"Fear not death; for the sooner we die, the longer shall we be immortal."

-- Ben Franklin

"The only way to entertain some folks is to listen to them".

-- Kin Hubbard

"You'll never find another love like mine..."

-- Lou Rawls, 1933-2005


(Image from MusicandImages.com)

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."

-- Krishnamurti

"If we don't change direction soon, we'll end up where we're going."

-- Professor Irwin Corey


Image from The Official Professor Irwin Corey Site

"What I would like to be is effective. I like to think of myself as someone who is compassionate, and responsive and effective."

-- Christine C. Quinn, Newly Elected Speaker of the New York City Council, and an out Lesbian.


(Image from The Villager).

"If you eat less, you live more."

-- David Wolf, Nature's First Law

"In the fertile soil of these first few days of 2006, I would like to support you in laying the internal foundation for a deeply satisfying and rewarding year ahead. As many wise sages have said, the greatest predictor of the future is the past. It is my belief that once we learn the lessons of the past - and are willing to really "get" those lessons - we don't have to repeat them. Our souls are always trying to get us to evolve. And just how do we evolve? Through learning the lessons of our past - recognizing them, owning them and incorporating what we know into our lives. So let's walk together through a simple exercise that will reap huge rewards for you in the months to come.

Look Through the Eyes of the Universe

Take a deep, centering breath, and say to the universe: "I know you have a very important lesson for me - my soul's lesson. There is something very important that you've been trying to teach me through the experiences, circumstances and people you've put in front of me. I acknowledge that this lesson is imperative for me to learn in order to have 2006 truly be a new new year and not a year of disappointing repetition. What is that one lesson?"

Your New Internal State

Imagine that your soul is hungry. It's starving for a state of being - an internal environment for you to live in each day. What are the feelings that you most desire to have in 2006? With a deep breath and big exhale, ask yourself: "What is the internal environment that I'm longing to live inside of?" Is it an environment of love, peace, quiet, safety, freedom, happiness, joy, aliveness? For example, one of my staff members saw that she wanted to live in an environment of inner peace, and in that space there would be a feeling of certainty for her. As you listen for answers, continue to ask your soul to reveal what it hungers for. And in the days and weeks ahead, it can be helpful to look inside several times a day and gently ask yourself: "Am I cultivating that feeling - that internal state?"

An Internal Shift

What two thoughts or beliefs would you have to let go of in order to create that environment? Could it be letting go of what other people think of you? Or the belief that you're not good enough, not worthy, not safe, or not loved?

An External Shift

What would have to shift in your external world to support that new internal environment? What two habits or behaviors would you have to let go of in order to create your desired internal environment? People-pleasing, pleasure-seeking, procrastination, disorganization, staying in an unhealthy relationship, overworking?

Integrity Anchors

What two action steps are you willing to take this week to create this internal environment? Choose two simple actions that will serve as anchors to your nourishing inner state. Perhaps it's creating a new morning ritual, taking a brisk daily walk, attending Weight Watchers, playing a special piece of music for yourself, ten minutes of nightly meditation, or scheduling the time to get radically organized so you can handle your busy life with ease.

Miraculous New Beginnings

What, you may ask, will be available to you by learning the lessons, letting go and leaving the past where it belongs? I believe that God is always inviting us to re-create our lives anew. By embracing the significant lessons of 2005, you're saying yes to miraculous new beginnings. So really use this time to clean up your past, embrace your dark and welcome your light. Our souls are always guiding us so that we can evolve to that next level of consciousness. It can be oddly reassuring to know that there are bumps in the road to every new level of consciousness. And there are always new insights to be discovered and new actions to be taken as we evolve our internal states. There's some work to do, but the payoffs will be profound. I look forward to hearing about your new beginnings as we travel into 2006 together."

-- Debbie Ford, in a public email, DebbieFord.com

"Take everything you like seriously, except yourselves".

-- Rudyard Kipling

"Mostly, I have learned to stay in the moment, which is a true gift, to relish, cherish and live each day as it comes in the best way that is possible, always being grateful for what one has. Doing good deeds for others helps one become humble, and the focus of self shifts to the that of helping another individual... It is without regret that I look back at 2005 and say goodbye, and let it go absolutely... May it be God's will that 2006 brings about union rather than division, good health for all, and peace here in America, across the globe, and in Israel... Thank you for your minds."

-- BarbarafromCalifornia,
Women on the Verge of Thinking
.

“Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self-assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and, ultimately, reinforces humility. Breaking them is part of the cycle.”

-- Eric Zorn

"There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness".

-- Josh Billings

"Time to make the donuts."

-- Michael Vale, Dunkin Donuts' "Fred the Baker" character, 1922-2005.


Image from the NNDB.

"Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right".

-- Laurens Van der Post

"If we wait until we are 100 percent sure that we are making the right rather than the wrong decision, we can be 100 percent sure of only one thing--we will never make any decision at all. To be decisive and proactive, we often need to act long before we're convinced we're doing the right thing."

-- Arleen LaBella and Dolores Leach

"Everybody talks about the weather and nobody does anything about it."

-- Carl Sandburg

"The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington, D.C. This wasn't for any religious reasons. They couldn't find three wise men and a virgin."

-- Jay Leno

“Christmas isn't a season. It's a feeling.”

-- Edna Ferber

"They're working people and they're not thugs. I'm a working person and if I go out on strike, I'm not a thug either."

-- Joan Taylor Stewart, to Mayor Bloomberg at Junior's restaurant yesterday, as reported in The New York Times, Bloomberg Balanced Tough Talk Against the Risk of Offending, by Jim Rutenberg.

"Know your limits... But never stop trying to exceed them!"

-- Anonymous

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

-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

"The prospect of a long day at the beach makes me panic. There is no harder work I can think of than taking myself off to somewhere pleasant, where I am forced to stay for hours and 'have fun'."

-- Phillip Lopate

"Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows".

-- David T. Wolf

"But in truth the audience doesn't have to be coerced to get it. This is where the country has been steadily moving of late. Brokeback Mountain, a Hollywood product after all, is not leading a revolution but ratifying one, fleshing out - quite literally - what most Americans now believe. It's not for nothing that the proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage vanished as soon as the election was over. Polls show that a large American majority support equal rights for gay couples as long as the unions aren't labeled "marriage" - and given the current swift pace of change, that reservation, too, will probably fade in the next 5 to 10 years."

-- Frank Rich, Two Gay Cowboys Hit a Home Run, The New York Times

"Patience is the best remedy for every trouble."

-- Fortune Cookie

"The power of hiding ourselves from one another is mercifully given, for men are wild beasts, and would devour one another but for this protection".

-- Henry Ward Beecher

"Integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching."

-- Anonymous

"There is no birth of consciousness without pain".

-- Carl Jung


Image from JungCircle.com

"I'll go through it with dignity, with integrity, with love and bliss in my heart. I smile at everything, and I'm quite sure I'll smile then, too."

-- Stanley Tookie Williams, III; 1953-2005


Image from Tookie.com

"I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element.

It is my personal approach that creates the climate.

It is my daily mood that makes the weather.

I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous.

I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.

I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.

In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated,

and a person is humanized or de-humanized.

If we treat people as they are, we make them worse.

If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming."

-- Goethe, 1749-1832


Image from Cancellieri.org

"I'm a pioneer. That's my contribution. I broke barriers for black comics. I was being Richard Pryor; that was me on that stage. But I was on drugs at the time."

-- Richard Pryor, 1940-2005


Image from LA Times.

"It could be like this - just like this - always."

-- Jack Twist, character in Brokeback Mountain, portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal.


Image from JakeGyllenhaal.com

"If I had to live my life again... I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner."

-- Tallulah Bankhead


Image from Concordia.

"Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them, do not. Miss them, do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is... Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose."

-- Yoda



Image from Chez Dafyd

"Music and John were inseperable. There was always music in our life."

-- Yoko Ono, to Mary Huhn in the New York Post, today.


Image from Blog Alice.

"It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up".

-- W. Somerset Maugham

"If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years."

-- Bertrand Russell

"All of us are on journey to the future, yet all of us live in the present. Too many people get caught up in what could be, instead of appreciating what is. Appreciate what you have, and who you have, because the future can take it all away from you."

-- Laike, Lunar Silver Star Story Complete
. (As suggested by J.D.)

"The trouble with facts is that there are so many of them".

-- Samuel McChord Crothers

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron".

-- H.L. Mencken, Baltimore Evening Sun on July 26, 1920. (Thanks to Curtis for the quote )

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents".

-- H.P. Lovecraft

"When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him".

-- Thomas Szasz

"If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane".

-- Jimmy Buffett


Image from HotSeats.com

"I'm a modern man,
digital and smoke-free;
a man for the millennium.

A diversified, multi-cultural,
post-modern deconstructionist;
politically, anatomically and ecologically incorrect.

I've been uplinked and downloaded,
I've been inputted and outsourced.
I know the upside of downsizing,
I know the downside of upgrading.

I'm a high-tech low-life.
A cutting-edge, state-of-the-art,
bi-coastal multi-tasker,
and I can give you a gigabyte in a nanosecond.

I'm new-wave, but I'm old-school;
and my inner child is outward-bound.

I'm a hot-wired, heat-seeking,
warm-hearted cool customer;
voice-activated and bio-degradable.

I interface with my database;
my database is in cyberspace;
so I'm interactive, I'm hyperactive,
and from time to time I'm radioactive.

Behind the eight ball, ahead of the curve,
ridin' the wave, dodgin' the bullet,
pushin' the envelope.

I'm on point, on task, on message,
and off drugs.

I've got no need for coke and speed;
I've got no urge to binge and purge.

I'm in the moment, on the edge,
over the top, but under the radar.

A high-concept, low-profile,
medium-range ballistic missionary.

A street-wise smart bomb.
A top-gun bottom-feeder.

I wear power ties, I tell power lies,
I take power naps, I run victory laps.

I'm a totally ongoing, big-foot, slam-dunk
rainmaker with a pro-active outreach.

A raging workaholic, a working rageaholic;
out of rehab and in denial.

I've got a personal trainer,
a personal shopper,
a personal assistant,
and a personal agenda.

You can't shut me up;
you can't dumb me down.

'Cause I'm tireless, and I'm wireless.
I'm an alpha-male on beta-blockers.

I'm a non-believer,
I'm an over-achiever;
Laid-back and fashion-forward.
Up-front, down-home;
low-rent, high-maintenance.

I'm super-sized, long-lasting,
high-definition, fast-acting,
oven-ready and built to last.

A hands-on, footloose, knee-jerk head case;
prematurely post-traumatic,
and I have a love child who sends me hate-mail.

But I'm feeling, I'm caring,
I'm healing, I'm sharing.
A supportive, bonding, nurturing
primary-care giver.

My output is down, but my income is up.
I take a short position on the long bond,
and my revenue stream has its own cash flow.

I read junk mail, I eat junk food,
I buy junk bonds, I watch trash sports.

I'm gender-specific, capital-intensive,
user-friendly and lactose-intolerant.

I like rough sex; I like tough love.
I use the f-word in my e-mail.
And the software on my hard drive
is hard-core—no soft porn.

I bought a microwave at a mini-mall.
I bought a mini-van at a mega-store.
I eat fast food in the slow lane.
I'm toll-free, bite-size, ready-to-wear,
and I come in all sizes.

A fully equipped, factory-authorized,
hospital-tested, clinically proven,
scientifically formulated medical miracle.

I've been pre-washed, pre-cooked, pre-heated,
pre-screened, pre-approved, pre-packaged,
post-dated, freeze-dried, double-wrapped
and vacuum-packed.

And . . . I have unlimited broadband capacity.

I'm a rude dude, but I'm the real deal.
Lean and mean.
Cocked, locked and ready to rock;
rough, tough and hard to bluff.

I take it slow, I go with the flow;
I ride with the tide, I've got glide in my stride.

Drivin' and movin', sailin' and spinnin';
jivin' and groovin', wailin' and winnin'.

I don't snooze, so I don't lose.
I keep the pedal to the metal
and the rubber on the road.
I party hearty, and lunchtime is crunch time.

I'm hangin' in, there ain't no doubt;
and I'm hangin' tough.
Over and out."

-- George Carlin

"Everyone has duties and obligations, so don't make a big issue of whatever it is you are expected to do today. Also, when doing a task you do not much care for don't be tempted to let your standards slip. Not only will it harm your reputation but you will have to do it again later - and if it was boring the first time the second time will be worse."

-- Sally Brompton, today's forecast for Cancerians.

"Part of what comes with the territory of fame is a lot of intrusiveness. But I've got a philosophy about that. You either learn to do it well and handle it or you're a putz."

-- Pat Morita, 1930-2005

"To be happy, is a decision..."

-- Todd Stockman

"Misogynist: A man who hates women as much as women hate one another".

-- H.L. Mencken

"I'm open to everything... There are moments for soft gentle sex. And there moments for a good spank in the butt."

-- Ricky Martin, Blender magazine.


Image from Nabou.

"Thanksgiving is more important than Santa. Please don't rush past this holiday to get to Christmas".

-- Sophiana Botich, age 6, Crown Point, IN, Northwest Indiana Times.

"Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under."

-- H.L. Mencken

"Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood".

-- H.L. Mencken

"All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it."

-- H.L. Mencken

"A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin."

-- H.L. Mencken

"My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She's ninety-seven now, and we don't know where the hell she is."

-- Ellen DeGeneres

"Never give a party if you will be the most interesting person there".

-- Mickey Friedman

"Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed."

-- Corita Kent

"Do not wait for ideal circumstances; they will never come".

-- Janet Erskine Stuart

"Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there".

-- Will Rogers

"We're all peculiar, aren't we?"

-- Brent Spiner



Image from stng.36el.com

"For men. Friends and more, past, present, and future. You know who you are."

-- Maureen Dowd, dedication to her book, Are Men Necessary?

"Today, I am reminded that life must be accepted for the way it is, and not as I may want it to be. That I must not give up my trust in God at any time. To despair truly does bring forward a dark cloud making it difficult for the light from the almighty to enter. Remembering to stay strong, and accepting the love and kindness of others, rather than isolating myself, is necessary to cope with any pain that one may be feeling. It must also be remembered that one cannot resolve all problems, and that learning how to live with unresolved problems is a wonderful lesson to embrace. From this day foreward, life, as I know it, will be a true roller coaster ride."

-- Barbara from California, Women on the Verge of Thinking.



Image from Madsci.org.

"The trouble with being a giver is that you are very good at giving and having friends who need you. The sorrowful part is that you aren’t very good at finding friends who can be there when you need a listening ear. Too many people confuse the mouth and the ear when it comes to being there for another person. They don’t know how to say 'I hear you. I feel your pain. Don’t give up.' In my case, I listen to my head and say those things under my breath."

-- Joel Sax, Pax Nortona

"We have a president who is basing even legislation on faith-based morality, and yet we invade a country whose whole govermental system is faith-based except that it's their faith and not ours... Why can't we see that that a faith based society, no matter what the faith, is not really a democratic society?"

-- Shirley MacLaine in Interview Magazine.


Image from Ian Miles.

"Sit down and eat yer fuckin' meatballs!"
-- A lady, as overheard by Joe.My.God

"I love it when I see in the paper who's made a complete jack-off of themselves - it amuses me... So, I get it, but at some point at the end of the nineties, studios and insurance companies suddenly started using your private persona to get you a sobriety coach and five hours of fucking Gestalt therapy a week - or we don't pay you."

-- Robert Downey Jr., in Wonder Boy by Logan Hill in New York Magazine.


Image from Dead Bodies Inc.

"We'll bomb, strafe and send missiles against their people even though our security's not directly threatened... This is contrary to international law. It's also contrary to what every president has done in this country for more than 100 years, Democrat or Republican."

-- President Jimmy Carter


Image from CNN.

"A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men".

-- Roald Dahl

"I am a fashion God."
-- Michael Brown, former FEMA Director, in e-mails he wrote during the recent New Orleans disaster.

"Brownie, You're doin a heck of a job!"
-- George W. Bush

"Why the f*ck is everyone so dressed up?"

-- Elaine Stritch, at MoMA royal reception for Prince Charles, last night, as quoted by Cindy Adams.

"My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long."

-- Armistead Maupin

"As a singer, I have minimal skills. As a dancer, I have even 'minimaller' skills."

-- Rosie O'Donnell, on Inside the Actor's Studio.

"Ho, ho, ho!"

-- Elmer Dresslar, Jr., Voice of the Green Giant, 1925-2005.


Image from Screensavers.com

"Those who flee temptation generally leave a forwarding address".

-- Lane Olinghouse

"I am going to have a great Friday and a fantastic weekend, and hope you do too."

-- Karl Rove said as he left his home this morning, as reported by CNN.

"You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense."

-- Rick Warren

"What some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn't much better than tedious disease."

-- George Dennison Prentice

"I'd like people to say I'm a person who always wanted to be free and wanted it not only for myself; freedom is for all human beings."

-- Rosa Parks, 1913-2005.


Image from Lawyer News.

“Fat kid got lucky.”
-- Gordon "Porky" Lee, Star of The Little Rascals, 1933-2005.


Image from Star-Telegram.

"The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference".
--­ Anonymous

"Children... if we really love them must be allowed to struggle, for only through the struggle of adolescence can they acquire the security of adulthood."

-- Michael DeSisto

"Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else".

-- James M. Barrie

"It promotes co-operation. When people aren't happy, you see it. When people aren't getting along, you see it. People also want to feel included, and everybody wants - I keep saying this - recognition and respect."

-- Michael Bloomberg, on his unusual office arrangement in the center of a large open room with all of his Deputies and aids surrounding his desk, as quoted in yesterday's New York Times.


Image from The New York Times.

"I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it".

-- Edith Sitwell

"Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts".
-- Charles Dickens

"I now attract new friends who are exciting, loving, caring, accepting, funny, and generous"

-- Louise Hay

"Do or do not, there is no try".

-- Yoda

"Ozone and friendship will be our stimulants - let the drugs, tobacco, and strong drink go forever. Natural joy brings no headaches or heartaches."

-- Elbert Hubbard

"Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities."

-- Aldous Huxley

“Teaching is like being a parent over, and over, and over.”

-- A. De Vito

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: WOW - What a Ride!"

-- Anonymous

"To be amused by what you read--that is the great spring of happy quotations".

-- C.E. Montague

"The mediator between brain and hands must be the heart!"

-- Fritz Lang's Metropolis, 1927.

"Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence".

-- Henrik Tikkanen

"A poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child".

-- H. L. Mencken

"He who turns the other cheek will get hit with the other fist."

-- Nipsey Russell, 1923-2005.


Image from Comic Strip El Paso.

"Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength."

-- August Wilson, 1945-2005


Image from SUNY.

"Mr. President, this job can't be fun for you any more. There's no more money to spend--you used up all of that. You can't start another war because you used up the army. And now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people.

"Listen to your Mom. The cupboard's bare, the credit cards maxed out. No one's speaking to you. Mission accomplished.

"Now it's time to do what you've always done best: lose interest and walk away. Like you did with your military service and the oil company and the baseball team. It's time. Time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How about cowboy or space man? Now I know what you're
saying: there's so many other things that you as President could involve yourself in. Please don't. I know, I know. There's a lot left to do. There's a war with Venezuela. Eliminating the sales tax on yachts. Turning the space program over to the church. And Social Security to Fannie Mae. Giving embryos the vote.

"But, Sir, none of that is going to happen now. Why? Because you govern like Billy Joel drives. You've performed so poorly I'm surprised that you haven't given yourself a medal. You're a catastrophe that walks like a man.

"Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire city to rising water and snakes. "On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans. Maybe you're just not lucky. I'm not saying you don't love this country. I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side.

"So, yes, God does speak to you. What he is saying is: 'Take a hint.'"

-- Bill Maher

"On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog".

-- Peter Steiner

"It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself, but the most inconvenient one, too."
-- H.W. Shaw