You favorite quotes

[Arwen]

All good is hard. All evil is easy. Dying, losing, cheating, and mediocrity is easy. Stay away from easy.

[Arwen]

“Don't rely on someone else for your happiness and self worth. Only you can be responsible for that. If you can't love and respect yourself - no one else will be able to make that happen. Accept who you are - completely; the good and the bad - and make changes as YOU see fit - not because you think someone else wants you to be different.”

[Arwen]

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two"

St Augustine

[Arwen]

There is a saying that the earth upon which we fall is the same ground which enables us to push ourselves up again. There's another which maintains that barley grows better after it has been trampled on. Human relationships are sometimes painful, but there is no such pain from which we cannot recover. It is up to us to decide to live a life free from self-doubt and despair in spite of our failures. Indeed, it is during our most humbling moments that we should show greatest poise and grace. Then the dignity of our lives will truly shine. .

[Arwen]

Several times my daughter had telephoned: "Mother, you must come to see the
daffodils before they're over."
It was a two-hour drive.
"I'll come next Tuesday," I promised on her third call.
Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Reluctantly I drove. When I finally
arrived, I was welcomed by my grandchildren.
"Forget the daffodils, Carolyn," I said. "The road's invisible in the fog,
and there's nothing in the world I want to see enough to drive another
inch!"
"We're going to see the daffodils," Carolyn said. "I'll drive. I'm used to
this."
After about 20 minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a
handmade sign reading "Daffodil Garden". We got out of the car, each took a
child's hand, followed the path.
Then, as we turned a corner, I looked up and gasped.
Before me lay the most glorious sight - as though someone had taken a great
vat of gold and poured it over the slopes. Five acres of flowers were
planted in great ribbons of deep orange, creamy white and lemon yellow. "Who
did this?" I asked.
"One woman."
Carolyn pointed to a small house sitting in the midst of that glory. We
walked up to it. On the patio was a poster saying: "Answers to the Questions
You Are Asking."
The first answer said "50,000 bulbs".
Then "One at a time, by one woman".
Then "Began in 1958".
That moment was life-changing. I thought of this woman I'd never met, who,
more than 40 years before, began to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an
obscure spot.
Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, she had forever changed the
world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created something of
extraordinary magnificence, beauty and inspiration.
The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of celebration. And learning
to love the Doing - one step at a time.
"It makes me sad," I admitted to my daughter.
"What might I have accomplished if I'd thought of a wonderful goal 40 years
ago and had worked away at it through all those years? Just think what I
might have been able to achieve!"
Carolyn summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way.
"Start tomorrow," she said.

[Arwen]

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.

Carl Jung:

[Arwen]

Do not pursue what is illusory - property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade and can be confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady superiority over life - don't be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn after happiness; it is after all, all the same: the bitter doesn't last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn