On life

What you are must always displease you, if you would attain to that which you are not. - St. Augustine

Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose. 
       From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that man is here for the sake of other men—above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received. My peace of mind is often troubled by the depressing sense that I have borrowed too heavily from the work of other men. - Albert Einstein

Life never becomes a habit to me. It’s always a marvel.-  Katherine Mansfield

Genius, Power & Magic

Whatever you can do, or believe you can do, begin it. For boldness has genius, power and magic in it. - Goethe

Once is enough

You only live once - but if you work it right,  once is enough. -  Joe E. Lewis

Undrstanding

The best educated human being is the one who understands most about the life in which he is placed. - Helen Keller

I have yet to read anything by Helen Keller, but everything I come across one of her quotes I am always impressed by her wisdom and grasp of the human situation.

The festival & cruise

Life is a festival only to the wise. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I would add that it is a festival to those who have faith and believe in something greater than themselves or the given moment. Rather than worry about the existential "meaning of life", just accept that life does have meaning and we are privileged to contribute our small part to its overall mystery.

Old and young, we are all on our last cruise. - Robert Louis Stevenson

OUCH!  A bit grim given the previous quote, but his point is no less true.  SO, enjoy the cruise for as long as it goes.

This weeks quotes come to you from The Most Brilliant Thoughts of All Time .  A bit pretentious in title, but a good collection of quotes.

A fanatic

A fanatic is a person who consciously over compensates a secret doubt. - Aldous Huxley

You are here

I have an existential map. It has "You are here" written all over it. - Steven Wright # 961 of (The 2,548 Best Things Anybody Ever Said) complied by Robert Byrne

Life is a song

Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.  ~Ronald Reagan

Life & Cards

Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will. - Jawaharlal Nehru

Sent from my iPhone

Don't take life too seriously; you'll never get out of it alive. - Elbert Hubbard

Sent from my iPhone

Monday Triple Header Lincoln, Scott & Twain

And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It is the life in your years. - Abraham Lincoln
This is a phrase I use at funerals on a fairly regular basis. We too often assume that someone who lived a long life got a fair shake and those who died younger were cheated. The fair or cheated aspect of life has more to do with our response to life rather than the things that happen to us.
This quote reminds me of a similar quote by Mark Twain:
It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog. - Mark Twain
Call me odd, but I think of wolverines and shrews with this quote. Small animals that pack a punch compared to animals much larger. Both can fight off large potentially more dangerous predators and bring down prey much large than themselves.
Finally from the back of my office door:
One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum, in which men steal through existence, like sluggish waters through a marsh, without either honor or observation. -Sir Walter Scott

Strange & Wonderful

To be matter of fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy -- and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful.  -Robert Anson Heinlein
I often experience the tension between an imposing modern pragmatism which makes me want to focus on the the task(s) at hand and evaluated life in terms of productivity and accomplishment and the gentle invitation to pause and appreciate the strange and wonderful world God has shared with us with no goal in mind other than gratitude.

I'm bored. No, you are boring.

There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person. -G. K. Chesterton

Who owes who?

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. - Mark Twain

Yesterday's Missed Quote - The Road

The Road goes ever on and on down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, and I must follow, if I can, pursuing it with eager feet, until it joins some larger way where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say.  -J. R. R. Tolkien

A difficult truth

God foretold hardship upon hardship in this world until the end of time. And you want the Christian to be exempt from these troubles? Precisely because he is a Christian, he is destined to suffer more in this world.
- St. Augustine

The sucker

If you're playing a poker game and you look around the table and can't tell who the sucker is, it's you.
- Paul Newman

Fences

Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up. -G. K. Chesterton

The Walken speaks

Life, at best, is completely unpredictable.  -Christopher Walken
       Amen.