we did not change as we grew older; we just became more clearly ourselves.

lynn hall

i don't believe you have to be better than everybody else. i believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be.

ken venturi

i only want to live in peace, and plant potatoes and dream

moomin
(courtesy of tove jansson)

who could really wish for more ... ?

don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

robert louis stevenson

can you imagine what i would do if i could do all i can?

sun tzu

this, for me, echoes in william morris' motto: si je puis (if i can)

a work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.

oscar wilde

begin to be now what you will be hereafter.

william james

weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.

a. a. milne

(i shall try to remember this the next time i'm weeding!)

have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.

william morris

on discovering this quote, i explained to m that he should think himself really rather fortunate as i fulfil both these criteria!!!

progress however, of the best kind, is comparatively slow. great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step.

samuel smiles

age is an issue of mind over matter. if you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

mark twain

happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul.

democritus

an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

mohandas gandhi

do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

buddha

he who plants a garden plants happiness

chinese proverb

it is a piece of folly merely to value things because of their distance from the place where we are born: thus men have travelled far enough in the search of foreign plants and animals, and yet continue strangers to those produced in their own natural climate.

martin martin, 1698
a late voyage to st kilda