Is this the little girl I carried?
Is this the little boy at play?
I don’t remember growing older,
When did they?
When did she get to be a beauty?
When did he grow to be so tall?
Wasn’t it yesterday when they were small?
Sunrise, sunset,
Sunrise, sunset,
Swiftly flow the days;
Seedlings turn over night to sunflow’rs,
Blossoming even as we gaze.
Sunrise, sunset,
Sunrise, sunset,
Swiftly fly the years;
One season following another,
Laden with happiness and tears.
What’s words of wisdom can I give them?
How can I help to ease their way?
Now they must learn from one another day by day.
They look so natural together,
Just like two newly weds should be,
Is that all kind of peace and stood for me.
Edelweiss, Edelweiss,
Ev’ry morning you greet me.
Small and white, clean and bright,
You look happy to meet me.
Blossom of snow, may you bloom and grow,
Bloom and grow forever.
Edelweiss. Edelweiss,
Bless my homeland for ever.
Morning has broken like the first morning,
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird.
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning,
Praise for them springing fresh from the world.
Sweet the rain’s new fall, sunlit from heaven,
Like the first dew fall on the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness where his feet pass.
Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning,
Born of the one light Eden saw play.
Praise with elation, praise ev’ry morning,
God’s recreation of the new day.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
by Richard Bach (1936- )
It was morning, and the new sun sparkled gold across the ripples of a gentle sea.
A mile from shore a fishing boat chummed the water, and the word for Breakfast Flock flashed through the air, till a crowd of a thousand seagulls came to dodge and fight for bits of food. It was another busy day beginning.
But way off alone, out by himself beyond boat and shore, Jonathan Livingston Seagull was practicing. A hundred feet in the sky he lowered his webbed feet, lifted his beak, and strained to hold a painful hard twisting curve through his wings. The curve meant that he would fly slowly, and now he slowed until the wind was a whisper in his face, until the ocean stood still beneath him. He narrowed his eyes in fierce concentration, held his breath, forced one … single … more … inch … of … curve … Then his feathers ruffled, he stalled and fell.
Seagulls, as you know, never falter, never stall. To stall in the air is for them disgrace and it is dishonor.
But Jonathan Livingston Seagull, unashamed, stretching his wings again in that trembling hard curve — slowing, slowing, and stalling once more — was no ordinary bird.
Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight — how to get from shore to food and back again. For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight. More than anything else, Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly.
This kind of thinking, he found, is not the way to make one’s self popular with other birds. Even his parents were dismayed as Jonathan spent whole days alone, making hundreds of low-level glides, experimenting.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood; I have a dream —
That one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice; I have a dream —
That my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character; l have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers; I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted every hill and mountain shall be made low, and rough places will be made plane and crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others. It does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many.
Therefore in a just society the liberties of equal citizenship are taken as settled; the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests. The only thing that permits us to acquiesce in an erroneous theory is the lack of a better one; analogously, an injustice is tolerable only when it is necessary to avoid an even greater injustice. Being first virtues of human activities, truth and justice are uncompromising.
These propositions seem to express our intuitive conviction of the primacy of justice. No doubt they are expressed too strongly. In any event I wish to inquire whether these contentions or others similar to them are sound, and if so how they can be accounted for. To this end it is necessary to work out a theory of justice in the light of which these assertions can be interpreted and assessed.
In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than in mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.
Now the trumpet summons us again — not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are; but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in, and year out, “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation” — a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.
Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility — I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it — and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; Ask what you can do for your country.
My fellow citizens of the world: Ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.
To flee vice is the beginning of virtue, and to have got rid of folly is the beginning of wisdom. —Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65-8 B.C. Roman poet) The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool. —William Shakespeare (1564-1616 British playwright and poet) It is the nature of a fool to see the faults of others and forget his own. —Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C. Roman statesman and orator) Clever people often miss their mark. —Hermann Sudermann (1857-1928 German novelist) A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one. —Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790 American poltician and scientist) He who thinks himself wise, O, heaven, is a great fool. —Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet 1694-1778 French writer) He dares to be a fool, and that is the first step in the direction of wisdom. —James Gibbons Huneker (1857-1921 American critic) He’s a fool that cannot conceal his wisdom. —Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790 American politician and scientist) Where there is a flatterer there is also a fool. —Joseph Addison (1672-1719 British writer and politician) A fool always finds a bigger fool to admire him. —Boileau Nicolas (1636-1711 French poet) Prejudice is the reason of fools. —Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet 1694-1788 French writer) You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all the time. —Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865 16th President of the United States) A fool and his money are soon parted. —English proverb Even fools, sometimes speak to the purpose. —Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906 Norwegian poet and playwright) Be wise with speed, a fool at forty is a fool indeed. —Edward Young (1681-1765 British poet)
Men’s evil manners live in brass. —Alexandre Dumas Fils (1824-1895 French novelist and playwright) The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance. —Socrates (ca. 470-399 B.C. Greek philosopher) One sin opens the door for another. —German proverb When you choose the lesser of two evils, always remember that it is still an evil. —Max Lerner (1902-1992 American journalist) A flattering friend is your worst enemy. —Danish proverb The empty vessel makes the greatest sound. —William Sharespear (1564-1616 British playwright and poet) A friend that frowns is better than a smiling enemy. —Suraine A liar is not believed even though he tells the truth. —Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C. Roman statesman and orator) Wealth is like seawater, the more we drink, the thirstier we become. —Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860 German philosopher) As iron is eaten away by rust, so the envious are consumed by their own passion. —Antisthenes (445-365 B.C. Greek philosopher) An irritable man is like a hedgehog rolled up the wrong way, tormenting himself with his own prickles. —Thomas Hood (1799-1845 British poet) Anger is seldom without an argument, but seldom with a good one. —Edward Frederick Hulifax (1881-1959 British politician) The greater the man, the more restrained his anger. —Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso 43 B.C. – A.D.17 Roman poet) Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once. —William Shakespeare (1564-1616 British playwright and poet) Golden opportunities are nothing to laziness, but industry makes the commonest chance golden. —Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924 American author)
No legacy is so rich as honesty. —William Shakespeare (1564-1616 British playwright and poet) To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education. —John Ruskin (1819-1900 British writer and art critic) We must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy. —George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950 British playwright) He that hath lost his credit is dead to the world. —George Herbert (1593-1633 British priest and poet) Courage without conscience is a wild beast. —Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899 American politician) Physical bravery is an animal instinct, moral bravery is a much higher and truer courage. —Stephen Phillips (1868-1915 British poet and dramatist) Often the test of courage is not to die but to live. —Vittorio Alfieri (1749-1803 Italian dramatist and poet) It is always time to do good. —Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931 American poet) People must help one another; it is nature’s law. —Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695 French fabulist) True kindness presupposes the faculty of imagining as one’s own the suffering and joys of others. —Andre Paul Guillaume Gide (1869-1951 French novelist and essayist) The charity that is a trifle to us can be precious to others. —Homer (9th Century B.C. Greek poet) Goodness is the only investment that never fails. —Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862 American author) He that does good for good’s sake seeks neither praise nor reward, though sure of both at last. —William Penn (1644-1718 British philosopher) Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. —Mother Teresa (1910-1997 Indian Roman Catholic nun) When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people. —Sir John Frederick William Herschel (1792-1871 British astronomer)
