The Book of Wise is what I have named a book that my mother
kept... full of quotes and quips ... poems and ponderings...
She hand stitched, embroydered, belled and beaded it...
She treasured it... and it IS a treasure...
Hope you enjoy all of it's little wisedoms.

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The mouse on the barroom floor

Some Guinness was spilt on the barroom floor,
When the pub was shut for the night.
Out of his hole crept a wee brown mouse and stood in the pale moon light.
He lapped up the grothy brew from the floor,
Then back on his haunches he sat
and all night long you could hear him roar;
"Bring on the god damn cat"
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A man trims himself to suit everybody else will soon whittle himself away.
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In the middle of the journey of our life...
I came to myself in a dark wood where the straight was was lost
"The Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
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Remember moderation.
Are you kidding? If it's worth doing, its worth over doing!
Bryant Gumbel
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Dismiss the dreams that sore affright,
Pantasmagoria of the night.
Confound our carnal enemy-
Let not our flesh corrupted be
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Sleep after tayle
Port ofter stormie seas,
Ease after warre,
Death after life,
Doth greatly please.
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And I would love you all the day,
Every night would kiss and play,
If with me you 'd fondly stray,
Over the hills and far away.
John Gay (1688=1732)
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When youth's soft seasons shall be o'er
And scenes of childhood charm no more
My riper years with joy shall see
This proof of infant industry
As memory o'er this scene shall wake
And tretospective pleasure take
How shall I wish but wish in vain
To enjoy youth's careless hours again
A sampler by Mary Owens age12
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Do not stand at my grave and weep; I am not there.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain;
I am the gentle autumn's rain.
When you awaken in the morning's rush
of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft star that shines at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die.
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The sun be warm and kind to you.
The darkest night some star shines through.
The dullest morn a radiance brew.
And where dusk comes, God's hand to you.
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He hadn't time to pen a note.
He hadn't time to cast a vote.
He hadn't time to sing a song
He hadn't time to right a wrong
He hadn't time to love or give
He hadn't time to really live
From now on he'll have time on end
He died today, my "busy" friend.
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Not a day posses over the earth,
but men and women of no note
do great deeds. speak great words,
and suffer noble sorrows
. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Power over live must be balanced by reverance for life
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You never realize the way you talk until you hear your kids.
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Cross- stitch and embroidery, crochet, knitting too; tapestry's Ok by me, if it's Ok Bayeux.
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When time who steals our years away
Shall steal our pleasures too,
The mem'ry of the past will stay
and half our joys renew.
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Natural History
The spider, dropping down from twig,
Unwinds a thread of his devisin:
A thin, premeditated rig
To use in risin.
And all the journey down through space,
In cool descent and loyal-hearted,
He builds a ladder to the place
From which he started.
Thus I, gone forth, as spiders do.
In spiders web a truth discerning,
Attach one silken strand to you
For my returning.
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A Crazy Quilt
They do not make them anymore,
For quilts are cheaper at the store
Then woman's labor, though a wife
Men think the cheapest thing in life.
But now and then a quilt is spread
Upon a quaint old walnut bed
, A crazy quilt of those old days
That I am old enough to praise.

Some woman sewed these points and squares
Into a pattern like life's cares.
Here is a velvet that was strong,
The poplin that she wore so long,
A fragment from her daughter's dress,
Like her, a vancished loveliness;
Old patches of such things as these,
Old garments and old memories.

And what is life? A crazy quilt;
Sorrow and joy,
and grace and guilt.
With here and there a square of blue
For some old happiness we know;
And so the hand of time will take
The fragments of our lives and make
Out of life's remnants, as they fall,
A thing of beauty, after all.
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Across the years I will walk with you-
in deep, green forests; on shores of sand:
And when our time on earth is through,
in heaven, too, you will have my hand.
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Slipping into madness is good,
For the sake of comparison.
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The unicorn is noble;
He keeps him safe and high
Upon a narrow path and steep
Climbing to the sky;
And there no man can take him;
He scorns the hunter's dart
And only a virgin's magic power
Shall tame his haughty heart.
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Life is like an onion: you peel it off
One layer at a time, and some times
you weep.
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Raspberries are best not washed.
After all, one must have faith in something.
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There are only two kinds of foods:
If it's not chocolate, it's a vegetable.
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Sweet and smiling are thy ways,
Beauteous, golden autumn days
. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Authentic Gaelic Blessing
May those who love us, love us.
And those that don't love us, may God turn their hearts;
And if he doesn't turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles
so we'll know them by their limping.
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I'll send theee faries to attend thee,
and gather jewels drom the deep,
and sing, while thou on press flowers
doest sleep
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The sould selects her own Society-
Then - shuts the door
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Life is a great bundle of little things.
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I must have a prodigious quantity of mind;
it takes me as much as a week, sometimes to make it up.
Mark Twain
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Most people say that as you get old, you have to give up things
. I think you get old because you give up things
. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We experience moments absolutely free from worry.
These brief respites are called panic.
Collen Hightower
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Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge
and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you,
You will suddenly know everthing there is to be known.
Winnie the Pooh
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Excess on occasion is exhilarating.
It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.
W.Somerset Maugham
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When in doubt-- add parsley.
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He who waits upon fortune is never sure of his dinner
Ben Franklin
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There are two ways of exerting one's strength,
One is pushing down, the other is pulling up.
Booker T Washington
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Books have been the bricks on which I have built my adult life
. It is a colorful life, filled with the songs of women who have lifted
their powerful voices upward,
women who accompany me so that even in my times of lonelines..
I am never alone.
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The exxence of the principle of the uncarved block is that things in their original simplicity contain their own natural power
power that is easily spoiled and lost when that simplicity is changed.
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While Eeyore frets....
...and Piglet hesitates
...and Rabbit calculates
...and Owl pontificates
....Pooh just is.
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The truly consistent person changes his mind whenever occasion offers.
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It is kindly ordered that happiness should be the result of very simple arrangements
and not of gigantic efforts.
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Each one has his own most real thing.
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Ofcourse I don't look busy--
I did it right the first time.
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You only miss the man that you wanted him to be.
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Bless the four corners of this house,
and be the lintel blest;
and bless the hearth and bless the board
and bless each place of rest;
and bless the door that opens wide
to strangers as to kin;
and bless each crystal window pane
that lets the starlight in;
and bless the rooftree overhead
and every sturdy wall.
The peace of man, the peace of god,
The peace of love an all
Arthur Guiterman
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....And when we grow old I will find two chairs and set them close
Each sun-lit day, that you and I - in quiet joy-may rock the world away.
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... but no man moved me till the tide
Went past my simple shoe
And past my apron and my belt
And past my bodice too,
And made as he would eat me up
As wholly as a dew
Upon a dandelion's sleeve
And then I started too.
Emily Dickinson
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Life lessons from Oprah's show.

When people show you who they are _ believe them.

Repeat the same behaivior and get the same results.

Would you rather be right or would you rather have peace?

If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it everytime.
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If there is no admiration or respect, there is no love.
Love is not a feeling, it is a behaivour.
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You did then what you knew how to do.
Now that you know better, you do better.
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There is no strength where there is no struggle.
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Life is mostly froth and bubble;
Two things stand like stone:
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in your own.
quoted by Princess Diane at a cancer benifet dinner.
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Friendship is a fragile thing,
A gossamer web,
A fairy wing,
Yet all the chains contrived by man
Can never bind
As friendships can.
Kathryn Boice
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Time goes so fast
Life asks so much-
No wonder friends
Get out of touch.

But in our hearts,
Deep, true, unseen,
Friendships stays
Forever green.
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Hundreds of stars in the pretty sky,
Hundreds of shellso n the shore together,
Hundreds of birds that go singing by,
Hundreds of lambs in the sunny weather.

Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,
Hundreds of bees in the purple clover,
Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,
but only one mother the world wide over.
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Any religion or philosophy
Which is based on the fear
of being tortured for eternity
because of some godling's displeasure
is psychologically diseased.
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A friend is a rare book of which but one copy is made.
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THE TRUTH ABOUT FAMILY DINNERS

It is possible, indeed almost to easy, to be eloquently sentimental about large groups of assorted relatives who gather for Christmas, Thanksgiving, or some such festival, and eat and drink and gossip and laugh together..
.. The cold truth is that family dinners are more often then not an ordeal of nervous indigestion, proceded by hidden resentment and envy and accompanied by psychosmatic jitters.
The best way to guarantee smooth sailing at one of them is to assemble the relatives only when a will must be read.
M.F.K.Fisher ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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