"Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for truth."
- Benjamin Disraeli

"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go."

"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."
-Franklin D. Roosevelt

Clarity of mind
means clarity
of passion, too;
this is why
a great
and clear
mind
loves ardently
and sees
distinctly
what he loves.

Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O'Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Kriss Kringle with some fans
He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus?Thank God he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Something of vengeance I had tasted for the first time; as aromatic wine it seemed, on swallowing, warm and racy: its after-flavor, metallic and corroding, gave me a sensation as if I had been poisoned.

You rock

If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size?
Sydney J. Harris

We shall not always plant while others reap
The golden increment of bursting fruit,
Not always countenance, abject and mute
That lesser men should hold their brothers cheap;
Not everlastingly while others sleep
Shall we beguile their limbs with mellow flute,
Not always bend to some more subtle brute;
We were not made eternally to weep.

The night whose sable breast relieves the stark
White stars is no less lovely being dark,
And there are buds that cannot bloom at all
In light, but crumple, piteous, and fall;
So in the dark we hide the heart that bleeds,
And wait, and tend our agonizing seeds.

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. DON'T LIE.

Opening Credits: Faith Hill –This Kiss

Waking Up: Duke Ellington & John Coltrane – In a Sentimental Mood

Stuck: The Beatles – Eight Days a Week

First Day Of School: John Coltrane – The night has a thousand eyes

Falling In Love: Stan Getz -- O Grand Amor

Fight Song: Tom Waits -- Good Old World (Waltz)

Breaking Up: Dead Can Dance – American Dreaming

Prom: Dave Brubeck & Stan Getz --Misty

Life's Ok: Sinead O’Conner – Nothing Compares to You

Mental Breakdown: Selena – Dreaming of You

Driving: Air – Ce matin la

Flashback: Dead Can Dance – Tell me About the Forest (You once called home)

Getting Back Together: Beastie Boys – In 3’s

Wedding: Lionel & Wes Montogmery—Rag Mop

Sex Scene: Tom Waits –Flowers Grave

Birth Of A Child: David Bowie – No Control

Final Battle: Old Crow Medicine Show – Big Time in the Jungle

Death Scene: Dead Can Dance – Watch Over Me

Funeral Song: Fiest – Inside and Out

End Credits: Red Hot Chili Peppers – Under the Bridge

On a final note I will say this was freaky. It worked.. I can't explain it.