Archives - December 2015

You may have heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There's another day you might want to know about: Giving Tuesday. The idea is pretty straightforward. On the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, shoppers take a break from their gift-buying and donate what they can to charity.

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.

Feminism isn’t about making women stronger. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.

The author himself is the best judge of his own performance; none has so deeply meditated on the subject; none is so sincerely interested in the event.

One who has imagination without learning has wings without feet.

The darkness of the whole world cannot swallow the glowing of a candle.

I know family comes first, but shouldn't that mean after breakfast?

I don't speak because I have the power to speak; I speak because I don't have the power to remain silent.

By all means use sometimes to be alone. Salute thyself; see what thy soul doth wear.

All television is educational television. The question is: what is it teaching?

Keep your face always toward the sunshine --- and shadows will fall behind you.

That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.

When you think about flying, it's nuts really. Here you are at about 40,000 feet, screaming along at 700 miles an hour and you're sitting there drinking Diet Pepsi and eating peanuts. It just doesn't make any sense.

With so much information now online, it is exceptionally easy to simply dive in and drown.

It doesn't matter what we do until we accept ourselves. Once we accept ourselves, it doesn't matter what we do.

It's vital to remember who you really are. It's very important. It isn't a good idea to rely on other people or things to do it for  you, you see. They always get it wrong.

There are those who are so scrupulously afraid of doing wrong that they seldom venture to do anything.

Whatever muscles I have are the product of my own hard work and nothing else.

Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.

Normal is nothing more than a cycle on a washing machine.

I think of my life as a kind of music, not always good music but still having form and melody.

Winter came down to our home one night
Quietly pirouetting in on silvery-toed slippers of snow,
And we, we were children once again.

One of the virtues of being very young is that you don't let the facts get in the way of your imagination.

Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.

Christmas is a tonic for our souls. It moves us to think of others rather than of ourselves. It directs our thoughts to giving.

The moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.

Tea is quiet and our thirst for tea is never far from our craving for beauty.

A dinner invitation, once accepted, is a sacred obligation. If you die before the dinner takes place, your executor must attend.

True nostalgia is an ephemeral composition of disjointed memories.

The trick to not growing old is to: Stay curious. Keep your teeth. Stay hopeful. Do everything gracefully, yet kick when you have to.

Tonight’s December thirty-first,
Something is about to burst.
The clock is crouching, dark and small,
Like a time bomb in the hall.
Hark, it's midnight, children dear.
Duck! Here comes another year!