The future is here. It's just not widely distributed yet.

-William Gibson And if the student finds that this is not to his taste, well, that is regrettabl e. Most regrettable. His taste should not be consulted; it is being formed. -Fl annery O'Connor Men trip not on mountains, they stumble on stones. -Old saying To the very young then, I would fain offer one or two matters for thought, if, p erchance, they will hearken to one who has grown old in unwavering sympathy with their struggles and doubts. I would beg them to keep ever before their eyes the vital truth that sincerity is the well-spring of all lasting achievement, and t hat no good thing ever took root in untruth or self-deception. I would urge them to remember that if every excellent work is stamped with the personality of its author, no work can be enduring that is stamped with a borrowed stamp; and that , therefore, their first duty is to see that the thoughts, the emotions, the imp ressions they fix on he canvas are in very truth their own thoughts, their own e motions, their own spontaneous impressions, and not those of others: for work th at does not spring from the heart has no roots, and will of certainty wither and perish. The other maxim also I would urge on them - that true genius knows no h urry, that patience is of its essence, and thoroughness its constant mark; and, lastly, I would ask them to believe that the gathered experience of past ages is a precious heritage and not an irksome load; and that nothing will fortify them better for the future, and free development, than the reverent and loving study of the past. -Sir Frederic Leighton, Advice to Young Artists, 1893. What comprises good performance? The ability through singing or playing to make the ear conscious of the true content and affect of a composition. -Carl Phili pp Emanuel Bach What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; an d it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. -Thomas Paine Watch the little things; they are important. -Unknown To the young mind everything is individual, stands by itself. By and by it finds how to join two things and see in them one nature; then three, then three thous and; and so, tyrannized over by its own unifying instinct, it goes on tying thin gs together, diminishing anomalies, discovering roots running under ground where by contrary and remote things cohere and flower out from one stem. It presently learns that since the dawn of history there has been a constant accumulation and classifying of facts. But what is classification but the perceiving that these objects are not chaotic, and are not foreign, but have a law which is also a law of the human mind? The astronomer discovers that geometry, a pure abstraction o f the human mind, is the measure of planetary motion. The chemist finds proporti ons and intelligible method throughout matter; and science is nothing but the fi nding of analogy, identity, in the most remote parts. The ambitious soul sits do wn before each refractory fact; one after another reduces all strange constituti ons, all new powers, to their class and their law, and goes on forever to animat e the last fiber of organization, the outskirts of nature, by insight. --Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American Scholar. Books are for the scholar's idle times. When he can read God directly, the hour is too precious to be wasted in other men's transcripts of their readings. -Ral ph Waldo Emerson, The American Scholar. Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you d on't. -Pete Seeger Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a p aragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should hav e no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not tha t the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. -William Strunk, Jr. , The Elements of Style, 1918. It is in vain to use words when deeds are expected. -Proverb The only causes of regret are laziness, outbursts of temper, hurting others, pre judice, jealousy, and envy. -Germaine Greer

Each honest calling, each walk of life, has its own elite, its own aristocracy b ased on excellence of performance. -James Bryant Conant Many of the worlds best minds spend years guessing and calculating the origins of the universe. It would be more worthy of their great attention and care to thin k of what really matters in the end, namely, where they will spend their eternal destiny. -China Sinclair, April 3, 2011. However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. -W inston Churchill Jesus was . . . always invading the lives of others with His holiness. -Philip s Brooks I have lived to know that the secret of happiness is never to allow your energie s to stagnate. -Adam Clarke In order to introspect one must catch himself unawares, so to speak, in the very act of thinking, remembering, deciding, loving, hating, and all the rest. -Geo rge Herbert Betts, The Mind and Its Education. No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither und er a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light. Th e light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole bo dy also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of d arkness. Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light. -Jesus Christ, Luke 11:33-36, KJV. A wise man hears one word and understands two. -Yiddish Proverb Do the hardest thing first and the rest will be easy. -Gregory Scott Reid You are the reflection of the five people you associate with most, and your inco me is the average of those five people. Choose your friends wisely. -Gregory Sc ott Reid