---

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. ~~ William Arthur Ward

 

 

---

 Terrorism and deception are weapons not of the strong but of the weak. ~~ Mohandas K. Gandhi

 

---

 Even a small star shines in the darkness. ~~ Finnish proverb

 

---

 

Diseases have no eyes.  They pick with a dizzy finger anyone, just anyone. ~~ Sandra Cisneros

 

---

 

He loved the hills in the spring when the snows go off and the first flowers come.  He loved the warm sun of summer and the high mountain meadows, the trails through the timber and the sudden clear blue of the lakes.  Best of all he loved the fall, with the tawny, and gray, the leaves yellow on the cottonwoods and above the hills the high blue windless skies. ~~ Ernest Hemingway [Graveside eulogy for a friend]

 

---

 

Nothing makes a house cozier than cats. ~~ Gladys Taber

 

---

 

Think of the storm roaming the sky uneasily like a dog looking for a place to sleep in, listen to it growling. ~~ Elizabeth Bishop

 

---

 

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children. ~~ Kahlil Gibran

 

---

 

It is a fact of life that we find ourselves in unpleasant demoralizing situations which we can neither escape nor control.  We can keep our morale and spirits high by using both "coping" and "hoping" humor.  Coping humor laughs at the hopelessness in our situation.  It gives us the courage to hang in there, but it does not bring hope.  The uniqueness of hoping humor lies in its acceptance of life with all its dichotomies, contradictions, and incongruities.  It celebrates the hope in human life.  From one comes courage, from the other comes inspiration. ~~ Cy Eberhart

 

---

 

My childhood is very vivid to me, and I don't feel very different now from the way I felt then.  It would appear I am the very same person, only with wrinkles. ~~ Natalie Babbitt

 

---

 

Inanimate objects can be classified scientifically into three major categories:  those that don't work, those that break down, and those that get lost. ~~ Russell Baker

 

---

 

After all, I don't see why I am always asking for private, individual, selfish miracles when every year there are miracles like white dogwood. ~~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

 

---

 

A computer will do what you tell it to do, but that may be much different from what you had in mind. ~~ Joseph Weizenbaum

 

---

 

If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. ~~ American proverb

 

---

 

It's taken all my life to understand that  it is not necessary to understand everything. ~~ Rene Coty

 

---

 

You talk to yourself all the time; be careful what you say.  Negative images are destructive. ~~ William Lantz

 

---

 

How many times have I rested tired eyes on her graceful little body, curled up in a ball and wrapped round with her tail like a parcel… If they are content, their contentment is absolute; and our jaded wearied spirits find a natural relief in the sight of creatures whose little cups of happiness can be so easily filled to the brim. ~~ Agnes Repplier

 

---

 

Almost every person has something secret he likes to eat. ~~ M. F. K. Fisher

 

---

 

Middle age is when you realize there's one more thing in the world that's biodegradable--you. ~~ Robert Orben

 

---

 

In order to deal with the chaos that exists in the world today, you need some grounding.  That grounding best comes from knowing who you are. ~~ Michael Ray

 

---

 

Leaves are verbs that conjugate the seasons. ~~ Gretel Ehrlich

 

---

 

Be courageous.  It's one of the only places left uncrowded. ~~ Anita Roddick

 

---

 

Expect nothing.  Live frugally on surprise. ~~ Alice Walker

 

---

 

Vegetables are a must on a diet.  I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie. ~~ Jim Davis

 

---

 

There are three things I always forget.  Names, faces -- the third I can't remember. ~~ Italo Svevo

 

---

 

Halloween is every day, isn't it? For some of us. ~~ Tim Burton

 

---

 

There is a child in every one of us who is still a trick-or-treater looking for a brightly-lit front porch. ~Robert Brault

 

---

 

 

I saw thousands of pumpkins last night come floating in on the tide, 

 

Bumping up against the rocks and 

 

Rolling up on the beaches;

 

 It must be Halloween in the sea.

 

~~ Richard Brautigan

 

---

Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He's gotta pick this one. He's got to. I don't see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there's not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see. ~~ Linus (Charles Schulz)