poems for life

A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves obscure men whose timidity prevented them from making a first effort. ~Sydney Smith


It takes one woman twenty years to make a man of her son - and another woman twenty minutes to make a fool of him. ~Helen Rowland


Freedom is never given; it is won. ~A. Philip Randolph


If you've lost your enthusiasm, there's no better place to find it than on a skipping excursion. And, you might just find your lost youth as well! ~Jessi Lane Adams


I'll quit coffee. It won't be easy drinking my Bailey's straight, but I'll get used to it. It'll still be the best part of waking up. ~From the television show Will and Grace


Dictum: a statement or saying, especially a formal statement of fact, opinion, principle, etc., or of one's will or judgment; a pronouncement; a noteworthy statement, as a formal pronouncement of a principle, proposition, or opinion, or an observation intended or regarded as authoritative.


Nationalism is a silly cock crowing on his own dunghill. ~Richard Aldington


One should eat to live, not live to eat. ~Cicero, Rhetoricorum LV


Good tattoos aren't cheap and cheap tattoos aren't good. ~Author Unknown


I think it's bad to talk about one's present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It discharges the tension. ~Norman Mailer


A problem is a chance for you to do your best. ~Duke Ellington


I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color, a symbol of yourself, the pictured suggestion of that big thing which makes this nation. My stars and my stripes are your dream and your labors. They are bright with cheer, brilliant with courage, firm with faith, because you have made them so out of your heart. For you are the makers of the flag and it is well that you glory in the making. ~Franklin Knight Lane


Poor and content is rich, and rich enough. ~William Shakespeare Poor Popeye. If only he had eaten purslane instead of spinach, he wouldn't have had so much trouble with the bad guy, Pluto. ~Jim O'Brien


I am compelled to fear that science will be used to promote the power of dominant groups rather than to make men happy. ~Bertrand Russell, Icarus, or the Future of Science, 1925


The cruelest lies are often told in silence. ~Adlai Stevenson


The language of friendship is not words but meanings. ~Henry David Thoreau


Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. ~Roger Caras


I wouldn't mind dying - it's the business of having to stay dead that scares the shit out of me. ~R. Geis


Husbands are like fires. They go out when unattended. ~Zsa Zsa Gabor


When you're wearing a green tuxedo, you dance where they tell you. ~Colonel Potter, "Too Many Cooks," original airdate 17 September 1979, written by Dennis Koenig, directed by Charles S. Dubin