A Thought for Today

All original posts are from wordsmith.org

[elegantzombielite]

"The true birthplace is that wherein for the first time one looks intelligently upon oneself; my first homelands have been books, and to a lesser degree schools."

Marguerite Yourcenar, novelist

(8th June 1903-1987)

[elegantzombielite]

"There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, nαked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well. And while I don’t expect you to save the world, I do think it’s not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary, and remove from your life those who offer you depression, despair, and disrespect."

Nikki Giovanni, poet and professor

(7th June 1943-2024)

[elegantzombielite]

"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education."

Albert Einstein, Theoretical Physicist

(14th March 1879 - 18th April 1955)

[elegantzombielite]

"The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones."

John Maynard Keynes, economist

(5th June 1883-1946)

[elegantzombielite]

"Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some, and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some."

Robert Fulghum, author

(b. 4th June 1937)

[elegantzombielite]

"There are many forms of patriotism and telling the truth is one of them."

Anderson Cooper, journalist and commentator

(b. 3rd June 1967)

[elegantzombielite]

"If Galileo had said in verse that the world moved, the Inquisition might have let him alone."

Thomas Hardy, novelist and poet

(2nd June 1840-1928)

[elegantzombielite]

"The animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth."

Henry Beston, naturalist and author

(1st June 1888-1968)

[futileexercise]

[elegantzombielite]

"I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain’d, / I stand and look at them long and long. / They do not sweat and whine about their condition, / They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, / They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, / Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, / Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, / Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth."

Walt Whitman, poet

(31st May 1819-1892)

[elegantzombielite]

'Defeat is worse than death because you have to live with defeat.'

Unattributed

[elegantzombielite]

"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people."

John F. Kennedy, 35th US president

(29th May 1917-1963)

[elegantzombielite]

"We love those who know the worst of us and don't turn their faces away."

Walker Percy, author

(28tth May 1916-1990)

[elegantzombielite]

"The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life -- the sick, the needy, and the handicapped."

Hubert Horatio Humphrey, US Vice President

(27th May 1911-1978)

[elegantzombielite]

"The highest exercise of charity is charity towards the uncharitable."

J.S. Buckminster, clergyman and editor

(26th May 1784-1812)

[elegantzombielite]

"To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common — this is my symphony."

William Henry Channing, clergyman and reformer

(25th May 1810-1884)

[elegantzombielite]

"It is the people who scream the loudest about America and Freedom who seem to be the most intolerant for a differing point of view."

Rosanne Cash, singer-songwriter and author

(b. 24th May 1955)