Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?
          Robert Frost, Reluctance

One of my wishes is that those old trees
So dark and firm they scarcely show the breeze.
Were not as 'twere, the merest mask of gloom;
But stretched away to the end of doom.
I should not be withheld but that someday
Into their vastness I should steal away,
Fearless of ever finding open land,
Or highway where the slow wheel pours the sand.
I do not know why I should ever turn back
Or those should not set forth upon my track who knew me here
And wished to know if still I held them dear.
They would not find me changed from him they knew.
Only more certain of all I thought was true.
          Robert Frost, Into My Own

A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on each end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master's house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his master's house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you." "Why?" asked the bearer. "What are you ashamed of?" "I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master's house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts," the pot said. The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, "As we return to the master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path." Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again it apologized to the bearer for its failure. The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of your path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house."

"A mind, once expanded, can never return to its original dimensions."
"The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong-- but that's the way to bet."
"To be uncertain is uncomfortable, but to be certain is ridiculous."- Chinese Proverb
"What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner." - Colette
"When darkness is at its darkest that is the beginning of all light." - Lao-Tzu
"I unsettle all things. No facts are to me sacred, none are profane."- Emerson
"Each thought, each action in the sunlight of awareness becomes sacred. In this light, no boundary exists between the sacred and the profane." - Thich Nhat Hanh
"Believe those who are seeking truth. Doubt those who find it." - Andre Gide
"To know the road ahead, ask those coming back." - Chinese Proverb
"You cannot enter a place you never left."
"The best way out is always through." - Robert Frost
"The shortest answer is doing." George Herbert
"We don't see the world as it is. We see it as we are." - Anats Nin
"The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision." - Helen Keller
and just for humorous good measure:
"It's sad how whole families are torn apart by simple things, like wild dogs"
"Never attribute to maliciousness that which can adequately be explained by stupidity!"
"The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all, is the person who argues with him. "