds with their thin mattresses could easily be used as a jungle gym and I loved them." - David Mixner
"Winter squashes are the forgotten vegetables. Almost no vegetable is as easy to grow or keep. With fertile soil, full sun and ample water, vines take off. And after plants become established, they're so carefree, it's easy to forget them until fall when their rediscovery makes the harvest that much sweeter." - Andy Tomolonis
“Experience is never limited, and it is never complete; it is an immense sensibility, a kind of huge spider-web of the finest silken threads suspended in the chamber of consciousness, and catching every air-borne particle in its tissue.” - Henry James
"We have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountain, when we have seen things from God’s perspective and have wanted to stay there. But God will never allow us to stay there. The true test of our spiritual life is in exhibiting the power to descend from the mountain. If we only have the power to go up, something is wrong. It is a wonderful thing to be on the mountain with God, but a person only gets there so that he may later go down and lift up the demon-possessed people in the valley. We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life— those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength. Yet our spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mountain. We feel that we could talk and live like perfect angels, if we could only stay on the mountaintop. Those times of exaltation are exceptional and they have their meaning in our life with God, but we must beware to prevent our spiritual selfishness from wanting to make them the only time." - Oswald Chambers
"Wherever you go, go with all your heart." - Confucius
"Genius always finds itself a century too early." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog." - Jack London
"The strawberry grows underneath the nettle And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality." - William Shakespeare
"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney
"An anxious unrest, a fierce craving desire for gain has taken possession of the commercial world, and in instances no longer rare the most precious and permanent goods of human life have been madly sacrificed in the interests of momentary enrichment." - Felix Adler
"Cooking is like painting or writing a song. Just as there are only so many notes or colors, there are only so many flavors - it's how you combine them that sets you apart." - Wolfgang Puck
"Instead of going out to dinner, buy good food. Cooking at home shows such affection. In a bad economy, it's more important to make yourself feel good." -
Ina Garten
"There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction." - John F. Kennedy
"Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood." - George S. Patton
"There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you.... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself." - Ruth Stout
Why Be Afraid?
By Helen Grace Lescheid
My 87-year-old great-aunt, Anna, was a very practical woman more at home with serving up delicious meals than dreaming up stories. But one day, after a scrumptious meal, as we were sitting on a sofa together, she hesitantly began to tell me of an experience in her life, then stopped abruptly as though she were going to change the subject.
"I've told very few people this," she said shyly. "They might not believe me." My curiosity piqued, I encouraged Aunt Anna to continue.
We settled back into the sofa cushions and she began to tell me the following story.
~~~~~
....Three weeks before Christmas 1944--the memory is as vivid today as though it happened yesterday--I was a refugee from the Ukraine living in an old house high up in the Alps near Ratkersburg, Yugoslavia.
World War II had unleashed its fury upon my village of Nieder-Chortitza, west of the Dnieper River in Ukraine. After many months of bombing and shelling, we had fled for our lives. In the dim interior of a freight car, we tried to calm our pounding hearts by singing hymns. Our train, crammed with refugees, had inched its way across the Ukrainian steppes and through Poland. Sometimes the Russian army opened fire on the train. Bombs exploded and rocked the cars. The staccato of machine guns drummed in our heads. We clung to each other.
But we had made it safely to Yugoslavia, now occupied by the Germans. Since the Germans had brought us and treated us favourably, the Yugoslavs hated us. We feared *partisan activity against us. Wild stories circulated about how these men, dressed as firemen, had raped refugee women and plundered their homes at night. Some of our boys had been shot at by them. For that reason we kept our doors bolted shut. Women never travelled alone.
Added to this peril, the fighting front was again too close for comfort. Many nights searchlights fanned the night skies, then explosions rocked the windows as the Russian bombers dropped their deadly cargo.
Once more we feared for our lives and thought about evacuation.
"Come to Germany," my sister Tina had written. "You'll be safer here."
So, on this particular day, a friend and I took a train to Graz, Austria, to fill out application forms for a visa. The long, dangerous journey took all day. On the return trip to Ratkersburg, I noticed how quickly daylight was fading. Then sleet pelted the window.
"A miserable night to be out walking," my friend muttered.
I agreed.
"I'm getting off at the next station to spend the night at my son's house," she said. "Anna, you're welcome to come too."
I shook my head no. My friends at home would worry if I didn't arrive tonight, and I had no way of telling them about a change in plans.
The train slowed and my friend got off. Watching her receding back as she hurried away, I felt desolate. Should I have gone with her? The train lurched and began to move again. At 8 p.m. it chugged into my station. As I descended, an icy wind tore at my threadbare coat and thin kerchief. The sleet stung my face. I hurried into the dimly lit station, sat down on a wooden bench, and deliberated what to do.
To get back to my home up the mountain, I would have to walk ten kilometres, alone, in the pitch darkness. I had no flashlight, and I would have to find my way. Even worse, the narrow path ran past a cemetery, vineyards, and dense forest--the kinds of places partisans might be hiding in. Only a few houses lay scattered on the lonely terrain. Then, too, I would have to ford a rushing mountain stream.
There's no way I can make that trip tonight, I thought.
A middle-aged man busied himself behind the wicket. Timidly I approached him: "Sir, could I spend the night here, please?"
"No, ma'am," he said emphatically.
"I have far to walk..." I began.
"Ma'am, I can't allow it," he said abruptly. He grabbed his coat and hat and fished for the keys in his pocket. Then he headed for the door. Panic kept me rooted to the floor. I can't go up that mountain alone.
At the door the man turned and said impatiently, "C'mon. I'm locking this place up." He must have seen the panic in my eyes, for he said more kindly, "During an air raid, you'll be safer up the mountain anyway."
As I listened to the receding crunch of his boots on gravel, the knot of fear in my stomach tightened. The only man who could have helped me vanished into the night.
What was I to do? For a few moments, I stood under the eaves of the straw roof. Then I lifted my face to the sky and spoke to the only Person who could help me now. "Father," I whispered, "I'm so scared. Take away this terror. Walk with me."
Suddenly a light fanned across the sky.
Oh, no, the bombers! I thought. Knowing that train stations are targeted, I moved away from the building.
The light moved with me, clearly shining on my path.
I waited for the screeching of planes, then the explosion of bombs. Nothing. Instead, a deep quietness. An indescribable peace filled my heart, dispelling every trace of fear. The path lay bright at my feet.
Hymns of praise welled up inside me: "Lass die Herzen immer froehlich und mit Dank erfuellet sein"; (May our hearts be ever joyful and filled with thankfulness.) "So nimm denn meine Haende und fuehre mich." (Take Thou my hand, O Father, and lead me on.) Song after joyous song filled me with praise. I fought a strong urge to sing out loud--after all, one had to be prudent--but I began to hum softly.
Then I realized the wind had stopped--and the rain. In fact, it was as warm as a summer's night. I began to loosen my kerchief. How strange to be so warm in December, I thought.
When I reached the swollen stream, the water glistened like a myriad of diamonds. Sure-footed, I stepped onto the flat rocks sticking out of the foaming water and forded it.
The light guided and cheered me all the way up the mountain. As I neared the old house, I looked back over the treacherous mountain path I had taken. Like a ribbon of light it lay behind me.
Excitedly, I knocked on the door. I wanted my friends to see this awesome sight.
The door opened. A gust of wind grabbed it, almost tearing it off its hinges. "Anna, come in," my friend yelled, pulling me inside.
My friends crowded around me. "Such a terrible storm. Weren't you afraid?" they asked.
"No," I shook my head. "There was no storm."
But I could say no more, for now I could hear it too: the howling wind, the sleet pelting the window panes, the moaning of the house.
While one friend busied herself with my supper, another took my coat. "It's dry," she said. "Anna, your coat is dry."
"I know," I said. I did my best to explain, but my friends looked at me strangely as though they were trying to make sense out of it all.
Aunt Anna finished her story and searched my face. "You do believe this really happened to me, don't you?".
"Yes, I believe you." I took her hand and squeezed it. "I guess what you're telling me is that we've got nothing to be afraid of--ever."
"Yes, yes ," Aunt Anna smiled. "What is there to be afraid of?"
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act“. - George Orwell
"Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love." - Hamilton Wright Mabie
"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home." - Edith Sitwell
"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence." - Vince Lombardi
"Age is not important unless you're a cheese." - Helen Hayes
“Shopping is a woman thing. It's a contact sport like football. Women enjoy the scrimmage, the noisy crowds, the danger of being trampled to death, and the ecstasy of the purchase.” - Erma Bombeck
Thanksgiving Day
By Lydia Maria Child
Over the river, and through the wood,
To grandfather’s house we go;
The horse knows the way
To carry the sleigh
Through the white and drifted snow.
Over the river, and through the wood—
Oh, how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes
And bites the nose
As over the ground we go.
Over the river, and through the wood,
To have a first-rate play.
Hear the bells ring
“Ting-a-ling-ding”,
Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!
Over the river, and through the wood
Trot fast, my dapple-gray!
Spring over the ground,
Like a hunting-hound!
For this is Thanksgiving Day.
Over the river, and through the wood,
And straight through the barn-yard gate.
We seem to go
Extremely slow,—
It is so hard to wait!
Over the river and through the wood—
Now grandmother’s cap I spy!
Hurrah for the fun!
Is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin-pie!
“Every advantage is temporary.” - Katerina Stoykova Klemer
"The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?" - J. B. Priestley
“People who have fully prepared always save time. Albert Einstein was right to teach that if he is given six hours to chop down a tree, he would spend the first four sharpening the axes. When you are done with your action plans, work will be easier!” - Israelmore Ayivor
"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid." - Benjamin Franklin
“One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.” - G.K. Chesterton
“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.” - President John Quincy Adams.
“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.” - President John Quincy Adams.
"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns." - George Eliot
"October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came,--
The Ashes, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The sunshine spread a carpet,
And every thing was grand;
Miss Weather led the dancing;
Professor Wind, the band....
The sight was like a rainbow
New-fallen from the sky...."
- George Cooper, October’s Party
The leaves by hundreds came,--
The Ashes, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The sunshine spread a carpet,
And every thing was grand;
Miss Weather led the dancing;
Professor Wind, the band....
The sight was like a rainbow
New-fallen from the sky...."
- George Cooper, October’s Party
“Always after a defeat and a respite," says Gandalf, "the shadow takes another shape and grows again."
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," says Frodo.
"So do I," says Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” - J.R.R. Tolkien
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," says Frodo.
"So do I," says Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” - J.R.R. Tolkien
"Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love of humanity." - Hippocrates
"I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge." - Willa Sibert Cather
"Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future." - John F. Kennedy
"Anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of apples in a seed." - Robert H. Schuller
“Women derive a pleasure, incomprehensible to the other sex, from the delicate toil of the needle.” - Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn." - John Muir
"Some people travel level and smooth roads all their life, while others are forced to climb rugged mountains - but these can see the world from the summit, with a better view than anybody else." - Frank Dickson
"Benjamin Franklin said there were only two things certain in life: death and taxes. But I'd like to add a third certainty: trash. And while some in this room might want to discuss reducing taxes, I want to talk about reducing trash." - Ruth Ann Minner
"There are practical little things in housekeeping which no man really understands." - Eleanor Roosevelt
CHILDREN OF TOMORROW
"Children of tomorrow
I apologize to you
On behalf of those in my time
For the things we didn’t do
We didn’t stop the tyrants
So your fate could be prevented
We watched them steal our freedom
By our silence we consented
We didn’t choose to circumvent
The doom you’ve not escaped
While the Bill of Rights was murdered
And the Constitution raped
Some of us were lazy
Others too afraid
To think about our children
The ones we have betrayed
I guess we were too busy
To be concerned or care
To try to ease the burden
Of the chains we made you wear
We could have been good shepherds
When the wolf got in the fold
But we watched the flame of freedom die instead
And left you cold.
I’m sorry we were timid
My selfish generation
We left you but a remnant
Of a free and prosperous nation
I’m sorry for our actions
Like cowards we behaved
We could have left you freedom
Instead you are enslaved
Children of tomorrow
Descendants of our land
I’m sorry we allowed this
The fate you now with stand." - Anonymous
"Children of tomorrow
I apologize to you
On behalf of those in my time
For the things we didn’t do
We didn’t stop the tyrants
So your fate could be prevented
We watched them steal our freedom
By our silence we consented
We didn’t choose to circumvent
The doom you’ve not escaped
While the Bill of Rights was murdered
And the Constitution raped
Some of us were lazy
Others too afraid
To think about our children
The ones we have betrayed
I guess we were too busy
To be concerned or care
To try to ease the burden
Of the chains we made you wear
We could have been good shepherds
When the wolf got in the fold
But we watched the flame of freedom die instead
And left you cold.
I’m sorry we were timid
My selfish generation
We left you but a remnant
Of a free and prosperous nation
I’m sorry for our actions
Like cowards we behaved
We could have left you freedom
Instead you are enslaved
Children of tomorrow
Descendants of our land
I’m sorry we allowed this
The fate you now with stand." - Anonymous
"The federal government has sponsored research that has produced a tomato that is perfect in every respect, except that you can't eat it. We should make every effort to make sure this disease, often referred to as 'progress', doesn't spread." - Andy Rooney
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." - Aristotle
"Waste is worse than loss. The time is coming when every person who lays claim to ability will keep the question of waste before him constantly. The scope of thrift is limitless." -Thomas A. Edison
Peaches and Cheese
"The vagabond sun winks down through the trees,
While lilacs, like memories, waft on the breeze,
My friend, I was born for days such as these,
To inhale perfume,
And cut through the gloom,
And feast like a king upon peaches and cheese!
I’ll travel this wide world and go where I please,
Can’t stop my wand’ring, it’s like a disease.
My only regret as I cross the high seas:
What I leave behind,
Though I hope to find,
My own golden city of peaches and cheese!” - Rachel Hartman, Seraphina
"The vagabond sun winks down through the trees,
While lilacs, like memories, waft on the breeze,
My friend, I was born for days such as these,
To inhale perfume,
And cut through the gloom,
And feast like a king upon peaches and cheese!
I’ll travel this wide world and go where I please,
Can’t stop my wand’ring, it’s like a disease.
My only regret as I cross the high seas:
What I leave behind,
Though I hope to find,
My own golden city of peaches and cheese!” - Rachel Hartman, Seraphina
"Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds." - Gordon B. Hinckley
"My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!" - Thomas Jefferson
"Down South, even our vegetables have some pig hidden somewhere in it. A vegetable isn't a vegetable without a little ham hock." - Paula Deen
“The first supermarket supposedly appeared on the American landscape in 1946. That is not very long ago. Until then, where was all the food? Dear folks, the food was in homes, gardens, local fields, and forests. It was near kitchens, near tables, near bedsides. It was in the pantry, the cellar, the backyard.” - Joel Salatin
"There is the love and marriage and family kind of happiness, which is exceedingly boring to describe but nonetheless is important to have and dreadful not to have." - P. J. O'Rourke
"A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust." - Gertrude Jekyll
"We can be tired, weary and emotionally distraught, but after spending time alone with God, we find that He injects into our bodies energy, power and strength." - Charles Stanley
“Pounding fragrant things -- particularly garlic, basil, parsley -- is a tremendous antidote to depression. But it applies also to juniper berries, coriander seeds and the grilled fruits of the chilli pepper. Pounding these things produces an alteration in one's being -- from sighing with fatigue to inhaling with pleasure. The cheering effects of herbs and alliums cannot be too often reiterated. Virgil's appetite was probably improved equally by pounding garlic as by eating it.” -
Patience Gray, cookery author
Patience Gray, cookery author
"Jobs, as such, are a relatively new concept. People may have always worked, but until the advent of the corporation in the early Renaissance, most people just worked for themselves. They made shoes, plucked chickens, or created value in some way for other people, who then traded or paid for those goods and services." - Douglas Rushkoff
"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." - Mark Twain
"In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash'd palings,
Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
with many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love,
With every leaf a miracle - and from this bush in the dooryard,
With delicate-color'd blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
A sprig with its flower I break."
- Walt Whitman, (Leaves of Grass, 1865)
Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
with many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love,
With every leaf a miracle - and from this bush in the dooryard,
With delicate-color'd blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
A sprig with its flower I break."
- Walt Whitman, (Leaves of Grass, 1865)
"Since Iris is the Greek goddess for the Messenger of Love, her sacred flower is considered the symbol of communication and messages. Greek men would often plant an iris on the graves of their beloved women as a tribute to the goddess Iris, whose duty it was to take the souls of women to the Elysian fields."
- Hana No Monogatari (The Stories of Flowers)
- Hana No Monogatari (The Stories of Flowers)
“Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"... "It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...” - Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden)
"Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her." - Proverbs 31:28
"There's a few things I've learned in life: always throw salt over your left shoulder, keep rosemary by your garden gate, plant lavender for good luck, and fall in love whenever you can." - Lavender and Alice Hoffman(Practical Magic )
“If one consults enough herbals...every sickness known to humanity will be listed as being cured by sage.” - Varro Taylor, Ph.D.
"There are moments in life, when the heart is so full of emotion
That if by chance it be shaken, or into its depths like a pebble
Drops some careless word, it overflows, and its secret,
Spilt on the ground like water, can never be gathered together." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
That if by chance it be shaken, or into its depths like a pebble
Drops some careless word, it overflows, and its secret,
Spilt on the ground like water, can never be gathered together." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer quite the other way
I have to go to bed by day." - Robert Louis Stevenson
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer quite the other way
I have to go to bed by day." - Robert Louis Stevenson
“Have you ever felt as if your dreams were more memorable, more alive, than what you knew to be reality? Have your dreams ever seemed so tangible as to make you question upon waking if you’d truly only dreamt them? Have they at times been addictive enough to consume your waking hours; blurring actuality and pretend together until your wishes and passions stare back at you with open eyes?
If only dreams could be reality, that beautiful garden of sweet-smelling roses we all long for. But reality for me is no such bed of roses. It is nothing but a field of unwanted dandelions." - From the thoughts of Annabelle Fancher”
If only dreams could be reality, that beautiful garden of sweet-smelling roses we all long for. But reality for me is no such bed of roses. It is nothing but a field of unwanted dandelions." - From the thoughts of Annabelle Fancher”
“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.” - Neil Gaiman
Imagine that you had won the following *PRIZE* in a contest:
Each morning your bank would deposit $86,400.00 in your private
account for your use. However, this prize has rules.
The set of rules:
1. Everything that you didn't spend during each day would be taken
away from you.
2. You may not simply transfer money into some other account.
3. You may only spend it.
4. Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with
another $86,400.00 for that day.
5. The bank can end the game without warning; at any time it can
say," Game Over ! It can close the account and you will not receive a new
one.
What would you personally do?
You would buy anything and everything you wanted right?
Not only for yourself, but for all people you love. Even for people
you don't know, because you couldn't possibly spend it all on yourself,
right?
You would try to spend every cent, and use it all, right?
ACTUALLY This GAME is REAL!
Shocked ?? YES!!
Each of us is already a winner of this PRIZE. We just can't seem to
see it.
This PRIZE is *TIME* !!
1. Each morning we awaken to receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life,
2. And when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is NOT
credited to us.
3. What we haven't lived up that day is forever lost.
4. Yesterday is forever gone.
5. Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve
your account at any time WITHOUT WARNING....
SO, what will YOU do with your 86,400 seconds?
Those seconds are worth so much more than the same amount in dollars.
Think about that, and always think of this: Enjoy every second of your
life, because time races by so much quicker than you think.
So take care of yourself, be happy, love deeply and enjoy life!
Here's wishing you a wonderful and beautiful day.
Start spending....Every day God gives is a blessing.
Each morning your bank would deposit $86,400.00 in your private
account for your use. However, this prize has rules.
The set of rules:
1. Everything that you didn't spend during each day would be taken
away from you.
2. You may not simply transfer money into some other account.
3. You may only spend it.
4. Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with
another $86,400.00 for that day.
5. The bank can end the game without warning; at any time it can
say," Game Over ! It can close the account and you will not receive a new
one.
What would you personally do?
You would buy anything and everything you wanted right?
Not only for yourself, but for all people you love. Even for people
you don't know, because you couldn't possibly spend it all on yourself,
right?
You would try to spend every cent, and use it all, right?
ACTUALLY This GAME is REAL!
Shocked ?? YES!!
Each of us is already a winner of this PRIZE. We just can't seem to
see it.
This PRIZE is *TIME* !!
1. Each morning we awaken to receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life,
2. And when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is NOT
credited to us.
3. What we haven't lived up that day is forever lost.
4. Yesterday is forever gone.
5. Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve
your account at any time WITHOUT WARNING....
SO, what will YOU do with your 86,400 seconds?
Those seconds are worth so much more than the same amount in dollars.
Think about that, and always think of this: Enjoy every second of your
life, because time races by so much quicker than you think.
So take care of yourself, be happy, love deeply and enjoy life!
Here's wishing you a wonderful and beautiful day.
Start spending....Every day God gives is a blessing.
"Don't give up. Don't lose hope. Don't sell out." - Christopher Reeve
Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself. - Walter Anderson
"This earthly life is a battle," said Ma. "If it isn't one thing to contend with, it's another. It always has been so, and it always will be. The sooner you make up your mind to that, the better off you are, and the more thankful for your pleasures." - Laura Ingalls Wilder
"I have a lot of fruit trees and my own little vegetable garden and chickens. And every time I eat, I bless my food; I say I'm grateful for it and let it nourish every part of my body." - Gisele Bundchen
"The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day.
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
a cloud come over the sunlit arch,
And wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March." - Robert Frost
You know how it is with an April day.
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
a cloud come over the sunlit arch,
And wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March." - Robert Frost
"Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order." - John Adams
“Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” - Harriet Beecher Stowe
Cold blows the wind against the hill,
And cold upon the plain;
I sit me by the bank, until
The violets come again. - Richard Garnett
And cold upon the plain;
I sit me by the bank, until
The violets come again. - Richard Garnett
"The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” - Deuteronomy 31:8
Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations. - Earl Nightingale
“The art of tea, whichever way you drink it, or whichever country you are from, has one underlining thread for all of us. It is the cultivation of yourself as you follow the ceremony of preparing your tea, the way in which you make your tea, how and where you drink it, and with whom. Making a cup of tea creates a space for just being.” - Nicola Salter
"Thine eyes are springs in whose serene
And silent waters heaven is seen.
Their lashes are the herbs that look
On their young figures in the brook." - William C. Bryant
And silent waters heaven is seen.
Their lashes are the herbs that look
On their young figures in the brook." - William C. Bryant
"A woman knows the face of the man she loves as a sailor knows the open sea." - Honore de Balzac
“Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.” - Thomas Jefferson
“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time” - John Lubbock
"Take courage. We walk in the wilderness today and in the Promised Land tomorrow" - D L Moody
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” - Benjamin Franklin
"The older you get, the more fragile you understand life to be. I think that's good motivation for getting out of bed joyfully each day." - Julia Roberts
"It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags!"... Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! "Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more!" - Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
"“I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and I saw that service is joy.” - Kahlil Gibran
"The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off." - Abe Lemons
“Sometimes the hardest part of the journey is believing you're worthy of the trip.” - Glenn Beck
"We have no right to ask when sorrow comes, "Why did this happen to me?" unless we ask the same question for every moment of happiness that comes our way." - Author Unknown
"He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree." - Roy L. Smith
"Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home! " - Charles Dickens
"Love came down at Christmas; love all lovely, love divine; love was born at Christmas, stars and angels gave the sign." - Christina G. Rossetti
"Love came down at Christmas; love all lovely, love divine; love was born at Christmas, stars and angels gave the sign." - Christina G. Rossetti
"Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"Advice is like snow - the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper in sinks into the mind." - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"For all your days be prepared, and meet them ever alike. When you are the anvil, bear - when you are the hammer, strike." - Edwin Markham
"From the bitter cold winter at Valley Forge, to the mountains of Afghanistan and the deserts of Iraq, our soldiers have courageously answered when called, gone where ordered, and defended our nation with honor." - Solomon Ortiz
"And I say the sacred hoop of my people was one of the many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father." - Black Elk
The Pumpkin
Oh, greenly and fair in the lands of the sun,
The vines of the gourd and the rich melon run,
And the rock and the tree and the cottage enfold,
With broad leaves all greenness and blossoms all gold,
Like that which o'er Nineveh's prophet once grew,
While he waited to know that his warning was true,
And longed for the storm-cloud, and listened in vain
For the rush of the whirlwind and red fire-rain.
On the banks of the Xenil the dark Spanish maiden
Comes up with the fruit of the tangled vine laden;
And the Creole of Cuba laughs out to behold
Through orange-leaves shining the broad spheres of gold;
Yet with dearer delight from his home in the North,
On the fields of his harvest the Yankee looks forth,
Where crook-necks are coiling and yellow fruit shines,
And the sun of September melts down on his vines.
Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West,
From North and from South comes the pilgrim and guest;
When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board
The old broken links of affection restored,
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before,
What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?
Oh, fruit loved of boyhood! the old days recalling,
When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!
When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,
laring out through the dark with a candle within!
When we laughed round the corn-heap, with hearts all in tune,
Our chair a broad pumpkin,—our lantern the moon,
Telling tales of the fairy who travelled like steam
In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team! T
hen thanks for thy present! none sweeter or better
E'er smoked from an oven or circled a platter!
Fairer hands never wrought at a pastry more fine,
Brighter eyes never watched o'er its baking, than thine!
And the prayer, which my mouth is too full to express,
Swells my heart that thy shadow may never be less,
That the days of thy lot may be lengthened below,
And the fame of thy worth like a pumpkin-vine grow,
And thy life be as sweet, and its last sunset sky
Golden-tinted and fair as thy own Pumpkin pie! - by John Greenleaf Whittier
Oh, greenly and fair in the lands of the sun,
The vines of the gourd and the rich melon run,
And the rock and the tree and the cottage enfold,
With broad leaves all greenness and blossoms all gold,
Like that which o'er Nineveh's prophet once grew,
While he waited to know that his warning was true,
And longed for the storm-cloud, and listened in vain
For the rush of the whirlwind and red fire-rain.
On the banks of the Xenil the dark Spanish maiden
Comes up with the fruit of the tangled vine laden;
And the Creole of Cuba laughs out to behold
Through orange-leaves shining the broad spheres of gold;
Yet with dearer delight from his home in the North,
On the fields of his harvest the Yankee looks forth,
Where crook-necks are coiling and yellow fruit shines,
And the sun of September melts down on his vines.
Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West,
From North and from South comes the pilgrim and guest;
When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board
The old broken links of affection restored,
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before,
What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?
Oh, fruit loved of boyhood! the old days recalling,
When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!
When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,
laring out through the dark with a candle within!
When we laughed round the corn-heap, with hearts all in tune,
Our chair a broad pumpkin,—our lantern the moon,
Telling tales of the fairy who travelled like steam
In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team! T
hen thanks for thy present! none sweeter or better
E'er smoked from an oven or circled a platter!
Fairer hands never wrought at a pastry more fine,
Brighter eyes never watched o'er its baking, than thine!
And the prayer, which my mouth is too full to express,
Swells my heart that thy shadow may never be less,
That the days of thy lot may be lengthened below,
And the fame of thy worth like a pumpkin-vine grow,
And thy life be as sweet, and its last sunset sky
Golden-tinted and fair as thy own Pumpkin pie! - by John Greenleaf Whittier
"May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!" - Anonymous
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!" - Anonymous
"The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving." - H.U. Westermayer
"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning." - Albert Einstein
"Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital." - Thomas Jefferson
"Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure." - Napoleon Hill
“To be a true hero you must be a true Christian. To sum up then, heroism is largely based on two qualities — truthfulness and unselfishness, a readiness to put one's own pleasures aside for that of others, to be courteous to all, kind to those younger than yourself, helpful to your parents, even if helpfulness demands some slight sacrifice of your own pleasure… you must remember that these two qualities are the signs of Christian heroism.” - G.A. Henty
"The patriot who feels himself in the service of God, who acknowledges Him in all his ways, has the promise of Almighty direction, and will find His Word in his greatest darkness." - Francis Scott Key
"Pride is the dandelion of the soul. Its root goes deep; only a little left behind sprouts again. Its seeds lodge in the tiniest encouraging cracks. And it flourishes in good soil: The danger of pride is that it feeds on goodness." - David Rhodes
“I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.” - Henry David Thoreau
"We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions." - Ronald Reagan
"When I have a creative insight, there is a high. I think back in the day, I made music as much as I did because it made me feel so good. I think you could argue that there is a creative addiction - but, you know, the healthy kind." - Lauryn Hill
"One sure way to lose another woman's friendship is to try to improve her flower arrangements." - Marcelene Cox
“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.” - Lauren DeStefano
"The difficulties we face originate from one of three sources. Some are sent to us by the Lord to test our faith, others are the result of Satan's attacks, and still others are due to our own sinful choices." - Charles Stanley
"A hidden fire burns perpetually upon the hearth of the world.... In autumn this great conflagration becomes especially manifest. Then the flame that is slowly and mysteriously consuming every green thing bursts into vivid radiance. Every blade of grass and every leaf in the woodlands is cast into the great oven of Nature; and the bright colours of their fading are literally the flames of their consuming. The golden harvest-fields are glowing in the heart of the furnace.... By this autumn fire God every year purges the floor of nature. All effete substances that have served their purpose in the old form are burnt up. Everywhere God makes sweet and clean the earth with fire." - Hugh Macmillan
"The pine stays green in winter... wisdom in hardship." - Norman Douglas
"Sometimes we strive so hard for perfection that we forget that imperfection is happiness." - Karen Nave
"People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost." - H. Jackson Brown
“Instead of complaining that the rosebush is full of thorns, be happy that the thorn bush has roses.” - German proverb
“What is more cheerful, now, in the fall of the year, than an open-wood-fire? Do you hear those little chirps and twitters coming out of that piece of apple-wood? Those are the ghosts of the robins and blue-birds that sang upon the bough when it was in blossom last Spring. In Summer whole flocks of them come fluttering about the fruit-trees under the window: so I have singing birds all the year round.” - Thomas Bailey Aldrich
"Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened." - Anatole France
"Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
“A book reads the better which is our own, and has been so long known to us, that we know the topography of its blots, and dog's ears, and can trace the dirt in it to having read it at tea with buttered muffins.” - Charles Lamb, Essays of Elia
“An ounce of Yarrow sewed up in flannel and placed under the pillow before going to bed, having repeated the following words, brought a vision of the future husband or wife:
'Thou pretty herb of Venus' tree,
Thy true name it is Yarrow;
Now who my bosom friend must be,
Pray tell thou me to-morrow.'” - Halliwell's Popular Rhymes
'Thou pretty herb of Venus' tree,
Thy true name it is Yarrow;
Now who my bosom friend must be,
Pray tell thou me to-morrow.'” - Halliwell's Popular Rhymes
"A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer." - Bruce Lee
"We have finally started to notice that there is real curative value in local herbs and remedies. In fact, we are also becoming aware that there are little or no side effects to most natural remedies, and that they are often more effective than Western medicine." - Anne Wilson Schaef
"There's music in the sighing of a reed;
There's music in the gushing of a rill;
There's music in all things, if men had ears:
Their earth is but an echo of the spheres."
- Lord Byronlick
There's music in the gushing of a rill;
There's music in all things, if men had ears:
Their earth is but an echo of the spheres."
- Lord Byronlick
“The pesto and angel hair are warm in the bowl on my lap, the fragrances of olive oil and basil blending the exotic and familiar, equal parts sunny Tuscan hillside and hometown dirt. A meal like this makes you want to live forever, if only for the scent of warm pesto in January.” - Michael Perry
"If you look around, complacency is the great disease of your autumn years, and I work hard to prevent that." - Nick Cave
“... God is not a Sunday plumber - he's always available...” - John Geddes
"A man watches his pear-tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe pear at length falls into his lap!" - Abraham Lincoln
"There is a part of me that will forever want to be walking under autumn leaves, carrying a briefcase containing the works of Shakespeare and Yeats and a portable chess set. I will pass an old tree under which once on a summer night I lay on the grass with a fragrant young woman and we quoted e.e. cummings back and forth." - Roger Ebert
“With a tiny bit of effort, the nettle would be useful; if you neglect it, it becomes a pest. So then we kill it. How many men are like nettles... My friends, there is no such thing as a weed and no such thing as a bad man. There are only bad cultivators.” - Victor Hugo
"Our Children no longer learn how to read the great book of Nature from their own direct experience, or how to interact creatively with the seasonal transformations of the planet. They seldom learn where their water comes from or where it goes. We no longer coordinate our human celebration with the great liturgy of the heavens." - Wendell Berry
“Pan, who and what art thou?" he cried huskily. "I'm youth, I'm joy," Peter answered at a venture, "I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg.” - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
“Joy is found in the simple and ordinary things of life: the smile of a newborn baby, the kiss from a sweet new puppy, and the warm sunshine on a spring day.”
- Marie Cornelio
- Marie Cornelio
"How can a society that exists on instant mashed potatoes, packaged cake mixes, frozen dinners, and instant cameras teach patience to its young?" -
Paul Sweeney
Paul Sweeney
"The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves." - George Washington
"What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?" - Logan Pearsall Smith
“ My best traveling was done during winter months when the cold has settled in and my feet are bared; the icy earth quickens my step.” - Johnny Appleseed on why he went barefoot
"Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic." - Thomas Szasz
“To eat figs off the tree in the very early morning, when they have been barely touched by the sun, is one of the exquisite pleasures of the Mediterranean.” - Elizabeth David
"Come away, O human child: To the waters and the wild with a fairy, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand." - William Butler Yeats
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand." - William Butler Yeats
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” - Albert Einstein
“This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook- try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!” - Julia Child
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." -
Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
"All right, they're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time." - Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller, USMC
"Any job very well done that has been carried out by a person who is fully dedicated is always a source of inspiration." - Carlos Ghosn
"All that man needs for health and healing has been provided by God in nature, the challenge of science is to find it." - Philippus Theophrastrus Bombast that of Aureolus ~ Paracelsus (1493-1541)
“Friends are like melons; shall I tell you why? To find one good you must one hundred try.” - Claude Mermet
"The federal government has sponsored research that has produced a tomato that is perfect in every respect, except that you can't eat it. We should make every effort to make sure this disease, often referred to as 'progress', doesn't spread." - Andy Rooney
"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." - John F. Kennedy
"You know, when you get your first asparagus, or your first acorn squash, or your first really good tomato of the season, those are the moments that define the cook's year. I get more excited by that than anything else." - Mario Batali
"A light wind swept over the corn, and all nature laughed in the sunshine." - Anne Bronte
"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need." - Cicero
"Sometimes things in life happen that allow us to understand our priorities very clearly. Ultimately you can see those as gifts." - Mariska Hargitay
"When you cut that eggplant up and you roast it in the oven and you make the tomato sauce and you put it on top, your soul is in that food, and there's something about that that can never be made by a company that has three million employees." - Mario Batali
“Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself — and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty.” - Chief Joseph
"I think every American has a role in saving this country. Whether you're Democrat, Republican, Independent, it doesn't matter. We all know the country's in trouble. We may disagree on how to solve it, but we all know the country's in trouble." - Glenn Beck
"The summer night is like a perfection of thought." - Wallace Stevens
"We must live in all kinds of days, both high days and low days, in simple dependence upon Christ as the branch on the vine. This is the supreme experience." - Vance Havner
"To be healthy ourselves we must heal the Earth and create an environment in which the nurture of that which sustains life is a constant goal." - Mike Samuels, M.D. and Hal Zina Bennett
"The quickest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it back in your pocket." - A Cowboy's Guide to Life
"If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom." - Dwight D. Eisenhower
"A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins." - Laurie Colwin
"Today they're making pictures that I wouldn't want Trigger to see." - Roy Rogers
And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
"I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall." - Eleanor Roosevelt
"On the range, an unlocked ranch house is an invitation to a weary cowboy to help himself to food and shelter. Cash payment for this kind of hospitality is a serious breach of etiquette. A note of thanks and payment in kind is all that is expected." - A Cowboy's Guide To Life
“My love affair with nature is so deep that I am not satisfied with being a mere onlooker, or nature tourist. I crave a more real and meaningful relationship. The spicy teas and tasty delicacies I prepare from wild ingredients are the bread and wine in which I have communion and fellowship with nature, and with the Author of that nature.”- Euell Gibbons
"I plant rosemary all over the garden, so pleasant is it to know that at every few steps one may draw the kindly branchlets through one’s hand, and have the enjoyment of their incomparable incense; and I grow it against walls, so that the sun may draw out its inexhaustible sweetness to greet me as I pass …." - Gertrude Jekyll
"If we had no Winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; If we did not sometimes taste the adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome." - Anne Bradstreet
“Aim at a high mark and you'll hit it. No, not the first time, nor the second time. Maybe not the third. But keep on aiming and keep on shooting for only practice will make you perfect.” - Annie Oakley
“Live life when you have it. Life is a splendid gift-there is nothing small about it.” - Florence Nightingale
"The gentleman does not needlessly and unnecessarily remind an offender of a wrong he may have committed against him. He can not only forgive; he can forget; and he strives for that nobleness of self and mildness of character which imparts sufficient strength to let the past be put the past." - Robert E. Lee
“I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” - James Madison
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
“You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,---
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.
So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,---
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere." ― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,---
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.
So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,---
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere." ― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"How cunningly nature hides every wrinkle of her inconceivable antiquity under roses and violets and morning dew!" - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring." - Bern Williams
"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul alike." - John Muir
"No country can be called free which is governed by an absolute power; and it matters not whether it be an absolute royal power or an absolute legislative power, as the consequences will be the same to the people." - Thomas Paine, Four Letters on Interesting Subjects, 1776
"We aren't just thrown on this earth like dice tossed across a table. We are lovingly placed here for a purpose." - Charles Swindoll
"Although a soldier by profession, I have never felt any sort of fondness of war, and I have never advocated it, except as a means of peace." - Ulysses S. Grant
“He that would live for aye, must eat Sage in May” – John Ray, 1678
“There is nothing wrong with men possessing riches. The wrong comes when riches possess men.” - Billy Graham
"If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around." - Cowboy Quotes
“Only those afraid of the truth seek to silence debate, intimidate those with whom they disagree, or slander their ideological counterparts. Those who know they are right have no reason to stifle debate because they realize that all opposing arguments will ultimately be overcome by fact.”- Glenn Beck
"Those herbs which perfume the air most delightfully, not passed by as the rest, but, being trodden upon and crushed, are three; that is, burnet, wild thyme and watermints. Therefore, you are to set whole alleys of them, to have the pleasure when you walk or tread." - Frances Bacon
"My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights." - Proverbs 3:11-12
"As Rosemary is to the Spirit, so Lavender is to the Soul." - Anonymous
"In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash'd palings,
Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
with many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love,
With every leaf a miracle - and from this bush in the dooryard,
With delicate-color'd blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
A sprig with its flower I break." - Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, 1865
Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
with many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love,
With every leaf a miracle - and from this bush in the dooryard,
With delicate-color'd blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
A sprig with its flower I break." - Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, 1865
"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass . . . It's about learning how to dance in the rain." - Vivian Green
"Then, in that hour of deliverance, my heart spoke. Does not such a country, and such defenders of their country, deserve a song?" Francis Scott Key
"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms… disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes… Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.” - Thomas Jefferson
"The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do." - Galileo
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” - Benjamin Franklin
"There’s rosemary and rue. These keep
Seeming and savor all the winter long.
Grace and remembrance be to you." - William Shakespeare
Seeming and savor all the winter long.
Grace and remembrance be to you." - William Shakespeare
"Just living is not enough,' said the butterfly. "One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower." - Hans Christian Andersen
“We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. ... Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.” - General Logan - 1868
To Mistress Isabel Pennell (l. 4–12)
My maiden Isabel,
Reflaring rosabel.
The fragrant camomel;
The ruddy rosary,
The sovereign rosemary,
The pretty strawberry;
The columbine, the nept,
The jelofer well set,
The proper violet
- John Skelton (1460?–1529) British poet
My maiden Isabel,
Reflaring rosabel.
The fragrant camomel;
The ruddy rosary,
The sovereign rosemary,
The pretty strawberry;
The columbine, the nept,
The jelofer well set,
The proper violet
- John Skelton (1460?–1529) British poet
"When in these fresh mornings I go into my garden before anyone is awake, I go for the time being into perfect happiness. In this hour divinely
fresh and still, the fair face of every flower salutes me with a silent joy that fills me with infinite content; each gives me its color, its grace, its
perfume, and enriches me with the consummation of its beauty." - Celia Thaxter
fresh and still, the fair face of every flower salutes me with a silent joy that fills me with infinite content; each gives me its color, its grace, its
perfume, and enriches me with the consummation of its beauty." - Celia Thaxter
"Miss Ainslie gathered a bit of rosemary, crushing it between her white fingers. "See," she said, "some of us are like that it takes a blow to find the
sweetness in our souls." - Myrtle Reed (1874–1911)
sweetness in our souls." - Myrtle Reed (1874–1911)
"I appreciate the misunderstanding I have had with Nature over my perennial border. I think it is a flower garden; she thinks it is a meadow lacking grass, and tries to correct the error." - Sara Stein, My Weeds
"Don't join the book burners. Don't think you're going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in
your library and read every book... " - Dwight D. Eisenhower
your library and read every book... " - Dwight D. Eisenhower
“Believers, look up – take courage. The angels are nearer than you think.” - Billy Graham
"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?" - Sherlock Holmes
"Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity." - E. H. Chapin
"What is Paradise? But a Garden, an Orchard of Trees and Herbs, full of pleasure, and nothing there but delights." - William Lawson
“As we live and as we are, Simplicity - with a capital "S" - is difficult to comprehend nowadays. We are no longer truly simple. We no longer live in simple
terms or places. Life is a more complex struggle now. It is now valiant to be simple: a courageous thing to even want to be simple. It is a spiritual thing to
comprehend what simplicity means.” - Frank Lloyd Wright
terms or places. Life is a more complex struggle now. It is now valiant to be simple: a courageous thing to even want to be simple. It is a spiritual thing to
comprehend what simplicity means.” - Frank Lloyd Wright
"One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden
over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today." - Dale Carnegie
over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today." - Dale Carnegie
"Makin' it in life is kinda like bustin' broncs: you're gonna get thrown a lot. The simple secret is to keep gettin' back on." - A Cowboy's Guide to Life
"Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram; the marigold, that goes to be wi' th' sun, and with him rises weeping; these are flow'rs of middle summer, and I think they are given to men of middle age." - William Shakespeare, A Winter's Tale
"The heritage of the past is the seed that brings forth the harvest of the future." - from 1000 Inspirational Things
“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.” - Thomas Jefferson
“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.” - Thomas Jefferson
“Good morrow, good Yarrow, good morrow to thee. Send me this night my true love to see, The clothes that he’ll wear, the
colour of his hair. And if he’ll wed me…” - Danaher (1756)
colour of his hair. And if he’ll wed me…” - Danaher (1756)
"What is Paradise? But a Garden, an Orchard of Trees and Herbs, full of pleasure, and nothing there but delights." - William Lawson (1618)
“The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the
danger--but recognize the opportunity.” - John F. Kennedy
danger--but recognize the opportunity.” - John F. Kennedy
"Up, sluggard, and waste not life; in the grave will be sleeping enough." - Benjamin Franklin
"A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." - Mark Twain
“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” - Edgar Allan Poe
"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Never miss a good chance to shut up." - A Cowboy's Guide to Life
“Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.” - John F. Kennedy
"The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it." - Thomas Jefferson
"An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up." - Proverbs 12:25
"I conceive that a knowledge of books is the basis on which on which all other knowledge rests." - George Washington
"All through the long winter, I dream of my garden. On the first day of spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar." - Helen Hayes
"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but, under the name of "liberalism," they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened. . . . I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democrat Party has adopted our platform." - Norman Mattoon Thomas (Socialist Party candidate for President of the U.S. - 1944 speech)
Every moment is full of wonder, and God is always present.
Lovely, complicated wrappings
Sheath the gift of one-day-more;
Breathless, I untie the package--
Never lived this day before." - Gloria Gaither
"If you are cold, tea will warm you;
If you are too heated, it will cool you;
If you are depressed, it will cheer you;
If you are excited, it will calm you." - William Gladstone
"Honesty is not somethin' you should flirt with -- you should be married to it." - A Cowboy's Guide to Life
"I believe that prayer is our powerful contact with the greatest force in the universe." - Loretta Young
"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow." - Unknown
"After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him. The moral: when you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut." - A Cowboy's Guide To Life
"My heart is content with just knowing
The treasures of life's little things;
The thrill of a child when it's snowing,
The trill of a bird in the Spring.
My heart is content with just knowing
Fulfillment that true friendship brings;
It fills to the brim, overflowing
With pleasure in life's little things." - June Masters Bacher
“Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections.” - William Walsh
"Dreams are the guardians of sleep and not its disturbers." - Sigmund Freud
"It is a great error to take oneself for more than one is, or for less than one is worth." - Goethe
"He that plants thorns must never expect to gather roses." - Pilpay
"If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden." - Claudia A. Grandi
"Hope ever urges us on, and tells us tomorrow will be better." - Tibullus
"He serves his party best who serves his country best." - Rutherford B. Hayes
"Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, - conscience." - George Washington
"I don't think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday." - Abraham Lincoln
“Peace is that brief glorious moment In history when everybody stands around reloading." - Thomas Jefferson
"I beg you take courage; the brave soul can mend even disaster." - Catherine of Russia
"Go after life as if it's got to be roped in a hurry before it gets away." - A Cowboy's Guide To Life
"Today, we have an anti-authority spirit in America that says, "Nobody can tell me I need to change. Don't you dare." - From Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire
"Always take a good look at what you're about to eat. It's not so important to know what it is, but it's critical to know what it was." - A Cowboy's Guide To Life
"You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes." - Winnie The Pooh
"It often happens, Philothea, that, in the fair spring-time of spiritual consolations, we become so absorbed in their abundant delights that we perform fewer good works; on the contrary, in the midst of spiritual dryness and desolation, finding ourselves deprived of pleasure in devotion, we perform more good works and produce more abundant fruit through the interior practice of penance, humility, self-contempt, resignation,and renunciation of self-love." - St. Francis De Sales
"The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving." - Holmes
"Do what thou lovest; paint or sing or carve.
Do what thou lovest, though the body starve!
Who works for glory oft may miss the goal.
Who works for money merely starves the soul;
Work for the work's sake, then, and it may be,
These other things'll be added unto thee." - Great Truths from Unknown Thinkers
"To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action." - Mahatma Gandhi
"If Garp could have been granted one vast and naive wish, it would have been that he could make the world safe, for children and for grownups. The world struck Garp as unnecessarily perilous for both." - John Irving, The World According to Garp
"God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers, and thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face, a gauntlet with a gift in't." - Elizabeth Barrett Browning
"Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers." - Robert Green Ingersoll
"No two gardens are the same. No two days are the same in one garden." - Hugh Johnson
"If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has the power to move you, if the simple things in nature have a message you understand, REJOICE, for your soul is alive." - Eleanora Duse
"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it." - Goethe
"He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction." - Proverbs13:3
"Temporary deviations from fundamental principles are always more or less dangerous. When the first pretext fails, those who become interested in prolonging the evil will rarely be at a loss for other pretexts. The first precedent too familiarizes the people to the irregularity, lessens their veneration for those fundamental principles, and makes them a more easy prey to Ambition and self Interest." - James Madison
"We are like the church at Laodicea. In fact, we have so institutionalized Laodiceanism that we think lukewarm is normal." - From Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire
"Comin' as close to the truth as a man can come without actually gettin' there is comin' pretty close, but it still ain't the truth." A Cowboy's Guide to Life
"There are no fixed methods to apply to the human predicament, there is no single all-pervasive rule to follow, since medicine is not a science but an art." - Michael Moore
"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all." - Emily Dickinson
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Pay attention! Gems will be revealed." - Alexandra Stoddard
"Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment." - A Cowboy's Guide to Life
"Surely there is always that in experience
Which could warn us; and the worst
That can be said of any of us is:
He did not pay attention." - William Meredith
"Love alone is useless if it does not also have understanding." - C.G. Jung
"Never say never." - Charles Dickens, 1837
"If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary." - Jim Rohn
"Tis thought the king is dead; we will not stay. The bay trees in our country are all wither'd." - Shakespeare
"It should be the function of medicine to help people die young as late in life as possible." - Ernst Wynder
"All in green went my love riding on a great horse of gold into the silver dawn." - e. e cummings
"I wonder why love is so often equated with joy when it is everything else as well." - Florida Scott-Maxwell
"Other things may change, but we begin and end with the family." - Anthony Brandt
"However confused the scene of our life appears, however torn we may be who now do face that scene, it can be faced, and we can go on to be whole." - Muriel Rukeyaer
"God is not aloof. He says continually through the centuries, "I'll help you, I really will. When you're ready to throw up your hands --- throw them up to me." - From Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire
"The length of a conversation don't tell nothin' about the size of the intellect." - From A Cowboy's Guide to Life
"They say wisdom comes as you age
Now I'm in a real jam
at sixty I should be a sage
look what a fool I am." - S Minanel
"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed." - Carl Gustav Jung
"A body can pretend to care, but they can't pretend to be there." - From A Cowboy's Guide to Life
"Hold fast your dreams! Within your heart keep one still, secret spot.
Where dreams may go and, sheltered so, may thrive and grow where doubt and fear are not.
O keep a place apart within your heart, for little dreams to go!" - Louise Driscoll
"When you give a lesson in meanness to a critter or a person, don't be surprised if they learn their lesson." - From A Cowboy's Guide to Life
"I have a garden of my own
But so with roses overgrown
And lilies, that you would it guess
To be a little wilderness." - Andrew Marvell
"As she lay dying, a flowering twig of wild pear blossom had been brought into her sick room from a tree which had unexpectedly flowered when all else on the hillside was parched and dry. She glowed over the surprise of it, and caressed it with artist's hands, saying with intense delight: 'Oh, that's so like souls: you never know when they'll break out.' " - Life of Lilias Trotter
"There is gold, and a multitude of rubies: but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel." - Proverbs 20:15
"Don't let so much reality into your life that there's no room left for dreamin'." - From A Cowboy's Guide to Life
"A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!
Rose plot,
Fringed pool,
Fern'd grot --
The veriest school
Of peace; and yet the fool
Contends that God is not ---
Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool?
Nay, but I have a sign;
'Tis very sure God walks in mine." - Thomas Edward Brown
"Don't get mad at somebody who knows more 'n you do. It ain't their fault." - From A Cowboy's Guide to Life
"If there is righteousness in the heart there will be beauty in the character. If there be beauty in the character, there will be harmony in the home. If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world." - Unknown
"Let today be the day you stop being haunted by the ghost of yesterday. Holding a grudge and harboring anger-resentment is poison to the soul. Get even with people .. . but not those who have hurt us, forget them, instead get even with those that have helped us." - Steve Mariboli
"Remember, even a kick in the caboose is a step forward." - From A Cowboy's Guide to Life
"Body and mind are like two clocks which act together, because at each instant they are adjusted by God." - Geulinex
"Why try to explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden." - Robert Brault
"Have you had a kindness shown?
Pass it on.
It was not given to you alone,
Pass it on.
Let it travel through the years;
Let it wipe another's tears;
Till in heaven the deed appears,
Pass it on." - From Garden of the Heart
"Never miss a good chance to shut up." - A Cowboy's Guide to Life
“Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.” - John F. Kennedy
"The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it." - Thomas Jefferson
"An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up." - Proverbs 12:25
"I conceive that a knowledge of books is the basis on which on which all other knowledge rests." - George Washington
"All through the long winter, I dream of my garden. On the first day of spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar." - Helen Hayes
"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but, under the name of "liberalism," they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened. . . . I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democrat Party has adopted our platform." - Norman Mattoon Thomas (Socialist Party candidate for President of the U.S. - 1944 speech)
Every moment is full of wonder, and God is always present.
Lovely, complicated wrappings
Sheath the gift of one-day-more;
Breathless, I untie the package--
Never lived this day before." - Gloria Gaither
"If you are cold, tea will warm you;
If you are too heated, it will cool you;
If you are depressed, it will cheer you;
If you are excited, it will calm you." - William Gladstone
"Honesty is not somethin' you should flirt with -- you should be married to it." - A Cowboy's Guide to Life
"I believe that prayer is our powerful contact with the greatest force in the universe." - Loretta Young
"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow." - Unknown
"After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him. The moral: when you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut." - A Cowboy's Guide To Life
"My heart is content with just knowing
The treasures of life's little things;
The thrill of a child when it's snowing,
The trill of a bird in the Spring.
My heart is content with just knowing
Fulfillment that true friendship brings;
It fills to the brim, overflowing
With pleasure in life's little things." - June Masters Bacher
“Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections.” - William Walsh
"Dreams are the guardians of sleep and not its disturbers." - Sigmund Freud
"It is a great error to take oneself for more than one is, or for less than one is worth." - Goethe
"He that plants thorns must never expect to gather roses." - Pilpay
"If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden." - Claudia A. Grandi
"Hope ever urges us on, and tells us tomorrow will be better." - Tibullus
"He serves his party best who serves his country best." - Rutherford B. Hayes
"Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, - conscience." - George Washington
"I don't think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday." - Abraham Lincoln
“Peace is that brief glorious moment In history when everybody stands around reloading." - Thomas Jefferson
"I beg you take courage; the brave soul can mend even disaster." - Catherine of Russia
"Go after life as if it's got to be roped in a hurry before it gets away." - A Cowboy's Guide To Life
"Today, we have an anti-authority spirit in America that says, "Nobody can tell me I need to change. Don't you dare." - From Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire
"Always take a good look at what you're about to eat. It's not so important to know what it is, but it's critical to know what it was." - A Cowboy's Guide To Life
"You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes." - Winnie The Pooh
"It often happens, Philothea, that, in the fair spring-time of spiritual consolations, we become so absorbed in their abundant delights that we perform fewer good works; on the contrary, in the midst of spiritual dryness and desolation, finding ourselves deprived of pleasure in devotion, we perform more good works and produce more abundant fruit through the interior practice of penance, humility, self-contempt, resignation,and renunciation of self-love." - St. Francis De Sales
"The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving." - Holmes
"Do what thou lovest; paint or sing or carve.
Do what thou lovest, though the body starve!
Who works for glory oft may miss the goal.
Who works for money merely starves the soul;
Work for the work's sake, then, and it may be,
These other things'll be added unto thee." - Great Truths from Unknown Thinkers
"To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action." - Mahatma Gandhi
"If Garp could have been granted one vast and naive wish, it would have been that he could make the world safe, for children and for grownups. The world struck Garp as unnecessarily perilous for both." - John Irving, The World According to Garp
"God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers, and thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face, a gauntlet with a gift in't." - Elizabeth Barrett Browning
"Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers." - Robert Green Ingersoll
"No two gardens are the same. No two days are the same in one garden." - Hugh Johnson
"If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has the power to move you, if the simple things in nature have a message you understand, REJOICE, for your soul is alive." - Eleanora Duse
"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it." - Goethe
"He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction." - Proverbs13:3
"Temporary deviations from fundamental principles are always more or less dangerous. When the first pretext fails, those who become interested in prolonging the evil will rarely be at a loss for other pretexts. The first precedent too familiarizes the people to the irregularity, lessens their veneration for those fundamental principles, and makes them a more easy prey to Ambition and self Interest." - James Madison
"We are like the church at Laodicea. In fact, we have so institutionalized Laodiceanism that we think lukewarm is normal." - From Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire
"Comin' as close to the truth as a man can come without actually gettin' there is comin' pretty close, but it still ain't the truth." A Cowboy's Guide to Life
"There are no fixed methods to apply to the human predicament, there is no single all-pervasive rule to follow, since medicine is not a science but an art." - Michael Moore
"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all." - Emily Dickinson
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Pay attention! Gems will be revealed." - Alexandra Stoddard
"Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment." - A Cowboy's Guide to Life
"Surely there is always that in experience
Which could warn us; and the worst
That can be said of any of us is:
He did not pay attention." - William Meredith
"Love alone is useless if it does not also have understanding." - C.G. Jung
"Never say never." - Charles Dickens, 1837
"If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary." - Jim Rohn
"Tis thought the king is dead; we will not stay. The bay trees in our country are all wither'd." - Shakespeare
"It should be the function of medicine to help people die young as late in life as possible." - Ernst Wynder
"All in green went my love riding on a great horse of gold into the silver dawn." - e. e cummings
"I wonder why love is so often equated with joy when it is everything else as well." - Florida Scott-Maxwell
"Other things may change, but we begin and end with the family." - Anthony Brandt
"However confused the scene of our life appears, however torn we may be who now do face that scene, it can be faced, and we can go on to be whole." - Muriel Rukeyaer
"God is not aloof. He says continually through the centuries, "I'll help you, I really will. When you're ready to throw up your hands --- throw them up to me." - From Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire
"The length of a conversation don't tell nothin' about the size of the intellect." - From A Cowboy's Guide to Life
"They say wisdom comes as you age
Now I'm in a real jam
at sixty I should be a sage
look what a fool I am." - S Minanel
"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed." - Carl Gustav Jung
"A body can pretend to care, but they can't pretend to be there." - From A Cowboy's Guide to Life
"Hold fast your dreams! Within your heart keep one still, secret spot.
Where dreams may go and, sheltered so, may thrive and grow where doubt and fear are not.
O keep a place apart within your heart, for little dreams to go!" - Louise Driscoll
"When you give a lesson in meanness to a critter or a person, don't be surprised if they learn their lesson." - From A Cowboy's Guide to Life
"I have a garden of my own
But so with roses overgrown
And lilies, that you would it guess
To be a little wilderness." - Andrew Marvell
"As she lay dying, a flowering twig of wild pear blossom had been brought into her sick room from a tree which had unexpectedly flowered when all else on the hillside was parched and dry. She glowed over the surprise of it, and caressed it with artist's hands, saying with intense delight: 'Oh, that's so like souls: you never know when they'll break out.' " - Life of Lilias Trotter
"There is gold, and a multitude of rubies: but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel." - Proverbs 20:15
"Don't let so much reality into your life that there's no room left for dreamin'." - From A Cowboy's Guide to Life
"A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!
Rose plot,
Fringed pool,
Fern'd grot --
The veriest school
Of peace; and yet the fool
Contends that God is not ---
Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool?
Nay, but I have a sign;
'Tis very sure God walks in mine." - Thomas Edward Brown
"Don't get mad at somebody who knows more 'n you do. It ain't their fault." - From A Cowboy's Guide to Life
"If there is righteousness in the heart there will be beauty in the character. If there be beauty in the character, there will be harmony in the home. If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world." - Unknown
"Let today be the day you stop being haunted by the ghost of yesterday. Holding a grudge and harboring anger-resentment is poison to the soul. Get even with people .. . but not those who have hurt us, forget them, instead get even with those that have helped us." - Steve Mariboli
"Remember, even a kick in the caboose is a step forward." - From A Cowboy's Guide to Life
"Body and mind are like two clocks which act together, because at each instant they are adjusted by God." - Geulinex
"Why try to explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden." - Robert Brault
"Have you had a kindness shown?
Pass it on.
It was not given to you alone,
Pass it on.
Let it travel through the years;
Let it wipe another's tears;
Till in heaven the deed appears,
Pass it on." - From Garden of the Heart