Tag: W.H. Auden

Back to School Quotes

Posted on September 12, 2011 by

If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums would be filled with mothers. ~Edgar W. Howe

Being a child at home alone in the summer is a high-risk occupation. If you call your mother at work thirteen times an hour, she can hurt you. ~Erma Bombeck

Labor Day is a glorious holiday because your child will be going back to school the next day. It would have been called Independence Day, but that name was already taken. ~Bill Dodds

The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. ~Sydney J. Harris

You send your child to the schoolmaster, but ’tis the schoolboys who educate him. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Holidays are enticing only for the first week or so. After that, it is no longer such a novelty to rise late and have little to do. ~Margaret Laurence

The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with truths for which Archimedes would have given his life. ~Ernest Renan, Souvenirs d’enfance et de jeunesse, 1883

Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. ~John Dewey

The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives. ~Robert Maynard Hutchins

As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in schools. ~Author Unknown

I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework. ~Lily Tomlin as “Edith Ann”

The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book. ~Author Unknown

Often, when I am reading a good book, I stop and thank my teacher. That is, I used to, until she got an unlisted number. ~Author Unknown

There are three good reasons to be a teacher – June, July, and August. ~Author Unknown

The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder. ~Ralph W. Sockman

What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child. ~George Bernard Shaw

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. ~Aristotle

A professor is someone who talks in someone else’s sleep. ~W.H. Auden

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. ~Author Unknown, commonly attributed to Benjamin Franklin

A cross-eyed teacher can keep twice the number of children in order than any other, because the pupils do not know who she’s looking at. ~Four Hundred Laughs: Or, Fun Without Vulgarity, compiled and edited by John R. Kemble, 1902

Anyone who thinks the art of conversation is dead ought to tell a child to go to bed. ~Robert Gallagher

It doesn’t make much difference what you study, as long as you don’t like it. ~Finley Peter Dunne

You can get all A’s and still flunk life. ~Walker Percy

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. ~Albert Einstein

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. ~Attributed to both Andy McIntyre and Derek Bok

Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army. ~Edward Everett

He who opens a school door, closes a prison. ~Victor Hugo

Bread Quotes

Posted on September 11, 2011 by

A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou. – Omar Khayyam

A person who steals bread during a famine is not treated as a thief. – Cat Stevens

A poor man with nothing in his belly needs hope, illusion, more than bread. – Georges Bernanos

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government. – Thomas Jefferson

Acorns were good until bread was found. – Francis Bacon

Advertising is the ‘wonder’ in Wonder Bread. – Jef I. Richards

Also see how many quarters of corn you will spend in a week in dispensable bread, how much in alms. – Robert Grosseteste

And that’s really what’s happening in this country is a violation of the First Commandment. We have become a country entrenched in idolatry, and that idolatry is the dependency upon our government. We’re supposed to depend upon God for our protection and our provision and for our daily bread, not for our government. – Sharron Angle

Anytime a person goes into a delicatessen and orders a pastrami on white bread, somewhere a Jew dies. – Milton Berle

Art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead. – W. H. Auden

At my age, I don’t buy but a half a loaf of bread, you know? – Merle Haggard

Bread for myself is a material question. Bread for my neighbor is a spiritual one. – Nikolai Berdyaev

Business underlies everything in our national life, including our spiritual life. Witness the fact that in the Lord’s Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach. – Woodrow Wilson

But bread is different. I come from Czechoslovakia, where we eat lots of it, so it’s hard to say no. I can’t even have one piece, because when I start, I don’t stop. – Daniela Pestova

Christ made the bread the sacrament of his body only: wherefore as the bread is no similitude of his blood, so am I not bound or ought to affirm, that his blood is there present. – William Tyndale

Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf; is better than a whole loaf. – Gilbert K. Chesterton

Damn the sword! When Virginia wanted a sword, I gave her one. Now she sends me a toy! I require bread! – George Rogers Clark

Deliberation, n.: The act of examining one’s bread to determine which side it is buttered on. – Ambrose Bierce

Each man must have his I; it is more necessary to him than bread; and if he does not find scope for it within the existing institutions he will be likely to make trouble. – Charles Horton Cooley

Eaten bread is forgotten. – Thomas Fuller

15 Laughter, Joy and Happiness Quotes

Posted on June 24, 2011 by

1. [Humanity] has unquestionably one really effective weapon—laughter. Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution—these can lift at a colossal humbug—push it a little—weaken it a little, century by century; but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand. — Mark Twain
2. A good laugh heals a lot of hurts. — Madeleine L’Engle
3. A good laugh is a mighty good thing, a rather too scarce a good thing. — Herman Melville
4. A good laugh is sunshine in the house. — William Thackeray
5. With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die. — Abraham Lincoln
6. And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh. – Friedrich Nietzsche
7. A merry heart doeth good like a medicine. — Proverbs 17:22
8. A smile is a curve that sets everything straight. — Phyllis Diller
9. A smile starts on the lips, A grin spreads to the eyes, A chuckle comes from the belly; But a good laugh bursts forth from the soul, Overflows, and bubbles all around. – Carolyn Birmingham
10. A well-balanced person is one who finds both sides of an issue laughable. — Herbert Procknow
11. Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand. — Mark Twain
12. Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine. — Lord Byron
13. Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh. — W. H. Auden
14. An optimist laughs to forget; a pessimist forgets to laugh. — Tom Nansbury
15. And keep a sense of humor. It doesn’t mean you have to tell jokes. If you can’t think of anything else, when you’re my age, take off your clothes and walk in front of a mirror. I guarantee you’ll get a laugh. — Art Linkletter

50 Motivational Quotes

Posted on January 31, 2011January 31, 2011 by

1. “Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Louis Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein.” ~H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

2. “You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own and you know what you know.
And you are the one who’ll decide where to go.” ~Dr. Seuss

3. “Dedicate your life to a cause greater than yourself, and your life will become a glorious romance and adventure.” ~Mack Douglas

4. “The future is sending back good wishes and waiting arms.” ~Kobi Yamada

5. “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.” ~B.J. Marshall

6. “So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon seem inevitable.” ~Christopher Reeve

7. “One of my best moves is to surround myself with friends who, instead of asking, “Why?” are quick to say, “Why not?” That attitude is contagious.” ~Oprah Winfrey

8. “Because of our routines we forget that life is an ongoing adventure.” ~Maya Angelou

9. “It’s easy to come up with big ideas. Just think of something that everyone agrees would be “wonderful” if it were only “possible”… and then set out to make it possible.” ~Armand Hammer

10. “Thousands of perceptions, hunches, ideas and intuitions race through our brains every day. Some are pure genius. Give them the red light for at least long enough to write them down.” ~Ralph Ford

11. “Your resources are always far greater than you imagine them to be. Never ask, “Can I do this?” Ask instead, “How can I do this?” ~Dan Zadra

14. “I would rather be ashes than dust; I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot; I would rather be in a superb meteor, every atom of me in a magnificent glow than in a sleepy and permanent planet; the proper function of man is to live, not to exist; I should not waste my days in trying to prolong them; I shall USE my time.” ~Jack London

15. “Never retire! Do what you do and keep doing it. But don’t do it on Friday. Take Friday off. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, go fishing…Then Monday to Thursday, do what you’ve been doing all your life. My point is: Live full and don’t retreat.” ~Mel Brooks

16. “We are here on earth to good for others. What the others are here for I do not know.” ~W. H. Auden

17. “To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.” ~Josephine Billings

18. “I get up every morning determined both to change the world and to have on hell of a good time. Sometimes this make planning the day difficult.” ~E.B. White

19. “If every American donated five hours a week, it would equal the labor of twenty million full-time volunteers.”
~Whoopi Goldberg

20. “If success is not not on your terms–if it looks good to the world but doesn’t not feel good in your own heart–it is no success at all.” ~Anna Quindlen

21. “I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” ~Diane Ackerman

22. “Remember that life is short and death is long.” ~Fritz Shoulder

23. “The best thing about the future is that is comes only one day at a time.” ~Abraham Lincoln

24. “Once social change begins, It cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. We have seen the future, and the future is ours.” ~Cesar Chavez

25. “There are fish in the sea better than any that have ever been caught.” ~Irish Saying

26. “Whatever your past has been, you have a spotless future.” ~Author Unknown

27. “The greatest pain comes from not believing there is a future, not being able to dream about something better.” ~Author Unknown.

28. “Get excited and enthusiastic about your own dream. This excitement is like a forest fire…you can smell it, taste it, and see it from a mile away.” ~Denis Waitley

29. “Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living. ~Anais Nin

30. “The only place where your dream becomes impossible is in your own thinking.” ~Robert H. Schuller

31. “The inability to open to hope is what blocks trust, and blocked trust is the reason for blighted dreams.” ~Elizabeth Gilbert

32. “People are never more insecure than when they become obsessed with their fears at the expense of their dreams.” ~Norman Cousins

33. “No person has the right to rain on your dreams.” ~Marian Wright Edelman

34. “Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.” ~John Lennon

35. “The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle.” ~Anais Nin

36. “Dreams come in a size too big so we can grow into them.” ~Josie Bisset

37. “A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.” ~Denis Waitley

38. “Always remember that the future comes one day at a time.” ~Dean Acheson

39. “One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon – instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.” ~Dale Carnegie

40. “The secret of making dreams come true can be summarized in four C’s. They are Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy; and the greatest of these is Confidence.” ~Walt Disney

41. “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” ~Robert F. Kennedy

42. “Just remember…when you think all is lost, the future remains.” ~Bob Goddard

43. “Being fully present is the best guarantee for a bright future.” ~Guy Finley

44. “If you believe you can, you probably can. If you believe you won’t, you most assuredly won’t. Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad.” ~Denis Waitley

45. “The future depends on what we do in the present.” ~Mahatma Gandhi

46. “To the youngsters of today, I say “Believe in the future, the world is getting better; there still is plenty of opportunity.” Why, would you believe it, when I was a kid I thought it was already too late for me to make good at anything.” ~Walt Disney

47. “Love is the time and space where “I” give myself the right to be extraordinary.” ~Julia Kristev

48. “We don’t have an eternity to realize our dreams – only the time we are here.” ~Susan L. Taylor

49. “You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.” ~Rosalynn Carter

50. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” ~Anne Frank

Bonus: 51. “Action is the antidote to despair.” ~Joan Baez

Great Collection of Quotes

Posted on November 5, 2010November 9, 2010 by

* “A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world. Everyone you meet is your mirror.” ~ Keyes
* “There is no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” ~ Unknown
* “Be with the ones you love (and the ones that love you.) Ignore everyone else.” ~ Seth Godin
* “Life is like skiing. Just like skiing, the goal is not to get to the bottom of the hill. It’s to have a bunch of good runs before the sun sets.” ~ Seth Godin
* “Let love rule.” ~ Lenny Kravitz
* “Are you a serial idea-starting person? The goal is to be an idea-shipping person.” ~ Seth Godin
* “Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.” ~ Bruce Lee
* “Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
* “Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.” ~ Oscar Wilde
* “Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
* “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” ~ Lao Tzu
* “The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off.” ~ Gloria Steinem
* “Let the sunshine in. When you are lonely, let it shine. You gotta open up your heart, and let it shine on in.” ~ The Fifth Dimension
* “Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others; it is the only means.” ~ Albert Einstein
* “Whenever I’m caught between two evils, I take the one I’ve never tried.” ~ Mae West
* “If you let go a little, you will have a little happiness. If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of happiness. If you let go completely you will be completely happy.” ~ Ajahn Chah
* “We are here on Earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I don’t know.” ~ W.H. Auden
* “Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman, giving all your love to just one man…” ~ Tammy Wynette
* “A blind pig can sometimes find a truffle. But it helps to know that they’re found in oak forests.” ~ David Ogilvy
* “Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.” ~ Jimi Hendrix
* “Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.” ~ Mark Twain
* “On the whole human history is a record of the ways in which human nature has been sold short. The highest possibilities of human nature have practically always been underrated.” ~ Abraham Maslow
* “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” ~ William Shakespeare
* “Just don’t give up on trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.” ~ Ella Fitzgerald
* “If you have love in your life it can make up for a great many things you lack. If you don’t have it, no matter what else there is… it’s not enough.” ~ Ann Landers
* “Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth.” ~ Frank Zappa
* “All things are artificial, for nature is the art of God.” ~ Thomas Browne
* “It is strange how often a heart must be broken before the years can make it wise.” ~ Sara Teasdale
* “I say follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.” ~ Joseph Campbell
* “Contemplate the extent and stability of the heavens, and then at last cease to admire worthless things.” ~ Boethius
* “He whose peace is not shaken by others, and before whom other people find peace, beyond excitement and anger and fear – he is dear to me.” ~ Bhagavad-Gita
* “He who in his early days was unwise but later found wisdom, he sheds a light over the world like that of the moon when free from clouds.” ~ Buddha
* “Love taken seriously is a radical outlook, a major departure from the psychological orientation that rules the world. It is threatening not because it is a small idea, but because it is huge.” ~ Marianne Wiliamson
* “At the heart of my programme is the simple truth that happy marriages are based on a deep friendship. By this I mean a mutual respect for and enjoyment of each others company.” ~ John M Gottman
* “Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.” ~ James Dean
* “The true measure of a man is how he treats someone that can do him absolutely no good.” ~ Samuel Johnson
* “Try not to become a man of success but a man of value.” ~ Albert Einstein
* “A friend is one who knows us, but loves us anyway.” ~ Fr. Jerome Cummings
* “In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, for in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.” ~ Kahlil Gibran
* “A friend is someone who can sing you the song of your heart when you’ve forgotten it.” ~ Unknown
* “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” ~ Bible Corinthians
* “There are many more beautiful landscapes in the world, but none, I think, that can shape a man’s heart in so sovereign a way… The desert is bare and clean and knows no compromise. It sweeps out of the heart of man all the lovely fantasies that could be used as a masquerade for wishful thinking, and thus makes him free to surrender himself to an Absolute that has no image: the farthest of all that is fear and the nearest of all that is near.” ~ Muhammad Asaf
* “He spoke of very simple things – that it is right for a seagull to fly, that freedom is the very nature of his being, that whatever stands against that freedom must be set aside, be it ritual or superstition or limitation in any form.” ~ Richard Bach – Jonathan Livingston Seagull
* “I think the real miracle is not to walk on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don;t even recognise: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes or a child – our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” ~ Thuch Nat Hanh
* “I’d rather have the whole world against me than my own soul, and this soul reveals itself in a state of gratitude and love.” ~ John F Demartini
* “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” ~ Confucious
* “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” ~ Bible
* “There are many trails up the mountain, but in time they all reach the top.” ~ Anya Seton
* “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ~ Maya Angelou
* “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