Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can- there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did. ~ Sarah Caldwell

"The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination."
Don Williams, Jr.

"Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we can't eat money."
-Cree Proverb

If you look like your passport photo, you probably need a holiday
- Anonymous

We are all wanderers on this earth. Our hearts are full of wonder, and our souls are deep with dreams.
--Gypsy Proverb

Don't ever let life pass you by. - Incubus

"Dance like no one is watching, love like you've never been hurt, sing like no one is listening, and live like it's heaven on earth."

"You cannot put a cheap band-aid on a sacred wound, there is no way through pain but to walk through it." Dr. Robin Smith - On mourning

"Anybody who's great at anything does it for their own approval, not someone else's." – Grissom, CSI Season 1

"Ask a question and you're a moron for ten minutes, don't ask and you're a moron forever."

"You get what anyone gets - you get a lifetime"
-Death

In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing."
Theodore Roosevelt

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."
-Will Rogers

There is a classic monment in The Sun Also Rises when someone asks Mike Campbell how he went bankrupt, and all he can say in response is, "Gradually and then suddenly." When someone asks me how I lost my mind, that is all I can say too.

"I want out of the labels. I don't want my whole life crammed into a single word. A story. I want to find something else, unknowable, some place to be that's not on the map. A real adventure. A sphinx. A mystery. A blank. Unknown. Undefined."

Till it has loved, no man or woman can become itself. -Emily Dickinson

At some point, you have to make a
decision. Boundaries don't keep people
out - they fence you in. Life is messy.
That's how we're made. So, you can
waste your life drawing lines or you
can live your life crossing them. But,
there are some lines that are way too
dangerous to cross. Here's what I know.
If you are willing to take the chance,
the view from the other side is
spectacular. -Grey's Anatomy

The journey begins right here. In the middle of the road. Right beneath your feet. This is the place. There is no other place. There is no other time.
--David Whyte

"There is a prayer intended to give strength to people faced with circumstances they don’t want to accept. The power of the prayer comes from it's insight into human nature. Because so many of us rage against the hand that life has dealt us. Because so many of us are cowardly. And afraid to stand up for what is right. Because so many of us give into despair when faced with an impossible choice. The good news for those who utter these words is that God will hear you and answer your prayer. The bad news is that sometimes the answer is no." -desperate housewives

"The world is filled with unlikely friendships. How do they begin? With one person desperately in need and another willing to lend a helping hand. When such kindness is offered, we're finally able to see the worth of those we had previously written off. And before we know it, a bond has formed, regardless of whether others can understand it. Yes, unlikely friendships start up every day. No one understands this more than the lonely. In fact, it's what they count on." -desperate housewives

"Everyone enjoys a game of make-believe now and then. Of course, the ways in which we play can vary greatly. Sometimes we tell ourselves work won't interfere with our family life. Sometimes, we imagine certain relationships to be more meaningful than they really are. Occasionally, we put on a show, as if to convince ourselves our secrets aren't really all that terrible. Yes, the game of make-believe is a simple one. You start by lying to yourself, and if you can get others to believe those lies, you win." -desperate housewives

communication.
it's the first thing we really learn in life.
funny thing is, once we grow up, learn our words and really start talking
the harder it becomes to know what to say, or how to ask for what we really need.
- Grey's Anatomy

"It's not always that easy to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys. Sinners can surprise you. And the same is true for saints.Why do we try to define people as simply good or simply evil? Because no one wants to admit that compassion and cruelty can live side by side in one heart. And that anyone is capable of anything." -desperate housewives

"We don't stop playing because we grow old;
we grow old because we stop playing."
George Bernard

If you kick a stone in anger, you'll hurt your own foot. ~Korean Proverb

"I am disillusioned enough to know that no man's opinion on any subject is worth a damn unless backed up with enough genuine information to make him really know what he's talking about." H.P. Lovecraft

“In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.”
~Bill Cosby

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.”
~Henry David Thoreau

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.
--Henry David Thoreau

"The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."
- Dorothy Nevill

Dont look for a way to make money. Find a way to make a living doing what you like to do anyway. Otherwise youre just raising ransom to buy your life back. -Tony Hillerman

"Love is a perky elf dancing a merry little jig, and then suddenly he turns on you with a miniature machine gun."

Within your heart, keep one still, secret spot where dreams may grow.

-Louise Driscoll

"[President Bush,] you were in Baghdad for six hours. You weren't even in the real Baghdad. You were in the Green Zone. That's like going to the Olive Garden and saying you've been to Italy."
---Jon Stewart

When things are bad, we take comfort in the thought that they could always be worse. And when they are, we find hope in the thought that things are so bad they have to get better.~ Malcom S. Forbes

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo panted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare composed poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, “Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” ~ Martin L. King Jr.

"A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world."
--Leo Buscaglia

"This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness." Dalai Lama

--->"An old man was sitting on a bench when a teenager with a rainbow mohawk walked by. The old man stared at him. Seeing him stare, the teenager said, 'What's the matter old-timer, never done anything crazy in your life?' The old man replied, 'Many years ago, I got drunk at a wild party and had sex with a parrot. I was just wondering whether you were my son.'" -Anonymous

"When I have a kid, I want to put him in one of those strollers for twins, then run around the mall looking frantic."

I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today.

William Allen White

Socrates
"True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing. And in knowing that you know nothing, that makes you the smartest of all."

"When you're young, your whole life is about the pursuit of fun, then you grow up and learn to be cautious; you could break a bone, or a heart. You look before you leap and sometimes you don't leap at all because there's not always someone there to catch you. And in life, there is no safety net. When did it stop being fun and start being scary?"-Carrie Bradshaw From Sex and the City

"Maybe the past is like an anchor holding us back. Maybe you have to let go of who you were, to become who you will be. "

"Love isn't finding the perfect person, it's about seeing an imperfect person perfect."

- Unknown

"Just be yourself-- everyone else is taken."

Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton
Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.

Maybe some people just arn’t meant to stay in our lives forever. Maybe some people are just passing through. It’s like some people just come into our lives to bring us something, a lesson we need to learn and that’s why they’re there. ~ Unknown

Life is all about risks and it requires you to jump. Don’t be a person who has to look back and wonder what they would have, or could have had. No one waits forever. ~ Unknown

I believe that we are who we choose to be. Nobody is going to come and save you, you’ve got to save yourself. Nobody is going to give you anything . . . you’ve got to go out and fight for it. ~ Barry Manilow

The most powerful force in the world? Compound interest. -Albert Einstein

“This is absurd. It’s just a dog.”
“Just a dog? Porthos dreams of being a bear, and you want to shatter those dreams by saying he’s just a dog? What a horrible candle-snuffing word. That’s just like saying, ‘He can’t climb that mountain, he’s just a man‘, or ‘That’s not a diamond, it’s just a rock.’ Just.” ~ Finding Neverland

We wear these clothes and this make-up for other woman more than for men. Men don’t care. They just want us naked. ~ Unknown

The best presents don’t come in boxes. ~ Calvin and Hobbes

After awhile you learn the subtle difference between holding a hand and chaining a soul. And you learn that love doesn't mean learning and company doesn't mean security. And you begin to learn the kisses aren't contracts and presents aren't promises. And you begin to accept your defeats with your head and your eyes open with the grace of an adult and not the grief of a child. And you learn to build all your roads on today because tomorrow 's ground is too uncertain for plans. After awhile you learn that even sunshine burns if you get too much. So you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers. And you will learn that you really can endure that you really are strong... and you really have worth. ~From a Psychology Book

Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. ~ The Shawshank Redemption

"I'm very happy to believe that Jesus was married,I know the Catholic Church has problems with gay people and I thought this would be absolute proof that Jesus was not gay." - Ian McKellen

"I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck."
- Emma Goldman

All people are discontented when they know just the facts, or just the books, or just the things. Happiness can come only from knowing yourself. ~ Unknown

You’re going to look back on this and realize it was all amazing . . . the good, bad and ugly. In the end, the bads don’t really matter, ‘cause you know you had so much fun. ~ Unknown

"If you don't think conflict is relevant to technological advances, take a look at the Swiss. They've been neutral for virtually their entire history and their major contribution to the world is the cuckoo clock. Look at the Swiss "Army" knife. It's got nail clippers. It's even got a corkscrew in it!" T.C. Luoma

Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo de Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein. ~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we’re here we should dance. ~ Unknown

He who is quietest, often has the most to say. ~ Unknown

No one hates history...They hate their own history.

-The DaVinci Code, the movie

Life and love are life and love, a bunch of violets is a bunch of violets, and to drag in the idea of a point is to ruin everything. Live and let live, love and let love, flower and fade, and follow the natural curve, which flows on, pointless. - D.H Lawrence

Only dead fish go with the flow. Anonymous

For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness. Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you really want to do something, you will find a way. If you don’t, you will find an excuse. ~ Unknown

That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest ~ Henry David Thoreau

Better to light one small candle then to curse the darkness. ~ Confucius

All the darkness of the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle. ~ Talmudic Proverb

Only dumb people try to impress smart people. Smart people just do what they do. ~ Chris Rock

It is better to be a lion for a day then a sheep all your life. ~ Elizabeth Kenny

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

~Leo Buscaglia

"Regrets are a waste of time. They're the past crippling you in the present." -Katherine

"Do you know the most surprising thing about divorce? It doesn't actually kill you. Like a bullet to the heart or a head-on car wreck. It should. When someone you've promised to cherish till death do you part says "I never loved you," it should kill you instantly. You shouldn't have to wake up day after day after that, trying to understand how in the world you didn't know. The light just never went on, you know. I must have known, of course, but I was too scared to see the truth. Then fear just makes you so stupid." -Frances

While everyone else
Is so busy striving,
The lone traveler
Is at ease by himself.
He’s been living outside of convention
For a long time now;
In his pouch there is nothing at all.
When he walks,
He takes a cane for a companion;
When he talks,
He has the rocks for an audience.
If you ask him what his religion is,
When hungry it’s a bowl of rice.
--Wen-siang (1210-1280)

Happy are those who dream dreams and are willing to pay a price to make them come true. ~ Anon.

Wherever you go, go with all your heart. ~Confucius

Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made avictim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself. ~Harvey Fierstein

Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another. ~Homer

Almost every man wastes part of his life in attempts to displayqualities which he does not possess, and to gain applause which hecannot keep. ~Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, 1750

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. ~e.e. cummings

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. ~Judy Garland

The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another. ~James Matthew Barrie

God has given you one face, and you make yourself another. ~William Shakespeare

"The best day of your life is the one
on which you decide your life is your own.
No apologies or excuses...
No one to lean on, rely on, or blame.
The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey -
and you alone are responsible for the quality of it.
This is the day your life really begins."

~Bob Moawad

"happiness: something to do, something to love, something to look forward to."

laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion.
i myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.
~kurt vonnegut~

I am 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
NFL Coach

Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harms we do, we do to ourselves.

- Mitch Albom, "The Five People You Meet in Heaven"

"Love conquers all things – except poverty and toothache."
--Mae West

Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity. And so we ask ourselves: will our actions echo across the centuries? Will strangers hear our names long after we are gone, and wonder who we were, how bravely we fought, how fiercely we loved?

Said by the character Odysseus in the first lines of Troy (2004).

Love one another and you will be happy. It's as simple and as difficult as that.
-Michael Leunig

When love is not madness, it is not love.
-Pedro Calderon de la Barca

"A great many people think they are thinking when they are actually rearranging their prejudices."

"So many of us are running around, trying to find a way that we can make a difference and matter. It sounds like he had it figured out that the best way to do that was simply to live life. I mean, you have a diabetic inhaling sugar. That says to me that this is a man who basically just said, “you only live once and I don't know how long I have,” and then went out and did it. If we can't take something away from that, well, that's a shame. There aren't enough people who don't take life for granted, and we're all guilty of it. The people who make the biggest differences and have the most profound effects on the people around them are the ones who have really grasped how precious life really is."

"Life isn’t about living and then dying; it's about how many lives you can change while you're living, and then how many change after you're gone."

It's amazing when you can stand in front of tremendous crowds, without nervousness or fear of error, and say the perfect words, act the perfect way. And the face and sound of one special someone, can leave you at a lost for words...that is love...
-Jeff Lewis