Echoing Words

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Martin Luther King Jr.

“Where are we?”

“Middle of nowhere.”

“Why?”

“Because there’s no better place to be.”

Carl Hiaasen
Stormy Weather

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

Winston Churchill

The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush.
It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.

Robert Maynard Hutchins

I have to remind myself that some birds aren’t meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up DOES rejoice. Still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they’re gone. I guess I just miss my friend.

Red
“Shawshank Redemption”

Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.

Amelia Burr
A Song of Living

A moose may walk backwards at night, but it is better than being slapped on the belly with a wet trout.

Anonymous

DO NOT BECOME A CYNIC. That is a sure sign of physical and spiritual atrophy. A disorder that can be readily avoided with regular doses of fresh air, adrenaline, and vast wilderness. This is a reminder to those planners and knowers of things that there is still wonder . Still challenge. Still spaces to climb, bike, and swim beyond the reach of radio waves. For those of you who would seek adventure, take heart; There are yet places that speak to our souls. And to the dim-eyed know-it-alls, they will say this: I HAVE A SURPRISE FOR YOU. Just Do It.

Nike ad

My Friend shall forever be my Friend,
and reflect a ray of God to me

Henry David Thoreau
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

Neil Armstrong

Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds.

Albert Einstein

Liberties are not given, they are taken.

Aldous Huxley

We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, ‘O me! O life!… of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless… of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?’ Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?

John Keating
“Dead Poets Society”

We are such stuff
As dreams are made on

William Shakespeare
The Tempest