Proserpina's WunderBlog

Last Updated: 2:58 PM GMT on November 07, 2009 — Last Comment: 12:34 AM GMT on November 08, 2009

	QUOTES AND WORDS TO LIVE BY, OR NOT!

Posted by: Proserpina, 2:43 PM GMT on November 07, 2009

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE QUOTE? DOES IT HAVE A SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE FOR YOU?

Since my teenage years I have utilized quotes from my favorite authors, characters, historical figures,the Bible... to apply to whatever situation at hand. Sometimes a quote serves as an admonition, sometimes as advice, sometimes to emphasize or support an idea... And sometimes the quote serves as a precept to live by.

I have several favorite quotes, but the one that I give as advice to young people and that influences my own actions, comes from Shakespeare's "Hamlet". The words are spoken by Polonius, father of Laertes and Ophelia. They are meant as advice to his son Laertes as the son is about to leave his home.
Polonius is an officious, garrulous, impertinent, rambler of wisdom. A deceitful windbag who actually gives sound advice. He makes me think of the familiar maxim "Do As I Say Not As I Do".

Here is my favorite QUOTE, "Hamlet", Act. I, Scene 3:

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Another Shakespeare play provides me the lines that I often think but normally do not utter. They are the words of Mark Anthony in "Julius Caesar", Act III, Scene 2.

Mark Antony:

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him;
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones,
So let it be with Caesar ... The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it ...
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest,
(For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all; all honourable men)
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral ...
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man….

Does today's world ever make you think of Mark Antony's observations?

When I think about life and the meaning of life I frequently think of the words spoken by Segismundo in "La Vida Es Sueno" by Calderon de la Barca.

Yo sueño que estoy aquí
destas prisiones cargado,
y soñé que en otro estado
más lisonjero me vi.
¿Qué es la vida? Un frenesí.
¿Qué es la vida? Una ilusión,
una sombra, una ficción,
y el mayor bien es pequeño:
que toda la vida es sueño,
y los sueños, sueños son.

I dream that I am here
of these imprisonments charged,
and I dreamed that in another state
happier I saw myself.
What is life? A frenzy.
What is life? An illusion,
A shadow, a fiction,
And the greatest profit is small;
For all of life is a dream,
And dreams, are nothing but dreams.
Yo sueño que estoy aquí

This soliloquy is to Spanish literature what Hamlet's "To be or not to be" speech is to English literature.

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here (Inferno)
- Dante Alighieri

“If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.”
Lewis Carroll

Nature does nothing uselessly.
Aristotle

Gardens are not made by singing "Oh, how beautiful," and sitting in the shade.
Rudyard Kipling

An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.
M.K. Gandhi
......

Corinthians

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

THESE ARE ONLY A FEW OF MY FAVORITE QUOTES

PLEASE ADD YOUR OWN FAVORITE QUOTES, and if you wish, tell us what they mean to you.

View Comments (20)

Updated: 2:58 PM GMT on November 07, 2009

Permalink | A A A

	Favorite Poems

Posted by: Proserpina, 7:02 AM GMT on October 20, 2009

PRAYERS AND THOUGHTS FOR EVERYONE AT FORT HOOD.Robert Frost (1874–1963). Mountain Interval. 1920. The Road Not Taken TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there...

Autumn Impressionism

View Comments (158)

Updated: 12:57 PM GMT on November 06, 2009

Permalink | A A A

	Seasonal Recipe

Posted by: Proserpina, 2:39 PM GMT on October 17, 2009

http://www.italiannotebook.com/food-wine/zucca/http://www.italiannotebook.com/The article on the ZUCCA comes from ITALIAN NOTEBOOK.COM October 9, 2009Use Your ZuccaAutumn is approaching. The nights are cooling, the leaves are falling, and the zucca (pumpkin) is on the vine.Besides referring to the whole world of orange, yellow and striped squashes now becoming available, be aware that zucca also means your noggin! However, it is not very complimentary to tell someon...

View Comments (35)

Updated: 2:43 PM GMT on October 17, 2009

Permalink | A A A

	MORE RAIN, THIRD DAY

Posted by: Proserpina, 12:37 PM GMT on October 12, 2009

Monument in Genoa, ItalyInformation on Columbus was obtained fro: http://columbus.vanderkrogt.net/index.phpOn October 12, 1492 Christopher Columbus set foot upon one of the Bahamas. The Age of Discovery had begun. Columbus became a metaphor for discovery, adventure, bravery, daring and perseverance. He set into motion a series of historical events that resulted in an entirely new world. The first monument for Columbus was erected on the occasion of the 300th ann...

Pretty In Red

View Comments (36)

Updated: 1:11 PM GMT on October 17, 2009

Permalink | A A A

	Natural Disasters And Ancestors

Posted by: Proserpina, 4:46 PM GMT on October 03, 2009

THOUGHTS AND FAMILY HISTORY I am saddened about the recent events in Messina caused by the October 2, 2009 mudslides, tornado, and floods. Unfortunately Messina has a history of incredible and devastating disasters such as the earthquake that occurred in the early morning of December 28, 1908. Within minutes the earthquake was followed by a 40 feet Tsunami. Ninety one percent of the structures in Messina were destroyed, and over 100,000 out of 150,000 residents ...