Quote of the week

Obviously, you develop a certain amount of thick skin, to let the typical teenage stuff about "It's boring," wash off you. But, ultimately, your ego is on the line. Your identity is on the line. What do I do for a living? I'm a teacher. And so if you get negativism or disinterest or hostility form the class, then that's a real blow. That's a comment on my whole being. i don't know if I'm more vulnerable than other people, but I get my self-worth from this job. And if I'm bombing, then I criticize myself...

-Jessica Siegel
from Small Victories by Samuel Freedman

Quote of the week

A traveler's life is one that includes much pain amidst its enjoyments. His feelings are forever on the stretch; and when he begins to sink into repose, he finds himself obliged to quit that on which he rests in pleasure for something new, which again engages his attention, and which also he forsakes for other novelties.

-Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

shared by a friend

One of my friends just shared this with me. It hit home and thought others might appreciate it.

liralovebhateurodollar
by Molly Davis

how much does a memory cost?
what is currency worth when you're searching adventure?
where do we go next?
does it really matter if we get lost?

they all ask: why risk the pain of leaving well enough alone and good enough behind?

i answer:
because i want to explore why the earth sits securely under some while it rotates madly around others.
because i want to feel the moon shining on the other side of the globe.
because i want to see if the stars twinkle just as brightly there as they do outside the back porch door.
because i want to see if i'm the same person in each time zone.
because i want to find the treasures hidden for me throughout the world.

then i tell them: nothing you cherish is ever really lost, so really, why do you risk the regret of 'why not'?

istanbul, december 2006

Quote of the week

It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination.

Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the Ends of the Universe

Quote of the week

But he was able to understand one thing: Making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.

-Paul Coelho, The Alchemist

Quote of the week

"There are no enemies in sport; just opponents. There's no hate; we take to the field to play hoping we're going to win. In no way are our opponents enemies,wherever they come from. Whether they're from Africa or Asia, it makes no difference. We're all the same."

Miroslav Soukup, U20 men's Czech Republic coach

Weekly Quote

Silence is essential to being human.
-LeVar Burton

*you can download a lecture he gave at Wellesley College from iTunes U for free. Entitled Reading Rainbow, Roots and Star Trek.*

Quote of the week

Inside, all of my dreams become realities, and some of my realities become dreams.
-Antwan L (?)

Quote of the week

Our dreams in Action

Dreams give us hope.
Hope ignite passion.
Passion lead us to envision success.
Visions of success open our minds to recognize opportunity.
Recognition of opportunities inspires far-reaching possibilities.
Far-reaching possibilities help us enlist support from others.
Support from others keeps us focused and comitted.
Focus and commitment foster action.
Aciton results in progress.
Progress leads to achievement.
Achievement inspires dreams.
Dreams give us hope.

-Debbe Kennedy

And a bonus quote for the week (you have my grad school readings to thank for these).

It isn't the time you put in, but what you put into the time that really counts.

-Anonymous

Quote of the week

Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another.

- Marquis de Condorcet

Quote of the Week

In the end,
We will conserve
only what we love,
We will love
only what we understand,
We will understand
only what we are taught.

-Baba Dieum
Sengalese conservationist

Quote of the week

...the most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. If one is free at heart, no man-made chains can bind one to servitude, but if one's mind is so manipulated and controlled by the oppressor as to make the oppressed believe that he is a liability to the white man, then there will be nothing the oppressed can do to scare his powerful masters.
-Steve Biko

Quote of the Week

We know truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart.

Blaise Pascal

Quote of the Week

What we need to learn is always there before us, we just have to look around us with respect and attention in order to discover where God is leading us and which step we should take next.

Paul Coelho
The Zahir

Quote of the Week

Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.' Say not, 'I have found the path of the soul.' Say rather, 'I have met the soul walking upon my path.' For the soul walks upon all paths. The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed. The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.

Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet

Weekly Quote

(back after a long hiatus...)

"After all, all human beings are the same - made of human flesh, blood, and bone."

-Dali Lama

Quote of the week

In the absence of conviction, I've come to terms with the fact that uncertainty is an inescapable corollary of life. An abundance of mystery is simply part of the bargain - which doesn't strike me as something to lament.

Jon Krakauer Under the banner of heaven: a story of violent faith

Quote of the week

Try to understand that you are here, and that the things that surround you change you - in the same way that you change them.


This business of looking at the horizon...It seems as if...I don't know...I can't explain it...as if my soul has grown...Before, I looked in the distance,and things in the distance seemed really far, you know? They seemed not to be a part of my world. Because I was used to looking only at things that were close, the things around me. But I got used to looking into the distance. And I saw that besides tables, chairs and objects, my world also included the mountains, clouds, the sky. And my soul - my soul seems to have eyes that is uses to touch those things...my soul seems to have grown.

...look at the horizon.

-Paul Coelho, The Valkyries

Quote of the week

"The question is not why you are so infrequently the people you really want to be. The question is why do you so infrequently want to be the people you really are." Because you have no faith that who you are is enough. But it is. Your true nature as human beings is compassionate, and this essential nature makes you capable of being intimately and fully present. who you are is enough.

- Orion Mountain Dreamer

Quote of the week

Life for both sexes - and I looked at them, shouldering their way along the pavement, is arduous, difficult, a perpetual struggle. It calls for gigantic courage and strength. More than anything, perhaps, creatures of illusion as we are, it call for confidence in oneself.
-Virginia Woolf A room of one's own