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Collected Works: Topical

“Love is the world's river of life.”
- H. W. Beecher

“Revolution is not something fixed in ideology, nor is it something fashioned to a particular decade. It is a perpetual process embedded in the human spirit.”
- Abbie Hoffman

" “When I was born I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and a half.”
- Gracie Allen (1906-1964)

“Choose your friends by their character and your socks by their color. Choosing your socks by their character makes no sense, and choosing your friends by their color is unthinkable.”
- ?

“There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes.”
- Doctor Who

“I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence I can reach for, perfection is God's business.”
- Michael J. Fox

“When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you.”
- Lao tsu

“You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.”
- Michael Pritchard

“The fate of animals is of greater importance to me than the fear of appearing ridiculous, it is indissolubly connected with the fate of men”
- Emile Zola (1840-1902)

“...the grass is always greener on the side you water it”
- ?

“All kids are gifted; some just open their packages earlier than others.”
- Michael Carr

“A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a caring, sharing person inside.”
- Denis Waitley

“The winds of the globe have two great orchestras to conduct: the waters and the trees. The winds know their instruments, know their possibilities. Man has created his own music, built upon mathematically regulated intervals between air vibrations of different frequencies within the narrow spectrum of sound that man's auditory nerves are able to apprehend. ...But his music is only a reflection of nature's. One who has preserved the ability to listen will be filled with a sense of the timelessness in the symphonies of the winds, the waters, and the woods. Even mightier than now, they rushed over the earth long before man entered upon the scene. They will resound, more subdued, in diminuendo, long after humankind has made its exit.”
- Rolf Edberg, "At the Foot of the Tree"

NoThink

“Hi-Yo, Silver!”
- Clayton Moore as The Lone Ranger in "The Lone Ranger" Warner Bros., 1956

“Fiddle-dee-dee.”
- Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara "Gone with the Wind" MGM, 1939

“La-dee-da, la-dee-da.”
- Diane Keaton as Annie Hall in Woody Allens' "Annie Hall" United Artists, 1977

“Hoo-ah!”
- Al Pacino as Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade in "Scent of a Woman"Universal, 1992

“Well, I've wrestled with reality for thirty-five years, Doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it.”
- James Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd in "Harvey" Universal-International, 1950

“Am I crazy or is it hot in here?”
- Charles Manson

“Lose your mind and come to your senses.”
- Fritz Perls

“We all go a little mad sometimes.”
- Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in "PSYCHO "Paramount, 1960

“Remember that all things are only opinion and that it is in your power to think as you please.”
- Marcus Aurelius

“When I bore people at a party, they think it is their fault.”
- Henry Kissinger

“When you worry about what others think of you, you permit yourself to be owned by them. Own yourself and cease to seek their approval.”
- Paraphrase of Neale Donald Walsch. "Conversations With God: Book III." Page 4.

“Rule your mind or it will rule you.”
- Horace

“I am, indeed, a king, because I know how to rule myself.”
- Pietro Aretino, satirist and dramatist (1492-1556)

“To enjoy good health, to bring happiness to ones family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control ones mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.”
- Gautama Buddha

“Thinking about sense-objects Will attach you to sense-objects; Grow attached, and you become addicted; Thwart your addiction, it turns to anger; Be angry, and you confuse your mind; Confuse your mind, you forget the lesson of experience; Forget experience, you lose discrimination; Lose discrimination, and you miss life's only purpose; [Miss life's only purpose, and you think about sense-objects.]”
- Bhagavad Gita

“It is true that the mind is restless and difficult to control. But it can be conquered, Arjuna, through regular practice and detachment. Those who lack self-control will find it difficult to progress in meditation; but those who are self-controlled, striving earnestly through the right means, will attain the goal.”
- Bhagavad Gita 6:35-36; "The Bhagavad Gita," Eknath Easwaran, trans. Nilgiri Press, © 1985

“You may control a mad elephant; You may shut the mouth of the bear and the tiger; Ride the lion and play with the cobra; By alchemy you may earn your livelihood; You may wander through the universe incognito; Make vassals of the gods; be ever youthful; You may walk on water and live in fire: But control of the mind is better and more difficult.”
- Thayumanavar

“Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.”
- Bob Marley, "Redemption Song"

“If I supply you with a thought, you may remember it and you may not. But if I can make you think a thought for yourself, I have indeed added to your stature.”
- Elbert Hubbard

“Each person has a unique way of finding enlightenment, so don't put them down just because you don't think they are right. Remember, if you Mind, it will Matter. If you Don't Mind, it won't matter. Simple as that..
- Yohan (Deore) on alt.astrology

“Few things matter much; most things do not matter at all.”
- Bishop Leadbeater

“I think I can -- I think I can -- I think I can.”
- The Little Blue Engine, "The Little Engine That Could" - as channeled by Watty Piper

“Blessed are those that revolve in small circles, for they shall be known as big wheels”
- ? as quoted by Robert Feuer

“We think too small. Like the frog at the bottom of the well. He thinks the sky is only as big as the top of the well. If he surfaced, he would have an entirely different view.”
- Mao Tse-Tung

“Creative thinking may simply mean the realization that there's no particular virtue in doing things the way you have always done them.”
- Rudolph Flesch

“Seek not to change the world; seek only to change your mind about the world.”
- A Course In Miracles

“What concerns me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think things are.”
- Epictetus

“When everyone thinks alike, no one thinks very much.”
- Walter Lippmann

“As a man thinketh, so is he.”
-The Bible

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
- Shakespeare

“There is nothing worse than a brilliant image of a fuzzy concept.”
- Ansel Adams, photographer

“It is well for people who think to change their minds occasionally in order to keep them clean.”
- Luther Burbank

“A woman's mind is cleaner than a man's. She changes it more often.”
- Oliver Herford

“The word fundamentalism comes from the root, fun·da·ment, which means ass or buttocks. Fundamentalism, therefore, is essentially nothing more than ass-think.”
- Cory Harrison

Q: What do you call a Fundamentalist Christian who accidently read the bible with his brain turned on?
A: An atheist
- Erik de Castro Lopo

“Think for yourself, question authority.”
- Timothy Leary, (1920-1996)

“To feel young one must continually feed upon new thought.
The body needs constant supplies of fresh and nutriment,
and the mind has needs that are no less exacting.”
- W. J. Colville

“The physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.”
- James Allen, "As You Think"

“If I look confused it's because I'm thinking.”
- Samuel Goldwyn

“I use not only the brain I have but all I can borrow.”
- Woodrow Wilson

“When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself.”
- Plato

“The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind.”
- Charles Darwin, naturalist and author (1809-1882) [The Descent of Man]

“In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; In practice, there is.”
- Chuck Reid

“When all is said and done, more is said than done.”
- Lou Holtz

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
- William Shakespeare, "Hamlet"

“All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions, Is called a philosopher.”
- Ambrose Bierce

“Philosophy is the art of drawing conclusions from definitions that have been chosen so that one can draw the conclusions one would like to get. It immediately follows that philosophy is silly.”
- Thomas Kettenring

“The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because it is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.”
- John W. Gardner

“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly vanish and be replaced by something even more bizarre and incomprehensible. There is another theory which states that this has already happened...”
- Douglas Adams, "The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe"

“There is no defense or security for any of us except in the highest intelligence and development of all.”
- Booker T. Washington

“To jump across the great gulf between mind and matter, there is the subconsciousness--the thoughts that nobody is thinking.“
- Brewster, Edwin Tenney. "The Understanding of Religion." Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co, 1923. p 79.

“What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.”
- Dan Quayle (Former US Vice President, 5/9/89)

“I don't mind that you think slowly but I do mind that you are publishing faster than you think.”
- Wolfgang Pauli, physicist, Nobel laureate (1900-1958)

“Mind equals object: there are no objects beyond mind. Objects equal mind: there is no mind beyond objects. Since objects are wholly mind, why must we cling to the mind and dismiss objects? Those who dismiss objects, when they talk of mind, have not comprehended mind.”

“Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.”
- Angela Monet

“See, the human mind is kind of like . . . a pinata. When it breaks open, there's a lot of surprises inside. Once you get the pinata perspective, You see that losing your mind Can be a peak experience.”
- Jane Wagner, "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe"

“We work in the dark, We do what we can, We give what we have, Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task, The rest is the madness of art.”
- Henry James

“You have to forget about what other people say, when you're supposed to die, or when you're supposed to be loving. You have to forget about all these things. You have to go on & be crazy. Craziness is like heaven.”
- James "Jimi" Marshall Hendrix (1942 - 1970) US rock guitarist, songwriter, and singer

“You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.”
- Robin Williams

“...the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"”
- Jack Kerouac

“Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops.”
- Cary Grant as Mortimer Brewster in "Arsenic and Old Lace" Warner Bros., 1944

“The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad.”
- Salvador Dali

“There is a pleasure sure, in being mad,
which none but madmen know.”
- John Dryden, poet and dramatist (1631-1700)

“...the mind needs no analysis--it is analyzing junk--it needs simply to be erased.”
- Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

“A mind is a terrible thing,
........................................Waste IT.”
- Brad Blanton

“The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once remarked that if you ask a man how much is two plus two and he tells you five, that is a mistake. But if you ask a man how much is two plus two and he tells you ninety-seven, that is no longer a mistake. The man you are talking to is operating with a wholly different logic from your own.”
- Thomas Friedman

“Behold! the Holy Idiot, lost within
A private world. He'll have the chance to win
New freedom from confining rules.
Rejoice The madness!
For it brings another choice.
Now let the Saturnalia begin!”
- John Opsopaus "The Pythagorean Tarot: An Interpretation of the Major and Minor Arcana on Pythagorean and Alchemical Principles" ©1996

“If your mind goes blank, don't forget to turn off the sound.”
- Red Green (Canadian humorist)

No-Prob-Lame-O

“Houston, we have a problem.”
Tom Hanks as Jim Lovell in "Apollo 13" Universal, 1995

“You can only know Me through Love - Divine Love, Love for God, without any selfish purpose. ...live here with Love for each other, like members of one family. Discard jealousy and envy. Because you are all One, live here in Peace. If you are in Peace, I am in Peace; if you have problems, I have problems.”
- Shri Haidakhan Babaji

“Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.”
- Barbara Johnson

“To the man who only has a hammer in the toolkit, every problem looks like a nail...”
- Abraham Maslow

“If your only tool is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.”
- Mark Twain

“Controna--Decene--Diversonac” (Where there is no solution, there is no problem.)
- John Price

“Life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced.”
- Soren Aaby Kierkegaard (Danish religious philosopher)

“Why talk of sin? He who repeatedly says, "I am a worm, I am a worm," becomes a worm. He, who thinks, "I am free," becomes free. Always have that positive attitude that you are free, and no sin will cling to you.”
- Sri RamaKrishna

“A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.”
- Herm Albright as quoted by Robert Feuer

“I think the next best thing to solving a problem is finding some humor in it.”
- Frank A. Clark, writer (1911- )

It's your attitude, not your aptitude, that measures your altitude.

“A problem is a chance for you to do your best.”
- Duke Ellington

“Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal.”
- E. Joseph Cossman

“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”
- Booker T. Washington

“Far away there 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.”
- Louisa May Alcott

“The world really isn't any worse.
It's just that the news coverage is so much better.”

“Whenever you meet miserable conditions or obstacles, you should immediately and effortlessly recognize them as good. The thought of liking problems should arise naturally, like the thought of liking ice cream or the thought of liking music. When a person who likes music very much hears music, the thought of liking it arises naturally, without any need to consider the reasons.”
- Lama Zopa Rinpoche

“For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, some thing to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, or a debt to be paid. Then life would surely begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles Were my life.”
- Alfred De Souza

“Life always brings problems. We really can’t live without them, the problems. We can stop feeling victimized by what’s happening. Instead, we can consciously work with the challenge of the moment to learn more about ourselves and the world. When we make this shift in attitude, we discover ourselves to be strong and powerful. Every lesson is a widening and deepening of consciousness. It is a stretching of the mind beyond its conceptual limits and a stretching of the heart beyond its emotional boundaries. It is a bringing of unconscious material into consciousness, a healing of past wounds, and a discovery of new faith and trust.”
- Paul Ferrini

“Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity.”
- Joseph Sugarman

“If you can talk brilliantly about a problem, it can create the consoling illusion that it has been mastered.”
- Stanley Kubrick

Patience

“A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.”
- Dutch proverb

“Have patience! In time, even grass becomes milk.”
- Charan Singh, mystic (1916-1990)

“Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; erelong she shall appear to vindicate thee.”
- Immanuel Kant

“In the struggle between the stone and the water, in time, the water wins.”
- Chinese Proverb

“Patience is also a form of action.”
- Auguste Rodin, sculptor (1840-1917)

“Have courage for the great sorrows of life, and patience for the small ones. And when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in Peace. God is awake.”
- Victor Hugo

“All things come to him who waits -- provided he knows what he is waiting for.”
- Woodrow Wilson

“How poor are they who have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?”
- William Shakespeare

“It takes time to succeed because success is merely the natural reward for taking time to do anything well.”
- Joseph Ross

“Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.”
- Leonardo da Vinci, painter, engineer, musician, and scientist (1452-1519)

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
- Rainer Maria Rilke

“The years teach what the days never know.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“We are not born all at once, but by bits. The body first, and the spirit later; and the birth and growth of the spirit, in those who are attentive to their own inner life, are slow and exceedingly painful. Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the longer pains of our spiritual growth.”
- Mary Antin

“I never failed once. It just happened to be a 2000-step process.”
- Thomas Edison, responding to a reporter who asked how it felt to fail 2000 times before successfully inventing the light bulb.

“Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.”
- Soren Kierkegaard

“Peaceful warriors have the patience to wait until the mud settles and the water clears. They remain unmoving until the right time, so the right action arises by itself. They do not seek fulfillment, but wait with open arms to welcome all things.”
- Dan Millman

“Genius is eternal patience.”
- Michelangelo Buonarroti, sculptor, painter, architect, and poet (1475-1564)

“Patience will achieve more than force.”
- Edmund Burke

“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.”
- William Shakespeare

“The faster you go, the shorter you are.”
- Albert Einstein

“Remember: 'No matter where you go, there you are.' ”
- Buckaroo Banzai, in "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension"

“It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.”
- Winston Churchill

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
- The Holy Bible; Ecclesiastes 3:1

“I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting,
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought;
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.”
- T.S. Eliot

“Patient waiting is often the highest way of doing God's will.”
- Jeremy Collier

“Let nothing disturb thee;
Let nothing dismay thee;
All things pass;
God never changes.
Patience attains
All that it strives for.”
- St. Teresa de Cepeda

“Patience is the key to Contentment.”
- Mohammed (c.570-c.632) Meccan Spiritual Leader

Contentment

“Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”
- Charles Dickens (1812-1870) English writer

“Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.”
- Maurice Setter

“Contentment is a pearl of great price, and whoever procures it at the expense of ten thousand desires makes a wise and a happy purchase.”
- John Balguy

“Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers, and are famous preservers of good looks.”
- Charles Dickens

“He who is contented is rich.”
- Lao-Tzu BC 600-?, Chinese Philosopher, Founder of Taoism, Author of the ''Tao Te Ching''

“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.”
- Socrates BC 469-399, Greek Philosopher of Athens

“He that is discontented in one place will seldom be content in another.”
- Aesop 620-560 BC, Greek Fabulist

“Happy the man whose wish and care a few paternal acres bound, content to breathe his native air in his own ground.”
- Alexander Pope 1688-1744, British Poet, Critic, Translator

“As to that leisure evening of life, I must say that I do not want it. I can conceive of no contentment of which toil is not to be the immediate parent.”
- Anthony Trollope 1815-1882, British Novelist

“Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He who is content. Who is that? Nobody.”
- Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790, American Scientist, Publisher, Diplomat

“Content makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor.”
- Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790, American Scientist, Publisher, Diplomat

“Success is getting and achieving what you want. Happiness is wanting and being content with what you get.”
- Bernard Meltzer 1914-, American Law Professor

“The most valuable things in life are not measured in monetary terms. The really important things are not houses and lands, stocks and bonds, automobiles and real state, but friendships, trust, confidence, empathy, mercy, love and faith.”
- Bertrand Russell 1872-1970, British Philosopher, Mathematician, Essayist

“It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and angry woman.”
- [Proverbs 21:19] Bible Sacred Scriptures of Christians and Judaism

“Only by pride comes contention; but, with the well-advised is wisdom.”
- [Proverbs 13:10] Bible Sacred Scriptures of Christians and Judaism

“For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”
- [St. Paul In Philippians 4:11] Bible Sacred Scriptures of Christians and Judaism

“A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle.”
- [Proverbs 18:19] Bible Sacred Scriptures of Christians and Judaism

“Try to be like the turtle -- at ease in your own shell.”
- Bill Copeland

“Temperance is a tree which as for its root very little contentment, and for its fruit calm and peace.”
- Buddha (568-488 BC) Founder of Buddhism

“Health is the greatest gift, Contentment the greatest wealth, Faithfulness the best relationship.”
- Buddha (568-488 BC) Founder of Buddhism

“Men know they are sexual exiles. They wander the earth seeking satisfaction, craving and despising, never content. There is nothing in that anguished motion for women to envy.”
- Camille Paglia 1947-, American Author, Critic, Educator

“Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers and are famous preservers of youthful looks.”
- Charles Dickens 1812-1870, British Novelist

“Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know.”
- Charles Kingsley 1819-1875, British Author, Clergyman

“Why should you be content with so little? Why shouldn't you reach out for something big?”
- Charles L. Allen

“My motto is: Contented with little, yet wishing for more.”
- Charles Lamb 1775-1834, British Essayist, Critic

“The teller of a mirthful tale has latitude allowed him. We are content with less than absolute truth. #148;
- Charles Lamb 1775-1834, British Essayist, Critic

“The great question is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with failure.”
- Chinese Proverb Sayings of Chinese Origin

“Public opinion, a vulgar, impertinent, anonymous tyrant who deliberately makes life unpleasant for anyone who is not content to the average person.”
- Dean William R. Inge 1860-1954, Dean of St Paul's, London

“Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what you have.”
- Doris Mortman

“You are the person who has to decide. Whether you'll do it or toss it aside; You are the person who makes up your mind. Whether you'll lead or will linger behind. Whether you'll try for the goal that's afar. Or just be contented to stay where you are”
- Edgar A. Guest

“The real leader has no need to lead --he is content to point the way.”
- Henry Miller (1891-1980) American Author

“Only man is not content to leave things as they are but must always be changing them, and when he has done so, is seldom satisfied with the result.”
- Elspeth Huxley 1907-, British Author

“One should either be sad or joyful. Contentment is a warm sty for eaters and sleepers.”
- Eugene O'Neill 1888-1953, American Dramatis

t “Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.”
- Francis Bacon 1561-1626, British Philosopher, Essayist, Statesman

“People of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon and seldom drive business home to it's conclusion, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.”
- Francis Bacon 1561-1626, British Philosopher, Essayist, Statesman

“In contemplation, if a man begins with certainties he shall end in doubts; but if he be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.”
- Francis Bacon 1561-1626, British Philosopher, Essayist, Statesman

“Be always displeased at what thou art, if thou desire to attain to what thou art not; for where thou hast pleased thyself, there thou abidest.”
- Francis Quarles 1592-1644, British Poet

“When we cannot find contentment in ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.”
- Francois De La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French Classical Writer

“Moderation in people who are contented comes from that calm that good fortune lends to their spirit.”
- Francois De La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French Classical Writer

“I don't want to own anything that won't fit into my coffin.”
- Fred A. Allen (1894-1957) American Radio Comic

“A man who is contented with what he has done will never become famous for what he will do.”
- Fred Estabrook

“Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what you have.”

“Contentment makes poor men rich;
Discontent makes rich men poor.”
- Benjamin Franklin

“The world is full of people looking for spectacular happiness while they snub contentment.”
- Doug Larson

“Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want,
but the realization of how much you already have.”

“Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another.”
- Condorcet

The Real Woman Creed

I believe that within me lies an extraordinary radiance, and I commit to letting my light loose in the world.

I believe that the source of my power and wisdom is in the center of my being, and I commit to acting from this place of strength.

I believe that I possess an abundance of passion and creative potential and I commit to the expression of these gifts.

I believe that the time has come to let go of old notions and unhealthy attitudes, and I commit to re-examine what I have been told about beauty and dismiss what insults any soul.

I believe that negative thoughts and words compromise my well-being, and I commit to thinking and speaking positively about myself and others.

I believe that young women are in need of positive role models, and I commit to being an example of authenticity and self-love.

I believe that the relationship between my well-being and the well-being of the planet, and I commit to a life of mindfulness that regards all living things as holy and worthy of my love.

I believe that it is my spiritual responsibility to care for my body with respect, kindness, and compassion. I commit to balancing my life in such a way that my physical being is fully expressed and nurtured.

I believe that joy is an essential part of wellness, and I commit to removing obstacles to joy and creating a life that is full of exuberance.

I believe that a woman who loves herself is a powerful, passionate, attractive force, and I commit, from this day forward, to loving myself deeply and extravagantly.

Response Ability

“And the fox said to the little prince: men have forgotten this truth, but you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery, "The Little Prince"

“Then right after Reba was born he came and told me outright: "You just can't fly on off and leave a body," he tole me. "A human life is precious. You shouldn't fly off and leave it." So I knew right away what he meant cause he was right there when we did it. He meant that if you take a life, then you own it. You responsible for it. You can't get rid of nobody by killing them. They still there, and they yours now.”
- Toni Morrison, "Song of Solomon," 1977. New York, Plume, 1987, p 208.

“Who, I ask you, can take, dare take, on himself the rights, duties, the responsibilities of another human soul?”
- Elisabeth Cady Stanton

“Responsibility begins with the willingness to be cause in the matter of one's life. Ultimately, it is a context from which one chooses to live. Responsibility is not burden, fault, praise, blame, credit, shame or guilt. In responsibility, there is no evaluation of good or bad, right or wrong. There is simply what's so, and your stand. Being responsible starts with the willingness to deal with a situation from the view of life that you are the generator of what you do, what you have and what you are. That is not the truth. It is a place to stand. No one can make you responsible, nor can you impose responsibility on another. It is a grace you give yourself - an empowering context that leaves you with a say in the matter of life.”
- Werner Erhard

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
- Theodore Roosevelt

“There is no mystery attached to the fact that, in this new era in human history, when for the first time large numbers of people can live unconstrained lives involving high levels of choice, there is a concurrent explosion in depression rates. The burden of responsibility for making innumerable choices can result in a person's becoming psychologically tyrannized by them.”
- Gregg D. Jacobs, "The Ancestral Mind: Reclaim the Power"; New York: Viking, 2003. p 21.

“You thought, as a boy, that a mage is one who can do anything. So I thought once. So did we all. And the truth is at as a man's real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do.”
- Ursula K. LeGuin

“To give up the task of reforming society is to give up one's responsibility as a free human being.”
- Alan Paton

“The price of greatness is responsibility.”
- Winston Churchill

“The bigger the life
the larger the space in that life
that should be given to the Creator.”
- Reverend Akaiko Akana (Hawaiian Minister and Kapuna)

“Buckminster Fuller, the discoverer/inventor of the geodesic dome, at age thirty-two contemplated suicide for a few hours one night at the edge of Lake Michigan, as the story goes, after a series of business failures that left him feeling he had made such a mess of his life that the best move would be for him to remove himself from the scene and make things simpler for his wife and infant daughter. Apparently everything he had touched or undertaken had turned to dust in spite of his incredible creativity and imagination, which were only recognized later. However, instead of ending his life, Fuller decided (perhaps because of his deep conviction in the underlying unity and order of the universe, of which he knew himself to be an integral part) to live from then on as if he had died that night.

Being dead, he wouldn't have to worry about how things worked out any longer for himself personally and would be free to devote himself to living as a representative of the universe. The rest of his life would be a gift. Instead of living for himself, he would devote himself to asking, "What is it on this planet [which he referred to as Spaceship Earth] that needs doing that I know something about, that probably won't happen unless I take responsibility for it?" He decided he would just ask that question continuously and do what came to him, following his nose. In this way, working for humanity as an employee of the universe at large, you get to modify and contribute to your locale by who you are, how you are, and what you do. But it's no longer personal. It's just part of the totality of the universe expressing itself.”
- Jon Kabat-Zinn, p 206-7

Music Therapy

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.): “Simply put, music can heal people.”

Sen. Harry Reid: “Music helps all types of people to remain forever young. He noted that Congress had never before "directly addressed the question of music" as preventive medicine and as "a therapeutic tool for those suffering from Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, strokes and depression.” SUPERIOR, WI Telegram, Aug. 14, 1991

Mickey Hart (Grateful Dead): “[Rhythm] is there in the cycles of the seasons, in the migrations of the birds and animals, in the fruiting and withering of plants, and in the birth, maturation and death of ourselves,” Hart told a Senate panel studying music therapy. <REUTERS, Aug. 1, 1991

Ida Goldman (90-year-old testifying at Senate hearings): “Before I had surgery, they told me I could never walk again. But when I sat and listened to music, I forgot all about the pain,” said Goldman, who walked with assistance during the hearing. REUTERS, Aug. 1, 1991

Sen. Harry Reid: “Music therapy is much more complicated than playing records in nursing homes. Therapists are trained in psychology, group interaction, and the special needs of the elderly.”

Dr. Oliver Sacks in "Awakenings" reports that patients with neurological disorders who cannot talk or move are often able to sing, and sometimes even dance, to music. Its advocates say music therapy also can help ease the trauma of grieving, lessen depression and provide an outlet for people who are otherwise withdrawn. ST. Louis Post Dispatch

Dr. Clive Robbins (Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Clinic): “Almost all children respond to music. Music is an open-sesame, and if you can use it carefully and appropriately, you can reach into that child's potential for development.”
[Nordoff-Robbins uses music therapy to help 100 handicapped children learn and to relate and communicate with others.]

Barbara Crowe (past president of the National Association for Music Therapy): “[Music therapy] can make the difference between withdrawal and awareness, between isolation and interaction, between chronic pain and comfort--between demoralization and dignity.”

Oliver Sacks, M.D.: “I regard music therapy as a tool of great power in many neurological disorders [Parkinson's and Alzheimer's] because of its unique capacity to organize or reorganize cerebral function when it has been damaged.”

Mathew Lee (Acting Director, Rusk Institute, New York): “Music therapy has been an invaluable tool with many of our rehabilitation patients. There is no question that the relationship of music and medicine will blossom because of the advent of previously unavailable techniques that can now show the effects of music.”

For more information write or call:
American Music Therapy Association, Inc.
8455 Colesville Road, Suite 1000
Silver Spring, Maryland 20910, USA
Phone: (301) 589-3300 Fax: (301) 589-5175 email
per AMTA Homepage as of June 30, 1998.

On a Classical Note Musicians on other musicians as quoted by Robert Anton Wilson's Webpage

“There are more bad musicians than there is bad music.”
- Isaac Stern

After playing the violin for the cellist Gregor Piatgorsky, Albert Einstein asked, “Did I play well?” “You played relatively well,” he replied
- Piatgorsky.

“The chromatic scale is what you use to give the effect of drinking a quinine martini and having an enema simultaneously.”
- Philip Larkin

“The sound of a harpsichord - two skeletons copulating on a tin roof in a thunderstorm.”
- Sir Thomas Beecham

“Harpists spend ninety percent of their lives tuning their harps and ten percent playing out of tune.”
- Igor Stravinsky

“Mozart died too late rather than too soon.”
- Glenn Gould

“Beethoven always sounds to me like the upsetting of a bag of nails, with here and there also a dropped hammer.”
- John Ruskin

“Art is long and life is short; here is evidently the explanation of a Brahms symphony.”
- Edward Lorne

“I love Wagner, but the music I prefer is that of a cat hung up by its tail outside a window and trying to stick to the panes of glass with its claws.”
- Charles Baudelaire

“If the reader were so rash as to purchase any of Bela Bartok's compositions, he would find that they each and all consist of unmeaning bunches of notes, apparently representing the composer promenading the keyboard in his boots. Some can be played better with the elbows, others with the flat of the hand. None require fingers to perform or ears to listen too.”
- Frederick Corder

“In the first movement alone, I took note of six pregnancies and at least four miscarriages.”
- Sir Thomas Beecham on Bruckner's Seventh Symphony

“What can you do with it? It's like a lot of yaks jumping about.”
- Sir Thomas Beecham on Beethoven's Seventh Symphony

Sir Thomas Beecham was once asked if he had played any Stockhausen. “No,” he replied, “but I have trodden in some.”

“Rossini would have been a great composer if his teacher had spanked him enough on his backside.”
- Ludwig van Beethoven

“Anton Bruckner wrote the same symphony nine times, trying to get it just right. He failed.”
- Edward Abbey

“Schoenberg is too melodious for me, too sweet.”
- Bertolt Brecht

“He'd be better off shoveling snow.”
- Richard Strauss on Arnold Schoenberg.

When told that a soloist would need six fingers to perform his concerto, Arnold Schoenberg replied, “I can wait.”

“I would like to hear Elliot Carter's Fourth String Quartet, if only to discover what a cranky prostate does to one's polyphony.”
- James Sellars

“Exit in case of Brahms.”
- Philip Hale's proposed inscription over the doors of Boston Symphony Hall

“Why is it that whenever I hear a piece of music I don't like, it's always by Villa-Lobos?”
- Igor Stravinsky

“His music used to be original. Now it's aboriginal.”
- Sir Ernest Newman on Igor Stravinsky

“If he'd been making shell-cases during the war it might have been better for music.”
- Maurice Ravel on Camille Saint-Saens

“He has an enormously wide repertory. He can conduct anything, provided it's by Beethoven, Brahms or Wagner. He tried Debussy's La Mer once. It came out as Das Merde.”
- Anonymous Orchestra Member on George Szell

Someone commented to Rudolph Bing, manager of the Metropolitan Opera, that "George Szell is his own worst enemy." “Not while I'm alive, he isn't!” said Bing.

“Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands and all you can do is scratch it.”
- Sir Thomas Beecham to a lady cellist.

“After I die, I shall return to earth as a gatekeeper of a bordello and I won't let any of you enter.”
- Arturo Toscanini to the NBC Orchestra

“We cannot expect you to be with us all the time, but perhaps you could be good enough to keep in touch now and again.”
- Sir Thomas Beecham to a musician during a rehearsal

“Jack Benny played Mendelssohn last night. Mendelssohn lost.”
- ?

The great German conductor Hans von Bulow detested two members of an orchestra, who were named Schultz and Schmidt. Upon being told that Schmidt had died, von Bulow immediately asked, “Und Schultz?”

“Her voice sounded like an eagle being goosed.”
- Ralph Novak on Yoko Ono

“Parsifal - the kind of opera that starts at six o'clock and after it has been going three hours, you look at your watch and it says 6:20.”
- David Randolph

“One can't judge Wagner's opera Lohengrin after a first hearing, and I certainly don't intend hearing it a second time.”
- Gioacchino Rossini

“I liked the opera very much. Everything but the music.”
- Benjamin Britten on Stravinsky's The Rakes's Progress

“Her singing reminds me of a cart coming downhill with the brake on.”
- Sir Thomas Beecham on an unidentified soprano, "Die Walkyre"

“Music is the silence between the notes.”
- Claude Debussy

“Percussion music is revolution. Sound and rhythm have too long been submissive to the restrictions of nineteenth century music. Today we are fighting for their emancipation. Tomorrow, with electronic music in our ears, we will hear freedom. At the present stage of revolution, a healthy lawlessness is warranted. Experiment must necessarily be carried on by hitting anything-tin pans, rice bowls, iron pipes-anything we can lay our hands on. Not only hitting, but rubbing, scraping, making sound in every possible way...What we can't do ourselves will be done by machines which we will invent.”
- John Cage, 1939, from Rebirth Of the Cool Phive CD booklet

When asked what kind of music he loved, Paul McCartney replied, “Good.”

Bob Marley owned a german sports car. Someone asked him why he would drive such a car while singing about oppression, and he just replied: “BMW=Bob Marley Wailers.”
- ? as quoted by Scott Davidson

“Why doesn't the Earth fall? How can you walk upon it? It's the music. It's the music of the Earth, and the Sun, and the Stars. It's the music of yourself, vibrating. Yes, you are music too! You're all instruments. Everyone is supposed to be playing their part in this vast Arkestra of the Cosmos.”
- Sun Ra

“Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule.”
- Samuel Butler

“[Music is] the only religion that delivers the goods.”
- Frank Zappa

“Songs are funny things. They can slip across borders. Proliferate in prisons. Penetrate hard shells. I always believed that the right song at the right moment could change history.”
- Pete Seeger

“Would you have your songs endure? Build upon the human heart.”
- Robert Browning

“Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.”
-Charles Caleb Colton, author and clergyman (1780-1832)

“I hear Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. When I am drumming in public, I often gaze on the spectators and see folks moving to the beat. I find this is more gratifying than any applause I've received because Applause can be polite, groovin' is proven.”
- Reverend R Clark© 2K5

“Drumming is the heartbeat of humanity.
It balances both positive and negative energies
in the individual and ultimately in the community.
Drumming heals.”
- Maxwell Kofi Donkor

“Every Footprint leaves its mark in the sands of life.
Step by step, each one tells a story;
Beat by beat, echo voices of the ancestors.”
- Kokomon Clottey, "Mindful Drumming: Ancient Wisdom For Unleashing the Human Spirit and Building Community"

“Some people like to have lots of cats and dogs around, or art on the walls, or shelves full of mementos. I like drums; they calm me.”
- Mickey Hart, "Drumming at the Edge of Magic"

To quote a famous cello player Pablo Casals as I remember and embellish “If I do not practice for a day I can tell, If I do not practice for three days my wife can tell, If I do not practice for a week Everyone can tell.”
- as quoted by Reverend R Clark

“The truest expression of a people is in its dances and its music. Bodies never lie.”
- Agnes De Mille

“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.”
- Willy Wonka from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl

“Children learn to talk by experimenting and listening; they can learn to make music by experimenting and listening--unless we stop them! Place children in surroundings that are full of "invitations to learn," provide them with encouraging and sympathetic attitudes from adults, as well as knowledge, and amazing things can happen--especially to the sensory perceptions that are central to the arts... do we have the courage to embark with them on what are frequently unknown seas?”
- Emma D. Sheehy

“We must ask why apparently general musical abilities should be restricted to a chosen few in societies supposed to be culturally more advanced. Does cultural development represent a real advance in human sensitivity, or is it chiefly a diversion for elites and a weapon of class exploitation?”
- John Blacking

“While making music together, people surpass invisible frontiers --as music is the only language which reaches from heart to heart without words or aggression.”
- Yacoub 'Bruno' Camara of Fatala as quoted by Chuck Cogliandro

“Music was invented to confirm human loneliness.”
- Lawrence Durrell

“The new humanity will be universal, And it will have the artist's attitude, that of the musician; That is, it will recognize that the immense value and beauty of the human being lies precisely in the fact that each individual belongs to two realms, simultaneously, that of nature and that of the spirit.”
- Thomas Mann

“In the house of God there is never-ending festival; the angel choir makes eternal holiday; the presence of God's face gives joy that never fails. And from that everlasting, perpetual festivity there sounds in the ears of the heart a strain, melodious, mysterious, sweet-provided the world does not drown it.”
- St. Augustine from Patrologia

“There is nothing stable in the world; uproar's your only music.”
- John Keats, Letters of John Keats, Frederick Page, editor

“There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.”
- Albert Schweitzer

“The tree of life knows that, whatever happens, the warm music spinning around it will never stop. However much death may come, however much blood may flow, the music will dance with men and women as long as the air breaths them and the land plows and loves them.”
- Eduardo Galeano, "Open Veins of Latin America"

So, it became apparent that for music to say what it had to say depended as much on the listening as what was listened to. In a way I had always known this. From early on I had been aware of the perpetual inner commentary that relentlessly accompanied my listening, a commentary, both of the mind and the tensions of the physical body, which was shocked into silence only at certain privileged moments. But with this music (of Gurdjieff / de Hartmann) the contrast was far more marked. One of the titles given to a collection of this music was "Journeys to Inaccessible Places," and there seems no better description for the strange inner travelling I was called to, when available to it. At such moments there was a sense of total "consonance" between the vibrations of sound, a passing phenomenon in a temporal world, and the resonance from a world which has always been.
- Gurdjieff Society (London), by senior member, 1999

“When I get that feeling, that rhythm, that meter, that measure which comes to me as an inspiration, then I know I can produce it, and nobody under heaven can tell me that I cannot produce it.”
- Walter Russell

“Bang-whang-whang goes the drum, tootle-tetootle the fife;
No keeping one's haunches still: it's the greatest pleasure in life.”
- Robert Browning

“Music melts all the separate parts of our bodies together.”
- Anais Nin

“There is always music amongst the trees in the garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it.”
- M. Aumonier

“I would rather play Chiquita Banana and have my swimming pool than play Bach and starve.”
- Xavier Cugat

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
- John 1:1

“The finest words in the world are only vain sounds, if you cannot comprehend them.”
- Anatole France

“A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used.”
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.”
- William Shakespeare

“The imperishable sound, is the seed of all that exists. The past, the present, the future, all are but the unfolding of OM. And whatever transcends the three realms of time that indeed is the flowering of OM. This pure Self and OM are as one, and the different quarters of the Self correspond to OM and its sounds.”
- Mandukya Upanishad

“Nada Brahma” - Sanskrit for “The World is Sound.”

“All music, based upon melody and rhythm, is the earthly representative of heavenly music.”
- Plotinus

“Enjoy life, slow down to the rhythm of existence”
- Prem Rawat

“Sewa Kan” - “Without music there is no happiness, but without happiness there is also no music.”

“In the soul of my people, in the skins of the drums,
in the hands of the conga player, in the feet of the dancer,
I will live on.”
- Celia Cruz, 2000 (Latin music Diva)

“Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.”
- Charlie Parker

“Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
- Berthold "Red" Auerbach (Sports Writers Hall of Fame)

“I've outdone anyone you can name -- Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Strauss. Irving Berlin, he wrote 1,001 tunes. I wrote 5,500.”
- James Brown

“The man who can't dance says the band can't play.”
- Guinean proverb

“Those who can't dance say the music is no good.”
- Jamaican proverb

“Music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance.”
- Ezra Pound

“A cap of good acid costs five dollars and for that you can hear the Universal Symphony with God singing solo and the Holy Ghost on drums.”
- Hunter S. Thompson as quoted by William F. Buckley, Jr., who added: “Though one should be prepared to vomit rather frequently and disport with pink elephants and assorted grotesqueries while trying, often unsuccessfully, to make one's way to the toilet.”

“Elvis Presley had nothing to do with excellence, just myth.”
- Marlon Brando

“I don't know anything about music.
In my line you don't have to.”
- Elvis Presley

“Hell is full of musical amateurs.”
- George Bernard Shaw

“I never practice. I just open the case once in a while and throw in a piece of meat.”
- Wes Montgomery

Rehearsal

A dramatic ballad singer studied under a strict teacher who insisted that he rehearse day after day, month after month the same passage from the same song, without being permitted to go any further. Finally, overwhelmed by frustration and despair, the young man ran off to find another profession. One night, stopping at an inn, he stumbled upon a recitation contest. Having nothing to lose, he entered the competition and, of course, sang the one passage that he knew so well. When he had finished, the sponsor of the contest highly praised his performance. Despite the student's embarrassed objections, the sponsor refused to believe that he had just heard a beginner perform. “Tell me,” the sponsor said, “who is your instructor? He must be a great master.” The student later became known as the great performer Koshiji.

“These go to eleven.”
- Christopher Guest as Nigel Tufnel in "This Is Spinal Tap" Embassy Pictures, 1984

“Hope is the thing with feathers--
that perches in the soul--
and sings the tune without words--
and never stops--at all.”
- Emily Dickinson

“We should think of the church as an orchestra in which the different churches play on different instruments while a Divine Conductor calls the tune.”
- William R. Inge

“...let the wild rumpus begin!”
- M. Sendak

“MTV is the lava lamp of the 1980's.”
- Doug Ferrari

“When I was young we didn't have MTV;
we had to take drugs and go to concerts.”
- Steven Pearl

“Music is essentially useless, as life is.”
- George Santayana (1863-1952)

“This excruciating medley of brutal sounds is subordinated to a barely susceptible rhythm. Listening to this screaming music for a minute or two, one conjures up an orchestra of madmen, sexual maniacs, led by a man-stallion beating time with an enormous phallus.”
- Maxim Gorky (1868 - 1936) on an American dance band.

“Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes.”
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

”Coming and going by the dance, I see
That what I am not is a part of me.
Dancing is all that I can ever trust,
The dance is all I am, the rest is dust.
I will believe my bones and live by what
Will go on dancing when my bones are not.”
- Sydney Bertram Carter's self-written epitaph. He wrote many folk and other songs such as "The Crow and the Cradle" and "Lord of the Dance", wrote poetry and stood up for a vibrant questioning adventuring spirituality. He stepped on the rainbow in March of this year (2K4) at 88.

“Crutches may help us walk when we are weak , but until we set them aside we will never Dance...”
- Stephen LaBerge

“...and we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.”
- Friedrich Nietzche

“Watching quietly, listening softly, Dance with life, and be.”
- Ariel

“God creates, I do not create. I assemble and I steal everywhere to do it- from what I see, from what the dancers can do, from what others do.”
- George Balanchine, NY Times 16 Dec 63

“The dance is a poem of which movement is a word.”
- Mata Hari

“The djembe is not reserved only for tradition. It is a popular instrument that can harmonize with all other instruments. It is open to all. There are performances and then there is the tradition. One must not confuse them. They are completely different.”
- Mamady Keita et al: Djembe - Rhythm - Traditional - Mandingue

“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.”
- Ludwig Wittgenstein, "Tractatus"

“Die Musik drückt das aus, was nicht gesagt werden kann und worüber zu schweigen unmöglich ist.” (“Music expresses that which can not be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”)
- Victor Hugo

“Music is in the air - you take as much of it as you need”
-Edward Elgar

“Music then is simply the result of the effects of Love on rhythm and harmony.”
- Plato

“This land is your land and this land is my land, sure, but the world is run by those that never listen to music anyway.”
- Bob Dylan

“Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter.”
- Keats

“Hear, and your soul shall live.”
- Isaiah 55:3

“Here's the thing with me and the religious thing. This is the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music. I don't find it anywhere else. Songs like "Let Me Rest on a Peaceful Mountain" or "I Saw the Light" — that's my religion. I don't adhere to rabbis, preachers, evangelists, all of that. . . . The songs are my lexicon. I believe the songs.”
- Bob Dylan

“Do you believe in rock 'n roll? Can music save your mortal soul?”
- Don McLean "American Pie"

“Do you believe in magic?
Believe in the magic of a young girl's soul?
Believe in the magic of rock 'n roll?
Believe in the magic that can set you free?”
- The Lovin' Spoonful "Do You Believe in Magic"

“The relationship between rock and revolution is granting that most musicians are a bunch of avaricious ass-sucking dogs, and most of the song writers (too), myself in many ways included. It's the form or the intention, or the implications of the music that make it interesting to the revolutionary. It's a tool and a tactic for getting children to revolt against the protoplasm that raised them and consider other forms of government, other forms of dealing with the situation. When you coordinate and liberate and release the sexuality and the minds of youth, and can twist it and change it toward a different goal and direction, via rock 'n roll, via fucking in the streets, via dope, via action, direct action ... then you can maybe push this country and we can rewrite the whole structure, based on the kind of energy released by rock 'n roll.”
- Ed Sanders

“Soul music taught us how to move our ass.”
- Eldridge Cleaver

“We all sang the songs of peace.”
- Melanie "Lay Down"

“Let the sound take you away...”
- Steppenwolf "Magic Carpet Ride"

“Music is magic, Magic is life.”
- James "Jimi" Marshall Hendrix (1942 - 1970) US rock guitarist, songwriter, and singer

“When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.”
- James "Jimi" Marshall Hendrix (1942 - 1970) US rock guitarist, songwriter, and singer

“You have to forget about what other people say, when you're supposed to die, or when you're supposed to be loving. You have to forget about all these things. You have to go on & be crazy. Craziness is like heaven.”
- James "Jimi" Marshall Hendrix (1942 - 1970) US rock guitarist, songwriter, and singer

“I'm the one that has to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life, the way I want to.”
- James "Jimi" Marshall Hendrix (1942 - 1970) US rock guitarist, songwriter, and singer

“Those times I burned my guitar was like a sacrifice. You sacrifice the things you love. I love my guitar.”
- James "Jimi" Marshall Hendrix (1942 - 1970) US rock guitarist, songwriter, and singer

“Blues is easy to play, but hard to feel.”
- James "Jimi" Marshall Hendrix (1942 - 1970) US rock guitarist, songwriter, and singer

“White collar conservative flashin' down the street, pointing that plastic finger at me, they all assume my kind will drop and die, but I'm gonna wave my freak flag high.”
- James "Jimi" Marshall Hendrix (1942 - 1970) US rock guitarist, songwriter, and singer; "If Six Was Nine"

Percussionist Jokes

“Natives who beat drums to drive off evil spirits are objects of scorn to smart Americans who blow horns to break up traffic jams.”
- Mary Ellen Kelly

Why are orchestra intermissions limited to 20 minutes?
So you don't have to retrain the drummers.

What do you call someone who hangs out with musicians?
A drummer.

What did the drummer get on his IQ test?
Drool.

How do you know when a drummer is knocking at your door?
The knock always speeds up and when you open the door they don't know to come in.

How do you get a drummer to play an accelerando?
Ask him to play in 4/4 at a steady 120 bpm.

Why do bands have bass players?
To translate for the drummer.

Did you hear about the time the bass player locked his keys in the car?
It took two hours to get the drummer out.

How many drummers does it take to change a lightbulb?
1.“Why? Oh, wow! Is it like dark, man?”
2.Only one, but he'll break ten bulbs before figuring out that they can't just be pushed in.
3.Two: one to hold the bulb, and one to turn his throne (but only after they figure out that you have to turn the bulb).
4.Twenty. One to hold the bulb, and nineteen to drink until the room spins.
5.None. They have a machine to do that.

Why is it good that drummers have a half-ounce more brains than horses?
So they don't disgrace themselves in parades.

A Conguero is seeing a married woman when her husband's away. They're at it, when there's a knock at the apartment door! (Here you knock, five EVENLY spaced knocks) Woman whispers "Quick, hide, Papi, it's my husband!" (Five more evenly spaced knocks, louder) The Conguero shouts, "Clave, man, CLAVE!"

What's the difference between a drummer and a drum machine?
With a drum machine you only have to punch the information in once.

Heard backstage: “Will the musicians and the drummer please come to the stage!”

In New York City, an out of work jazz drummer named Ed was thinking of throwing himself off a bridge. But then he ran into a former booking agent who told him about the fantastic opportunities for drummers in Iraq. The agent said “If you can find your way over there, just take my card and look up the bandleader named Faisal--he's the large guy with the beard wearing gold pajamas and shoes that curl up at the toes.” Ed hit up everyone he knew and borrowed enough to buy transport to Iraq. It took several days to arrange for passport, visas, transportation into Iraq and the shipping of his equipment, but he was finally on his way.

Ed arrived in Baghdad and immediately started searching for Faisal. He found guys in pajamas of every color but gold. Finally, in a small coffeehouse, he saw a huge man with a beard--wearing gold pajamas and shoes that curled up at the toes! Ed approached him and asked if he was Faisal. He was. Ed gave him the agent's card and Faisal's face brightened into a huge smile.

“You're just in time--I need you for a gig tonight. Meet me at the market near the mosque at 7:30 with your equipment.”

“But,” gasped Ed, “what about a rehearsal?”

“No time--don't worry.” And with that, Faisal disappeared.

Ed arrived in the market at 7:00 to set up his gear. He introduced himself to the other musicians, who were all playing instruments he had never seen in his life. At 7:30 sharp, Faisal appeared and hopped on the bandstand, his gold pajamas glittering in the twilight. Without a word to the musicians, he lifted his arm for the downbeat.

“Wait.” shouted Ed. “What are we playing?”

Faisal shot him a look of frustration and shouted back, “Fake it! Just give me heavy afterbeats on 7 and 13.”

A drummer, sick of all the drummer jokes, decides to change his instrument. After some thought, he decides on the accordion. So he goes to the music store and says to the owner, “I'd like to look at the accordions, please.”

The owner gestures to a shelf in the corner and says “All our accordions are over there.”

After browsing, the drummer says, “I think I'd like the big red one in the corner.”

The store owner looks at him and says, “You're a drummer, aren't you?”

The drummer, crestfallen, says, “How did you know?”

The store owner says, “That "big red accordion" is the radiator.”

What do Ginger Baker and canteen coffee have in common?
They both suck without Cream.

How many drummers does it take to change a lightbulb?
Just one, so long as the roadie gets the ladder, sets it up and puts the bulb in the socket for him.

What is the difference between a chiropodist and Ginger Baker?
A chiropodist bucks up your feet

How many drummers does it take to change a lightbulb?
Five: One to screw the bulb in, and four to talk about how much better Neil Peart would have done it.

How can you tell when the drum riser is level?
Drool comes out of both sides of the drummer's mouth.

What do you call a drummer that breaks up with his girlfriend?
Homeless.

What's the last thing a drummer says in a band?
“Hey guys, why don't we try one of my songs?

How do you make a drummer a millionaire?
Give him a billion dollars.

What do you call a groupie who hangs around and annoys musicians?
A bodhran player.

What is the difference between a bodhran player and a terrorist?
Terrorists have sympathizers.

What do bodhran players use for birth control?
Their personalities.

What's the best thing to play a bodhran with?
A razor blade.

Q: How can you make a drummer slow down?
A: Put a sheet of music in front of him
Q #2: How can you make that drummer stop?
A: Put notes on it!

“There are simply too many notes.”
- Jeffrey Jones as Emperor Joseph II in "Amadeus" Orion Motion Pictures, 1984

“Can I read notes? The hell, not enough to hurt my playing.”
- Old banjo player in Pete Seegers book: "How to play the five-string banjo"

“Don't count-- feel. When the math comes in, the joy goes out.”
- John Diamond, on drumming. More of same and different jokes.

Children's Definitions of Love

  • “Love is that first feeling you feel before all the bad stuff gets in the way.”

  • “When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.”

  • “When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You know that your name is safe in their mouth.”

  • “Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.”

  • “Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.”

  • “Love is when someone hurts you. And you get so mad but you don't yell at them because you know it would hurt their feelings.”

  • “Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.”

  • “Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.”

  • “Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My mommy and daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss.”

  • “Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.”
    - Bobby (age 7)

  • “When you tell someone something bad about yourself and you're scared they won't love you anymore. But then you get surprised because not only do they still love you, they love you even more.”

  • “Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.”

  • “Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.”

Feeling -> Emotion

“Emotional states are the creation of mind. [You can choose how to react.] The mind obeys the will. What lies behind the will? Where is the location of that which lies behind the will?”
- Uma Silbey, "The Complete Crystal Guidebook"

“The state of your heart dictates whether you harbor a grudge or give grace, seek self-pity or seek Christ, drink human misery or taste God's mercy.”
- Max Lucado

“If I feel depressed I will sing. If I feel sad I will laugh. If I feel ill I will double my labor. If I feel fear I will plunge ahead. If I feel inferior I will wear new garments. If I feel uncertain I will raise my voice. If I feel poverty I will think of wealth to come. If I feel incompetent I will think of past success. If I feel insignificant I will remember my goals. Today I will be the master of my emotions.”
- Og Mandino

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.”
- Theodor Geisel, AKA Dr. Seuss, humorist, illustrator, and author (1904-1991)

Scale of Caring

Here's the scale of caring; let's scale it together:
Four levels of caring...

Care/don't care (totally after result/willing to release control)

Care passionately (attached to another or to result)

Coercive (care but think or feel you can't get result)

No awareness of caring (false apathy)

At any given moment in any interaction that might involve caring you can test where you are on this scale. It might help you to know that.
- Immunics

“People don't really care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
- Mike McNight

“Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule.”
- Samuel Butler

“Emotional sickness is avoiding reality at any cost.
Emotional health is facing reality at any cost.”
- M. Scott Peck M.D.

“Your soul is the sum total of all your feelings.”
- Neale Donald Walsch, "Conversations With God: Book III," p. 115

“One's feelings waste themselves in words;
they ought all to be distilled into action
. . . which bring results.”
- Florence Nightingale

How To Write English Properly

1. Verbs HAVE to agree with their subjects.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
4. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
5. Avoid cliches like "the plague". (They're "old hat")
6. Also, always avoid annoying alliteration.
7. Be more or less specific.
8. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.
9. Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
10. No sentence fragments.
11. Contractions aren't necessary and shouldn't be used.
12. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
13. Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
14. One should NEVER generalize.
15. Comparisons are as bad as clichés.
16. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
17. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
18. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
19. The passive voice is to be ignored.
20. Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.
21. Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice.
22. Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
23. Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth earth-shaking ideas.
24. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, poet and philosopher (1803-1882) said, “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”
25. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: Resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.
26. Puns are for children, not groan readers.
27. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
28. Even IF a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
29. Who needs rhetorical questions?
30. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement. And the last one...
31. Proofread carefully to see if you left any words out of your

Signs of being "Touched" spiritually

1) Big dopey grin.
2) Urge to touch other people. Spiritually, that is.
3) Urge to tell everyone over and over how happy and how wonderful things are.
4) Constant use of trite Pollyanna sayings.
5) Simplistic Pollyanna attitude.
- William Henry Timmins

The Tangled Web and Truth

“Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth.”
- Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter, sculptor

“The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle.
The chalice from the palace has the brew that is true.”
- Danny Kaye as Hubert Hawkins in "The Court Jester" Paramount, 1956

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It is simply too painful to acknowledge -- even to ourselves -- that we've been so credulous.”
- Carl Sagan

“A truth thats told with bad intent
Beats all the Lies you can invent.
[...]We are led to Believe a Lie
When we see not Thro the Eye.”
- William Blake

“It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.”
- Henry Louis Mencken

“A lie keeps growing and growing until it's as clear as the nose on your face.”
- Evelyn Venable (voice) as The Blue Fairy in "Pinocchio" Disney, 1940

“That Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself ... unless disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous if it is permitted freely to circulate them.”
- Thomas Jefferson, 1779

“If you take an infinite number of monkeys and an infinite number of typewriters, over an infinite period of time, they will ultimately type all the great works.”
- Bob Newhart

“We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the Complete Works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.”
- Robert Wilensky

“The Web brings people together because no matter what kind of a twisted sexual mutant you happen to be, you've got millions of pals out there. Type in "Find people that have sex with goats that are on fire" and the computer will ask, "Specify type of goat."”
- Jason Alexander (George Castanza on Seinfeld)

“Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach that person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.”

“I don't want any yes-men around me. I want everybody to tell me the truth even if it costs them their jobs.”
- Sam Goldwyn

“A spoken contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.”
- Sam Goldwyn

“Subtlety may deceive you; integrity never will.”
- Oliver Cromwell

“It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.”
- Isaac Asimov

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”
- Winston Churchill

“If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.”
- Rene Descartes (1596-1650) French philosopher

“Doubt everything at least once, even the proposition that two times two equals four.”
- Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, scientist and philosopher (1742-1799)

“Clinton lied. A man might forget where he parks or where he lives, but he never forgets oral sex, no matter how bad it is.”
- Barbara Bush (Former US First Lady)

“Self is a fever; self is a transient vision, a dream;
but truth is wholesome, truth is sublime, truth is everlasting.”
- Brian Brown. "The Story of Buddha and Buddhism"; Philadelphia: David McKay Co., 1927. p 110.

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
- George Orwell

“Only the truth is revolutionary.”
- Graffiti, Paris, May 1968

“The enemies of the truth are always awfully nice.”
- Christopher Morley, 1890 – 1957

“There are three truths: my truth, your truth, and the truth.”
- Chinese Proverb

“Truth fears no trial.”
- Proverb

“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away.”
- Elvis Presley

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”
- ?

“One falsehood spoils a thousand truths.”
- Ashanti proverb

“Truth is like beauty. It's relative, and often fades over time.”
- I. Chris English on alt.astrology

“Love truth, but pardon error.”
- Voltaire, philosopher and writer (1694-1778)

“There is no religion higher than Truth.”
- Seal of the Theosophical Society

“I shall be asked, "What is your religion?" And I shall answer that my religion is to seek truth in life and life in truth, conscious that I shall not find them while I live; my religion is to struggle tirelessly and incessantly with the unknown...”
- Miguel de Unamuno

“The true method of knowledge is experiment.”
- William Blake

“Knowledge is power.”
- Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)

“Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd.”
- William Blake

“Nothing is impossible. Some things are just less likely than others.”
- Jonathan Winters

“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”
- Arthur C. Clarke

“Those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by those who are doing it.”

“This became a credo of mine: Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.”
- Bette Davis

“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

If you want to make someone angry, tell them a lie; if you want to make them furious, tell them the truth.

“All great truths begin as blasphemies.”
- George Bernard Shaw

“Heresy is only another word for freedom of thought.”
- Graham Greene, novelist and journalist (1904-1991)

“There is a continuing, mandatory need for heresy in its most profound sense;
For freedom to choose and follow truth wherever it leads.”
- William Edelen, Contemporary American author/clergyman

“Let the gods avenge themselves.”
- Roman law maxim, on blasphemy

“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident.”
- Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher, 1788-1860

“Truth, is the reference of a judgment to something outside that stands as its ground.”
- Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher, 1788-1860

“One's real life is often the life that one does not lead.”
- Oscar Wilde

“We are what we pretend to be.”
- Kurt Vonnegut, "Mother Night"

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
- Aristotle

“Habits are safer than rules; you don't have to watch them. And you don't have to keep them either. They keep you.”
- Frank Crane

“People pay for what they do, and still more, for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it simply by the lives they lead.”
- James Baldwin

“Our concern must be to live while we're alive... to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are.”
- Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

“Where there are two people, there is untruth.”
- Soren Kierkegaard

“Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?”
- James Thurber

“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.”
- Thomas Pynchon, writer (1937- )

“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author and aviator (1900-1945)

“Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.”
– Leo Tolstoy (AKA Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy) novelist, philosopher, pacifist and political radical (1828-1910)

“As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand. ”
- J Billings

“Its a rare person who wants to hear what he doesn't want to hear.”
- Dick Cavett

“Conform and be dull.”
- James Frank Dobi

“The power to fit in with one's social peers can be irresistible. To a human lemming, the logic behind an opinion doesn't count as much as the power and popularity behind an opinion.”
- Norman Livergood

“Don't confuse your opinion with the truth.”
- Werner Erhard

“If the truth is that ugly -- which it is -- then we do have to be careful about the way that we tell the truth. But to say somehow that telling the truth should be avoided because people may respond badly to the truth seems bizarre to me.”
- Chuck Skoro, Deacon, St. Paul's Catholic Church

“Accept it or reject it; you have to know it.”
- Mrs. McKay, RYCI Geology teacher

“To repay in kind, to emulate the wrongdoing, immaturity, or incompetence of those one has to contend with, is certainly at times to accept lower standards. Such behavior is pushed to its ludicrous extreme in the question posed by a distraught mother: "Shall I bite my baby back?"”
- Sissela Bok, "Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life" p. 132, ISBN 0-394-72804-1

“Ultimately the governors, the rulers, can only rule if they control opinion...”
-Noam Chomsky

“Give me control of the German media, and I can control the German people.”
- Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister

“In March, 1915, the J. P. Morgan interests, the steel, shipbuilding, and powder interest, and their subsidiary organizations, got together 12 men high up in the newspaper world and employed them to select the most influential newspapers in the United States and sufficient number of them to control generally the policy of the daily press... They found it was necessary to purchase the control of only 25 of the greatest papers. An agreement was reached; the policy of the papers was bought, to be paid for by the month; an editor was furnished for each paper to properly supervise and edit information regarding the questions of preparedness, militarism, financial policies, and other things of national and international nature considered vital to the interests of the purchasers.”
- U.S. Congressman Oscar Callaway, 1917

“We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.”
- David Rockefeller, founder of, and in an address before, the Trilateral Commission, in June of 1991

“Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they ought to have.”
- Richard Salant, former President of CBS News

“The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, so what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes... They pull the strings... AND WE DANCE.”
- John Swinton, former chief-of-staff for the New York Times, in an address to fellow journalists.

“When you control opinion, as corporate America controls opinion in the United States by owning the media, you can make the [many] believe almost anything you want, and you can guide them.”
- Gore Vidal, "The Golden Age"

“The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. It is a melancholy truth that a suppression of the press could not more completely deprive the nation of its benefits than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood.”
- Thomas Jefferson

“The media's the most powerful entity on Earth...
They have the power to make the innocent guilty
and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power.
Because they control the minds of the masses.”
- Malcolm X

“Do not worry over the charge of treason to your masters, but be concerned about the treason that involves yourselves. Be true to yourself and you cannot be a traitor to any good cause on earth.”
-Eugene Debs (Under the threat of a jail term in Canton, Ohio, in 1918.)

“It's impossible to be loyal to your family, your friends, your country, and your principles, all at the same time.”
- Mignon McLaughlin, author (1915-)

Perspectives

Gratitude

“The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.”
- Henri J.M. Nouwen (1932 - 1996)

“Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.”
- Karl Barth, "Joy" by Beverly Elaine Eanes

“Teach us to remember the little courtesies, to be swift to speak the grateful and happy word, to believe rejoicingly in each other's best, and to face all life bravely because we face it with united heart.”
- Walter Russell Bowie, "The Gift of Prayer" by Jared Kieling, ed.

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing; It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”
- Voltaire

“Appreciative words are the most powerful force for good on the earth.”
- George W. Crane, "Full Esteem Ahead" by Diane Loomans

“I have always believed that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.”
- Hermann Hesse, Pulitzer Prize–winning German novelist

“The human mind never framed an aphorism containing a more important truth than this one: "All seeming misfortunes are blessings in disguise." There is but one qualification necessary to render this an aphorism of universal validity; namely, one must have performed [her or] his whole duty on the premises. That is to say, if (s)he does all that (s)he can, honestly and honorably, to avert a threatened calamity, (s)he will find that if (s)he yields not to discouragement or despair when the catastrophe comes, it will invariably prove to have been a blessing. Seeming calamities are often the result of one's having mistaken [her or] his calling; and it frequently happens that the best part of one's lifetime is spent in a vain search for the work which the Lord gave [them] to do. But if courage is not lost, and [one's] career is characterized by industry and integrity, (s)he is sure to find it at last. (S)He can then look back upon [her or] his past life and see cause to thank God for every seeming misfortune as fervently as for every season of prosperity; for (s)he will then realize that each has constituted a step in the pathway leading to [her or] his true sphere of usefulness.”
- Thomson Jay Hudson, "The Evolution of the Soul"

“There are some apparent human tragedies that defy the imagination; we cannot see the goodness of God in these catastrophes. What can we say when there is no evidence of God's goodness? What can we say when with all our positive thinking we cannot possibly see anything good in what has happened? Then God will show His other face. And this is the face of mercy. Nothing will ever happen to you unless it is good, good for you, good for God, good for someone else. If anything ever befalls you that does not appear to be good for you, for God, or for anyone else, but is only the result of sin or of some terrible blunder, then you can expect a redeeming sympathy and the kiss of God's tender mercy. And if God will come to comfort, you and I can take anything!”    “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”   (Ps. 23)
- Dr. Robert Schuller

“It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.”
- Voltaire

“I think it pisses God off when you walk by the color purple in a field and don't notice it.”
- Margaret Avery as Shug in "The Color Purple" Warner Bros., 1985

“ "My feet are cold," one says, and the legless man replies: "So are mine. So are mine." ”
- Kentucky folklore

“I was sad because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.
So I said, "Got any shoes you're not using?" ”
- Steven Wright

“Think of something for which you are grateful today. Say thanks.”

“I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed.”
- Matthew Henry, minister (1662-1714)

“Thank heavens, the sun has gone in, and I don't have to go out and enjoy it.”
- Logan Pearsall Smith

“Pride slays thanksgiving, but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grows. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.”
- Henry Ward Beecher

“Were there no God, we would be in this glorious world with grateful hearts, and no one to thank.”
- Christina Rossetti, 1830 – 1894

“The worship most acceptable to God comes from a thankful and cheerful heart.”
- Plutarch, c A.D. 100

“I am grateful to You, Giver and Sustainer of life, for having granted me another day of life.
Your love and faith in me is truly overwhelming.”
- Rabbi Terry Bookman, "The Busy Soul"

“The generosity of God in sharing the goodness of creation with us can elicit only one possible response - that of gratitude.”
- Esther de Waal, "To Everything a Season" by Bonnie Thurston

“Look closely and you will find that people are happy because they are grateful.
The opposite of gratefulness is just taking everything for granted.”
- David Steindl-Rast, "The Music of Silence"

“Continuous practice, day after day, is the most appropriate way of expressing gratitude. This means that you practice continuously, without wasting a single day of your life, without using it for your own sake. Why is it so? Your life is a fortunate outcome of the continuous practice of the past. You should express your gratitude immediately.”
- Zen Master Dogen, "Enlightenment Unfolds" by Kazuaki Tanahashi, ed.

“Gratitude is the state of mind of thankfulness.
As it is cultivated,
we experience an increase in our "sympathetic joy,"
our happiness at another's happiness.
Just as in the cultivation of compassion,
we may feel the pain of others,
so we may begin to feel their joy as well.
And it doesn't stop there.”
- Stephen Levine, "A Year to Live How to Live This Year as if it Were Your Last," p. 93-94, ISBN 0-517-70879-5

“The pain man creates by attempting to gain his own pleasures, reacts upon him as his own pain. When man ceases to be the cause of pain, he will cease to be the receiver of it. When man becomes the cause of delight he will reap only delight. And each must learn this lesson for himself.”
- Earlyne Chaney, "Shining Moments of a Mystic"

“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, and swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing, and grace before I dip the pen in ink.”
- Dale Turner, "Different Seasons"

“Gratitude is the intention to count-your-blessings every day,
every minute, while avoiding, whenever possible,
the belief that you need or deserve different circumstances.”
- Timothy Miller, "How To Want What You Have"

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it, is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”
- William Arthur Ward

“Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone.”
- Gladys Berthe Stern

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
- John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“Just for today: I will live the attitude of gratitude.”
- Mikao Usui, Reiki precept

“Humanly--I seek the outward expressions of abundance; sources of my good and welfare. Such error is to be corrected through progressions of lack and limitation until I realize that I do no-thing. Through the grace that is within ALL, outward forms of joyous abundance come into harmonious being effortlessly.”
- nari

“Let's be grateful for those who give us happiness; they are the charming gardeners who make our soul bloom.”
- Marcel Proust

“Notice when you say or someone near you says "Thank you."
Think of those two words as a signpost to the spiritual world.”
- Lewis Richmond, "Work as a Spiritual Practice"

“Sanctity has to do with gratitude.
To be a saint is to be fueled by gratitude,
nothing more and nothing less.”
- Ronald Rolheiser, "The Holy Longing"

“I think the dying pray at the last not "Please,"
but "Thank You," as a guest thanks his host at the door.”
- Annie Dillard, "Super, Natural Christians" by Sallie McFague

“If the only prayer you say in your whole life
is "thank you," that would suffice.”
- Meister Eckhart

“My mother thanks you. My father thanks you. My sister thanks you. And I thank you.”
- James Cagney as George Cohan in "Yankee Doodle Dandy" Warner Bros., 1942

“I am too blessed to be stressed and too anointed to be disappointed!”

Chaos

“”
-

“In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.”
- Carl Gustav Jung

“Chaos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought.
Chaos always defeats order because it is better organized.”
- Terry Pratchet (attributed by Tom Nagel)

“Wo das Chaos auf die Ordnung trifft, gewinnt meist das Chaos, weil es besser organisiert ist.”
- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)

“Do you know what amazes me more than anything else?
The impotence of force to organize anything.
There are only two powers in the world ­-the spirit and the sword;
and in the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte

Following a "trial" held in Paris in 1934, during which Dali was expelled from the group of surrealists there, for not playing well with others. Dali modestly responded: “The difference between me and the surrealists is that I am Surrealism.”

“Cuando tenia seis anos queria ser cocinero, a los siete queria ser Napoleon. Desde entonces mi ambicion ha ido creciendo mas y mas.” ("When I was six I wanted to be a cook, at seven I wanted to be Napoleon. Since then my ambition has grown more and more.")
- Salvador Dali

“I don't take drugs: I am drugs.”
- Salvador Dali (Spanish painter and sculptor)

I will put Chaos into fourteen lines
And keep him there; and let him thence escape
If he be lucky; let him twist and ape
Flood, fire, and demon - his adroit designs
Will strain to nothing in the strict confines
Of this sweet Order, where, in pious rape,
I hold his essence and amorphous shape,
Till he with Order mingles and combines.
Past are the hours, the years, of our duress,
His arrogance, our awful servitude:
I have him. He is nothing more nor less
Than something simple not yet understood;
I shall not even force him to confess;
Or answer. I will only make him good.
- Edna St. Vincent Millay

“We must see that it is foolish, sinful and suicidal to destroy the health of nature for the sake of an economy that is really not an economy at all but merely a financial system, one that is unnatural, undemocratic, sacrilegious, and ephemeral.”
- Wendell Berry

“If we wish to make a new world, we have the material ready. The first one, too, was made out of chaos.”
- Robert Quillen

“We can't leave the haphazard to chance.”
- N.F. Simpson

Compassion

“A society based on universal compassion is not just our only hope; it is an evolutionary imperative.”
- Marc Ian Barasch in "Field Notes on the Compassionate Life: A Search for the Soul of Kindness"

“In the small matters trust the mind, in the large ones the heart.”
- Sigmund Freud, neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis (1856-1939)

“Walk the Path of Heart.”
- The Native Elders

“Many native cultures believe that the heart is the bridge between Father Sky and Mother Earth. For these traditions, the four-chambered heart, the source for sustaining emotional and spiritual health, is described as being full, open, clear, and strong. These traditions feel that it is important to check the condition of the four-chambered heart daily, asking: "Am I full-hearted, open-hearted, clear-hearted, and strong-hearted?"”
- Angeles Arrien, "The Four-Fold Way"

“Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye.”
- H. Jackson Browne, Jr.

“We keep so busy talking we are so keen to act
that we forget that in the heart lies all we need untapped, intact.”
- Angelus Silesius

“Give yourself to love itself, without a shred of you remaining. Die completely into loving. When you return, when your sense of self is recollected, you will be refreshed through and through, washed awake by the innocence lying wide on the other side of surrender.”
- David Deida

“What we say is important... for in most cases the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
- Jim Beggs

“The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of the wise man is in his heart.”
- Benjamin Franklin

“Love is the most beautiful thing in the world.”
- Baba Olatunji as quoted by Dan, St Paul, MN

“I am on the track of a more essential thing: the compassionate uses of a mortal mind and body. If I learn that, what can salvation matter?”
- Czeslaw Milosz and Catherine Madsen

“If you see on the evening news a person who moves you by his distress, just breathe it in and breathe out to him love and strength.”
- Andrew Harvey, "The Direct Path"

“Like a mother who protects her child, her only child, with her own life, one should cultivate a heart of unlimited love and compassion towards all living beings.”
- Gautama Buddha, "The Mystic Vision" by Andrew Harvey & Anne Baring, ed.

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
- Mother Teresa

“The major block to compassion is the judgment in our minds.
Judgment is the mind's primary tool of separation.”
- Diane Berke, "The Gentle Smile"

“Make no judgements where you have no compassion.”
- Anne McCaffrey

“Some people find the experience and practice of compassion as a spiritual discipline to be a more direct route to the transformation of the heart than prayer. It is not that prayer does not or should not play a role in their lives, but their way to the opening of the heart lies through deeds of compassion. "Just do it" summarizes this path of transformation.”
- Marcus J. Borg, "The God We Never Knew"

“The only reason that we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with. To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately at ourselves, we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else's eyes.”
- Pema Chödrön “How did I get so lucky to have my heart awakened to others and their suffering?”
- Pema Chödrön “Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.”
- Pema Chödrön “Compassion is the litmus test and culminating touchstone of a spirituality of Earth.”
- James Conlon, "Earth Story, Sacred Story"

“Compassion begins with the acknowledgment of the single inescapable truth that is the foundation for the possibility of love between human beings - an awareness of the tragic sense of life.”
- Sam Keen, "To Loved and Be Loved"

“Love is the force that ignites the spirit and binds teams together.”
– Phil Jackson, "Sacred Hoops"

“Each breath a man who Loves
Each breath a woman who Loves
Goes to fill the water tank...
Where the spirit forces drink.”
- Robert Bly, "Loving a Woman in Two Worlds"

“If you have anything really valuable to contribute to the world, it will come through the expression of your own personality - that single spark of divinity that sets you off and makes you different from every other living creature.”
- Bruce Barton

“Each of us has a spark of life inside us, and our highest endeavor ought to be to set off that spark in one another.”
- Kenny Ausubel

“Give birth to compassion for the nearest yet unfamiliar aspect of your self, as you do for the one outside who feels like a stranger.”
- Neil Douglas-Klotz, "The Hidden Gospel"

“Compassion is not sentiment but is making justice and doing works of mercy. Compassion is not a moral commandment but a flow and overflow of the fullest human and divine energies.”
- Matthew Fox

“Our lack of compassion stems from our inability to see deeply into the nature of things.”
- Kenneth S. Leong, "The Zen Teachings of Jesus"

“There are many paths leading to the top of Mount Fuji, but there is only one summit - Love.”
- Morihei Ueshiba

“Mankind's role is to fulfill his heaven-sent purpose through a sincere heart that is in harmony with all creation and loves all things.”
- Morihei Ueshiba

“Compassion is a foundation for sharing our aliveness and building a more humane world.”
- Martin Lowenthal, "Opening the Heart of Compassion"

“God is a concept by which we measure our pain.”
- John Lennon

“Compassion literally means to feel with, to suffer with. Everyone is capable of compassion, and yet everyone tends to avoid it because it's uncomfortable. And the avoidance produces psychic numbing - resistance to experiencing our pain for the world and other beings.”
- Joanna Macy, "Open Mind" by Diane Mariechild

“Twenty years ago I met a man from Montana who watched the news on television and read the newspapers because he said that doing so awakened his heart of compassion. Although not particularly interested in the news itself, he found these two forms of media rich sources for cultivating his growing sense of care for and connection to people, animals, land masses, oceans, forests, and countries all over the planet. He went on to say that he would sit down in his living room, watch or read about some atrocity occurring in some part of the world, and feel his pain, his impulse to turn away, and, in turn, his sense of connection with all of these beings.”
- Saki Santorelli, "Heal Thy Self"

“God speaks to us in a thousand voices each with the same clear message:
"I love you. Please trust me on this one."”
- Hugh Prather, "Spiritual Notes to Myself"

“Falling in love is the most important clue a human can ever find to his or her latent spiritual needs and potentialities. Without this experience a human's relationship with God remains largely one of obedience, respect and will, but one that ultimately lacks passion, heart and love.”
- Patrick Arnold

“Like a lover who spends all his time thinking of his distant love, God has been thinking of me since before I was born, for all eternity.”
- Ernesto Cardenal, "Abide in Love"

“Absence diminishes small passions and increases great ones, as wind blows out candles and fans fire.”
- LaRochefoucauld

“Learning how to love is the goal and the purpose of spiritual life - not learning how to develop psychic powers, not learning how to bow, chant, do yoga, or even meditate, but learning to love. Love is the truth. Love is the light.”
- Lama Surya Das, "Awakening to the Sacred"

“Love was meant to be also a sign, a symbol, a messenger, a telltale of the Divine.... Love is a messenger from God saying that every human affection and every ecstasy of love are sparks from the great flame of love that is God.”
- Fulton J. Sheen, "From the Angel's Blackboard"

“The human mind makes foolish divisions in what love sees as one.”
- Anthony de Mello, "The Heart of Enlightenment"

“Every time we make love to a human being, fully, we are making love to everything that lives and breathes. In that sense it becomes communion. It is a sacrament.”
- Terry Tempest Williams, "Listening to the Land" by Derrick Jensen

“Make Love, Not War.”

“The only reason there is for living is love. There is no other reason for staying on earth.”
- Joel Goldsmith, "Spiritual Healing"

“To take good care of yourself and to take good care of living beings and of the environment is the best way to love God.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh, "Living Buddha, Living Christ"

“What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork.”
- Pearl Bailey

“Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections. For love which hath ends, will have an end; whereas that which is founded on true virtue, will always continue.”
- John Dryden

“The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.”
- John Steinbeck, novelist, Nobel laureate (1902-1968)

“Love all. Trust a few. Do wrong to none.”
- William Shakespeare

“Love is all you need.”
- Beatles, "All You Need is Love"

“Dejeme decirle, a riesgo de parecer ridiculo, que el revolucionario verdadero esta guiado por grandes sentimientos de amor.” (Let me say at the risk of seeming ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.)
- Che Guevara

“C'mon people, now smile on your brother, ev'ry-body get together, try to love one another right now.”
- Chet Powers/Youngbloods "Get Together"

“Carry on, love is coming. Love is coming to us all.”
- CS&N, "Carry On"

“And if you can't be with the one you love, honey Love the one you're with.”
- CS&N, "Love the One You're With"

“Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. . . . It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.”
- Erica Jong, "How to Save Your Own Life"

“I do my thing, and you do your thing. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you, and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful.”
- Frederick E. Perl

“With our love we could save the world”
- George Harrison, "Within Without You"

“We've got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can't just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it's going to get on by itself. You've got to keep on watering it. You've got to really look after it and nurture it.”
- John Lennon

“Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love.”
- Kahlil Gibran