"What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? – it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies." ~ Jack Kerouac, On the Road

"I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York's skyline. Particularly when one can't see the details. Just the shapes. The shapes and the thought that made them. The sky over New York and the will of man made visible. What other religion do we need?" ~ Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

"Let me, O let me bathe my soul in colours; let me swallow the sunset and drink the rainbow." ~ Kahlil Gibran

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
~ Leonard Cohen ~

"Veil after veil of thin dusky gauze is lifted, and by degrees the forms and colours of things are restored to them, and we watch the dawn remaking the world in its antique pattern." ~ Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
~ Robert Frost ~

"But he who dares not grasp the thorn should never crave the rose." ~ Anne Brontë

"I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, 'Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.'" ~ Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

"I know that I shall meet my fate somewhere among the clouds above; those that I fight I do not hate, those that I guard I do not love." ~ W.B. Yeats

"There is peace even in the storm." ~ Vincent Van Gogh, The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh

"If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden." ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by... and that has made all the difference." ~ Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." ~ Confucius

"Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live." ~ Mark Twain

"To wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect." ~ Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

"Everybody has their own America, and then they have pieces of a fantasy America that they think is out there but they can't see. You've pieced them together from scenes in movies and music and lines from books...and you live in your dream America that you've custom-made just as much as you live in your real one." ~ Andy Warhol

"'Hey, listen,' I said. 'You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? That little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over? Do you happen to know, by any chance?' I realized it was only one chance in a million." ~ J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

"A large drop of sun lingered on the horizon and then dripped over and was gone, and the sky was brilliant over the spot where it had gone...and dusk crept over the sky from the eastern horizon, and darkness crept over the land from the east." ~ John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

"You need to let the little things that would ordinarily bore you suddenly thrill you." ~ Andy Warhol

"I am forever walking upon these shores, betwixt the sand and the foam. The high tide will erase my footprints, and the wind will blow away the foam, but the sea and the shore will remain forever." ~ Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam

"Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy." ~ Anne Frank

"He that can have patience can have what he will." ~ Benjamin Franklin

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." ~ Anton Chekhov

"The reason birds can fly and we can't is simply because they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings." ~ J.M. Barrie

"Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it." ~ L.M. Montgomery

"Everything has to come to an end, sometime." ~ L. Frank Baum

"Art is what you can get away with." ~ Andy Warhol

"It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength; and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done." ~ Vincent Van Gogh

"Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways." ~ Oscar Wilde

"A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows." ~ Francis of Assisi

"The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn't it be... It is the same the angels breathe." ~ Mark Twain

"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." ~ Gautama Buddha

"Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like." ~ Lao Tzu

"Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return." ~ Leonardo da Vinci

"It is in your power to withdraw yourself whenever you desire. Perfect tranquility within consists in the good ordering of the mind, the realm of your own." ~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

"A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light." ~ Leonardo da Vinci

"There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept." ~ Ansel Adams

In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of you are found all the aspects of existence." ~ Kahlil Gibran

"Think off center." ~ George Carlin

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold, when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade." ~ Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

"They love to tell you stay inside the lines, but something's better on the other side." ~ John Mayer

"Stars and shadows ain't good to see by." ~ Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

"To the complaint, 'There are no people in these photographs,' I respond, 'There are always two people, the photographer and the viewer.'" ~ Ansel Adams

"Life is a full circle, widening until it joins the circle motions of the infinite." ~ Anaïs Nin

"A man of words and not of deeds, is like a garden full of weeds." ~ Benjamin Franklin

"The longest day must have its close - the gloomiest night will wear on to a morning." ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." ~ Pablo Picasso

The heart of man is very much like the sea; it has its storms, it has its tides, and in its depths it has its pearls too." ~ Vincent Van Gogh

"The reason birds can fly and we can't is simply because they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings." ~ J.M. Barrie

"It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection." ~ Voltaire

"The importance of an artist is to be measured by the quantity of new signs which he has introduced to the language of art." ~ Henri Matisse

"Grass seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves." ~ Walt Whitman

"Through the dancing poppies stole a breeze most softly lulling to my soul." ~ John Keats

"Sacrifice is a part of life. It's supposed to be. It's not something to regret. It's something to aspire to." ~ Mitch Albom

"You see but your shadow when you turn your back to the sun." ~ Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam

"You don't take a photograph, you make it." ~ Ansel Adams

"There are darknesses in life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights." ~ Bram Stoker

"Do you live the days you go through? Will this song live on long after we do" ~ Third Eye Blind

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." ~ Pablo Picasso

"I think... if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts." ~ Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

"All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust." ~ J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." ~ Anton Chekhov

"I tried to discover, in the rumor of forests and waves, words that other men could not hear, and I pricked up my ears to listen to the revelation of their harmony." ~ Gustave Flaubert

"I feel as if I had opened a book and found roses of yesterday sweet and fragrant, between its leaves." ~ L.M. Montgomery

"There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept."~ Ansel Adams

. . . b i r t h d a y sa r eb e g i n n i n g s . . .

"Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky." ~ Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam

"Some people say that a sunrise is a miracle, because it is somewhat mysterious and often very beautiful; but other people say it is simply a fact of life, because it happens every day and far too early in the morning." ~ Lemony Snicket

"All in all, it was a never-to-be-forgotten summer ~ one of those summers which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going ~ one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather, delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world." ~ L.M. Montgomery

"Reflect upon your present blessings ~ of which every man has many ~ not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some." ~ Charles Dickens

"The line of life is a ragged diagonal between duty and desire." ~ William R. Alger

"I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one." ~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.” ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

“I've dropped my pebble in the ocean, and hopefully, throughout the course of the day, millions of others will drop theirs in too. No single one of us knows which pebble causes the wave to crest, but each of us, quite rightly, believes that it might be ours, an act of faith.” ~ Michael J. Fox

“The earth laughs in flowers.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Wherever he saw a hole, he always wanted to know the depth of it. To him, this was important.” ~ Jules Verne

“As only New Yorkers know, if you can get through the twilight, you’ll live through the night.” ~ Dorothy Parker

“You have to do stuff that average people don't understand because those are the only good things.” ~ Andy Warhol

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” ~ Albert Camus

“Life isn't black and white. It's a million gray areas, don't you find?” ~ Ridley Scott

“It's too cold outside for angels to fly.” ~ Ed Sheeran

“True morality consists not in following the beaten track, but in finding the true path for ourselves, and fearlessly following it.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” ~ John Steinbeck

“Set wide the window. Let me drink the day...” ~ Edith Wharton

“A rose's rarest essence lives in the thorn.” ~ Rumi

“A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci 

“Suddenly, there was a great burst of Light through the Darkness. The Light spread out, and where it touched the Darkness, the Darkness disappeared.” ~Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time

“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, ‘Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.’” ~ Lewis Carroll

“But he who dares not grasp the thorn should never crave the rose.” ~ Anne Brontë

“The sea is a desert of waves, a wilderness of water.” ~ Langston Hughes

“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” ~ Gautama Buddha

“It makes a difference, doesn't it, whether we fence ourselves in, or whether we are fenced out by the barriers of others?” ~ E.M. Forster

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“As different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.” ~ Emily Brontë

“A flower blossoms for its own joy.” ~ Oscar Wilde .

“Time is an illusion, timing is an art.” ~ Stefan Emunds

“I must have flowers, always, and always.” ~ Claude Monet

“We all shine on . . . like the moon and the stars and the sun . . .” ~ John Lennon

Daffodowndilly

She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,
She wore her greenest gown;
She turned to the south wind
And curtsied up and down.
She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbor:
‘Winter is dead.’

~ A.A. Milne

“I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one.” ~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

“To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour.” ~ William Blake

“Signs may be but the sympathies of nature with man.” ~ Charlotte Brontë

“For the first time in four billion years, a living creature had contemplated himself and heard with a sudden, unaccountable loneliness, the whisper of the wind in the night reeds.” ~ Loren Eiseley

“I love tulips better than any other spring flower; they are the embodiment of alert cheerfulness and tidy grace . . .” ~ Elizabeth von Arnim

“There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul.” ~ Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” ~ Plato

“There may be a great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke.” ~ Vincent Van Gogh

“When you reach the end of what you should know, you will be at the beginning of what you should sense.” ~ Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam

“Appearance blinds, whereas words reveal.” ~ Oscar Wilde

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter ~ tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther . . . And one fine morning ~ So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

“We often confuse what we wish for with what is.” ~ Neil Gaiman

“Something is always born of excess: great art was born of great terror, great loneliness, great inhibitions, instabilities, and it always balances them.” ~ Anaïs Nin

“And I learned what is obvious to a child. That life is simply a collection of little lives, each lived one day at a time. That each day should be spent finding beauty in flowers and poetry and talking to animals. That a day spent with dreaming and sunsets and refreshing breezes cannot be bettered.” ~ Nicholas Sparks

“Seashells are love letters in the sand.” ~ Unknown

But are my foot­steps silent? 
Are they just holes with­in the sand? 
Or does an­oth­er hear them, follow, 
And find me where I am?

~ L.S. Hartfield ~

“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

“One can no more approach people without love than one can approach bees without care. Such is the quality of bees.” ~ Leo Tolstoy

“Time is for dragonflies and angels. The former live too little and the latter live too long.” ~ James Thurber

“It is in your power to withdraw yourself whenever you desire. Perfect tranquility within consists in the good ordering of the mind, the realm of your own.” ~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.” ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

. . . birthdays are BEGINNINGS . . .

“Let every dawn of morning be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.” ~ John Ruskin, The Two Paths

“Yes, I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.” ~ Oscar Wilde

“Life has no meaning the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal.” ~ Jean-Paul Sartre