Anne Sexton

I'm not one to wear my heart on my sleeve, but I like this...

"As it has been said: Love and a cough cannot be concealed.  Even a small cough.  Even a small love."

-Anne Sexton

Adrienne Maloof

I never thought I would be quoting a Real Housewife of Beverly Hills, but here goes...

"Every girl should keep her heels, head, and standards high.  Girls deserve the best and nothing less."

-Adrienne Maloof

Proust

Sometimes it just takes a little shift in perspective...

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."

-Proust

Sara Teasdale

"Life has loveliness to sell, all beautiful and splendid things,
blue waves whitened on a cliff, soaring fire that sways and sings
and children's faces looking up,
holding wonder like a cup."

-Sara Teasdale

Cyrano de Bergerac

Because you always need to cross your "t"s and dot your "i"s...

"A kiss is a rosy dot over the "i" of loving."

-Cyrano de Bergerac

Carrie Fisher

We need to laugh through life...

"If my life wasn't funny it would just be true, and that is unacceptable."

-Carrie Fisher

Carlos Santana

Live in the now:

"Angels cry because they want to experience what you and I feel: the moment.  They live in eternity.  They don't know what it is like to read a newspaper and get ink on your fingers.  They don't know what it is like to take your shoes off and wiggle your toes under the dinner table.

-Carlos Santana

Jorge Luis Borges

A girl can dream...

"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library."

-Jorge Luis Borges

Cyrus H K. Curtis

Tow the line between being a follower and a leader...

"There are two kinds of men who don’t amount to much: those who can’t do what they are told and those who can do nothing else."

-Cyrus H K. Curtis

Joyce Carol Oates

I really do think it's all meant to be...

"The worst cynicism: a belief in luck"

-Joyce Carol Oates

Nikki Giovanni

Apparently this woman and I share a birthday.  I also think I share her thoughts on love:

"We love because it's the only true adventure."

-Nikki Giovanni

Bruce Barton

"Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance."

-Bruce Barton

Billy Joel

I hope this is true...

"In every heart there is a room / a sanctuary safe and strong / to heal the wounds from lovers past / until a new one comes along"

-"And So It Goes", Billy Joel

William Blake

"The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel'd to heaven is no artist."

-William Blake

Henry James

Art should feel like this stay-up-all-night, abandon thoughts of all else, crazy passionate thing.

"We work in the dark/
We do what we can/
We give what we have/
Our doubt is our passion/
And our passion is our task/
The rest is the madness of art."

-Henry James

Bruce Barton

"Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think there are no little things."

-Bruce Barton

Henry James

I would love to be described this way:

"She was a woman who, between courses, could be graceful with her elbows on the table."

-Henry James

Treme

It may just be the tagline for a tv series that I saw on the side of a telephone booth, but I thought it was beautiful and hopeful.

"Wrap your troubles in dreams."

-Tagline from Treme poster promoting 4/24/11 season premiere

Washington Irving

I've been a little emotional lately and this reminds me that it's ok to feel like that - crying is not just the habit of a silly girl.

"There is a sacredness in tears.  They are not the mark of weakness, but of power.  They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues.  They are messengers of overwhelming grief...and unspeakable love."

-Washington Irving

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I strive to be an individual...

"What is genius but the power of expressing a new individuality?"

-Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Ansel Adams

"There is nothing worse than a brilliant image of a fuzzy concept."

-Ansel Adams

James Joyce

I like to think I've got a little bit of both, but must admit intellect seems to go nowhere unless it is backed by emotion.

"Men are governed by lines of intellect - women: by curves of emotion."

-James Joyce

Havelock Ellis

If it's real to you, that's all that matters...

"Dreams are real as long as they last.  Can we say more of life?"

-Havelock Ellis

Bella Lewitsky

"To move freely, you must be deeply rooted."

-Bella Lewitsky

Bill Hemmerling

This bit of wisdom was on a painting I saw in a gallery on my recent New Orleans trip:

"Be encouraged / trouble don't last / wisdom / a diamond was at one time a piece of coal / and a frog was once a tadpole / a river a stream / a star just a beam"

-William Hemmerling, from the painting "Be Encouraged"

Michael Stipe

"Some I'm confused by what I think is really obvious.  But what I think is really obvious obviously isn't obvious..."

-Michael Stipe