Category Archives: quotesMy brother surprised me several years ago with a gesture that will always be among the proudest gifts I have received: he asked me to be his Best Man at his wedding. After he explained his reasons–basically that friends drift in and out of our lives, but only our siblings are constant and forever–I knew […]
We lost one of the good ones this week. I can’t do justice to who William Balsamo was or adequately describe what he stood for, but I’ll just mention here that I am honored to have shared a friendship with such a humane and gentle soul. I invite you to read the personal reflections of […]
I don’t remember when he first said it, and I certainly don’t remember the circumstances. This was a consistently delivered lesson on acceptable verbiage: On more than a few occasions during my childhood, my father said, “I don’t want to hear you saying ‘I can’t’ anymore. Alright?”
The demand sounded unreasonably strict at the time, but–as […]
Strolling out to the car, which was waiting for us across from the park next to our old apartment back in Torrance, Dad–in his usual way–introduced a new rule (to his then 5-year-old son): “Don’t walk on the grass at night.” His voice was unfaltering, his countenance genuine, and his demeanor chock full of the […]
Here’s a small collection of links that deal with common and annoying English errors. There are lots of laughs waiting in the link pages, so please have a look.
And before you accuse me of being an obsessive-compulsive, anal-retentive twit, I should mention that a) I am an English teacher, and b) I am well aware […]
Here’s another quote that I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of:
Those who abandon their dreams will discourage yours.
I’ve never felt comfortable following the crowd. Never wanted to follow the math steps my teacher force-fed me. Never wanted to jump right on the bandwagon with the latest trendy music. Never wanted my […]
My father labels all unpleasant tasks, particularly those involving adversity, as ‘character-building.’ While those two words alone were enough to make me cringe during my teenage years, I eventually learned to appreciate the power that nomenclature has on our perspectives. Most importantly, however, I learned that unpleasant tasks are usually best treated as welcome opportunities.
Getting […]
猿も木から落ちる。
Saru mo ki kara ochiru.
Literally: Even monkeys fall from trees.
Meaning: Everyone makes mistakes. / Nobody’s perfect.
(taken from Wikiquote)
This is one of my favorite Japanese proverbs. It is simple and straightforward, and at the same time quite powerful. However, I’m not sure I agree with the meaning given above. For me the imagery is something deeper […]
“I’ve learned that
people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget
how you made them feel.”
–Maya Angelou–
Here’s a quote that seems universally true of human nature. What does that tell us?
If human nature were all about being compassionate and easily affected by the words and […]
“We do not inherit this land from our ancestors;
we borrow it from our children.”
-Haida Indian Saying
This pretty much sums up my view on how to approach policy making. It’s really as simple as: leave everything the way you found it, or better.
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