Quote thread

[Nordmadr]

Here is what I have on the wall in my office:

"There is nothing in which birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before".
-Robert Lynd

"We abuse the land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect".
-Aldo Leopold

"What good is a house if you haven't got a decent planet to put it on".
-Henry David Thoreau

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song".
-Maya Angelou


The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost


Olaf the Viking

[Aiptasia]

1. in mine:

"Post No Bills"

[LynzM]

2. Hrm...

I had a lot more before I switched jobs. Currently, the only ones I have up are two out of fortune cookies:

"We will not know the worth of water 'til the well is dry"
"A new environment makes all the difference in the world."

I used to have the words to Downeaster Alexa posted-

Billy Joel - The Downeaster 'alexa' Lyrics

Well I'm on the Downeaster "Alexa"
And I'm cruising through Rock Island Sound
I have chaartered a course to the Vineyard
But tonight I am Nantucket bound

We took on diesel back in Montauk yesterday
And left this morning fromhe bell in Gardner's Bay
Like all the locals here I've had to sell my home
Too proud to leave I worked my fingers to the bone

So I could own my Downeaster "Alexa"
And I go where the ocean is deep
There are giants out there in the canyons
And a good captain can't fall asleep

I've got bills to pay and children who need clothes
I know there's fish out there but where God only knows
They say these waters aren't what they used to be
But I've got people back on land who count on me

So if you see my Downeaster "Alexa"
And if you work with the rod and the reel
Tell my wife I am trolling Atlantis
And I still have my hands on the wheel

Now I drive my Downeaster "Alexa"
More and more miles from shore every year
Since they told me I can't sell no stripers
And there's no luck in swordfishing here

I was a bayman like my father was before
Can't make a living as a bayman anymore
There ain't much future for a man who works the sea
But there ain't no island left for islanders like me

And, a sign that said "Lindsay for President 2020" with a running tally of people in my office who would vote for me :)

Oh, and the requisite Dilberts, still packed away in a box...

[intheflow]

3. Mine

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder 'why, why, why?' Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Until he extends his circle of compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.
Albert Schweitzer

I will not cut my conscience to match this year's fashions.
Lillian Hellman

And my favorite:

If everyone would demand peace, instead of just another tv set, there would be peace.
John Lennon

[On the Road]

4. What I Don't Dare to Have on My Office Wall

"We must refine our vices into virtues."
Balthazar, an Egyptian mystic in Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet

"The tao does nothing, yet nothing is left undone."
Lao Tse, the Tao Te Ching

"McGovern made some mistakes, but in retrospect they pale in comparison to the things Nixon does every day, on purpose, as a matter of policy and the perfect expression of everything he stands for. Jesus, where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to become president?"
Hunter Thompson

And I just a scroll on my wall with Chinese characters that roughly translate:

"Happiness is getting the short end of the stick."

[fit4life]

5. Mine:

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups

I will not waste my life trying to prolong it -- Mark Twain

There are three kinds of lies--lies, damned lies, and statistics -- Mark Twain

There is a very fine line between “hobby” and “mental illness”.

When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is insane.

[Nordmadr]

6. Some more not on my wall...

Here is a test to find out whether your mission in life is complete. If you're alive, it isn't.
- Richard Bach

"I am not a teacher but an awakener."
-Robert Frost

You are what your deep, driving desire is.
As your desire is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed.
As your deed is, so is your destiny.
-Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV.4.5


Live as you will wish to have lived when you are dying.
-Christian Furchtegott Gellert

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.

- Chinese Proverb


Olaf the Viking

[Az]

7. My primary quote

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it. - Andre Gide

[Willy Lee]

8. Not to know is bad.

Not to wish to know is worse.
-African Proverb

In the presence of Nature, a Wild Delight runs through Man, in spite of Real Sorrows.
Nature says, "He is my Creature, and maugre all his Impertinent Griefs, he shall be glad with Me." (Emerson, from memory, so it may not be exactly right!)

"The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog . . . . He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer; he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounter with the roughness of the world . . . . When all other friends desert, he remains."
-George G. Vest

"Qui me amat, amet et canem meum." ("Love me, love my dog.")
-St. Bernard, A.D. 1150