2401) "If you really love someone it shouldn't matter what's been in their orifices."-Anonymous Roommate
2402) "If we acknowledge other people's differences, it will be a lot easier to accept them. These can be contributions to us and who we are. Everybody we meet can shape us in some way."-Tariq Remtulla
2403) "I didn't even know you but you/ could have been my brother you/ could have been my lover you/ could have been my friend you/ could have been anyone to die apart from reason/ with last rites your only right/ in this bitter, frozen land/ I didn't even know you but I know your silence well/ he took my love away from me/ she joined him in a quiet hell/ He took your life, did he take your pride?/ He's the demon curling up inside/ the hearts of those who speechless/ lie in dark and dirty cells/ I find it hard that you were named/ for a man who wrote about the birth/ of one who lived a life of protest/ crying out for peace on earth/ who when tempted by the devil said a thing profoundly odd/ that we shall not live by bread alone,/ but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God/ Now I don't believe the stories/ from this book so old it starts to reek/ but God is in us every time/ we bring ourselves to speak/ I didn't even know you so I'm having pangs of somehow wrong/ to martyrdize you, analyze you/ in this, a stranger's eulogy/ but I'm not blessed with sight divine/ the only story I really know is mine/ & each word is a small step in my journey to be free/ For when I'm singing out this breath/ hot syllables to challenge death/ it may not warm your tortured skin/ like a miracle come much too late/ but maybe I can chip away/ at this ice age of angry pain/ replace the fear with burning joy/ and weld a molten love out of my hate/ I didn't even know you but you/ could have been my brother you/ could have been my lover you/ could have been my friend/ you are one in too many/ who have died apart from reason/ with last rites your only right/ in this bitter, frozen land."-Arjuna Greist, "Song For Matthew"
2404) "how do you define a hate crime anyway? isn't murder a pretty hate-filled crime in general?"-Jess
2405) "...to think is to be full of sorrow/ And leaden-eyed despairs,..."-John Keats
2406) "i've got money in the bank/ i've got a car to drive/ i've got a working set of hands/ that my guitar seems to like/ cause i've got a love that won't quit/ i've got time to risk/ i've got a clear and able mind that sees my life going fine/ cause everything i need/ is right here in my hands/ ...i've got a floor to dance on/ i've got a phone to laugh in/ i've got a tub to cry in/ i've got a bed to hide in/ but sometimes/ i only see what's wrong/ and sometimes/ i'm convinced/ my god has up and gone/ i'll never write a hit song/ and my love will leave me hanging/ everything i need/ is right here in my hands..."-Melissa Ferrick, "Everything I Need"
2407) "I have a fascination for people. I don't like them all, but I have a fascination with human nature."-Tori Amos
2408) "But only in their dreams can men be truly free. Twas always thus, and always thus shall be."-Dead Poets Society
2409) "People need something or someone to fasten themselves to in order to reassure themselves that they are real."-Ani DiFranco
2410) "It's not easy taking my problems one at a time when they refuse to get in line."
2411) "You never know when you're making a memory."
2412) "Laser beam surgery and test-tube babies/ Bypass techniques and new shots for rabies/ Medical advances are dramatic and bold/ But here I sit with my common cold."
2413) "When one cannot talk about a rule about which one cannot talk, we've reached a limit to what we can talk about."-R.D. Laing
2414) "Sometimes the more I get to know someone, the more I realise I don't."-LiQing
2415) "Autumn, and the trees decide again that they don't/ need leaves/ Mothers add more blankets to the bed./ Yellow lights in windows of the junior high/ mean that night school is back in session,/ tired grown-ups sitting at the plastic desks,/ learning to bisect the hypotenuse,/ how to say spreadsheet in Japanese./ This week on the televised hearings/ we get to watch our congressmen/ nervously pronounce the word homosexual/ in public--the committee trying to decide/ whether queers are good enough/ to pull the triggers/ on machines designed to foreclose lives/ contrary to the national well-being./ But the congressman can't/ pull the trigger on his own tongue/ to fire out the word without/ tripping over it--fumbling, stumbling/ into the ditch between home and sexual./ You might say his defense industry is troubled,/ as if he had a subterranean suspicion/ that to say it might mean, just a little,/ to become it--/ which might be right./ since language uses us/ the way that birds use sky,/ the way that seeds and viruses/ braid themselves into a mammal's fur/ and hitchhike towards the future./ When you say a word/ you enter its vocabulary/ it's got your home address, your phone number/ and weight--it won't forget,/ --the way that parents, who finally/ bring themselves to say lesbian,/ enter, through that checkpoint,/ the country where their daughter lives./ Tonight, all over Washington, senators in mirrors/ will practice until they are as fluent/ saying homosexual/ as they already are at saying Mr. President/ and first-strike option./ Sometimes we think truth/ is the worst thing that could happen/ but the truth is not the worst thing that could happen./ Now it is autumn and in stores/ the turquoise wading pools/ spangled with bright starfishes and shells/ are stacked against the wall, on sale,/ implying what was costly yesterday/ is cheap today, and might be free tomorrow--/ All our yearnings, all our fears:/ so many sea horses/ galloping through bubbles"-Tony Hoadland, "Hearings"
2416) "The only safe rule is to give more than we can spare."-C.S. Lewis
2417) "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation."-Henry David Thoreau
2418) "The dreary intercourse of daily life,/ Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb/ Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold/ Is full of blessings."-William Wordsworth
2419) "I don't understand all this gay stuff, but I think it's tragic [Matthew Shepard] was murdered and that people are protesting his funeral."-little old grandmother from Oklahoma at Matthew Shepard's funeral
2420) "...poetry is more philosophic than history, since its statements are of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars."-Arisotle
2421) "there's something about [the] poor command of the english language that just cracks me up."-Lisa Johnson
2422) "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
2423) "It's the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there'll be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result."-Ghandi
2424) "They can't hurt you unless you let them."-Everclear
2425) "I need to find myself today before I ever find my way back to you."-Lizzie
2426) "Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend's forehead."-Chinese proverb
2427) "Love shortens time, changes the hours. Love is invincible. Many waters cannot quench it nor the floods drown. The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved."
2428) "Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effects."
2429) "Love is like a violin. The music may stop now and then, but the strings remain forever."-Bache
2430) "People change and forget to tell each other."-Hellman
2431) "A man is walking along a beach when he spies quite some distance ahead a figure walking slowly by the shore-line bending down and picking something up and placing it in the ocean. He thinks nothing of it until he notices that the man seems to be repeating this pattern every few yards...walking slowly, bending over, picking something up and placing it in the water. Soon he catches up with the curious person and being an inquisitive soul he asks the man, 'Whatever are you doing?' 'Can't you see?' asks the man by the sea pointing to the shoreline. 'I'm helping these little guys back to safety.' Sure enough, there on the shore line are hundreds and hundreds of the tiniest star fish that he has ever seen, all washed up on the sand, drying out in the mid-day sun. 'Ahhh,' he says, but confused by the sheer numbers, he says to the star-fish man, 'But surely you'll NEVER make a difference with SO many of these little guys lying here.' To which the starfish man smiled, picked up another, placed it carefully in the ocean, and said cheerfully, 'Made a difference to that one!'"
2432) "I was blessed with a birth and a death and I guess I just want some say in between."-Ani DiFranco, "Talk To Me Now"
2433) "Isn't it thrilling when the thoughts and feelings so flood your being you're almost afraid you won't be able to capture them all on the page?"-Bill Koller
2434) "I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart's affections and the truth of Imagination--"-John Keats
2435) "I feel like a fairy with a negligible amount of Glamour at hand, and the supply of sparkles is beginning to run out."-Kayte Siegle
2436) "I believe that to search - to challenge - to change, is to live and grow. To become defined is to begin to die."-Bill Koller
2437) "For those whose faces are turned toward the past, the years roll by unheeded - - their lives unchanged."-The Jazz Singer
2438) "My father taught me to work; he did not teach me to love it. I never did like to work, and I don't deny it. I'd rather read, tell stories, crack jokes, talk, laugh - anything but work."-Abraham Lincoln
2439) "When it is dark enough, you can see the stars."
2440) "How happy are the pessimists! What joy is theirs when they have proven there is no joy."
2441) "Women are repeatedly accused of taking things personally. I cannot see any other honest way of taking them."
2442) "People who think money can do anything may very well be suspected of doing anything for money."
2443) I thought I saw you outside yesterday/ Familiar features, hair turning to grey/ And I started to call out but you faded away/ So I'm writing this to ask you/ To teach me how to pray/ I stood by the roadside and I started to cry/ And I fought the feeling, I don't understand why/ And I wanted to ask you were you ready to die/ And how can I find myself/ Without you now/ So sing that you love me/ Through the wind and rain/ That you've been thinking of me/ You were glad when I came/ I read the book that I found on the shelf/ It told of one's journey to discover herself/ And I tried to imagine how you read what she wrote/ As if I could somehow find you/ There between the quotes/ ...And I'll sing that I love you/ From every night's stage/ That I learned to forgive you/ Through your pride and your rage/ It's the habit of being/ The habit of slipping away/ It's the habit of being/ The habit of slipping away/ It's my habit of being/ The one that's not ready to say/ ...That you're right here above me/ On every night's stage/ That you learned to forgive me/ Through my pride and my rage"-Chris McGuire
2444) "I like the word queer, 'cause it sounds funny, queer ha-ha. It's a cool word, an open-ended word. It means, like, the kind of love I experience is not the kind of love that's on TV."-Ani DiFranco
2445) "Creatures who will one day vanish from the earth in that ultimate subtraction of sensuality that we call death, we spend our lives courting death, fomenting wars, watching sickening horror movies in which maniacs slash and torture their victims, hurrying our own deaths in fast cars, cigarette smoking, suicide. Death obsesses us, as well it might, but our response to it is so strange. Faced with tornadoes chewing up homes, with dust storms ruining crops, with floods and earthquakes swallowing up whole cities, with ghostly diseases that gnaw at one's bone marrow, cripple, or craze--rampant miseries that need no special bidding, but come freely, giving their horrors like alms--you'd think human beings would hold out against the forces of Nature, combine their efforts and become allies, not create devastations of their own, not add to one another's miseries. Death does such fine work without us. How strange that people, whole countries sometimes, wish to be its willing accomplices."-Diane Ackerman
2446) "when i was 4 years old they/ tried to test my i.q./ they showed me a picture/ of 3 oranges and a pear/ they asked me which one/ is different and does not belong/ they taught me different is wrong/ but when i was 13 years old/ i woke up one morning/ thighs covered in blood/ like a war like a warning/ that i live in a breakable takeable body/ an ever-increasingly valuable body/ that a woman had come in the night/ to replace me deface me see.../ my body is borrowed/ yeah i got it on loan/ for the time in between/ my mom and some maggots/ i don't need anyone to/ hold me i can/ hold my own/ i got highways for stretchmarks/ see where i've grown/ i sing sometimes/ like my life is at stake/ 'cause you're only as loud/ as the noises you make/ i'm learning to laugh/ as loud as i can listen/ 'cause silence is violence/ in women and poor people/ if more people were screaming/ then i could relax/ but a good brain ain't diddley/ if you don't have the facts/ we live in a breakable takeable world/ an ever available possible world/ and we can make music/ like we can make do/ genius is in a backbeat/ backseat to nothing/ if you're dancing/ especially something/ stupid like i.q./ for every lie i unlearn/ i learn something new/ i sing sometimes for/ the war that i fight/ 'cause every tool is a weapon/ if you hold it right."-Ani DiFranco, "my IQ"
2447) "why can't everyone just love each other? as much as the spotted man scared me, i wouldn't ban him from the university. why can't we all just welcome our spotted men and live a better, freer life?"-Ariel Bierbaum
2448) "The Self cannot be pierced by weapons or burned by fire; water cannot wet it, not can the wind dry it."-Bhavagad Gita
2449) "Only a fools tests the depth of the water with both feet."-African proverb
2450) "Most of us live in a cultural trance--a state of paralysis created by our habitual responses...The body doesnt stop at the skin. Our boundaries are not as fixed as they seem."-Emilie Conrad-Da'oud
2451) "It sucks when people give you dirty looks for skipping. It's cool when I can smile back at them."-Arjuna Greist
2452) "You can't stop something that's inside of you."-Bud in Pleasantville
2453) "I have every sympathy with the American who was so horrified by what he had read about the effects of smoking that he gave up reading."-Henry G. Strauss
2454) "People worry about kids playing with guns, and teenagers watching violent videos; we are scared that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands--literally thousands--of songs about broken hearts and rejection and pain and misery and loss. The unhappiest people I know, romantically speaking, are those who like pop music the most; and I don't know whether pop music has caused this unhappiness, but I do know that they've been listening to the sad songs longer than they've been living the unhappy lives."-Nick Hornby
2455) "Anyone who blames music for their kids' problems or for kids hurting themselves or others is kidding themselves. The answer is to raise your kids to be more intelligent. Every house that has a Marilyn Manson record probably also has a Bible and a history book and William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. If anything is taken out of context, it can cause damage."-Marilyn Manson
2456) "To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other."-Jack Handey, "Deep Thoughts"
2457) "Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines, hidden under the weedy mass of many years and experiences. Hit a tripwire of smell, and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth."-Diane Ackerman
2458) "If a man's only tool is a key, he will imagine every problem to be a lock."-Abraham Maslow
2459) "Much of life becomes background, but it is the province of art to throw buckets of light into the shadows and make life new again."-Diane Ackerman
2460) "And who's this little fellow in his itty-bitty robe?/ That's tiny baby Adolf, the Hitlers' little boy!/ Will he grow up to be an L.L.D.?/ Or a tenor in Vienna's Opera House?/ Whose teensy hand is this, whose little ear and eye and nose?/ Whose tummy full of milk, we just don't know:/ printer's, doctor's, merchant's, priest's?/ Where will those tootsy-wootsies finally wander?/ To a garden, to a school, to an office, to a bride?/ Maybe to the Buergermeister's daughter?/ Precious little angel, mommy's sunshine, honey bun./ While he was being born, a year ago,/ there was no dearth of signs on the earth and in the sky:/ spring sun, geraniums in windows,/ the organ-grinder's music in the yard,/ a lucky fortune wrapped in rosy paper./ Then just before the labor his mother's fateful dream./ A dove seen in a dream means joyful news--/if it is caught, a long-awaited guest will come./ Knock knock, who's there, it's Adolf's heartschen knocking./ A little pacifier, diaper, rattle, bib,/ our bouncing boy, thank God and knock on wood, is well,/ looks just like his folks, like a kitten in a basket,/ like the tots in every other family album./ Sh-h-h, let's not start crying, sugar,/ The camera will click from under that black hood./ The Klinger Atelier, Grabenstrasse, Braunen./ And Braunen is a small but worthy town--/ honest businesses, obliging neighbors,/ smell of yeast dough, of gray soap./ No one hears howling dogs, or fate's footsteps./ A history teacher loosens his collar/ and yawns over homework."-Wislawa Szymborska, "Hitler's first photograph"
2461) "See how efficient it still is,/ how it keeps itself in shape -/ our century's hatred./ How easily it vaults the tallest obstacles./ How rapidly it pounces, tracks us down./ It's not like other feelings./ At once both older and younger./ It gives birth itself to the reasons/ that give it life./ When it sleeps, it's never eternal rest./ And sleeplessness won't sap its strength; it feeds it./ One religion or another -/ whatever gets it ready, in position./ One fatherland or another -/ whatever helps it get a running start./ Justice also works well at the outset/ until hate gets its own momentum going./ Hatred. Hatred./ Its face twisted in a grimace/ of erotic ecstasy./ Oh these other feelings,/ listless weaklings./ Since when does brotherhood/ draw crowds?/ Has compassion/ ever finished first?/ Does doubt ever really rouse the rabble?/ Only hatred has just what it takes./ Gifted, diligent, hard working./ Need we mention all the songs it has composed?/ All the pages it has added to our history books?/ All the human carpets it has spread/ over countless city squares and football fields?/ Let's face it:/ it knows how to make beauty./ The splendid fire-glow in midnight skies./ Magnificent bursting bombs in rosy dawns./ You can't deny the inspiring pathos of ruins/ and a certain bawdy humor to be found/ in the sturdy column jutting from their midst./ Hatred is a master of contrast -/ between explosion and dead quiet,/ red blood and white snow./ Above all, it never tires/ of its leitmotif - the impeccable executioner/ towering over its soiled victim./ It's always ready for new challenges./ If it has to wait awhile, it will./ They say it's blind. Blind?/ It has a sniper's keen sight/ and gazes unflinchingly at the future/ as only it can."-Wislawa Szymborska, "Hatred"
2462) "He came home. Said nothing./ It was clear, though, that something had gone wrong./ He lay down fully dressed./ Pulled the blanket over his head./ Tucked up his knees./ He's nearly forty, but not at the moment./ He exists just as he did inside his mother's womb,/ clad in seven walls of skin, in sheltered darkness./ Tomorrow he'll give a lecture/ on homeostasis in megagalactic cosmonautics./ For now, though, he has curled up and gone to sleep."-Wislawa Szymborska, "Going home"
2463) "They're both convinced/ that a sudden passion joined them./ Such certainty is beautiful,/ but uncertainty is more beautiful still./ Since they'd never met before, they're sure/ that there'd been nothing between./ But what's the word from the streets, staircases, hallways-/ perhaps they've passed by each other a million times?/ I want to ask them/ if they don't remember-/ a moment face to face/ in some revolving door?/ perhaps a 'sorry' muttered in a crowd?/ a curt 'wrong number' caught in the receiver?/ but I know the answer./ No, they don't remember./ They'd be amazed to hear/ that Chance has been toying with them/ now for years./ Not quite ready yet/ to become their Destiny,/ it pushed them close, drove them apart,/ it barred their path,/ stifling a laugh,/ and then leaped aside./ There were signs and signals,/ even if they couldn't read them yet./ Perhaps three years ago/ or just last Tuesday/ a certain leaf fluttered/ from one shoulder to another?/ Something was dropped and then picked up./ Who knows, maybe the ball that vanished/ into childhood's thicket?/ There were doorknobs and doorbells/ where one touch had covered another/ beforehand./ Suitcases checked and standing side by side./ One night, perhaps, the same dream,/ grown hazy by morning./ Every beginning/ is only a sequel, after all,/ and the book of events/ is always open halfway through."-Wislawa Szymborska, "Love at First Sight"
2464) "May 16, 1973/ One of those many dates/ that no longer ring a bell./ Where was I going that day,/ what was I doing-I don't know./ Whom I met, what we talked about,/ I can't recall./ If a crime had been committed nearby,/ I wouldn't have had an alibi./ The sun flared and died/ beyond my horizons./ The earth rotated/ unnoted in my notebooks./ I'd rather think/ that I'd temporarily died/ than that I kept on living/ and can't remember a thing./ I wasn't a ghost, after all./ I breathed, I ate,/ I walked./ My steps were audible,/ my fingers surely left/ their prints on doorknobs./ Mirrors caught my reflection./ I wore something or other in such-and-such as color./ Somebody must have seen me./ Maybe I found something that day/ that had been lost./ Maybe I lost something that turned up later./ I was filled with feelings and sensations./ Now all that's like/ a line of dots in parentheses./ Where was I hiding out,/ where did I bury myself?/ Not a bad trick/ to vanish before my own eyes./ I shake my memory./ Maybe something in its branches/ that has been asleep for years/ will start up with a flutter./ No./ Clearly I'm asking too much,/ Nothing less that one whole second./ and one more..."-Wislawa Szymborska, "May 16, 1973"
2465) "Maybe all this/ is happening in some lab?/ Under one lamp by day/ and billions by night?/ Maybe we're experimental generations?/ Poured from one vial to the next,/ shaken in test tubes,/ not scrutinized by eyes alone,/ each of us seperately/ plucked up by tweezers in the end?/ Or maybe it's more like this:/ No interference?/ The changes occur on their own/ according to plan?/ The graph's needle slowly etches/ its predictiable zigzags?/ Maybe thus far we aren't of much interest?/ The control monitors aren't usually plugged in?/ Only for wars, preferably large ones,/ for the odd ascent above our clump of earth,/ for major migrations from point A to B?/ Maybe just the opposite:/ They've got a taste for trivia up there?/ Look! on the big screen a little girl/ is sewing a button on her sleeve./ The radar shrieks,/ the staff comes at a run./ What a darling little being/ with its tiny heart beating inside it!/ How sweet, its solemn/ threading of the needle!/ Someone cries enraptured;/ Get the Boss,/ tell him he's got to see this for himself?"-Wislawa Szymborska, "Maybe All This"
2466) "The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey - and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins."-Bob Noawad
2467) "[Choosing] housing is the downfall of humanity."-Jen Tosti/Ariel Bierbaum
2468) "...we always have to be careful to say that the labels themselves aren't the reality - it's the complex patterns that are the reality, and the labels just give us a way to manipulate the reality in terms that are easier for our little brains to understand."-Stephanie Strassel
2469) "...getting mail is much like an unopened birthday present."-Christopher Austin Clark
2470) "We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh."-Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
2471) "...not many people have ever died of love. But multitudes have perished, and are perishing every hour--and in the oddest places!--for the lack of it."-James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room
2472) "e-mail vs. required papers... the debate rages on... look at it this way. it's sort of along the lines of doing required reading and reading for fun. which would YOU rather do? i mean, you could hand me clive-fucking-barker's 'imajica' (the BEST book in the world, ever, of all times, read it read it read it!!!) and tell me that I had to read it by thursday and then write a brief essay on some cockeyed theory involved in the plot line, and i'll cry. but maybe i'll be walking through the barnes and happen to pass something like 'great civilizations of the ancient pythians' or something ridiculous (and likely boring) like that, and i'll devour it. the moral of the story is, if you have to do it, it's not fun. and fun -always- wins out over not fun."-Kayte Siegle
2473) "aol im [America Online Instant Messenger] is an act of satan."-Raj Mitra
2474) "perspecitive is such a weird thing. just when i think i have it, it slips away."-Raj Mitra
2475) "...when I first saw Picasso's Guernica, it was disturbing. I was horrified and fascinated at the same time. It was disturbing, but also deeply moving. Perfumes do that, too--shock and fascinate us. They disturb us. Our lives are quiet. We like to be disturbed by delight."-Sophia Grojsman
2476) "They logged the trees, they killed the deer, bear, and mountian lions, they built their fences high; but the mountain was far greater than any or all of these things. The mountain outdistanced their destruction, just as love outdistanced death."-Leslie Marmon Silko
2477) "You can make more friends in two months by helping other people than you can in two years trying to get others to help you."
2478) "You either have faith man, or you fall!"-James Douglas Morrison
2479) "If society wants me to be an outlaw, then I'll be an outlaw and a damn good one. That's something people need. People at all times need outlaws."-Ken Kesey
2480) "To thine own self be true."-William Shakespeare
2481) "If you don't feel brave, act it; no one can tell the difference!"
2482) "We love labels. We really do--as a society, I mean. It's so much easier to understand the world around us if we name it, tie it down, and distance ourselves from the parts we don't like....We all want to be loved, we all want to love, and we all want to share the happiness in our lives with others. The experiment is how far we are willing to go to live our lives with that love."-Kyle Anderson
2483) "From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it."-Groucho Marx
2484) "It is not for the end of the world that I mourn, but for the end of a possible world."-Christopher Austin Clark
2485) "Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity."-Christopher Morley
2486) "Do not suffer from loneliness./ Go outside./ Go away./ It's all the people making you lonely./ Pick a spot on the horizon, and head straight for it./ Weave your way through a stand of redwoods./ Kayack an island chain./ Peer over your toes at the edge of a canyon./ Go to your favorite place, again, and again, not just because it fuels your independence, but because it reminds you--you're part of something bigger./ And although it may not occur to the baffled onlookers, who can't keep their eyes off your smiling, mud-covered, wired up, insane self./ It will occur to you--you aren't the one who's lonely./ JUST DO IT."-1995 Nike Green Mountain Running Camp diploma
2487) "Never be angry when a fool acts like a fool. It's better when fools identify themselves...it removes so much uncertainty."-Lord Peace
2488) "Belief in our mortality, the sense that we are eventually going to crack up and be extinguished like the flame of a candle, I say, is a gloriously fine thing. It makes us sober; it makes us a little sad; and many of us it makes poetic. But above all, it makes it possible for us to make up our mind and arrange to live sensibly, truthfully, and always with a sense of our own limitations."
2489) "If men believe, as I do, that this present earth is the only heaven, they will strive all the more to make heaven of it."-Jean Riley Anderson
2490) "The more enlightened we become, the more we can't be lived up to by anybody anywhere. The more we learn, the more we'd better expect to live by ourselves."-Richard Bach
2491) "I've met people like me who have the same cold clutch of fear that incapacitates them in the dark. You can only wait for it to pass. I'm not afraid of pain. I get my period every month, what could be worse than that? What could be more painful? I wore toe shoes for six years. I know pain. My tolerance is really high. Instead of fearing pain, I'm afraid of there being nothing, of what we have now being all there is. That pisses me off and scares me."-Jonatha Brooke
2492) "And oh to find some peace of mind, a little solid ground./ We all want that. I wonder why it's hardly ever found?/ But I need some truth in my life./ I'm sick of the things I've ignored./ I won't trade nothing for my energy./ It's the only reason that I can think to live for."-Jess Klein, "Solid Ground"
2493) "there's nothing to write/ in this forest of safety/ the leaves filter out danger/ before it reaches the ground/ you're not here to rip me open/ there's no one to shred my heart/ i'm so used to watching it bleed/ that without seeing the blood drip/ i'm not sure that it is there/ i'm sheltered by logic and math/ you, my chaos, have disappeared/ into the limits of infinity/ my heart is a constant/ and it derives into nothing/ you were my time-dependence/ you were my sharp-clawed jaguar/ you were my trial, my heartbreak/ you were my inspiration/ you were what made me feel/ i'm left writing after your ghost/ my pen chasing desparately/ the memory of the only thing/ that dissolved my outer shell/ and released me to the elements/ i remember how it felt to be broken open/ i remember how it felt to be salty and raw/ i remember the elation of our lips meeting/ i remember watching the blood come to surface/ i am shelled safe and distant/ i feel clean and smooth/ i stay at happy equilibrium/ i watch the scars fade/ i miss you/ i miss feeling/ i miss needing to write/ i miss"-Jennifer Dawn Crispin
2494) "Clouds may come, but clouds must go, and they all have a silver lining. For behind each cloud you know, the sun, or moon, is shining."
2495) "Did you ever notice how the lonely one,/ is always standing in the sun?/ It is because, inside his mind,/ he is leaving the group behind./ He closes his eyes, and he escapes,/ to any somewhere, his favorite place./ The sun's warmth becomes, the scent of a pine tree,/ or its brightness like, the depths of the sea./ He might go to the ocean, or to the woods./ He'd stay there forever, if he only could./ When he goes there, he's reminded that he's,/ part of a world bigger than one man ever sees./ It's in this place, independence he knows./ Does he need the group? Absolutely no!/ And when he returns, still smelling salt-air or pine,/ the group wonders where, he had gone all this time./ They don't understand, why he smiles so wide./ They want to; he knows, they could if they tried./ It's then that they realize, that he is not the lonely one,/ and then when they all come, to stand in the sun"-Meaghan Nelan
2496) "...the lessons we learn outside the classroom are equally if not more important than the ones we learn inside. I can't emphasize this enough. We learn how to live life, the most important lesson of all."-Mark Drolsbaugh, Deaf Again
2497) "But the historian who must find a balance between what he thinks in his heart should have been done and the reality of what was actually possible finds no easy answers."-Henry Feingold
2498) "In the end we are all separate: our stories, no matter how similar, come to a fork and diverge. We are drawn to eachother because of our similarities, but it is our differences we must learn to respect."-Roberta Isra-Cloff
2499) "There comes that mysterious meeting in life when someone acknowledges who we are and what we can be, igniting the circuits of our highest potential."-Rusty Berkus
2500) "Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved."-Helen Keller