QOTD: DO YOU HAVE ANY FAVORITE QUOTES OR POEMS THAT HAVE HELPED YOU THROUGH THE YEARS?

Man shall be trained for war, and woman for the recreation of the warrior. All else is folly.
– Friedrich Nietzsche

“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed;
if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival.
There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”

― Winston S. Churchill

“Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.”

My grandpa always told me “if you’re not in jail or in the hospital you’re fine”.
Besides that, The Golden Rule and the Serenity Prayer, checks all my boxes to the point that I don’t need any other life philosophies or religious doctrines.

I found a book of poetry 20+ years ago at some kind of sale, I got it for a quarter. It is over 100 years old, the title is The Golden Gleanings of Poetry and Song. I have many favorites from this book, but here is a good one by Eliza Cook – Titled

I Thank Thee God For Weal and Woe.

I thank Thee, GOD! for all I’ve known
Of kindly fortune, health, and joy;
And quite as gratefully I own
The bitter drops of life’s alloy.

Oh! there was wisdom in the blow
That wrung the sad and scalding tear,
That laid my dearest idol low,
And left my bosom lone and drear.

I thank Thee, GOD! for all of smart
That thou hast sent, for not in vain
Has been the heavy aching heart,
The sigh of grief, the throb of pain.

What if my cheek had ever kept
Its healthful colour, glad and bright? —
What if my eyes had never wept
Throughout a long and sleepless night?

Then, then, perchance, my soul had not
Remembered there were paths less fair,
And, selfish in my own blest lot,
Ne’er strove to sooth another’s care.

But when the weight of sorrow found
My spirit prostrate and resigned,
The anguish of the bleeding wound
Taught me to feel for all mankind.

Even as from the wounded tree
The goodly, precious balm will pour;
So in the rived heart there’ll be
Mercy that never flowed before.

‘Tis well to learn that sunny hours
May quickly change to mournful shade;
‘Tis well to prize life’s scattered flowers,
Yet be prepared to see them fade.

I thank Thee, GOD! for weal and woe;
And, whatsoe’er the trial be,
‘Twill serve to wean me from below,
And bring my spirit nigher Thee.

** And another one of my most favorites is:

Song of the Mystic by Abram J. Ryan

Song Of The Mystic

I walk down the Valley of Silence —
Down the dim, voiceless valley — alone!
And I hear not the fall of a footstep
Around me, save God’s and my own;
And the hush of my heart is as holy
As hovers where angels have flown!

Long ago was I weary of voices
Whose music my heart could not win;
Long ago was I weary of noises
That fretted my soul with their din;
Long ago was I weary of places
Where I met but the human — and sin.

I walked in the world with the worldly;
I craved what the world never gave;
And I said: ‘In the world each Ideal,
That shines like a star on life’s wave,
Is wrecked on the shores of the Real,
And sleeps like a dream in a grave.’

And still did I pine for the Perfect,
And still found the False with the True;
I sought ‘mid the Human for Heaven,
But caught a mere glimpse of its Blue:
And I wept when the clouds of the Mortal
Veiled even that glimpse from my view.

And I toiled on, heart-tired, of the Human,
And I moaned ‘mid the mazes of men,
Till I knelt, long ago, at an altar
And I heard a voice call me:— since then
I walk down the Valley of Silence
That lies far beyond mortal ken.

Do you ask what I found in the Valley?
‘Tis my Trysting Place with the Divine.
And I fell at the feet of the Holy,
And above me a voice said: ‘Be mine.’
And there arose from the depths of my spirit
An echo — ‘My heart shall be Thine.’

Do you ask how I live in the Valley?
I weep — and I dream — and I pray.
But my tears are as sweet as the dewdrops
That fall on the roses in May;
And my prayer, like a perfume from censers,
Ascendeth to God night and day.

In the hush of the Valley of Silence
I dream all the songs that I sing;
And the music floats down the dim Valley,
Till each finds a word for a wing,
That to hearts, like the Dove of the Deluge,
A message of Peace they may bring.

But far on the deep there are billows
That never shall break on the beach;
And I have heard songs in the Silence
That never shall float into speech;
And I have had dreams in the Valley,
Too lofty for language to reach.

And I have seen Thoughts in the Valley —
Ah! me, how my spirit was stirred!
And they wear holy veils on their faces,
Their footsteps can scarcely be heard:
They pass through the Valley like Virgins,
Too pure for the touch of a word!

Do you ask me the place of the Valley,
Ye hearts that are harrowed by Care?
It lieth afar between mountains,
And God and His angels are there:
And one is the dark mount of Sorrow,
And one the bright mountain of Prayer!

A quote from my 5th & 6th grade teacher, one of the best I ever had, and the first thought that came into my mind when I heard about Facebook:

“Fools names and fools faces will always be seen in public spaces.”

Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge him in all things and He shall make straight the path beneath your feet.”

Best quote from my dad: I had asked for a fancy watch for HS graduation, he gave me a rather nice Bulova, but I mentioned it did not have day/date on it.

Quoth he: “Son, if you dont know what day it is, you have no business wondering what time it is.”

“If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” Attributed to Alexander Hamilton, Malcolm X and others. Actually I used this as my senior quote.

Look Inward Angel

Look inward Angel
Where lies the bloody road to Elysium
Paved with the dreams of tragic eons
And the bones of many a fine refugee
Trying to escape history’s maelstrom
And its attendant strife and disaster
Where so many lie buried
In graves of gilded alabaster,
But you must take that road
Riding silent wings
From the land that birth ED
Thy tortured soul
The blossom of thy being,
It is a road of lonely joy
That leads through death’s shadow
To the secret garden of thy redemption
Defying the madness of modernity
Offering you resurrection sublime
On the cross where eternity
Dances with the hands of time,
Where you are all alone
With the gnawing chimeras of the mind
That hunger to clean your bones,
Seize your birthright of salvation
Take it and find your treasure
In lands that eluded even
The most storied gurus and sages
Inspiring guides of mankind
Gracing all the thirsty ages
With so many drams of unfulfilled hope,
For each life is an adventure
A lonely hero’s journey
An odyssey into oblivion
Appassionata of the Mystery
And tho we must leap
Into the yawning abyss
Tho drawn and quartered
By the scythe of Kronos
Alas we shall taste Eternity’s kiss,
It is the only way home
Write your story!
Sing your poem!
Rise up from this masked wasteland
Where the sepulchers of modernity
Have made their last stand
Screeching at the sky
From where those callous industry dandies
Issue their edicts and lies
For we must leave all behind
As we traverse the tortured cracks
In our broken hearts
Where the ghosts of our past
Haunt us with fine memories
Of lost love and family holidays no more
And in the passion of the mystery
We shall be filled with wonder and awe
Forgetting our blighted history
Where mundane concerns were never enough
Canceling the act we once played
To the audience of other people’s dreams,
We must go through the looking glass
Where our Jabberwock awaits us
In the the wonderworld
Of the tempestuous unconscious
Where the heartstrings
Play a requiem for our suffering
As we pass through
The pillars of Hercules
Escaping the mad algorithms of the mind
Where only death awaits
And the blind lead the blind,
Look inward Angel
Your destiny awaits thee
You have come a long way
And though the gorgon will pursueth thee
To the gates of fair Elysium
You have learned
To with your heart see
For you have found
The secret of Eternity
That eludes time’s arrow
Beyond the shadow cave
Of your fading Republic,
For on each step of your journey
You have tasted deep life’s marrow
Becoming the master
Of your civilizations fate
A skilled dreamcatcher!
Oh reluctant fisher of the depths
You have found the sacred pearl
Formed by the mortal tempest
Bringer of new worlds
Where mankind
Can once again stand proud
As a new day dawns
Under heaven’s shroud,
For we are the children of the light
Dispellers of the darkness
With the fire of the tortured heart
Oh inward angel what you must see
Beyond life’s agony and ecstasy
I long for your burning kiss
Please never leave me!

“There is no replacement for displacement.” (both in engine cubic inches and bra size)

Here is a poem I received in contemplation about 40 years ago. It inspires me in difficult times.

As I dream, my world created.
and a wonderful world it is.
Where only the bold, courageous, and strong dwell.
Where lies no death, darkness, and despair.
And love is everywhere the core of myself.

“What is past is prologue.”
Shakespeare

The Dash Poem (By Linda Ellis)
I read of a man who stood to speak
At the funeral of a friend
He referred to the dates on the tombstone
From the beginning…to the end

He noted that first came the date of birth
And spoke the following date with tears,
But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years

For that dash represents all the time
That they spent alive on earth.
And now only those who loved them
Know what that little line is worth

For it matters not, how much we own,
The cars…the house…the cash.
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash.

So, think about this long and hard.
Are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left
That can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough
To consider what’s true and real
And always try to understand
The way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger
And show appreciation more
And love the people in our lives
Like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect
And more often wear a smile,
Remembering this special dash
Might only last a little while

So, when your eulogy is being read
With your life’s actions to rehash…
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent YOUR dash?

“Life’s a bitch; then you die” -my father, on my first day of school and many therafter.

Every thing you love will die.