Inspiring Quotes

2011-03-08T21:26:00.000-08:00

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."
- Thomas Jefferson

2011-03-07T20:28:00.000-08:00

"Thinking implies uncertainty. I'm a Know Tank."

-- Bucky B. Katt

2010-06-14T18:53:00.000-07:00

"Holocaust jokes aren't funny. Anne Frankly, I won't stand for it!"

AH posted on Facebook

2010-06-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

"...our morning eyes describe a different world than do our afternoon eyes, and surely our wearied evening eyes can report only a weary evening world."

John Steinbeck Travels With Charley (pg 70)

2010-05-30T20:32:00.000-07:00

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

Aristotle

2010-05-29T09:56:00.000-07:00

"Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book."

--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)

2010-05-09T22:31:00.000-07:00

"Shallow men believe in luck.

Strong men believe in cause and effect."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Europe Trip

2010-05-08T10:33:00.001-07:00

Europe, here he comes!

Well, he will if he raises enough money in the next 8 months...

Right now I'm just looking for encouragement for his efforts, and maybe some ideas and suggestions, so please click on one of his links? Thanks!

2010-05-03T21:37:00.000-07:00

"I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me."

Noel Coward

2010-05-02T20:56:00.000-07:00

"First time is funny,

Second time is just silly,

Third time's a spanking."

the grandmother in kira-kira by Cynthia Kadohata

I don't think I have the quote exactly right, but close enough.

2010-04-28T10:51:00.000-07:00

"If you're not getting older, you're dead."

Tom Petty

2010-04-22T22:48:00.000-07:00

"Life is meant to be lived, not merely endured."

Theodore Roosevelt

2010-04-18T21:38:00.000-07:00

"An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind."

Gandhi

2010-04-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

"How can I kill somebody when I pray five times a day for peace?"

Muhammad Ali

2010-04-05T22:02:00.001-07:00

"A member of Ku Klux Klan doesn’t need a frying pan upside the head! He needs an Al Green record and some good books."

Henry Rollins

2010-02-15T16:37:00.000-08:00

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Thomas Edison

2010-02-06T20:15:00.000-08:00

"And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul."

Plato

"Food for the body is not enough. There must be food for the soul."

Dorothy Day

"Fast sex, like fast food, is cheap, but it doesn't nourish the body - or the soul."

Suzanne Fields (isn't she the cookie lady?)

2010-01-06T17:33:00.000-08:00

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Edmund Burke

2009-12-16T21:48:00.001-08:00

"Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?"

2009-10-14T09:56:00.000-07:00

"Talent is God given; be humble. Fame is man given; be thankful. Conceit is self given; be careful."

John Wooden

Kareem Abdul Jabbar also has a nice web site with a post honoring Coach Wooden.

2009-09-03T08:57:00.000-07:00

"Think twice before you speak, and then you may be able to say something more insulting than if you spoke right out at once."

Evan Esar

"The thing I hate about an argument is that it always interrupts a discussion."

G.K. Chesterton

2009-08-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

"I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education."

Wilson Mizner

2009-08-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

"Given a choice between two theories, take the one which is funnier."

Blore's Razor (need to look up who this Blore dude is... Occam's cousin?)

2009-08-14T11:01:00.000-07:00

"I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way."

Mark Twain

2009-07-07T10:51:00.000-07:00

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

Robert A. Heinlein

thanks to Lorin and elise's quotes ; now I need to somehow fit it into my "1000 Important Things..." list

2009-06-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

"Skip the Sugar"

arrowhead water bottle

(obviously, I need to get some inspiration!)

2009-05-09T22:16:00.000-07:00

"A room hung with pictures is a room hung with thoughts."

Sir Joshua Reynolds

"Art is to society what dreams are to a person"

Laliberte and Kehl (who???)

"I shut my eyes in order to see."

Paul Gauguin

"Life is a great big canvas and you should throw all the paint you can on it!"

Danny Kaye

"A line is a dot that went for a walk."

Paul Klee

Thanks to my Humanities text; better get something out of it besides the bill for $135.00 + tax!!!!

2009-04-17T08:46:00.000-07:00

Q: Are you a mod or a rocker?

A: I'm a mocker.

Ringo Starr A Hard Day's Night

2009-04-14T18:34:00.000-07:00

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail."

Abraham Maslow

2009-04-11T19:47:00.000-07:00

"Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them."

James Baldwin

2009-02-16T08:08:00.000-08:00

"Anyone can do any amount of work provided it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing at the moment."

Robert Benchley

2009-01-27T10:44:00.000-08:00

"If he [/she; an author] invites you to go flying with him, the very least he can do is to build a strong pair of wings."

Patricia Wrightson, author

2009-01-23T21:00:00.001-08:00

"Absolute power corrupts; substitute teachers are corrupted absolutely."

Anonymous

2009-01-22T20:46:00.000-08:00

"A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin."

Elizabeth Alexander, Inauguration Poem 2009

I like a lot about her poem, but for some reason that caught my ear and has become my mantra for the new year...

2009-01-21T12:05:00.000-08:00

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."

Jack London

"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday."

Don Marquis

Ah yes, my old friends (Procrastination and Inspiration, not Jack and Don), how appropriate this week as I complete 2 months worth of projects in 3 days...

2009-01-14T15:09:00.000-08:00

"I was able to become a manager, I believe, because of my mom's wisdom as much as anything else I ever did in the game."

Frank Robinson

Now that's a Hall of Famer!

2008-11-16T09:59:00.000-08:00

“…encourage the young men to be self-controlled. In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness, and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.”

Titus 2:6-8

Man, there are quite a few Pop Warner coaches I would like to beat soundly over the head with this one...

2008-11-16T09:55:00.000-08:00

"Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before... He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way."

Kurt Vonnegut

Hmmm... have to think about this one -- "murderous resentment?" -- but did pick up Best American Nonrequired Reading 2008 and found a whole chapter on cool Vonnegut quotes...

2008-10-29T16:50:00.000-07:00

"If you don't respect yourself no body gonna give a hoop-de-hoop*"

Bruce Willis "Respect Yourself" (off the Return of Bruno LP?)

I know that's not what they say, but I'm supposed to be doing other things so I ain't looking it up... reminds me of my sister singing Kenny Loggins** -- "I'm all right, don't nobody butterfly me"

**yes, she is so old Kenny Loggins songs were on the radio...

2008-10-29T16:09:00.000-07:00

"They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown."

Carl Sagan

2008-10-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

"When you win, nothing hurts"

Joe Namath

and when you lose every game for the 2nd straight season, it hurts only the coaches, but not for long, 'cause the players don't know or care about winning as long as there are snacks and cool trophies...

2008-10-12T21:51:00.000-07:00

"Don't worry, Chief!"

"Agent 86"

The Get Smart TV series is out on DVD -- I forgot Maxwell had, in addition to the shoe, the tie phone, glasses phone, belt phone, and handkerchief phone!

2008-10-02T13:46:00.000-07:00

"My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music. "

Vladimir Nabokov

2008-09-14T11:24:00.000-07:00

"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

???

2008-06-09T19:46:00.000-07:00

"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."

Ernest Hemingway

2008-06-02T19:43:00.000-07:00

“Pursue the things you love doing, and do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you. All other tangible rewards will come as a result.”

Maya Angelou

2008-05-30T22:27:00.000-07:00

“I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.”

Malcolm X

“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

James Baldwin

2008-05-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

"Leave me out of your life's plans, you little weirdo."

Susie to Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes

oh man, if I heard that once, I heard it a thousand times...

2008-05-07T22:42:00.000-07:00

"When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes."

~Erasmus

cribbed from http://tickettoanywhere.blogspot.com/ -- thanks!

2008-05-03T13:45:00.001-07:00

"I’m a big believer in the mirror test.
All that matters is if you can look in the mirror and honestly tell the person you see there that you’ve done your best."

John McKay, football coach (1923-2001)

2008-03-28T08:24:00.000-07:00

"It's like if you plant something in the concrete and if it grow and the rose petal got all kinda scratches and marks, you ain't gonna say 'damn, look at all the scratches and marks on the rose that grew from the concrete..' you gonna be like 'DAMN! a ROSE grew from the CONCRETE'"

Tupac Shakur
(we kick it over on LT)

2008-03-08T07:56:00.000-08:00

"There is no excellent beauty that hath not
some strangeness in the proportion"

Francis Bacon

thanks to "TheBookImp" at LT!

2008-03-05T10:18:00.000-08:00

“As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.”

-Oscar Wilde

In an effort to be thorough with Wilde’s quote, I used my well-thumbed (well-clicked?) Thesaurus:

wicked – bad, wrong, evil; sinful, depraved, fiendish;atrocious
fascination – attraction, appeal, allure, enticement, magnetism
vulgar – crude, rough, tasteless; common, improper,unfortunate
popular – accepted, admired, traditional, expected; prevalent, widespread

2008-02-17T20:43:00.000-08:00

"But Tonto he was smarter
And one day said kemo sabe
Kiss my ass I bought a boat
I'm going out to sea"

"If I Had A Boat"

"And I said ooh give back my heart
chip-kicker redneck woman
Take your boots and walk out of my life"

"Give Back My Heart"

Pontiac
Lyle Lovett

2008-02-11T12:09:00.000-08:00

"Hey bus driver, keep the change
Bless your children and give them names..."

"Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?"
Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.
Bruce Springsteen

2008-02-11T08:51:00.000-08:00

"...Then they came for the Socialists, but I was not a Socialist, so I didn't respond. Then they came for the Jews and since I was not a Jew, I didn't respond. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me."

quoted in The Freedom Writers Diary

2008-02-11T08:47:00.000-08:00

"If you love someone put their name in a circle, not a heart, because hearts can be broken but circles go on forever!"

- Unknown

"Meeting you was fate, becoming your friend was a choice, but falling in love with you was beyond my control."

- Unknown

borrowed from "Priya"

2008-02-05T10:05:00.000-08:00

"Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them all."

Henry David Thoreau

found on "Bookish Kitty"

2008-01-30T21:32:00.000-08:00

"If you tell the truth, does the fact that nobody's listening make it a lie?"

K.J. Parker, The Escapement

"If a tree fell in the forest, She didn't hear it, would I still be wrong?"

The Notorious Cherry Bombs
"It's Hard To Kiss The Lips At Night That Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long"

2008-01-23T11:31:00.000-08:00

"Students are mysterious creatures with amazing powers"

Rookie Teaching for Dummies

(I wish I'd bought stock in the Dummies series... but if I was smart enough to do that, I wouldn't need the books...)

2008-01-21T21:05:00.000-08:00

"For one swallow does not make a summer,
nor does one day;
and so too one day, or a short time,
does not make a man blessed or happy."

Aristotle

2008-01-21T13:27:00.000-08:00

"Being a pacifist between wars is as easy as being a vegetarian between meals."

Ammon Hennacy
pacifist, anarcist, never paid taxes

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."

Leo Tolstoy

"There are different forms of anarchy and different currents in it. I must, first say very simply what anarchy I have in view. By anarchy I mean first an absolute rejection of violence."

Jaques Ellul
philosopher

2008-01-11T16:19:00.000-08:00

"Life is a foreign language; all men mispronounce it."

Christopher Morley
American author & journalist (1890 - 1957)

2008-01-08T08:39:00.000-08:00

A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist."
"However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."

Stephen Crane, War is Kind and Other Lines

2008-01-02T19:36:00.000-08:00

"Intellect, emotion, and spirit depend on one another for wholeness."

"I am a teacher at heart, and there are moments in the classroom when I can hardly hold the joy."

Parker J. Palmer The Courage to Teach

One of my goals in life is to one day be able to say that, and know exactly what it feels like...

2008-01-01T23:22:00.000-08:00

"Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy..."

St. Francis, as told to Dear Abby (?)

didn't realize they knew each other...

2007-12-21T16:48:00.000-08:00

"No warrior scolds. Courteous words or else hard knocks are his only language."

King Tirian in The Last Battle
C.S. Lewis

2007-12-13T10:38:00.001-08:00

"Adults are only obsolete children."

Dr. Seuss

2007-12-11T23:47:00.000-08:00

"People who matter don't count, and people who count don't matter."

"If you're gonna stay out with the big boys, you gotta get up with the big boys."

"There's no such thing as a free lunch"

My Dad

"My big ones are eating my little ones."

"If you keep playing with/picking at that it will fall off."

and I believe these are from My Mom

Thank you!

2007-12-03T23:22:00.000-08:00

"The man who does not read good books is no better
than the man who can't."

— Mark Twain

"To learn to read is to light a fire;
every syllable that is spelled out is a spark."

— Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

thank you!

2007-12-03T22:26:00.000-08:00

" 'Thou shalt not' is soon forgotten, but 'Once upon a time' lasts forever. "

Philip Pullman

who seems to get quoted/mis-quoted a lot these days...

2007-12-02T21:25:00.001-08:00

"We can never do merely one thing."

"Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons."

ecologist Garrett Hardin

Hardin was primarily concerned with "bioethical" issues such as overfishing and deforestation, but his work also brought attention to the personal-to-global effects of every decision and action (or inaction) -- think ripples in a pond, think Jurassic Park and Jeff Goldblum's "Chaos Theory" of the butterfly wings causing hurricanes... or think of The Fixx.

2007-12-02T21:21:00.000-08:00

"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, nor by any other church. Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other 'sins' are invented nonsense."

Robert A. Heinlein

2007-12-02T10:12:00.001-08:00

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

~Aristotle

2007-11-30T22:09:00.000-08:00

"If there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life..."

Albert Camus

2007-11-30T22:04:00.000-08:00

"No king or prince has lived a better life"

Evel Knievel

2007-11-20T13:23:00.000-08:00

It's funny (or ironic?), but I a few days after posting this my Dad and I had a heated (yet civil) discussion about the choice to do violence to another person. Under our violence conversation was of course the issue of the righteousness and glorification of war, the current one and others, but seeing as how we were out in the carport on thanksgiving night, Mom decided the convo needed to be cut short. But part of what he was saying was that there is not only the choice to do violence (i.e., drop the bombs) but also the choice to receive the violence -- to be in the place where the bombs will be dropped... Does this have merit? Or is it rationalization to assuage guilt?

2007-11-18T19:19:00.000-08:00

"A woman's guess is much more accurate than a man's certainty."

R. Kipling

"A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty,
And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it."

W. Shakespeare

thanks, Bro, although I hope you didn't just call my woman thick and bereft of beauty...

2007-11-13T13:23:00.001-08:00

“Great literature should make us squirm, question, debate, complain, and celebrate—its ability to evoke thoughtful or emotional responses is what makes it great. Like fire, it can illuminate, burn, and even pave the way for new growth.”

~~Bonnie Katzive

2007-11-13T12:22:00.000-08:00

"I hear and I forget,
I see and I remember,
I do and I understand."

Ancient Proverb

2007-10-05T09:35:00.000-07:00

"D'oh!"

Homer Simpson

an all-time classic, a hall of famer*, how could I have missed this one?

*is there a Quote Hall of Fame? and where would it be -- Athens? Stratford on Avon? Hollywood?

2007-09-05T13:08:00.000-07:00

"I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Maya Angelou

"The child becomes largely what he is taught; hence we must watch what we teach, and how we live.”

Jane Addams (1860-1935)

“Try not to become a man of success, but rather, try to become a man of value.”

Albert Einstein

2007-09-05T13:06:00.000-07:00

"Why not go out on a limb? That's where the fruit is."

Mark Twain

2007-08-18T08:45:00.000-07:00

"It’s not enough just to swing at the ball. You’ve got to loosen your girdle and let ‘er fly."

Babe Didrikson

she was talking about golf, but I think it applies to most things in life....

2007-08-09T21:37:00.000-07:00

"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."

John F. Kennedy

2007-08-09T08:50:00.001-07:00

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Arthur C. Clarke

2007-08-02T08:42:00.000-07:00

“Nobody throws harder than Nolan Ryan. Not even God.”

— George Scott

2007-07-24T10:06:00.000-07:00

"It does not matter how many books you may have, but whether they are good or not. "

Epistolae Morale
Lucius Annaeus SENECA
3 B.C.-65 A.D

2007-07-23T22:05:00.000-07:00

"An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all."

Oscar Wilde

2007-07-16T23:57:00.000-07:00

"Stop talking about it. I'm going to stop calling you a white man," Freeman says to Wallace. "And I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man. I know you as Mike Wallace. You know me as Morgan Freeman. You wouldn't say, 'Well, I know this white guy named Mike Wallace.' You know what I'm sayin'?"

Morgan Freeman (obviously)

2007-07-11T23:12:00.000-07:00

“Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”

Roald Dahl

2007-07-11T21:45:00.000-07:00

“He who thinks he knows, doesn’t know. He who knows that he doesn’t know, knows. For in this context, to know is not to know. And not to know is to know.”

Tao-te Ching

I don't know for sure if I know what this means, so does that mean I know what it means?

2007-06-11T20:29:00.000-07:00

"It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice. "

John Lennon

2007-06-07T23:44:00.001-07:00

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”

Jackie Robinson

2007-05-30T22:06:00.000-07:00

“Q: Why are we violent but not illiterate?
A: Because we are taught to read.”

David Allan

2007-05-30T21:09:00.000-07:00

"The most revolutionary thing anybody can do is to raise good, honest and generous children who will question the answers of people who say the answer is violence."

Colman McCarthy
(my new Hero)

2007-05-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

"Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics, I assure you that mine are greater."

Albert Einstein

"Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt."

2007-04-11T23:20:00.000-07:00

"We're terrible animals. I think that the Earth's immune system is trying to get rid of us, as well it should."

"Perhaps, when we remember wars, we should take off our clothes and paint ourselves blue and go on all fours all day long and grunt like pigs. That would surely be more appropriate than noble oratory and shows of flags and well-oiled guns. "

"Go take a flying **** at a rolling doughnut,"

"If you can do no good, at least do no harm."

"...[freedom of speech] isn't something somebody else gives you. That's something you give to yourself. "

"You realize, of course, that everything I say is horseshit. "

"So it goes."

Thank you, Mr. Vonnegut, for the inspiring, shocking, blessing magic of your life and work.

2007-04-11T23:16:00.000-07:00

"Many people go far in life because someone else thought they would."

John Maxwell

2007-04-09T22:53:00.000-07:00

"It is important, when death finds you, that it finds you alive..."

Anonymous

Thanks, Livvy