"I have the heart of a young boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk." ~ Stephen King 

"The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast." ~ Oscar Wilde

 "Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are." ~ Oscar Wilde

"Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both." ~ Oscar Wilde

"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation." ~ Oscar Wilde

"I have nothing to declare except my genuis." ~ Oscar Wilde

 

"Give a man a mask and he will tell you the truth." ~ Oscar Wilde

"Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same." ~ Oscar Wilde

"Everything popular is wrong." ~ Oscar Wilde

"Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught." ~ Oscar Wilde

 

"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between." ~ Oscar Wilde

"A true friend stabs you in the front." ~ Oscar Wilde

"I am not young enough to know everything." ~ Oscar Wilde 

"In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it." ~ Oscar Wilde

Archibald MacLeish - Ars Poetica

"A poem should be palpable and mute

As a globed fruit,

Dumb

As old medallions to the thumb,

Silent as the sleeve-worn stone

Of casement ledges where the moss has grown–

A poem should be wordless

As the flight of birds.
*

A poem should be motionless in time

As the moon climbs,

Leaving, as the moon releases                                       

Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,

 Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,

Memory by memory the mind–

A poem should be motionless in time

As the moon climbs.
*

A poem should be equal to:
Not true.

For all the history of grief 
An empty doorway and a maple leaf.

For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea–

A poem should not mean
But be."   ~ Archibald MacLeish

"All art is quite useless." ~ Oscar Wilde

W.H. Auden - The Unknown Citizen

"(To JS/07 M 378
This Marble Monument
Is Erected by the State) 

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a
saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his
generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their
education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard."

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." ~ John Dalberg-Acton

"It's always the badly dressed people who are the most interesting." ~ Jean Paul Gaultier

"Your children need your presence more than your presents." ~ Jesse Jackson

"Stat rosa pristina nomine; nomina nuda tenemus." ~ Umberto Eco

(The ancient rose remains by its name, naked names are all that we have.)

"I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty." ~ Edgar Allan Poe

Matthew Arnold - In Harmony with Nature

"In Harmony with Nature? Restless fool,
Who with such heat dost preach what were thee,
When true, the last impossibility—
To be like Nature strong, like Nature cool!

Know, man hath all which Nature hath, but more,
And in that more lie all his hopes of good.
Nature is cruel, man is sick of of blood;
Nature is stubborn, man would fain adore;

Nature is fickle, man hath need of rest;
Nature forgives no debt, and fears no grave;
Man would be mild, and with safe conscience blest.

Man must begin, know this, where Nature ends;
Nature and man can never be fast friends.
Fool, if thou canst not pass her, rest her slave!" ~ Matthew Arnold

"We are all brothers under the skin, and I, for one, would be willing to skin humanity to prove it." ~ Ayn Rand

 "We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.”  ~ Chuck Palahniuk

"Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity." ~ Anonymous

"Skeptics question, cynics assume." ~ Anonymous

Mary Schmich - Wear Sunscreen

"Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living-room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicianswill philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen." ~ Mary Schmich

J.G. Magee - High Flight

"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds...and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of...wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up, the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor even eagle flew.
And while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space...
...put out my hand, and touched the face of God." ~ John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." ~ Isaac Asimov
 

Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray

• "But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face."

• "You are a wonderful creation. You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know."

• "Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have been different."

• "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."

• "Young men want to be faithful, and are not; old men want to be faithless, and cannot."

• "What of art? - It is a malady; Love? - An illusion; Religion - The fashionable substitute for Belief."

• "To define is to limit."

• "A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her."

• "When a woman marries again, it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife."

• "Women love with their ears, men love with their eyes."

• "Peace gives life."

• "Destiny does not send us heralds. She is too wise or too cruel for that."

• "The basis of every scandal is an immoral certainty."

• "Knowledge would be fatal. It is the uncertainty that charms one."

• "All crime is vulgar, just as all vulgarity is crime."

• "If a man treats life artistically, his brain is his heart."

• "The things one feels absolutely certain about are never true. That is the fatality of Faith and the lesson of Romance."

• "But a chance tone of colour in a room or in a morning sky, a particular perfume that you have once loved and that brings subtle memories with it, a line from a forgotten poem that you have come across again, a cadence from a piece of music that you had ceased to play - I tell you, Dorian, that it is on things like these that our lives depend."

"Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains." ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." ~ Albert Einstein

"Language is wine upon the lips." ~ Virginia Woolf 

"To see a world in a grain of sand, 

And a heaven in a wild flower, 

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, 

And eternity in an hour." ~ William Blake

"Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional." ~ Chili Davis

"In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." ~ Abraham Lincoln

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." ~ Albert Einstein
 

"When I was born, I was BLACK,   

When I grew up, I was BLACK,
When I'm sick, I'm BLACK,
When I go out in the sun, I'm BLACK,
When I'm cold, I'm BLACK,
When I die, I'll be BLACK,

But you,

When you're born, you're PINK,
When you grow up, you're WHITE,
When you're sick, you're GREEN,
When you go out in the sun, you go RED,
When you're cold, you go BLUE,
When you die, you'll be PURPLE,

And you have the nerve to call me colored!" ~ Anonymous

"Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory." ~ Albert Schweitzer

 

"Freedom and whiskey go together." ~ Robert Burns

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." ~ Frank Herbert

"You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough" ~ William Blake

"You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body." ~ C. S. Lewis

"When one must, one can." ~ Yiddish Proverb

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ~ Winston Churchill