LORD BYRON

There is pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep sea and the music in its roar
I love not man the less, but Nature more.


There are more nature quotes today at JOHN’S QUIET CORNER
http://john-quietcorner.blogspot.com

WINSTON CHURCHILL

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.

ARISTOTLE

If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is Nature’s way.

MARY PICKFORD

What we call failure is not the falling down but the staying down.

JOHN WESLEY

Beware you be not swallowed up in books.
An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.

OSCAR WILDE

The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on. It is never any use to oneself.

JASCHA HEIFETZ

No matter what side of an argument you’re on, you always find some people on your side that you wish were on the other side.

Taoist Saying

Those who know do not speak.
Those who speak do not know.



More Taoist sayings have been posted at John’s Quiet Corner.

http://john-quietcorner.blogspot.com

DENG MING-DAO

You may be capable of great things, but life consists of small things.



I was very pleased with the Haiku Homestead blog which re-started last week.

This Friday’s posting is already available and can be seen at -
http://haikuhomestead.blogspot.com

The theme is Autumn and I give some answers to the question “What exactly is a haiku?”

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.

Greek Proverb

A heart that loves is always young.

ERICA JONG

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer, but wish we didn't.

PUBLILIUS SYRUS

Every day should be passed as if it were to be our last.

AESOP

It is easy to be brave from a safe distance.

GEORGE HERBERT

He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.

GOETHE

Daring ideas are like chess men moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.

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After a break of three months, my HAIKU HOMESTEAD blog is in operation again. I’ve made some changes to the format and to the style, and you can see it at -

http://haikuhomestead.blogspot.com

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KAHLIL GIBRAN

Keep away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh,
and the greatness which does not bow before children.

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

ANON

Every day is a good day.

THOMAS MORE

Sweet is the dream, divinely sweet, when absent souls in fancy meet.

CONFUCIUS

If one’s mind is elsewhere, one will look but not see, listen but not hear.

LEWIS CARROLL

Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it.

BUDDHA

To meditate is to listen with a receptive heart.

PATRICIA NEAL

A strong positive mental attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug.

PIERRE NICOLE

We need a reason to speak, but none to keep silent.

from FragrantHeart.com

Today is not just the first day of the rest of my life. It is also the first moment of the rest of my life, and every moment after that in which I am fully present.

The DALAI LAMA

What is religion? As far as I am concerned, any deed done with good motivation is a religious act. On the other hand, a gathering of people in a temple or church who do not have good motivation are not performing a religious act when they pray together.

ANON

Do not pretend you know.
Start the day fresh and new.
The only thing you know is that you do not know.

MARY KAY ASH

Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as the mind lets you. What you believe, you can achieve.



This week John’s Quiet Corner includes a painting by the Australian artist Frederick McGubbin, a poem by the Ettrick Shepherd (James Hogg) and a slide show of pictures of roses accompanied by the panpipes of Gheorghe Zamfir

http://john-quietcorner.blogspot.com

DALE CARNEGIE

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.

Cherokee Saying

When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.

BERTRAND RUSSELL

The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.

FRANCIS GRAY

Look well to this day.
Yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision. But today well-lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well therefore to this day.

The next posting here will be on
MONDAY 24TH AUGUST

JAMES OPPENHEIM

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance.
The wise man grows it under his feet.

ANON

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

NISARGADATTA

Wisdom tells me I'm Nothing.
Love tells me I'm Everything.
Between the two my life flows.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

MOTHER TERESA

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

CHARLES LAMB

The greatest pleasure in life is to do good by stealth
and be found out by accident

King James Bible - Proverbs

A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.

RUMI

I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons.
Knocking on a door, it opens -
I've been knocking from the inside.

LAURENS van der POST

Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right

JOHN’S QUIET CORNER today includes a poem by Robert Browning, a painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, the Romance from the Gadfly Suite by Shostakovich, plus something to think about...
http://john-quietcorner.blogspot.com

GEORGE ASAF

What's the use of worrying? It never was worthwhile.

[from the song “Pack up your troubles”]

JOHN’S QUIET CORNER tomorrow will include a poem by Robert Browning, a painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, the Romance from the Gadfly Suite by Shostakovich, plus something to think about…….
http://john-quietcorner.blogspot.com

LAO TSU

The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.

GOETHE

If you treat a man as he is, he will stay as he is. However, if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be, and could be, he will become that bigger and better man.

ANON

Stop struggling for perfection, and recognise the perfection you already are.

CAROL BURNETT

Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.

SAMUEL JOHNSON

A man had rather have a hundred lies told of him, than one truth which he does not wish should be told.

A Gaelic blessing

Deep peace of the running wave to you,
Deep peace of the flowing air to you,
Deep peace of the shining stars to you,
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.


http://john-quietcorner.blogspot.com

OSCAR WILDE

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.

BUDDHA

Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace.

Spanish Proverb

He who knows nothing, doubts nothing.

FRANCIS BACON

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.

CONFUCIUS

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.

CHARLES BUXTON

You will never find time for anything. If you want the time, you must take it.

MOTHER TERESA

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think
the ocean would be less, because of that missing drop.


This week John’s Quiet Corner includes a Chinese poem, a Turner painting, a 1940s love song and Clair de Lune (Debussy)
http://john-quietcorner.blogspot.com

WINSTON CHURCHILL

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.

LANGSTON HUGHES

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow

GEORGE MOORE

There is always a right way and a wrong way,
and the wrong way always seems the more reasonable.

MARIA ROBINSON

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

from the Tao Te Ching

There is no greater sin than desire,
No greater curse than discontent,
No greater misfortune than wanting something for oneself.
Therefore he who knows that enough is enough
Will always have enough.

BERTRAND RUSSELL

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.

ANON

Nothing lasts for ever, not even your troubles.

FRANCIS BACON

Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour!


There are more famous music quotes today on John’s Quiet Corner.
http://john-quietcorner.blogspot.com

CONFUCIUS

When anger rises, think of the consequences.

IVAN TURGENEV

If you wait for the moment when absolutely everything is ready, you will never begin.

KATHLEEN NORRIS

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

XENOCRATES

I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

The morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.

Buddhist Saying

As a single slab of rock won’t budge in the wind, so the wise are not moved by praise, by blame.

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, what remains? Nature remains.


John’s Quiet Corner posted today includes a painting by Yun Shouping, a poem by Henry Austin Dobson, a poem by William Wordsworth and The Humming Chorus from Madame Butterfly.
http://john-quietcorner.blogspot.com

MALCOLM FORBES

The dumbest people I know are those who know it all.

MAYA ANGELOU

Lift up your eyes
Upon this day breaking for you,
Give birth again
To the dream.

JIMMY DEAN

I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to reach my destination.

GANDHI

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

ANON

Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass. It's about learning how to dance in the rain.

WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE

No man ever became great or good except through many and great mistakes.

MAX EHRMANN

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
And remember what peace there may be in silence.


Those are the first lines of Max Ehrmann’s prose poem “Desiderata.”
In my blog John’s Quiet Corner posted today I have included a visual presentation of the complete poem against a background of lovely scenery, and accompanied by the sublime music of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings.

The whole video takes 10 minutes, but I highly recommend it.

http://john-quietcorner.blogspot.com/

SAMUEL JOHNSON

Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.

REBA McENTIRE

To succeed in life you need three things - a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Hitch your wagon to a star.

BUDDHA

There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts. It is a sword that kills.

SHANTI

You are really rich when you enjoy yourself as you are, when you are contented with what you have.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

JAMES M. BARRIE

Life is a long lesson in humility.

The DALAI LAMA

Don’t try to use what you learn from Buddhism to be a Buddhist. Use it to be a better whatever-you-already-are.

ANON

Fear knocked at the door.
Faith answered, and lo -
No-one was there.

DANIEL DEFOE

The killing of time is the worst of murders.

HORACE

Learn to be wise, strain out the wine and prune lavish hopes to the quick. While we converse, envious time will have vanished. Harvest today, placing the least credence on what is to come.

DANNY KAYE

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

SENECA

We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly and without hesitation. There is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.

AMY BLOOM

Love at first sight is easy to understand; it’s when two people have been married for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle.

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Since today is my 55th Wedding Anniversary, I’ve posted some of our Wedding Photographs on the EIGHTY PLUS website - http://80plus.blogspot.com/

C.S. LEWIS

Love is unselfishly choosing for another's highest good.

ANON

Today is the absolute day, the only day in the eternity of time.
Every day is fresh and new, just as one’s life is new every day.

THOMAS A KEMPIS

If we live in peace ourselves, we in turn may bring peace to others. A peaceable man does more good than a learned one.

GOETHE

One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.

RICHARD BACH

If it's never our fault, we can't take responsibility for it. If we can't take responsibility for it, we'll always be its victim.