Alive, Alive, Oh!

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

“‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo.
‘So do I,” said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’”

“We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.”

“The only dream worth having is to dream that you will live while you are alive, and die only when you are dead. To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget.”

“You have to be careful with the stories you tell. And you have to watch out for the stories that you are told.”

“Never laugh at live dragons.”

“Speak politely to an enraged dragon.”

“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”

“Be kind to dragons, for thou art crunchy when toasted and taste good with ketchup.”

“Come not between the Dragon and his wrath …”

“The world’s a big place. You can’t do or be everything, nor should you. Life is bigger than any one man. But when you read about other people’s lives, when you read their stories, you catch a glimpse of a world bigger than your own. You may never travel a hundred miles from where you were born, but if you read great stories, you’ll get to see the entire world. You’ll enter into the Great Mystery.”

“Don’t try to make life a mathematics problem with yourself in the center and everything coming out equal. When you’re good, bad things can still happen. And if you’re bad, you can still be lucky.”

“Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you.”

“Amende to-day and slack not,
Deyth cometh and warneth not,
Tyme passeth and speketh not.”

“I count only the hours that are serene.”