Quotation Saturday: Letter C
Mamacita says: Many people dislike quotations, but I like them. Sometimes, other people can “say it” so much better than I can. And, even if I know how to “say it,” sometimes it’s already been said, and said well.
1. The things we fear most in organizations – fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances – are the primary sources of creativity. — Margaret J. Wheatley
2. People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them. — G.B. Shaw
3. Country people probably aren’t blessed with any more common sense than other people. It’s just they they tend to use it more often. — Jack Odle
4. He that will cheat at play will cheat you any way. — Thomas Fuller
5. In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments – there are consequences. — Ingersoll
6. The true way for one civilization to “conquer” another is for it to be so obviously superior in this or that point that others desire to imitate it. — Dickinson
7. We worry about what a child will be tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today. — S. Tauscher
8. Congress is continually appointing fact-finding committees, when what we really need are fact-facing committees. — Roger Allen
9. There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do. — Freya Stark
10. Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good actions; try to use ordinary circumstances. — Richter
11. A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog. — Jack London
12. The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out. — Macaulay
13. To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often. — Newman
14. To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards out of men. — Lincoln
15. One of the first things a man notices in a backward country is that the children are still obeying their parents. — Claude Callan
16. Any jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a carpenter to build it. — Sam Rayburn
17. Be yourself. No one can ever tell you you’re doing it wrong. — James Leo Herlihy
18. Life is a rat race. College can teach you which rat to bet on. — Unknown
19. The caterpillar is beautiful. The butterfly, more so. So it is with change. — Unknown
20. If you are not curious it is a sign that you are stupid. — Dr. Frank Crane
21. Common sense does not ask an impossible chessboard, but takes the one before it and plays the game. — Wendell Phillips
22. It is only those who have no culture and no belief in culture who resent differences among men and the exploration of the human imagination. — Alfred Kazin
23. It is easier to raise a gun than to show courage. — Tomlinson
24. There are no great men, only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet. — Admiral W.F. Halsey
25. The best defense of our country is to keep it at all times worth defending. — 
Anon.
26. The question “Who ought to be boss?” is like asking “Who ought to sing tenor in the quartet?” Obviously, the man who can sing tenor. — Henry Ford
27. Big doesn’t always mean better. Sunflowers aren’t better than violets. — Edna Ferber
28. Those who complain about the way the ball bounces are usually the ones who dropped it. — General Features Corporation
29. A lot of people mistake a short memory for a clear conscience. — Doug Larsen
30. The difference between a conviction and a prejudice is that you can explain a conviction without getting angry. — Anon.
31. The reason why the Ten Commandments are short and clear is that they were handed down direct, not through several committees. — Dan Bennett
32. Learn the wisdom of compromise, for it is better to bend a little than to break. — Anne Wells
33. Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit. — Henry Brooks Adams
34. Feel the dignity of a child. Do not feel superior to him, for you are not. — Robert Henri
35. If you haven’t any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble. — Bob Hope
36. One great advantage of modern communication is that it lets you know that somewhere the snow is deeper. — Bill Vaughn
37. To change and to improve are two different things. — German proverb
38. Character is what you are in the dark. — Dwight L. Moody
39. Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want. — Unknown
40. It is much easier to be critical than to be correct. — Disraeli
41. It’s hard for a fellow to keep a chip on his shoulder if you allow him to take a bow. — Billy Rose
42. Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance. — Bruce Barton
43. A man must consider what a rich realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist. — Emerson
44. Everyone ought to bear patiently the results of his own conduct. — Phaedrus
45. Confidence, like art, never comes from having all the answers; it comes from being open to all the questions. — Earl Gary Stevens
46. Brother, the creed would stifle me, that shelters you. — Wilson
47. . . . a country clergyman with a one story intellect and a one-horse vocabulary. — Holmes
48. Civilization is just a slow process of learning to be kind. — Charles L. Lucas
49. Somebody said of Thoreau: He could get more out of ten minutes’ watching 
a woodchuck than most men could get from a night with Cleopatra.” — Unknown
50. When you finally go back to your old hometown, you find it wasn’t the old home you missed but your childhood. — Sam Ewing
Poetry Friday: Langston Hughes
Mamacita says: I first heard this poem in high school literature. Tenth grade, sophomore year, in Mrs. Helen Chandler’s class, she who taught Claude Akins, the Bedford Celebrity..
In retrospect, I know that we treated her dreadfully. She was quite elderly by the time my class came along, and had taught pretty much everybody in town. In her day, she was sharp, witty, and an excellent, highly respected teacher. In my day, she was partially blind, hard of hearing, and tired. I don’t think she comprehended half of what was done to her that year, and that is a good thing. A very good thing indeed.
The problem with retrospect is that more often than not, we see that instead of being the cool young rebels we thought we were, we see the truth: in this case, we were a classroom full of smartasses. Smartasses with a mean streak. I was an observer, not an instigator, but I laughed all the same.
Every snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty. — Stanislaw J. Lec 
I still remember all the wonderful poems she made us memorize, though. And now, I’m so glad she did that. I know some people don’t believe memorization is necessary any more, but they are wrong. WRONG.
Christmas isn’t necessary either, but isn’t it a delight, and aren’t we glad we have it? I rest my case.
In my head, I’ve got thousands of poems, stories, and even whole novels. I can close my eyes and read off my mind. Who needs books or electronics when you’ve had Mrs. Chandler?
I still remember the dancing, flying, screaming meltdown she gifted us with when she finally noticed the Playboy centerfold taped to her calendar, though. . . .
===
Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
~Langston Hughes
And, yes. The poet speaks truth.
Quotation Saturday: A to B
Mamacita says: I know, I know; it’s not Saturday. Saturday slid past me like a wet peeled potato, so I’m doing Quotation Saturday on Sunday. I’ve had far worse lapses. . . .
1. No two persons ever read the same book. — Edmund Wilson
2. An athlete was always a man that was not strong enough for work. Fractions drove him from school, and the vagrancy laws drove him to baseball. — Finley Peter Dunn
3. No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist. — Oscar Wilde
4. The applause of a single human being is of great consequence. — Samuel Johnson
5. If you don’t want anyone to know, don’t do it. — Chinese Proverb
6. America: where you have freedom of choice, but not freedom from choice. — Wendell Jones
7. The skillful artist will not alter his measures for the sake of a stupid workman. — Mencuis
8. Architecture is the flowering of geometry. — Emerson
9. The two most difficult careers are entrusted to amateurs – citizenship and parenthood. — St. John
10. We must not stint our necessary actions in the fear to cope malicious censurers. — Shakespeare
11. To be an artist is a great thing, but to be an artist and not know it is the most glorious plight in the world. — J.M. Barrie
12. An ape will be an ape, though clad in purple. — Erasmus
13. To be angry is to revenge the faults of others on ourselves. — Alexander Pope
14. The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts. – Locke
15. The higher the ape goes, the more he shows his tail. — George Herbert
16. Being American is not a matter of birth. We must practice it every day, lest we become something else. — Malcolm Wallop
17. She is descended from a long line her mother fell for. — Gypsy Rose Lee
18. Art hath an enemy called ignorance. — Ben Jonson
19. Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices. — Voltaire
20. A man that has a taste of musick, painting, or architecture, is like one that has another sense, when compared with such as have no relish of those arts. — Joseph Addison
21. He that seeks popularity in art closes the door on his own genius, as he must needs paint for other minds, and not for his own. — Anna Jameson
22. Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another. — Plato
23. Behavior is a mirror in which every one shows his image. — Goethe
24. A bore is a man who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company. — Gravinia
25. A room without books is as a body without a soul. — Cicero
26. Be bold in what you stand for and careful what you fall for. — Ruth Boorstin
27. You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. — Ray Bradbury
28. A sure sign of bureaucracy is when the first person who answers the phone can’t help you. — Dr. Kenneth J. Fabian
29. The organization of any bureaucracy is very much like a septic tank; the really big chunks always rise to the top. — Unknown (reminds me of a certain school system. . . .
30. All blessings are mixed blessings. — John Updike
31. Some things have to be believed to be seen. — Ralph Hodgson
32. Babies do not want to hear about babies; they like to be told of giants and castles, and of something which can stretch and stimulate their little minds. — Samuel Johnson
33. There is no past as long as books shall live. — Bulwer-Lytton
34. If you don’t get what you want, it is a sign either that you did not seriously want it, or that you tried to bargain over the price. — Rudyard Kipling
35. The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read ’em. — Mark Twain
36. If you never budge, don’t expect a push. — Malcolm Forbes
37. From one that reads but one book, the Lord deliver us. — Howell
38. You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it. — Margaret Thatcher
39. The one invincible thing is a good book; neither malice nor stupidity can crush it. — George Moore
40. We are slow to believe what if believed would hurt our feelings. — Ovid
41. If you see a bandwagon, it’s too late. — James Goldsmith
42. Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know. — Montaigne
43. Bureaucracy is nothing more than the hardening of an organization’s arteries. — William P. Anthony
44. The man who first invented the art of supporting beggars made many wretched. — Menander
45. There is a great deal of difference between the eager man who wants to read a book, and the tired man who wants a book to read. — G.K. Chesterton
46. Some men has jist naturally got to have something to cuss around and boss, so’s to keep himself from finding out he don’t amount to nothing. — Don Marquis
47. The brighter you are, the more you have to learn. — Don Herold
48. There are books which take rank in our lives with parents and lovers and passionate experiences. — Emerson
49. A belief is not true because it is useful. — Amiel
50. How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book…. — Thoreau
51. Let any man speak long enough, he will get believers. — R.L. Stevenson
52. The people who make no roads are ruled out from intelligent participation in the world’s brotherhood. — Margaret Fairless Barber
53. Good as it is to inherit a library, it is better to collect one. — Augustine Birrell
54. It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others. — Montaigne
55. It is a tie between men to have read the same book. — Emerson
56. Some men will believe nothing but what they can comprehend, and there are but few things that such are able to comprehend. — Euremond
57. Some people manage by the book, even though they don’t know who wrote the book or even what book. — Unknown
58. Sits he on never so high a throne, a man still sits on his bottom. – Montaigne
59. By bearing old wrongs you provoke new ones. — Publilius Syrus
60. We work to become, not to acquire. — Elbert Hubbard
