• John Masefield

    An Epilogue

    I have seen flowers come in stony places
    And kind things done by men with ugly faces,
    And the gold cup won by the worst horse at the races,
    So I trust, too.

  • Thomas Aquinas

    In order for a war to be just, three things are necessary. First, the authority of the sovereign, Secondly, a just cause, Thirdly, a rightful intention.

  • George Macdonald

    Work is not always required. There is such a thing as sacred idleness – the cultivation of which is now fearfully neglected.

  • Mariam Masri

    … You ask me if i love you
    I discover you love questions
    and love me
    I answer I love you
    so don’t ask me more
    for i don’t want to discover that you love questions only….

  • Samuel Johnson

    A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.

  • G K Chesterton

    When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?

  • G K Chesterton

    The House of Christmas

    There fared a mother driven forth
    Out of an inn to roam;
    In the place where she was homeless
    All men are at home.
    The crazy stable close at hand,
    With shaking timber and shifting sand,
    Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
    Than the square stones of Rome.

    For men are homesick in their homes,
    And strangers under the sun,
    And they lay on their heads in a foreign land
    Whenever the day is done.
    Here we have battle and blazing eyes,
    And chance and honour and high surprise,
    But our homes are under miraculous skies
    Where the yule tale was begun.

    A Child in a foul stable,
    Where the beasts feed and foam;
    Only where He was homeless
    Are you and I at home;
    We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
    But our hearts we lost – how long ago!
    In a place no chart nor ship can show
    Under the sky’s dome.

    This world is wild as an old wives’ tale,
    And strange the plain things are,
    The earth is enough and the air is enough
    For our wonder and our war;
    But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
    And our peace is put in impossible things
    Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
    Round an incredible star.

    To an open house in the evening
    Home shall men come,
    To an older place than Eden
    And a taller town than Rome.
    To the end of the way of the wandering star,
    To the things that cannot be and that are,
    To the place where God was homeless
    And all men are at home.

  • Booker T Washington

    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.

  • Ogden Nash

    The Hippopotamus

    Behold the hippopotamus!
    We laugh at how he looks to us,
    And yet in moments dank and grim,
    I wonder how we look to him.

    Peace, peace, thou hippopotamus!
    We really look all right to us,
    As you no doubt delight the eye
    Of other hippopotami.

  • David Ogilvy

    When someone is made the head of an office in the Ogilvy & Mather chain, I send him a Matrioshka doll from Gorky. If he has the curiosity to open it, and keep opening it until he comes to the inside of the smallest doll, he finds this message: If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.

  • Robert Frost

    Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

    Whose woods these are I think I know,
    His house is in the village though.
    He will not see me stopping here,
    To watch his woods fill up with snow.

    My little horse must think it queer,
    To stop without a farmhouse near,
    Between the woods and frozen lake,
    The darkest evening of the year.

    He gives his harness bells a shake,
    To ask if there is some mistake.
    The only other sound’s the sweep,
    Of easy wind and downy flake.

    The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
    But I have promises to keep,
    And miles to go before I sleep,
    And miles to go before I sleep.

  • Changing Language

    When Charles II saw Christopher Wren’s St. Paul’s Cathedral for the first time, he called it “awful, pompous, and artificial.” Meaning roughly: Awesome, majestic, and ingenious.

  • Frank Wilczek

    If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake.

  • Roger McGough

    A Dada Christmas Catalogue

    A chocolate comb
    A can of worms opener
    A non-stick frying pan
    Two sticky frying pans
    A book end
    Abrasive partridges
    An inflatable fridge
    Nervous door handles
    A mobile phone booth
    An overnight tea-bag
    Day-glo tippex
    Underwater ash-tray
    15 amp bath plug
    Pair of socks. Identical but for the colour
    Box of Tunisian (past their sell-by) dates
    See-through elastoplasts
    Nasal floss (unwaxed)
    A canteen of magnetic cutlery
    A hip joint
    A groovy cartiledge
    Three way mirror
    Not a pipe

  • Augustine of Hippo

    If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing.

  • Kit Wright

    Red Boots On

    Way down Geneva
    All along Vine,
    Deeper than the snowdrift
    Love’s eyes shine:

    Mary Lou’s walking
    In the winter time.

    She’s got

    Red boots on, she’s got
    red boots on,
    Kicking up winter
    Till the winter’s gone.

    So

    Go by Ontario,
    Look down Main,
    If you can’t find Mary Lou.
    Come back again:

    Sweet light burning
    in winter’s flame.

    She’s got

    Snow in her eyes, got
    a tingle in her toes
    and new red boots on
    wherever she goes.

    So

    All around Lake Street,
    Up by St. Paul,
    Quicker than the white wind
    Love takes all:

    Mary Lou’s walking
    In the big snow fall.

    She’s got

    Red boots on, she’s got
    red boots on,
    Kicking up winter
    Till the winter’s gone.

  • George Herbert

    The Quiddity

    My God, a verse is not a crown,
    No point of honour, or gay suit,
    No hawk, or banquet, or renown,
    Nor a good sword, nor yet a lute.

    It cannot vault, or dance, or play ;
    It never was in France or Spain ;
    Nor can it entertain the day
    With a great stable or domain.

    It is no office, art, or news ;
    Nor the Exchange, or busy Hall :
    But it is that which, while I use,
    I am with Thee : and Most take all.