Today's Words of Wisdom - October 26, 2015

Today is the birthday of the following people:

Pat Conroy (1945 - ):

“The world of literature has everything in it, and it refuses to leave anything out. I have read like a man on fire my whole life because the genius of English teachers touched me with the dazzling beauty of language. Because of them I rode with Don Quixote and danced with Anna Karenina at a ball in St. Petersburg and lassoed a steer in "Lonesome Dove" and had

nightmares about slavery in "Beloved" and walked the streets of Dublin in "Ulysses" and made up a hundred stories in the Arabian nights and saw my mother killed by a baseball in "A Prayer for Owen Meany." I've been in ten thousand cities and have introduced myself to a hundred thousand strangers in my exuberant reading career, all because I listened to my fabulous English teachers and soaked up every single thing those magnificent men and women had to give. I cherish and praise them and thank them for finding me when I was a boy and presenting me with the precious gift of the English language.”

Natalie Merchant (1963 - ):

“let me have a look inside these eyes while I'm learning

please don't hide them just because of tears”

and

“you've been so kind and generous

I don't know how you keep on giving

for your kindness I'm in debt to you

for your selflessness, my admiration

and for everything you've done

you know I'm bound...

I'm bound to thank you for it”

Hillary Clinton (1947 - ):

"We are here to advance the cause of women and to advance the cause of democracy and to make it absolutely clear that the two are inseparable. There cannot be true democracy unless women's voices are heard. There cannot be true democracy unless women are given the opportunity to take responsibility for their own lives."

Schoolboy Q (1986 - ):

“I think we - the way to stop anything violent or anything wrong is by really just paying attention to your own circle. You only can help the world by helping the people next to you.”

Bootsy Collins (1951 - ):

“Funk is the absence of any and everything you can think of, but the very essence of all that is. And saying that, I'm saying funk is anything that we create in our minds that we want to do, what we want to be, but we don't have the resources.”

and

“We are all human and I want to relate that message to all people.”

Beryl Markham (1902 – 1986):

“A map says to you.

Read me carefully, follow me closely, doubt me not...

I am the earth in the palm of your hand.”

and

“If a man has any greatness in him, it comes to light, not in one flamboyant hour, but in the ledger of his daily work.”

and

“The way to find a needle in a haystack is to sit down.”