Little Things

Little things comfort us because little things distress us. 

- Blaise Pascal 

Wiser Today

A man should never be ashamed to own 

that he has been in the wrong, 

which is but saying in other words 

that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

-Alexander Pope 

Now To Think

And now I thought: 
till now I had only heard, seen, moved - 
followed up or down where I was lead or dragged - 
watched event rush on event,
 disclosure open beyond disclosure: 
but now, I thought. 

- Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre 

Bravery in Increments

When you have mastered numbers, 
you will in fact no longer be reading numbers
any more than you read words when you read books. 
You will be reading meaning.

W.E.B. DuBois 

Les is More

Have a great day.

-Les Miles

Your Reward

And he writhed inside 

at what seemed the cruelty 

and unfairness of the demand. 

He had not yet learned that if you do one good deed 

your reward is usually to do 

another and harder and better one. 

- C.S. Lewis 

The Heroine's Couch

And now I may dismiss my heroine to the sleepless couch, 
which is the true heroine's portion - 
to a pillow strewd with thorns and wet with tears.  


- Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey 

Happy Now

If you want to be happy,
be.

-Leo Tolstoy 

In the Shadow of the Black Horse

The Lord's mercy often rides to the door of our heart 
upon the black horse of affliction.

- Charles Spurgeon

She Who Travels with Another (& Another)

The man who goes alone can start today;
but he who travels with another 
must wait till that other is ready.

- Henry David Thoreau 

Late Nights with Yeti and Nietzsche

When we are tired, 
we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Midnight Confessions

A man's very highest moment is, I have no doubt at all, 
when he kneels in the dust, 
and beats his breast, 
and tells all the sins of his life.  

- Oscar Wilde  

The Virtue of Displeasure

If you would attain to what you are not yet, 
you must always be displeased by what you are.
For where you are pleased with yourself, 
there you have remained.
Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing.

-Saint Augustine   

Holes & Lumps

Sculpture is the art of the hole and the lump.

-Auguste Rodin 

Eighty-Nine Years of Song

 Even in the mud and scum of things, 
something always, always sings. 

- Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Notes on Irrigation

Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it.
It enriches the necessary competencies
that daily life requires and provides;
and in this respect,
it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.

- C.S. Lewis

If There Were Only Joy

We could never learn to be brave and patient, 
if there were only joy in the world.

-Helen Keller

A Word Before School

It is the mark of an educated mind 
to be able to entertain a thought 
without accepting it. 

-Aristotle 

The Problem with People

I felt for the tormented whirlwinds
Damned for their carnal sins
Committed when they let their passions rule their reason.

- Dante Alighieri

One More Time

The right time 

is any time 

that one is still so lucky as to have.

- Henry James

The Summer Straddle

I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. 
I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.

-Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar 

Redeeming Ruth

If you can't explain it to a six year old, 

you don't understand it yourself.

-Albert Einstein

Pretty Woman

It takes some effort to look like this.

-Truvy Jones

Simplify

Our life is frittered away by detail.  

Simplify, simplify.  

-Henry David Thoreau

Sex & the Sequel

If I don't write to empty my mind, 
I go mad. 

- Lord Byron 

Lessons from the Brits

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

- William Wordsworth

Blue Skies & Rainbows

The Fly in the Salad

At Last

Until You

Life & Death on June One

Geography

Ode to Ethan

Prelude

Use Your Words

                                                     ". . . the law begins with language.  

Legal language must eschew uncertainty, 

and uncertainty thrives when language is gauzy.

- Justice Don Willett  

Climb Inside

School Days

The Tumult and Shouting

The Case for the Superlative

Slip Slidin' Away

Under Pressure

Girl Power

On Man and Machines

Time's Relentless Melt

Design

Raisins & Peanuts

Shifting Sands of Time

Fifty Shades of Authorial Sins

Immutable Edna

For Whom the Wheel Spins

Bookends

Suit Up