Previous Quotes of the Week

When you walk to the edge of all the light you have, and you take that first step into the unknown, believe one of two things will happen : There will be something solid for you to stand upon, or you will be taught how to fly.

Anon

4th Aug 2000

At 4am Nasruddin leaves the tavern and walks the town aimlessly. A policeman stops him, "Why are you out wandering the streets in the middle of the night?"
"Sir," replies Nasruddin, "If I knew the answer to that question, I would have been home hours ago!"

Sufi tale, suggested by Kirsty O'Connor

11th Aug 2000

The man who wants to shoot a cloud down with an arrow will exhaust all his arrows in vain. Many sculptors are such strange hunters. What you have to do is fiddle something on a drum, or drum something on a fiddle. Before long the cloud will descend, roll about on the ground in happiness, and at last complacently, turn to stone.

Jean Arp

21st August

It's better to have nothing, it's better to have nothing.

Whispered by the wood-nymphs in the film "Housekeeping"

28th August

If you want your boomerang to come back, well first you've got to throw it.

Charlie Drake

9th September

There is no such joy in the tavern as upon the road thereto.

Cormac McCarthy

15th September

I know nothing.

Manuel - Faulty Towers

25th September

Men's memories are uncertain and the past that was differs little from the past that was not.

Cormac McCarthy

30th September

Sometimes a man stands up during supper
and walks outdoors, and keeps on walking,
because of a church that stands somewhere in the East.
And his children say blessings on him as if he were dead.
And another man, who remains inside his house,
stays there, inside the dishes and in the glasses,
so that his children have to go far out into the world
towards that same church, which he forgot.

Rainer Maria Rilke

7th October

Many men go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are really after.

Thoreau

20th October

Do not be afraid to suffer, give the heaviness back to the weight of the earth;
mountains are heavy, seas are heavy.
Even those trees you planted as children became too heavy long ago - you couldn't carry them now.
But you can carry the winds...and the open spaces.

Rainer Maria Rilke

28th October

All answers are a form of death.

John Fowles

6th November

This was the cage
your freedom flew to.

Ted Hughes

12th November

Don't sell your spine.

Kevin Dempsey

22nd November

It takes a long time to become young.

Pablo Picasso

4th December

No one gets out of here alive.

Mark Twain. Suggested by Lance Penketh.

10th December

In pursuit of learning every day something is aquired.
In pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped.
Less and less is done until non action is achieved.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.
The world is ruled by letting things take their course.
It cannot be ruled by interfering.

Tao Te Ching

16th December

It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.

Lewis Carroll

22nd December, 2000

There'll be no butter in Hell.

Stella Gibbons

2nd January, 2001

And then kerjillions of stars start to shine.
And icy comets go whizzing by.
And everything's shaking with a strange delight.

Laurie Anderson

7th January, 2001

Enlightenment is not imagining figures of light
But making the darkness conscious.

Carl Gustav Jung

18th January, 2001

I like the silent church before the service begins better than any preaching.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

29th January, 2001

Woolly thinkers of the world unite;
You have nothing to loose but your.....er.

Grant Ragsdale

4th February, 2001

For fuck's sake Alison be gentle on yourself.

Student (To herself) on an Alexander Technique training course.

11th February, 2001

A drowning surrealist does not appreciate the concrete lifebelt.

Roger McGough

11th February, 2001 - again

Seek knowledge, even in China.

Muhammad

17th February, 2001

There had been a time when two people had thought Mr Polly the most wonderful and adorable thing in the world, had kissed his toe-nails, saying "Myum, myum!" and marvelled at the exquisite softness and delicacy of his hair; had disputed whether the sound he had just made was da da, or truly and intentionally dadda; these two people had worshipped him from the crown of his head to the soles of his exquisite feet.

H G Wells, The History of My Polly.

25th February, 2001

zen and the inevitable destruction of capitalism

sitting quietly, doing nothing
spring comes
and capitalism detroys itself

Stephen Hancock

4th March, 2001

Once you preach
The point
Is gone

A Zen Forest

11th March, 2001

If you know the point of balance
You can settle the details.
If you can settle the details
You can stop running around.
If you can stop running around
Your mind will become calm.
If your mind becomes calm
You can think in front of a tiger.
If you can think in front of a tiger
You will surely succeed.

Mencius Suggested by Elizabeth Bardsley

17th March, 2001

It tried to be a Rose
And failed - and all the Summer laughed.

Emily Dickinson

24th March, 2001

Another day, another carrot

Bugs Bunny. Suggested by Roger (The Rabbit) Barnes

1st April, 2001

I remember you well
In the Chelsea Hotel.
You were famous,
Your heart was a legend.
You told me again
You preferred handsome men,
But for me you would make an exception.

Leonard Cohen

8th April, 2001

Tomorrows were for work;
Todays were for thinking about it.

Elmore Leonard

17th April, 2001

He said, "I will be constant as the Northern Star.".
And I said, "Constantly in the darkness. Where's that at?
If you want me I'll be in the bar.".

Joni Mitchell

22nd April, 2001

The pot of water falls from your head when you have just reached the door of your homestead.

Acholi Proverb

29th April, 2001

These are the days of miracles and wonders.

Paul Simon

Two thirds of the population of the world have never made a phone call.

Oxfam Brochure

5th May, 2001

Woman : Goodness, what a big diamond.
Mae West : Goodness had nothing to do with it.

13th May, 2001

We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it's our life or our possessions and property.
But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand.

Paulo Coelho

22nd May,2001

You know them places at the side of the road where you can stop?
They're just an illusion.

Bob Dylan

28th May, 2001

The trick is to inspire wonder without being too heavy handed - so the athiests won't feel left out.

God (From God, the Devil and Bob)

4th June, 2001

Oh, as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

Dylan Thomas (Fern Hill)

9th June, 2001

You can tell more about a man by talking to him than by listening to him.

Ian Fleming

19th June, 2001

Then hold my hand a bit.
I'll give you gold where we're going now.

Jeff Nuttall

26th June, 2001

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

From 'Wild Geese' by Mary Oliver - suggested by Elizabeth Bardsley

1st July, 2001

Living in Belfast

I hate it, I hate it.
I hate it, I hate it.
I hate it, I hate it.
I hate it, I hate it.
I hate it, I hate it.
I do.

Poem by a twelve year old boy whose best friend had been killed by a bomb two weeks earlier.
Heard on the radio - sorry - I didn't catch his name.

7th July, 2001

Tae be touched by real love requires great fortune,
it's no in your hands.
The best you can do, what is in yir power,
is tae aquire grace.

Irvine Welsh

14th July, 2001

Let a man remember his dream
That he might know the story of all men,
And let him say
As he did when he was a child,
"This is true,
It does not matter what they tell me."

William Wantling

21st July, 2001

Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose.
But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished.
He had won the victory over himself.
He loved Big Brother.

George Orwell

28th July, 2001

I have attended at a lot of death beds;
A lot of death beds,
But not once have I heard the words,
"I wish I'd spent more time at the office."

Irish priest at a funeral.

4th August, 2001

Earth's crammed with heaven
And every common bush afire with God:
But only he who sees takes off his shoes.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

11th August, 2001

Doubt is an uncomfortable condition,
but certainty is a ridiculous one.

Voltaire

19th August, 2001

Just give me one thing,
That I can hold on to.
To believe in this living
Is such a hard way to go.

John Prine

26th August, 2001

First Person : I haven't seen you at the Camouflage Club lately.
Second Person : No, good aren't I?

Suggested by Mavis

20th September, 2001

World War Four will be fought with sticks and stones.

Albert Einstien

29th September, 2001

O Love,
Did the world come to you
In the form of a woman?
And you,
Were you training with mirrors
To make yourself perfect?

Leonard Cohen

7th October, 2001

If you say to your girlfriend
She is beautiful like a giraffe
She will jump up and down with delight.

National Park Guide, Uganda

21st October, 2001

Why live life from dream to dream
And dread the day when dreaming ends?

Will Jennings

27th October, 2001

Her husband is off to work
And the kids were off to school
And there were oh so many ways
That she could spend her day.

She could clean the house for hours
Or re-arrange the flowers
Or run naked through the shady streets
Screaming all the way.

from: The Ballad of Lucy Jordan by Ray Sawyer

3rd November, 2001

There is nothing you can do to prevent the bird of unhappiness from flying over your head
But you can prevent it from nesting in your hair.

Chinese Proverb - well, maybe.

10th November, 2001

Except for the point,
the still point,
there would be no dance,
and there is only the dance.

T.S.Eliot (Four Quartets) - suggested by Elizabeth Bardsley

19th November, 2001

I must be crazy to be in a loony bin like this.

From One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (RIP)

25th November, 2001

A Zen roshi and a Hindu guru were walking together along a riverbank and decided to visit an adjacent island.
"Let's walk to the island," said the guru.
"Why not take the ferry?" suggested the roshi.
"Because," said the guru, "I've spent twenty years learning to walk on water."
"Why take twenty years learning to walk on water," said the roshi, "when you can take a ferry for a penny?"

ZEN MONDO

2nd December, 2001

All things pass.

St Catherine - and title of the last album of George Harrison

10th December, 2001

Now it's hard to tell the truth,
So we live with points of view.

Mary Gauthier

16th December, 2001

I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you're too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work.
You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy retirement. You drink alcohol, you party, and you get ready for High School. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last 9 months floating...then you finish off as an orgasm!
Amen.

George Costanza (SEINFELD)

22nd December, 2001

Birds fly away to the ends of the earth;
The mountains have an autumn look again.
Going up Huzai ridge, and coming down,
I am moved by feelings of the utmost sorrow.

WANG WEI

5th January, 2002

Goddess of song, teach me the story of a hero.

First line of Homer's Odyssey

12th January, 2002

Give up owning things and being somebody. Quit existing.

Jelaluddin Rumi

20th January, 2002

Why is it that Death is the only one who knows what he's doing?

Roger McGough

28th January, 2002

Film producer: Sit down please Miss West.

Mae West: I'll sit when I've finished standing!

6th February, 2002

Only a fool looks for wisdom in the ventricles of the human heart.

Coen Brothers

10th February, 2002

Posture is a journey, not a destination.

Simon Pentry - one of my clients

16th February, 2002

Listening to the radio
I feel so out of place
There's a certain something missing
That the treble can't erase.

Addicted to Bass - Puretone

23rd February, 2002

Yesterday don't matter
'Cause it's gone.

Ruby Tuesday - The Stones

10th March, 2002

CONTROL : "To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him."

Shunryu Suzuki

18th March, 2002

Governments, like nappies, should be changed regularly - and for the same reason.

Italian saying

24th March, 2002

Alicia Nash : Garbage men don't call at night.
John Nash : Maybe they do round here.

A Beautiful Mind

8th April, 2002

It's all been a big cock up.
One day I was just playing and the next day I was booked up for the next two years.
I hate the cello if you want to know.

Jacqueline Du Pré

19th April, 2002

I walk through the garden of truth, sniggering all the way.

Voltaire

30th April, 2002

To fly - the dream of men and flightless birds for centuries.

Colonel Ramatov

8th May, 2002

You say I must write another book? But I've just written this one.
You liked it so much that's the reason? Read it again then.

Stevie Smith

20th May, 2002

Trying is the first step towards failure.

Homer Simpson

5th June, 2002

Please send me some more money.

Vincent Van Gogh - 1888

12th June, 2002

Every morning camels spread their piteous-sounding cries over the vast plains of the Gobi desert. The moving moos of camels bring Mongols to tears, while the Mongols' khuur-play can bring camels to tears.
Here the khuur renders the camelmoose, preceded by the rather shaky camel trot. Beware, this mutual tearjerker may do you brown, too!

Sleeve note from Mongolian music CD

19th June, 2002

Woman phoning chat show : Every time I see a gasometer I want to put a daffodil on top of it.
Chat show host : That's interesting, because every time I see a daffodil I want to put a gasometer under it.

Radio 4

30th June, 2002

If you believe that money can't buy happiness you're shopping at all the wrong places.

Guest on Radio Chat Show

6th July, 2002

In our day we don't allow a hundred and thirty years to elapse between glimpses of a marvel.
If somebody should discover a creek in the county next to the one that the North Pole is in, Europe and America would start fifteen costly expeditions thither: one to explore the creek, and the other fourteen to hunt for each other.

Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain

12th July, 2002

September fattens on vines. Roses
flake from the wall. The smoke
of harmless fires drifts to my eyes.

This is plenty. This is more than enough.

Geoffrey Hill

20th July, 2002

It is not true
That death begins after life.
When life stops
Death also stops.

Gösta Ågren

28th July, 2002

It is forbidden to walk on the grass
But it is not forbidden to fly over the grass.

Augusto Boal

2nd August, 2002

Don't keep blaming yourself.
Just blame yourself once and move on.

Homer Simpson

10th August, 2002

But you don't reach sanctuary just by looking at the sky.

Emmylou Harris

26th August, 2002

The dead do not walk backwards but they do walk behind us.
They have no lungs and cannot call out but would love for us to turn around.
They are victims of love, many of them.

Anne Carson

8th September, 2002

and I see a woman, shining, stretch her hand
and shake as she receives the gift of weeping;

Les Murray

27th September, 2002

Be not too hard - for soon he dies,
Often no wiser than he began;
Be not too hard for life is short
And nothing is given to man.

Christoper Logue

5th October, 2002

I dwell in possibility.

Emily Dickinson

18th October, 2002

Use your faults; use your defects.
They will make you a star.

Edith Piaf

6th November, 2002

You can tell the sun
In his jealous sky
That we walked in fields of gold.

Fields of Barley : Trad. song.

14th November, 2002

I can remember much forgetfulness.

Hart Crane

26th November, 2002

Bury the hatchet
But not too deep in my head.

Dr. John

14th December, 2002

As people get older they define themselves by what they don't like.
Why can't we be who we are instead of who we aren't?

Elizabeth Bowen

4th January, 2003

All knowledge is a borrowing and every fact a debt.

Cormac Mc Carthy

11th January, 2003

Who has two legs must wash two knees.

Wendy Cope

25th January, 2003

You can't have a war against terrorism without becoming a terrorist yourself.
All over we see that terrorism is the war of the poor and war is the terrorism of the rich, so really there is no difference between the two.

Sir Peter Ustinov

4th February, 2003

"Good-morning, good-morning!" the General said
When we met him last week on our way to the line.
Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of them dead,
And are cursing his staff for incompetent swine.
"He's a cheery old card," grunted Harry to Jack
As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.

But he did for them both with his plan of attack.

The General - Siegfried Sassoon

13th February, 2003

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.

Vidal Sassoon

19th February, 2003

The theatre I worked at last week - the act before me was so bad they were still booing while I was on.

Ken Dodd

4th March, 2003

Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me.

Sigmund Freud

8th March, 2003

Never drive a car when you're dead.

Tom Waits

23rd March, 2003

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.

Albert Einstein

5th April, 2003

You have to learn how to push the rock where it wants to go.

Tanouye Tenshin Roshi

16th April, 2003

It's not a trick, your senses all deceiving,
A fitful dream the morning will exhaust.
Say goodbye to Alexander leaving,
Then say goodbye to Alexander lost.

Leonard Cohen

26th April, 2003

You have to kiss a lot of toads before you find a frog.

Lucy Bain

9th May, 2003

Never trust a man who, left alone in a room with a tea cosy, doesn't try it on.

Billy Connolly

17th May, 2003

Children play to encounter reality:
Adults play to avoid it.

Janet Moyles

25th May, 2003

If you don't know where you're going
Any road will take you there.

George Harrison

9th June, 2003

If there's no room for laughter,
There's no room for me.

Steve Harley

19th June, 2003

Me "Do you sell bolts?"
Assistant at MachineMart "No Sir. For bolts you must go to the bolt supplier."

18th Sepember, 2003

I believe that much of a man's character will be found betokened in his backbone.
I would rather feel your spine than your skull, whoever you are.

Herman Melville - Moby Dick

28th September, 2003

She was right.
I should have loved her.

Tony Parsons - Man and Boy

21st October,2003

Well, I wrestled with reallity for 35 years Doctor,
and I'm glad to say that I finally won out over it.

James Stewart in "Harvey"

28th October, 2003

When it comes to emotions
even great heroes can be idiots.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

11th November, 2003

Words gave her clarity,
Brought reason, shape.
Whereas I thought words bent emotions,
like sticks in water.

Michael Ondaatje

18th November, 2003

For echo is the soul of the voice
Exciting itself in hollow places.

Michael Ondaatje

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