Lord Alfred Tennyson: Quote for December 31, 2009

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow;
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife,
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweet manners, purer laws.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

-- Lord Alfred Tennyson

Categories: Lord Alfred Tennyson

James Hilton: Quote for December 30, 2009

People make mistakes in life through believing too much, but they have a damned dull time if they believe too little.

-- James Hilton

from: Lost Horizon (Book 1933)

Categories: James Hilton, Lost Horizon

Dalai Lama XIV: Quote for December 29, 2009

I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction. Yet true happiness comes from a sense of peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion, and elimination of ignorance, selfishness, and greed.

-- Dalai Lama XIV

Categories: Dalai Lama XIV

Bram Stoker: Quote for December 28, 2009

I have learned not to think little of any one's belief, no matter how strange it may be. I have tried to keep an open mind, and it is not the ordinary things of life that could close it, but the strange things, the extraordinary things, the things that make one doubt if they be mad or sane.

-- Bram Stoker

from: Dracula (Book 1897)

Read "Dracula" by Bram Stoker. Click here.

Categories: Bram Stoker, Dracula

Alexander Pope: Quote for December 27, 2009

But Satan now is wiser than of yore, and tempts by making rich, not making poor.

-- Alexander Pope

Categories: Alexander Pope

Warning from the Ghost of Christmas Present on December 26, 2009

The Ghost of Christmas Present reveals two children under his robe. — Ebenezer Scrooge asks: Spirit, are they yours?

No, they are man's. This boy is ignorance, this girl is want. Beware of both of them but most of all beware the boy. For on his forehead I see that written which is doom. Unless the writing is erased, if you deny him, slander those who tell others about him, admit he exists but do nothing about it, then doom will engulf you all.

-- Ghost of Christmas Present

from: A Christmas Carol (1999)

Desmond Barrit acted as Ghost of Christmas Present

Patrick Stewart appears in this clip acting as Ebenezer Scrooge.

Categories: Ghost of Christmas Present, Desmond Barrit, A Christmas Carol

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Quote for December 25, 2009

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play
And mild and sweet the words repeat,
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had roll'd along th' unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bow'd my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."

'Til ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Categories: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Charles Dickens: Quote for December 24, 2009

I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round — as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.

-- Charles Dickens

from: A Christmas Carol (1843 book)

Read the entire story of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens.
Click here.

Categories: Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Irving Berlin: Quote for December 23, 2009

White Christmas

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten
and children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white

-- Irving Berlin

Categories: Irving Berlin

Dr. Ian Stevenson: Quote for December 22, 2009

I do not believe that genetics alone and genetics combined with environmental influences can explain all the peculiarities and abnormalities of human personality that we psychiatrists see...I think reincarnation offers a third possibility. I don't think it replaces our understanding of genetics or environmental influences, but I think reincarnation offers a better explanation for some unusual behavior that occurs very early in the life and often persists through the life.

-- Dr. Ian Stevenson

Categories: Dr. Ian Stevenson

Kurt Vonnegut: Quote for December 21, 2009

Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring and not your games with language which will be the most compelling elements in your style.

-- Kurt Vonnegut

Mr. Vonnegut is referring to the style you use in your writing and other forms of expression.

Categories: Kurt Vonnegut

Henry van Dyke: Quote for December 20, 2009

To desire and strive to be of some service to the world, to aim at doing something which shall really increase the happiness and welfare and virtue of mankind - this is a choice which is possible for all of us; and surely it is a good haven to sail for.

-- Henry van Dyke

Categories: Henry van Dyke

Buddha: Quote for December 19, 2009

• Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
• Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
• Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
• Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
• Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.

But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

-- Buddha

Categories: Buddha

Henry Morton Stanley: Quote for December 18, 2009

Doctor Livingston, I presume.

-- Henry Morton Stanley

from: Forbidden Territory: Stanley's Search for Livingstone (1997)

Aidan Quinn acted as Henry Morton Stanley

Nigel Hawthorne appears in this clip acting as David Livingstone.

Categories: Henry Morton Stanley, Aidan Quinn, Forbidden Territory: Stanley's Search for Livingstone

Karl Friedrich Gauss: Quote for December 17, 2009

It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment. When I have clarified and exhausted a subject, then I turn away from it, in order to go into darkness again. The never-satisfied man is so strange; if he has completed a structure, then it is not in order to dwell in it peacefully, but in order to begin another. I imagine the world conqueror must feel thus, who, after one kingdom is scarcely conquered, stretches out his arms for others.

-- Karl Friedrich Gauss

Categories: Karl Friedrich Gauss

Albert Einstein: Quote for December 16, 2009

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.

-- Albert Einstein

Categories: Albert Einstein

George Eliot: Quote for December 15, 2009

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.

-- George Eliot

Categories: George Eliot

Mark Twain: Quote for December 14, 2009

Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you've never been hurt and live like it's heaven on Earth.

-- Mark Twain

Categories: Mark Twain