q

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the
thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power
to revoke at any moment.

Marcus Aurelius Antonius

p

Ode I. 11

 

Leucon, no one's allowed to know his fate,

Not you, not me: don't ask, don't hunt for answers

In tea leaves or palms. Be patient with whatever comes.

This could be our last winter, it could be many

More, pounding the Tuscan Sea on these rocks:

Do what you must, be wise, cut your vines

And forget about hope. Time goes running, even

As we talk. Take the present, the future's no one's affair.

 

~ Horace ~

 

(The Essential Horace, edited and translated by Burton Raffel)

q

There are 1011 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But
it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We
used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them
economical numbers.

-Richard Feynman, physicist, Nobel laureate (1918-1988)

q

Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the
world weigh less than a single lovely action.

-James Russell Lowell, poet, editor, and diplomat (1819-1891)

p

After Psalm 137

We're still in Babylon but

We do not weep

Why should we weep?

We have forgotten how to weep

We've sold our harps

And bought ourselves machines

That do our singing for us

And who remembers now

The songs we sang in Zion?

We have got used to exile

We hardly notice

Our captivity

For some of us

There are such comforts here

Such luxuries

Even a guard

To keep the beggars

From annoying us

Jerusalem

We have forgotten you.

Anne Porter

q

And this our life, exempt from public haunt,

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,

Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

-William Shakespeare, playwright and poet (1564-1616)