"he said...she said..."

2011-11-14T05:43:00.000-05:00

All great change in America begins at the dinner table. --Ronald Reagan

2011-11-13T09:29:00.001-05:00

Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith. --Henry Ward Beecher

2011-11-10T17:26:00.001-05:00

“Our grandchildren accept us for ourselves, without rebuke or effort to change us, as no one in our entire lives has ever done, not our parents, siblings, spouses, friends - and hardly ever our own grown children.” --Ruth Goode

2011-11-01T09:05:00.003-04:00

‎"Do you know that nothing you do in this life will ever matter, unless it is about loving God and loving the people he has made?” --Francis Chan

2011-02-20T07:14:00.001-05:00

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. --Albert Einstein

2011-01-02T06:02:00.001-05:00

Every grown-up man consists wholly of habits, although he is often unaware of it and even denies having any habits at all. --Georges Gurdjieff

2011-01-01T17:18:00.000-05:00

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. --Eleanor Roosevelt

2010-12-31T22:59:00.001-05:00

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe. --Anatole France

2010-12-30T19:47:00.000-05:00

“We want a story that starts out with an earthquake and works its way up to a climax.” —Samuel Goldwyn

Try, try again!

2010-01-01T12:12:00.002-05:00

OK, new day, new month, new year, new decade. Time to try again to start this stalled blog. Here's a good one from W. Somerset Maugham:

I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid strangers in their birthplace, and the leafy lanes they have known from childhood or the populous streets in which they have played, remain but a place of passage. They may spend their whole lives aliens among their kindred and remain aloof among the only scenes they have ever known. Perhaps it is this sense of strangeness that sends men far and wide in the search for something permanent, to which they may attach themselves. Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history. Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs. here is the home he sought, and he will settle amid scenes that he has never seen before, among men he has never known, as though they were familiar to him from his birth. Here at last he ﬁnds rest.

2009-11-11T02:17:00.000-05:00

"In hard times she had learned three things - she was stronger than she ever imagined, Jesus was closer than she ever realized, and she was loved more than she ever knew." —Holley Gerth

Clear!

2009-11-11T02:12:00.003-05:00

After a persistent vegetative state lasting over a year, I will now attempt to rescusitate my quote blog. Is everyone ready?

"Clear!"

*bzxchkch!*

"It's alive! It's alive!"

Apology and Explanation

2008-09-15T12:46:00.000-04:00

OK, folks, I want to say "sorry" for my recent scarcity, and offer an explanation for my recent extended (and somewhat continuing) absence. Let me offer some "facts of (my) life."

1. I have a play script that must be done by December 31, 2008.
2. I need to finish a brochure that I signed up for months ago.
3. I need to submit an outline for a resource I proposed weeks ago
4. I have a manuscript that's been ready to be shipped for almost a year.
5. I'm taking a university writing class.
6. I have a new baby grandson!

Sooo....

I'll get here when I can. Please be patient with me.

2008-08-24T07:36:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the "gap"--I didn't fall off the edge of the world! With everyone out of school things got a little crazy, but now I'm back. So, to make up for lost time, let's start things back up with a "doozy"!

Your spouse's sex life with you is the only legitimate one they have; what are you doing to make it the best it can be, so it's more appealing than the other options? —Unknown

2008-07-08T01:45:00.000-04:00

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

2008-07-07T01:43:00.000-04:00

I have a higher and greater standard of principle. Washington could not lie. I can lie but I won't. —Mark Twain

2008-07-06T01:50:00.000-04:00

You can tell the size of your God by looking at the size of your worry list. The longer your list, the smaller your God. —Unknown

2008-07-05T19:40:00.000-04:00

I believe humans get a lot done, not because we're smart, but because we have thumbs so we can make coffee. —Flash Rosenberg

2008-06-30T22:25:00.001-04:00

A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me, I'm afraid of widths. —Steven Wright

2008-06-28T12:33:00.001-04:00

I cannot find language of sufficient energy to convey my sense of the sacredness of private integrity. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

2008-06-27T00:04:00.000-04:00

Pride is what we have. Vanity is what others have. —Unknown

2008-06-26T11:57:00.001-04:00

An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications. --Robert A Heinlein

2008-06-22T01:11:00.000-04:00

Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in a lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. —Reinhold Niebuhr

2008-06-21T22:00:00.002-04:00

Public opinion is what people think other people are thinking. —Unknown

2008-06-20T01:58:00.000-04:00

He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words. —Elbert Hubbard

2008-06-19T01:02:00.000-04:00

Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then beat you with experience. —Unknown

2008-06-18T01:42:00.000-04:00

Life is not about how fast you run, or how high you climb, but how well you bounce. —Unknown

2008-06-17T01:39:00.000-04:00

Many people will walk in and out of your life. But only true friends will leave footprints in your heart. —Eleanor Roosevelt

2008-06-16T01:51:00.000-04:00

To keep your home life brimming
With love in the marriage cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it.
Whenever you're right - shut up!!
—Ogden Nash

2008-06-15T01:07:00.000-04:00

On the sixth day, God created the platypus. And God said, "Let's see the evolutionists try and figure this one out." —Unknown

I WAS AWAY AT CAMP...NOW I'M BACK!

2008-06-14T19:03:00.001-04:00

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic. —Frank Pepper

2008-06-04T01:29:00.000-04:00

Life is bigger than this moment. Life is shorter than you think. —Mike Hofer

2008-06-03T13:10:00.001-04:00

Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool. —Unknown

2008-06-02T12:03:00.000-04:00

You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down. —Annie Dillard

2008-05-25T01:42:00.000-04:00

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling 'darkness' on the wall of his cell. —C.S. Lewis

2008-05-24T18:35:00.000-04:00

If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer. —Yogi Berra

2008-05-23T02:03:00.001-04:00

A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a joke or worried to death by a frown on the right person's brow. —Charles Brower

2008-05-22T20:55:00.000-04:00

The trouble with doing nothing is that you never know when you are finished. —Unknown

2008-05-21T23:43:00.001-04:00

If you fell down yesterday, stand up today. —H.G. Wells

2008-05-20T11:59:00.000-04:00

The reason you close your eyes when you dream, kiss, or pray is because the best things in life are not seen with the eyes, but with the heart. —Unknown

2008-05-19T01:33:00.000-04:00

The full acting out of the self's surrender to God therefore demands pain: this action, to be perfect, must be done from the pure will to obey, in the absence, or in the teeth, of inclination. —C.S. Lewis

2008-05-18T04:22:00.000-04:00

God understands our prayers even when we can't find the words to say them. —Unknown

2008-05-17T13:50:00.000-04:00

Age appears best in four things: old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. —Francis Bacon

2008-05-16T23:41:00.000-04:00

Good cheer is something more than faith in the future, it is gratitude for the past and joy in the present. —Unknown

2008-05-15T01:10:00.001-04:00

Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves. —Albert Einstein

2008-05-14T01:27:00.000-04:00

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail."

2008-05-13T01:28:00.000-04:00

Mankind's greatest gift, also its greatest curse, is that we have free choice. We can make our choices built from love or from fear. —Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

2008-05-12T05:47:00.000-04:00

Your sons weren't made to like you. That's what grandchildren are for. —Jane Smiley

2008-05-11T01:35:00.000-04:00

Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees. —Victor Hugo

2008-05-10T13:47:00.000-04:00

The clear sighted do not rule the world, but they sustain and console it. —Agnes Repplier

2008-05-09T07:24:00.000-04:00

He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense. —Joseph Conrad

2008-05-08T08:31:00.000-04:00

Only choose in marriage a man whom you would choose as a friend if he were a woman. —Joseph Joubert

2008-05-07T07:27:00.000-04:00

Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before, how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever.... —Isak Dinesen

2008-05-06T07:42:00.001-04:00

Never cease loving a person, and never give up hope for him, for even the prodigal son who had fallen most low, could still be saved; the bitterest enemy and also he who was your friend could again be your friend; love that has grown cold can kindle. —Soren Kierkegaard

2008-05-05T07:50:00.002-04:00

This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.
The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.
—Jeremiah the Prophet? (Lamentations 3:21-23

2008-05-04T07:23:00.000-04:00

When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not. —Mark Twain

2008-05-03T07:40:00.000-04:00

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. —Albert Einstein

2008-05-02T00:33:00.000-04:00

There remains for us only the very narrow way, often extremely difficult to find, of living every day as though it were our last, and yet living in faith and responsibility as though there were to be a great future. —Dietrich Bonhoeffer

2008-05-01T10:10:00.000-04:00

Intellect takes us along in the battle of life to a certain limit, but at the crucial moment it fails us. Faith transcends reason. It is when the horizon is the darkest and human reason is beaten down to the ground that faith shines brightest and comes to our rescue. —Mohandas Gandhi

2008-04-30T08:11:00.002-04:00

It is easy enough to be pleasant
When life flows by like a song,
But the man worth while
Is the one who will smile
When everything goes dead wrong.
For the test of the heart is trouble,
And it always comes with the years,
And the smile that is worth
The praises of earth
Is the smile that shines through the tears.
—Irish Saying

2008-04-29T16:59:00.000-04:00

Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. —Martin Luther King, Jr.

2008-04-28T07:00:00.001-04:00

Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him out to the public. —Winston Churchill

2008-04-27T07:00:00.000-04:00

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius--and a lot of courage--to move in the opposite direction. —E. F. Schumacker

2008-04-26T07:12:00.000-04:00

I waited patiently for the LORD; He turned to me and heard my cry. —King David of Israel (Psalm 40:1)

2008-04-25T07:20:00.000-04:00

I don't believe in Christian art or music...I believe in great art. If you are an artist, your job is to do great art and you don't need to tack on the word Christian. It's already great. —Rob Bell

2008-04-24T09:50:00.000-04:00

The purpose of education is to keep a culture from being drowned in senseless repetitions, each of which claims to offer a new insight. —Harold Rosenberg

2008-04-23T22:40:00.000-04:00

Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just. —Blaise Pascal

2008-04-22T01:10:00.001-04:00

Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair. —Rollo May

2008-04-21T07:54:00.000-04:00

God will not suffer man to have a knowledge of things to come; for if he had prescience of his prosperity, he would be careless; and if understanding of his adversity, he would be despairing and senseless. —Saint Augustine

2008-04-20T08:53:00.000-04:00

The most evident token and apparent sign of true wisdom is a constant and unconstrained rejoicing. —Michel de Montaigne

2008-04-19T08:39:00.000-04:00

This is as true in everyday life as it is in battle: we are given one life and the decision is ours whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind, or whether to act, and in acting, to live. —Omar Bradley

2008-04-18T11:51:00.000-04:00

It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion. —Anatole France

2008-04-17T07:33:00.000-04:00

Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion. —Florence Nightingale

2008-04-16T17:49:00.000-04:00

Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature. —Saint Augustine

2008-04-15T09:09:00.001-04:00

The right time is ANY time that one is still so lucky as to have. —Henry James

2008-04-14T20:39:00.001-04:00

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month. —Teddy Roosevelt

2008-04-10T14:50:00.001-04:00

I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiousity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life. —Eleanor Roosevelt

2008-04-09T10:24:00.000-04:00

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival. —C.S. Lewis

2008-04-08T07:31:00.001-04:00

To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there. —Kofi Annan

2008-04-07T10:20:00.000-04:00

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. —Jack London

2008-04-06T08:56:00.000-04:00

Most of life is routine - dull and grubby, but routine is the momentum that keeps a man going. If you wait for inspiration you'll be standing on the corner after the parade is a mile down the street. —Ben Nicholas

2008-04-05T11:13:00.000-04:00

A man desires praise that he may be reassured, that he may be quit of his doubting of himself; he is indifferent to applause when he is confident of success. —Alec Waugh

2008-04-04T22:10:00.000-04:00

No greater nor more affectionate honor can be conferred on an American than to have a public school named after him. —Herbert Hoover

2008-04-03T19:34:00.000-04:00

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief...and unspeakable love. —Washington Irving

2008-04-02T08:56:00.000-04:00

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragement, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak. —Thomas Carlyle

2008-04-01T11:34:00.000-04:00

A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach or reading Plato in a state of pride. —C.S. Lewis

2008-03-31T07:02:00.000-04:00

The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish. —Robert Louis Stevenson

2008-03-30T08:39:00.000-04:00

Sooner or later, man has always had to decide whether he worships his own power or the power of God. —Arnold Toynbee

2008-03-29T12:39:00.000-04:00

Solitude is such a potential thing. We hear voices in solitude, we never hear in the hurry and turmoil of life; we receive counsels and comforts, we get under no other condition . . . —Amelia E. Barr

2008-03-28T14:40:00.000-04:00

Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is. —Maxim Gorky

2008-03-27T21:34:00.001-04:00

The stormy March has come at last,
With wind, and cloud, and changing skies;
I hear the rushing of the blast,
That through the snowy valley flies.
—William Cullen Bryant

2008-03-26T22:41:00.001-04:00

Never wear anything that panics the cat. —P J O'Rourke

2008-03-25T22:07:00.000-04:00

The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it. —Flannery O'Connor

2008-03-24T22:05:00.001-04:00

The greatest discovery is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind. —William James

2008-03-23T23:13:00.000-04:00

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come. —Joseph Campbell

2008-03-22T09:19:00.000-04:00

The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion. —Doris Lessing

2008-03-21T09:37:00.001-04:00

Words can sting like anything, but silence breaks the heart. —Phyllis McGinley

2008-03-20T09:17:00.001-04:00

I know the world is filled with troubles and many injustices. But reality is as beautiful as it is ugly. I think it is just as important to sing about beautiful mornings as it is to talk about slums. I just couldn't write anything without hope in it. —Oscar Hammerstein II

2008-03-19T22:13:00.001-04:00

As for accomplishments, I just did what I had to do as things came along. —Eleanor Roosevelt

2008-03-18T21:23:00.000-04:00

Every man who has shown the world the way to beauty, to true culture, has been a rebel, a 'universal' without patriotism, without home, who has found his people everywhere. —Chaim Potok