1601) "I read in Bernanos that unhappiness is a source of blessing. To this Catholic honeydew I replied in my book that all happiness is basically a trite Christian invention. Happiness, I wrote, is kitsch. It has nothing in common with the eudaimonia of the Greeks. Whereas in Judaism the whole idea of happiness does not exist; there isn't even a word cooresponding to it in the Bible. Apart, perhaps, from the satisfaction of approval, a positive feedback from God or your neighbor: 'Blessed are the undefiled in the way,' for instance. Judaism recognizes only joy. As in the verse 'Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth.' Ephemeral joy, like the fire of the cryptic Heraclitus, whose victory is its destruction, joy whose converse is wrapped up in it and in fact actually makes it possible."-Amos Oz
1602) "Love exists in as many ways/ As there are angles of the sun/ On the ocean."-Greg Greenway
1603) "If you ever need a helping hand, it's at the end of your arm. As we grow older, we need to remember that we have a second hand. The first one is to help ourselves, and the second to help others."-Audrey Hepburn
1604) "I ache without you/ There is a longing/ powerful as ocean tides/ drawing us together/ Unlike desolate moon/ or sorrowful seas/ we may be as one/ intimate as twining ivy/ Every thought of you/ crashes on my wishful shore/ a powerful, pulsing,/ passionate memory"-Fallen Angel
1605) "i guess/ i once believed/ in/ a heaven/ and a hell/ i had to/ because/ i was in/ the hell/ and/ every/ breath/ was another/ razor/ against/ every/ fragile piece/ of my skin/ and the blood/ flew so freely then/ i had/ enough pain/ to hand out/ to everyone/ that was/ a very long time ago/ or though it seems/ and now/ we found/ the place/ where we belong/ in the shade/ of a dead tree cemetary/ wrapped/ in the warmth/ of spring breezes/ and no more/ the soft earth/ took us/ you/ took me/ and i/ became/ one with you/ in the habitat/ of all the matters/ in the world/ of the/ only things that are real/ with no more/ then the sun/ as a witness/ to what this means/ somewhere/ away from it all/ in a place/ not of this earth/ becauseWESAIDSO!/ we became/ everything/ and the sky/ the ocean blue/ above/ consumed us all/ and i finally/ reached a door/ that/ can only open/ at your touch/ in our forest/ still untouched/ by the hating hands/ of fucked-up humanity/ it all poured/ out of one/ and into the other/ and us both/ became us together/ as your lips pressed against/ my lips/ and the branches/ wrapped around us/ to create a veil/ from those who wouldn't believe/ we have/ a place/ we have/ an escape/ we have/ a world/ all our own"-Russ Marshalek, Somewhere Away From It All[Our Forest]-3/29/98
1606) "The only interesting answers are those which destroy the question."-Susan Sontag
1607) "...lately I have gotten a new idealistic way of thinking about things--in the grander/greater scheme of things, lots of things just really don't matter. Like twenty years from now, I will not be thinking about how not getting the Dana grant ruined my life. Who I live with and where we live for one semester next year will not make a difference when I am older. Weighing five extra pounds doesn't matter when I would much rather eat the things I like and want to eat. You know?"-Nozomi Maeyama
1608) "Someone sent me a picture postcard of the Earth. On the back it said 'Wish you were here.'"-Steven Wright
1609) "I used to keep an open mind, but people kept trying to fill it with garbage."
1610) "As the cream of the country's academic crop and its future leaders, it is our duty to continue to strive for gender equality and our special shame if we deny that the problem persists. When I don't need a posse of trustworthy male friends to escort me to a party, when I don't see girls tragically parading their anorexic frames around campus, when I can live through an entire day without being teased by a male student who thinks I find humor in his sexual innuendo, when the card swiper learns my name is not 'sweetheart,' when I can voice my opinions without being called a bitch, then and only then will I applaud those who declare that the revolution is over."-Erin Reilly
1611) "Do not fear failure--embrace it."-Conan O'Brien
1612) "i caught a cold/ and for two days straight/ my ears have been plugged up/ as if my body's sayin'/ you don't need your ears/ you don't use 'em anyway/ we need more nose jobs/ we need more hair relaxers/ more magazines telling us/ there's something wrong with your face/ ...i'd love to trade places/ with a dog for a day/ to know what he thinks and what he feels/ does he think about life?/ does he think about God?/ or just about his next meal, like us?/ so often these days eating indian food/ passes for spirituality/ i don't meditate/ i don't pray/ but i eat two samosas every day"-Dan Bern, "Rolling Away"
1613) "if i was a girl i could sing real high/ and also then i'd know what having/ breasts would be like"-Dan Bern, "Chick Singers"
1614) "Everyone I know has gone away, died, left or just forgot to stay. Sometimes took for granted, sometimes turned away, sometimes didn't say what I meant to say."-Garbage
1615) "I've learned that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them."
1616) "I've learned that even if you do the right thing for the wrong reason, it's still the wrong thing to do."
1617) "for every piece of expression, there will be those who understand and those who don't, and poetry is one of those delightful things whereby there's really no saying what's right and what's wrong."-LiQing
1618) "Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind."-Lord Macaulay
1619) "every once in a while when i'm sunk into what i imagine must be the pits of misery, it occurs to me that this 'pit' gets visited pretty often by everybody, and i usually have to smile...at our egoism, at our irrepressible ability to assume we suffer more than others."-LiQing
1620) "So, you got fucking diamond earrings, and all we got were these bracelets!"-Jessica Schraub
1621) "I generally say very little in terms of self-description, mainly because I don't like to do it for myself. Once you start saying, 'I'm this or I'm that,' you're limiting yourself."-Dan Bern
1622) "If the human brain was so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn't."
1623) "Experience is a wonderful thing; it enables you to recognize a mistake everytime you repeat it."
1624) "We do not remember days, we remember moments."-Cesare Pavese
1625) "I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life."-F. Scott Fitzgerald
1626) "When in the morning I looked upon the light, I felt in a moment that I was no stranger in this world."-Sir Rabindranath Tagore
1627) "Sometimes when you hold out for everything, you walk away with nothing."-Angela on Ally McBeal
1628) [The author asked me to remove this quote.]
1629) "Hey, does anybody realize how many bodyguards the Pope has? If he's scared to go to heaven, then Penn students better have gone to Sunday mass."-Streetbeat
1630) "we turn off the headlights/ occasional cars pass by, curiously/ the time is 8:48 pm,/ ticks closer to ten/ during the course of denial/ (i can count to four)./ i have a friend who lives in the apartments next door,/ i have a fragile ego and no need for secrets./ when he asked about virginity/ i lied./ his skin tasted metallically of sand/ and i gagged before drinking iced tea./ i hate iced tea./ honesty is a sexual postition./ difficult to emulate/ with the gear shaft/ banging between./ we solve the problem,/ share a seat (share a lover) share a breathing pattern./ i know what/ other women taste like/ second hand./ at 10:07 i stop apologizing for no,/ home by 10:26: still denying./ now i keep secrets in glove compartments and/ back seats."-Heather Hughes
1631) "i'm all about something i can never have,/ thrilled at the prospects of cheap sex/ from the passenger seat of a red Chevrolet,/ looking for excuses and reasons and chemicals to/ assuage the regrets of several months./ every year the same thoughts congregate/ to ask my pardon for the milion/ memories and fuck ups i pushed aside/ until such time as anniversaries and birthdays roll around;/ gleefully, i bleed fresh tears onto soft fingertips./ i'm never home anymore/ but i dont know what i'm out doing./ i'm keeping track of all the little things/ on the back of chinese fortune cookie papers/ over my lucky numbers. i take comfort in your assurance./ traffic jams appeal to me as never before,/ i like to dance on crowded highways/ and i wanted you to be there to dance with me/ just this once/ i wanted far away to feel closer than this."-Heather Hughes
1632) "random unthought poetry/ flows out my fingertips/ through an indifferent keyboard/ at an obscenely late hour./ aided by a mild amount of intoxication,/ a couple of crushes,/ and large amounts of testosterone,/ i draw chaotic verbal images/ on a blinking white screen./ there is this:/ pure, unadulterated lust,/ deep smit,/ and an unbearable closeness./ never, never/ all in the same person./ i prefer to differentiate my life/ compartmentalize it into little boxes/ each side two inches from the other/ so they can thaw properly./ i'd like to mix them all up/ and do a little cooking./ but i've never been able to bear heat,/ so i will keep my ass out of the kitchen./ it's national poetry month./ and i wish i could participate./ but the expert says that poetry/ never gives away its meaning/ and i am afraid i am too transparent./ a literary nudist./ do they have a commune for me?/ sleep tugs at the corners of my body/ reminding me of my status as a student/ while a pad seeps up the flow of thwarted life/ reminding me of my status of a girl/ but what throbs through my being/ is the oh so insistent reminder/ of my status as a recently deflowered virgin/ all i want is to be filled again."-Jennifer Crispin
1633) "Poetic Irony--Tankas, haikus, and/ Cinquains. What ridiculous/ Concepts. After all,/ Aren't poetry and imposed/ Structure bitter enemies?"-Doug Smeath
1634) "his lips pinch together and his eyebrows draw closer to/ hold conference on the delicate matter of my denial./ there are five bad words in the English language:/ 'I Don't Love You Anymore.'/ my own hands judge themselves worthless,/ unable to trace endlessly the unique pout of his chin,/ ignorant of the motions of solitaire./ i assure him this must be a lie. he shakes his head,/ tight brown curls emphasizing the Great Wall/ between his eyes and my tears./ i want to embrace him before the final brick divides us,/ but he stiffens./ i want to inhale the familiar incense of his worn out flannel/ but i can't recognize his detergent now./ already his foreign policy advocates isolationism./ his sandals squeak unmercifully as i watch his back walk away."-Heather Hughes
1635) "These are the days of the endless summers. These are the days, the time is now. There is no past, there's only future. There's only here, there's only now."-Van Morrison
1636) "And although they'll never fathom it behind my sarcasms desperate memories lie."-Pink Floyd
1637) "I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat."-Rebecca West in 1913
1638) "There is no difference between being raped/ and being pushed down a flight of cement steps/ except that the wounds also bleed inside./ There is no difference between being raped/ and being run over by a truck/ except that afterward men ask if you enjoyed it./ There is no difference between being raped/ and being bitten on the ankle by a rattlesnake/ except that people ask if your skirt was short and why were you out anyhow./ There is no difference between being raped/ and going head first through a windshield/ except that afterward you are afraid/ not of cars/ but of half the human race."-Marge Piercy
1639) "'it's hard to say what should be done.' amen sister. uhm yes. 'we don't say everything that we could/ so that we can say later, 'oh you misunderstood.'' i do this a lot. can i tell you this? i feel like i can, and it'll be okay. so here goes: it's a vulnerability thing-- can you trust yourself to open up to this person? and can you trust this person to guard what you give them? just one person who abuses this trust/power relationship can scar and harden you, keep you from giving yourself to others. i've been thinking this a lot. it's like janis joplin says at the end of Ball and Chain: 'tomorrow never comes, man,' (she says 'man' a whole lot. too much weed i think.), 'It's always the same fuckin' day." she babbles a while... basically it comes down to: if you care about someone, show it. if you love someone, fucking tell them, fucking love them as hard as you can. yeah, it's risky, but you have to take that risk. yeah, it's scary, but you've gotta do it anyways, because life is too damn short and fucked up to go through it silently loving someone and never telling them how you feel. it's a big Carpe Diem thing-- seize it, seize the opportunity, take it with both hands, 'oh, no, don't close your eyes' (Ani), take it, take it all. fuck the consequences, fuck the implications of the actions, to hell with it all... whatever happens as a result is far far better than the nothingness that is inevitable with silence. your silence might protect you, but in the long run, it's the loudness that is remembered. when you're like 90 and in a nursing home, do you want to look back and think about 'ah, i remember so-and-so. i was so in love with them. never told them, though. too afraid.' Hells no! You're gonna want to think about how you just took the bull by the horns or however that cliche goes and fucking planted one on them! Fuck yeah! they might turn away, they could reject you, but at least you'll *know* and you won't tear yourself up over it. but *why* should they reject you? if you are so fully ready and willing to give someone something so beautiful and unconditional, if you are ready to hand someone your heart on a fucking platter, then *why* would they reject it? now how stupid is that? to turn away from love? that's so wrong! how could they not want love? how could they fail to see the beauty in every living damn person, how could they say, 'oh, so sorry, but i don't want you'? that makes no fucking sense. even so, ya gotta weigh the options: do i wanna pathetically *pine* forever and ever? or do i want to LIVE? you can't keep shit like that penned up inside you! god no! life is too goddamned short to be passive, or passionless, or apathetic about *anything* or *anyone*. do you want to spend your numbered days waiting quietly for life to happen *to* you, for something/someone to drop into your lap? remember, tomorrow never comes. it's all the same *fucking* day. nothing miraculous or heart-shaking is going to happen today that didn't happen yesterday if you don't DO something about it. it's so hard to say what needs to be said. hearts are chafing all over the fucking place; i know mine is. and quite frankly, i am tired of it. so now it comes down to: can i take my own advice? '*there's* a fire just waiting for fuel.'"-JillyC
1640) "You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back."-Barbara De Angelis
1641) "If you judge people, you have no time to love them."-Mother Teresa
1642) "The words 'I am...' are potent words, be careful what you hitch them to. The thing you're claiming has a way of reaching beck and claiming you."
1643) "Nothing lasts forever, not even troubles."-Arnold H. Glasgow
1644) "The question is not would you die for a friend but do you have a friend worth dying for."
1645) "The world is like a mirror--if you face it smiling, it smiles right back."
1646) "Make those you meet feel like an angel has kissed them, and leave behind gentle memories when you go."-Lynn Ray
1647) "I seek to make you happy, if only for the time with me and the gentleness of friendship."-Lynn Ray
1648) "Life's a grindstone, whether it grinds you down or polishes you depends on what you're made of."
1649) "I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work the more of it I seem to have."-Coleman Cox
1650) "Consider the postage stamp, my son. It secures success through its ability to stick to one thing till it gets there."-Josh Billings
1651) "There was once a pretty good student,/ Who sat in a pretty good class/ And was taught by a pretty good teacher,/ Who always let pretty good pass./ He wasn't terrific at reading;/ He wasn't a whiz-bang at math;/ But for him education was leading/ Straight down a pretty good path./ He didn't find school too exciting,/ But he wanted to do pretty well,/ And he did have some trouble with writing,/ And nobody had taught him to spell./ When doing arithmetic problems,/ Pretty good was regarded as fine;/ Five and five needn't always add to be 10,/ A pretty good answer was nine./ The pretty good student was happy/ With the standards that were in effect,/ And nobody thought it was sappy/ If his answers were not quite correct./ The pretty good class that he sat in/ Was part of a pretty good school,/ And the student was not an exception;/ On the contrary, he was the rule./ The pretty good school that he went to/ Was right there in a pretty good town./ And nobody there ever noticed/ He could not tell a verb from a noun./ The pretty good student, in fact, was/ A part of a pretty good mob./ And the first time he knew what he lacked was/ When he looked for a pretty good job./ It was then, when he sought a position,/ He discovered that life can be tough,/ And he soon had a sneaky suspicion/ Pretty good might not be good enough./ The pretty good town in our story/ Was part of a pretty good state/ Which had pretty good aspirations/ And prayed for a pretty good fate./ There once was a pretty good nation,/ Pretty proud of the greatness it had,/ But which learned much too late,/ If you want to be great, .../ Pretty good is, in fact, pretty bad."-Charles Osgood, "Pretty Good"
1652) "Nothing is more tragic than ignorance in action."-Johann Wolfgang Goethe
1653) "People who go to concerts and talk should be beaten with dead geese."-Charles McCann
1654) "Work like you don't need the money./ Love like you've never been hurt./ Dance like nobody's watching."-Susanna Clark and Richard Leigh, "Come From the Heart"
1655) "Ignorance will run rampant in all aspects of our lives. When we are faced with it we have 2 choices. We can A) fall to the same level and try to combat this ignorance with our own, or B) try and educate those who display this lack of education. I personally think the latter is a more effective method of accomplishing our goals. If you want to be an activist (whether you want to call it that or not) you must expect that you will be faced with a lot of ignorance and prejudice. When those situations arise be prepared to educate. Don't stoop to their level."-Nicholas Setteducato
1656) "I think we dream so we don't have to be apart so long. If we're in each other's dreams, we can be together all the time."-Calvin and Hobbes
1657) "Loving someone comes easy, the challenge is learning how to love."-Michelle
1658) "This life is a test--had it been a real life it would have come with detalied instructions on how to proceed."
1659) "You could get a new lease on life--if only you didn't need the first and last month in advance."
1660) "There are beautiful people in similar situations, feeling very much the same things as we. And though we are alone, in a way we are not, and for me there's a comfort in that."-Bill Koller
1661) "Was he attractive? She was too attracted to tell."-Audrey Beth Stein
1662) "We can never get enough of what we don't need, because what we don't need doesn't satisfy."-Mary Ellen Edmonds
1663) "What you do speaks so loudly that what you say I cannot hear."-Ralph Waldo Emerson
1664) "A child's mind is susceptible to ideas for it has not grown an immunity yet and can be shaped for both good and evil."-Nathaniel P. Ambler
1665) "And in the end/ The love you take/ Is equal to the love you make."-John Lennon
1666) "Reality leaves a lot to the imagination."-John Lennon
1667) "Sometimes even music cannot substitute for tears."-Paul Simon
1668) "It's time to forget your own selfish need for revenge. You were born with a greater purpose. Listen....listen with your heart. Remember all we are and all that's come before you....and listen to the ROAR."-Galen from Roar
1669) "Never stop believing in dreaming, and never stop dreaming of believing. That is what gives us hope, and what keeps us alive."
1670) "A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament. Its beauty comes from the fact that the author is what he is. It has nothing to do with the fact that other people want what they want. Indeed, the moment that an artist takes notice of what other people want and tries to supply the demand, he ceases to be an artist, and becomes a dull or an amusing craftsman, an honest or dishonest tradesman."-Oscar Wilde
1671) "We don't have time to kill time." -Jessica Schraub
1672) "I'm almost free of her now,/ yes, I do believe I am./ I'm almost free of her,/ but for the sight of a field of wild flowers,/ which my heart longs to gather and place on a blanket,/ with a bottle of wine, and a candle to hold back the night,/ while I wait for her./ I am almost free of her,/ but for the sight of the moon rising over the lake,/ its lambent path extending to my feet,/ reminding me of that night together,/ when our words were but soft accompaniment/ to the music of our hearts/ Yes, I do believe I am - almost free of her,/ but for her voice that comes to me in the night,/ pulling me from my safe repose and singing so sweetly./ I smile as she warm me from within./ I'm almost free of her now."-Bill Koller
1673) "I feel poetry, because it is the language of the heart, exposes our innermost being; joy and sorrow, fear and pain are bared for all to see. And though this might make us feel vulnerable, it is only to those whose feelings are locked in fear. To those who are open, searching, hurting, it is a message of hope and health."-Bill Koller
1674) "People say friends must always hold hands, but true friends don't need to hold hands because they know the other hand will always be there."
1675) "So the graduations hang on the wall/ But they never really helped us at all/ No they never taught us what was real"-Billy Joel
1676) "Sometimes what you need is the company of strangers."-Amy Ray
1677) "My favorite part of Passover is reading the Hagadah."-Nozomi Maeyama
1678) "Having compassion means you are able to see the darkness of the blind or hear the emptiness of the deaf."-Nathaniel P. Ambler
1679) "You can't have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time."-Charles F. Kettering
1680) "I'm tired of you trying to teach when you should be learning./ I'm sorry to see we're surrounded by hate, hate, hate./ When I go to sleep at night, I can still pray,/ Does it make you hate me?/ Because when you hate me, I can still love you."-Amy Ray
1681) "Time is Nature's way of making sure that everything doesn't go wrong at once."
1682) "I'm not into working out. My philosophy: No pain, no pain."-Carol Leifer
1683) "Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself."
1684) "I've learned that it's a lot easier to react than it is to think."
1685) "I've learned that no matter how good a friend someone is, they're going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that."
1686) "...I've been thinking about the people who come into our lives.Ê With most, the interaction is superficial, but there are those few who have a more significant role.ÊÊ Those who enter at a critical point and encourage because they have walked, or are walking the same path.Ê I find this very heartening because it gives a sense of something beyond ourselves and renews my passion for life."-Bill Koller
1687) "Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved."-D.H. Lawrence
1688) "There are some people who avoid every eatable, drinkable, and smokeable that has in any way acquired a shady reputation. They pay this price for health and health is all they get for it."-Mark Twain
1689) "All our lives we live in chains and never even know we hold the key."
1690) "A beautiful life, simple and sincere, and even naive, is the only life in which all the potential grandeur and beauty of human existence can really be found."-Ayn Rand
1691) "Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator. But among those who I love, I can: All of them make me laugh."-W.H. Auden
1692) "Friends are the pillars on your porch. Sometime they hold you up, sometimes they lean on you, and sometimes it's just enough to know that they are standing by."
1693) "If he (the subject of temptations) is a big enough fool you can get him to realize the character of his friends only when they are absent; their presence can be made to sweep away all criticism..."-The Screwtape Letters
1694) "Prejudice on the web is whether you know HTML format or not."-SailrMoonie
1695) "If you want my advice...you've made a mistake already. By asking me. By asking anyone. Never ask people. Not about your work. Don't you know what you want? How can you stand it, not to know?"-Ayn RandThe Fountainhead
1696) "He wondered whether he really liked his mother. But she was his mother and this fact was recognized by everybody as meaning automatically that he loved her, and so he took for granted that whatever he felt for her was love. He did not know whether there was any reason why he should repect her judgment. She was his mother; this was supposed to take the place of reasons."-Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
1698) "She is vulnerable for the same reason she is strong. Anything she puts her love in--she will trust. She will wait you out--she will put up with you--forever--if she loves you."-John Irving
1699) "For there are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt..."-Audre Lorde
1700) "I believe that people exist to be enjoyed, much as a restful or engaging view might be...When I am in the presence of other human beings I want to revel in their creative and intellectual fullness, their uninhibited social warmth. I want their precious human radiance to wrap me in light...Everything I would like other people to be for me, I want to be for them."-Alice Walker