Essays and Ecstacy

In order to cheer myself up and take a moment out from my two essays - due in tomorrow - and gradually wrapping themselves and me into endless knots - here are some beautiful quotes.

"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them, you reach your destiny.

Carl Schurz
US Senator From Wisconsin
Books


"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven played music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well."

Martin Luther King Jr.

"When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change."

Thich Nhat Hanh

And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

Anais Nin
American Author

Love the earth and sun and animals,
Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
Stand up for the stupid and crazy,
Devote your income and labor to others...
And your very flesh shall be a great poem.

Walt Whitman

We shall find peace. We shall hear angels.
We shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Some men see things as they are and ask why.
Others dream things that never were and ask why not.

George Bernard Shaw

“Speak out for justice and peace,
even if your voice trembles.”

As seen on a bumper-sticker
in St. Paul, Minnesota