“It’s silly,” Eilonwy added, “to worry because you can’t do something you simply can’t do. It’s like trying to make yourself taller by standing on your head.”
--Lloyd Alexander, The Book of Three

An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day."
--Irv Kupcinet

"The happiest people are those who think the most interesting thoughts. Those who decide to use leisure as a means of mental development, who love good music, good books, good pictures, good company, good conversation, are the happiest people in the world. And they are not only happy in themselves, they are the cause of happiness in others."

William Lyon Phelps

"We live in an unhappy society. It's regrettably human. It moulds it's members into what they are and then judges them by what they've become." - Sheila MacKay Russell in "A Lamp Is Heavy",

I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., writer (1922- )

"dear god, i have no idea where i am going. i do not see the road ahead of me. i cannot know for certain where it will end. nor do i really know myself...and the fact that i think that i am following your will does not mean that i am actually doing so. but i believe this: i believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. i hope i have that desire in everything i do. i hope i never persist in anything apart from that desire. and i know that if i do this, you will lead me by the right road, though i may know nothing about it at the time. therefore i will trust you always, for though i may be lost, i will not be afraid, because i know you will never leave me to face my troubles all alone." - thomas merton

Once upon a time a man whose ax was missing suspected his neighbor's
son. The boy walked like a thief, looked like a thief, and spoke like a
thief.
But the man found his ax while digging in the valley, and the next time he saw his neighbor's son, the boy walked, looked and spoke like any other child.

Lao-tzu, philosopher (6th century BCE)

"The trouble with so many of us is that we underestimate the power of simplicity. We have a tendency it seems to over complicate our lives and forget what's important and what's not. We tend to mistake movement for achievement. We tend to focus on activities instead of results. And as the pace of life continues to race along in the outside world, we forget that we have the power to control our lives regardless of what's going on outside."

- Robert Stuberg

We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same.

Carlos Castenada, mystic and author (1925-1998)

I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy.
I expostulated, but he replied: 'The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair.'
In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.

Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, and author (1872-1970)

When there is an original sound in the world, it makes a hundred echoes.

-John A. Shedd

Flattery is like chewing gum. Enjoy it but don't swallow it.

Hank Ketcham, comic artist

“The tighter you squeeze, the less you have.” -- Zen Saying

"It is only when you are in true darkness that you can see the stars"