"I cried to dream again"

"...and then in dreaming
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked
I cried to dream again."

- William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 3.2

An Ancient Gesture

I thought, as I wiped my eyes on the corner of my apron:
Penelope did this too.
And more than once: you can’t keep weaving all day
And undoing it all through the night;
Your arms get tired, and the back of your neck gets tight;
And along towards morning, when you think it will never be light,
And your husband has been gone, and you don’t know where, for years,
Suddenly you burst into tears;
There is simply nothing else to do.

And I thought, as I wiped my eyes on the corner of my apron:
This is an ancient gesture, authentic, Greek;
Ulysses did this too.
But only as a gesture - a gesture which implied
To the assembled throng that he was much too moved to speak.
He learned it from Penelope…
Penelope, who really cried.

-Edna St. Vincent Millay

Our Greatest Fear..."

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

-Maryanne Willamson

The Old Brag of My Heart

“I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart: I am, I am, I am.”
- Sylvia Plath

"If the young are not initiated..."

"If the young are not initiated into the village, they will burn it down just to feel its warmth."

- AFRICAN PROVERB

On Genius

"Everyone is a genius.  But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
- Albert Einstein

A Sendak Original

“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters—sometimes very hastily—but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.”

Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.”

That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.”

- Maurice Sendak

First-Rate Intelligence

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

"To Achieve Great Things..."

"To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time."

-Leonard Bernstein

I Cannot Live Without Books

"I cannot live without books."

- Thomas Jefferson

"...It's takes strength..."

"It's so easy to laugh
It's so easy to hate
It takes strength to be gentle and kind
Over, over, over, over
It's so easy to laugh
It's so easy to hate
It takes guts to be gentle and kind"

- The Smiths, I Know It's Over

Opera

"She sang, of course, 'M'ama!' and not 'he loves me,' since an unalterable and unquestioned law of the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer understanding of the English-speaking audiences."

- Edith Wharton
The Age of Innocence

"Why Is Being a Nerd Bad?"

“Why is being a nerd bad?

Saying ‘I notice you’re a nerd’ is like saying, ‘Hey, I noticed you’d rather be intelligent than stupid, that you’d rather be thoughtful than vapid, that you believe there are more important things than the arrest record of Lindsay Lohan. Why is that?’ “

- John Green

"The Most Beautiful Lie We Have"

(on Twilight: New Moon)  "To be honest, I thought it was kind of stupid.  But it reminded me of what I really do like about Twilight.  It's fun, it distracts me from the pain and brokenness of the world, and it argues that true love will triumph in the end; which may or may not be true, but if it's a lie, it's the most beautiful lie we have."

- John Green
(link)

"Every love story..."

"Every love story is, first and foremost, a mystery."

- Jacob at Television Without Pity
(link)

"... Let go of the life we had planned..."

"We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the life that is waiting for us."

- Joseph Campbell

Silliness

“Silliness, is a vastly under-appreciated quality —in humanity. I don’t know why it isn’t among our major virtues. Diligence, and kindness, and patience, and humility; and silliness.”

- Hank Green
(link)

"The Truth Resists Simplicity"

"The truth resists simplicity."
- John Green
(link)

"Stop All the Clocks" (W.H. Auden)

"Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good."

- W. H. Auden

"The Creative Adult..."

"The creative adult is the child who survived."
- Ursula K. LeGuin

"Time you enjoyed..."

"Time you enjoyed wasting was not wasted."
- John Lennon

"Love is Not All..."

Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
And rise and sink and rise and sink again;
Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath,
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.

- Edna St. Vincent Millay
(complete poem here)

"Prove all things..."

"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."
 - 1 Thessalonians 5:21