RICHARD BACH

Avoid problems, and you’ll never be the one who overcame them.



The next post here will be on Tuesday 4th January.

WISHING EVERYONE A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR

FRANCES BACON

A man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it.

Maori Proverb

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows will fall behind you.

CALVIN COOLIDGE

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.


The next post here will be on Tuesday 28th December

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS

BURTON HILLIS

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree - the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.

ROBERT LYND

Were I a philosopher, I should write a philosophy of toys, showing that nothing else in life need to be taken seriously, and that Christmas Day in the company of children is one of the few occasions on which men become entirely alive.

HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.

OREN ARNOLD

Christmas gift suggestions -
to your enemy, forgiveness.
to an opponent, tolerance.
to a friend, your heart.
to a customer, service.
to all, charity.
to every child, a good example.
to yourself, respect. Sunday

SHIRLEY TEMPLE

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when my mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for my autograph

ZENO

The goal of life is living in agreement with nature.

BALTASAR GRACIAN

Be content to act and leave the talking to others

ROBERT MULLER

To forgive is the highest, most beautiful
form of love. In return, you will receive
untold peace and happiness.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

All that glisters is not gold,
Often have you heard that told.
[from The Merchant of Venice]

EDWARD R. MURROW

Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts.

LAO TSU

Surrender yourself humbly,
Then you can be trusted to care for all things.
Love this world as yourself,
Then you can truly care for all things.

ANON

If you don’t have a smile, I’ll give you one of mine.*



*If that’s no help, visit “Poetry with a Smile” at -
http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

SUSAN COOLIDGE

Every day is a fresh beginning,
Listen my soul to the glad refrain,
And, spite of old sorrows and older sinning,
Troubles forecasted and possible pain,
Take heart with the day and begin again.

H.H. WILLIAMS

Furious activity is no substitute for understanding.

MOTHER TERESA

We cannot do great things on this Earth, only small things with great love.

WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD

Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records.

INDIRA GANDHI

You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist.

SENECA

While we are postponing, life speeds by.

Japanese Saying

If you believe everything you read, better not read.

DALE CARNEGIE

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.



Today on A TOUCH OF CULTURE - Johann Sebastian Bach with a difference!!!
http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

JACOB BRONOWSKI

The world is made up of people who never quite get into the first team and who just miss the prizes at the flower show.

G.K. CHESTERTON

Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.

Att. to many sources

Life isn’t meant to be easy.

Dr JOYCE BROTHERS

Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.



JOHN'S QUIET CORNER - updated Mondays
http://john-quietcorner.blogspot.com

DENG MING-DAO

The good in you is like the water in a well. The more you draw from it, the more fresh water will seep in. If you do not draw from it, the water will only become stagnant.

DANNY KAYE

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

DALE CARNEGIE

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.



Today on A TOUCH OF CULTURE - When Davy met Mr.Barkis
http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

Ideas won’t keep. Something must be done about them.

SITTING BULL

Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.

H.G. WELLS

Let your love be stronger than your hate or anger. Learn the wisdom of compromise, for it is better to bend a little than to break.



A second series of Pre-Raphaelite Paintings begins today at -
http://myownselection.blogspot.com

MARY ENGELBREIT

If you don’t like something change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.

WILLIAM BLAKE

It is right it should be so;
Man was made for Joy and Woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Through the world we safely go.
Joy and Woe are woven fine,
A Clothing for the soul divine.

ANON

Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold, but so does a hard-boiled egg.

HAL BORLAND

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.



Now on A TOUCH OF CULTURE - A Look at the Pre-Raphaelites
http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

THE DALAI LAMA

Sometimes one creates a dynamic impression by saying something,
and sometimes one creates as significant an impression by remaining silent.

MAURICE SETTER

Too many people miss the silver lining because they’re expecting gold

Sir WALTER SCOTT

Oh, what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive!

VICTOR HUGO

Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.

MARIE CURIE

One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.

Japanese Proverb

One kind word can warm three winter months.

FRANZ SCHUBERT

Let us take men as they are, not as they ought to be.


Now on A TOUCH OF CULTURE - a Visit to Kyoto
http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

SENECA

We should every night call ourselves to an account. What infirmity have I mastered today? What passions opposed? What temptations resisted? What virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of themselves if they are brought every day to the shrift.

AMANDA McBROOM

It is the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance.
It is the dream afraid of waking that never takes a chance.
It is the one who won't be taken who cannot seem to give.
And the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live.

GROUCHO MARX

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.

BERTRAND RUSSELL

The secret of happiness is this - let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.

LAO TSU

Knowing others is wisdom,
Knowing the self is enlightenment.
Mastering others requires force,
Mastering the self needs strength.

ANON

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.



                 Now online at A TOUCH OF CULTURE
                    No.6 - Remembering Yehudi Menuhin
                      http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

Old minds are like old horses. You must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order


                  Now online at A TOUCH OF CULTURE
                    No.6 - Remembering Yehudi Menuhin
                      http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

JOHN C. MAXWELL

The 10 Commandments of Human Relations

1. Speak to people.
2. Smile at people.
3. Call people by name.
4. Be friendly and helpful.
5. Be cordial.
6. Have a genuine interest in people.
7. Be generous with praise.
8. Be considerate of the feelings of others.
9. Be thoughtful of the opinions of others.
10. Be alert to give service.

SOPHOCLES

Kindness will always attract kindness.

JANE GOODALL

What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.

Gaelic Saying

Peace is the well from which the stream of joy runs.

CHARLES DICKENS

Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many, not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.





Now on A Touch of Culture - It's Hallowe'en !
http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

MARK TWAIN

There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice.



Now on A Touch of Culture No.5 - It's Hallowe'en !
http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

WALT DISNEY

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.

THOMAS MANN

Hold fast the time! Guard it, watch over it, every hour, every minute!

JANE AUSTEN

A woman, especially if she has the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.

P'ANG YUN

When the mind is at peace, the world too is at peace.

ANON

Next time you see an old person walking down the street, remember that they have a history, and it might be brilliant.

[This remark was made by an neighbour of the late Eileen Nearne after it had been discovered that the old lady had kept quiet about her wartime heroism. She had been parachuted into France to work as a secret radio operator, had been captured and sent to a concentration camp. After her death medals including an MBE and the Croix de Guerre were found among her possessions.]

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.





This week on A Touch of Culture - Looking at some paintings by Scottish Artists
http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.



Now on A Touch of Culture No.4 - Looking at Some Paintings by Scottish Artists
http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com
***A Touch of Culture***A Touch of Culture***A Touch of Culture***

MARTIN LUTHER KING

Hatred paralyzes life - love releases it.
Hatred confuses life - love harmonizes it.
Hatred darkens life - love illuminates it.

Rabbi NACHMAN

If you won't be better tomorrow than you were today, then what do you need tomorrow for?

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

Nothing wilts faster than laurels that have been rested upon.

SIR JAMES. M. BARRIE

Life is a long lesson in humility.

ANON

 In order to see the rainbow, you must first endure the rain.

FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We are what our thoughts have made us. So take care about what you think.

BILL COSBY

“Don’t worry about senility,” my grandfather used to say. “When it hits you, you won’t know it.”



On A Touch of Culture No 3 - four poems by Thomas Hardy
http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.


A Touch of Culture No3 is online now
http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

WINSTON CHURCHILL

Courage is the first of the human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all the others.

LEWIS MUMFORD

Life is the only art that we are required to practise without preparation, and without being allowed the preliminary trials, the failures and botches, that are essential for the training of a mere beginner.

Gaelic Saying

Do not judge by appearances - a rich heart may be under a poor coat.

DAVID GRAYSON

Looking back, I have this to regret, that too often when I loved, I did not say so.

LIN YUTANG

“I have done my best.” That is about all the philosophy of living one needs.



The subject of A TOUCH OF CULTURE this week is ballet and includes four short extracts.
http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

WOODY ALLEN

You can live to be a hundred if you give up all these things that make you want to live to be a hundred.




The subject of A TOUCH OF CULTURE this week is ballet and includes four short extracts.
http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

ANON

Knowledge is like a garden. If it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.



My new blog A TOUCH OF CULTURE  continues today when I have a quick look at some ballet.
http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Ill fares the land to hastening ills a prey, where wealth accumulates and men decay.

BILL COSBY

I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.

GEORGE ELIOT

The first condition of human goodness is something to love. The second is something to reverence.

EURIPIDES

The wisest men follow their own direction.

VENUS WILLIAMS

You have to believe in yourself when nobody else does. That’s what makes you a winner.




A Touch of Culture is now online - http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

Taoist Saying

No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.





A Touch of Culture is now online - http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

ROBERT BURNS

Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.




A Touch of Culture is now online - http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

CONFUCIUS

It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.




                 Countdown to Culture - One Day to Go
                     http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

WILLIAM JAMES

A great many people think they are thinking when they are really re-arranging their prejudices





                                 Countdown to Culture - Two Days to Go
                                     http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

MARCEL PROUST

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes
but in having new eyes.






            Countdown to Culture - Three Days to Go
               http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

ANON

Take the emphasis off looking good to feeling good.






            Countdown to Culture - Four Days to Go
               http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

ELIZABETH KUBLER-ROSS

It’s only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth, that we have no way of knowing when our time is up, that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it were the only one we had.






You are invited to look at my new blog A Touch of Culture, which begins on Friday 1st October  - http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

MARK TWAIN

Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits.






You are invited to look at my new blog A Touch of Culture, which begins on Friday 1st October  - http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

WINSTON CHURCHILL

The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes






You are invited to look at my new blog A Touch of Culture, which begins on Friday 1st October  - http://atouchofculture.blogspot.com

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

'Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support them after.

MICHAEL FARADAY

There’s nothing quite so frightening as someone who knows they are right.

Ancient Indian Saying

Tell me a fact and I’ll learn. Tell me a truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

The only sure way to avoid mistakes is to have no new ideas.

GEORGE CARLIN

Have you ever noticed how everybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and everyone going faster than you is a maniac?

THICH NHAT HANH

People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong.
Why not try and see positive things - to just touch those
things and make them bloom?

ALEXANDER POPE

No one should be ashamed to admit they are wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that they are wiser today than they were yesterday.

ASHLEY COOPER

SEVEN DEADLY SINS

Truth, if it becomes a weapon against persons.
Beauty, if it becomes vanity.
Love, if it becomes possessive.
Loyalty, if it becomes blind, careless trust.
Tolerance, if it becomes indifference.
Self-confidence, if it becomes arrogance.
Faith, if it becomes self-righteous.

JOHN STUART MILL

Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so.

W.H.AUDEN

In moments of joy, all of us wish we possessed a tail we could wag.

ANON

Remember, your successes make you clever.
Only your failures make you wise.

GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE

“Come to the edge,” he said.
“We are afraid,” they said.
“Come to the edge,” he said.
They came.
He pushed them.
And they flew!

EDWARD THOMAS

The past is the only dead thing that smells sweet

MIGUEL RUIZ

Be honourable in your speech. The words you let loose have remarkable power to create both good and bad realities in the world.

Medieval Occitan Proverb

Time lost can never be regained

DOROTHY NEVILL

The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right time but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

ST.AUGUSTINE

Audi partem alterum (Hear the other side)

DOUG LARSON

Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk.

WOODY ALLEN

To love is to suffer.
To avoid suffering one must not love.
But then one suffers from not loving.
Therefore to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer.
To suffer is to suffer.
To be happy is to love.
To be happy then is to suffer.
But suffering makes one unhappy.
Therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness.
I hope you're getting this down.

ANON

Since all of your troubles exist only in your mind, the only place you can solve them is in your mind.

STEPHEN LEACOCK

If every day in the life of a school could be the last day but one, there would be little fault to find with it.

ROBERT MULLER

To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness.

SENECA

As long as you live, keep learning how to live.

FRANCOIS de la ROCHEFOUCAULD

A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.

HELEN KELLER

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

NADINE STAIR

If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies.

ROBERT HEINLEIN

Always listen to the experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it.

ROBERT BURNS

The best laid schemes o’ mice and men gang aft agley.
[No matter how carefully plans are made, they often go wrong]

General DOUGLAS MACARTHUR

Have a good plan.
Execute it violently.
Do it today!

MARCUS AURELIUS

Tell yourself each morning - today I shall meet an envious man, an ungrateful one and a bully, and if I had their life I could easily become one too.

EDWARD R. MURROW

To be persuasive, we must be believable.
To be believable, we must be credible.
To be credible, we must be truthful.

HORACE WALPOLE

The way to ensure summer in England is to have it framed and glazed in a comfortable room.

ANON

You’ll never plough a field by turning it over in your mind.

AMANDA McBROOM

It's the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance.
It's the dream afraid of waking that never takes a chance.
It's the one who won't be taken who cannot seem to give,
And the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live.

Ethiopian Saying

The fool speaks, the wise man listens.


THE NEXT POST HERE will be on SATURDAY 21st AUGUST

MARIE CURIE

Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.

DAVE BARRY

People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

SOCRATES

Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.

BENJAMIN DISRAELI

A fear of becoming ridiculous is the best guide in life.

DEEPAK CHOPRA

The less you open your heart to others, the more your heart suffers.


After an interval of four months my EIGHTY PLUS blog has resumed at
http://80plus.blogspot.com

ANON

My grandpa notes the world's worn cogs
And says we're going to the dogs.
His grandpa in his house of logs
Said things were going to the dogs.
His grandpa in the Flemish bogs
Said things were going to the dogs.
His grandpa in his hairy togs
Said things were going to the dogs.
But this is what I wish to state.
The dogs have had a long, long wait.


After an interval of four months my EIGHTY PLUS blog has resumed at
http://80plus.blogspot.com

VICKIE BAUM

There are short cuts to happiness and dancing is one of them.


After an interval of four months my EIGHTY PLUS blog has resumed at -
http://80plus.blogspot.com

ALBERT SCHWEITZER

Success is not the key to happiness, happiness is the key to success.

ALEXANDER POPE

Be sure yourself and your own reach to know,
How far your genius, taste and learning go.
Launch not beyond your depth, but be discreet,
And mark that point where sense and dullness meet.

BARCLAY KNAPP

Now is the time to start! You can sort out the details later.

LAO TZU

The wise man does not lay up treasure - his riches are within. The more he gives to others, the more he has of his own.

WILLIAM JAMES

It matters not what you are thought to be, but what you are.

SOREN KIERKEGAARD

Life can only be understood backwards. But it must be lived forwards.

HELEN ROWLAND

Life begins at 40, but so do fallen arches, rheumatism, faulty eyesight and the tendency to tell a story to the same person three or four times.

ANON

That which was bitter to endure may be sweet to remember.

WILLIAM FEATHER

Success seems to be largely a matter
of hanging on after others have let go.

CONFUCIUS

With only plain rice to eat, with only water to drink and with only an arm for a pillow, I am still content.

CHARLES KINGSLEY

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

Only two things are infinite - the universe and human stupidity.

Chinese Proverb

As is our confidence, so is our capacity.

AGATHA CHRISTIE

I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.

MAHATMA GANDHI

Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony.

HENRY JAMES

It's time to start living the life you've imagined.

GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.

ALBERT CAMUS

Don't walk in front of me - I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me - I may not lead.
Walk beside me and be my friend.

H.JACKSON BROWN Jr.

People take different roads seeking fulfilment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost.

MITCH HEDBERG

I would imagine that if you could understand Morse code, a tap dancer would drive you crazy.

ANON

One can value a house to the last penny, but none can value a home.

ANNE FRANK

How wonderful it is that nobody needs to wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

PUBLILIUS SYRUS

We do not remember days, we remember moments.

MARK TWAIN

Whoever is happy will make others happy too.

Italian saying

The remedy for injuries is not to remember them.

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

Be not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid only of standing still.

EVAN ESAR

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and Jill a rich widow.

CONFUCIUS

When you see a good man, think of emulating him; when you see a bad man, examine your own heart.

THOMAS MERTON

One person can make a difference, and every person must try.

KATHERINE HEPBURN

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.

ANON

Some time in the future you will be more disappointed by the things you didn‘t do than by the ones you did.

JOSEPH ADDISON

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are - something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

OSCAR WILDE

Some people cause happiness wherever they go, others whenever they go.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (Twelfth Night)

Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.

STEPHEN LEACOCK

A half truth, like half a brick, is always more forcible as an argument than a whole one. It carries better.

AUSONIUS

He who does not know how to be silent will not know how to speak

ANON

The plough goes not well if the ploughman holds it not

MARVA COLLINS

Success doesn’t come to you - you go to it.

JOHN F. KENNEDY

The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.

VOLTAIRE

Work banishes those three great evils - boredom, vice and poverty.

GEORGE ELIOT

Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticism.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Life shrinks and expands in proportion to one's courage.

16th century saying

Take time while time is, for time will away.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

'Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support them after.

WILLIAM JAMES

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

MAYA ANGELOU

When you do the best you can, you never know what miracle is wrought in your life, or in the life of another.

Chinese Proverb

Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.

HAZRAT INAVAT KHAN

The words that enlighten the soul are more precious than jewels.

ROBERT BENCHLEY

Behind every argument is someone's ignorance.

PLUTARCH

Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.

GEORGE BURNS

I was always taught to respect my elders and now I’ve reached the age when I don’t have anybody to respect.

E. PHILLPOTS

The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.

From the Tao Te Ching

I hold and protect three treasures; benevolence, frugality and never trying to be Number One.

ALBERT SCHWEITZER

Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.

HELEN KELLER

Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look at the stars.

THEODORE ISAAC RUBIN

Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.

JEAN BAPTISTE LACORDAIRE

Life is too short to choose the second best.

WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD

Time itself is an individual gift. It is wise to cherish it carefully and give it away generously.

ST.AUGUSTINE

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

CHUANG TZU

As rain falls on the just and the unjust alike, let your heart be untroubled by judgments and let your kindness rain on all.

Apache Saying

It is better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in the hand.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (Hamlet)

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

SANDRA CAREY

Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.



Today at “MY OWN SELECTION OF PRE-RAPHAELITE PAINTINGS” - A Sick Child brought into the Temple of Aesculapius, by John William Waterhouse
http://myownselection.blogspot.com

MEHER BABA

Live more and more in the present which is ever beautiful and stretches away before and beyond the limits of the past and the future.

GEORGE ELIOT

There is sufficiency in the world for man's need, but not for man's greed.


Today at "MY OWN SELECTION OF PRE-RAPHAELITE PAINTINGS" - Unconscious Rivals by Lawrence Alma-Tadema.
http://myownselection.blogspot.com

JOHN RUSKIN

When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.


Beginning today - "MY OWN SELECTION OF PRE-RAPHAELITE PAINTINGS" at -
http://myownselection.blogspot.com

Indian Proverb

Every time you wake up, ask yourself, "What good things am I going to do today?" Remember that, when the sun goes down at sunset, it will take a part of your life with it.

MARTIN LUTHER KING

If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.

HENRY VAN DYKE

Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions, but those who kindly reprove thy faults.

ANAIS NIN

You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves you too full to embrace the present.

NANCY MITFORD

I love children, especially when they cry, for then someone takes them away.

PLATO

There is something in humility which strangely exalts the heart.

JOHN RUSKIN

For most men an ignorant enjoyment is better than an informed one; it is better to conceive the sky as a blue dome than a dark cavity; and the cloud as a golden throne than a sleety mist.

ANON

Until he extends his circle of compassion to all living things, man will not find peace.

THOMAS HARDY

A man’s silence is wonderful to listen to.

E. PHILLPOTS

Be civil to all, sociable to many, familiar with few, friend to one, enemy to none.

JAN GLIDEWELL

Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.

Indian Proverb

Everyone is a house with four rooms - a physical, a mental, an emotional and a spiritual.
Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go in to every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.

CONFUCIUS

By three methods we may learn wisdom.
First, by reflection, which is noblest.
Second, by imitation, which is easiest.
Third, by experience, which is the bitterest.

JOSH BILLINGS

One-half the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.

SWAMI VIVEKANADA

We are what our thoughts have made us, so take care about what you think.

OSCAR WILDE

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.

MARLENE DIETRICH

I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognised wiser than oneself.

BRIAN TRACY

Your attitude is an expression of your values, beliefs and expectations.

WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD

When we seek out the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.

THICH NHAT HANH

While you are walking, smile and be in the here and now, and you will transform that place into paradise.

ANON

The easy way to teach children the value of money is to borrow from them.

MATTHEW ARNOLD

It is hard for a pure and thoughtful man to live in a state of rapture at the spectacle afforded him by his fellow-creatures.

MARK TWAIN

Humour is mankind's greatest blessing.

Chinese Saying

When someone shares something of value with you and you benefit from it, you have a moral obligation to share it with others.

DOROTHY SARNOFF

Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening.

PLUTARCH

I don't need a friend who changes when I change or who nods when I nod. My shadow does that much better.

JOHN WESLEY

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.

The DALAI LAMA

In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.

STEPHEN LEACOCK

I would sooner have written Alice in Wonderland than the whole Encyclopedia Britannica.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Imagination is the living power and prime agent of all human perception.

MARCEL PROUST

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

Swedish proverb

Love me when I least deserve it, because that is when I need it the most.

ELIZABETH KUBLER-ROSS

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose.

CONFUCIUS

Learning without thought is labour lost.
Thought without learning is perilous.

JOE GIRARD

The elevator to success is out of order. You'll have to use the stairs, one step at a time.

THOMAS CARLYLE

This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle - wonderful, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it.

LAURENCE J. PETER

Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you'll ever regret.

ANON

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.

ARISTOTLE

Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.

NADINE STAIR

If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

How poor are they that have not patience.
What wound did ever heal but by degrees? (From Othello)

HERBERT HOOVER

About the time we can make ends meet, somebody moves the ends.

DOROTHEA BRANDE

To guarantee success, act as if it were impossible to fail.

Chinese Proverb

Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.

FRANCIS BACON

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humour to console him for what he is.


This week at EIGHTY PLUS FOUR (an octogenarian looks back) I look back to the 19th century when many Scots set off for the unknown to begin new lives in America.

http://80plus4.blogspot.com

BUDDHA

An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast. A wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Life is divided into three terms - that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present to live better in the future.

GUSTAVE FLAUBERT

Anything becomes interesting if you look at it long enough.

ANON

Life lives, life dies,
Life laughs, life cries,
Life gives up and life tries,
But life looks different through everyone’s eyes.

PEARL S. BUCK

The young do not know enough to
be prudent, and therefore they attempt
the impossible - and achieve it,
generation after generation.

GEORGE WASHINGTON

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.

DOUGLAS ADAMS

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.


My new weekly blog EIGHTY PLUS FOUR (An octogenarian looks back) can now be seen at - http://80plus4.blogspot.com

ROBERT BENCHLEY

You might think that after thousands of years of coming up too soon and getting frozen, the crocus family would have had a little sense knocked into it.

DAG HAMMARSKJOLD

We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.

MICHELANGELO

The greater danger for most of us is not
that our aim is too high and we miss it,
but that it is too low and we reach it.

G.K. CHESTERTON

The way to love anything is to realise that it might be lost.

WILLIAM JAMES

The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.

JOHANN VON GOETHE

Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.

ROBERT SOUTHEY

I have told you of the Spaniard who always put on his spectacles when about to eat cherries, so that they might look bigger and more tempting. In like manner I make the most of my enjoyments; and though I do not cast my cares away, I pack them in as little compass as I can, and carry them as conveniently as I can for myself, and never let them annoy others.

LILY TOMLIN

For fast acting relief try slowing down.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

ISAAC ASIMOV

Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put an orgy in my office and I wouldn't look up - well, maybe once!

Latin Proverb

Possessions dwindle and I mourn their loss. But I mourn the loss of time much more, for anyone can save his purse, but none can win back lost time.

VICTOR HUGO

He, who every morning plans the transactions of the day and follows that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through a labyrinth of the most busy life.

HOMER

The charity that is a trifle to us can be precious to others.

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT

Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.

ADAM GORDON

Life is mostly froth and bubble; two things stand like stone.
Kindness in another’s trouble; courage in our own.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

VIDAL SASSOON

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.

Turkish Proverb

Even a stopped clock is correct twice a day.

AESOP

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.

HOMER SIMPSON

Three little sentences will get you through life -
1. Cover for me
2. Good idea, boss
3. It was like that when I got here

OPRAH WINFREY

I've come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that's as unique as a fingerprint, and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. (from The Merchant of Venice)

GEORGE S. PATTON

Say what you mean and mean what you say.

BUDDHA

In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins, not through strength but through persistence.

From a 1920s song

Keep on smiling,
For when you're smiling,
The whole world smiles with you.

NELSON MANDELA

One of the things I learnt when I was negotiating was that until I changed myself I could not change others.

17th century proverb

Who is more busy then he who hath least to do?

EMILY DICKINSON

Saying nothing sometimes says the most.

FRIEDRICH ENGELS

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

DESHAN

All the profound doctrines are but a speck of dust in a vast void.
All the great affairs of the world are but a drop of water cast into a bottomless chasm.

ALBERT CAMUS

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.

RUDYARD KIPLING

Take everything you like seriously, except yourself.

Japanese Saying

Fall seven times -
stand up eight.

AGATHA CHRISTIE

Curious things, habits - people themselves never know they have them.

The DALAI LAMA

Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

BERTRAND RUSSELL

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

THOMAS EDISON

Many of life's failures are people who
did not realize how close they were
to success when they gave up.

ELBERT HUBBARD

The greatest mistake you can make in
life is to be continually fearing
you will make one.

ANON

I cried because I had no shoes; then I met a man who had no feet.

LOU HOLTZ

Adversity is another way to measure
the greatness of individuals. I never had
a crisis that didn't make me stronger.

CATHERINE de HUECK DOHERTY

Acquire inner peace and a multitude will find their salvation near you.


This week at John’s Quiet Corner -

A painting “Romeo and Juliet”
A Shakespeare sonnet
A popular song from 1955
And Maxim Vengerov playing Kreisler’s Liebesfreud

http://john-quietcorner.blogspot.com

MARIA ROBINSON

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.

MARCUS AURELIUS

Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.

BUDDHA

Do not believe anything
because it is said by an authority,
or if it is said to come from angels,
or from Gods,
or from an inspired source.
Believe it only if you have explored it
in your own heart
and mind and body
and found it to be true.
Work out your own path,
through diligence.

ROBERT PIRSIG

To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.

HENRY STIMSON

The only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him.

DALE CARNEGIE

All life is a chance. So take it! The person who goes furthest is the one who is willing to do and dare.

Arabian Proverb

If you have much, give of your wealth.
If you have little, give of your heart.

OPRAH WINFREY

I define joy as a sustained sense of well-being and internal peace - a connection to what matters.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

To laugh often and much,
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children,
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends,
To appreciate beauty,
To find the best in others,
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a redeemed social condition or a job well done -
This is to have succeeded.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

How poor are they that have not patience!
What wound did ever heal but by degrees? (from Othello)

WALT WHITMAN

After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on, and have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear - what remains? Nature remains.

CONFUCIUS

Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself

CATO the Elder

I think the first virtue is to restrain the tongue. He approaches nearest to gods who knows how to be silent, even though he is in the right.

JIM RYUN

Motivation is what gets you started.
Habit is what keeps you going.

ELLA WHEELER WILCOX

Love lights more fires than hate extinguishes.

An Indian Poem

This day is a special day, it is yours.
Yesterday slipped away, it cannot be filled anymore with meaning.
About tomorrow nothing is known.
But this day, today, is yours, make use of it.
Today you can make someone happy.
Today you can help another.
This day is a special day, it is yours.

MOTHER TERESA

Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless.

ANON

The only way to have a friend is to be one.
The only way to get a friend is to be one.

THOMAS a KEMPIS

First keep the peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.

CHARLES READER

Sow a thought, and you reap an act.
Sow an act, and you reap a habit.
Sow a habit, and you reap a character.
Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.

FRIEDRICH von SCHILLER

Keep true to the dreams of thy youth.

from Monty Python "The Meaning of Life"

The meaning of life is nothing very special. Try to be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.

HERODOTUS

If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.

JOHN BERRY

The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.

ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS

There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Content makes poor men rich. Discontentment makes rich men poor.

LAO-TZU

Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity,
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires.

ANATOLE FRANCE

To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act.

HENRY MILLER

Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.

MARTIN FARQUAR TUPPER

Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.

Chinese Saying

A hundred men may make an encampment, but it takes a woman to make a home.

ANON

The person who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

G.K. CHESTERTON

Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.

ANNE DILLARD

How we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives.

PIET HEIN

He that lets the small things bind him
Leaves the great undone behind him.

RAINER MARIA RILKE

This is the miracle that happens every time - to those who really love - the more they give, the more they possess.

DEEPEK CHOPRA

In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside you.

ANON

If at the end of the day you feel dog-tired, maybe it's because you growled all day.

SAMUEL JOHNSON

Resolve not to be poor.
Whatever you have, spend less.

The DALAI LAMA

We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without human affection.

HENRY VAN DYKE

Time is
Too slow for those who wait
Too swift for those who fear
Too long for those who grieve
Too short for those who rejoice
But for those who love
Time is eternity

KATHERINE NORRIS

Life is easier to take than you would think. All that is necessary is to accept the impossible, do without the indispensable and bear the intolerable.

Arabic Saying

Write the bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Every man should be born again on the first day of January.
Start with a fresh page.
Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances.
But on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past.