Holidays Are Always Good!

Time for work,--yet take
Much holiday for art's and friendship's sake.

~ George James de Wilde ~

I Look Forward to the Day When This is No Longer True

Men are taught to apologize for their weaknesses, women for their strengths.

~ Lois Wyse ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

It is easy to understand why the rabble dislike cats. A cat is beautiful; it suggests ideas of luxury, cleanliness, voluptuous pleasures...etc.

~ Charles Baudelaire ~

And One of Me Is More Than Enough!

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.

~ Martha Graham ~

Image by Coffeelatte

Poetry Friday

Form is a straitjacket in the way that a straitjacket was a straitjacket for Houdini.

~ Paul Muldoon ~

The Real Reason for Art?

Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those, who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear, which is inherent in a human condition.

~ Graham Greene ~

A Place Which Seemed to Encourage Thought

In idle moments, when there were no pressing matters to be dealt with, and when everybody seemed to be sleepy from the heat, she would sit under her acacia tree. It was a dusty place to sit, and the chickens would occasionally come and peck about her feet, but it was a place which seemed to encourage thought.

~ Alexander McCall Smith from The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency ~
Photo by angela7dreams.

The Weather Here Sure Is Cuckoo!

This is the weather the cuckoo likes
And so do I.

~ Thomas Hardy ~



Photo by markkilner

Artists

When I say artist I mean the man who is building things--creating molding the earth--whether it be the plains of the west--or the iron ore of Penn. It's all a big game of construction--some with a brush--some with a shovel--some choose a pen.

~ Jackson Pollock ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

There are no ordinary cats.

~ Sidonie Gabrielle ~






Photo by ResArt

Art Is More Than Paint and Canvas

One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.

~ Oscar Wilde ~



Actress Ethel Barrymore, 1901

Poetry Friday

The more one reads poetry, the less tolerant one becomes of an sort of verbosity.

~ Joseph Brodsky ~

It's Almost Here!

Photo by Swamibu

In those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness against nature not to go out and see her riches, and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth.

~ John Milton ~

Sage Advice

Don't accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.

~ Samuel Johnson ~

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Photo by upnorthmemories

College Costs

"Beaver": I could use my own money, the twenty-five dollars I got in the bank.

Wally: I thought you were saving that to go to college.

"Beaver": Larry says he never heard of a college you could go to for twenty-five dollars.


Nowadays, you can't even find one that you can go to for $25,000! (The average cost of a private four-year college for the year 2008-09 is $25,143 per year!) --KK


Photo courtesy of pdwroswell

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Photo by Diane Duane
Beware of people who dislike cats.
~ Irish proverb ~

Don't You Love Julia?

Photo by FotoosVanRobin

The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook.

~ Julia Child ~

Poetry Friday

Whispering into my ear, the syllables rustle their plumes and settle beside each other; longer and shorter phrases parade back and forth encouraging and urging forward. Little glimpses, and sometimes huge fleeting panoramas, flicker just outside the main line of my attention.

Throughout this spell, no one else intrudes for long: every move I make, every adjustment, retreat, surge onward, is profoundly individual, all my own, not lonely, just alone, a consciousness that must be aware of its unique reception amid a great, breathless moment of becoming.

~ William Stafford ~

Confidence!

After all there is an element in the readjustment of our financial system more important than currency, more important than gold, and that is the confidence of the people. Confidence and courage are the essentials of success in carrying out our plan. You people must have faith; you must not be stampeded by rumors or guesses. Let us unite in banishing fear.

~ Franklin D. Roosevelt, March 12, 1933 ~

Now, How Do You Feel About That?

I think you have to judge everything based on your personal taste. And if that means being critical, so be it. I hate political correctness. I absolutely loathe it.

~ Simon Cowell ~


Simon Cowell

Inspiration

Two things inspire me to awe--the starry heavens above and the moral universe within.

~ Albert Einstein ~

Photo by dsb nola
With me it's birds that I find astonishingly beautiful and, with their migratory habits, are absolutely awe-inspiring! --KK

A Little More Self Control in Americans Would Be Welcomed!

Industry, thrift and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character.

~ Calvin Coolidge ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Watch a cat when it enters a room for the first time. It searches and smells about, it is not quiet for a moment, it trusts nothing until it has examined and made acquaintance with everything.

~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau ~

Nice...

Photo by Martin Cathrae
If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come.

~ Chinese proverb ~

Poetry Friday

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

~ Emily Dickinson ~

WOW!

Each one of our hundred billion neurons may have anywhere from 1 to 10,000 synaptic connections to other neurons. This means that the theoretical number of different patterns of connections possible in a single brain is approximately 40,000,000,000,000,000--forty quadrillion.

~ John J. Ratey ~


Image courtesy of killermonkeys

So Make Sure You Do All Your Laundry!

Photo courtesy of Seattle Municipal Archives
You win some, you lose some, and some get rained out, but you gotta suit up for them all.

~ J. Askenberg ~

Note: This quote is found in many places and is attributed to J. Askenberg, but nowhere I can find out who J. Askenberg is or was!

This One's A Bit of A Puzzle

The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.

~ William Blake ~

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

~ Dr. Seuss ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Photo by Olivander

There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.

~ Albert Schweitzer ~

Heed Her Words!

The prevailing culture tells us that nothing succeeds like excess, that working 80 hours a week is better than working 70, that being plugged in 24/7 is expected, and that sleeping less and multi-tasking more are an express elevator to the top...Indeed, the truth is the exact opposite. It turns out people are not only happier--they are also much more productive if they are able to get away from work, and renew their passion and focus.

~ Arianna Huffington ~

Poetry Friday

Photo by Lawrence OP
A subject for a great poet would be God's boredom after the seventh day of creation.

~ Friedrich Nietzsche ~

So Make Sure the Title's a Good One!

Each has his past shut in him like the leaves of a book known to him by heart and his friends can only read the title.

~ Virginia Woolf ~

Some Days I Have to Agree!

It is necessary to work, if not from inclination, at least from despair. Everything considered, work is less boring than amusing oneself.

~ Charles Baudelaire ~

Happy Paczki Day!

Photo by food in mouth
This donut has purple in the middle, purple is a fruit.

~ Homer Simpson ~

Another Reason to See "Slumdog Millionaire"

The essence of the film which is about optimism and the power of hope in the lives, and all my life I had a choice of hate and love. I chose love and I'm here.

~ A.R. Rahman from his acceptance speech for "Best Song"
at last night's Academy Awards ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

More animals here!

I agree! --KK

Make Them Feel Good!

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

~ Maya Angelou ~

Poetry Friday

Business does not exist in the world of poetry, and therefore by implication it has become everything that poetry is not—a world without imagination, enlightenment, or perception. It is the universe from which poetry is trying to escape.

~ Dana Gioia ~

Let It Shine!

Humor is the sunshine of the mind.

~ Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton ~

I've Got My Fingers Crossed

The most exciting breakthroughs of the 21st century will not occur because of technology but because of an expanding concept of what it means to be human.

~ John Naisbitt ~

Scary!

No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office.

~ George Bernard Shaw ~

A Thought for Presidents' Day

My most fervent prayer is to be a President who can make it possible for every boy in this land to grow to manhood by loving his country--instead of dying for it.

~ Lyndon B. Johnson ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

To err is human, to purr feline.
~ Robert Byrne ~

Happy Valentine's Day!

Soul meets soul on lovers' lips.

~ Percy Bysshe Shelley ~

Poetry Friday

Photo by Leo Reynolds


Always be a poet, even in prose.

~ Charles Baudelaire ~

Excellent advice--if only it were that easy! --KK

On This the 200th Anniversary of His Birth

O Memory! thou midway world
‘Twixt earth and paradise,
Where things decayed and loved ones lost
In dreamy shadows rise

~ Abraham Lincoln from "My Childhood’s Home I See Again"~

To see a copy of the poem in Lincoln's handwriting, click here.

A Promise

America is not just a power, it is a promise. It is not enough for our country to be extraordinary in might; it must be exemplary in meaning.

~ Nelson A. Rockefeller ~

Evolution

If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?

~ Milton Berle ~

Life and Jazz Have a Lot in Common

In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.

~ Charles Darwin ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

No heaven will not ever Heaven be; unless my cats are there to welcome me.

~ Scottish proverb ~

He's Not Just a Pretty Face

Photo by Martin de Witte



Sometimes we do dumb things...We use fear to attack civil liberties.

~ George Clooney ~

Poetry Friday

Tasteful composition, either of prose or poetry, which faithfully contrasted the realities of eternity with the unstable and fickle fortunes of time, made a strong impression on his mind.

~ Lawrence Weldon speaking of Abraham Lincoln ~

Read!

What we become depends on what we read after all the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is the collection of books.

~ Thomas Carlyle ~

Nothing Less!

Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.

~ Susan B. Anthony ~

Advertising

The very first law in advertising is to avoid the concrete promise and cultivate the delightfully vague.

~ Bill Cosby ~

Change

There is certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I have often found in traveling in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one's position, and be bruised in a new place.

~ Washington Irving ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Photo by Natasha Lloyd
The wireless telegraph is not difficult to understand. The ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York, and it meows in Los Angeles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat.

~ Albert Einstein ~

I Multi All the Time!

I went to my computer that night to escape thinking too much, or at least to force myself to think about things that didn't matter. See, when you're on the computer, you get really good at what they call multitasking, and usually the tasks you have to multi are so pointless you can have endless hours without a single useful thought. It's great.

~ Neal Shusterman from Antsy Does Time ~

Poetry Friday

I think more people should be reading it but maybe fewer people should be writing it, ...there's an abundance of unreadable poetry out there.

~ Billy Collins ~

Ouch!

American cities are like badger holes ringed with trash.

~ John Steinbeck ~

All You Need is Love

Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.

~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ~

Awards

Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.

~ Jesse Owens ~

Happy New Year!

A weasel comes to say "Happy New Year" to the chickens.

~ Chinese proverb ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Cats also don't laugh out loud, but when a cat executes a prank successfully, it always seems pretty pleased about it.

~ Lynne Powell ~

I Think It Depends on What's Being Served

If I were invited to a dinner party with my characters, I wouldn't show up.

~ Dr. Seuss ~