Wednesday’s Words to Ponder, for Book lovers only…

Books, the love of the written word, and of writing words, is something that unites many in a world fraught with attempts to divide. As someone who enjoys a good quote and a book lover, I find quotes about books enticing. If you will bear with me, I should like to share a few and it would be lovely if you would share your favorite book quotes.

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” – Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“I have always imagined Paradise will be a kind of library.”  – Jorge Luis Borges

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”  –  Haruki Murakami 

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if that book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”                                                            – Madeleine L’Engle

“Books are perfect entertainment: No commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. What I wonder is why everybody doesn’t carry around a book for those inevitable dead spots in life.”  – Stephen King

“So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install a lovely bookshelf on the wall. Then fill the shelves with lots of books.”   – Roald Dahl, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory

“Truth is stranger than fiction,  but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilites; Truth isn’t.”                                                                                                                                                     – Mark Twain, Following the Equator, A Journey Around The World

Do you have a favorite quote about books? If so, please share it.

 

 

Bisous,

Léa

 

 

 

Quotes of the day -Guillement du jour

Despite the passage of time, I find much relevance to the present. If any of these quotes speak to you, or make you think, it is what I hoped for. In addition to the quotes you find here, you will find a few added to the Quotes page and I hope you will stop by. I often find inspiration upon ruminating on one quote or another… Choose a quote and take it out for a walk and see where it takes you. Who will pick up the gauntlet?

“When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.” Malala Yousafzai 

“Diplomats make it their business to conceal the facts, and politicians violently denounce the politicians of other countries.” – Margaret Sanger

“A free race cannot be born of slave mothers.” – Margaret Sanger

“Woman must have her freedom, the fundamental freedom of choosing whether or not she will become a mother and how many children she will have. Regardless of what man’s attitude may be, that problem is hers – and before it can be his, it is hers alone.”    – Margaret Sanger

“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”  – George Orwell

“The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history.”  – George Orwell

“Nationalism is power hunger fuelled by self deception.” – George Orwell

“Sometimes the scandal is not law was broken, but what the law allows.”                           – Edward Snowdon

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”  – Mark Twain

“Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”  – Mark Twain

“The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer up somebody else.”  – Mark Twain

“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”  – William Shakespeare

“A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.”                                 – William Shakespeare

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” – William Shakespeare

“How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”  – William Shakespeare

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”  – Mahatma Gandhi

“Man becomes great in exactly the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow men.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Power is two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent than one derived from fear of punishment.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“What we think, we become.”  – Budda

“Three things cannot be long hidden: The sun, the moon and the truth.”  – Budda

 

 Bisous,

Léa

 

Quotes – Pearls of wisdom…

Quotes – Pearls of wisdom? Or perhaps they are the spark for inspiration? If a quote speaks to you, explore the reason it does. If it is something you do not except, why doesn’t it? If quotes were charms for a bracelet I could not lift either arm. Anything that can get me thinking, defending my position, looking at something in a new light, it has served me well. Quotes are a powerhouse and just wait for us to discover them and examine what they mean to us as individuals. Perhaps there are a few you can take for a walk across the page, canvas… It is my hope you will find something among what is offered here and see where it takes you… Often I find my best work when I attack a statement I have strong feelings about regardless if they are positive or negative. In fact, the negative ones are often the most enlightening. 

“If you haven’t changed your mind lately how can you be sure you still have one?” Author unknown

“A learned fool is more a fool than an ignorant fool.” – Moliere

“We die only once and for such a long time.” – Moliere

“Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money.” – Moliere

“Dreams do come true, if we only wish hard enough, you can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it.” – J.M. Barrie

“I am not young enough to know everything.” – J.M. Barrie

“The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.” – J.M. Barrie

“For several days after my first book was published, I carried it about in my pocket and took surreptitious peeps at it to make sure the ink had not faded.” – J.M. Barrie

“Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.” – J.M. Barrie

“We never understand how little we need in this world until we know the loss of it.” – J.M. Barrie

“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.” – A.A. Milne

“One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.” – A.A. Milne

“You will be better advised to watch what we do instead of what we say.”   – A.A. Milne

“Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.” – A.A. Milne

“The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.” – A.A. Milne

“Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” – A.A. Milne

“Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop.”          – Lewis Carroll

“I can’t go back to yesterday – because I was a different person then.”            – Lewis Carroll

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ said Alice. ‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the cat. ‘We’re all mad here.” – Lewis Carroll

“That’s the reason they’re called lessons, because they lesson from day to day.” – Lewis Carroll

“Why sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” – Lewis Carroll

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain

“Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.”                      – Mark Twain

“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

*

Bisous,

Léa

 

Tempest Tamer

“Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.” – Mark Twain

*

Tempest Tamer

Twain said it – I believe it

Experience as a therapist

Proves it over and over

Again

 

And again in the bar

The party of elite

Voices rising takes me

Back

 

In graduate school

Stressing the importance

Conflict resolution

The angriest client speaks

First

 

Survival skills honed in

Infancy – an excellent listener

Often called on to diffuse the

Tempest

 

There was one storm

Where failure was

Abysmal – one does not choose

Parents

 

*

Bisous,

Léa

La lettre

“All in all, punishment hardens and renders people more insensible; it concentrates; it increases the feeling of estrangement; it strengthens the power of resistance.”

–       Friedrich Nietzsche

“A spiritual organization with a hierarchical structure can convey only the consciousness of estrangement, regardless of what teachings or deep inspirations are at its root. The structure itself reinforces the idea that some people are inherently more worthy than others.”    – Starhawk

“No one is willing to acknowledge a fault in himself when a more agreeable motive can be found for the estrangement of his acquaintances.”   – Mark Twain

***

La lettre

Une lettre

La poste

Twenty-three years

Through time and

Tears

Across miles,

Continents

Narrowing

The Atlantic

As the pen

Glides across the

Page

Tasting of

Salt

Reaching out

Beseeching to

Re-connect

The ties that bound

The young woman

Eager to find herself

Making some of the mistakes

I knew too well

Seeking forgiveness

Offering love

The greatest gift

Must be

Unconditional

These arms were

Always

Open

***

Bisous,

Léa

Uncle Jimmy

“When a society or a civilization perishes, one condition can always be found. They forgot where they came from.”

– Carl Sandburg

“You live as long as you are remembered.” – Russian proverb

“Why waste your money looking up the family tree? Just go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.” – Mark Twain

“ If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.” – George Bernard Shaw

***

Uncle Jimmy

His teeth are yellowed

Like the dark recesses

Of the candle’s glow

Eyes that lie about his age

Daring to sparkle with

 Diamonds of childhood

Perhaps a game

Of hide and seek

With 84 years of wrinkles

And lost hair

His weight has shifted

And reduced as the body

Slows to the ancient rhythms

Of the earth that waits

To hold him

The embrace of last night

Was the first one in over forty years

I know it will be the last

I can still feel his soft grasp

As if we both tried

To keep the sun from setting

Tenderly he welcomed

This lost niece home

***

Bisous,

Léa

La chatte

“Of all God’s creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat.” – Mark Twain

“Way down deep, we’re all motivated by the same urges. Cats have the courage to live by them.” – Jim Davis

“There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.”- Albert Schweitzer

une chatte d’Albas

La chatte

They call her

Feral

Total lack of moralitié

She prowls about

Mon village

Sampling all the treats

On offer

Living by instinct

Reality not judgment

Despite nine lives

She knows how quickly

Today becomes the past

Her time is not to be wasted

Taking her pleasure

As she finds it

Satiated she moves on

In front of the fire

Reminiscent

Her rough tongue

Traces a map of pleasure

Washing, always washing

Body memories – retracing her passion

Spent

She sleeps

Perchance to dream

Bisous,

Léa