From The Book of Counted Sorrows: "Evil is no faceless stranger, living in a distant neighborhood. Evil has a wholesome, hometown face, with merry eyes and an open smile. Evil walks among us, wearing a mask which looks like all our faces." "Extreme terror gives us back the gestures of our childhood." By Chazal. From House Like A Lotus by Madelaine L'Engle: "'In this body, in this town of Spirit, there is a little house shaped like a lotus, and in that house there is a little space. There is as much in that little space within the heart as there is in the whole world outside.' Maybe that little space is the reality of your you and my me?" "I NEVER SAW A MOOR" by Emily Dickinson: "I never saw a moor, I never saw the sea; Yet know I how the heather looks, And what a wave must be. I never spoke with God, Nor visited in heaven; Yet certain am I of the spot As if the chart were given." "THERE'S A CERTAIN SLANT OF LIGHT" by Emily Dickinson: "There's a certain slant of light, On winter afternoons, That oppresses, like the weight Of cathedral tunes. Heavenly hurt it gives us; We can find no scar, But internal difference Where the meanings are. None may teach it anything, 'T is the seal, despair, -- An imperial affliction Sent us of the air. When it comes, the landscape listens, Shadows hold their breath; When it goes, 't is like the distance On the look of death." "The human heart feels things the eyes cannot see, and knows what the mind cannot understand." By Robert Valett. "Wrapped in veils of mist, the coast becomes otherworldly, creates a masterpiece of land, sky, and water, a mysterious place where soft siren songs lull the shore into serenity." -- anonymous. "Whether serene or stormy, dazzling with diamonds of daylight or dark and mysterious under the misty moonlight of ebony skies, the sea is always pulsing with power, always changing and creating, and always, always magnificent." By Rene'e Duvall. "Again and again, the roar of crashing waves majestically proclaims the primordial power of the sea, a strength even time cannot wear down." -- anonymous. "Beyond the horizon, the sky melts into the sea, and the sun slides into another world, making way for countless stars to dance on the sparkling water." -- anonymous. "With her ebb and flow, her constant caress of the coast, the sea provides solace of spirit. Softly, her waves speak in a soothing voice that comforts the heart with calm." -- anonymous. "Like unbridled horses, their manes flying in the wind, waves race wildly to the shore with strength unparalleled and beauty unequaled." -- anonymous. "FIRE AND ICE" by Robert Frost: "Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice." "FREEDOM" by Rabindranath Tagore: "Freedom from fear is the freedom I claim for you, my Motherland! - fear from the phantom demon, shaped by your own distorted dreams; Freedom from the burdon of ages, bending your head, breaking your back, blinding your eyes to the beckoning call of the future; Freedom from shackles of slumber wherewith you fasten yourself to night's stillness, mistrusting the star that speaks of truth's adventurous path. Freedom from anarchy of a destiny, whose sails are weakly yielded to blind uncertain winds, and the helm to a hand ever rigid and cold as Death; Freedom from the insult of dwelling in a puppet's world, where movements are started through brainless wires, repeated through mindless habits; where figures wait with patient obedience for a master of show to be stirred into a moment's mimicry of life." "MY SONG" by Rabindranath Tagore: "The song of mine will wind its music around you, my child, like the fond arms of love. This song of mine will touch your forehead like a kiss of blessing. When you are alone it will sit by your side and whisper in your ear, when you are in the crowd it will fence you about with aloofness. My song will be like a pair of wings to your dreams, it will transport your heart to the verge of the unknown. It will be like the faithful star overhead when dark night is over your road. My song will sit in the pupils of your eyes, and will carry your sight into the heart of things. And when my voice is silent in death, my song will speak in your living heart." "STRAY BIRDS" by Rabindranath Tagore: CCIV "The song feels the infinite in the air, the picture of the earth, the poem in the air and the earth; For its words have meaning that walks and music that soars." CCXXV "The fountain of death makes the still water of life play." "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my Faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never." By Elie Wiesel. "When the name that I write here Is dim on the page And the leaves of your album Are yellow with age, Still think of me kindly And do not forget That wherever I am I remember you yet." By Minnie Johnson, friend of Laura Ingalls Wilder on page 189 of Little Town On The Prairie. "Golden years are passing by, Happy, happy golden years, Passing on the wings of time, These happy golden years. Call them back as they go by, Sweet their memories are, Oh, improve them as they fly, These happy golden years." An old song in These Happy Golden Years, a book written by Laura Ingalls Wilder, on page 156. "THE MAN HE KILLED" by Thomas Hardy: "Had he and I but met By some old ancient inn, We should have sat us down to wet Right many a nipperkin! (half-pint cup) But ranged as infantry, And staring face to face, I shot at him as he at me, And killed him in his place. I shot him dead because-- Because he was my foe, Just so: my foe of course he was; That's clear enough; although He thought he'd 'list, perhaps, Off-hand like--just as I-- Was out of work--had sold his traps--(belongings) No other reason why. Yes; quaint and curious war is! You shoot a fellow down You'd treat, if met where any bar is, Or help to half-a-crown." "I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD" by William Wordsworth: "I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they Outdid the sparkling waves in glee; A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company; I gazed--and gazed--but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils." "THOSE WINTER SUNDAYS" by Robert Hayden: "Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking. When the rooms were warm, he'd call, and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house, Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know of love's austere and lonely offices?" "THE ROAD NOT TAKEN" by Robert Frost: "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two woods diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." "I LIKE TO SEE IT LAP THE MILES" by Emily Dickinson: "I like to see it lap the miles, And lick the valleys up, And stop to feed itself at tanks, And then, prodigious, step Around a pile of mountains, And, supercilious, peer In shanties by the sides of roads, And then a quarry pare To fit its ribs, And crawl between, Complaining all the while In horrid, hooting stanza, Then chase itself down hill And neigh like Boanerges; Then, punctual as a star, Stop--docile and omnipotent-- At its own stable door." From A New Guide To Better Writing, by Rudolf Flesch, Ph.D., and A. H. Lass: "Writing isn't just spelling; it's much more than spelling. Writing isn't just grammar; it's much more than grammar. Writing is grasping ideas, seeing images, harnessing words, giving shape and form to thoughts. What matters most in writing is not the rules and conventions for putting words on paper. What matters most in writing is the writer's mind." Rain comes down and hushes the town, And where is the voice that I heard crying? The snow settles over the nettles, Where is the voice that I heard crying? The sand at last on the drifting mast, And where is the voice that I heard crying? Earth now on the busy prow, And where is the voice that I heard crying By Edna St. Vincent Millay. "I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it." By Harry E. Fosdick. "Everything, happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message." By Malcolm Muggeridge. "Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; wisdom is humble that he knows no more." By William Cowper. "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." By Antoine de Saint-Exupery. "Golden hours of vision come to us in this present life when we are at our best." By Charles Fletcher Dole. "Glorious indeed is the world of God around us, but more glorious the world of God within us. There lies the land of song; there lies the poet's native land." By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. "Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature." By St. Augustine of Hippo. "God brings no man into the conflicts of life to desert him. Every man has a friend in heaven whose resources are unlimited; and on Him he may call at any hour and find sympathy and assistance." By Robert Hugh Morris. "I never knew a night so black Light failed to follow on its track. I never knew a storm so gray It failed to have its clearing day. I never knew such black dispair That there was not a rift somewhere. I never knew an hour so drear Love could not fill it full of cheer!" By John Kendrick Bangs. "When two people loved each other they worked together always, two against the world, a little company. Joy was shared; trouble was split. You had an ally, somewhere, who was helping." By Paul Gallico. "If someone listens, or stretches out a hand, or whispers a kind word of encouragement, or attempts to understand a lonely person, extroardinary things begin to happen." By Loretta Girzartis. "Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortune, of which all men have some." By Charles Dickens. "Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is." By Ernest Hemingway. "Never bear more than one kind of trouble at a time. Some people bear three -- all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have." By Edward Everett Hale. "The most solid comfort one can fall back upon is the thought that the business of one's life is to help in some small way to reduce the sum of ignorance, degradation, and misery on the face of this beautiful earth." By George Eliot. "Joy is of the will which labours, which overcomes obstacles, which knows triumph." By William Butler Yeats. "Love seeks one thing only: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love, therefore, is its own reward." By Thomas Merton. "May I tell you why it seems to me a good thing for us to remember wrong that has been done us? That we may forgive it." By Charles Dickens. "Condemn the fault and not the actor of it." By William Shakespeare. "Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness." By George Sand.