More Quotes

From the wisdom of Abu Sa'id ibn Abi'l Khayr

Whatever you have in your mind, forget it.
Whatever you have in your hand, give it.
Whatever is to be your fate, face it!

Quote of the day

'I haven't failed, I've found 10000 ways that don't work.'

Thomas Edison



Not that this has sprung to mind because of any recent proliferation of failures - I just liked the quote.

A little more about the weather

Best quote about our recent snowy weather from a fellow depressed Edmontonian:

'It reminds me of a movie I watched years and years ago called “Gulag”. The only part of the movie I even slightly recall is a scene in which the unjustly convicted prisoner, who has been living in the hellish conditions of club Gulag is told that he is getting a visit by his family. He is allowed to change out of the rotting clothes he has been wearing for years, have a shower, shave, and given a clean suit. Once he’s all clean and dressed his captors tell him it’s all a lie, and make him change back into his filthy clothes.'

VD + 1

Now that Valentine's day is behind us, I'll pass on the best quote on love I've seen in a while, courtesy of my horoscope.

'Love is a mystery. And the reason why it is a mystery and should remain a mystery is that knowledge of it would give us mastery over it - would enable us to manipulate it - and love, truth, God, cannot be manipulated. Hence the Prophet exclaimed, 'My Lord, increase my bewilderment in Thee'.

Robert Burns

It's time to let your inner scotsman out - it's Robbie Burns day!(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burns_supper)

Robert Burns was the man who gave us Auld Lang Syne and is responsible for such poetic turns as:
'Gude ale keeps my heart aboon!' and 'Johnie lad, Cock up your beaver'.

Never one to shy away from slightly more risque material, he also gave us;

'Come rede me dame, come tell me dame, My dame come tell me truly, What length o' graith when weel ca'd hame will sair a woman duly? The carlin clew her wanton tail, Her wanton tail sae ready, l learn'd a sang in Annandale, nine inch will please a lady.'

So head out tonight and tilt a glass for that olde randy scotsman.

Quotes week continues

Not sure what is up with my quote fetish this week - I think I'm looking for inspiration.
Here's today's recycled wisdom.


"Art is the expression of imagination, not the reproduction of reality."
Henry Moore

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
Albert Einstein

More quotes

"Life is like a movie and the moment you realize you are an actor and not the director is the moment you've grown up."

Blasts from the past

I came across an old journal of mine from when I was living in Oxford about 10 years ago.
It made for an entertaining read. Funny how so many themes in my life seem to repeat themselves.
It's interesting to consider what advice I'd give young Keith if I could talk to him. He seems so unsure of his place in the world - where his life should be going, what he should be doing. I guess I'd tell him that he has quite a few interesting times ahead of him and maybe not to worry so much. Life is about the journey and no one's life takes place on a paved highway - they are all country roads - dirty and bumpy and never really going in a straight line.

And really, aren't those roads the most interesting to travel?


I found an old Steven King quote in that journal that I still like today.

The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them - words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out.
But it's more than that, isn't it?
The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it.
That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an understanding ear.

And one quote for the students out there

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."
Mark Twain

Quote of the Day

"Videogames are gateway drugs for libraries."

The Escapist - http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/99/13

Quote of the Day

"How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy."

Albert Einstein

http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/essay.htm