Darkly Comical Quotes

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Life is a glass given to us to fill; a busy life is filling it with as much as it can hold; a hurried life has had more poured into it than it can contain. – William Adams Brown

Do not be duped by little duties. Do not be a chore man all your days. – Samuel Smith Drury

All government is a trust. Every branch of government is a trust, and immemorially acknowledged to be so. – Jeremy Bentham

The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagree with you and are too cowardly to let you know. – Napoleon

Necessity of action takes away the fear of the act, and makes bold resolution the favorite of fortune. – Quarles

I believe the recipe for happiness to be just enough money to pay the monthly bills you acquire, a little surplus to give you confidence, a little too much work each day, enthusiasm for your work, a substantial share of good health, a couple of real friends, and a wife and children to share life’s beauty with you. – J. Kenfield Morley

There are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means – either may do – the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier. – Benjamin Franklin

Those who believe that we have reached the limit of business progress and employment opportunity in this country are like the farmer who had two windmills and pulled one down because he was afraid there was not enough wind for both. – Morris S. Tremaine

So Damn Much Money

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The Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government

By Robert G. Kaiser

A frank description of how Lobbyists have come to run Washington – Representative (Ca – Dem) Leon E. Panetta

Lobbyists are destroying America by turning our political processes into an auction.

 Jack Abramoff (the worst of the worst lobbyist) – “I was participating in a system of legalized bribery. All of it bribery, every bit of it.”

 “There is no shame anymore. We’ve blown past the ethical standards.” – Senator Chuck Hagel (R/Ne)

 “Members of the House and Senate rarely legislate, they basically follow the money.” – Representative (Ca – Dem) Leon Panetta

 Lobbyists propose entire bills.

 Our political process is distorted by dollars.

 A unanimous Supreme Court decision decided the lobbying case of Trist v. Child in 1875 – “The theory of our government is, that all public stations are trusts, and that those clothed with them are to be animated in the discharge of their duties solely by considerations of right, justice, and the public good. They are never to descend to a lower plane Any departure from the line of rectitude in such cases is not only bad morals, but involves a public wrong.” – Justice Swayne

 When it comes to the corruption of lobbying, only public opinion can check and destroy it.


Let’s lobby against lobbying!

Let’s go to Washington D.C. and “Shut her down” to force our politicians into doing their duty as elected representatives.

Darkly Comedy Quotes

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A man is never astonished that he doesn’t know what another does, but he is surprised at the gross ignorance of the other in not knowing what he does. – Haliburton

From the little spark may burst a mighty flame. – Dante

There are one-story intellects, two-story intellects, and three-story intellects with skylights. All fact collectors, who have no aim beyond their facts, are one-story men. Two-story men compare, reason, generalize using the labors of fact collectors as well as their own. Three-story men idealize, predict; their best illumination comes from above, through the skylight. – Oliver Wendell Holmes

Don’t mistake pleasure for happiness. They are a different breed of dogs. – Josh Billings
A man can do what he ought to do; and when he says he cannot, it is because he will not. – Froude

Today the world is the victim of propaganda because people are not intellectually competent. More than anything the United States needs effective citizens competent to do their own thinking. – Dr. William Mather Lewis

Man must realize his own unimportance before he can appreciate his importance. – R.M. Baumgardy

Research teaches a man to admit he is wrong and to be proud of the fact that he does so, rather than try with all his energy to defend an unsound plan because he is afraid that admission of error is a confession of weakness when rather it is a signal of strength. – Prof. H. E. Stocher

Life is a glass given to us to fill; a busy life is filling it with as much as it can hold; a hurried life has had more poured into it than it can contain. – William Adams Brown

So Damn Much Money

So Damn Much Money - The Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government

By Robert G. Kaiser

A frank description of how Lobbyists have come to run Washington – Representative (Ca – Dem) Leon E. Panetta

Lobbyists are destroying America by turning our political processes into an auction.

 Jack Abramoff (the worst of the worst lobbyist) – “I was participating in a system of legalized bribery. All of it bribery, every bit of it.”

 “There is no shame anymore. We’ve blown past the ethical standards.” – Senator Chuck Hagel (R/Ne)

 “Members of the House and Senate rarely legislate, they basically follow the money.” – Representative (Ca – Dem) Leon Panetta

 Lobbyists propose entire bills.

 Our political process is distorted by dollars.

 A unanimous Supreme Court decision decided the lobbying case of Trist v. Child in 1875 – “The theory of our government is, that all public stations are trusts, and that those clothed with them are to be animated in the discharge of their duties solely by considerations of right, justice, and the public good. They are never to descend to a lower plane. - - - - Any departure from the line of rectitude in such cases is not only bad morals, but involves a public wrong.” – Justice Swayne

 When it comes to the corruption of lobbying, only public opinion can check and destroy it.

Let’s lobby against lobbying!

Let’s go to Washington D.C. and “Shut her down” to force our politicians into doing their duty as elected representatives.

Darkly Comical Quotes

It is twice as hard to crush a half-truth as a whole lie. – Austin O’Malley

No age or time of life, no position or circumstance, has a monopoly on success. Any age is the right age to start doing! – Gerard

In actual life every great enterprise begins with and takes its first forward step in faith. – Schlegel

The word faith means to vigorously prepare.

Ninety percent of the world’s woe comes from people not knowing themselves, their abilities, their frailties, and even their real virtues. Most of us go almost all the way through life as complete strangers to ourselves – so how can we know anyone else? – Sydney J. Harris

Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits. – Mark Twain

Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties. – Spurgeon

It takes vision and courage to create—it takes faith and courage to prove. – Owen D. Young

Darkly Comical Quotes

All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain. – Epictetus

A panic is a sudden desertion of us, and a going over to the enemy of our imagination. – Bovee

Every man is valued in this world as he shows by his conduct that he wishes to be valued. – Bruyere

It is better to give love. Hatred is a low and degrading emotion and is so poisonous that no man is strong enough to use it safely. The hatred we think we are directing against some person or thing or system has a devilish way of turning back upon us. When we seek revenge we administer slow poison to ourselves. When we administer affection it is astonishing what magical results we obtain. – Thomas Dreier

Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing. – John Erskine

Lack of will power has caused more failure than lack of intelligence or ability. – Flower A. Newhouse

Our emotions are the driving powers of our lives. When we are aroused emotionally, unless we do something great and good, we are in danger of letting our emotions become perverted. William James used to tell the story of a Russian woman who sat weeping at the tragic fate of the hero in the opera while her coachman froze to death outside. Earl Riney

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities; an optimist is one who make opportunities of his difficulties. – Reginald B. Mansell

Darkly Comical Quotes

Troubles are usually brooms and shovels that smooth the road to a good man’s fortune; and many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away hunger. – Basil

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. – William James

You cannot travel within and stand still without. – James Lane Allen

I do believe there is many a tear in the heart that never reaches the eyes. – Norman McEwan

When a man has not a good reason for doing a thing, he has one good reason for letting it alone. – Thomas Scott

I criticize by creation, not by finding fault. – Cicero

You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time. – J.S. Knox

Industry, economy, honesty and kindness form a quartet of virtue that will never be improved upon. – James Oliver

Darkly Comical Quotes

It’s a great life if you don’t weaken. – John Buchan

People forget how fast you did a job – but they remember how well you did it. – Howard W. Newton

Men are capable of greater things than they perform. They are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent. – Walpole

When prosperity comes, do not use all of it. – Confucius

He who would be well taken care of must take care of himself. – W.G. Sumner

A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones. – Lord Chesterfield

There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest achieve the second. – Logan Pearsall Smith

Democracy is ever eager for rapid progress, and the only progress which can be rapid is progress down hill. – Sir James Jeans

Darkly Comical Quotes

Thinking is talking of the soul to itself. – Plato

One realizes the full importance of time only when there is little of it left. Every man’s greatest capital asset is his unexpired years of productive life. – P.W. Litchfield

Ambition is a lust that is never quenched, but grows more inflamed and madder by enjoyment. – Otway

Flash powder makes a more brilliant light than the arc lamp, but you can’t use it to light your street corner because it doesn’t last long enough. Stability is more essential to success than brilliancy. – Richard Lloyd Jones

By the street of By-and-By, one arrives at the house of Never. – Cervantes

Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be noticed. – Storm Johnson

Queer thing, but we always think every other man’s job is easier than our own. And the better he does it, the easier it looks. – Eden Phillpotts

Undertake something that is difficult; it will do you good. Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow. – Ronald E. Osburn

It’s Painful to be an American

It’s a story you’ve probably heard but here goes. If you put a frog in boiling water they’ll leap from the pot as quickly as they can. If you put a frog in luke-warm water and slowly raise the temperature they’ll stick around until they can’t jump because they’re parboiled.

If I was a US Senator or a member of the United States House of Representatives and I was aware of what was happening to the average American it would be hard for me to sleep. I would wake early and peek out my window every morning expecting the citizens I represent to show up on my doorstep with some questions I can’t answer.

Why do Americans accept:

 Our government telling us there is no inflation when we see it all around us?
 That the average American can no longer afford to purchase the average-American automobile?
 That opportunity for our children and grandchildren is shrinking every day?
 That banks can borrow money from the Federal Reserve at 0-.25% while mortgage rates are climbing toward 6%?
 That bankers for Goldman Sachs get to make financial policy in Washington D.C.?
 Our Health insurance increasing 9% this year while real income is shrinking?
 That it costs so much for health insurance that you can’t afford to get sick because you’ll lose your health insurance?
 That Lobbyists for health insurance companies are presenting “solutions” for our health insurance problems?
 That politicians in Washington D.C. are provided with such grand health insurance they don’t comprehend what the average American is facing in the healthcare market?
 That corporations control our elected leaders through campaign contributions and high-paid lobbyists?
 Numbers out of Washington that don’t make any sense?
 Our jobs being exported to India, China, Mexico, et al?
 Our neighbors being evicted?

Is it because we have been hypnotized into unconsciousness by sports, cheap movies and video games?

Is it because of the confusing mass of information that comes out of our computers and the nightly news?

Is it because we’ve been conned into thinking that rushing around to make enough to survive is living?

Is it because we no longer feel a sense of attachment to society and we’re all living our lives in self-contained cocoons?

Do we accept this treatment because we’ve been slowly parboiled?

When are Americans going to recognize that what’s happening in Washington D.C. is not happening for our benefit even though we’ve elected politicians to work for us?

When are American citizens going to realize that corporations are eroding our freedoms?

When are Americans going to understand that it’s no longer just politics as usual; it’s crossed the line—it’s corruption?

For the most part we’re peaceable people who just want to be left alone. But I believe that time has past.

Our forefathers left foreign lands for the shining light of opportunity that was America. Are we going to let a bunch of stinking politicians and lobbyists take that away?

We are not frogs. We are Americans. And it’s time to do something about these questions.

I’m ready to shut her down, are you?

Five million Americans camped out in Washington D.C. and in the front yard of every Senator and Member of the House of Representatives should be enough to convince our elected representatives to do what they said they were going to do before they were elected and stop selling their votes to the highest bidder.

If you agree with this message, cut and paste and forward it to 10 friends. Let’s take back our country.

Darkly Comical Quotes

Every man has some peculiar train of thought which he falls back upon when he is alone. This, to a great degree, moulds the man. – Dugald Stewart

There is no going back. Why bind
Your swift pace with a phantom fetter?
Forget the good old days behind
Go on – and make the new ones better! – Ted Olsen

Character is not made in a crisis—it is only exhibited. – Dr. Robert Freeman

When a man says money can do anything, that settles it: he hasn’t any. – Ed. Howe

Do you know what is more hard to bear than the reverses of fortune? It is the baseness, the hideous ingratitude of man. – Napoleon

External things and opportunities so abound in American life that, instead of nurturing the true sources of happiness, we tend to make it a direct aim. So we end in looking for happiness in possession of the external – in money, a good time, somebody to lean on, and so on. We are impatient, hurried and fretful because we do not find happiness when we look for it. – John Dewey

All worthwhile men have good thoughts, good ideas and good intentions—but precious few of them ever translate those into action. – John Hancock Field

My message to you is: Be courageous! I have lived a long time. I have seen history repeat itself again and again. I have seen many depressions in business. Always America has come out stronger and more prosperous. Be as brave as your fathers before you. Have faith! Go forward. – Thomas A. Edison – last public message

Darkly Comical Quotes

There is work that is work and there is play that is play; there is play that is work and work that is play. And in only one of these lies happiness. – Gelett Burgess

It is the greatest good to the greatest number which is the measure of right and wrong. – Jeremy Bentham

Win hearts, and you have all men’s hands and purses. - Burleigh

The six laws of work are:
1. A man must drive his energy, not be driven by it.
2. A man must be master of his hours and days, not their servant.
3. The way to push things through to a finish effectively must be learned.
4. A man must earnestly want.
5. Never permit failure to become a habit.
6. Learn to adjust yourself to the conditions you have to endure, but make a point of trying to alter or correct conditions so that they are most favorable to you. – William Frederick Book

With the proper flow of commerce across the borders of all countries it is unnecessary for soldiers to march across those borders. – Thomas J. Watson

To-day a reader, to-morrow a leader. – W. Fusselman

Darkly Comical Quotes

A crowd of troubles passed him by
As he with courage waited;
He said, “Where do you troubles fly
When you are thus belated?”
“We go,” they say, “to those who mope,
Who look on life dejected,
Who meekly say ‘good-bye’ to hope,
We go where we’re expected.”
- Francis J. Allison

Half the work that is done in this world is to make things appear what they are not. – E.R. Beadle

Talents are best nurtured in solitude; character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world. – Goethe

If thou are a master, sometimes be blind; if a servant, sometimes be deaf. – Fuller

The dole is utterly demoralizing; its chief effect is to turn the unemployed into the unemployable. – Dean Ing

Sometimes the best gain is to lose. Herbert

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is the victory over self. – Aristotle

I pity that man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth shall starve in the process. – Benjamin Harrison

Darkly Comical Quotes

The surest way to establish your credit is to work yourself into the position of not needing any. – Switzer

Let the people know the truth and the country is safe. – Abraham Lincoln

Sorrow’s best antidote is employment. – Young

The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. – Chalmers

As you think, you travel; and as you love, you attract. You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you. You cannot escape the result of your thoughts, but you can endure and learn, can accept and be glad. You will realize the vision (not the idle wish), of your heart, be it base or beautiful, or a mixture of both, for you will always gravitate towards that which you, secretly, most love. Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your thoughts; you will receive that which you earn; no more, no less. Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain or rise with your thoughts, your vision, your ideal. You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration. – James Allen

During a very busy life I have often been asked, “How did you manage to do it all?” The answer is very simple: It is because I did everything promptly. – Sir Richard Tangye

Getting an idea should be like sitting on a pin; it should make you jump up and do something. – E.L. Simpson

Better shun the bait than struggle in the snare. – John Dryden

Darkly Comical Quotes

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; ‘tis dearness only that gives everything value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles until death. – Thomas Paine

There is danger when a man throws his tongue into high gear before he gets his brain a-going. – C.C. Phelps

A self-contained nation is a backward nation, with large numbers of people either permanently out of work, or very poorly paid in purchasing power. A nation which trades freely with all the world, selling to others those commodities which it can best produce, and buying from others those commodities which others can best produce, is by far the best conditioned nation for all practical purposes. – Walter Parker

Many imagine that the higher you go, the easier the climbing. Don’t be governed by that theory unless you have a soft place to fall back into. – J.L. Boggus

It is the hardest thing in the world to be a good thinker without being a good self-examiner. – Shaftesbury

In matters of conscience, first thoughts are best; in matters of prudence, last thoughts are best. – Robert Hall

Life is the acceptance of responsibilities or their evasion; it is a business of meeting obligations or avoiding them. To every man the choice is continually being offered, and by the manner of his choosing you may fairly measure him. – Ben Ames Williams

Given three requisites—means of existence, reasonable health, and an absorbing interest—those beyond sixty can be the happiest and most satisfying of a lifetime. – Earnest Elmo Calkins

Darkly Comical Quotes

There is no advancement to him who stands trembling because he cannot see the end from the beginning. – E.J. Klemme

Liberty has never come from government. Liberty always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it. – Woodrow Wilson

Ideas lose themselves as quickly as quail, and one must wing them the minute they rise out of the grass – or they are gone. – Thomas F. Kennedy

If you expect perfection from people your whole life is a series of disappointments, grumblings and complaints. If, on the contrary, you pitch your expectations low, taking folks as the inefficient creatures, which they are, you are frequently surprised by having them perform better than you had hoped. – Bruce Barton

Harsh counsels have no effect; they are like hammers which are always repulsed by the anvil. – Helvetius

True prosperity is the result of well placed confidence in ourselves and our fellow man. – Burt

Keep out of the suction caused by those who drift backwards. – E.K. Piper

Stolen Thoughts from Seth Godin's Blog

You matter

When you love the work you do and the people you do it with, you matter.

When you are so gracious and generous and aware that you think of other people before yourself, you matter.

When you leave the world a better place than you found it, you matter.

When you continue to raise the bar on what you do and how you do it, you matter.

When you teach and forgive and teach more before you rush to judge and demean, you matter.

When you touch the people in your life through your actions (and your words), you matter.

When kids grow up wanting to be you, you matter.

When you see the world as it is, but insist on making it more like it could be, you matter.

When you inspire a Nobel prize winner or a slum dweller, you matter.

When the room brightens when you walk in, you matter.

And when the legacy you leave behind lasts for hours, days or a lifetime, you matter.

Darkly Comical Quotes

In times of great stress, in times of depression, the public mind loses its balance and becomes the victim of the catchword. – Sir Henry Thornton

The government can destroy wealth but it cannot create wealth, which is the product of labor and management working with creation. – “Alfalfa Bill” Murray

Truth lives in the cellar: error on the doorstep. – Austin O’Malley

Joy is spiritual prospertiy. That motto above your desk – “Smile!” How did that ever get into so many business offices? Does a smile help business? Try it. Joy makes the face shine, and he that hath a merry heart hath a continual feast. W.C. Isett

It is a general error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for the welfare. – Burke

Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy. - Saadi

Life is the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations. – Herbert Spencer

There are two insults no human will endure: the assertion that he has no sense of humor and the doubly impertinent assertion that he has never known trouble. – Sinclair Lewis

Darkly Comical Quotes

It is the growling man who lives a dog’s life. – Coleman Cox

If we are ever to enjoy life, now is the time- not tomorrow, nor next year, nor in some future life after we have died. The best preparation for a better life next year is a full, complete, harmonious, joyous life this year. Our beliefs in a rich future life are of little importance unless we coin them into a rich present life. Today should always be our most wonderful day. – Thomas Dreier

The most thoroughly wasted of all days is that on which one has not laughed. – Chamfort

The man who graduates today and stops learning tomorrow is uneducated the day after. – Newton D. Baker

Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wings. Only one thing endures, and that is character. – Horace Greely

Do not think that what your thoughts dwell upon is of no importance. Your thoughts are making you. – Bishop Steere

Thousands of engineers can design bridges, calculate strains and stresses, and draw up specifications for machines, but the great engineer is the man who ca tell whether the bridge of the machine should be built at all, where it should be built, and when. – Eugene G. Grace

Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly bigger man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error. General Peyton C. March

Darkly Comical Quotes

He’s no failure. He’s not dead yet. – W.L. George

We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible. – C. Malesherbes

Should one look through a red glass at a white lily, he would seem to see a red lilly. But there would be no red lilly. So it is with humanity’s problems. They consist of false mental pictures. – M.D. Garbrick

How men long for celebrity! Some would willingly sacrifice their lives for fame, and not a few would rather be known by their crimes than not known at all. – Sinclair

Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world. – Hans Margolius

Kindness in ourselves is the honey that blunts the sting of unkindness in another. – Landor

Pleasure is a necessary reciprocal: no one feels, who does not at the same time give it. To be pleased, one must please. What pleases you in others, will in general please them in you. – Lord Chesterfield

When we have done our best, we should wait the result in peace. – J. Lubbock

Darkly Comical Quotes

If it is not in the interest of the public it is not I the interest of business. – Joseph H. Fefrees

Who bravely dares must sometimes risk a fall. Smollett

A man may be ungrateful, but the human race is not so. – Milton

No two things differ more than hurry and dispatch. Hurry in the mark of a weak mind, dispatch of a strong one. A weak man in office, like a squirrel in a cage, is laboring eternally, but to no purpose, and is in constant motion without getting on a job; like a turnstyle, he is in everybody’s way, but stops nobody; he talks a great deal, but says very little; looks into everything but sees nothing; and has a hundred irons in the fire, but very few of them are hot, and with those few that are, he burns his fingers. – colton

The man who cannot believe in himself cannot believe in anything else. The basis of all integrity and character is whatever faith we have in our own integrity. – Roy L. Smith

Education is anything that we do for the purpose of taking advantage of the experience of some one else. – Lyman Bryson

The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. –Johnson

Shrimp Creole

Remember the scene in the movie Forest Gump when Bubba seems to go on for days naming all the ways to prepare shrimp? I love that scene almost as much as I love shrimp. One of my favorite recipes is for Shrimp Creole. We found this recipe in a Playboy magazine many years ago under the title of, “Seductive Skilletry”. According to the recipe it is meant for two and the gentleman is supposed to prepare it for his lady. The creole is served over boiled rice.

½ lb. medium to large shrimp, peeled and deveined but uncooked
1 medium onion
2 large cloves garlic
1 stalk celery
1 small sweet green pepper
Parsley
2 tablespoons butter
Salt, pepper
1 ½ cups canned crushed tomatoes
½ teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon dried basil
1 bay leaf
Juice of ½ lemon
Tabasco

Peel and finely chop onion. Peel and mince garlic. Trim leaves and ends from celery; rinse, then finely chop. Cut green pepper in half; remove and discard stem, core inner ribs and seeds; chop pepper. Chop about 2 Tbsps. Parsley. (Begin cooking rice.)
Melt butter in saucepan. Add onion and garlic; cook, stirring, until wilted, without browning. Add celery and green pepper. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, about 2 minutes. Add tomatoes, thyme, basil and bay leaf; stir. Bring to boil, then reduce to medium heat. Add lemon juice and 5 dashes Tabasco. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.
Add shrimp and parsley. Cook 5-7 minutes longer, stirring from time to time, or until shrimp turn pink and plump. Discard bay leaf. Mound rice on two plates making a hollow in the center. Pour shrimp and sauce into hollow and serve. Let the seduction begin.

Darkly Comical Quotes

The world is moving so fast now-a-days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it. – Elbert Hubbard

Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time. – Goethe

There are nettles everywhere, but smooth, green grasses are more common still; the blue of heaven is larger than the cloud. – E.B. Browning

Think like a man of action and act like a man of thought. – Henri Bergson

He who stops being better stops being good. – Oliver Cromwell

There is nothing quite so dead as a self-centered man – a man who holds himself up as a self-made success and measures himself by himself and is pleased with the result. – Wesley G. Huber, D.D.

Character and personal force are the only investments that are worth anything. – Walt Whitman

A single solitary philosopher may be great, virtuous and happy in the depth of poverty, but not a whole people. – Iselin

Darkly Comical Quotes

The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense. – Thomas A. Edison

Opportunity is as scarce as oxygen; men fairly breathe it and do not know it. – Doc Sane

We are either progressing or retrograding all the while; there is no such thing as remaining stationary in this life. – J.F. Clarke

The uprising of 1789 cost Louis XVI some prerogatives, but four years later a valueless currency cost him his head. Germany’s inflation of the 1920s laid the foundation upon which Hitler built. Indeed, a runaway inflation is the goal of revolutionists. The maxim of that apostle of revolution, Lenin, was: “Debauch the currency!” – Edgar M. Queeny

There are two ways of meeting difficulties; you alter the difficulties, or you alter yourself to meet them. – Phyllis Bottome

It’s an old adage that the way to be safe is never to be secure. Each one of us requires the spur of insecurity to force us to do our best. – Dr. Harold W. Dodds

The man who saves time by galloping loses it by missing his way; the shepherd who hurries his flock to get them home spends the night on the mountain looking for the lost; economy does not consist in haste, but in certainty. – Ramsay MacDonald

To live is not to learn, but to apply. – Legouve

Darkly Comical Quotes

Goodwill is the one and only asset that competition cannot undersell nor destroy – Marshall Field

Everything can be improved. – C.W. Barron

I am a man of peace. God knows how I love peace. But I hope I shall never be such a coward as to mistake oppression for peace. – Louis Kossuth

Few things are more striking than the fact that while the best are nearly powerless to effect changes, the worst are so potent. – George William Curtis

You all have power you never dreamed of. You can do things you never thought you could do. There are no limitations in what you can do except the limitations in your own mind as to what you cannot do. Don’t think you cannot. Think you can. – Darwin P. Kingsley

Act nothing in furious passion. It’s putting to sea in a storm. – Fuller

No power is strong enough to be lasting if it labors under the weight of fear. – Cicero

When a fool has made up his mind the market has gone by. – Spanish Proverb

No Smoking, Please!

Boursin Cheese to Die For

This is a great recipe for cocktail hour. It is delicious on crackers, or stuffed in celery. Prepare and refrigerate until you are ready. It keeps nicely for about three days and the flavors only get better.

1 pound cream cheese, softened
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon each, dried basil, dill weed, marjoram, thyme and pepper.

Combine all ingredients until smooth. May add up to ½ pound butter to enhance the flavor.

Darkly Comical Quotes

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. – Thoreau

Only one who sees the invisible can do the impossible. – Frank L. Gaines

Purpose is what gives life meaning. – C.H. Parkhurst, D.D.

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. – Mark Twain

If you never break a promise, if you always pay the money you owe exactly on the day it is due, nobody will know but that you are worth a billion. And you will be just as good a risk as a man worth a billion, for all that he could do would be to pay promptly on the due date. – Hamilton Fish

How shall we learn to know ourselves? By reflection? Never; but only through action. Strive to do thy duty; then shalt thou know what is in thee. – Goethe

One of the secrets of life is to keep our intellectual curiosity acute. – William Lyon Phelps

Darkly Comical Quotes

Could we see when and where we are to meet again, we would be more tender when we bid our friends goodbye. – Ouida

Genius begins great works; labor alone finishes them. – Joubert

Any fact is better established by two or three good testimonies than by a thousand arguments. – Emmons

Wood burns because it has the proper stuff in it; and a man becomes famous because he has the proper stuff in him. – Goethe

All things come to him who waits—provided he knows what he is waiting for. – Woodrow Wilson

There never was a person who did anything worth doing who did not receive more than he gave. – Henry Ward Beecher

They know enough who know how to learn – Henry Adams

Darkly Comical Quotes

The bravest are the tenderest. The loving are the daring. – Longfellow

A dose of poison can do its work but once, but a bad book can go on poisoning minds for generations.
- W. John Murray

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself—and be lenient to everybody else. – Beecher

Every man carries with him the world in which he must live. – F. Marion Crawford

War would end if the dead could return. – Baldwin

Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on. – Chopin

An intelligent plan is the first step to success. The man who plans knows where he is going, knows what progress he is making and has a pretty good idea when he will arrive. Planning is the open road to your destination. If you don’t know where you are going, how can you expect to get there? – Basil S. Walsh

Money never starts an idea; it is the idea that starts the money. – W.J.Cameron

Darkly Comical Quotes

I can complain because rose bushes have thorns or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses. J. Kenfield Morley

You can never have greater or a less dominion than over yourself. – Leonardo da Vinci

If we are to achieve a victorious standard of living today we must look for the opportunity in every difficulty instead of being paralyzed at the thought of the difficulty in every opportunity. – Walter E. Cole

You will never “find” the time for anything. If you want time, you must make it. – Charles Bixton

Our thought is the key which unlocks the doors of the world. – Samuel McC. Crothers

Though a taste of pleasure may quicken the relish of life, an unrestrained indulgence leads to inevitable destruction. – Dodsley

A true man never frets about his place in the world, but just slides into it by the gravitation of his nature, and swings there as easily as a star. – E.H. Chapin

The greatest asset of any nation is the spirit of its people, and the greatest danger that can menace any nation is the breakdown of that spirit – the will to win and the courage to work. – George B. Cortelyou

Darkly Comical Quotes

To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it. – Olin Miller

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom. – Bacon

The way to get ahead is to start now. If you start now, you will know a lot next year that you don’t know now and that you would not have known next year if you had waited. – William Feather

All the world is a store, and all the people in it are salespeople. That is to say, every one of us human beings is trying to transfer an idea from his own head into some other brain. And that is the essence of salesmanship. – Arthur Brisbane

Life comes before literature, as the material always comes before the work. The hills are full of marble before the world blooms with statues. – Phillip Brooks

The business that considers itself immune to the necessity for advertising sooner or later finds itself immune to business. – Derby Brown

We always like those who admire us, but we do not always like those whom we admire. – La Rochefoucald

You can’t escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. – Abraham Lincoln

Darkly Comical Quotes

Where necessity ends, curiosity begins; and no sooner are we supplied with everything that nature can demand than we sit down to contrive artificial appetites. – Johnson

I never could believe that Providence had sent a few men into the world, ready booted and spurred to ride, and millions ready saddled and bridled to be ridden. – Richard Rumbold

In a free country there is much clamor with little suffering; in a despotic state there is little complaint but much suffering. - Caruot

Whoever admits that he is too busy to improve his methods has acknowledged himself to be at the end of his rope. And that is always the saddest predicament, which anyone can get into. – J. Ogden Armour

God gives every bird its food; but he does not throw it into the nest. – J.G. Holland

Time is
Too slow for those who Wait,
Too swift for those who Fear,
Too long for those who Grieve;
Too short for those who Rejoice;
But for those who Love,
Time is eternity. – Henry Van Dyke
A precedent embalms a principle. – Disraeli

To profit from good advice requires more wisdom than to give it. – Churton Collins

No one has learned the meaning of life until he has surrendered his ego to the service of his fellow men. Beran Wolfe