"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world."
~ Jack Layton

"Knowledge is not enough, we must apply."
~ Goethe

"I cannot teach anybody anything.  I can only make them think."
~ Socrates

'They are not gay, they are not straight, they are puppets. They don't exist below the waist.'

Gary Knell,Sesame Workshop President and CEO regarding Ernie and Bert

"Prizes are nice, but the real competition is with your performance yesterday."
Irwin Greenberg

The greatest gift you will ever receive is the gift of loving and
believing in yourself. Guard this gift with your life. It is the only
thing that will ever truly be yours.

-- Tiffany Loren Rowe

A childlike man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on
the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of
continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves
in the cocoon of middle aged habit and convention.

-- Aldous Huxley

You cannot add to the peace and good will of the world if you fail to
create an atmosphere of harmony and love right where you live and
work.

-- Thomas Dreier

From long familiarity, we know what honor is. It is what enables the
individual to do right in the face of complacency and cowardice. It
is what enables the soldier to die alone, the political prisoner to
resist, the singer to sing her song, hardly appreciated, on a side
street.

-- Mark Helprin

Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows
with the ability to say no to oneself.

-- Abraham Joshua Heschel 1907-1972

"The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your hear -- this you will build your life by, and this you will become."
~ James Lane Allen (1849-1925)

"A wish has been defined as a 'goal with no energy behind it.' Hope is not a strategy."
~ Brian Tracy

I don't like work... but I like what is in work -- the chance to find yourself. Your own reality -- for yourself, not for others -- which no other man can ever know.

-- Joseph Conrad

Art establishes and makes tangible a time, a place, a thought, an idea.
Art, properly made, enhances and enriches the lives of others.
Art gives an opportunity to endow new life and new meaning into the ordinary.
Art gives an opportunity to design your own world, and, as in your children, create a significant immortality.
Art is hard-earned work that is its own reward and has a degree of permanence.
Art, because it's so easy to do, and yet so difficult to do well, encourages humility in the human soul.
Art is an apprenticeship that can be stretched into a lifelong education.
Art thrives on democratic ideals, freedom of expression and rugged individualism.
Art permits you to step out of the labyrinth and into a quiet corner of your own private joy.


~ Robert Genn, Canadian painter and author

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."

-William James

"In real life, there is real heroism, but its not about saving babies from burning buildings. Its about making an effort, day after day, to be kind to some old people, be patient with some young people, be polite to those who you could get away being rude to. Real life heroism is a marathon, not a sprint."


~ John F. Groom

Is great art out of reach? You can find an emerging artist, a painting, or vase, in your city, for an amount you can afford. The great names are out of your reach. But beauty, without the brand, is not. And the search for beauty will ennoble you.

~ John F. Groom

“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honour; duty; mercy; hope.”

- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

"He plays his tune.Is it beautiful? Are you paying attention? Or do you just want to know if he is famous? Does his fame, or lack thereof, affect the beauty of the song? Can you hear the music, or taste the wine, without knowing the brand?"

~ John F. Groom

“As the body needs physical exercise in order to remain in fit condition, man’s spirit also requires the spiritual exercise derived when he confronts his problems and combats life’s vicissitudes. ”

- William Sahakian and Mabel Lewis Sahakian, describing the philosophy of Epictetus