Complicity

He who holds the ladder is as bad as the thief.

~ German proverb ~

Art

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.

~ Thomas Merton ~

Ballerina by Henri Matisse. Image courtesy the State Hermitage Museum

The Simple Truth

The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.

~ Sydney J. Harris ~

Banned Books Week!

Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week. BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.

~ American Library Association ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Who among us hasn't envied a cat's ability to ignore the cares of daily life and to relax completely?

~ Karen Brademeyer ~

Photo by Digital Wallpapers

Especially a Mile-High Apple Pie!

But I, when I undress me
Each night, upon my knees
Will ask the Lord to bless me
With apple-pie and cheese.

~ Eugene Field ~



Photo by pagehalfful

Poetry Friday

The poems come to me, I don't go to them. As soon as I see that what I'm mulling--a line or a sentence is repeating itself in my mind, like an obsessive thought, or a kind of conceit or concept--as soon as I see that it's a poem, I go and write it.

~ Sharon Olds ~

Fall

                                The squirrel's granary is full,
                                And the harvest's done.

~ John Keats from "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" ~

Photo by Rob and Jane

OMG!

In the United States, English has become increasingly irrelevant, particularly among young adults.

~ Gene Weingarten ~

Toys = Tools

Toys were lots of fun before they became capitalist tools.

~ Beth Copeland Vargo ~

Avedon

My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph.

~ Richard Avedon ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Pussy-cat ate the dumplings, the dumplings,
Pussy-cat ate the dumplings.
Mamma stood by, and cried, "Oh, fie!
Why did you eat the dumplings?"

~ Mother Goose ~

Apologies

The only correct actions are those that demand no explanation and no apology.

~ Red Auerbach ~



I guess anyone who had the confidence to wear a jacket like the one in the photo, could certainly say things like that! Last Sunday I forgot to say I was taking a little vacation from KK's Kwotes (the first since 2007). I took Monday through Friday off, but now I'm back. And, I apologize...
--KK

Image courtesy Vedia

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Never wear anything that panics the cat.
~ P. J. O'Rourke ~

Photo by doyoubleedlikeme

Something to Remember

And mankind is naught but a single nation.

~ Quran ~
Image by fdecomite

Poetry Friday

Hold back the edges of your gowns, Ladies, we are going through hell.

~ William Carlos Williams ~



I was greatly intrigued by this quote and found that it is from Williams' introduction to Alan Ginsberg's Howl. Ah, it now makes perfect sense. --KK

Photographs

While photographs may not lie, liars may photograph.

~ Lewis Wickes Hine ~

Keep On Pushin'

The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.

~ Helen Keller ~

Interesting...

All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget. In this--as in other ways--they are the opposite of paintings. Paintings record what the painter remembers. Because each one of us forgets different things, a photo more than a painting may change its meaning according to who is looking at it.

~ John Berger ~

Happy Labor Day!

Labor Day sack race, 1940, Ridgway, CO

The end of labor is to gain leisure.

~ Aristotle ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

If a fish is the movement of water embodied, given shape, then a cat is a diagram and pattern of subtle air.

~ Doris Lessing ~



Photo by the sea the sea

We Should All Worry

There is a great deal of hatred and bigotry in this country, but it does not define the country. The daily experience of most Americans is not a bitter experience and for all of our problems we are in a much better place on these matters than we were a half century ago.

But I worry about the potential for violence that grows out of unrestrained, hostile bombast.

~ Bob Herbert ~

Poetry Friday

Good Question!

What’s in store for me in the direction I don’t take?

~ Jack Kerouac ~






Image courtesy tompalumbo

Why We Read

We read deeply for varied reasons, most of them familiar: that we cannot know enough people profoundly enough; that we need to know ourselves better; that we require knowledge, not just of self and others, but of the way things are.

~ Harold Bloom ~

Solar Energy

If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar energy centuries ago.

~ Sir George Porter ~

Nothing Romantic About It!

I have read in my earlier years about prisoners in the revolutionary war, and other wars. It sounded noble and heroic to be a prisoner of war, and accounts of their adventures were quite romantic; but the romance has been knocked out of the prisoner of war business, higher than a kite. It's a fraud.

~ from the diary of John L. Ransom, prisoner at Andersonville ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

A novel must be exceptionally good to live as long as the average cat.

~ Lord Chesterfield ~
Photo by PAR1138

Strange, Indeed

Strangely enough, politics may just be the one realm in which having kids imposes no penalty on women. Kids are practically a necessity. For scientists, or Supreme Court justices, or chief executives, or the woman who wants to learn to fly F-l8s off an aircraft carrier, it works differently.

~ Stacy Schiff ~

Poetry Friday

The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.

~ Walt Whitman ~

Facebook Privacy

Your part is equivalent to the part you place in your everyday life to keep yourself safe: You know which alleys not to walk down at night, when to buckle your seatbelt, when to lock the front door, and when to toss the moldy bread before making a sandwich. Add these to your list:

I use my Facebook privacy settings wisely.

I am careful about what information I expose to lots of people.

~ Carolyn Abram and Leah Pearlman from Facebook for Dummies ~

Sure They Do...

Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.

~ G. K. Chesterton ~

Sage Advice!

Stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone ought to be.

~ Elizabeth Gilbert from Eat, Pray, Love ~

YOU

We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.

It's that simple--and that hard. And that inescapable.

~ Tom Peters ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

Kittens can happen to anyone.

~ Paul Gallico ~





Photo by Terry Bain

Principle

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

~ Thomas Jefferson ~




Photo by vawa_92

Poetry Friday

A poem is never finished, only abandoned.

~ Paul Valery ~

There Are No Mistakes!

For me, problem solving is a normal part of the art-making process, regardless of the media used. If something happens that I don't like, a creative fix usually results in something better than if I hadn't taken that interesting detour.

~ Traci Bunkers from Print & Stamp Lab ~

O Music!

O Music! Miraculous art! A blast of thy trumpet and millions rush forward to die; a peal of thy organ and uncounted nations sink down to pray.

~ Benjamin Disraeli ~

Bookstore Cats

A bookstore cat is a shop's mascot and keeper, equally adept at charming customers and, when the lights go out, chasing away rodents. And so let us celebrate these furry souls--hopefully not an endangered species!--as more and more readers get their books delivered in shrink-wrapped packages from out-of-state corporate behemoths, or transmitted, in blips, to hand-held devices no cat would ever want to cuddle up to.

~ John McMurtrie ~

Pictures

Once when a lady was visiting the painter Matisse in his studio, she remarked 'But surely, the arm of this woman is much too long!' Matisse replied politely 'Madame, you are mistaken. This is not a woman; this is a picture.'

~ from Looking at Pictures by Susan Woodford ~



Henri Matisse. Purple Robe and Anemones. 1937. The Baltimore Museum of Art.

Physical Books

To conceive of a world without physical books is to conceive of a world somehow diminished. It may be more efficient—yes, you can take a "stack" of books on vacation with an e-reader. It may spare quite a few forests from the pulpmaker’s ax. But efficiency is no substitute for pleasure. The future may be less cluttered. It may also be less fun.

~ Malcolm Jones ~

Poetry Friday

I lived between my heart and my head,
like a married couple who can't get along.

~ Edward Hirsch from "Self-portrait" ~

Twisted Logic

Ice-cream is exquisite. What a pity it isn't illegal.


~ Voltaire ~

Good Morning!

Bread, milk and butter are of venerable antiquity. They taste of the morning of the world.

~ Leigh Hunt ~

Photo by Nomadic Lass

You Can't Scrimp on Education!

The school is the last expenditure upon which America should be willing to economize.

~ Franklin D. Roosevelt ~

Dreams

LIBRARY
To dream that you are in a library, denotes that you will grow discontented with your environments and associations, and seek companionship in study and the exploration of ancient customs.

~ Gustavus H. Miller from 10,000 Dreams Interpreted ~

Sunday's Kat Kwote

A kitten is in the animal world what a rosebud is in the garden.

~ Robert Southey ~

Photo by karindalziel

Jump!

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at it destination full of hope.

~ Maya Angelou ~

Poetry Friday

It takes a courageous
person to leave spaces
empty

~ Kay Ryan from "Leaving Spaces" ~

I Love This One!

Books are a uniquely portable magic.

~ Stephen King ~

Flying

The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who, in their grueling travels across trackless lands in prehistoric times, looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space, at full speed, above all obstacles, on the infinite highway of the air.

~ Wilbur Wright ~

Toys

Toys are among the most important human artifacts. They are learning tools. By guiding play, they foster imagination, creativity, and critical thinking. They socialize us and teach fairness. They reveal what we believed and valued, encouraged and endorsed, dismissed and feared. They remind us of who we were, who we are, and who we hope to become. They help us imagine what’s next.

~ National Toy Hall of Fame ~

Caterpillar

The caterpillar does all the work but the butterfly gets all the publicity.

~ George Carlin ~

Photo by Martin LaBar

Sunday's Kat Kwote

The cats went out to serenade
And on a banjo sweetly played;
And summer nights they climbed a tree
And sang, "My love, oh, come to me!"

~ Mother Goose ~

Photo by Sangudo

Walls of Books

While scouring design books, I find that I am always drawn to rooms where an entire wall is devoted to books. Books, quite obviously, give depth to a room, since they are one of the sure signs that someone with a pulse actually lives there, and the colors of the spines give a wall that random pattern that modern interiors so often lack.

~ Rita Konig ~

Poetry Friday

Yes, we can assess art. The doing of art, though, requires--paradoxically--a recklessness.

~ William Stafford ~

Green Cheese At That!

"Everybody knows the moon is made of cheese..."

~ from Wallace & Gromit A Grand Day Out ~

Folk Wisdom

A broken hand can work but a broken heart can't.

~ Afghan proverb ~

Superstition

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom, in the pursuit of truth as in the endeavor after a worthy manner of life.

~ Bertrand Russell ~

Weather the Storm

Just as the tumultuous chaos of a thunderstorm brings a nurturing rain that allows life to flourish, so too in human affairs time of advancement are preceded by time of disorder. Success comes to those who can weather the storm.

~from the I Ching ~

Photo by Chris Irmo