People say it's impolite to point. But where would geometry be without points? ~ Jeffrey Case

Taling to God is not a soliloquy...unless you're an atheist. ~ Jeffrey Case

I've learned through the years not to expect anything. If you try to make a plan, God is going to laugh at you. ~ Johnny Weir

Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. ~Terry Pratchett

I can has all the Ibuprofen? ~ Paul Poirier, figure skater

I need new haters......the old ones are starting to like me! ~ Zach Donohue

A trap is only a trap if you don't know about it. If you know about it, it's a challenge.
~ China Mieville

Wait, what exactly does Lady Gaga wear for Halloween? ~ Tim Koleto

I think secular people should just shut up and go to church. ~ Michael Bast

Hold on. So you're telling me I can get off my computer and go to bed... and when I wake up the internet will still be there?! ~ Alex Shibutani

I just woke up from a nap... How about a cake? ~ Matt Blackmer

Lord:
When I breathe my last,
and open my eyes in Glory
may the first thing I hear be
"Unload, and show clear!

~ Shooter's Prayer, from David at Musings Over a Pint

Life is a buzzer box. Poke it. Poke the box. ~ Seth Godin

Too late for love, too late for joy,
Too late, too late!
You loitered on the road too long,
You trifled at the gate:
The enchanted dove upon her branch
Died without a mate...
The enchanted princess in her tower
Slept, died, behind the grate;
Her heart was starving all this while
You made it wait.

~ Christina Rosetti, ''The Prince's Progress''

Accept applause, sure, please do.
But when you expect applause, when you do your work in order (and because of) applause, you have sold yourself short. That's because your work is depending on something out of your control. You have given away part of your art. If your work is filled with the hope and longing for applause, it's no longer your work--the dependence on approval has corrupted it, turned it into a process where you are striving for ever more approval.
Who decides if your work is good? When you are at your best, you do. If the work doesn't deliver on its purpose, if the pot you made leaks or the hammer you forged breaks, then you should learn to make a better one. But we don't blame the nail for breaking the hammer or the water for leaking from the pot. They are part of the system, just as the market embracing your product is part of marketing.
"Here, here it is, it's finished."
If it's finished, the applause, the thanks, the gratitude are something else. Something extra and not part of what you created. To play a beautiful song for two people or a thousand is the same song, and the amount of thanks you receive isn't part of that song.
~ Seth Godin

What you're thinking is what you're becoming.
~ Muhammad Ali

Don't count the days, make the days count.
~ Muhammad Ali

Inside of a ring or out, ain't nothing wrong with going down. It's staying down that's wrong.
~ Muhammad Ali

The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.
~ Muhammad Ali

If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, then they can sure make something out of you.
~ Muhammad Ali

Age is just a number. ~ Dara Torres

Often it isn't the mountains ahead that wear you out, it's the little pebble in your shoe.
~ Muhammad Ali

Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer.
~ Muhammad Ali

The fight is won or lost far away from the witnesses, behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road; long before I dance under those lights.
~ Muhammad Ali

I have wrestled with an alligator!! I've gone tousling with a whale!! I've gone handcuffed lightning and put thunder in jail!! That's bad...only last week I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick!! .. I'm so mean I make medicine sick!!
~ Muhammad Ali

Wisdom is knowing when you can't be wise.
~ Muhammad Ali

I get so fired up when I send e-mails at work and people don't respond. I have to approach them and ask questions in person - how counterproductive!
~ Forum user a.m. pancak3s [I can't believe someone actually said that - HAHAHA!]

[That's all the quotes from my notebook. Yay!]

To the heartbroken family and friends... as you continue down this long hard road of grief (and healing), try to take peace knowing that the heaviness of your heart is proportional to the depth (and the richness) of the love you had for him, and he for you. ~ Unknown

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal. Love leaves a memory no one can steal.
~ Irish folk proverb

Are you making a dent in the universe? Hint: lots of random pokes in many different spots are unlikely to leave much of an impact. And hiding out is surely not going to work at all.
~ Seth Godin


Don't Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, (Man is the zam broke again?)
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill, (The ice is heaving too?!)
When the funds are low and the debts are high, (Typical)
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh, (Smile in program, no matter what)
When care is pressing you down a bit, (Stupid double sal)
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns, (Stupid Choctaw)
As every one of us sometimes learns, ($25 an hour for coaching, I'd better learn)
And many a failure turns about, (Stupid Back 3s)
When he might have won had he stuck it out; (One more round of power threes)
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow–(Must improve my edge pulls)
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than, (One more pattern and I'll be finished)
It seems to a faint and faltering man, (That fall on the axel is killing me)
Often the struggler has given up, (No.No.No.More.Skating.I.Quit)
When he might have captured the victor’s cup, (SHE won! I'm better than her!)
And he learned too late when the night slipped down, (I could have won that comp!)
How close he was to the golden crown. (But I quit)

Success is failure turned inside out--
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

~ Author Unknown, comments in parentheses by Babbette

Don't quit. You're already in pain. You're already hurt. Get a reward from it.
~ Unknown

Reject the tyranny of picked. Pick yourself. ~ Seth Godin

Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything. ~ Muhammad Ali

Rapture

Thought of by you all day, I think of you.
The birds sing in the shelter of a tree.
Above the prayer of rain, unacred blue,
Not paradise, goes nowhere endlessly.
How does it happen that our lives can drift
Far from our selves, while we stay trapped in time,
Queuing for death? It seems nothing will shift
The pattern of our days, alter the rhyme
We make with loss to assonance with bliss.

Then love comes, like a sudden flight of birds
From earth to heaven after rain. Your kiss,
Recalled, unstrings, like pearls, this chain of words.
Huge skies connect us, joining here to there.
Desire and passion on the thinking air.

~ Carol Ann Duffy

Please stop waiting for a map. We reward those who draw maps, not those who follow them. ~ Seth Godin

We, one, must part in two;
Verily death is this:
I must die.
~ Christina Rosetti, ''Wife to Husband''

Live everyday as if it were your last because someday you're going to be right.
~ Muhammad Ali

Where did curiosity go? Initiative is a little like creativity in that both require curiosity.
~ Seth Godin

A verse is not written, it is bled out of the poet's abstract head. Words drip the poem on the page out of his grief, delight, and rage. ~ Paul Engle

I don't want to be human anymore. I quit. ~ Joy Elliot

Travel well...come back when you can...
...pursue truth, for the greater glory of God and for the service of humanity.
~ Fr. Paul Stark, S.J., Saint Louis University, to graduating seniors.

Teacher to student #1: You can be your own special snowflake.
Student #2: Until you melt!
~ Bard High School Early College, Queens, New York


Hand

Away from you, I hold hands with the air,
Your imagined, untouchable hand. Not here,
Your fingers braid with mine as I walk
Far away in my heart, you start to talk.

I squeeze the air, kicking the auburn leaves,
Everything suddenly gold. I half believe
Your hand is holding mine, the way
It would if you were here. What do you say

In my heart? I bend my head to listen, then feel
Your hand reach out and stroke my hair, as real
As the wind caressing the fretful trees above.
Now I can hear you clearly, speaking of love.

~ Carol Ann Duffy

How I see math word problems: if you have 4 pencils and I have 7 apples, how many pancakes will fit on the roof? Purple because aliens don't wear hats. ~ Joy Elliot

As long as you laugh at yourself, you'll always have humor. ~ Joan E. Bast-Hausself

Do trees have sleepovers called lumber parties? ~ Josh Santillan

I don’t use the “stupid” word for any jumps because it makes it sound like the person jumping has no control over it. The skater has the ability to do the jump, the jump has no power over them (although) it might seem like it at the time. A little use of language can go a long way. DS never heard that he could “lose” his axel, so he never did. He couldn’t land it once in a while, but because he didn’t have that mental possibility of it “going away totally”, it wasn’t a big deal. Challenge the mainstream thinking. Who says that kids have to “lose” their axel? If the kid never hears this is standard, they never know it do they?
~ Ice Mom

Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.
~ Muhammad Ali

Nothing lasts forever. Will you be my nothing? ~ Unknown


Only once you neared my place,
And your hand one moment's space
Sought the fingers of my hand;
Your eyes flashed to mine; I knew
All was well between us two.

~ Christina Rosetti, ''The Dream''