Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty. -Stanislaw J. Lee The world, we are told, was made especially for man--a presumption not    supported by all the facts... Why should man value himself as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation? -John Muir, Naturalist and  explorer (1838-1914) numen (NOO-muhn, NYOO-) noun [plural numina (-muh-nuh)] 1.        A presiding divinity or spirit of a place.  2.        A spirit believed by animists to inhabit certain natural phenomena or  objects. 3.        Creative energy; genius. Internet is a good way to get on the Net. -Bob Dole You have to decide at the end of the day if you can live with yourself.   -Princess Anne Rest in natural great peace This exhausted mind Beaten helpless by karma and neurotic thought, Like the relentless fury of the pounding waves In the infinite ocean of samsara. Rest in natural great peace.   - NYOSHUL KHEN RIPOCHE Make me, oh God, the prey of the lion, ere You make the rabbit my prey. -Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) [Sand and Foam] In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place. -Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play. -Heraclitus, Greek philosopher (500 B.C.) The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.  -Dorothy Nevill Life is life--whether in a cat, or dog or man. There is no difference there between a cat or a man. The idea of difference is a human conception for man's own advantage.   -Sri Aurobindo Now I can look at you in peace; I don't eat you any more. -Franz Kafka, while admiring fish in an aquarium It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others. -Michel DeMontaigne To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life. -Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. -Henri Bergson Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice, which make philanthropy necessary. -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) Knowing all truth is less than doing a little bit of good. -Albert Schweitzer [The Thoughts of Albert Schweitzer] Goodness is the only investment which never fails. -Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) There is more to life than increasing its speed. -Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. -Bertrand Russell If I were to choose between the power of writing a poem and the ecstasy of a poem unwritten, I would choose the ecstasy. It is better poetry. But you and all my neighbors agree that I always choose badly. -Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) [Sand and Foam] The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water, but to walk on the earth. -Chinese proverb I long for eternity because there I shall meet my unwritten poems and my unpainted pictures. -Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) [Sand and Foam] The heart is wiser than the intellect. -Josiah Holland (1819-1881) For every ten people who are clipping at the branches of evil, you're lucky to find one who's hacking at the roots. -Henry David Thoreau My loneliness was born when men praised my talkative faults and blamed my silent virtues. -Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) [Sand and Foam] We shall never cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. -T.S. Eliot It is only the wisest and the stupidest that cannot change. -Confucius Analects If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it away from him. An investment of knowledge always pays the best interest. -Benjamin Franklin Have more than thou showest, / Speak less than thou knowest. -William Shakespeare Resentment is one burden that is incompatible with your success. Always be the first to forgive; and forgive yourself first always. -Dan Zadra The top placings are what matter most in the daily headlines, sure, but today's last place, Jay Sweet, again showed his fighting nature by riding to the finish alone (again) to ensure he maintains his place in his first Tour de France. Okay, he's the 'Lanterne Rouge' as the last rider in the race, but he continues to fight the climbs in solitude to ensure his name is on the finish-list in Paris.   With Sweet's courage and Escartin's attacking, the 15th stage of the Tour de France continues to prove just what the sport is all about... Never give up, never accept the ordinary and sooner or later, you get your moment of glory.    -- 1999 Tour De France Daily Report Today I am more than ever frightened. I wish it would dawn upon engineers that, in order to be an engineer, it is not enough to be an engineer.   -Jose Ortega y Gasset The more I study physics, the more I am drawn to metaphysics. -Albert Einstein The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. -William Thackeray You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with. -Wayne Dyer When the effective leader is finished with his work, the people say it happened naturally. -Lao-Tzu, Chinese philosopher (6th century B.C.) To talk goodness is not good... Only to do it is. -Chinese Proverb A man's life is interesting primarily when he has failed--I well know. For it is a sign that he has tried to surpass himself. -Georges Clemenceau, French politician (1841-1929) All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure. -Mark Twain (1835-1910) It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion, it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who, in the midst of the world, keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer and philosopher (1803-1882) A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and scientist (1749-1832) Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer and philosopher (1803-1882) How glorious it is - and also how painful - to be an exception. -Louis Charles Alfred de Musset, French writer (1810-1857) To hold and fill to overflowing, Is not as good as to stop in time. Sharpen a knife-edge to its very sharpest, And the edge will not last long. -Lao-Tzu, Chinese philosopher (circa 600 BC) Since light travels faster than sound, isn't that why some people appear bright until you hear them speak? -Steven Wright There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. -Francis Bacon (1561-1626) A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor. -Victor Hugo (1802-1885) If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe. -Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) I wanted to change the world.  But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself. -Aldous Leonard Huxley, British writer (1894-1963) You will soon break the bow if you keep it always stretched. -Phaedrus (fl. 25 A.D.) Absence diminishes commonplace passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and kindles fire. -La Rochefoucauld To listen to some devout people, one would imagine that God never laughs. -Aurobindo Ghose, Indian philosopher (1872-1950) It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself. -Ralph Waldo Emerson Have no friends not equal to yourself. -Confucius (551-497 BC) Difficulties increase the nearer we approach our goal. -Goethe (1749-1832) I never would believe that Providence had sent a few men into the world, ready booted and spurred to ride, and millions ready saddled and bridled to be ridden. -Walt Whitman, American poet (1819-1892) Practice no vice because it's trivial. Neglect no virtue because it's so. -Chinese proverb Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness. -Chuang-tzu (B.C. 350) The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time. -Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) Life is like a landscape. You live in the midst of it, but can describe it only from the vantage point of distance.  -Charles A. Lindbergh (1902-1974) Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer and philosopher (1803-1882) Are you *still* mad, sad, ashamed, excited, surprised, or ____ (other emotion) about something that happened yesterday, last week, or last year?  The "molecules of emotion" (neuropeptides, thank you Dr. Pert) actually do not last in your body for more than a few seconds (less than six...) -- the feeling you have now is coming from "brand new" floods of chemicals that you are releasing within your own brain and body.  So if you are "still" feeling something from the past, what do you suppose is actually happening? He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.   -Fredrich Nietzsche That which does not kill you, only makes you stronger.   -Fredrich Nietzsche The important thing is being capable of emotions, but to experience only one's own would be a sorry limitation.   -Andre Gide Research says... It takes only 1/24th of a second to correctly interpret facial expressions.  In fact, when we communicate emotions, 90% or more of the "message" is nonverbal. "Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous."      -Bill Moyers Fear activates the limbic system at the base of our brains.  This shuts off the cerebral cortex, where creativity lives.  Love is the antidote to fear and the wellspring of creativity.  As we strive to make sense of our world, there is a great deal that fits in neither words nor logic.  Creativity allows us to tap the seed of human experience and express that ineffable blossom. Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer and philosopher (1803-1882) If you're sending someone some Styrofoam, what do you pack it in? Steven Wright The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.   -Jean-Paul Sartre, French writer and philosopher (1905-1980) The quiet and solitary man apprehends the inscrutable. He seeks nothing, holds to the mean, and remains free from entanglements.  -I Ching (B.C. 1150?) 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 I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.   -J.D. Salinger Take time to come home to yourself everyday. -Robin Casarjean Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.  - Henry David Thoreau If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.  - Henry David Thoreau, Walden We are all one child spinning through Mother Sky.    - Native American Shawnee Proverb The weak can never forgive.  Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. "All generalizations are dangerous, even this one." - Attributed to Alexandre Dumas, French author (1824-1895). "The truth (is) that there is only one terminal dignity - love. And the story of a love is not important - what is important is that one is capable of love. It is perhaps the only glimpse we are permitted of eternity." - Helen Hayes, American actress (1900-1993). All life is twined in an intricate web.  When one strand is changed, the whole changes.  As we learn to see beyond ourselves, we recognize the connections that we have to other people and the effects we have on one another.  Remember that interdependence is a strength and that this balance requires honesty, humility, and patience. "We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life."     -- Edwin Markham "Next to ingratitude, the most painful thing to bear is gratitude." - Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman (1813-1887) "Man is born to live, not to prepare for life." - Boris Pasternak, Russian author (1890-1960). "Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself."  - Chinese Proverb "In a full heart there is room for everything, and in an empty one, there is room for nothing." -Antonio Porchia Research says... Increasing the ability to read nonverbal messages correlates directly with higher popularity, grades, and even a better love life.

Favorite Quotes, Quips and Pearls.