"He who's not busy being born is busy dying." ~Bob Dylan

"Remember God likes us best when we are flying by the seats of our pants." ~Ruth Bernhard

"When I was little, my older brother had me convinced that the members of Hootie and the Blowfish were named Hootie, And, The, and Blowfish." ~One Sentence

"You've got to dig it, to dig it, you dig?
~Thelonius Monk to saxophonist Steve Lacy (thanks Brendan)

"Hi. I'd like to put my destiny on a credit card please."
~Ben Pringle, via Google Chat, on how our band could tour on a non-existent budget

"If you just imagine your criticism, and you put it into a little bundle of sticks and you place that bundle of sticks a foot away from yourself, that space between you and that bundle of sticks is your creative space. How far are you gonna put it from you? You could set it a mile from you, and you could dance all around the countryside. Or you could glue it to your forehead and never be allowed to take a breath."
~Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons, and his singing lessons in Paste Magazine's 50th issue

"Everything in life is speaking in spite of its apparent silence." ~Hazrat Inayat Khan (thanks Sara)

"Dad to sullen goth son: Are you okay?

Goth: I will be...someday." ~Overheard in New York

"Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage." ~President Barack Obama

"Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task." ~President Barack Obama

"On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord."
~President of the United States of America, Barack Obama

"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence."
~Martin Luther King, Jr.

"God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages." ~Jacques Deval

"He cleans out the french press every morning and he doesn't drink coffee."
~Sara Kaye via Google Chat, on the kind gestures of new love

"Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around."
~Henry David Thoreau

"Talent is long patience." ~Gustave Flaubert

"Almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure -- these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart." ~Steve Jobs

"I've learned that a cord is a unit of measurement for firewood equal to an 8' x 4' x 4' pile, and that you should never start a fire with the heater on or the smoke will pour out of the stove and into the living room. Also, a cast iron teapot, full of water and perched atop the stove, is a necessary in order to keep the air from drying out from the fire."
~Heidi Fikstad, Where Is Heidi?, on lessons in living in Chilonquin, Oregon

"I don't know how to knit." ~Heather Toews (aka Daughter)
...

"You should learn. Do you want me to teach you?"
~Ron Toews (aka Dad, aka The Last Person on Earth You Would Think Knew How To Knit)

"Our patience will achieve more than our force."
~Edmund Burke

"It is so cold in the UK that there is no illness anymore - all the bugs have been frozen." ~Chris Cannon, via email from London

"We've put men on the moon and yet we've been reduced to this meger form of communication."
~Ron Toews (aka Dad), with more musings on text messaging

"It takes time to travel from one luck chunk to another."
~Sara Kaye Larson, via google chat, regarding the process of following your bliss

"The only place to start in with a story when you haven't told one in a while is to start with something uncomfortable, something that reminds you of something else, something that is gone and rested in the past, something original, mind-blowingly brilliant, sexy, fresh, hilarious, referential, post-modern, formalist, deconstructed, and leaves your regular brunch date out of it all." ~KayeKillA

"You just work 'em counter clockwise until they give."
~jG Francis to Sara Kaye, on unsticking a steering wheel and making things happen in general

"Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness." ~Robertson Davies (thanks Ben)

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." ~Helen Keller

"I'm not an authority, God knows, but if there is a way to talk into the Great Primal Ears -- if Ears there be -- music and silence must be the best way."
~William Least Heat-Moon, Blue Highways

"2008 eat a dick! 2009 time to shine." ~Regan Blayne, via text

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day." ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce