The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost
for a very special friend
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, 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
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, And I-
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
O Me! O Life!
O ME! O life!... of the questions of these recurring;
Of the endless trains of the faithless--of cities fill'd with the foolish;
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light--of the objects mean--of the struggle ever renew'd;
Of the poor results of all--of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;
Of the empty and useless years of the rest--with the rest me intertwined;
The question, O me! so sad, recurring--What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here--that life exists, and identity;
That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.

The greatest moment in hockey history!

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The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

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Thoughts on Diplomacy.

Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.
—Charles De Gaulle

To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy.
—Will Durant

Diplomacy is the art of letting someone have your way.
—Daniele Vare.

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I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately.
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life ...
to put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
-Henry David Thoreau

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Yoda: I am wondering, why are you here?
Luke Skywalker: I'm looking for someone.
Yoda: Looking? Found someone, you have, I would say, hmmm?
Luke Skywalker: Right...
Yoda: Help you I can. Yes, mmmm.
Luke Skywalker: I don't think so. I'm looking for a great warrior.
Yoda: Ohhh! Great warrior! [laughs and shakes his head] Wars not make one great!