Stolen: pt.2

Continuation of fun quotes:

(ok, this one is more of a passage, but still good)

"It's very good jam," said the Queen.

"Well, I don't want any today, at any rate," said Alice.

"You couldn't have it if you did want it. The rule is jame tomorrow and jam yesterday, but never jam today."

"But it must come sometimes to 'jam today'," Alice objected.

"No, it can't," said the Queen. "It's jam every other day and today isn't any other day you know."

"I don't understand you!" said Alice.
"It's the effect of living backwards. It always makes one a little giddy at first - "

"Living backwards?!" Alice repeated in great astonishment. "I've never heard of such a thing."

"-but there's one great advantage in it, that one's memory works both ways."
"I'm sure mine only works one way," Alice remarked. "I can't remember things before they happen."

"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward," the Queen remarked.

"What sort of things do you remember best?" Alice ventured to ask.

"Oh, things that happened the week after next," the Queen replied in a careless tone.

-Lewis Carroll - Through the Looking Glass, And What Alice Found There -

"The earth is 4,500,000 years old. But in about 3000 years we have almost managed to end civilization. First with the nuclear bomb, and then through destruction of nature and our growing pollution of every space we inhabit. In comparative terms, we have been on this planet less than the final few minutes in a whole year of time, yet we have caused more damage than any other species and may soon make ourselves as defunt as the dinosaurs."
-Doris Anderson -

"...It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced - or seemed to face - the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favour."

-F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby -

"Both healthy minds and healthy bodies may be crippled. The fact that 'normal' people can get around, can see, can hear, doesn't mean that they are seeing or hearing. They can be very blind to the things that spoil their happiness, very deaf to the pleas of others for kindness; when I think of them I do not feel any more criippled or disabled than they. Perhaps in some small way I can be the means of opening their eyes to the beauties around us. Things like a warm hand clasp, a voice that is anxious to cheer, a spring breeze, music to listen to, a friendly nod. These people are important to me, and I feel that I can help them."

-a person with MS in 'Stigma and Social Identity by Ering Goffman -

"Be careful if you make a woman cry, because God counts her tears. The woman came out of a man's rib, not from his feet to be walked on, not from his head to be superior, but from his side to be equal, under his arm to be protected and next to the heart to be loved."

-The Talmud -

"Humans are, afterall, storytelling animals. Especially when confronted with frightening mysteries - death, disease, bad fortune - we weave together explanations as best we can, to serve as a kind of rope bridge across the abyss. Even when the stakes are lower we cannot seem to keep from telling stories. We peek half-asleep at a pile of blankets kicked onto the floor and cannot help seeing lurking creatures; we look at the night sky and see swans and warriors in the stars; we hear a handful of random facts and devise elaborate conspiracy theories. And when we are confronted with a disease's bizzare symptoms, we set out at once to find their meaning."

-Edward Dolnick -

"All of the true things I'm about to tell you are shameless lies."

- Kurt Vonnegut -

Stolen: Words that Matter

I have a little notebook which I received from a friend as a birthday gift quite a few years ago with a little stick figure boy on it with rocks sailing at his head. "Boys are dumb. Throw rocks at them" it says. Well, I don't exactly prescribe to that belief, as it wouldn't be fair with my other dealings, but I began writing quotes in it that I liked, found inspiring or funny, or that I just wanted to remember. So, with that, I am stealing this idea from my lovely friend Lola's page and including some of my faves:

Words are amazing in their power - they can soothe, they can empower, they can hurt, they can heal, they can inspire. There are some quotes that I go back to to find centre, to remind myself of what's important...

(In no particular order...)

"Music and me, we have a special bond. Sometimes we meet in a dark room and slow dance, alone, together. Sometimes we hook up in a jam-packed arena, and yet we're the only two souls there. Sometimes I put headphones on and can hear the universe calling. Ah, music, sweet music. When it's on, when all of the rhythmic planets have aligned and I can close my eyes and feel both immersion and transcendence, I know I'm right where I want to be." - Mike Mettler-

"If you go to a big city, and a university is a big city, you are bound to run into Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Stay home, stay home." - Kurt Vonnegut-

"Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?" -Kurt Vonnegut-

"Planet Earth is an angry place; a searing bauble of rage. All this fury, roaring around the ether - and where does it go? The answer is it simply dissipates, flitters up towards the clouds, where it hangs around making pigeons sick and causing thunderstorms. Not good enough. We've got to work out a way of harnessing all this spare rage and using it to power our kettles. Come on, science. Hurry up. You wouldn't like us when we're angry." -Charlie Brooker -

"Never join a group without being confident of your ability to speak up in disagreement." - Heather Mallick -

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed that is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead -

"It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it." - Jacob Bronowski-

"Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it." - The Talmud -

"Interesting how, if you are silent, democracy is working. If you speak up, democracy is not for you." - Beth Atcheson -

"The body is lazy, the mind is vibrant and the soul is luminous." - B.K.S. Iyengar -

"Qui de nous n'a cherche le calme dans un chant?" - Victor Hugo-

"Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes." - Carl Jung -

"Legislation may not change the heart, but it will restrain the heartless." - Martin Luther King, Jr. -

"One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time." - Andre Gide -

"The pollution you breathe may be your own." - graffiti -

"The things we perceive as beautiful may be different, but the actual characteristics we ascribe to beautiful objects are similar... when something strikes us as beautiful, it displays more presence and sharpness of shape and vividness of colour doesn't it? It stands out, it shines. It seems almost iridescent compared to the dullness of other objects less attractive." - James Redfield -

"Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire." -W.B. Yeats -

"Never let formal education get in the way of your learning." - Mark Twain -

"We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is." - Dr. Mark Vonnegut -