Make Fun Of Life!

How Not to Ride a Horse

9/14/2019

You can avoid situations like this one if you always make sure to listen to the riding instructor. It will require some time and real effort on the part of both the rider and the horse to undo this situation.

If you came here looking for fun, you are in the right place. Just travel down this page, skipping the topics that might not interest you, until you come to the ones that appeal to you. When you have a moment, be sure to explore some of the other pages on the website, such as the Society and the Silly pages, which can be viewed by clicking on the menu bar at the top of this page.

This is MFOL! . . . it’s so weird!

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Luck and Chance

9/14/2019

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Sometimes the odds can seem a little odd . . . and can leave you feeling cheated . . .

“To persuade people not to gamble is to win for them.” -Author Unknown

Al: Why so glum?
Bert: I just spent my luck penny on a piece of bubblegum.

“Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be fish.” -Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso (43 B.C.E. - about C.E. 17))

“I never knew an early-rising, hard-working, prudent man, careful of his earnings, and strictly honest, who complained of bad luck.” -Henry Ward Beecher (1813 - 1887)

“People always call it luck when you’ve acted more sensibly than they have.” -Anne Tyler

“Sometimes, I drop pennies on the ground so that someone will have good luck.” -Author Unknown

“There is no one luckier than he who thinks himself so.” -Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

“Some people like to boast about their winnings in gambling, lotteries, card games, and other games of chance. What they will never tell you is that to win one dollar, they had to lose one hundred dollars.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

“Hard work beats luck every time.” -Author Unknown

Lottery: 1. A tax on people who are bad at math. 2. A tax on people who don’t understand statistics.

“‘Luck’ is a very good word if you put a ‘p’ before it.” -Author Unknown

“Gambling: The sure way of getting nothing for something.” -Wilson Mizner (1876 - 1933)

“Luck is mere statistical probability that can, and usually does, befall each and all to varying extents. The ability to take luck, happenstance, good fortune, windfalls, and so forth, and use them to advantage, to build on them, and to reap even greater benefits thereof, is what makes the difference between what we call lucky and unlucky people.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

“I’ve found that luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck, take more chances. Be more active. Show up more often.” -Brian Tracy (born 1944)

“The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.” -Harry Golden

“Chance happens to all, but to turn chance to account is the gift of few.” -Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton (1803 - 1873)

“A lucky rabbit’s foot is not so lucky if you are a rabbit.” -Author Unknown

“Luck? I don’t know anything about luck. I’ve never banked on it and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: Hard work - and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.” -Walter Pater (1839 - 1894)

“Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity.” -Earl Nightingale (1921 - 1989)

“When the wild bird lacks food, all the Earth is before him.” -Author Unknown

“Luck: A fortuitous random outcome of circumstance, which a fool interprets in any other way.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

“Walk boldly and wisely . . . There is a hand above that will help you on.” -Philip James Bailey (1816 - 1902)

“Luck is when probability surprises you.” -Anthony R. Kesler

“Luck is tenacity* of purpose.” -Elbert Hubbard (Elbert Green Hubbard (1856 - 1915))
*tenacity: purpose

“Long-ago-people believed in something called ‘providence’ . . . so, if an individual happened upon a ripe apple hanging from a branch of a tree within reach, it was accepted that it was providence that provided.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

“The only good luck many great men ever had was being born with the ability and determination to overcome bad luck.” -Channing Pollock

“Even bad luck is good for something, in a wise man’s hands.” -Author Unknown

“I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” -Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)

“It’s hard to detect good luck - it looks so much like something you’ve earned.” -Frank A. Clark (Frank Atherton Clark (1911 - 1991))

Luck and Chance Quiz
- Can people be born lucky or unlucky?
- What is the relationship between luck and superstition?
- Do people make their own luck?
- Can thinking bring good luck or bad luck?

“When I work fourteen hours a day, seven days a week, I get lucky.” -Armand Hammer (1898 - 1990)

“Fortuna suffragante.” [original Latin]
“With luck on our side.” [English translation]
-Author Unknown

“The best throw of the dice is to throw them away.” -Author Unknown

Charms Said to Bring Good Luck
- Horseshoe
- 4-Leaf clover
- Rabbit’s foot
- Penny or other coin
- Can you think of others?

“Good luck charms don’t really bring good luck, except to the sellers, who pocket the profits made from selling the items.” -Author Unknown

“In reality, serendipity accounts for one percent of the blessings we receive in life, work, and love. The other ninety-nine percent is due to our efforts.” -Peter McWilliams

“If you engage in gambling, or games of chance, you will have to sell your house, your clothes, you friends, and your family. How much are they worth . . . to you?” -Author Unknown

“Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.” -E. B. White (Elwyn Brooks White (1899 - 1985))

“Those who mistake their good luck for their merit are inevitably bound for disaster.” -J. Christopher Herold

“Luck is when opportunity knocks and you answer.” -Author Unknown

“All of us have bad luck and good luck. The man who persists through the bad luck - who keeps right on going - is the man who is there when the good luck comes - and is ready to receive it.” -Robert Collier (1885 - 1950)

“The only sure thing about luck is that it will change.” -Bret Harte (Francis Bret ‘Bret’ Harte (1836 - 1902))

“Nothing runs on guaranteed luck.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

“In a bet there is a fool and a thief.” -Author Unknown: proverb

“You don’t just luck into things as much as you’d like to think you do. You build step by step, whether it’s friendships or opportunities.” -Barbara Bush

“Go n-eiri an t-adh leat.” [original Irish Gaelic]
“Good luck.” [English translation]
-Author Unknown

“Who is there that, shooting all day long, does not sometimes hit the mark?” -Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero (also known as Tully (106 B.C.E. - 43 B.C.E.)))

“The harder I work, the luckier I get.” -Sam Goldwyn (born Schmuel Gelbfisz (1882 - 1974))

“The only guaranteed way to win at gambling is to never gamble.” -Author Unknown

“You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.” -Cormac McCarthy

“Luck is largely a matter of paying attention.” -Susan M. Dodd

“The only sure thing about luck is that it will change.” -Wilson Mizner (1876 - 1933)

“Some folk want their luck buttered.” -Thomas Hardy

“Luck is usually good planning, carefully executed.” -Joe Moore

“Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.” -Author Unknown

“The only ones who win every game of chance are the gambling establishments.” -Author Unknown

“One-half of life is luck; the other half is discipline - and that’s the important half, for without discipline you wouldn’t know what to do with luck.” -Carl Zuckmeyer

“Good luck is often with the man who doesn’t include it in his plans.” -Author Unknown

“Providence has nothing good or high in store for one who does not resolutely aim at something high or good. A purpose is the eternal condition of success.” -T. T. Munger (Thornton Taft Munger (1883 - 1975))

“I figure you have the same chance of winning the lottery whether you play or not.” -Fran Lebowitz (Frances Ann ‘Fran’ Lebowitz (born 1950))

“It is the mark of an inexperienced man not to believe in luck.” -Joseph Conrad (born Teodor Józef Konrad Nalecz-Korzeniowski (1857 - 1924))

Overheard: You lucky duck, you!

“The worst cynicism: a belief in luck.” -Joyce Carol Oates (born 1938)

“I understand life isn’t fair, but why couldn’t it just once be unfair in my favor?” -Christy Murphy

“Those who have succeeded at anything and don’t mention luck are kidding themselves.” -Larry King (pseudonym of Larry Zeigler)

“The greatest misfortune of all is not to be able to bear misfortune.” -Bias of Priene

“Fortune favors the brave.” [English translation]
“Fortune favors the bold.” [variant English translation]
“Audaces fortuna iuvat.” [original Latin]
-Vergil (Publius Vergilius Maro, also known as Virgil (70 B.C.E. - 19 B.C.E.)): “The Aeneid” (about 29 B.C.E. - 19 B.C.E.), book 10, line 284

“How often things occur by mere chance which we dared not even hope for.” -Terence (Publius Terentius Afer (185 B.C.E. - 159 B.C.E.))

“You gotta try your luck at least once a day, because you could be going around lucky all day and not even know it.” -Jimmy Dean

“Change of fortune is the lot of life.” -Author Unknown

“The best luck of all is the luck you make yourself.” -Douglas MacArthur (1880 - 1964)

“If you think you’re lucky, you’ll get better luck.” -Yukio Funai (1933 - 2014)

“Luck is always waiting for something to turn up. Labor, with keen eyes and strong will, always turns up something. Luck lies in bed and wishes the postman will bring news of a legacy. Labor turns out at six o’clock and with busy pen or ringing hammer, lays the foundation of a competence. Luck whines. Labor whistles. Luck relies on chance, labor on character.” -Richard Cobden

This is MFOL! . . . where we’re always working to turn bad luck into fortuitous happenstance . . .

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Meaning and Purpose of Life

9/13/2019

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“You are asking yourself, as all of us must: ‘Who am I?’ . . . ‘Where am I?’ . . . ‘Whence do I go?’ The process of enlightenment is usually slow. But, in the end, our seeking always brings a finding. These great mysteries are, after all, enshrined in complete simplicity.” -Bill W. (William Griffith Wilson (1895 - 1971))

“Go forward in life with a twinkle in your eye and a smile on your face, but with great and strong purpose in your heart.” -Gordon B. Hinckley (Gordon Bitner Hinckley (1910 - 2008))

“Every noble life leaves its fiber interwoven forever in the work of the world.” -John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)

“We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from life.” -William Osler (1849 - 1919)

“The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The meaning of life is giving your gift away.” -David Viscott

“We are here on Earth to do good unto others. What the others are here for, I have no idea.” -W. H. Auden (Wystan Hugh Auden (1907 - 1973))

“Love life and help others to love life. Be happy and make others happy.” -Author Unknown

“It’s not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived.” -Author Unknown

“The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.” -Horace Walpole (1717 - 1797)

“I don’t know why we are here, but I’m pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.” -Ludwig Wittgenstein (Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (1889 - 1951)): as quoted in Peter Hershey: “The Beginning of the End” (2004), page 109

“We are not powerless specks of dust drifting around in the wind, blown by random destiny. We are, each of us, like beautiful snowflakes - unique, and born for a specific reason and purpose.” -Elizabeth Kübler-Ross (1926 - 2004): “To Live Until You Say Goodbye”

“What allows us, as human beings, to psychologically survive life on Earth, with all of its pain, drama, and challenges, is a sense of purpose and meaning.” -Barbara De Angelis (born 1951)

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I woke and saw that life was service. I served and behold, service was joy.” -Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)

“If you would find happiness and joy, lose your life in some noble cause. A worthy purpose must be at the center of every worthy life.” -Jack H. Goaslind, Junior

“The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.” -William James (1842 - 1910)

“I see my purpose in life as making the world a happier place to be in.” -David Niven

“The service we render to others is really the rent we pay for our room on this Earth. It is obvious that man is himself a traveler; that the purpose of this world is not ‘to have and to hold’ but ‘to give and to serve.’ There can be no other meaning.” -Wilfred T. Grenfell

“No matter what age you are, or what your circumstances might be, you are special, and you still have something unique to offer. Your life, because of who you are, has meaning.” -Barbara De Angelis (born 1951)

“Life is not long, and too much of it should not be spent in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.” -Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784): as quoted in James Boswell: “Life of Johnson”

“Unless a life is lived for others, it is not worthwhile.” -Teresa of Calcutta (Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (1910 - 1997))

“Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it.” -James Allen (1864 - 1912)

“The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” -Robert Byrne: “The 1,911 Best Things Anybody Ever Said” (1988)

“I have discovered the meaning of life. It resides in what I can wrest* from each day that I live.” -Nancy Thayer
* wrest: take with effort.

“There are ten or twenty basic truths, and life is the process of discovering them over and over and over.” -David Nichols

“Man cannot stand a meaningless life.” -C. G. Jung (Carl Gustav Jung (1875 - 1961))

“Our destiny can be examined, but it cannot be justified or totally explained. We are simply here.” -Jean Iris Murdoch

“Perhaps the meaning of life is something each of us is meant to try to figure out for our own selves, and in so doing, learn things that we could learn in no other way and upon which we might not otherwise place so high a value.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

“I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be ‘happy.’ I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.” -Leo Rosten (1908 - 1997): “Passions and Prejudices” (1978)

“There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our own life.” -Anaïs Nin (born Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell (1903 - 1977))

“There is only one meaning of life, the act of living itself.” -Erich Fromm (Erich Seligmann Fromm (1900 - 1980))

“Don’t ask what the meaning of life is; you define it.” -Author Unknown

“Man is the only animal for whom his existence is a problem which he has to solve.” -Erich Fromm (Erich Seligmann Fromm (1900 - 1980)): “Man for Himself” (1947)

“The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder - a waif, a nothing, a no man. Have a purpose in life, and, having it, throw such strength of mind and muscle into your work as God has given you.” -Thomas Carlyle (1795 - 1881)

“Life’s meaning has always eluded me and I guess it always will. But I love it just the same.” -E. B. White (Elwyn Brooks White (1899 - 1985))

“The meaning of earthly existence lies, not as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering, but in the development of the soul.” -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (1918 - 2008))

“Life is rather like a tin of sardines - we’re all of us looking for the key.” -Alan Bennett (born 1934)

“What is the meaning of life? Whatever you want it to be.” -James Frey

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.” -Carl Jung (1875 - 1961)

“Purpose is what gives life a meaning.” -Charles Henry Parkhurst (1842 - 1933)

“I used to trouble about what life was for; now being alive seems sufficient reason.” -Joanna Field

“The meaning of life is to give life meaning.” -Ken Hudgins

“There is one purpose to life and one only: to bear witness to and understand as much as possible of the complexity of the world - its beauty, its mysteries, its riddles. The more you understand, the more you look, the greater is your enjoyment of life and your sense of peace. That’s all there is to it.” -Anne Rice (born 1941)

“The meaning and purpose of life is too important to be decided by philosophers and sages; let’s hear what the simpletons and fools have to say about it.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

“To be human is to keep rattling the bars of the cage of existence hollering, ‘What’s it for?’” -Robert Fulghum (Robert Lee Fulghum (born 1937))

“The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.” -Mitch Albom (born 1958)

“Life itself has no meaning; life is an opportunity to create a meaning.” -Author Unknown

“He who has a ‘why’ to live can bear almost any ‘how’.” -Friedrich Nietzsche (Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)): “Twilight of the Idols” (1888), ‘Maxims and Arrows,’ 12

Meaning and Purpose of Life Quiz
- Why do people ask the question, “What is the meaning and purpose of life?”
- What is the meaning and purpose of life?
- Can different people believe that life has different meanings and purposes?
- What meaning and purpose have you given to your life?

“Life is a great and wondrous mystery, and the only thing we know that we have for sure is what is right here right now. Don’t miss it.” -Leo Buscaglia (1924 - 1998)

“The essence of life is finding something you really love and then making the daily experience worthwhile.” -Denis Waitley (Denis E. Waitley (born 1933))

“Life is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.” -Myrna Lay

This is MFOL! . . . because what would life be, without fun?

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Inspiration and Motivation

9/11/2019

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“I want to get you excited about who you are, what you are, what you have, and what can still be for you. I want to inspire you to see that you can go far beyond where you are right now.” -Virginia Satir (Virginia Pagenkopf Satir (1916 - 1988))

“Go as far as you can see, and when you get there you will see farther.” -Orison S. Marden (Orison Swett Marden (1850 - 1924))

“A somebody was once a nobody who wanted to and did.” -John Burroughs (1837 - 1921)

“The great composer does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working. Beethoven, Wagner, Bach, and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand. They didn’t waste time waiting for inspiration.” -Ernest Newman (1868 - 1959)

“Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it.” -Madeleine L’Engle (Madeleine L’Engle Camp (1918 - 2007))

“Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.” -Louisa May Alcott (1832 - 1888)

Do What You Want

Draw the art you want to see
Start the business you want to run
Play the music you want to hear
Write the books you want to read
Build the products you want to use
Do the work you want to see done

by Austin Kleon (28 February 2012)

“This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

“One ought to, every day at least, hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1842): “Wilhelm Meister’s Lehrjahre” (English: “Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship”) (1795 - 1796), book 5, chapter I

“When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either.” -Leo Burnett (1891 - 1971)

“Reach for the stars, even if you have to stand on a cactus.” -Susan Longacre

“We are built to conquer environment, solve problems, achieve goals - and we find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve.” -Maxwell Maltz (1899 - 1975)

“No one knows what he can do until he tries.” -Publilius Syrus (85 B.C.E. - 43 B.C.E.)

“You can have anything you want - if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish, if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.” -Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)

“Extraordinary people are committed to doing the extra things that ordinary people won’t.” -Christine Kinney

“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.” -Jimmy Johnson (James William ‘Jimmy’ Johnson (born 1943))

“Do everything. One thing may turn out to be right.” -Humphrey Bogart (Humphrey DeForest Bogart (1899 - 1957))

“Triumph is just ‘umph’ added to ‘try.’” -Author Unknown

“The explanation of triumph is all in the first syllable.” -Zig Ziglar (Hilary Hinton ‘Zig’ Ziglar (1926 - 2012))

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” -Jesus of Nazareth: as quoted in “The Bible” (King James Version (1611)), ‘Matthew,’ chapter 7, verses 7 and 8

“If you can’t see the bright side of life, polish the dull side.” -Christina Dodd

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -Mark Twain (pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 - 1910))

“If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to it.” -Jonathan Winters (Jonathan Harshman Winters III (1925 - 2013))

“The measure of achievement is not winning awards. It’s doing something that you appreciate, something you believe is worthwhile. I think of my strawberry soufflé. I did that at least twenty-eight times before I finally conquered it.” -Julia Child (Julia Carolyn Child (1912 - 2004))

“Almost invariably those who have reached the summits worked harder and longer, studied and planned more assiduously, practiced more self-denial, overcame more difficulties than those of us who have not risen so far.” -B. C. Forbes (Robert Charles ‘Bertie’ Forbes (1880 - 1954))

“There is only one small letter between the words Can and Can’t . . . and that one letter will t-otally change your destiny.” -Doug Firebaugh (born 1968)

“Knock the ‘t’ off the ‘can’t.’” -Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784)

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or a gazelle; when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” -Herb Caen (Herbert Eugene ‘Herb’ Caen (1916 - 1997))

“‘How does one become a butterfly?’ she asked. ‘You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.’” -Trina Paulus (born 1931): “Hope for the Flowers” (1973), available from www.HopeForTheFlowers.com.

“Tears will get you sympathy . . . Sweat will get you results.” -Author Unknown

“If you want to see something done, just tell some human beings it can’t be done. Make it known that it’s impossible to fly to the Moon, or run a hundred meters in nine-point-nine seconds, or solve Fermat’s Last Theorem. Remind the world that no one has ever hit sixty-two home runs in a season . . . stuffed eighteen people into a Volkswagen Bug . . . set half the world free . . . or cloned a sheep. Dangle the undoable in front of the world. Then, consider it done.” -Author Unknown: Merrill Lynch, advertisement

“A man’s ambition should be high. Not scratched in dirt - carved in the sky.” -Thomas L. Forest

“You will never stub your toe standing still. The faster you go, the more chance there is of stubbing your toe, but the more chance you have of getting somewhere.” -Charles F. Kettering (Charles Franklin Kettering (1876 - 1958))

There’s a Time

There’s a time to part and a time to meet,
     There’s a time to sleep and a time to eat,
There’s a time to work and a time to play,
     There’s a time to sing and a time to pray,
There’s a time that’s glad and a time that’s blue,
     There’s a time to plan and a time to do,
There’s a time to grin and to show your grit,
     But there never was a time to quit.

by Author Unknown

“Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do.” -Author Unknown

“Every day is an opportunity to make a new happy ending.” -Author Unknown

“If you can’t learn to do it well, learn to enjoy doing it badly.” -Author Unknown

Good, Better, Best

Good, better, best,
     Never let it rest
Until your Good is Better
     And your Better is the Best.

by Author Unknown

“No dreamer is ever too small; no dream is ever too big.” -Author Unknown

Everybody Is Somebody

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

by Author Unknown

“If you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, march down there and turn it on yourself.” -Author Unknown

Anything Can Be

Listen to the Mustn’ts, child,
     Listen to the Don’ts
Listen to the Shouldn’ts
     The Impossibles, the Won’ts
Listen to the Never Haves
     Then listen close to me -
Anything can happen, child,
     Anything can be.

by Shel Silverstein (Sheldon Allan ‘Shel’ Silverstein (1930 - 1999)): “Where the Sidewalk Ends” (1974)

“You cannot achieve the impossible without attempting the absurd.” -Author Unknown

“Live to inspire, and one day people will say, ‘Because of you, I didn’t give up.’” -Author Unknown

“Of all the people I have ever known, those who have pursued their dreams and failed have lived a much more fulfilling life than those who have put their dreams on a shelf for fear of failure.” -Author Unknown

Words

Did is a word of achievement,
     Won’t is a word of retreat,
Might is a word of bereavement,
     Can’t is a word of defeat,
Ought is a word of duty,
     Try is a word each hour,
Will is a word of beauty,
     Can is a word of power.

by Author Unknown

“Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing intensity. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon be beauty.” -Daniel Hudson Burnham (1846 - 1912)

“I am not a has-been. I am a will-be.” -Lauren Bacall (pseudonym of Betty Joan Perske (1924 - 2014))

What I Would Like to Be

I would like to be a Could Be
If I could not be an Are,
For a Could Be is a May Be
With a chance of going far.
I would rather be a Has Been
Than a Might Have Been by far,
For a Might Have Been has never been
But a Has Been was an Are.

by Author Unknown

“I really don’t think life is about the I-could-have-beens. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don’t mind the failure but I can’t imagine that I’d forgive myself if I didn’t try.” -Nikki Giovanni (Yolande Cornelia ‘Nikki’ Giovanni, Junior (born 1943))

“Always and never are two words you should always remember never to use.” -Wendell Johnson (1906 - 1965)

“Never forget all that you have survived, all that you have accomplished, all that you are capable of, all that you will do, your hopes and dreams and plans, and the bright future that awaits you. Go forward with extreme optimism!” -Nathan Thomas Taylor (born 1966)

“It’s not what you do some of the time that counts, it’s what you do all of the time that counts.” -Jack LaLanne (François Henri ‘Jack’ LaLanne (1914 - 2011))

“Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!” -Anne Frank (1929 - 1945): “The Diary of a Young Girl” (1952)

“We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.” -Frank Tibolt (1897 - 1989)

Risk more than others think is safe.
Care more than others think is wise.
Dream more than others think is practical.
Expect more than others think is possible.
-Claude T. Bissell (Claude Thomas Bissell (1916 - 2000))

“Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of a unanimity.” -Christopher Morley (Christopher Darlington Morley (1890 - 1957)): as quoted in “American Artist” (1949)

“Every day is another chance to make your dreams come true.” -Author Unknown

“There is something that I know about you that you may not even know yourself. You have within you more resources of energy than have ever been tapped, more talent than has ever been exploited, more strength than has ever been tested, and more to give than you have ever given.” -John Gardner (1933 - 1982)

“Champions know there are no shortcuts to the top. They climb the mountain one step at a time. They have no use for helicopters!” -Judi Adler

“You can follow your heart - just don’t forget to take your head with you.” -Author Unknown

“You never know what’s around the corner. It could be everything. Or it could be nothing. You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you’ve climbed a mountain.” -Tom Hiddleston (Thomas William Hiddleston (born 1981))

“When I’m inspired, I get excited because I can’t wait to see what I’ll come up with next.” -Dolly Parton (born 1946)

Imagine all the good things that life has to offer, all the good things in the world - it is all out there waiting for you - what are you waiting for? We have much more inspiration and motivation for you on the Make Fun Of Life! Website. To find it, go to the top of this page and click on Inspiration on the menu bar.

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Camping and Hiking

9/7/2019

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“Earth and Sky, Woods and Fields, Lakes and Rivers, the Mountain and the Sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.” -John Lubbock (1834 - 1913): “The Use of Life” (1894), chapter IV: ‘Recreation’

“I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.” -Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)

For those who have trouble sleeping, researchers say that one week of camping - without electronics - resets our biological body clocks and synchronizes our melatonin hormones with sunrise and sunset.

“The purpose of a wilderness journey is not to get from one end of the trail to the other, but to enjoy the landscape, and adapt to its ever-changing moods.” -Bill Mason

“It always rains on tents. Rainstorms will travel thousands of miles, against prevailing winds, for the opportunity to rain on a tent.” -Dave Barry (born 1947)

“Hiking is a bit like life: The journey only requires you to put one foot in front of the other . . . again and again and again. And if you allow yourself the opportunity to be present throughout the entirety of the trek, you will witness beauty every step of the way, not just at the summit.” -Author Unknown

“When you are lost in the woods, the most basic rule of survival is: Never look like food.” -Author Unknown: park ranger advice

Backpacking: An extended form of hiking in which people carry double the amount of gear they need for half the distance they planned to go in twice the time it should take.

Overheard: How can it be that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box of matches to start a campfire? The Universe has a funny sense of humor.

The great outdoors is now available in your choice of ‘wonderful fresh natural outdoorsy scent’ or the ‘all-new coffee and stew and garlic bread over a campfire aroma’ . . .

The International Appalachian Trail is a scenic nature path that extends from Key West, Florida, United States of America north to Belle Isle, Canada (with a ferry ride between the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec and Newfoundland). But wait, there’s more: there are other trails and proposed extensions of trails, meandering through parts of Europe and Africa, along a path that was once in what are known as the Central Pangean Mountains that existed long ago as part of the continent of Pangea.

“I would rather be among forest animals and the sounds of nature, than amongst city traffic and the noise of man.” -Anthony Douglas Williams

Sleeping bag: A nap-sack.

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.” -Edward Abbey (1927 - 1989)

Fun fact: You can’t run through a campground. You can only ran, because it’s past tents.

Camping Tips
- Get even with a bear that raided your food bag by kicking his favorite stump apart and eating all the ants.
- Old socks can be made into high fiber beef jerky by smoking them over an open fire.
- A hot rock placed in your sleeping bag will keep your feet warm. A hot grilled cheese sandwich works almost as well, but the cheese sticks between your toes.
- While the Swiss Army Knife has been popular for years, the Swiss Navy Knife has remained largely unheard of. Its single blade functions as a tiny canoe paddle.
- When using a public campground, a tuba placed on your picnic table will keep the campsites on either side vacant.
- Lint from your navel makes a handy fire starter. Warning: Remove lint from navel before applying match.
- You can compress the diameter of your rolled-up sleeping bag by running over it with your car.
- In emergency situations, you can survive in the wilderness by shooting small game with a slingshot made from the elastic waistband of your underwear.
- Check the washing instructions before purchasing any apparel to be worn camping. Buy only those that read, “Beat on a rock beside a stream.”
- Tent stakes come only in the quantity ‘N-1’ where N equals the number of stakes necessary to stake down a tent.
- If you are on a tight budget, you can duplicate the warmth of a down-filled bedroll by climbing into a plastic garbage bag with several geese.

Intense: Where campers sleep.

“Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.” -John Muir (1838 - 1914)

CAMPING

Casually strolling through the woods,
Accepting the outdoors as our home,
Mischievous squirrels appearing out of nowhere,
Plenty of fresh air to fill our lungs,
Inviting us to venture out and explore,
Nature’s wonders to see,
God’s handiwork is everywhere around us.

by Author Unknown: acrostic
(An acrostic poem or list is one in which the first letters of each line combine to spell a word.)

Hiker Ted: Look, the sign reads, “Waterfall - Five Miles.”
Hiker Theo: Wow, that’s pretty big!

Did you know that you can go camping without ever making a campfire or using fuel and a cooking stove? You can still have coffee or tea, just use packets of an instant coffee and or tea, and drink the beverages cold. You can eat foods such as beef jerky, nuts and seeds, fruits, and other ready-to-eat foods that you can carry with you.

“The outdoors is what you must pass through to get from your apartment to a taxicab.” -Fran Lebowitz (born 1950): as quoted in “Mademoiselle” (1976)

One Summer, a father took his son camping for the first time. At every opportunity, he passed along outdoor-survival lore. One day they got lost hiking in the deep woods. He tried the usual tactics to determine direction - moss on the trees (there was none), direction of the Sun (it was an overcast day), and so forth. Just as his son was beginning to panic, the father spotted a small cabin off in the distance. He pulled out his binoculars, studied the cabin, turned in the right direction, and led them right back to camp. “That was amazing,” the son said. “How did you do it?” “Simple,” the father replied. “In this part of the country, all of the satellite television antenna dishes point south.”

Your Adventure Starts Here! Find gear for Fishing, Boating, Hunting, Camping, and much more at Bass Pro Shops by clicking on this link: www.BassPro.com.

Dog’s best friend is man . . . especially when man takes dog along for a hike!

Campers: Nature’s way of feeding mosquitoes.

The following are actual statements left on United States Forest Service registration sheets and comment cards by backpackers after completing wilderness camping trips:
- A small deer came into my camp and stole my bag of pickles. Is there a way I can get reimbursed? Please call.
- Escalators would help on steep uphill sections.
- Trails need to be wider so people can walk while holding hands.
- Ban walking sticks in wilderness. Hikers that use walking sticks are more likely to chase animals.
- Trails need to be reconstructed. Please avoid building trails that go uphill.
- Too many bugs and leeches and spiders and spider webs. Please spray the wilderness to rid it of these pests.
- The coyotes made too much noise last night and kept me awake. Please move these annoying animals to another part of the park.
- Reflectors need to be placed on trees every 50 feet so people can hike at night with flashlights.
- Too many rocks in the mountains.

“Camping is nature’s way of promoting the motel business.” -Dave Barry (born 1947)

Pack out what you pack in. Make sure that every bit of packaging and containers and other material that you bring with you when you go camping or hiking or exploring the great outdoors goes back into your backpack or pocket and is carried with you back out of the area. Leave the wonders of nature unspoiled by litter and garbage, for the sake of those who will be there after you, both humans and animals.

“Out-Of-Doors, noun: That part of one’s environment upon which no government has been able to collect taxes. Chiefly useful to inspire poets.” -Ambrose Bierce (Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (1842 - 1914)): “The Devil’s Dictionary” (1911)

Now for your outdoorsy tongue twister: Stalwart Stewart seldom shuns strolling in the sunshine on satisfying September days.

“Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong.” -George Carlin (1937 - 2008)

Campfire Lights

Each campfire lights anew
     The flame of friendship true
The joy we’ve had in knowing you
     Will last our whole life through.

And as the embers fade away
     We wish that we might ever stay
But since we cannot have our way
     We’ll come again some other day.

by Author Unknown

“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.” -Kahlil Gibran (1883 - 1931)

This is MFOL! . . . reminding you that the adventure of life is out there waiting for you . . . what are you waiting for?

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Risks and Rewards

8/31/2019

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All things considered, activities such as skydiving are less dangerous to your health and longevity than eating starchy foods and staring at a computer screen day after day . . . give yourself a break!

“When we try to be safe, we live our lives being very, very careful; and we wind up having no lives.” -Byron Katie (Byron Kathleen ‘Katie’ Mitchell (born 1942))

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” -John Heywood (1497 - 1580): “A Dialogue of Proverbs” (1546)

“You have to be careful about being too careful.” -Beryl Pfizer (1928 - 2016)

“Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over 18. Must be expert riders willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred. Wages $25 per week.” -Author Unknown: Pony Express advertisement (1860)

“What is life, but one long risk?” -Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1879 - 1958)

“Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.” -Bertrand Russell (Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872 - 1970))

“I risked much, but I made much.” -P. T. Barnum (Phineas T. Barnum (1810 - 1891))

“All men’s gains are the fruit of venturing.” -Herodotus (484 B.C.E. - 425 B.C.E.)

“The greatest rewards in life go to the risk takers.” -Jim McCormick

“Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.” -David Lloyd George (1863 - 1945)

“They say we are all one risk away from being financially independent.” -Author Unknown

“‘You’ve got to be able to make those daring leaps or you’re nowhere,’ said Muskrat.” -Russell Hoban (Russell Conwell Hoban (1925 - 2011)): “The Mouse and His Child” (1967)

The Cautious Man

There was a very cautious man
     Who never laughed or played.
He never risked, he never tried,
     He never sang or prayed.
And when he one day passed away,
     His insurance was denied.
For since he never really lived,
     They claimed he never died.

by Author Unknown

“Ever since I started flying jets I’ve been driving cars slower and slower. I can’t explain why - just cautious.” -James Jabara (1923 - 1966)

“Being on the tightrope is living; everything else is waiting.” -Karl Wallenda

Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Aaron!
Aaron, who?
Aaron on the side of caution!

“Stop being afraid of what could go wrong, and start being excited about what could go right.” -Author Unknown

“There is no security on this Earth; there is only opportunity.” -Douglas MacArthur (1880 - 1964)

“And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.” -Erica Jong (Erica Mann Jong (born 1942))

“There’s as much risk in doing nothing as in doing something.” -Trammel Crow

“Never let the odds keep you from doing what you know in your heart you were meant to do.” -H. Jackson Brown, Junior (born 1940)

“The greatest risk is to risk nothing at all.” -Leo Buscaglia (Felice Leonardo ‘Leo’ Buscaglia, also known as Leo F. Buscaglia (1924 - 1998))

“There’s no such thing as a risk-free life.” -Author Unknown

“Just remember, kid: if it doesn’t kill you, it makes a great story later on.” -Adam Savage

“Take risks - if you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise.” -Author Unknown

“You fail by not taking risks.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

“Land is always in the mind of the flying birds.” -Author Unknown

“Better hazard once than always be in fear.” -Thomas Fuller (1608 - 1661)

“The only way to be absolutely safe is never to try anything for the first time.” -Magnus Pyke

“If you’re never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take any chances.” -Julia Sorel (pseudonym of Rosalyn Drexler): “See How She Runs” (1978)

“When you play it too safe, you’re taking the biggest risk of your life. Time is the only wealth we’re given.” -Barbara Sher

“Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.” -Herodotus (484 B.C.E. - 425 B.C.E.)

“Anything can be achieved in small, deliberate steps. But there are times you need the courage to take a great leap; you can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.” -Author Unknown

“It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all. And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true.” -William James (1842 - 1910): “Is Life Worth Living?” (1895)

“Security is not the meaning of my life. Great opportunities are worth the risk.” -Shirley Hufstedler (Shirley Ann Mount Hufstedler (1925 - 2016))

“Don’t be careful. You could hurt yourself.” -Byron Katie (Byron Kathleen ‘Katie’ Mitchell (born 1942))

“Half the failures of this world arise from pulling in one’s horse as he is leaping.” -Augustus Hare (Augustus William Hare (1792 - 1834))

“Playing it safe is the riskiest choice we can ever make.” -Sarah Ban Breathnach (born 1947)

“Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.” -George S. Patton (George Smith Patton, Junior (1885 - 1945))

“I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” -Kurt Vonnegut (Kurt Vonnegut, Junior (1922 - 2007))

“Unless a man undertakes more than he possibly can do, he will never do all that he can.” -Henry Drummond

“Don’t play for safety. It’s the most dangerous thing in the world.” -Hugh Walpole (Hugh Seymour ‘Hugh’ Walpole (1884 - 1941))

“Every noble acquisition is attended with its risks; he who fears to encounter the one must not expect to obtain the other.” -Pietro Metastasio (pseudonym of Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi (1698 - 1782))

“Leap, and the net will appear.” -John Burroughs (1837 - 1921)

“Look before you leap.” -Robert Greene (1558 - 1592): “Greenes Never Too Late” (1590)

“The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.” -Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 - 1964)

“Naught venture, naught have.” -Thomas Tusser (about 1524 - 1580)

“If no one ever took risks, Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor.” -Neil Simon (born 1927)

“There is no safety. Only varying degrees of risk.” -Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949)

“Playing safe is probably the most unsafe thing in the world. You cannot stand still. You must go forward.” -Robert Collier (1885 - 1950)

“He that would have the fruit must climb the tree.” -Thomas Fuller (1654 - 1734)

“Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinion of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on Earth for you. Act for yourself.” -Katherine Mansfield (Katherine Mansfield Beauchamp Murry (1888 - 1923)): “Journal” (14 October 1922)

“Life is not without risk; life is a series of risks; all life is risk; life is a risk; life is risk.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

“If you don’t live on the edge, you can’t see the view.” -Vicky Corrington

“Take a risk a day - one small or bold stroke that makes you feel great once you’ve done it.” -Susan Jeffers (1938 - 2012)

Who Am I?

Who am I?
Where you go, I go.
I am your constant companion,
Though perhaps you think of me not,
Though perhaps you do not even know,
I am dangerous.
There are stairs to fall down,
Curbs to trip over.
Falling trees.
Yet also new friendships, gardens to grow.
There is rejection, failure, disappointment.
There is acceptance, success, satisfaction.
I await you in every new attempt.
I am every risk you take,
And every risk you do not take.

by David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

“Yes, risk taking is inherently failure-prone. Otherwise, it would be called sure-thing-taking.” -Tim McMahon (born 1949)

“The successful man is the one who had the chance and took it.” -Roger Babson (1875 - 1967)

“If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.” -Colin Cowherd

“Take risks: if you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise.” -Author Unknown

“Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.” -Dale Carnegie (Dale Harbison Carnegie (born Dale Breckenridge Carnagey (1888 - 1955)))

“If you take no risks, you’ll never be hurt, but you won’t really live, either.” -James Shiovitz (James L. Shiovitz)

“It is not given us to live lives of undisrupted calm, boredom, and mediocrity. It is given us to be edge-dwellers.” -Jay Deacon

“Live dangerously and you live right.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

“We fail more often by timidity than by over-daring.” -David Grayson (1870 - 1946)

“The secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and greatest enjoyment is - to live dangerously!” -Friedrich Nietzsche (Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)): “Die fröhliche Wissenschaft” (English: “The Gay Science”) (1882), book 4

“If you risk nothing, then you risk everything.” -Geena Davis

“The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions.” -Alfred Adler (1870 - 1937): as attributed in Ichak Adizes: “How to Solve the Mismanagement Crisis” (1979)

Affirmation: “I will subject myself to life’s challenges so that I may know the grace of survival.” -Author Unknown

Overheard: Take a chance; you never know what might happen.

“Who dares nothing, need hope for nothing.” -Johann von Schiller (Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (1759 - 1805)): “Don Carlos” (1787) play

“The biggest rewards usually go to those who take the biggest risks.” -Author Unknown

“Of course risk taking does not always pay off. But it’s a lot of fun!” -Mary Wesley

“He that is overcautious will accomplish nothing.” [English translation]
“Wer gar zu viel bedenkt, wird wenig leisten.” [original German]
- Friedrich von Schiller (Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (1759 - 1805)): “Wilhelm Tell” (1804)

“The desire for security stands against every great and noble enterprise.” -Tacitus (about C.E. 56 - about C.E. 120)

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” -T. S. Eliot (Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965))

“If it’s both terrifying and amazing, then you should definitely pursue it.” -Author Unknown

“It is when we all play safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity.” -Dag Hammarskjöld (1905 - 1961)

“Without the very few risk takers who risk it all, none of us would enjoy freedom, because tyrants and oppressors are tireless and fearless in their determination to control humanity and the world, and the majority will do absolutely nothing to stop them.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

“If you don’t take risks, you will always work for someone who does.” -Author Unknown

“If you want something you have never had, you must be willing to do something you have never done.” -Hank Aaron (Henry Louis ‘Hank’ Aaron (born 1934))

“Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.” -Denis Waitley (Denis E. Waitley (born 1933))

“Everything is a risk. What if it doesn’t work out? Oh - but what if it does?” -Mary Engelbreit (born 1952)

“Dare to be what you ought to be; dare to be what you dream to be; dare to be the finest you can be. The more you dare, the surer you will be of gaining just what you dare!” -Norman Vincent Peale (1898 - 1993)

This is MFOL! . . . try it, you might like it; if not, later you can honestly say, “I tried that once, and it didn’t suit me at all.”

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Self-Improvement and Self-Help

8/27/2019

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“Anybody can do just about anything with himself that he really wants to and makes up his mind to do. We are capable of greater things than we realize.” -Norman Vincent Peale (1898 - 1993)

“Change yourself and your fortune will change with you.” -Author Unknown

“How do we become true and good, happy and genuine, joyful and free? Only by getting in touch with good, true, happy, genuine human beings, only by seeking the company of the strong and the free, only by catching spontaneity and freedom from those who are themselves spontaneous and free.” -Charles Malike (1906 - 1988)

Let’s build a better you . . . we will need some glue, pop-sickle sticks, pipe cleaners, glitter, crayons, yarn, construction paper . . . what, you say you are not made out of any of those things?

“Be the kind of person you want to meet.” -Author Unknown

“A truly wise person will constantly move forward, striving for self-improvement.” -Marvin J. Ashton (Marvin Jeremy Ashton (1915 - 1994))

“If you improve 1 percent a day, then in 100 days, guess what? You’re 100 percent better.” -Coach Carter

“Let us strive to improve ourselves, for we cannot remain stationary; one either progresses or retrogrades.” -Mademoiselle Du Deffand (Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, Marquise du Deffand (1697 - 1780))

“By improving yourself, you make the world better.” -Author Unknown

“You don’t have to be sick to get better! You don’t have to have a bad attitude to get a better one.” -Thomas D. Willhite (Thomas Dale Willhite (1940 - 1983))

“Ignore the ones who say it’s too late to start over. Disregard those who say you’ll never amount to anything. Turn a deaf ear to those who say you aren’t smart enough, fast enough, tall enough, or big enough - ignore them.” -Max Lucado (born 1955)

“In the long term the most important question . . . is not what you are but what you are becoming.” -Gary Hamel

“It only takes one person to change your life - you.” -Ruth Casey

“Everyone planning to make something worthwhile out of himself must be a self-remade man, and should be an intelligent remodeling job going on all the time.” -Sterling W. Sill (Sterling Welling Sill (1903 - 1994))

“Do not think of your faults, still less of others’ faults; look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.” -John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)

“Build upon strengths, and weaknesses will gradually take care of themselves.” -Joyce C. Lock

“There’s only one corner of the Universe you can be certain of improving and that’s your own self . . . You have to begin there, not outside, not on other people. That comes afterwards, when you’ve worked on your own corner.” -Aldous Huxley (Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894 - 1963)): “Time Must Have a Stop” (1944)

“Know thyself? If I knew myself, I’d run away.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

“To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.” -Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)

“No man is capable of self-improvement if he sees no other model but himself.” -Conrado I. Generoso

“Be yourself. No one can ever tell you you’re doing it wrong.” -James Leo Herlihy (1927 - 1993)

“How can there be self-help ‘groups’?” -Author Unknown

“It doesn’t happen all at once. You become. It takes a long time.” -Margery Williams

“What we shall be, we are becoming.” -Author Unknown

“I have had more trouble with myself than with any other man I have ever met.” -Dwight L. Moody (Dwight Lyman Moody (1837 - 1899))

USA: Unconditional Self-Acceptance.

“If you are still searching for that one person who will change your life, take a look in the mirror.” -Author Unknown

“People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy.” -Oliver Goldsmith (1728 - 1774)

“If you want a kinder world, then behave with kindness; if you want a peaceful world, make peace within.” -Dan Millman

“Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.” -Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 - 1980)

“Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.” -Carol Burnett (born 1933)

“Might I give counsel to any man, I would say to him, try to frequent the company of your betters. In books and in life, that is the most wholesome society; learn to admire rightly; the great pleasure of life is that. Note what great men admire.” William Makepeace Thackeray (1811 - 1863)

“Act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you act.” -George W. Crane (George Washington Crane III (1901 - 1995))

“Do not think of your faults, still less of other’s faults; look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.” -John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)

“Chiefly the mold of a man’s fortune is in his own hands.” -Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)

“If we are unduly absorbed in improving our lives we may forget altogether to live them.” -Alan Watts (Alan Wilson Watts (1915 - 1973))

“Improvement begins with I.” -Arnold H. Glasow (Arnold Henry Glasow (1905 - 1998))

“None will improve your lot if you yourself do not.” -Bertolt Brecht (Eugen Berthold Friedrich ‘Bertolt’ Brecht (1898 - 1956)) (1933)

“For a person to build a rich and rewarding life for himself, there are certain qualities and bits of knowledge that he needs to acquire. There are also things, harmful attitudes, superstitions, and emotions that he needs to chip away. A person needs to chip away everything that doesn’t look like the person he or she most wants to become.” -Earl Nightingale (1921 - 1989)

“Help thyself.” -Nathan Thomas Taylor (born 1966)

“The better person you become, the better people you will attract.” -Author Unknown

“I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God’s help I shall succeed.” -Vincent van Gogh (Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853 - 1890))

“Be yourself, everyone else is taken.” -Author Unknown

“In that worthiest of all struggles, the struggle for self-mastery and goodness, we are far less patient with ourselves than God is with us.” -J. G. Holland (Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819 - 1881))

“Whatever you are, try to be a good one.” -William Makepeace Thackeray (1811 - 1863): as quoted in Laurence Hutton’s memoir, ‘A Boy I Once Knew,’ which was serialized in “St. Nicholas: An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks” (March 1897), Volume 24, Number 5, page 413, column 2

“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” -Carl Rogers (1902 - 1987)

“Identify and develop your unique talents and abilities, the things that make you special.” -Brian Tracy (born 1944)

“The simple part is, every thought we think and every word we speak is creating our future. If you change your thinking, you can change your life.” -Louise L. Hay (Louise Lynn Hay (1926 - 2017))

“Self-help must precede help from others. Even for making certain of help from Heaven one has to help oneself.” -Morarji Ranchhodji Desai

“It is right to be contented with what we have, but never with what we are.” -James Mackintosh (1765 - 1832): as attributed in “The True Briton” (7 July 1853) magazine

“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” -Dorothy Parker (1893 - 1967)

“It is not always possible to be the best, but it is always possible to improve your own performance.” -Jackie Stewart

“Try a little harder to be a little better.” -Gordon B. Hinckley (Gordon Bitner Hinckley (1910 - 2008))

“The better I get, the more I realize how much better I can get.” -Martina Navratilova (born 1956)

“Happiness and self-confidence come naturally when you feel yourself moving and progressing toward becoming the very best person you can possibly be.” -Brian Tracy (born 1944)

“That’s the risk you take if you change: that people you’ve been involved with won’t like the new you. But other people who do will come along.” -Lisa Alther (born 1944)

“You don’t get better by chance; you get better by change.” -Author Unknown: As quoted in Kit Summers and Robert Schwarz: “Juggling with Finesse” (1987), page 19

September of each year is Self-Improvement Month. Why wait? Let’s get started now.

“The first step to improvement, whether mental, moral, or religious, is to know ourselves - our weaknesses, errors, deficiencies, and sins, that, by divine grace, we may overcome and turn from them all.” -Tryon Edwards (1809 - 1894): as quoted in Tryon Edwards, editor: “A Dictionary of Thoughts: Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors of the World, Both Ancient and Modern” (1891), page 517

“Seeing yourself as you want to be is the key to personal growth.” -Author Unknown

“There is no shame in having fallen. Nor any shame in being born into a lowly estate. There is only shame in not struggling to rise. And also shame for not wishing to attain the better. Or not dreaming about it and praying for it.” -Samuel Amalu

“We are either progressing or retrograding all the while; there is no such thing as remaining stationary in this life.” -James Freeman Clarke (1810 - 1888)

“I went to a bookstore today and asked the manager where the self-help section was. She said, ‘If I told you that would defeat the whole purpose.’” -Brian Kiley (born 1962)

“If you want a quality, act as if you already had it. Try the ‘as if’ technique.” -William James (1842 - 1910)

“People never improve unless they look to some standard or example higher and better than themselves.” -Tryon Edwards (1809 - 1894): as quoted in Tryon Edwards, editor: “A Dictionary of Thoughts: Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors of the World, Both Ancient and Modern” (1891), page 156

“You must begin to think of yourself as becoming the person you want to be.” -David Viscott (1938 - 1996)

“The greatest gift you can give to somebody is your own personal development. I used to say, ‘If you will take care of me, I will take care of you.’ Now I say, ‘I will take care of me for you if you will take care of you for me.’” -Jim Rohn (Emanuel James ‘Jim’ Rohn (1930 - 2009))

“Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.” -James Allen (1864 - 1912)

“Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” -William Faulkner (William Cuthbert ‘Will’ Faulkner (1897 - 1962))

“Everything comes by being! Be the love you seek. Be the friend you seek. Be the honesty you seek. Be the integrity you seek. Be the patience you seek. Be the tolerance you seek. Be the compassion you seek.” -Bryant McGill (born 1969)

“It is necessary to try to surpass oneself always; this occupation ought to last as long as life.” -Queen Christina of Sweden (born Kristina Augusta Wasa, later known as Christina Alexandra (1626 - 1689))

“I am that which must ever surpass itself.” -Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)

“If you want to attract happy, positive things . . . become a happy, positive person! Work from the inside out!” -Mandy Hale (born 1978)

“You are more likely to be successful at attempting to be better than yourself than to be better than someone else.” -Author Unknown

“To be always intending to live a new life, but never to find time to set about it; this is as if a man should put off eating, and drinking, and sleeping, from one day and night to another, till he is starved and destroyed.” -John Tillotson (1630 - 1694): as attributed in “The Ladies’ Companion; or, Peoples’ Annual” (August 1842)

“Never mind what others do; do better than yourself, beat your own record from day to day, and you are a success.” -William J. H. Boetcker (William John Henry Boetcker (1873 - 1962))

“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” -Judy Garland (Frances Gumm (1922 - 1969))

“There are times when a man should be content with what he has, but never with what he is.” -William George Jordan (1864 - 1928): “The Majesty of Calmness: Individual Problems and Possibilities” (1900)

“Your life will never improve unless you start making daily improvements.” -Lewis Howes

“There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. True nobility comes from being superior to your previous self.” -Author Unknown: Hindustani proverb: as quoted in George Derby, compiler: “A Conspectus of American Biography” (1906), page 726

“When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur. When you improve conditioning a little each day, eventually you have a big improvement in conditioning. Not tomorrow, not the next day, but eventually a big gain is made. Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens - and when it happens, it lasts.” -John Wooden (1910 - 2010)

“Be the best version of you.” -Author Unknown

This is MFOL! . . . and we are learning right along with you . . .

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Henry David Thoreau

8/23/2019

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Let us get to know Henry David Thoreau through his own words . . .

“Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?” -Henry David Thoreau

“It is not worth while to go around the world to count the cats in Zanzibar.” -Henry David Thoreau: “Walden” (1854)

“The bluebird carries the sky on his back.” -Henry David Thoreau: “Journals” (1838 - 1859), ‘3 April 1852’

Henry David Thoreau was born on 12 July 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts, United States of America. He is remembered as an essayist, a poet, a naturalist, a transcendentalist, and a practical philosopher.

“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.” -Henry David Thoreau

“Pursue, keep up with, circle round and round your life, as a dog does his master’s chaise. Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.” -Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau, the writer of the book “Walden” (1854), was a pencil-maker by trade. Of course, as everyone knows, if you allow a person to have a pencil, the next thing he or she might very well do is to start using it to put words on paper.

“Writing your name can lead to writing sentences. And the next thing you’ll be doing is writing paragraphs, and then books. And then you’ll be in as much trouble as I am!” -Henry David Thoreau

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.” -Henry David Thoreau: “Walden, or Life in the Woods”

“Almost all wild apples are handsome. They cannot be too gnarly and crabbed and rusty to look at. The gnarliest will have some redeeming traits even to the eye.” -Henry David Thoreau: “Wild Apples”

“It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?” -Henry David Thoreau: letter (16 November 1857) to Harrison Gray Otis Blake

“If a man constantly aspires, is he not elevated?” -Henry David Thoreau

“I was never unusually squeamish; I could sometimes eat a fried rat with a good relish, if it was necessary.” -Henry David Thoreau

“Water is the only drink for a wise man.” -Henry David Thoreau

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.” -Henry David Thoreau: “Walden” (1854), chapter I, ‘Economy’

“Nowadays most men lead lives of noisy desperation.” -James Thurber (1894 - 1961): “Fables for Our Time” (1940)

“I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn or been awarded.” -Henry David Thoreau

“It is characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.” -Henry David Thoreau

“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” -Henry David Thoreau

“It is as hard to see one’s self as to look backwards without turning around.” -Henry David Thoreau

“Our life is frittered away by detail . . . Simplify, simplify.” -Henry David Thoreau: “Walden” (1854)

“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” -Henry David Thoreau: as attributed in “Locomotive Engineers Journal” (1942), Volume 76, page 711

“The secret of achievement is to hold a picture of a successful outcome in the mind.” -Henry David Thoreau

“If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see.” -Henry David Thoreau

“I have lived some thirty years on this planet and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors.” -Henry David Thoreau

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” -Henry David Thoreau

“As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.” -Henry David Thoreau: “Walden” (1854), ‘Economy’

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” -Henry David Thoreau (similar quotation attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson)

“I never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude.” -Henry David Thoreau

“I am grateful for what I am and have. My Thanksgiving is perpetual.” -Henry David Thoreau: letter (6 December 1856) to Harrison Gray Otis Blake, as published in “The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau” (1958), page 444

“I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits unless I spend four hours a day at least . . . sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields, absolutely free from all worldly engagements.” -Henry David Thoreau

“I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other.” -Henry David Thoreau: “Walden” (1854)

“The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness.” -Henry David Thoreau

“A single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” -Henry David Thoreau

“I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.” -Henry David Thoreau

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” -Henry David Thoreau (similar quotation attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.” -Henry David Thoreau

“Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.” -Henry David Thoreau

“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.” -Henry David Thoreau

“All good things are wild and free.” -Henry David Thoreau

“The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s adobe; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.” -Henry David Thoreau

“I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.” -Henry David Thoreau

“We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.” -Henry David Thoreau

“Men are born to succeed, not to fail.” -Henry David Thoreau

“Thoreau wants a little ambition in his mixture. Fault of this, instead of being the head of American Engineers, he is captain of a huckleberry party.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson: as quoted in Lawrence Rosenwald, editor: “Selected Journals 1841 - 1877” (2010), page 557

“When were the good and the brave ever in a majority?” -Henry Thoreau

“All misfortune is but a stepping stone to fortune.” -Henry David Thoreau

“Every child begins the world again.” -Henry David Thoreau

“Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.” -Henry David Thoreau

“None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.” -Henry David Thoreau: as attributed in Kate Sanborn: “A Year of Sunshine” (1886)

“Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.” -Henry David Thoreau

“Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.” -Henry David Thoreau: “The Main Woods” (1848), ‘Chesuncook’

“Man is the artificer* of his own happiness.” -Henry David Thoreau
*artificer: maker

“We live but a fraction of our lives.” -Henry David Thoreau

“There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.” -Henry David Thoreau

“When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.” -Henry David Thoreau

“There is no remedy for love but to love more.” -Henry David Thoreau

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” -Henry David Thoreau: “Journals” (1838 - 1859), ’19 August 1851’

“Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.” -Henry David Thoreau (similar quotation attributed to Nathaniel Hawthorne)

“Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.” -Henry David Thoreau

“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” -Henry David Thoreau: “Walden” (1854)

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that 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. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty, poverty, nor weakness, weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” -Henry David Thoreau: “Walden” (1854), ‘Conclusion’

“Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.” -Henry David Thoreau: “Journals” (1838 - 1859), ‘7 September 1851’

“Live your life as though every act were to become a universal law.” -Henry David Thoreau

“What lies before us and what lies behind us . . . are small matters compared to what lies within us . . . and when we bring what lies within into the world . . . miracles happen!” -Henry David Thoreau: as attributed in Dan Millman: “The Life You Were Born to Live” (1995), page xi (similar quotation attributed to Henry Stanley Haskins)

“Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.” -Henry David Thoreau

“Be yourself - not your idea of what you think somebody else’s idea of yourself should be.” -Henry David Thoreau

“Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.” -Henry David Thoreau

“The man who goes alone can start today. But he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.” -Henry David Thoreau

“‘Hear! hear!’ screamed the jay from a neighboring tree, where I had heard a tittering for some time, ‘winter has a concentrated and nutty kernel, if you know where to look for it.’” -Henry David Thoreau: journal entry on 28 November 1858

“Who hears the rippling of rivers will not utterly despair of anything.” -Henry David Thoreau

“Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.” -Henry David Thoreau: “Walden” (1854)

“Many men go fishing all their lives not knowing it is not fish they are after.” -Henry David Thoreau

“Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.” -Henry David Thoreau: “Walden” (1854)

“A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is the earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.” -Henry David Thoreau

Any fool can make a rule,
And any fool will mind it.
-Henry David Thoreau: “Journals” (1838 - 1859), ‘3 February 1860’

“Goodness is the only investment that never fails.” -Henry David Thoreau: “Walden” (1854), ‘Higher Laws’

“Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.” -Henry David Thoreau: “Life Without Principle” (1863)

“This world is but a canvas to our imagination.” -Henry David Thoreau: “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers” (1849), ‘Wednesday’

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” -Henry David Thoreau: “Walden” (1854), chapter 18

“I like the story about Henry David Thoreau, who, when he was on his deathbed, his family sent for a minister. The minister said, ‘Henry, have you made your peace with God?’ Thoreau said, ‘I didn’t know we’d quarreled.’” -Stewart Udall

Henry David Thoreau passed on at 44 years of age on 6 May 1862 in Concord, Massachusetts, United States of America, succumbing to the then-common condition tuberculosis. His thoughts live on in books, and are scattered across the internet like brilliantly colored wildflowers growing in a vast prairie.

“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.” -Henry David Thoreau

“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” -Henry David Thoreau: “Walden” (1854), ‘Conclusion’

This is MFOL! . . . doing the best with what we’ve been given . . .

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Goals and Planning

8/20/2019

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Never give up on your dreams . . .

“Take your dreams up off the shelf! Put your goals in front of you, and follow them. Focus. Strive. This is what you should be doing; this is what you are here for! You are here to dream, and to live your dreams! This is how things were meant to be. It is time to get back to basics. The essence of your life is your dream! What have you always been dreaming about, ever since you were a youngster? Visualize it, define it, and then go for it! Become happy and share that happiness with the world.” -Author Unknown

“I have come up with a plan so cunning you could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel.” -Rowan Atkinson (born 1955): “Black Adder the Third” (British television show)

“If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us.” -Jim Rohn (Emanuel James ‘Jim’ Rohn (1930 - 2009))

“If ‘Plan A’ fails, remember there are twenty-five more letters.” -Claire Cook

“One simple mental trick has changed my life. A wise retired railway worker named Danny Breslin told me about it. When you are faced with a task you do not want to perform, do not think of the task as a whole. Do not focus on the hardest part of it. Instead, ask yourself, ‘What is the least I can do towards accomplishing this task? What is the irreducible minimum?’ Do that and you have started on the task itself. So, for instance, if you are procrastinating about a letter you have to write, put aside the thought of the letter itself and what you will say in it. Instead, think of the least you can do towards it, which is getting a pen and paper ready. By doing this you will usually find that you can then actually start writing the letter itself.” -Celia Haddon (born 1945)

“To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time.” -Leonard Bernstein (1918 - 1990)

When any great design thou dost intend,
Think on the means, the manner, and the end.
-John Denham (1615 - 1669): “Of Prudence”

“The weakest living creature, by concentrating his powers on a single object, can accomplish something; whereas the strongest, by dispersing his over many, may fail to accomplish anything.” -Thomas Carlyle (1795 - 1881)

“Plan your work and work your plan.” -Author Unknown

“He who every morning plans the transaction of the day and follows out that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through the maze of the most busy life. But where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incidence, chaos will soon reign.” -Victor Hugo (Victor Marie Hugo (1802 - 1885))

“Don’t be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so.” -Belva Davis (born Belvagene Melton (1932))

“It takes a mad genius to reach some goals.” -Daniel Akst (born 1956)

“We rarely succeed at anything unless we have fun doing it.” -Author Unknown

Work diligently toward a goal;
On plans and dreams often dwell;
Don’t wait until you are thirsty,
Before you dig a well.
-Rosemary Perry

“People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going.” -Earl Nightingale (1921 - 1989)

“The person with a fixed goal, a clear picture of his desire, or an ideal always before him, causes it, through repetition, to be buried deeply in his subconscious mind and is thus enabled, thanks to its generative and sustaining power, to realize his goal in a minimum of time and with a minimum of physical effort. Just pursue the thought unceasingly. Step by step you will achieve realization, for all your faculties and powers become directed to that end.” -Claude M. Bristol (Claude Myron Bristol (1891 - 1951))

“The vital, successful people I have met all had one common characteristic. They had a plan.” -Marilyn Van Derbur (Marilyn Elaine Van Derbur (born 1937))

“The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen.” -Lee Iacocca (Lido Anthony ‘Lee’ Iacocca (born 1924))

“You will have wonderful surges forward. Then there must be a time of consolidating before the next forward surge. Accept this as part of the process and never become downhearted.” -Eileen Caddy (1917 - 2006)

“The most important thing about having goals is having one.” -Geoffrey F. Abert
Abert F. Geoffrey

“Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work.” -H. L. Hunt (Haroldson Lafayette ‘H. L.’ Hunt, Junior (1889 - 1974))

“The basic goal-reaching principle is to understand that you go as far as you can see, and when you get there you will be able to see farther.” -Zig Ziglar (Hilary Hinton ‘Zig’ Ziglar (1926 - 2012))

Write Down Your Goals!

If you don’t write your goal down on paper,
Beware, it may try to be an escaper.
But when you do write your goal in your journal,
What you have done is planted a kernel.
And everyone, who knows anything knows,
That what a man reaps is what a man sows!
So write down your hopes and journal your goals
And press on through the highs and the lows.
Through the thick and through the thin,
If you never, never quit - eventually you win.
In every failure is a seed of success,
So keep trying, keep trying -
And you’ll be the best.
Write down your goals
And surprise the rest.

by Al Argo

“What you get by reaching your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” -Zig Ziglar (Hilary Hinton ‘Zig’ Ziglar (1926 - 2012)): “Biscuits, Fleas, and Pump Handles” (1974), ‘Segment 4: Goals,’ Chapter 4: Reaching Your Goals, page 171

“Don’t let anyone steal your dream. It’s your dream, not theirs.” -Dan Zadra

“You can do anything you want in your life and in your career if you have written goals and a plan to get there, and also the commitment to follow through.” -Carol Halsey

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Achieving Your Goals

1. Break your goals into smaller parts.
- Many people abandon their goals because the goals are too big and vague.
- Break goals down into smaller parts.
- Decide on concrete and measurable actions.
- Have solid ideas of what a successful completion of a goal looks like.
2. Commit time daily to goals.
- You do not have necessarily have to commit hours at a time to accomplish a goal, you just have to be focused.
- The greatest advances often occur as the sum total of a series of small efforts.
- Commit to spending at least 15 minutes a day on specific goals.
- Do something that moves you closer to accomplishing your goals.
3. Talk to yourself.
- Repetition is the root of success.
- Remind yourself of your goals every day.
- Turn your most important goal into a one-sentence afﬁrmation.
- Phrase it as though you have already accomplished your goal.
- Repeat regularly and it becomes your natural way of thinking.
4. Make a serious commitment to your goals.
- Make yourself accountable by telling a few trustworthy people of your plans.
- Hope they become interested in your progress and check in with you.
- This will inspire you to keep going and overcome obstacles.
- It is hard not to achieve goals when others are watching and encouraging us.
5. Write your goals down.
- If you write goals down, they are more likely to come to pass.
- Invest time and energy writing your goals down.
- Putting goals on paper makes you more committed to the outcome.
- Reread your goals list periodically.
- It is beneficial to cross items off when they are completed.
6. Review your goals and your progress weekly.
- Re-evaluate each goal as circumstances change.
- If your priorities change, drop goals from your list or add new ones.
- Ask yourself ‘why’ if you have not made progress; ﬁnd out what is in your way.
- Question if unachieved goals are still important to you.
7. If possible, ﬁnd a friend.
- Try to get friends to help out with your project.
- Offer to reciprocate and help your friend in return.
- Two can get more done in a shorter period of time than one.
- You hold each other accountable to accomplishing your goals.
8. Reward yourself.
- As you plan your goals, attach speciﬁc rewards to each goal.
- The reward should be commensurate with the amount of work.
- Be consistent about rewarding yourself for every accomplishment.
- Each completion deserves a reward, no matter how small.
9.Take time to enjoy success.
- Take time to acknowledge the fact that you have accomplished a goal.
- Don’t simply charge into the next task or in time, you will likely burn out.
- Remember the time and effort you invested.
- Savor the feeling of completion.
- Refresh and renew your enthusiasm before you continue.

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“Yes, you can be a dreamer and a doer, too, if you will remove one word from your vocabulary: impossible.” -Robert Schuller (Robert Harold Schuller (1926 - 2015))

“Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you’re ready or not, to put it into action.” -Napoleon Hill (1883 - 1970)

“Whether or not you reach your goals in life depends entirely on how well you prepare for them and how badly you want them.” -Ronald McNair (1950 - 1986)

“Cultivate the habit of setting clearly-defined written goals; they are the road maps that guide you to your destination.” -Roy Bennett (Roy T. Bennett)

“You must keep your mind on the objective, not on the obstacle.” -William Randolph Hearst (1863 - 1951)

“The secret to productive goal setting is in establishing clearly defined goals, writing them down and then focusing on them several times a day with words, pictures, and emotions as if we’ve already achieved them.” -Denis Waitley (Denis E. Waitley (born 1933))

“Each step forward is one less step that has to be taken.” -Brian Adams

The goal shapes the plan.
The plan shapes the action.
The action achieves the results.
The results bring success.
-Author Unknown

“Goals are simply tools to focus your energy in positive directions, these can be changed as your priorities change, new ones added, and others dropped.” -O. Carl Simonton (Oscar Carl Simonton, Junior (1942 - 2009))

“Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer the goal.” -Elbert Hubbard (Elbert Green Hubbard (1856 - 1915))

“If you have no goals, another day of your life just passes you by.” -Author Unknown

“To reach a goal you have never before attained, you must do things you have never before done.” -Richard G. Scott (Richard Gordon Scott (1928 - 2015))

“Have the dogged determination to follow through to achieve your goal; regardless of circumstances or whatever other people say, think, or do.” -Paul J. Meyer (Paul James Meyer (1928 - 2009))

“You cannot trust everyone with your dreams, just a very few people. Beware of dream destroyers, those people who pick away at you and your ideas, people who only find fault and reason to criticize, people who keep themselves and others locked into small lives that lack any worthy attainments. Seek out those few individuals who can inspire and motivate you as you work to make your dreams come true.” -Nathan Thomas Taylor (born 1966)

“Reduce your plan to writing . . . The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire.” -Napoleon Hill (1883 - 1970)

“Every minute you spend in your life is either spent bringing you closer to your goals or moving you away from your goals.” -Bo Bennett

“Even if I don’t reach all my goals, I’ve gone higher than I would have if I hadn’t set any.” -Danielle Fotopoulos (Danielle Ruth Garrett Fotopoulos (born 1976))

“You can achieve almost any goal if you just do what other successful people have done to achieve the same goals before you.” -Brian Tracy (born 1944)

“Review your goals twice every day in order to be focused on achieving them.” -Les Brown (Leslie Calvin ‘Les’ Brown (born 1945))

“You become successful the moment you start moving toward a worthwhile goal.” -Author Unknown

“The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for the rest of your life. And the most important thing is, it must be something you cannot possibly do.” -Henry Moore (1898 - 1986)

“Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another.” -John Dewey (1859 - 1952)

“Find a peaceful place where you can make plans for the future. Clear away all distractions: everything within your visual field, everything in your periphery vision, all noises . . . now get to the work of considering what you want to achieve, writing it down in simple yet specific words.” -Nathan Thomas Taylor (born 1966)

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900 - 1944)

“You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.” -Alvin Toffler (1928 - 2016)

“Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can’t cross a chasm in two small steps.” -David Lloyd George (1863 - 1945)

“You can do what you want to do, accomplish what you want to accomplish, attain any reasonable objective you may have in mind - not all of a sudden, perhaps not in one swift and sweeping act of achievement - but you can do it gradually, day by day and play by play, if you want to do it, if you work to do it, over a sufficiently long period of time.” -William E. Holler (William E. ‘Bill’ Holler)

“Keep true to the dreams of thy youth.” -Johann Friedrich von Schiller (1759 - 1805)

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” -attributed to Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 - 1910))

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” -Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973)

“If you really want something, and really work hard, and take advantage of opportunities, and never give up, you will find a way.” -Jane Goodall (born 1934)

“Goals. There’s no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There’s no telling what you can do when you believe in them. There’s no telling what will happen when you act upon them.” -Author Unknown

This is MFOL! . . . where you can learn some things that you can take with you throughout all of life . . .

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Railroads and Trains

8/19/2019

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According to model railroad enthusiasts, model trains and toy trains are two completely different things. Sometimes in life, it is best not to disagree.

Ricky: What do you call a train carrying a load of apples and bananas and oranges?
Martin: A tooty-fruity!

What is the difference between railroads and railways? The two words are frequently taken to mean the same thing, and are often used interchangeably. Most of the English-speaking world uses the term ‘railways,’ except for Americans, who have a preference for the term ‘railroads.’

Clarabelle: What is the most difficult train to catch?
Maribel: The 12:50, because it’s 10 to 1 if you catch it.

On a typical train, the locomotive is the vehicle that contains the engine or motor, the controls, and the engineer (driver or operator). The wheeled sections of trains that carry freight, passengers, or equipment are called cars. Cabooses were special cars that are mostly no longer in use, attached at the ends of trains, to carry train crewmembers, signaling devices, and repair tools and supplies.

Laura: I would like to take a train to Chicago.
Ticket Agent: I’m sorry, only qualified engineers are allowed to drive them.
Laura: Very well - may I go to Chicago by way of Buffalo?
Ticket Agent: I’m sorry; none of our buffalo go to Chicago.
Laura: Just let me have a round-trip ticket, please.
Ticket Agent: To where?
Laura: Back here, of course!

Railroad: A thing having two backbones and a thousand ribs.

A British commuter hopped on a train to London and told the conductor he was going to Doncaster. “We don’t stop at Doncaster on Wednesdays,” said the conductor. “But I’ll tell you what, mate. We slow down at Doncaster to go through the junction. I’ll open the door, and you hop off. Mind you, we’re going fast. Hit the ground running so you don’t get pulled in by the train’s wake.” At Doncaster, the door opened, and the commuter hit the ground running. He was running so fast that his momentum carried him forward to the car ahead. There, another conductor opened the door, pulled him on board and, as the train resumed speed, said, “You’re mighty lucky I saw you, mate. This train doesn’t stop at Doncaster on Wednesdays.”

At some point before modern trains, people laid down metal tracks on roadways and built wagons with metal wheels to roll over them. The tramway system initially ran on horsepower. Electric motors, supplied by power from cables strung overhead, would come later in time.

Marcello: What kind of train do ballerinas travel in?
Arturo: Tutu trains.

The very first train reached a top speed of 8 kilometers (5 miles) per hour.

Chuck: What kind of train has no wheels?
Norris: A train of thought.

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Get a Transfer

If you are on the Gloomy Line,
     Get a transfer.
If you’re inclined to fret and pine,
     Get a transfer.
Get off the track of doubt and gloom,
Get on the Sunshine Track - there’s room -
     Get a transfer.

If you’re on the Worry Train,
     Get a transfer.
You must not stay there and complain,
     Get a transfer.
The Cheerful Cars are passing through,
And there’s lots of room for you -
     Get a transfer.

If you’re on the Grouchy Track,
     Get a transfer.
Just take a Happy Special back,
     Get a transfer.
Jump on the train and pull the rope,
That lands you at the station Hope -
     Get a transfer.

by Author Unknown

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Would you believe it - giants have taken over the train!

The standard American railroad width of 1.4351 meters (4 feet and 8.5 inches) originated in the width of Roman war chariots. Former English subjects living in the United States of America designed the railroad system based on measurements of pre-railroad tramways built in England. The tramways were built using the same tools used to build wagons, which were also the same width. The reason wagons were built to that width is that otherwise, they would break during long treks across the old English roads. Those roads, built by the Romans, were full of ruts carved out by the wheels of Roman war chariots. All Roman chariots were built to a standard width of 1.4351 meters (4 feet and 8.5 inches), and so English wagons were built with wheels that would fit into those ruts. Thus, chariots of ancient Rome are the forerunners of modern trains.

Mary: What do you call a train loaded with bubble gum?
Marty: A chew-chew train

Railroads and Trains Facts
- Train track rails are made of steel, and train wheels are made of steel; the combination is literally steel on steel, a very efficient and effective mechanism.
- The two main types of trains are freight trains and passenger trains. Light rail trains are used mostly for passengers and sometimes small shipments of mail and packages. Light rail trains include electric trolleys and trams.
- Despite the constant improvements being made to air-filled, rubber-tire vehicles that move on asphalt and concrete roads, freight trains are still the best way to move extremely large and heavy items and bulk materials such as manufacturing equipment, mining and drilling equipment, military equipment, construction equipment, coal, and grain, particularly over long distances.
- Passenger trains and light rail can carry large numbers of people at high speeds between and within populated areas, which can help ease traffic congestion and provide transportation for people who are unable to drive, who have no vehicles, or who seek convenience.

Doctor Watson: How can you tell a train just went by?
Sherlock Holmes: You can see its tracks!

Doctor Watson: How do you find a missing train?
Sherlock Holmes: Follow its tracks!

“There’s a train at 4:04,” said Miss Jenny
“Four tickets I’ll take; have you any?”
     Said the man at the door,
     “Not four for 4:04,
For four for 4:04 is too many.”
-Author Unknown

The longest railway in the world is the Trans-Siberian Railroad, built between the years 1891 and 1916. It is a network of railways connecting European Russia with the Russian Far East provinces. It is 9,288 kilometers (5,787 miles) long and spans 8 time zones.

Stella: How many train conductors does it take to change a light bulb?
Lester: Only one, but it doesn’t help, because he punches a hole in the new light bulb.

Railroad Tracks and Trains Safety
- All railroad tracks, the land around them, and any bridges, tunnels, fences, walls, buildings, or other structures, and the trains themselves, are the property of individuals, corporations (companies), public utilities, government agencies, or other organizations or entities. There are legal penalties for trespassing on someone else’s property, including monetary fines and jail time.
- Train conductors (drivers or operators) may or may not announce their presence by sounding the train horn or whistle or by having the vehicle lights on. Even when they do, because of auditory and optical illusions and the wide range of speeds at which trains run, a person can be fooled into thinking that a train is further away than it actually is, or not even be aware that a train is on a track headed for them.
- If a person walks on railroad tracks or alongside them as a shortcut to someplace, and falls and gets hurt, or is injured in some other way, he or she will probably be there for a very long time before anyone comes to the rescue, if anyone ever comes at all.
- When a person is hit by a train, he or she will not likely survive.
- Riding on a train without paying the fare or without permission, is also a form of trespassing and fare theft, and once again, trespassing is a crime with civil and criminal penalties.
- Railroad tracks and trains are a serious business, and not places to play or playthings. There are plenty of other places for people to be that are better and safer, such as sidewalks, parks, home, friends’ homes, relatives’ homes, libraries, public spaces, schools, jobs (workplaces), museums, galleries, stores, restaurants, and so forth.

The Ombley-Wombley

Once upon a railroad track
     The Ombley-Wombley sat.
Rumble clang,
     Jumble jang,
Crumble bang -
     And that’s the end of that.

by Peter Wesley-Smith

The highest railway in the world is in Peru, where the Central Railway climbs to 4,784 meters (15,694 feet) in altitude in the Galera tunnel, at a location 174 kilometers (108 miles) from Lima. Tourists take it to get to the world-renowned ruins of ancient Machu Picchu.

At a station stop, the railroad’s president walked up to the locomotive and spoke to the engineer. “You were going 65 miles per hour and the speed limit is only 60 miles per hour, I saw it myself on the speedometer in the business car!” After a heated exchange, the engineer finally said, “You couldn’t possibly have been going 65, my speedometer said 60 miles per hour - and we never saw you go by us!”

Ernie: What kind of ears do trains have?
Arnie: Engine-ears. (Engineers.)

So you just woke up from your nap . . . long slumbers can have strange consequences . . . just look at how much the world has changed while you slept . . . even trains are not the same!

“Are you going sixty miles an hour or is the train going sixty miles an hour and you’re just sitting still?” -J. Paul Getty

Siderodromophobia is a persistent fear of railroads or of trains. Oh, my good-golly, what if I board a train and it never stops and I can never get off it! I’ll be stuck on the train forever!

Trains and Railroads Quiz
- From what material are train tracks and train wheels made?
- What are the two main types of trains, based on what they carry?
- Why should you never walk on, or play near, railroad tracks?

“Know the name of the station you’re headed for. It’s a help in catching the right train.” -Author Unknown: “Agents Record” (1915), Volume 10, Issue 5, page 4, ‘The Real Salesman’ (“Agents Record” is a publication of the National Casualty Company)

Trains and Railroads Quiz Answers
- Train tracks and train wheels are made of steel.
- The two main types of trains, based on what they carry, are freight trains and passenger trains.
- Walking on, or playing near, railroad tracks is unsafe because trains travel at high speeds and usually are not able to stop in time to avoid hitting a person. Additionally, the tracks can cause a person who tries to walk on them to trip, fall, and be injured.

Clyde: What is the difference between a railroad guard and a teacher?
Claude: One minds the trains, and the other trains the mind.

Ask your know-it-all friend, “So, which was invented first: the train, or the railroad tracks?”

Problem: Trains travel from one town to another town all day always on the same track, always going nonstop, and always at the same speed. The 12:00 noon train took 80 minutes to complete the trip but the 4:00 p.m. train took an hour and 20 minutes. Why?
Solution: 80 minutes is the same as an hour and 20 minutes, so both trains ran in the same amount of time.

Overheard: No, I did not miss my train. I just chased it out of the station because I didn’t like the looks of it!

“Dear Mr. President: The canal system of this country is being threatened by a new form of transportation known as ‘railroads’ . . . As you may well know, Mr. President, ‘railroad’ carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of 15 miles per hour by ‘engines’ which, in addition to endangering life and limb of passengers, roar and snort their way through the countryside, setting fire to crops, scaring the livestock, and frightening women and children.” -Martin Van Buren (1830)

Passenger to railroad engineer: “What’s the use of having a train schedule if the trains are always late?”
Railroad engineer: “How would we know they were late, if we didn’t have a schedule?”

This is MFOL! . . . all aboard that’s coming aboard! Choo, choo! Chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug-a! Choo, choo! Clickety-clack! Clickety-clack!

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Scarecrows

8/18/2019

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Scarecrow: Guardian of the Garden.

Scarecrows

We’re the farmer’s scarecrows
     We scare away the birds,
We keep the farmer’s corn safe
     Without any words;
But when Hallowe’en comes
     We jump out of the ground
And we scare the boys and girls
     When they come walking ’round.
Boo!

by Author Unknown: sung to the same tune as that of “Sing a Song of Sixpence”

Apparently, scarecrows are effective at scaring not only birds, but people as well, which may be why they are a feature in Halloween holiday decorations and in scary movies.

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The Scarecrow

The farmer made a scarecrow
     And stuffed it full of straw.
He put it in the cornfield,
     but the crows laughed, “Haw-caw.”

One crow sat on Scarecrow’s hat.
     He was not scared at all.
That scarecrow did not scare
     A single crow away all Fall!

by Author Unknown

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Hey, wait a second . . . that scarecrow appears to be a crow . . .

Question: A scarecrow is one of the characters in the movie, “The Wizard of Oz” (1939). What was the scarecrow seeking?
Answer: The Scarecrow in the “Wizard of Oz” wanted the Wizard to give him a brain.

Scarecrow Joel

There once was a scarecrow name Joel
Who couldn’t scare crows, save his soel.
     But the crows put the scare
     Into Joel. He’s not there
Any more. That’s his hat on the poel.

by David McCord (David Thompson Watson McCord (1897 - 1997)

Many different ways exist to make a scarecrow. A typical scarecrow with a human shape can be made by sticking a pole in the ground in a farm field or garden. A shorter cross-stick is attached to it and becomes the arms. Alternatively, a dummy can be made from stuffing old clothes with straw. A head can be made by stuffing an old burlap sack or pillowcase with straw, and then attaching a hat. A scarecrow scares away crows and other birds that eat crops. Also effective is a shiny metal pie tin or pan hung from a rope tied between two poles or to a fence; a slight breeze will cause it to move, attracting the eyes of birds and causing them to take flight. Similarly, city folks are known to use large plastic owls to scare away pigeons.

Scarecrow: Cop of the cornfield.

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The Scarecrow

Five fat blackbirds,
     Sitting in the straw.
Laughing at the scarecrow,
     Caw! Caw! Caw!

Five fat blackbirds,
     Eating all the corn.
Silly old birds,
     It’s going to storm.

Poor sad scarecrow,
     Sitting on a fence.
“Boo!” yelled the scarecrow,
     Away they went!

by Author Unknown

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Question: Why did the scarecrow win the Nobel Peace Prize?
Answer: He was outstanding in his field.

The Scarecrow

Scarecrow standing in the field
     On a bright and sunny day,
Don’t forget to do your job.
     Scare the hungry crows away!

by Author Unknown

Scarecrow: One who takes as a compliment the words, “You’re scary.”

The Scarecrow

The scarecrow stands
With hanging hands,
Beside the farmer’s stile.
He scares the jay and crow away.
With just a painted smile.

by Author Unknown

Say this tongue twister three times fast: Seth said some serious scarecrows scare crows silly.

Further fantastically fascinating frivolity follows next . . . on MFOL!

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Shoes and Footwear

8/14/2019

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These shoes are absolutely the cat’s meow . . .

Shoe store sign: Limited Time Offer - Buy Two Shoes - And Get A Third Shoe Free!

A man walked into a shoe store, and tried on a pair of shoes. “How do they feel?” asked the sales clerk. “Well . . . they feel a bit tight,” replied the man. The assistant bent down and looked at the shoes and the man’s feet. “Try pulling out on the tongue,” offered the clerk. “Nath theyth sthill feelth a bith tighth,” the man said.

If the shoe fits, get another one just like it.

The earliest known footwear is a pair of sandals that date back to about 7,000 B.C.E. However, anatomical analysis of early humans seems to indicate that we may have begun wearing shoes as early as 40,000 years ago. Before then, we ran around barefoot and ate rocks. What’s that . . . oh, apparently, early humans did not eat rocks . . . just wild plants, raw meat, and bugs. Aren’t you glad you wear shoes?

Dustin: Do your shoes have holes in them?
Austin: No.
Dustin: Then how did you get your feet into them?

“If high heels were so wonderful, men would still be wearing them.” -Sue Grafton

Edith: Who always goes to bed wearing shoes?
Edna: A horse, of course.

Shoes all over the world were identical until 1822, when left-footed and right-footed shoes were made for the first time in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.

Overheard: “I have enough shoes.”

If the shoe fits, it must be some kind of trick - don’t be fooled!

Ida: What has a tongue but cannot speak?
Emma: A shoe.

Overheard: Those shoes certainly make you look ‘well-heeled’!

Sonya: Why did the two shoes not get along?
Sonny: Because they both thought they were ‘right.’

The boots Neil Armstrong wore when he walked on the Moon are still floating around somewhere in outer space. He had to leave his boots there so that he could bring as many Moon rocks as possible back to Earth.

If the shoe fits, buy a pair in every color.

Sabrina: What runs around all day and then lies on the floor with its tongue hanging out?
Katrina: Your shoe!

In the silent movie, “The Gold Rush” (August 1925), comedic actor Charlie Chaplin actually ate his shoe. He portrayed his signature character, ‘The Tramp’ as a gold prospector who was trapped in a cabin during a snowstorm. Starving, he decided to boil his boot and eat the laces like spaghetti. Fortunately for Mr. Chaplin’s digestive system, the shoe used in the movie was made of licorice candy provided by the American Licorice Company.

“High heels were invented by a woman who had been kissed on the forehead.” -Christopher Morley (Christopher Darlington Morley (1890 - 1957))

Tutor: Can you name at least six things you can wear on your feet that begin with the letter ‘s’?
Student: Sandals, shoes, skates, skis, slippers, sneakers, snowshoes, socks, stilts, and stockings.

Many years ago, two salesmen were sent by a British shoe manufacturer to Africa to investigate and report on market potential. The first salesman reported back, “There is no potential here - nobody wears shoes.” The second salesman reported back, “There is massive potential here - nobody wears shoes.”

Joe’s Shoes

The shoes of old Eskimo Joe
Fell apart as he walked in the snow.
“Have you needle and thread?”
I enquired, but he said,
“No, igloo them, not sew them, you know.”

by Author Unknown

If the shoe fits your foot, it will not fit your budget.

Apparently, bears never wear shoes, as they prefer to gallop around in just their ‘bear feet.’

“I have tennis shoes with little rhinestones that I slip on if I exercise. But I always wear heels, even around the house. I’m such a short little thing, I can’t reach my kitchen cabinets.” -Dolly Parton (born 1946)

“A man can walk without shoes, but shoes can’t walk without a man.” -George Daly

Squeakers: Shoes that mice wear.

Gregory: Who wears two pairs of shoes, both at the same time?
Geoffrey: Mules - as do horses, ponies, and mammoth donkeys used for riding.

“You cannot put the same shoe on every foot.” -Publilius Syrus (85 B.C.E. - 43 B.C.E.)

If the shoe fits, you are asleep and having a dream about shoes.

“The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.” -C. G. Jung (Carl Gustav Jung (1875 - 1961))

Melody: What is made of leather and sounds like a sneeze?
Clarabelle: A shoe.

A typical pair of casual shoes will last for about 500 miles of walking.

If the shoe fits, it must be some kind of magical shoe.

“A handsome shoe often pinches the foot.” -Author Unknown

Presto: What results from wearing tight shoes.

Al: What goes, “Thump, thump, thump, squish! Thump, thump, thump, squish!”?
Fred: An elephant wearing a soggy tennis shoe.

“Give a girl the right pair of shoes and she’ll conquer the world.” -Marilyn Monroe (pseudonym of Norma Jean Mortenson Baker (1926 - 1962))

“Never buy shoes early in the day when your feet are their smallest.” -Frances Patiky Stein

The best time to buy shoes is when you are cranky and tired from walking and standing around all day, say for example, after work or school. This is because your feet are likely to be at their largest at this time of the day. That is right, your feet change in size throughout the day. It is shocking, we know. In the morning, you arise with your feet well-rested, but as the day progresses, you put a lot of pressure on your feet, causing them to spread out and swell up. If you try on shoes at the start of the day, well, that is when your feet are small, and if you were to continue to wear that same pair of shoes all day long, by the end of the day, your feet would not be happy, because they will be crammed into shoes that are too tiny.

Maxwell: Why do cobblers (shoemakers) go to Heaven?
Maxine: Because they have good soles.

“If the shoe fits, it’s too expensive.” -Adrienne Gusoff

A man walked into a shoe store and asked for a pair of shoes in size eight. The well-trained salesman said, “But sir, you need an eleven or an eleven-and-a-half.” “Just bring me a size eight,” the man said. The sales guy brought them out and the man stuffed his feet into them and stood up in obvious pain. He turned to the salesman and said, “I’ll take them. You see, I have lost my house to the tax collector, I live with my mother-in-law, my daughter ran off with her no-account boyfriend, and my business has filed for bankruptcy. The only pleasure I have left is at the end of the day when I go home and take my shoes off.”

“Sure, I may walk around as if everything is fine . . . but deep down, inside my shoe, my sock is sliding off. I think that my shoe is trying to eat my sock, and that is a scary thought.” -Author Unknown

Darlene: What did the shoe say to the gum?
Darla: “Stick with me and we’ll go places!”

Shoe Facts
- The bottom of a shoe that touches the ground is called the ‘sole.’
- The part of a shoe above the sole is called the ‘upper.’
- The plastic casings on the ends of shoelaces that prevent them from unraveling are called ‘aglets.’
- The holes in shoes that laces are fed through are called ‘eyelets.’
- The tongue of a shoe will not lick your feet.
- The edge around the opening of a shoe is called the ‘collar.’

If the shoe fits, it’s obviously on somebody else’s foot.

Many people do not know that feet can increase by one-and-a-half shoe sizes or more throughout their lifetimes. A person’s feet can flatten and spread out as he or she ages, causing a permanent increase in both length and width. Additionally, changes in weight, surgery, amount of time spent standing and walking on the feet, lifting and moving heavy items all day long and other physical exertion at work and in play, and pregnancy can cause foot size to increase. You may want to consider this the next time you go shoe shopping, especially if you have been torturing yourself by trying to wear the same shoe size now that you wore years ago as a teenager or a young adult. Try on slightly larger size shoes in slightly bigger widths, perhaps with more toe room. Your feet will thank you!

“I bought these shoes in Taiwan, and they said in the inside, ‘Made around the corner.’” -Frank Carson

Shoes called sneakers were first produced in about 1800. They had a simple rubber sole design, with the name ‘sneaker’ coming from the fact that their soles are so smooth and yielding that they hardly make a sound on the ground.

Hubert: What kind of shoes do detectives wear?
Hugh: Sneakers!

Another name for a detective is a ‘gumshoe,’ because detectives have traditionally worn soft-soled shoes.

If the shoe fits, buy it.

“It is totally impossible to be well-dressed in cheap shoes.” -Hardy Amies (Edwin Hardy Amies (1909 - 2003))

Otis: What does a shoemaker use to repair shoes?
Otto: Toe-nails.

Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Pear.
Pear, who?
Pear of shoes.

Shoestring: What every self-made businessperson claims to have built a business on.

You can tell a lot about a person’s character by the shoes he or she wears.

Need money? How about this zany idea: Become a ‘shoe reading’ expert. People come to you, you look at their shoes, you tell them what their shoes reveal about them, and you then advise them on what kind of shoes to buy if they want people to have a different opinion of them based on their shoes. This idea makes a lot more sense than palm reading and other methods of ‘fortune telling.’

Overheard: So many shoes . . . and only two feet.

“Your shoes are only as good as the laces they’re attached to.” -Greg Sampson

Norma: Why did the shoelaces arrive late at the party?
Nora: Because they got all tied up earlier.

If the shoe fits, it is too good to be true.

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe . . . rumor has it that it once belonged to a giant who lived at the top of a beanstalk . . . the old woman was walking along, looking for affordable housing in a safe neighborhood for herself and her children, when all of a sudden, a really big shoe dropped out of the sky. Aren’t fairy tales fun?

If the shoe fits, buy the store.

Emma: What is six feet long, green, and has two tongues?
Emily: The Jolly Green Giant’s sneakers!

Shoes Quiz
- What features should a person look for in a shoe?
- What are arch supports?
- What is a padded collar on a shoe?
- What are aglets and what is their purpose?
- Which of the following shoe toe shapes is best for your feet: pointed, squared, or rounded?
- In what types of jobs do people need steel-toed boots or shoes?
- Describe the perfect pair of shoes.
- What items make up a shoeshine kit?
- What are sensible shoes?

“I stand corrected!” said the man in the orthopedic shoes.

Shoe store sign: Buy One Shoe - Get Second Shoe Free!

The ‘boat shoe’ was invented by Paul Sperry. He modeled the sole of the shoe after his dog’s paw.

Ernie: What did one shoe say to the other shoe?
Bernie: “You stay here, and I’ll go on ahead to see what’s underfoot.”

“Shoes divide men into three classes. Some men wear their father’s shoes. They make no decisions of their own. Some are unthinkingly shod by the crowd. The strong man is his own cobbler. He insists on making his own choices. He walks in his own shoes.” -S. D. Gordon

Here’s a great title for a song: “I’ve Got the Squeaky Shoes Blues, Yeah!” Now we just need you to write the lyrics, or words, to go along with the song title.

“Shoes speak louder than words.” -Author Unknown

Moses: What kind of shoes are made from banana skins?
Moe: Slippers!

If the shoe fits, you have somehow been magically transported to a fairy tale land.

This just in: There is more to life than shoes. We are kidding, of course!

Riddle:
I run over fields and woods all day;
Under a bed at night, I wait not alone
With long tongue hanging out,
I will be filled in the morn.
What am I?
Solution:
I am a shoe.

If the shoe fits, you are daydreaming again . . . time to get back to work.

Geoffrey: What has no feet but wears out shoes?
George: A sidewalk.

This is MFOL! . . . and that’s everything we have cobbled together about shoes . . . What’s that? . . . Our shoes are calling to us . . . seems they want to go out walking . . . maybe we will see you out there . . .

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Failures and Successes

8/8/2019

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Violet: May I ask you the secret of your success?
Iris: There is no easy street. You simply jump at your opportunity.
Violet: But how can I tell when my opportunity comes?
Iris: You can’t. You’ve just got to keep on jumping.

“There is no point at which you can say, ‘Well, I’m successful now, I might as well take a nap.’” -Carrie Fisher (born 1956)

“In public, we say the race is to the strongest; in private, we know that a lopsided man runs the fastest along the little side hills of success.” -Frank M. Colby (Frank Moore Colby (1865 - 1925))

“I am not a failure if I don’t succeed; I am successful because I tried.” -Susan Jeffers (1938 - 2012))

“You never become a howling success by just howling.” -Bob Harrington (1950 - 1992)

“The secret of success is to triple your rate of failure.” -Og Mandino (Augustine ‘Og’ Mandino II (1923 - 1996))

“How can they say my life isn’t a success? Have I not for more than sixty years got enough to eat and escaped being eaten?” -Logan Pearsall Smith (1865 - 1946)

“Success is not about ‘who you know,’ but rather ‘who knows you.’” -Author Unknown

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try a grin!” -Author Unknown

“You are the only person who can really label what you do as a success or a failure.” -Author Unknown

“Failures and setbacks are ingredients for a great success story.” -Author Unknown

“Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential.” -John C. Maxwell (John Calvin Maxwell (born 1947))

Judgement

Before God’s footstool to confess
     A poor soul knelt, and bowed his head;
“I failed,” he cried. The Master said,
     “Thou didst thy best - that is success!”

by Author Unknown

“Drifting through life without aim or purpose is the first cause of failure.” -Author Unknown

“I owe all my success in life to having been always a quarter of an hour beforehand.” -Horatio Nelson (1758 - 1805)

“Success is difficult, it requires enormous effort. Those who can work through the struggle become successful.” -Jackie Joyner (Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee (born 1962))

“Success and failure. We think of them as opposites, but they’re really not. They’re companions - the hero and the sidekick.” -Laurence Shames (born 1951)

“No matter how far you have gone on the wrong road, turn back.” -Author Unknown: Turkish proverb

“If at first you don’t succeed, you’re running about average.” -M. H. Alderson (Miles Henry Alderson (1841 - 1924))

“You have to look successful in order to be successful.” -Author Unknown

If I should win, let it be by the code,
     With my faith and my honor held high,
But if I should lose, let me be the first to stand by the road,
     And cheer as the winner walks by.
-Sam Haskell: “Promises I Made My Mother” (April 2009) autobiography

“What would you attempt to do if you knew you would not fail?” -Robert Schuller (Robert Harold Schuller (1926 - 2015))

“For success, take the ‘t’ out of can’t.” -Author Unknown

“Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed.” -Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)

“Success: All it takes is all you’ve got.” -Author Unknown

“Notice the difference between what happens when a man says to himself, ‘I have failed three times,’ and what happens when he says, ‘I am a failure.’” -S. I. Hayakawa (Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa (1906 - 1992))

“Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have.” -Zig Ziglar (Hilary Hinton ‘Zig’ Ziglar (1926 - 2012))

“Success comes in cans; failure comes in can’ts.” -Author Unknown

“Success comes to many men because they were deprived of advantages others had.” -Author Unknown

“Failure is the path of least persistence.” -Author Unknown

“The next best thing to winning is losing! At least you’ve been in the race.” -Nellie Hershey Tullis (Nellie Helen Hershey Tullis (1872 - 1964))

“The secret to success is to start from scratch and keep on scratching.” -Author Unknown

“Keep steadily before you the fact that all true success depends at last upon yourself.” -Theodore T. Munger (Theodore Thornton Munger (1830 - 1910)): as quoted in Elizabeth P. Bemis: “Primary Plans” (1909), Volume 7, page 54

“Failure is the first step towards success.” -Author Unknown

“The common denominator of success - the secret of success of every man who has ever been successful - lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.” -Albert E. N. Gray: speech (1940) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America, at the annual convention of the National Association of Life Underwriters

“Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.” -Jim Rohn (Emanuel James ‘Jim’ Rohn (1930 - 2009))

“Achieve success in any area of life by identifying the optimum strategies and repeating them until they become habits.” -Charles J. Givens (Charles J. ‘Chuck’ Givens (1941 - 1998))

“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” -Dale Carnegie (Dale Breckenridge Carnegie (1888 - 1955))

“The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed.” -Lloyd Jones (born 1955): “Mister Pip” (2006) novel

“Ninety-nine percent of success is built on failure.” -Charles F. Kettering (Charles Franklin Kettering (1876 - 1958))

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” -Robert Collier (1885 - 1950)

“Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day, while failure is simply a few errors in judgement, repeated every day. It is the accumulative weight of our disciplines and our judgements that leads us to either fortune or failure.” -Author Unknown

“The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.” -Napoleon Hill (Oliver Napoleon Hill (1883 - 1970))

“If at first you do succeed, try something harder.” -Ann Landers (Esther Pauline Friedman Lederer (1918 - 2002))

“Failures are the stepping stones by which we reach success.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

“The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic, and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant, and kind. Failure makes people bitter and cruel.” -W. Somerset Maugham (William Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965)): “The Summing Up” (1938), page 182

“You always pass failure on the way to success.” -Mickey Rooney (1920 - 2014)

“The most unfortunate thing that happens to a person who fears failure is that he limits himself by becoming afraid to try anything new.” -Leo Buscaglia (Felice Leonardo ‘Leo’ Buscaglia, also known as Leo F. Buscaglia (1924 - 1998))

“One fails forward toward success.” -Charles F. Kettering (Charles Franklin Kettering (1876 - 1958))

“An Unfailing Success Plan: At each day’s end write down the six most important things to do tomorrow; number them in order of importance, and then do them.” -Author Unknown

“Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently.” -Henry Ford (1863 - 1947)

“Failure is success if we learn from it.” -Malcolm S. Forbes (Malcolm Stevenson Forbes (1919 - 1990))

“Ask yourself the secret of your success. Listen to your answer, and practice it.” -Richard Bach (Richard David Bach (born 1936))

“Failure is not falling down; failure is when you don’t get back up.” -Author Unknown

“For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again.” -Author Unknown: “The Bible,” ‘Book of Proverbs,’ chapter 24, verse 16

“Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall.” -Oliver Goldsmith (1728 - 1774)

“Failure? I never encountered it. All I ever met were temporary setbacks.” -Dottie Walters

“One of the commonest mistakes and one of the costliest is thinking that success is due to some genius, some magic - something or other which we do not possess. Success is generally due to holding on, and failure to letting go. You decide to learn a language, study music, take a course of reading, train yourself physically. Will it be success or failure? It depends upon how much pluck and perseverance that word ‘decide’ contains. The decision that nothing can overrule, the grip that nothing can detach, will bring success. Remember the Chinese proverb, ‘With time and patience, the mulberry leaf becomes satin.’” -Maltbie D. Babcock (Maltbie Davenport Babcock (1858 - 1901))

“Failure is an event, never a person.” -William D. Brown (William David Brown (born 1936)): “Welcome Stress!” (1983)

“We are all self-made but only the successful admit it.” -Author Unknown

“Failure is God’s way of saying, ‘Excuse me, you’re moving in the wrong direction.’” -Author Unknown

“The most successful people are not necessarily the most popular.” -Author Unknown

“There is only one success . . . to be able to spend your life in your own way, and not to give others absurd maddening claims upon it.” -Christopher Morley (Christopher Darlington Morley (1890 - 1957)): “Where the Blue Begins” (1922)

“If you could find out what the most successful people did in any area and then you did the same thing over and over, you’d eventually get the same results they do.” -Brian Tracy (born 1944)

“He who has never failed somewhere, that man cannot be great.” -Herman Melville (1819 - 1891)

“Success consists of doing the common things of life uncommonly well.” -Author Unknown

“I couldn’t wait for success . . . so I went ahead without it.” -Jonathan Winters (Jonathan Harshman Winters III (1925 - 2013))

“It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.” -Napoleon Hill (Oliver Napoleon Hill (1883 - 1970))

“Behind every success is a succession of failures.” -Rick Beneteau

“I can give you a six-word formula for success: ‘Think things through - then follow through.’” -Eddie Rickenbacker (1890 - 1973)

“Supposing you have tried and failed again and again. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.” -Mary Pickford (born Gladys Louise Smith, also known as Gladys Marie Pickford (1893 - 1979)): as quoted in Carolyn Warner: “The Last Word - A Treasury of Women’s Quotes” (1992)

“Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.” -Joyce Brothers (Joyce Diane Brothers (1927 - 2013))

“Don’t fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have.” -Louis E. Boone (Louis Eugene Boone (1941 - 2005))

“If you fail, never give up, because FAIL means First Attempt In Learning. End is not the end. END means Effort Never Dies. If you get no as an answer, remember NO means Next Opportunity. Positive thinking!” -Author Unknown

“What is called failure is still partial success, because you tried - and success can come only through trying. To achieve complete success, just keep trying.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

“Behind every successful man there are a lot of unsuccessful years.” -Bob Brown

“A failure is not always a mistake; it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.” -B. F. Skinner (Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904 - 1990))

“Success is waking up in the morning, whoever you are, wherever you are, however old or young, and bounding out of bed because there’s something out there you love to do, that you believe in, that you’re good at - something that’s bigger than you are, and you can hardly wait to get at it again today.” -Whit Hobbs

“Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.” -Earl Nightingale (1921 - 1989)

“Success is dependent on effort.” -Sophocles (496 B.C.E. - 406 B.C.E.)

“Success isn’t how far you get, but the distance you travel from where you start.” -Author Unknown

“You are successful the moment you start moving toward a worthwhile goal.” -Chester Floyd Carlson (1906 - 1968)

“It is infinitely more exciting to live a life of catastrophic failures than a life of could-haves, should-haves, and would-haves.” -M. H. Meng (Moh Hon Meng)

Now what could be better than that . . . except possibly what is coming up next . . . on MFOL!

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Inquisitiveness and Curiosity

8/1/2019

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“Curiosity is one of the great secrets of happiness.” -Bryant McGill (born 1969)

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” -Carl Edward Sagan (1934 - 1996)

“I would rather live in a world where life is surrounded by mystery, than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it.” -Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878 - 1969): “Riverside Sermons”

Inquisitive Lad

There once was a boy of Bagdad,
An inquisitive sort of a lad.
He said, “I will see
If a sting has a bee.”
And he very soon found that it had!

by Author Unknown

“A good scientist is a person in whom the childhood quality of perennial curiosity lingers on. Once he gets an answer, he has other questions.” -Frederick Seitz (1911 - 2008)

Patrice: You’re a real curiosity - did you know that?
Shaun: Well, thank you, though I doubt if you shall ever solve me.

“The Quest Quotient has always interested me more than the Intelligence Quotient.” -Eugene S. Wilson (Eugene S. ‘Bill’ Wilson (1905 - 1981)): as quoted in “Reader’s Digest” (April 1968)

“Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.” -James Stephens

“Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why.” -Bernard Baruch (1870 - 1965)

“Be curious always! For knowledge will not acquire you; you must acquire it.” -Sudie Back (Sudie E. Back)

“Leave no stone unturned.” -Euripides (484 B.C.E. - 406 B.C.E.)

“To find what you seek in the road of life, the best proverb of all is that which says: ‘Leave no stone unturned.’” -Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton (1803 - 1873)

“The true delight is in the finding out rather than in the knowing.” -Isaac Asimov (1919 - 1992)

“Look and you will find it - what is unsought will go undetected.” -Sophocles (496 B.C.E. - 406 B.C.E.)

“Curiosity is a willing, a proud, an eager confession of ignorance.” -S. Leonard Rubinstein (Samuel Leonard Rubinstein (1922 - 2013)): “Writing: A Habit of Mind” (1972)

“Be aware of wonder. And then remember the, “Dick and Jane,” books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - look.” -Robert Fulghum (Robert Lee Fulghum (born 1937))

“Not to know is bad; not to wish to know is worse.” -Author Unknown

“Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.” -Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784): as quoted in “The Rambler” (12 March 1751)

“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.” -Eleanor Roosevelt (Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 - 1962))

“A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree of curiosity.” -Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784)

“There are two sorts of curiosity - the momentary and the permanent. The momentary is concerned with the odd appearance on the surface of things. The permanent is attracted by the amazing and consecutive life that flows on beneath the surface of things.” -Robert Lynd (Robert Wilson Lynd (1879 - 1949))

“Curiosity is the one thing invincible in nature.” -Freya Stark (Freya Madeline Stark (1893 - 1993))

“He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.” -Author Unknown

“The greatest virtue of man is perhaps curiosity.” -Anatole France (pseudonym of Jacques Anatole François Thibault (1844 - 1924))

“Curiosity killed the cat.” -Author Unknown: as quoted in the “Los Angeles Times” (22 August 1901) newspaper

Overheard: ‘Curiosity killed the cat’ is a common saying, but until someone shows me the record of the incident, I shall be disinclined to believe it.

“The place where you lose the trail is not necessarily the place where it ends.” -Tom Brown, Junior

Amy: Who crossed the road and left everyone wanting an explanation?
Eva: The chicken.

“The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.” -Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797)

“Satisfaction of one’s curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life.” - Linus Pauling (1901 - 1994)

“Things that people learn purely out of curiosity can have a revolutionary effect on human affairs.” -Frederick Seitz (1911 - 2008): in an interview (3 September 1997) for the George C. Marshall Institute

A ‘clue’ originally meant a ball of thread . . . hence, one ‘unravels’ the clues of a mystery.

“Isn’t it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive - it’s such an interesting world. It wouldn’t be half so interesting if we knew all about everything, would it? There’d be no scope for imagination then, would there?” -L. M. Montgomery (Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874 - 1942)): “Anne of Green Gables” (June 1908), Chapter 2; line spoken by fictional character Anne

“‘Curiouser and curiouser!’ cried Alice.” -Lewis Carroll (pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832 - 1898)): “Alice in Wonderland” (1865), Chapter II

This is MFOL! . . . the website for anyone who has ever been told that he or she is a real curiosity . . . which is what we happily are . . .

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Adventure and Exploration

7/30/2019

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Ernest Henry Shackleton placed the above advertisement in “The Times” (29 December 1913) newspaper of London to recruit men, and in 1914, 28 men set out on the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

“You know all those things you’ve always wanted to do? You should go do them.” -Author Unknown

“Everyone needs a friend that will call and say, ‘Get dressed, we’re going on an adventure.’“ -Author Unknown

“Never say ‘no’ to adventures. Always say ‘yes’; otherwise you’ll lead a very dull life.” -Ian Fleming (Ian Lancaster Fleming (1908 - 1964)): “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car” (22 October 1964)

Flamingo: Why did the chicken cross the road?
Skylark: She was excited at the possibility of new adventures.

“If we were meant to stay in one place, we’d have roots instead of feet.” -Author Unknown

You’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So . . . get on your way!
-Doctor Seuss (pseudonym of Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904 - 1991))

“Maybe it won’t work out. But maybe seeing if it does will be the best adventure ever.” -Author Unknown

“One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” -André Gide (André Paul Guillaume Gide (1869 - 1951)): “Les faux-monnayeurs” (English: “The Counterfeiters”) (1925)

“I can’t say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.” -Daniel Boone (1734 - 1820), (June 1819), as quoted in Chester Harding: “My Egotistigraphy” (1866)

“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are for.” -John A. Shedd (John Augustus Shedd (1859 - 1928)): “Salt from My Attic” (1928), page 20 (similar quotation attributed to William G. T. Shedd)

“If you’re not lost, you’re not much of an explorer.” -John Perry Barlow (born 1947)

“You are about to begin the hero’s journey. Travel well on the quest. A life of more is your birthright. Know the vast resources that reside in you and are provided for you in the world. You have raised the battle cry of, ‘There must be more than this.’” -Judith Wright

“To forever new frontiers!” -Author Unknown

“They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.” -Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)

“Adventure can be real happiness.” -Author Unknown

“A man practices the art of adventure when he breaks the chain of routine and renews his life through reading new books, traveling to new places, making new friends, taking up new hobbies and adopting new viewpoints.” -Wilfred A. Peterson

“The adventure is just beginning.” -Susan Greenfield

“Go everywhere, do everything.” -Author Unknown

“The world is not in your books and maps. It’s out there.” -J. R. R. Tolkien (John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892 - 1973)): “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” (28 November 2012) movie; words spoken by character Gandalf

“Adventure awaits.” -Author Unknown

“Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world . . .” -Herman Melville (1819 - 1891): “Moby Dick” (18 October 1851)

“Your current safe boundaries were once unknown frontiers.” -Author Unknown

“It’s when you’re safe at home that you wish you were having an adventure. When you’re having an adventure you wish you were safe at home.” -Thornton Wilder (Thornton Niven Wilder (1897 - 1975))

“Time for a new adventure.” -Author Unknown

There was a young lady named Laura,
Who went to the wilds of Angora,
She came back on a goat
With a beautiful coat,
And notes of the fauna and flora.
-William Cosmo Monkhouse

“Where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders.” -Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)

“Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are setting out into an unknown country, to face many a danger, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle.” -Annie Besant (1847 - 1933)

“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 - 1910)); attributed and possibly apocryphal

“The world is yours to explore.” -Author Unknown

“Whoever starts out toward the unknown must consent to venture alone.” -André Gide (André Paul Guillaume Gide (1869 - 1951))

“Grand adventures await those who are willing to turn the corner.” -Author Unknown

Who never walks, save where he sees men’s tracks
Makes no discoveries.
-Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819 - 1881): “Kathrina: Her Life and Mine” (1867), part 3

“And then I realized adventures are the best way to learn.” -Author Unknown

“One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure.” -William A. Feather (William Arthur Feather (1889 - 1981))

“The growth of the human mind is still high adventure, in many ways, the highest adventure on Earth.” -Norman Cousins (1915 - 1990)

Mission top secret,
Destination unknown -
Don’t even know
When we’re coming home.
-Author Unknown: American military double-time marching cadence

“Can’t keep still all day . . . I like adventures, and I’m going to find one.” -Louisa May Alcott (1832 - 1888): “Little Women” (volume 1, 1868 and volume 2, 1869)

Where to Find Adventure and Where to Explore
- The bottom of the ocean.
- Libraries and museums.
- Wilderness areas including forests, deserts, tundra, and woodlands.
- Beautify your neighborhood.
- Interests such as mathematics and biology.
- Start a business or nonprofit venture.
Where else can people find adventure and explore?

“You should know there is adventure in simply being among those we love and the things we love, and beauty, too.” -Lloyd Alexander

“The explorers of the past were great men and we should honor them. But let us not forget that their spirit lives on. It is still not hard to find a man who will adventure for the sake of a dream or one who will search, for the pleasure of searching, not for what he may find.” -Edmund Hillary (Edmund Percival Hillary (1919 - 2008))

“The only life worth living is the adventurous life. Of such a life a dominate characteristic is that it is unafraid. It is unafraid of what people think. Like Columbus, it dares not only to assert a belief but live in the face of contrary opinion. It does not adopt either its pace or its objectives to the pace and objectives of its neighbors. It thinks its own thoughts, it reads its own books, it develops its own hobbies, and it is governed by its own conscience. The herd may graze where it pleases, but he who lives the adventurous life will remain unafraid when he finds himself alone.” -Raymond B. Fosdick

“You must go on adventures to find out where you belong.” -Sue Fitzmaurice

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” -Confucius (K’ung Fu-tzu or K’ung Ch’iu (about 551 B.C.E. - about 479 B.C.E.))

“Among my favorite half-dozen topics in the field of Victorian female explorers, the intrepid women who packed up their parasols and petticoats and roamed the world in search of adventure. Some were scientists, some artists, some unabashed curiosity-seekers who simply went out to see what they could see.” -Deanna Raybourn

“To young men contemplating a voyage I would say go.” -Joshua Slocum

“Old men ought to be explorers.” -T. S. Eliot (Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888 - 1965)): “Four Quartets,” ‘East Coker’ (1940)

“It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves.” -André Gide (André Paul Guillaume Gide (1869 - 1951))

“Adventure is worthwhile in itself.” -Amelia Earhart (Amelia Mary Earhart (1897 - 1937))

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” -Helen Keller (Helen Adams Keller (1880 - 1968))

“It’s a magical world, Hobbes, ol’ buddy . . . Let’s go exploring!” -Bill Waterson (Bill Waterson II (born 1958)): “Calvin and Hobbes,” last panel, line spoken by fictional character Calvin

This MFOL! . . . make an adventure of your life and never stop exploring . . .

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Faces and Facial Expressions

7/26/2019

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Remember what your mother always said: “If you keeping making that expression, your face will get stuck that way permanently . . . and you’ll look like that for the rest of your life!”

“Nature gave you your face, but you have to provide the expression.” -Author Unknown

“Your expression is the most important thing you can wear.” -Sid Ascher

There was an Old Person of Down,
Whose face was adorned with a frown;
When he opened the door,
For one minute or more,
He alarmed all the people of Down.
-Edward Lear (1812 -1888): “More Nonsense, Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, Etc.” (1872), limerick 29

“I’ve been smiling all day . . . and it’s really starting to hurt my face.” -Author Unknown

Time for your facial workout! Remember, it takes 17 muscles in your face to make a smile, and 43 muscles to make a frown.

“The expression we wear on our face is far more important than the clothes we wear on our back.” -Author Unknown

“Want a face ‘lift’? Wear a smile.” -Author Unknown

Things To Do with Your Face
□ Wink
□ Raise your eyebrows
□ Stick out your tongue
□ Cry
□ Grimace
□ Grin
□ Frown
□ Smile
□ Pout
□ Wiggle your ears
What else can you do with your face?

“Keep smiling - it makes people wonder what you are up to!” -Author Unknown

“A wink is a little piece of your heart, a wordless smile, a special link.” -J. L. W. Brooks

The human face has 43 muscles that create 10,000 expressions. It would take a lifetime for a person to try them all out.

“Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important.” -Janet Lane

“Our work is not done . . . until there is a smile on every face.” -Author Unknown

This is MFOL! . . . where you can bring your frown and exchange it for a smile . . .

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Affirmations

7/24/2019

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I fill my mind with positive thoughts that create positive outcomes.

What are affirmations? Affirmations are expressions that can transform your life by influencing the way you think about yourself, others, and the world around you. When you change how you think, you change how you speak and how you act, and the results can be immensely rewarding.

Today, I will concentrate on taking one step forward, however small it might be.

Today I will be the best me that I know how to be.

Following is the ‘formula’ first used at the clinic of psychologist Émile Coué in Nancy, France. What he called his ‘formula’ was an affirmation, which he prescribed to his patients, to be repeated by them 15 to 20 times in the morning and again in the evening of each day:

“Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.” -Émile Coué (Émile Coué de la Châtaigneraie (1857 - 1926)): “How to Practice Suggestion and Autosuggestion” (1923)

A limerick may provide further insight:

On Monsieur Coué

This very remarkable man
Commends a most practical plan:
You can do what you want
If you don’t think you can’t,
So don’t think you can’t - think you can.

by Charles Cuthbert Inge (1868 - 1957): “The Week-end Book” (1928), page 217

I am intelligent and capable of success in any endeavor which I may choose.

“As long as you know what it is you desire, then by simply affirming that it is yours - firmly and positively, with no ifs, buts, or maybes - over and over again, from the minute you arise in the morning until the time you go to sleep at night, and as many times during the day as your work or activities permit, you will be drawn to those people, places, and events that will bring your desires to you.” -Scott Reed

I have confidence.

New opportunities are calling to me and I am ready to answer the call.

You can create your own affirmations, or select affirmations from those found in this topic that you believe best apply to you and your particular circumstances. Write your affirmations on a piece of paper, and place it where you will be sure to read it daily, as for example, on your car dashboard, on your refrigerator door, or on your bedroom mirror. You could also type affirmations into your cell phone or other device. If you keep a diary or journal, consider challenging yourself to write a new affirmation in it for each day.

What I have done before I can do again, even better.

“I am optimistic and confident in all that I do. I affirm only the best for myself and others. I am the creator of my life and my world. I meet daily challenges gracefully and with complete confidence. I fill my mind with positive, nurturing, and healing thoughts.” -Alice Potter

I like fresh salads.

“It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief, and once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.” -Claude M. Bristol (Claude Myron Bristol (1891 - 1951)): “The Magic of Believing” (1948)

I can accomplish anything I set my mind to.

“I am - the two most powerful words in the world, for whatever we put after them becomes our reality.” -Susan Howson

I am worthy of the respect, attention, and love that I receive from others.

“Affirmations are a form of thought training - training yourself how to think, just as running every day conditions an athlete to compete in a footrace, or studying every day prepares a student for a test.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

I see the best in myself and others.

I have confidence to try new things.

“You are what you think about all day long.” -Robert H. Schuller (Robert Harold Schuller (1926 - 2015))

I feel good about myself.

“Change your thoughts and you change your world.” -Norman Vincent Peale (1898 - 1993)

I am stronger than everything that happened in the past.
I am stronger than my present circumstances.
I am strong today and will be even stronger tomorrow.

I appreciate and acknowledge the participation and contributions of others.

“One comes to believe whatever one repeats to oneself sufficiently often, whether the statement be true of false. It comes to be dominating thought in one’s mind.” -Robert Collier (1885 - 1950)

I can face my fears and work to overcome them.

“I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.” -Audrey Hepburn (1929 - 1993)

I focus on what I can do right now.

“What we continually think about eventually will manifest in our lives.” -Robert Collier (1885 - 1950)

“I’m not here to be average, I’m here to be awesome!” -Author Unknown

The ghosts of my past can no longer haunt me.

I enjoy saving money and investing money.

“I really like who I am.” -Geordi Laforge, character played by actor LeVar Burton in “Star Trek,” ‘Loud as a Whisper’ (9 January 1989)

I will remain confident and unaffected by negative attitudes around me.

Life is good and getting better.

“I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.” -Watty Piper (pseudonym of Arnold H. Munk (1886 - 1957)): “The Little Engine That Could” (1930)

I am patient with myself.

I begin working on tasks the moment the thought of the tasks occurs to me.

“What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.” -Otto Rank (1884 - 1939)

I can live my life without knowing all of the answers.

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” -attributed to Solomon: as quoted in “The Bible,” ‘Book of Proverbs,’ chapter 23, verse 7

I feel happiness and joy just from being alive.

“If my mind can conceive it and my heart can believe it I know I can achieve it.” -Author Unknown

I am able to relax and maintain good form when around strangers or in unfamiliar situations.

I can help others without expecting them to give me anything in return.

I am at peace with myself and the Universe.

“Affirmations provide a way to inoculate against negative thinking.” -Author Unknown

I will live as if my dreams are possible, and work each day to make them happen.

I am a good person.

“Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.” -Brené Brown

I feel great when I go on a walk.

I am a responsible person.

“Every word you speak and every thought you think is an affirmation for your future.” -Cheryl Richardson at http://www.cherylrichardson.com/

I like who I am becoming.

I speak with confidence and calm assurance.

What is self-talk? Self-talk is simply another term for affirmations. You can choose to say affirmations aloud, or say them silently to yourself, or write them on paper or read them.

I keep myself in excellent physical condition.

I always have time for my friends.

I can learn how to live with pain so that I can get what I want from my life.

“The most influential person who will talk to you all day is you, so you should be very careful about what you say to you!” -Zig Ziglar (Hilary Hinton ‘Zig’ Ziglar (1926 - 2012))

Today I am planting the seeds of new beginnings.

I am a friendly person.

“Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality.” -Earl Nightingale (1921 - 1989)

I am doing pretty good - how can I do better?

I seek new adventures.

“I am in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing.” -Louise L. Hay (Louise Lynn Hay (born 1926)) at www.louisehay.com

I am in charge of my feelings, and today I am choosing happiness.

“My life is my business. I don’t let somebody else run it.” -Author Unknown

“Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.” -Napoleon Hill (Oliver Napoleon Hill (1883 - 1970))

I am too blessed to be stressed!

If we are what we think about, what should we think about?

I am divinely guided in all that I do.

“Our minds can shape the way a thing will be because we act according to our expectations.” -Federico Fellini (1920 - 1993)

I am a good listener.

I will imagine the best and focus on that.

I am living in the present moment: the here and now.

“Say affirmations ‘as if’ they were already a reality.” -Author Unknown

I can enjoy leisure without guilt and anxiety.

I can handle criticism with ease.

Today I view my childhood without shame.

I am a friend to myself. I love me.

I am ready for a fresh start, a new perspective, and an ‘I can do it’ attitude.

At MFOL! our affirmation is, “We are funny today, and we will be even funnier tomorrow!”

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Life and Living

7/21/2019

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“I like life. It’s something to do.” -Ronnie Shakes (born Ronald Michael Sakele (1947 - 1987))

“Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful.” -Annette Funicello (Annette Joanne Funicello (1942 – 2013))

Life

When life seems just a dreary grind,
     And things seem fated to annoy,
Say something nice to someone else
     And watch the world light up with joy.

by Author Unknown

“I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun.” -Katharine Hepburn (Katharine Houghton Hepburn (1907 - 2003))

“Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.” -Samuel Butler (1835 - 1902): “The Note-Books of Samuel Butler” (1912), ‘Life,’ ix

“Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.” -Brendan Gill (1914 - 1997)

The World

This world that we’re a livin’ in
     Is mighty hard to beat;
You git¹ a thorn with ev’ry² rose,
     But ain’t the roses sweet!

-Frank L. Stanton (Frank Lebby Stanton (1857 - 1927))
¹ git: get
² ev’ry: every

“It never gets easier, you just go faster.” -Greg LeMond (Gregory James ‘Greg’ LeMond (born 1961))

“From now until the end of time no one else will ever see life with my eyes, and I mean to make the best of my chance.” -Christopher Darlington Morley (1890 - 1957)

“Murphy’s First Law of Infinite Priority: ‘Whatever you set out to do, something else must be done first.’” -Author Unknown

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” -George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

Overheard: How can I control my life when I cannot control my hair?

“Life’s not always fair. Sometimes you can get a splinter even sliding down a rainbow.” -Terri Guillemets (born 1973)

“The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand other things well.” -Hugh Walpole (Hugh Seymour Walpole (1884 - 1941))

Life

Inch by inch,
     Life is a cinch.
Yard by yard,
     Life is hard.

by John Updike (John Hoyer Updike (1932 - 2009))

“Life’s tragedy is that we grow old too soon and wise too late.” -Author Unknown

“I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life. The problem is that I can’t find anybody who can tell me what they want.” -Mark Twain (pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 - 1910))

“So one thing I want to say about life is don’t be scared and don’t hang back, and most of all, don’t waste it.” -Joan W. Blos (Joan Winsor Blos (1928 - 2017)): “A Gathering of Days” (1979)

“To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone, and a funnybone.” -Reba McEntire (Reba Nell McEntire (born 1955))

“You live and learn. Or at any rate, you live.” -Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)

“Life is half spent before we know what it is.” -George Herbert (1593 - 1633): “Jacula Prudentum” (English: “Outlandish Proverbs”) (1640)

“Life is a series of commas, not periods.” -Matthew McConaughey (Matthew David McConaughey (born 1969))

“Life is a series of events strung together like a phrase of a sentence forever changing and forever adapting. Turn the page and read on.” -Author Unknown

“My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.” -Cary Grant (pseudonym of Archibald Alexander Leach (1904 - 1986))

“Now it is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it . . .” -W. Somerset Maugham (William Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965)): “The Mixture as Before” (1940), ‘The Treasure’

“I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific.” -Lily Tomlin (Mary Jean Tomlin (born 1939))

“The greatest gift . . . is the realization that life does not consist either of wallowing in the past or of peering anxiously at the future; and it is appalling to contemplate the great number of often painful steps by which one arrives at a truth so old, so obvious, and so frequently expressed. It is good for one to appreciate that life is now. Whether it offers little or much, life is now - this day - this hour.” -Charles Macomb Flandrau (1871 - 1938): “Viva Mexico” (1912), chapter 7

“Plunge boldly into the thick of life!” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.” -T. S. Eliot (Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888 - 1965)): “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1915)

“The problem of life is not to make life easier, but to make people stronger.” -David Starr Jordan (1851 - 1931)

“Life is not so much a matter of position as of disposition.” -Author Unknown

“In spite of the cost of living, it’s still popular.” -Kathy Norris (Kathleen Thompson Norris (1880 - 1966))

“Life is made up of giving and getting, forgiving and forgetting.” -Author Unknown

“Life is a verb.” -Author Unknown

“May you live all the days of your life.” -Jonathan Swift (1667 - 1745)

“Life is an endless struggle full of frustrations and challenges, but eventually you find a hairstylist you like.” -Author Unknown

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” -Neale Donald Walsch (born 1943)

Overheard: When your dreams turn to dust, vacuum.

“We are most alive when we’re in love.” -John Updike (John Hoyer Updike (1932 - 2009))

“I think I’ve discovered the secret of life - you just hang around until you get used to it.” -Charles Schulz (Charles Monroe ‘Sparky’ Schulz (1922 - 2000))

“Life is nothing without friendship.” -Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 B.C.E. - 43 B.C.E.))

Overheard: You can’t have everything - where would you put it all?

“You have to take the bitter with the sweet.” -John Heywood (about 1497 - 1580): “All the Proverbs in the English Language” (1546)

“There are two means of refuge from the misery of life: music and cats.” -Albert Schweitzer (1875 - 1965)

“Everything has been figured out except how to live.” -Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 - 1980)

“Possibly the game of Life cannot be won; but if it can be won, it will be the players in the game who win it, not the superior people who pride themselves on not knowing the difference between a fair ball and a foul, to say nothing of those in the grandstand or in the bleachers whose contribution is throwing pop bottles at the umpire.” -Max Carl Otto (1876 - 1968)

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” -Author Unknown

“When one subtracts from life infancy (which is vegetation), sleep, eating and swilling, buttoning and unbuttoning - how much remains of downright existence? The Summer of a dormouse.” -Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron (1788 - 1824))

“Life may not be the party we had hoped for, but while we’re here, we should dance.” -Author Unknown

“Life goes by so quickly - we have to make every moment count.” -Author Unknown

“Too much credit is given to the end result. The true lesson is in the struggle that takes place between the dream and reality. That struggle is a thing called life!” -Garth Brooks

“Live each day in a way that will make you feel good about yourself tomorrow.” -Author Unknown

“The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly.” -Cecil B. Demille (1881 - 1959)

“Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.” -Author Unknown

“Life goes quickly. Seize it!” -Author Unknown

“Life is a journey and it helps to have a map.” -Author Unknown

“Life is not always what one wants it to be, but to make the best of it, as it is, is the only way of being happy.” -Jennie Jerome Churchill (1854 - 1921)

“Be a life long or short, its completeness depends on what it was lived for.” -David Starr Jordan (1851 - 1931)

“Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.” -Ernestine Ulmer (born 1925)

“Our life is what we make it by our own thoughts and deeds.” -James Allen (1864 - 1912): “Light on Life’s Difficulties” (1912)

No Problem

Life is easier than you think.
All you have to do is:
accept the impossible,
do without the indispensable,
bear the intolerable,
and be able to smile at anything.

by Kathleen Norris (Kathleen Thompson ‘Kathy’ Norris (1880 - 1966))

“Just living is not enough . . . one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” -Hans Christian Andersen (1805 - 1875)

“Work hard, play hard.” -Author Unknown

“What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.” -Sidonie Gabrielle Colette (1873 - 1954)

“Every day I beat my own previous record for the number of consecutive days I’ve stayed alive.” -George Carlin (1937 - 2008)

“Life is not always fair, but it can still be good if you work hard to make it that way.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

Young Man of Cadiz

There was a young man of Cadiz,
Who concluded that life is what it is;
     For he early had learnt,
     If it were what it weren’t,
It could not be that which it is.

by Author Unknown

“No one finds life worth living; one must make it worth living.” -Author Unknown

“Life moves pretty fast! If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” -Author Unknown

Overheard: Life would be so much easier if everyone read the manual.

“Life is only traveled once. Today’s moment becomes tomorrow’s memory. Enjoy every moment, good or bad, because the gift of life is life itself.” -Author Unknown

“Not only strike while the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking.” -Oliver Cromwell (1599 - 1658): letter (1658)

“Life is always at some turning point.” -Irwin Edman (1896 - 1954)

“Life is like a camel - you can make it do anything except back up.” -Marcelene Cox

“All of life is learning; therefore education can never end.” -Eduard Lindeman (Eduard Christian Lindeman (1885 - 1953))

’Tis not so bad a world
     As some would like to make it -
But whether good or whether bad
     Depends on how you take it.
-Author Unknown

“A happy life is made up of little things - a gift sent, a letter written, a call made, a recommendation given, transportation provided, a cake made, a book lent, a check sent.” -Carol Holmes

“Start living now. Stop saving the good china for that special occasion. Stop withholding your love until that special person materializes. Every day you are alive is a special occasion. Every minute, every breath, is a gift from God.” -Mary Manin Morrissey (born 1949): as quoted in John D. Moore: “Quotations for Martial Artists” (2003), page 3

“Live all you can - it’s a mistake not to. It doesn’t so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven’t had that, what have you had?” -Henry James (Henry James, Junior (1843 - 1916))

“Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars.” -Henry Van Dyke (1852 - 1933)

“Live, and be happy, and make others so.” -Mary Shelley (1797 - 1851)

Laugh a little more . . . learn a little more . . . love life a little more . . . every day . . . with Make Fun Of Life!

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Laughter and Laughing

7/17/2019

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Laughter has magical properties . . .

“Laughing is the sensation of feeling good all over, and showing it principally in one spot.” -Josh Billings (pseudonym of Henry Wheeler Shaw (1818 - 1885))

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.” -Charles Dickens (Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812 - 1870))

“I like people who make me laugh. I honestly think that laughing is the thing I like most. It cures a multitude of ills. It’s probably the most important thing in a person.” -Audrey Hepburn (1929 - 1993)

Overheard: I just want to spend the rest of my life laughing.

“Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.” -Bob Newhart (George Robert ‘Bob’ Newhart (born 1929))

“I think laughter may be a form of courage.” -Linda Ellerbee (born 1944)

“There is little success where there is little laughter.” -Andrew Carnegie (1835 - 1919)

“The amount you laugh in your relationships with others is the true measure of the health of your personality.” -Brian Tracy (born 1944)

“You know, there’s endorphins in laughter, as there are endorphins in running in the park.” -Marlo Thomas (Margaret Julia ‘Marlo’ Thomas (born 1937))

Just Laughin’

Did it ever occur to you
Of the good that you might do,
Just Laughin’.
Did you ever stop to think
That a sorrow you could sink,
Just Laughin’.
The world is like a dream,
Your thoughts are mostly clean,
When you’re laughin’.
The whole world seems more bright,
Everything turns out right,
Just Laughin’.
Victory seems to be your pace
And love just floods most every face,
Just Laughin’.
Everyone’s so bright and gay,
Work just seems to be like play
When you’re laughin’.
You’ll find the world much sweeter
And yourself will feel much better,
Just Laughin’.
Life itself would be so fine,
You can make it more divine,
Just Laughin’.
It’s the little things you do
And you know God loves you too,
When you’re laughin’.

by Hudson W. Cady (Hudson Waterman Cady (1894 - 1973))

“A laugh is a smile that bursts.” -Mary H. Waldrip (Mary Helen Waldrip (1914 - 1988))

“So many tangles in life are ultimately hopeless that we have no appropriate sword other than laughter.” -Gordon W. Allport (Gordon Willard Allport (1897 - 1967))

Laughter is good exercise. Each time a person laughs, he or she burns an average of 3.5 calories.

“Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.” -Author Unknown

“Laughing helps; it’s like jogging on the inside.” -Author Unknown

“The One whose throne is in Heaven sits laughing . . .” -Author Unknown: as quoted in “The Bible,” ‘Book of Psalms,’ chapter 2, verse 4

“Laugh at yourself, before anyone else can.” -Elsa Maxwell (1883 - 1963)

Daryl: Why is it a bad idea to laugh at people when they are down?
Lydia: They might get up!

“Never be afraid to laugh at yourself. After all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century.” -Dame Edna Everage (fictional character portrayed by John Barry Humphries (born 1934))

“Laugh, if you are wise.” -Marcus Valerius Martialis (also known simply as Martial (about C.E. 40 - about C.E. 103))

“At first, I only laughed at myself. Then I noticed that life itself is amusing. I’ve been in a generally good mood ever since.” -Marilyn vos Savant (born 1946)

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Laughing Time

It was laughing time, and the tall Giraffe
     Lifted up his head, and began to laugh:
     Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

And the Chimpanzee on the ginkgo tree
     Swung merrily down with a “Tee Hee Hee”:
     Hee! Hee! Hee! Hee!

“It’s certainly not against the law!”
     Croaked Justice Crow with a loud guffaw:
     Haw! Haw! Haw! Haw!

The Dancing Bear who could never say, “No”
     Waltzed up and down on the tip of his toe:
     Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho!

The Donkey daintily took his paw,
     And around they went: “Hee-Haw! Hee-Haw!”
     Hee-Haw! Hee-Haw!

The Moon had to smile as it started to climb;
     All over the world it was laughing time!
     Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Hee-Haw! Hee-Haw!
     Hee! Hee! Hee! Hee! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

by William Jay Smith (1918 - 2015): “Laughing Time” (1955)

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“If you can laugh at it, you can live with it.” -Erma Bombeck (Erma Louise Bombeck (1927 - 1996))

“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.” -Victor Borge (born as Bǿrge Rosenbaum (1909 - 2000))

“A laugh’s the wisest, easiest answer to all that’s queer.” -Herman Melville (1819 - 1891): “Moby Dick” (18 October 1851)

“Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.” -Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 - 1910))

“Once you get people laughing, they’re listening, and you can tell them almost anything.” -Herbert Gardner

“A laugh is worth a hundred groans in any market.” -Charles Lamb (1775 - 1834)

“At the height of laughter, the Universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities.” -Jean Houston (born 1937)

“Laughter is to life what shock absorbers are to automobiles. It won’t take the potholes out of the road, but it sure makes the ride smoother.” -Barbara Johnson

“Learn to laugh at your troubles and you’ll never run out of things to laugh at.” -Lyn Karol

“Of all days, the day on which one has not laughed is the one most surely wasted.” -Nicolas Chamfort (Sébastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort (1741 - 1794))

“Laughter is an instant vacation.” -Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger (1908 - 2002))

“Beware of too much laughter, for it deadens the mind and produces oblivion.” -Author Unknown: as quoted in “The Talmud”

“A good laugh is sunshine in the house.” -William Makepeace Thackeray (1811 - 1863)

“Laughter is the corrective force which prevents us from becoming cranks.” -Henri Bergson (Henri-Louis ‘Henri’ Bergson (1859 - 1941))

“He who laughs, lasts!” -Mary Pettibone Poole (? - 1941): “A Glass Eye at a Key Hole” (1938); type of work: book of aphorisms and apothegms

“Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity, but as a remedy . . . that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat of the moment. Banish tension and concern and worry with laughter at your predicaments, thus freeing your mind to think clearly toward the solution that is certain to come. Never take yourself too seriously.” -Og Mandino (Augustine ‘Og’ Mandino II (1923 - 1996)): “A Better Way to Live” (1990), ‘Rule Eleven’

“A good time to laugh is any time you can.” -Linda Ellerbee (born 1944)

“Those who cannot laugh at themselves leave the job to others.” -Author Unknown

“Sharing laughter heals hearts.” -Patsy Clairmont (born 1945)

“Laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.” -Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron (1788 - 1824))

“Laughter is the best medicine.” -Norman Vincent Peale (1898 - 1993)

What are the benefits of laughter? Laughter really is good medicine. Yes, studies have shown it time after time! Laughter lowers blood pressure, creates much better moods around the house, prevents illnesses, speeds up healing, and produces endorphins just like runners experience when they reach their peak running level, which prevents pain sensors from hurting so badly. Laughing may lower levels of stress hormones and strengthen the immune system.

“Laughter is the Sun that drives Winter from the human face.” -Victor Hugo (Victor Marie Hugo (1802 - 1885))

“Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone.” -Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850 - 1919) (1883)

“If you don’t learn to laugh at trouble, you won’t have anything to laugh at when you are old.” -Edgar Watson Howe (1854 - 1937): as attributed in “Forbes” (1980)

“Laughter translates into any language.” -Author Unknown

“Laughter is God’s hand on the shoulders of a troubled world.” -Minnie Pearl (pseudonym of Sarah Ophelia Colley (1912 - 1996))

“As a general rule, the freedom of any people can be judged by the volume of their laughter.” -Author Unknown

“You show your character in nothing more clearly that by what you think laughable.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

“I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing.” -Herman Melville (1819 - 1891): “Moby Dick” (18 October 1851)

“Joyfulness keeps the heart and face young. A good laugh makes us better friends with ourselves and everybody around us.” -Orison S. Marden (Orison Swett Marden (1850 - 1924))

“If you laugh a lot, when you get older your wrinkles will be in the right places.” -Andrew Mason

“Man alone suffers so excruciatingly in the world that he was compelled to invent laughter.” -Friedrich Nietzsche (Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844 - 1900))

“It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.” -Lucius Annaeus Seneca (also known as Seneca the Younger or simply as Seneca (3 B.C.E. - C.E. 65))

World Laughter Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of May of every year. The first celebration was on 10 January 1998 in Mumbai, India, and was arranged by Doctor Madan Kataria, founder of the worldwide Laughter Yoga movement.

“The person who knows how to laugh at himself will never cease to be amused.” -Shirley MacLaine (pseudonym of Shirley MacLean Beaty (born 1934))

“A complete revaluation takes place in your physical and mental being when you’ve laughed and had some fun.” -Catherine Ponder (born 1927)

This is MFOL! Have you laughed today? If not, there is still time . . . just continue reading . . .

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Astronomy

7/13/2019

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Astronomy is for those who never stop looking up . . .

“We can’t all be stars, but we can all sparkle.” -Author Unknown

What are stars? Stars are massive spheres, or balls, of very hot burning gases, called plasma, held together by their own gravity. Most stars contain mostly hydrogen, with small amounts of helium. Some stars have tiny amounts of other elements as well.

“At night, an enormous blanket is placed over the Earth to keep it warm. The blanket is very old and worn out, and so it has many tiny holes in it. The holes where the Sun’s light comes through are called stars.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

Stars form in nebulas, which are large gaseous areas of space. As gravity attracts and condenses more and more gas into clusters, young stars called protostars start to form.

“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.” -William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

Stars radiate energy created from nuclear fusion, which is a process that takes place in a star’s core and involves hydrogen fusing, or burning, to make helium. Once nuclear fusion has begun in the core, a star is sufficiently fueled to spend the majority of its life as a main sequence star, or twinkly thing, in its most stable form.

The Star

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
     How I wonder what you are.
Giant thermonuclear reaction,
     Held by gravitational attraction.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
     You look small ’cause you’re so far.
As you burn through constant fusion,
     Your twinkle’s just an optical illusion
That happens when your light gets near,
     Distorted by our atmosphere.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
     Spreading light and heat so far.
As you use up fuel you’ll grow,
     And give off a scarlet glow.
Maybe you’ll go supernova
     Exploding elements all over.
Now I know just what you are,
     And I know I’m made of stars.

by Author Unknown: parody of “The Star” by Jane Taylor (1806)

“Even a small star shines in the darkness.” -Author Unknown: Finnish proverb

A brown dwarf forms if a star does not become hot enough to reach nuclear fusion. While a brown dwarf has failed to become a proper star, it is not a planet because it does glow dimly.

“There are stars called white dwarfs and red giants . . . but, alas, no jelly donuts.” -Author Unknown

The most common stars are red dwarfs. They are less than half the size and mass of our Sun, and burn their fuel very slowly. Red dwarfs last longer than any other type of star, at more than 100 billion years. They are cooler than most stars, and so shine less, eventually growing dimmer.

“We are made of stardust. Every atom of every element in your body except for hydrogen has been manufactured inside stars, scattered across the Universe in great stellar explosions, and recycled to become part of you.” -John Gribbin (John R. Gribbin (born 1946)): “Stardust” (10 September 2000)

When smaller stars such as red dwarfs or red giants use up all of their fuel and nuclear fusion slows, they start to die, and become small white dwarf stars, which emit white light until they finally darken into black dwarfs.

“All men have stars, but they are not the same things for different people. For some, who are travelers, the stars are guides. For others they are no more than little lights in the sky. For others, who are scholars, they are problems . . . But all these stars are silent. You - you alone, will have stars as no one else has them . . .” -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger (1900 - 1944))

A dwarf star is so dense that it would take eight people to lift a teaspoonful of its matter. As yellow dwarf stars like our Sun start to run out of hydrogen fuel, the core shrinks, heats, and pushes out the rest of the star, turning it into a red giant.

Wish Upon a Star

Star light, star bright,
     The first star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
     Have this wish I wish tonight.

by Author Unknown

Red supergiants, such as Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion, make our Sun look small, having 20 times its mass, and being 1,000 times bigger in size. Red hypergiants, such as the largest known star, VY Canis Majoris, are even bigger, at more than 1,800 times the size of our Sun.

“It is often in the darkest skies that we see the brightest stars.” -Author Unknown

Big stars like supergiants and hypergiants have shorter lives because they consume their fuel at a faster rate than smaller stars. As these massive stars die, they explode into massive bright supernovas.

“Why does someone believe you when you say there are four hundred billion stars in the sky, but when you say the paint is wet they have to touch it themselves to find out?” -Author Unknown

Star matter blown apart in supernova explosions forms new stellar nebulas (or nebulae), and the process of making stars begins all over again.

“Stars are beautiful, but they may not take an active part in anything; they must just look on forever. It is a punishment put on them for something they did so long ago that no star now knows what it is.” -J. M. Barrie (James Matthew Barrie (1860 - 1937)): “Peter Pan” (????)

Very heavy stars that go supernova can actually turn into black holes, while other supernovas leave behind white neutron stars that are 20 to 40 kilometers (12.5 to 25 miles) in diameter and have dense cores made of neutrons.

Riddle: I shine high in the sky - what am I?
Solution: I am a star.

As a star approaches the end of its life, it begins to change the helium into heavier chemical elements, such as carbon and oxygen, and the star will begin to change its color, density, mass, and size.

“With every passing hour our solar system comes forty-three thousand miles closer to globular cluster M13 in the constellation Hercules, and still there are some misfits who continue to insist that there is no such thing as progress.” -Kurt Vonnegut, Junior (1922 - 2007): “The Sirens of Titan” (1959), type of work: novel; line spoken by fictional character Ransom K. Ferm (printed as Ransom K. Fern in some instances)

Astronomers . . . mapping the way to future homeworlds for humanity . . .

An ancient astronomer stayed up all night trying to figure out where the Sun had gone. In the morning, it finally dawned on him.

Stars range in color depending on how hot they are. In order from lowest to highest temperature, they can be brown, red, orange, yellow, white, or blue in color.

“Stars have always helped me to get things into perspective . . . I tried to let the starlight heal something deep in me that hurt.” -Madeleine L’Engle (Madeleine L’Engle Camp (1918 - 2007))

Stars are often between 1 and 10 billion years old. Some stars may even be close to the age of the observed Universe, at nearly 13.8 billion years old.

There are more stars in the Universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches of the world. We know this because we have been traveling the world’s beaches with a pencil, a notebook, and a magnifying glass, counting all of the itsy-bitsy granules of sand . . . if you see us out there, be sure to say hello!

Stars

The stars are tiny daisies high,
     Opening and shutting in the sky.
The daisies are the stars below,
     Twinkling and sparkling as they grow.

by Authors Unknown

Each galaxy contains hundreds of billions of stars and there are estimated to be more than 100 billion galaxies in the Universe. The total number of stars in the Universe is mind boggling, estimated to be at least 70 sextillion and possibly as high as 300 sextillion, which is 300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

“Put three grains of sand inside a vast cathedral, and the cathedral will be more closely packed with sand than space is with stars.” -James Jeans (James Hopwood Jeans (1877 - 1946)): as attributed in Laurence J. Peter’s “Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time” (1993)

Our Milky Way Galaxy is an area in space crowded with lots of stars - so many that it resembles a road of spilled milk. That is how it got its name! There are estimated to be somewhere between 200 and 400 billion stars in the Milky Way.

Galaxies are speeding away from Earth at 90,000 miles per second. What do you suppose they know that we don’t?

The light emitted by 200,000 galaxies makes our Universe a shade of beige. Scientists call the color ‘cosmic latte.’ Of course, if a scientist is up late at night looking at stars, it might be because he or she is highly caffeinated.

“There they stand, the innumerable stars, shining in order like a living hymn, written in light.” -Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806 - 1867)

The light from stars takes millions of years to reach Earth, so when you look at the stars, you are literally looking back in time.

“The stars are not so strange as the mind that studies them, analyzes their light, and measures their distances.” -Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878 - 1969): “On Being a Real Person” (1943)

While a clear night sky may appear to be full of stars, there are really only about 2,000 to 3,000 stars visible to the unaided eye, meaning without the use of a telescope. These stars are all either close to the Earth or intensely luminous, meaning very bright, like yourself.

Visiting an observatory, the backwoods man watched the astronomer look through his telescope. Just then a star fell. “Wow-wee!” exclaimed the man. “You sure are a great shot!”

Stars only appear to twinkle because we see them through the Earth’s atmosphere. Stars shine at an unblinking steady state, but atmospheric disturbances called eddies, which we experience as slight breezes and winds, make stars look sparkly.

If you get into the bottom of a well or a tall chimney and look up, you can see stars, even in the middle of the day. We know this because we spend a lot of time hanging out at the bottom of old wells and chimneys . . .

At an average distance of just 149,597,870 kilometers (92,955,807 miles), the nearest star to Earth is a yellow dwarf star called the Sun. The next nearest star to Earth is a red dwarf star called Proxima Centauri, also known as Alpha Centauri C. It was discovered in 1915 by Scottish astronomer Robert Innes while he was working at the Union Observatory in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is about 39.9 trillion kilometers (24.79 trillion miles) or 4.25 light years away. Light from this star reaches Earth in 4.25 years. A spacecraft using the newest, fastest propulsion systems would take about 75,000 years to get there.

Arnold: Did you know there’s a star called the Dog Star?
Owen: Are you Sirius?

Binary stars and multi-star systems are made up of two or more stars that are gravitationally linked, so that they orbit around each other.

“There wouldn’t be a sky full of stars if we were all meant to wish on the same one.” -Frances Clark (Frances Mary Clark (1860 - 1958))

A comet is a relatively small solar system body that orbits the Sun. When close enough to the Sun, comets display a visible coma, which is a fuzzy outline or atmosphere due to solar radiation, and sometimes also a tail.

When asked about flying saucers, the astronomer replied, “No comet.”

Asteroids are small solar system bodies that orbit the Sun. Made of rock and metal, they can also contain organic compounds. Asteroids are similar to comets but do not have a visible coma (fuzzy outline and tail) like comets do.

Telescope: A device for bringing the sky closer.

A meteoroid is a small rock or particle of debris in our solar system. They range in size from dust to around 10 meters in diameter. Larger objects are usually referred to as asteroids.

Star

Star light, star bright,
     First star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
     No - it’s just a satellite!

by Author Unknown

So-called ‘shooting stars’ and ‘falling stars’ are not actually stars, but are meteors. A meteoroid that burns up as it passes through the Earth’s atmosphere is known as a meteor. A meteoroid that survives falling through the Earth’s atmosphere and colliding with the Earth’s surface is known as a meteorite.

The odds of anyone being struck by a meteorite are said to be ‘astronomical.’

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When You Wish Upon a Star

When you wish upon a star
     Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
     Will come to you.

If your heart is in your dreams
     No request is to extreme
When you wish upon a star
     As dreamers do.

Fate is kind
     She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment
     of their secret longing.

Like a bolt out of the blue
     Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
     Your dreams come true.

If your heart is in your dreams
     No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
     As dreamers do.

When you wish upon a star
     Your dream comes true.

by Jesse McCartney

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Stars have played important roles throughout human history. They have become a part of religions, been grouped into constellations, used in astrology, helped to design calendars, and were very important navigational tools for early explorations across lands and seas.

“Silently, one by one in the infinite meadows of Heaven, blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of angels.” -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)

If you would like to keep up-to-date on the goings on in a whole Universe of stars, click on the link www.stardate.org.

Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul.
Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.
-Pamela Vaull Starr (pseudonym of Violet Isabelle (Carter) Popp (1909 - 1993))

At MFOL! we think stars are, like, so stellar . . . and far out, too! Yeah, we know, we’re kinda weird sometimes . . . now go have fun with your life!

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Procrastination and Procrastinating

7/8/2019

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“Don’t put off till tomorrow what can be enjoyed today.” -Josh Billings (pseudonym of Henry Wheeler Shaw (1818 - 1885))

They said ‘procrastination’ was
     The source of all my sorrow
I don’t know what that big word means -
     I’ll look it up tomorrow
-Author Unknown

Jimmy: Can you give me the definition of procrastination?
Jenny: I will do it later.
Jimmy: You are right!

procrastination is the
art of keeping
up with yesterday
-Don Marquis (Donald Robert Perry ‘Don’ Marquis (1878 - 1937)): “the lives and times of archy & mehitabel” (1940), using lower case letters and no punctuation, in the style of the fictional writer character he created

“Procrastination makes easy things hard, hard things harder.” -Mason Cooley

“Slaying the dragon of delay is no sport for the short-winded.” -Sandra Day O’Connor

“Procrastination is not laziness,” I tell him. “It is fear. Call it by its right name, and forgive yourself.” -Julia Cameron: “The Prosperous Heart” (2012)

“It was my fear of failure that first kept me from attempting the master work. Now, I’m beginning what I could have started ten years ago. But I’m happy at least that I didn’t wait twenty years.” -Paulo Coelho (born 1947)

“Join the circus of chaos . . . juggling, stilt walking, and other skills for socially acceptable procrastination.” -Pat Murphy

“Every duty which is bidden to wait, returns with seven fresh duties at its back.” -Charles Kingsley (1819 - 1875): “Sermons for the Times” (1855)

“In delay there lies no plenty.” -William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

Overheard: I bought a book titled “How to Stop Procrastinating,” and I have promised myself that someday, I am going to actually read it.

“Do not put your work off till tomorrow and the day after; for a sluggish worker does not fill his barn.” -Hesiod (about 800 B.C.E. - about 720 B.C.E.)

“When we procrastinate, we also put a hold on happiness.” -Charles F. Glassman

“I’m a multi-tasking procrastinator . . . I can put off all kinds of things at once.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

“Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow. Delay may give clearer light as to what is best to be done.” -Aaron Burr (Aaron Burr, Junior (1756 - 1836)): as quoted in Jacob Morton Braude: “The Complete Art of Public Speaking” (1970), page 84

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” -Stephen King (born 1947)

“The dread of doing a task uses up more time and energy than doing the task itself.” -Rita Emmett

“Things dreaded require double time to accomplish them.” -James Lendall Basford

“If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.” -Ivan Turgenev

“Begin while others are procrastinating. Work while others are wishing.” -William Arthur Ward

“If you wait until all the lights are ‘green’ before you leave home, you’ll never get started on your trip to the top.” -Zig Ziglar (Hilary Hinton ‘Zig’ Ziglar (1926 - 2012))

“KISS Procrastination Away: Keep It Super Simple, Keep It Step-by-Step, Keep It Scheduled and Systematic.” -Lisa A. Mininni

“How soon ‘not now’ becomes ‘never’.” -Martin Luther (1483 - 1546)

“Doing just a little bit during the time we have available puts you that much further ahead than if you took no action at all.” -Byron Pulsifer (Byron R. Pulsifer)

“Someday is not a day of the week.” -Janet Dailey (Janet Anne Haradon Dailey (1944 - 2013))

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” -Anne Frank (1929 - 1945): “The Diary of a Young Girl” (1952)

“All things come to those who wait, but when they come they’re out of date.” -Author Unknown

Lose This Day Loitering

Lose this day loitering - ‘twill be the same story
     To-morrow - and the next more dilatory;
Each indecision brings its own delays,
     And days are lost lamenting o’er lost days,
Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute -
     Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated -
     Begin it, and then the work will be completed!

by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 - 1832): “Faust” (Part 1 (1808) and Part 2 (1832))

Overheard: Some tasks have to be put off dozens of times before they will completely slip your mind.

“Things don’t get any easier by putting them off.” -W. Somerset Maugham (William Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965)): “The Razor’s Edge” (1943)

“Lingering labors come to naught.” -Robert Southwell (1561 - 1595); as translated into modern parlance; original wording: “Linger’d labours come to nought.” -Robert Southwell: “Loss in Delay,” line 1; page 60, as quoted in William B. Turnbull, editor: “The Poetical Works of the Rev. Robert Southwell” (1856)

“I’m very busy doing things I don’t need to do in order to avoid anything I’m actually supposed to be doing.” -Author Unknown

“Do you know what happens when you give a procrastinator a good idea? Nothing!” -Donald Gardner

“Waiting to develop courage is just another form of procrastination. We must take action while we’re afraid.” -Author Unknown

“A procrastinator’s work is never done.” -Author Unknown

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

“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” -Thomas Draxe (birth year unknown - 1618): “Adages” (1616)

“Remember, action today can prevent a crisis tomorrow.” -Steve Shallenberger: “Becoming Your Best: The 12 Principles of Highly Successful Leaders” (2014)

“What is deferred is not avoided.” -Thomas More (1478 - 1535): “Utopia” (1516)

Procrastination is the thief of time:
     Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves
     The vast concerns of an eternal scene.
-Edward Young (1683 - 1765): “Night Thoughts” (1742 - 1745), line 393

“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” -Charles Dickens (Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812 - 1870))

“Procrastination is a road-block in the path of success.” -Author Unknown

“Whatever can be done another day can be done today.” -Michel de Montaigne (Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533 - 1592)): “Essais” (“Essays”) (March 1580), Book 1, chapter 20

“The habit of always putting off an experience until you can afford it, or until the time is right, or until you know how to do it, is one of the greatest burglars of joy. Be deliberate, but once you’ve made up your mind - jump in.” -Charles R. Swindoll (Charles Rozell ‘Chuck’ Swindoll (born 1934)): “Living on the Ragged Edge” (1985), page 110

“Often greater risk is involved in postponement than in making a wrong decision.” -Harry A. Hopf (Harry Arthur Hopf (1882 - 1949))

“Procrastination is something best put off until tomorrow.” -Gerald Vaughan

“One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon - instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.” -Dale Carnegie (Dale Breckenridge Carnegie (1888 - 1955)): “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” (1948)

“I’m going to stop putting things off, starting tomorrow!” -Sam Levenson (Samuel ‘Sam’ Levenson (1911 - 1980))

“What may be done at any Time will be done at no Time.” -Thomas Fuller (1654 - 1734): “Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs” (1732), number 5500

“Procrastination is a teardrop in the sands of time.” -Heath Byers

“One of these days is none of these days.” -H. G. Bohn (Henry George Bohn (1796 - 1884))

“If you procrastinate when faced with a big, difficult problem . . . break the problem into parts, and handle one part at a time.” -Robert Collier (1885 - 1950)

Overheard: It has been a productive day - I got a lot of procrastinating accomplished.

“The really happy people are those who have broken the chains of procrastination, those who find satisfaction in doing the job at hand. They’re full of eagerness, zest, productivity. You can be, too.” -Norman Vincent Peale (1898 - 1993)

“The man who will not act until he knows all will never act at all . . .” -Jim Elliot (1927 - 1956)

“Procrastination usually results in sorrowful regret. Today’s duties put off until tomorrow give us a double burden to bear; the best way is to do them in their proper time.” -Ida Scott Taylor (Ida Scott Taylor McKinney (1855 - 1932))

“The fact is, that to do anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.” -Richard Cushing (Richard James Cushing (1895 - 1970))

“There are those of us who are always about to live. We are waiting until things change, until there is more time, until we are less tired, until we get a promotion, until we settle down - until, until, until. It always seems as if there is some major event that must occur in our lives before we begin living.” -George Sheehan (1918 - 1993)

“One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.” -Paulo Coelho (born 1947)

Defer not till to-morrow to be wise,
To-morrow’s Sun to thee may never rise.
-William Congreve (1670 - 1729): “Letter to Cobham,” line 61

“Procrastination is the bad habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.” -Napoleon Hill (Oliver Napoleon Hill (1883 - 1970))

“Putting off an easy thing makes it hard. Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible.” -George Claude Lorimer (1838 - 1904): as quoted in George Horace Lorimer (1867 - 1937): “Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son” (1902), ‘June 25, 189-,’ page 48

“While we are postponing, life speeds by.” -Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C.E. - C.E. 65))

“I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument, while the song I came to sing remains unsung.” -Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)

“You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.” -Jerry Alan West (Jerome ‘Jerry’ Alan West (born 1938))

“Postpone not a good action.” -Author Unknown: Irish proverb

“If you put off everything till you’re sure of it, you’ll never get anything done.” -Norman Vincent Peale (1898 - 1993)

All the Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas
Layin’ in the Sun,
Talkin’ bout the things
They woulda-coulda-shoulda done . . .
But those Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas
All ran away and hid
From one little did.
-Shel Silverstein (Sheldon Allan ‘Shel’ Silverstein (1930 - 1999)): “Falling Up” (1996)

“Let’s get started while we’re still young!” -Author Unknown: comment made by a man who was seventy-five years of age

“By the street of By-and-By, one arrives at the House of Never.” -Miguel de Cervantes (Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547 - 1616)): “Don Quixote” (1605)

“I don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.” -Pearl S. Buck (Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (1892 - 1973))

Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Butter.
Butter, who?
Butter late than never!

“Don’t put off for tomorrow what you should do today.” -Aesop: “The Grasshopper and the Ants” (about 6th century B.C.E.)

“By one delay after another they spin out their whole lives, till there’s no more future left for them.” -Roger L’Estrange (1616 - 1704)

“Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right.’ Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.” -Napoleon Hill (Oliver Napoleon Hill (1883 - 1970))

“If you have goals and procrastination, you have nothing. If you have goals and you take action, you will have anything you want.” -Thomas J. Vilord (Thomas Joseph Vilord (born 1975))

“Always put off till tomorrow what you should not do at all.” -Author Unknown

“A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.” -Hunter S. Thompson (Hunter Stockton Thompson (1937 - 2005)): “The Proud Highway” (1997)

“Following through is the only thing that separates dreamers from people that accomplish great things.” -Gene Hayden

“If and When were planted, and Nothing grew.” -Catherine Pulsifer (born 1927): “If and When”

“There is no avoidance in delay.” -Aeschylus (about 525 B.C.E. - about 456 B.C.E.): “Agamemnon” (about 458 B.C.E.)

“Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at the moment.” -Robert Benchley (1889 - 1945): as quoted in Robert E. Drennan, editor: “The Algonquin Wits” (1968)

“If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done.” -Rita Mae Brown (born 1944)

Overheard: I am just waiting to do my work at the last minute, because by then I will be older and wiser.

“Often just by taking action, by doing something about the situation, you can relieve the stress and help correct the situation.” -Catherine Pulsifer (born 1927)

“He who begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin.” -Horace

This is MFOL! . . . by choosing to make ‘someday’ into ‘today’ . . . we can make the future even greater than the present . . .

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A Wise Person Once Said

7/7/2019

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A wise person once said, “I am a fool, too, sometimes.”

A wise person once said, “A person who sits on the floor will not fall off a chair.”

A wise person once said, “Life is not about how fast you run, or how high you climb, but how well you bounce.”

A wise person once said, “With great power comes great electricity bill.”

A wise person once said, “If ignorance is bliss, why are there not more happy people?”

A wise person once said, “With time and patience, the banana at last becomes the monkey.”

A wise person once said, “You never know until you find out.” -Author Unknown

A wise person once said, “I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.”

A wise person once said, “When nothing goes right, go left.”

A wise person once said, “Folks often make fun of the wisdom of those they take for fools, while scarcely noticing the foolishness of those whom they imagine to be wise.”

A wise person once said, “Take my advice - I’m certainly not using it.”

A wise person once said, “Person who jumps through screen door likely to ‘strain’ self.”

A wise person once said, “No matter where you go, there you are.”

A wise person once said, “Person who runs in front of car will get ‘tired.’”

A wise person once said, “Person who runs behind car will get ‘exhausted.’”

A wise person once said, “Work eight hours and sleep eight hours, but not the same eight hours.”

A wise person once said, “Don’t believe everything you think.”

A wise person once said, “A wise person lowers a ladder before he jumps into a pit.”

A wise person once said, “Woman has small feet to be able to stand close to kitchen sink, and also wears high heels to be able to reach dishes on top shelf. Also, a man who says this needs to take out the garbage and walk the dog.”

A wise person once said, “It is colder outside than it would be if it was warmer than it is.”

A wise person once said, “If you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room.”

A wise person once said, “Person who laughs last, does not get joke.”

A wise person once said, “A day without sunshine is like night.”

A wise person once said, “Two wrongs do not make a right, but two lefts make a U-turn.”

A wise person once said, “Women take to good hearted men, also from.”

A wise person once said, “One who sits on tack gets point.”

A wise person once said, “A wise person listens no matter how stupidly someone is talking.”

A wise person once said, “A neat desk is a sign of a cluttered desk drawer.”

A wise person once said, “In just two days, tomorrow will be yesterday.”

A wise person once said, “Never argue with fool . . . he may be doing the same thing.”

A wise person once said, “A person who drives like Hell is bound to get there.”

A wise person once said, “Practice moderation in everything, even in moderation itself.”

A wise person once said, “Person who thinks only of number one must remember this number is next to nothing.”

A wise person once said, “Starving person with one chopstick goes hungry.”

A wise person once said, “At night it gets dark.”

A wise person once said, “A closed mouth gathers no feet.”

A wise person once said, “All’s fear in love and war.”

A wise person once said, “I’m still waiting patiently for the wisdom that supposedly comes with old age.”

A wise person once said, “Adults are just wrinkled kids who owe money.”

A wise person once said, “People who eat cookies in bed wake up feeling crummy.”

A wise person once said, “Sometimes it is hard for a person to get away from him or herself.”

A wise person once said, “Grease monkey who goes to bed without bathing wakes up oily in the morning.”

A wise person once said, “Person who lives in glass house should change clothes in basement.”

A wise person once said, “Without wisdom, knowledge is more stupid than ignorance.”

A wise person once said, “Best time to buy new mattress, at first sign of Spring.”

A wise person once said, “If you do not give something, you will not get anything.”

A wise person once said, “You can go anywhere you want if you look serious and carry a clipboard.”

A wise person once said, “If you believe everything you read, better that you should not read.”

A wise person once said, “Even the greatest of whales is helpless in middle of desert.”

A wise person once said, “A smile is your personal welcome mat.”

A wise person once said, “The reverse side also has a reverse side.”

A wise person once said, “To make eggroll, push it.”

A wise person once said, “Those who throw dirt, lose ground.”

A wise person once said, “Don’t take any wooden nickels!” (Sometimes that wise person can be really annoying.)

A wise person once said, “Every wise person started out by asking many questions.”

A wise person once said, “Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties.”

A wise person once said, “Van Gogh was a painter because he did not have an ear for music.”

A wise person once said, “If you do not change the direction in which you are going, you will end up where you are headed.”

A wise person once said, “Person who attempts to stand on wall will soon be floored.”

Make Fun Of Life! is a very peculiar website, so always be sure to get your grandchildren’s permission before visiting . . .

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Hair Loss and Wigs

7/6/2019

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“We’re all born bald, baby.” -Author Unknown: “Kojack” television series; line spoken by fictional bald detective Kojack (portrayed by actor Telly Savalas)

Twig

A bald-headed person named Twig
Once went for advice to a pig.
     Said the pig, “Make some snares,
     And catch a few hares,
And weave the hares into a wig.”

by Willard R. Espy (Willard Richardson Espy (1910 - 1999))

“You can resent your bald spot or be glad you have a head.” -Timothy Miller

Angus: Why did the bald man paint rabbits on his head?
Angelica: Because from a distance, they look like hares.

Julius Caesar wore a laurel wreath to cover his balding head. One might wonder if that is how the whole silly notion of crowns and tiaras began.

Consolation for Baldness

What’s the advantage of hair, anyhow?
     It blows in your eyes and it flops on your brow,
Disguising the shape of your scholarly head;
     It often is gray and it sometimes is red.
Perhaps it is golden and ringleted, but
     It needs to be combed and it has to be cut,
And even at best, it is nothing to boast of,
     Because it’s what barbarous men have the most of,
Then challenge yourself, mirror, defiant and careless,
     For lots of our handsomest people are hairless.

by Arthur Guiterman (1871 - 1943)

Bald-headed Man: One who, when expecting visitors, has only to straighten his necktie.

The balding man asked his barber, “Why charge me the full price for cutting my hair, as there’s so little of it?” “Well,” said the barber, “actually I charge very little for cutting it. What you’re paying for is my searching for it.”

Overheard: I am not bald; I am follicly-challenged.

There is a new remedy on the market for baldness. It is made of alum and persimmon juice. While it does not grow hair, it does shrink your head to fit what hair you have remaining.

Enoch: What did the bald man say when he got a comb for his birthday?
Ephraim: “Thanks, I’ll never part with this!”

As Star Trek’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard might say, “To baldly go where no man has gone before . . . !”

Overheard: “I’m not bald; I’m just a little taller than my hair.”

One advantage of being completely bald is that a person can wash his or her head with soap only - no need for a bothersome and sometimes confusing collection of bottles of shampoos and conditioners. This saves you 78.71 seconds of time each day that you can now put to good use - not to mention the fact that you now no longer need to waste time in the shampoo aisle at the store trying to find a shampoo that doesn’t smell like a beautifully fragrant flower growing next to a sewage treatment plant.

Gregory Griggs

Gregory Griggs, Gregory Griggs,
     Had twenty-seven different wigs.
He wore them up, he wore them down,
     To please the people of the town.
He wore them east, he wore them west,
    And never could tell which one he liked best.

by Author Unknown

Alternatives to wigs include hats, bonnets, and scarves.

Riddle: Six people went swimming but only five got wet hair - why?
Answer: One of the people was bald.

People with hair loss are no different than anyone else. In fact, at one time, they probably had hair just like you do, and at some time, you yourself may have some hair loss. So, when you see a bald man, woman, or child, treat him or her just as you would want to be treated if you were in the same circumstances. And, if a person has hair loss and wears a wig or toupée or has a comb-over, or wears a scarf or hat, avoid saying anything either good or bad about it - in fact, it is better to keep your thoughts to yourself and leave them unsaid than it would be to hurt someone’s feelings. Sometimes people do not have a choice in what happens to them, so they do as best they can to live with how their lives have turned out. Still, they too, like to Make Fun Of Life! . . . and they are always welcome here.

There Was an Old Person of Brigg

There was an old person of Brigg,
Who purchased no end of a wig;
So that only his nose,
And the end of his toes,
Could be seen when he walked about Brigg.

by Edward Lear: “More Nonsense, Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, Etc.” (1872), limerick 98

“There’s one thing about baldness - it’s neat.” -Don Herold

Bob: What is the cure for dandruff?
Otto: Baldness.

“Toupée or not toupée, that is the question.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

“Experience is a comb which nature gives to men when they are bald.” -Author Unknown

Advice to fools: Bald people are intelligent and perceptive. Do not insult them, unless you are prepared to hear remarks about how one of your ears hangs lower than the other one, or how you have a freckle shaped like an otter on your left elbow and a trio of hairy moles dancing on your neck or some other characteristic that is twenty-thousand times worse than what you might imagine baldness to be.

“Grass doesn’t grow on a busy street.” -William Hague, commenting on being bald

“I seem to have developed a compulsion to powder my wig . . . about 50 times a day now . . . professionals just don’t seem to be of any help.” -Author Unknown

Baldness: An admirable trait of the ideal human being, according to minimalists and efficiency experts.

“Bald people never have bad hair days.” -Author Unknown

Chris: Why are you staring at me like that?
Kelly: I was just admiring your bald spot.

“Some folks say that worry causes hair loss - that when the going gets tough, the tufts get going.” -Author Unknown

Maybe it seemed like a good idea at the time . . . but today the company no longer exists . . . perhaps the proliferation of long-term hair-leasing companies put them out of business?

“A look at their domes makes it obvious that as men grow older, they become hard of hairing.” -Frank Tyger (1929 - 2011)

Old Man of Bombay

There once was a man from Bombay
Who wore on his head a toupée.
He thought that he might
Give friends a delight
And remove his toupée for a day.

by Author Unknown

The most common method to hide a bald spot is to remove all of one’s hair, making one’s entire self a giant bald spot.

Have you heard about the new worldwide holiday, called Make Fun of People with Hair Day?

An interesting thing about male pattern baldness is that it does not appear to come in checkers or plaids or stripes . . .

“I’ve always wanted to be bald. I mean it, completely bald. Wouldn’t it be great to be bald in the rain?” -Harrison Ford

Hair Loss and Wigs Quiz
- What hair color do they put on a bald person’s driver’s license?
- If a bald person works as a chef at a restaurant, does he or she have to wear a hairnet?
- Is there any way to avoid the ‘chrome dome’ look, in which a bald person’s head becomes shiny and reflective?
- Should bald people pay lower taxes than other taxpayers?
- How should bald people be treated?

“Underneath their hair, everyone is bald! Hair is just an ornament or decoration.” -Author Unknown

“The most delightful advantage to being bald: one can hear snowflakes.” -R. G. Daniels

We have been losing what little hair we still have trying to come up with more Hair Loss and Wigs humor and information. We have much more fun stuff on a surprising variety of other topics, if you will just continue traveling down the page . . . this way to further fun . . . on MFOL!

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Superheroes

7/3/2019

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This looks like a job for a superhero . . . or perhaps it is a job for you . . .

“Ask yourself who you want to help today, then put on your cape and do it.” -Scottie Somers

Judy: Who can leap higher than a tall building?
Jody: Anybody, because tall buildings cannot leap!

Admit it, at some point in life, you have tried to see if you have super powers.

Darla: Why did the superhero cross the road?
Marla: To get to the supermarket.

Overheard: I am not saying I am Batman, I am just saying that no one has ever seen me and Batman in a room together.

Myrna: What is Batman’s favorite part of a joke?
Verna: The ‘punch’ line!

We have a great idea for a new superhero: Spudman. Like all potato people, he has many ‘eyes’ so he can simultaneously see in all directions without having to turn and look. His secret hideout is underground in a farm field, although he is often spotted in the produce section at grocery stores. He has to contend with a number of villainous chefs who want to turn him into garlic mashed potatoes, onion-potato cakes, a bacon-and-chives topped stuffed baked potato, or other fabulous foodstuffs, while he tries to save the people of Vegopolis from a massive celery famine, all the while being distracted by Sweet Potato and Candied Yam, both of whom are competing for his attention . . . what’s that . . . oh, gotta go, the boss is yelling at us to stop goofing around and get back to work!

Eunice: Why is Superman’s shirt so tight?
Eustice: Because it is a size ‘S’!

Kirby: How does the butler Alfred Pennyworth call Batman to dinner?
Herbie: “Dinner-dinner-dinner-dinner-dinner-dinner-Batman!!!” (Sing it to the tune of the 1960’s “Batman” television show theme music to get the full effect of the joke.)

Overheard: If I could be a superhero, I would be called Ironic. That way, when there is any trouble and I am running away from it, people would say, “Isn’t that Ironic?”

Every episode of the television show “Seinfeld” has a reference to Superman somewhere in it.

Alvin: What is Spiderman’s favorite month?
Vincent: Webruary.

Superman first appeared in “Action Comics no. 1” (June 1938).

Jingle Bells, Batman smells,
Robin laid an egg,
The bat-mobile lost its wheels,
And Joker got away!
-Author Unknown

People tend to think they are physically stronger when wearing Superman t-shirts.

Superboy: Why could Batman and Robin not go fishing?
Superman: Why?
Superboy: Because Robin ate all the worms!

Spiderman went to the video rental store and asked if he could have “Batman Forever.” The clerk said, “No, just 24 hours like everyone else.”

It’s just an ordinary day . . . in the life of a superhero . . . who lives by the code, “Do a good deed each day.”

Emma: How does Spiderman repair holes in his costume?
Emmit: With super glue!

The unassuming Clark Kent wears regular-people clothes, but when he becomes Superman, he rapidly changes into a colorful red-and-blue spandex suit with a cape - so what does he do with his regular clothes when he is in super-mode? Rumor has it that he wears his superhero outfit under his regular clothes, and that he has a hidden pocket in his cape, into which he places his super-neatly-folded regular clothes. Mystery solved!

Charlene: What would you get if Batman and his sidekick Robin were run over by a herd of stampeding elephants?
Darlene: Flatman and Ribbon.

Superman, also known as Clark Kent, was created in 1934 by Jerome ‘Jerry’ Siegel, a graduate of Glenville High School in Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America. Mr. Siegel’s partner, Joseph ‘Joe’ Shuster, improved the character with tights, a cape, and a handsome face. They moved to New York City, where they faced hard times and sold all rights to the comic-strip character to DC Comics for a mere $130. In June 1938, the first Superman comic appeared, and the muscle-bound flying man ‘really took off.’

Merlin: What was Batman doing in a tree?
Marlena: Looking for Robin.

As the mild-mannered Clark Kent, Superman is afraid of girls. He is probably worried that he will run into the one he stole the red-and-blue outfit he wears from.

Archie: What is green and sour and flies?
Archibald: Super Pickle!

The name ‘Clark Kent’ (Superman) was derived from the names of actors Clark Gable and Kent Taylor.

Ernest: What is the difference between the Green Lantern and a leprechaun?
Nestor: Nothing; they are both fictional characters.

Legal disclaimer on an actual superhero costume: Wearing this costume does not enable its wearer to fly.

“DC Comics is reviving Superman’s old outfit. I never understood Superman’s clothes. We all got used to the fact that he wears his underpants over the leotard. But why do his underpants have a belt on them?” -Jay Leno

Does ‘Spiderman’ have a ‘website’?

Mathilda: Where do superheroes hold their annual convention?
Hilda: Cape Town.

Unlikely Superheroes
- Vacuum Cleaner Sales & Repair Man: He not only sells you a vacuum cleaner, but he also fixes it if is ever broken.
- Shoe Collector Woman: Travels through the air in a flying shoe and throws shoes at criminals.
- Hysterical Parrot: Shows up and causes so much chaos and confusion that villains give up and flee the scene.
- Ironman: Saves people by removing the wrinkles from their clothes, as for example, just before their job interviews and weddings.
- The Historian: Has the power to become any person in history.
- The Caped Politician: Watches over polling places to make sure nobody cheats by voting more than once.
- The Cheapskate: A superhero who saves the world by showing people how to do everything for less money.
- The Element: A superhero who can become anything on the Periodic Table.
- The Angry Grenade: A superhero who explodes and then later reassembles.
- Can you think of others?

Superman climbed the Empire State Building to challenge King Kong to a fight. King Kong said, “I don’t have time - I’ve got to catch a plane!”

The Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder, also known as Batman and Robin.

Thaddeus: Why did Batman go to the pet shop?
Tad: To buy a Robin.

Why do superheroes wear their underpants on the outside of their clothes? Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman all wear elaborate costumes. The trio of superhero characters was created between 1935 and 1945. They were meant to be men and women of action, so their costumes were based on the men and women of action of the time. Superman’s costume was originally like that of a circus strongman. Wonder Woman’s was modeled on the costume of a trapeze artist. Their costumes were meant to be flashy and exciting and glamorous. Batman’s costume was based more on the black-and-white ‘film noir’ movies of the times, which were about dark avengers who skulked about in the shadows, scaring the wits out of criminals (Sounds like fun, right? Maybe you should consider a career in law enforcement.). Because Batman was meant to be a scary character, his costume made him look like a creepy creature from the shadows. Those costume styles stuck and became clichéd, particularly since the three characters had become instant hits of that time period. So, when new superheroes began to arrive, they also tended to have capes and tights just like circus-strongman Superman wears, or colorful trapeze outfits like Wonder Woman wears, or dark cloaks and scary masks like Batman wears. Because superhero creators are competitive, the result over time was that superhero costumes became more and more show-offish. And, what looks like underwear worn on the outside of their superhero costumes is actually tight shorts commonly worn by circus performers of the time, which gave them freedom of movement as they did their stunts to entertain audiences. What may look like belts holding up their ‘underpants’ are ‘utility belts’ which can hold any number of tools and devices the superheroes deploy in their crime-fighting adventures.

Heather: Where does Spiderman hang out?
Heath: On the worldwide web.

“Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman!” -George Lother, making the program introduction for the “Superman” radio show (first broadcast on 12 February 1940)

Some superheroes have sidekicks, or partners, and some superheroes have no sidekicks.

If Iron Man and the Silver Surfer ever teamed up, would they become ‘alloys’?

Super Quiz
- What characteristics or traits do superheroes have in common with you?
- If you were a superhero, what would you choose as your alter-ego name?
- Which superhero would you like to have lunch with?
- If you were a superhero, what would your costume look like?
- Other than as entertainment, do superheroes serve any useful purpose?
- What people from history most resemble superheroes?

Mel: What was Batman’s ‘real’ name?
Nel: Bruce Wayne.

Overheard: If I could be any superhero, I would be Aluminum Man - my superpower would be ‘foiling’ crime . . .

Hope: How many caped crusaders does it take to change a light bulb?
Faith: None; for some reason, they actually seem to prefer the dark.

Have you ever wanted to be a superhero? Why wait? There is a place in cyberspace for real life superheroes - people who don costumes and fight crime or just do good deeds. Go to www.WorldSuperheroRegistry.com. Hope to see you there!

Aaron: What position did Bruce Wayne play on his little-league team?
Erin: He was the batboy.

Despite his name, ‘Spiderman’ does not eat bugs. He eats regular people food, just like the rest of us do.

Customer: Where does Superman shop for groceries?
Cashier: At the Supermarket!

We are MFOL! . . . saving humanity one joke at a time - remember, you do not need a cape or the ability to fly to go out into the world and Make Fun Of Life!

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Minds and Thinking

6/29/2019

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Are you thinking what we’re thinking?

“You live with your thoughts - so be careful what they are.” -Eva Arrington

“You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select your clothes every day.” -Elizabeth Gilbert

“Every thought we think is creating our future.” -Louise L. Hay (Louise Lynn Hay (1926 - 2017))

A Beautiful Thought

It just can’t be given or bought
And must be most tenderly sought.
With a velvety pelt,
So soft it may melt -
It’s known as a beautiful thought.

by Author Unknown

“Everything’s in the mind. That’s where it starts. Knowing what you want is the first step toward getting it.” -Mae West (1893 - 1980)

“Minds are for people who think.” -Mark Jones (born 1953): “The A-Team,” Season 3, Episode 1 (18 September 1984); words appearing on a T-shirt worn by fictional character Madman Murdoch

“Positive thoughts generate positive feelings and attract positive life experiences.” -Author Unknown

“Don’t feed your mind with negative thoughts. If you do, you will come to believe them.” -Catherine Pulsifer

“Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?” -Author Unknown

“Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.” -Thomas Szasz (Thomas S. Szasz (1920 - 2012))

“Our life is what our thoughts make it.” -Marcus Aurelius (also known as Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (C.E. 121 - C.E. 180)): “The Meditations” (C.E. 167), Book 4, meditation 3

“How can I tell what I think till I see what I say?” -E. M. Forster (Edward Morgan Forster (1879 - 1970)): “Aspects of the Novel” (1927)

“Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it.” -Ernest Holmes (Ernest Shurtleff Holmes (1887 - 1960))

“Let one therefore keep the mind pure, for what a man thinks, that he becomes.” -Author Unknown: “The Upanishads”

“Where does a thought go when it’s forgotten?” -Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939)

“Whatever you hold in your mind on a consistent basis is exactly what you will experience in your life.” -Anthony Robbins

“Thoughts, like fleas, jump from man to man, but they don’t bite everybody.” -Stanislaw Jerzy Lec (1909 - 1966): “Unkempt Thoughts” (1957)

“Throughout all history, the great wise men and teachers, philosophers and prophets, have disagreed with one another on many different things. It is only on this one point that they are in complete and unanimous agreement. We become what we think about.” -Earl Nightingale (1921 - 1989)

“Whatever you think about grows in your life.” -Author Unknown

“When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun with nettles.” -Horace Walpole (1717 - 1797): in a letter (10 July 1779) to Caroline, Countess of Ailesbury

“Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bear bad fruit.” -James Allen (1864 - 1912)

“A thought is a substance, producing the thing that is imagined by the thought.” -Wallace D. Wattles

“Change your thoughts, change your life.” -James Allen (1864 - 1912)

“It is your ability to think that is your chief source of value; in fact, you are a mind with a body to carry it around in.” -Brian Tracy (born 1944)

“A purely mental life may be destructive if it leads us to substitute thought for life and ideas for actions. The activity proper to man is not purely mental because man is not just a disembodied mind. Our destiny is to live out what we think, because unless we live what we know, we do not even know it. It is only by making our knowledge part of ourselves, through action, that we enter into the reality that is signified by our concepts.” -Thomas Merton (1915 - 1968)

“Guard your thoughts carefully. The quality of your thinking determines the quality of your life.” -Brian Tracy (born 1944)

“It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.” - René Descartes (1596 - 1650)

“Don’t try to think too many thoughts all at once. Even the smartest among us can only think one or two things at a time.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

“Thought is action in rehearsal.” -Author Unknown

“No mind is much employed on the present. Recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments.” -Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784)

“We are creatures of our thinking. We can talk ourselves into defeat or we can talk ourselves into victory.” -Gordon B. Hinckley (Gordon Bitner Hinckley (1910 - 2008))

“The finest thought runs the risk of being irrevocably forgotten if we do not write it down.” -Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860): “Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer” (as translated by T. Bailey Saunders (1851)), ‘The Art of Literature: On Thinking for One’s Self’

“Think only about what you want . . . never dwell on what you don’t want.” -Shane K. Hughes

“When all men think alike, no one thinks very much.” -Walter Lippmann (1889 - 1974): as quoted in “Speakers Encyclopedia” (1955)

“Good impulses are naught, unless they become good actions.” -Joseph Joubert (1754 - 1824), as quoted in Paul Auster, translator: “The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert” (1883)

“We seem to do most of our thinking in our minds.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

“Avoid destructive thinking. Improper negative thoughts sink people. A ship can sail around the world many, many times, but just let enough water get into the ship and it will sink.” -Alfred A. Montapert (Alfred Armand Montapert (1906 - 1997))

“Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.” -Author Unknown

“Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes.” -Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881): “Coningsby” (1844), book 3, chapter I

“We can do only what we think we can do. We can be only what we think we can be. We can have only what we think we can have. What we do, what we are, what we have, all depend on what we think.” -Robert Collier (1885 - 1950)

“To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

“What’s going on in the inside shows on the outside.” -Earl Nightingale (1921 - 1989)

“The mind attracts the thing it dwells upon.” -Napoleon Hill (born Oliver Napoleon Hill (1883 - 1970))

“A penny for your thoughts.” -Author Unknown

“Our best friends and our worst enemies are our thoughts.” -Frank Crane (1861 - 1928)

“We become what we think about.” -Napoleon Hill (born Oliver Napoleon Hill (1883 - 1970))

“My thinking is first and last and always for the sake of my doing.” -William James (1842 - 1910): “The Principles of Psychology” (1890), Chapter 22

“We become what we think about most of the time, and that’s the strangest secret.” -Earl Nightingale (1921 - 1989)

“If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.” -Author Unknown

“The biggest lesson I have ever learned is the stupendous importance of what we think. If I knew what you think, I would know what you are, for your thoughts make you what you are; by changing our thoughts, we can change our lives.” -Dale Carnegie (Dale Breckenridge Carnegie (1888 - 1955))

“If you change your way of thinking, you change your life.” -Brian Tracy (born 1944)

The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can make a Heave’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.
-John Milton (1608 - 1674): “Paradise Lost” (1667), Book 1, lines 254 through 255

“Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind.” -Marcus Aurelius (also known as Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (C.E. 26 April 121 - C.E. 180))

“I realize that I will be, when my life’s labor is complete, the product of my thoughts.” -George Albert Smith

“A man is literally what he thinks.” -James Lane Allen (1849 - 1925)

“Every thought is a seed. If you plant crab apples, don’t count on harvesting Golden Delicious.” -Bill Meyer

“Few minds wear out; more rust out.” -Christian Nestell Bovee (1820 - 1904): “Intuitions and Summaries of Thought” (1862), volume 1

“Do not worry at all about negative thoughts, and do not try to control them. All you have to do is begin to think good thoughts each day. Plant as many good thoughts as you can in each day. As you begin to think good thoughts you will attract more and more good thoughts, and eventually the good thoughts will wipe out the negative thoughts altogether.” -Rhonda Byrne

“If we examine our thoughts, we shall find them always occupied with the past and the future.” -Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

“Life is but thought.” -Sara Teasdale (Sara Teasdale Filsinger (1884 - 1933))

“Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.” -Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)

“If we keep an open mind, too much is likely to fall into it.” -Natalie Clifford Barney (1876 - 1972)

“What you think about you bring about.” -Author Unknown

“Training and managing your own mind is the most important skill you could ever own, in terms of both happiness and success.” -T. Harv Eker

“Happy thoughts are half of your health.” -Author Unknown

“You are free to think thoughts of worry or joy, and whatever you choose will attract the same kind back to you. Worry attracts worry. Joy attracts joy.” -Rhonda Byrne

It is the mind that maketh good or ill,
That maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor.
by Edmund Spenser (1552 - 1599)

“Be careful of your thoughts; they may become words at any moment.” -Ira Gassen

“Your mind is a powerful thing. When you fill it with positive thoughts, your life will start to change.” -Author Unknown

“Thoughts have power. Thoughts are energy. You can make your world or break it by your thinking.” -Susan Taylor

“Ultimate human power is not in our possessions, but in our minds.” -Author Unknown

Overheard: Sometimes you have to think outside your mind . . .

“Man is made or unmade by himself . . . In the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself; he also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace. By the right choice and true application of thought, man ascends to the Divine Perfection; by the abuse and wrong application of thought, he descends below the level of the beast. Between these two extremes are all the grades of character, and man is their maker and master.” -James Allen (1864 - 1912): “As a Man Thinketh” (1903)

“You become what you think about all day long.” -Author Unknown

“Thought creates character.” -Annie Bessant (1847 - 1933)

“Whatever you hold in your mind will tend to occur in your life. If you continue to believe as you have always believed, you will continue to act as you have always acted. If you continue to act as you have always acted, you will continue to get what you have always gotten. If you want different results in your life or your work, all you have to do is change your mind.” -Author Unknown

“The thoughts we choose to think are the tools we use to paint the canvas of our lives.” -Louise L. Hay (Louise Lynn Hay (1926 - 2017))

“What you think about comes about.” -Author Unknown

“What you think means more than anything else in your life. More than you earn, more than where you live, more than you social position, and more than what anyone else may think about you.” -George M. Adams (George Matthew Adams (1878 - 1962))

“A thought is a thing as real as a cannonball.” -Joseph Joubert (1754 - 1824), as quoted in Paul Auster, translator: “The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert” (1883)

“Our lives would run a lot more smoothly if second thoughts came first.” -Author Unknown

“Our life is what our thoughts make it. A man will find that as he alters his thoughts toward things and other people, things and other people will alter towards him.” -James Allen (1864 - 1912)

“All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts.” -James Allen (1864 - 1912)

“You are what you think.” -Author Unknown

“The secret of living a life of excellence is merely a matter of thinking thoughts of excellence. Really, it’s a matter of programming our minds with the kind of information that will set us free.” -Charles R. Swindoll (Charles Rozell ‘Chuck’ Swindoll (born 1934))

“If you can think it, you can do it.” -Author Unknown

“You are today where your thoughts have brought you. You will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.” -James Allen (1864 - 1912)

“Your life is a reflection of your thoughts. Think well.” -Danielle Pierre

We are MFOL! - and that is pretty much all of our thoughts on thinking . . .

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