Today's Words of Wisdom - December 7, 2015

Today is the birthday of the following people:

Noam Chomsky (1928 - ):

“Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.”

and

“We shouldn't be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas.”

and

“It is quite possible--overwhelmingly probable, one might guess--that we will always learn more about human life and personality from novels than from scientific psychology.”

Willa Cather (1873 – 1947):

“There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.”

and

“Where there is great love, there are always miracles.”

and

“Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.”

Tom Waits (1949 - ):

“My kids are starting to notice I'm a little different from the other dads. "Why don't you have a straight job like everyone else?" they asked me the other day.

I told them this story:

In the forest, there was a crooked tree and a straight tree. Every day, the straight tree would say to the crooked tree, "Look at me...I'm tall, and I'm straight, and I'm handsome. Look at you...you're all crooked and bent over. No one wants to look at you." And they grew up in that forest together. And then one day the loggers came, and they saw the crooked tree and the straight tree, and they said, "Just cut the straight trees and leave the rest." So the loggers turned all the straight trees into lumber and toothpicks and paper. And the crooked tree is still there, growing stronger and stranger every day.”

Damien Rice (1973 - ):

“Stones taught me to fly.

Love taught me to lie.

Life taught me to die.

Courage teach me to be shy.

So it's not hard to fall,

When you float like a cannonball.”