After a while, you learn the subtle difference between holding a hand and chaining a soul and you learn that love doesn't mean leaning and company doesn't mean security. And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts and presents aren't promises. And you begin to accept your defeats with your head up and your eyes open, with the grace of an adult, 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 a while you learn that even sunshine burns if you get too much. So plan your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers. And you learn that you really can endure... That you really are strong. And that you really do have worth.

-Veronica A. Shoffehall

"Remember when American moms used to tell their kids to finish dinner because children were starving in Africa ? Well, thanks a lot, Mom — Africans are still starving and American kids are obese." — Larry Baum.

"Be kind - Remember every one you meet is fighting a battle - everybody's lonesome."
- Marion Parker

"The test of success is not what you do when your on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom."
- General George S. Patton, Jr

"If the sky were to suddenly open up... there would be no law... there would be no rule. There would only be you and your memories... the choices you've made and the people you've touched. The life that has been carved out from your subconcious is the only evidence by which you will be judged... by which you must judge yourself."

-Dr Thurman (in Donnie Darko)

And it's like as soon as you're up, life knocks you down. And then it's not long before you're up again. It's this endless cycle repeating itself, but that's just the way it is. You can fight, cry, curse, but in the end there's nothing you can do that will change any of it. All you can do is learn to accept the fact that everything won't always be perfect.

"You can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket."
--Cynthia VanRooy

"If you're going to be able to look back on something and laugh about it, you might as well laugh about it now"
- Marie Osmond

"Life is all about ass. You're either covering it, laughing it off, kicking it, kissing it, busting it, trying to get a piece of it, or behaving like one."

I will never understand why they cook on TV.
I can't smell it.
Can't eat it.
Can't taste it.
The end of the show they hold it up to the camara, "Well, here it is. You can't have any. Thanks for watching. Goodbye."

Jerry Seinfeld

"In the beginning there was nothing. God said, 'Let there be light!' And there was light. There was still nothing, but you could see it a whole lot better."
- Ellen DeGeneres

"When we lose the right to be different, we lose the right to be free." --Charles Evans Hughes

a little perspective:
Pythagorean theorem: 24 words

The Lord's Prayer: 66 words

Archimedes' Principle: 67 words

The 10 Commandments: 179 words

The Gettysburg Address: 286 words

The Declaration of Independence: 1,300 words

U.S. Government regulations on the sale of cabbage: 26911 words

"One of the greatest victories you can gain over someone is to beat him at politeness."
- Josh Billings

Alex Hitch Hitchens: Never lie, steal, cheat, or drink. But if you must lie, lie in the arms of the one you love. If you must steal, steal away from bad company. If you must cheat, cheat death. And if you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away. --from the movie Hitch

"A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world."
- Oscar Wilde

"But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown."
- Carl Sagan

"I'm not afraid of dying. It's fate. What I'm afraid of is time. I'm afraid of not having enough time to do everything, to get what I want done. I'm afraid that I won't have enough time to find out who I am, my place in this world, and the people who matter to me. I'm afraid of time."

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."
-- Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.

Golda Meir