poems for friends forever

Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others. ~Saint Augustine Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of your heart; confess to yourself you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. ~Rainer Maria Rilke



Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it. ~Henry David Thoreau, "Chesuncook," The Maine Woods, 1848



There is a certain age at which a child looks at you in all earnestness and delivers a long, pleased speech in all the true inflections of spoken English, but with not one recognizable syllable. There is no way you can tell the child that if language had been a melody, he had mastered it and done well, but that since it was in fact a sense, he had botched it utterly. ~Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek



Coquetry is the essential characteristic, and the prevalent humor of women; but they do not all practice it, because the coquetry of some is restrained by fear or by reason. ~Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld, Maxims



All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own. ~Johann von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther, 1774



The excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some useful truth in few words. ~Samuel Johnson



There may be liberty and justice for all, but there are tax breaks only for some. ~Martin A. Sullivan



Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today. ~Herman Wouk



I am reminded of the advice of my neighbor. "Never worry about your heart till it stops beating." ~E.B. White



If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings." ~Dave Barry, "Things That It Took Me 50 Years to Learn"



I didn't know I'd have to be torn down before I could be built up. ~Author Unknown



The only thing wrong with being an atheist is that there's nobody to talk to during an orgasm. ~Author Unknown



If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants. ~Isaac Newton, letter to Robert Hooke, 5 February 1675



It's so beautifully arranged on the plate - you know someone's fingers have been all over it. ~Julia Child



Poetry is to philosophy what the Sabbath is to the rest of the week. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827



For me, Vegas is a vacation from being overinhibited, in the highly overinhabited yet uninhabitable city of complete uninhibition. ~Tammy Bloemzaken



Good for the body is the work of the body, and good for the soul is the work of the soul, and good for either is the work of the other. ~Henry David Thoreau



When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator. ~Mahatma Gandhi



The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents and the second half by our children. ~Clarence Darrow



I am often accused of being childish. I prefer to interpret that as child-like. I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things. I tend to exaggerate and fantasize and embellish. I still listen to instinctual urges. I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind. I never water my garden without soaking myself. It has been after such times of joy that I have achieved my greatest creativity and produced my best work. ~Leo F. Buscaglia, Bus 9 to Paradise