Inspiration via the Early Years

Sometimes I feel as if I'm an old soul; some of my favorite quotes and authors are those from many decades and centuries past. As boring as British Lit was on occasion in college, their words always bounced off the page at me the most.

Case in point:


Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul. 

-William Ernest Henley

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. - Harper Lee, To Kill A Mocking Bird

Amor vincit omnia. (love conquers all) - Chaucer

If music be the food of love, play on. - Shakespeare

Annabelle Lee by Edgar Allan Poe

It was many and many a year ago, 


In a kingdom by the sea, 


That a maiden there lived whom you may know 


By the name of Annabel Lee; 


And this maiden she lived with no other thought 


Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child, 


In this kingdom by the sea; 


But we loved with a love that was more than love - 


I and my Annabel Lee; 


With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven 


Coveted her and me. 


And this was the reason that, long ago, 
I

in this kingdom by the sea, 


A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling 


My beautiful Annabel Lee;

So that her highborn kinsman came 


And bore her away from me,

To shut her up in a sepulcher 


In this kingdom by the sea. 


The angels, not half so happy in heaven, 


Went envying her and me 


Yes! that was the reason 


(as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) 


That the wind came out of the cloud by night, 


Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love was stronger by far than the love 


Of those who were older than we 


Of many far wiser than we 


And neither the angels in heaven above, 


Nor the demons down under the sea, 


Can ever dissever my soul from the soul 


Of the beautiful Annabel Lee. 


For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams 


Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; 


And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes 


Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; 
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side 


Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride, 


In the sepulcher there by the sea, 


In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Like water, be gentle and strong. Be gentle enough to follow the natural paths of the earth and strong enough to rise up and reshape the world. - Elizabeth Ber

The decisions we make today are those we feel tomorrow. Sometimes the waters get rough but life's about taking a paddle and digging in, because nothing comes from still stagnant waters..... 

it takes a ripple to make a change.

And finally, my very favorite by Johann Wolfgang... 

             All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.