"Language...has created the word 'loneliness' to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word 'solitude' to express the glory of being alone."

~ Paul Tillich, theologian

"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much of life. So aim
above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something"

~Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)

"When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stone-cutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it would split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before together."

~Jacob A. Riis, journalist and social reformer (1849-1914)

"The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

I hope the acorns and young oaks in California will be able to grow to mature age. I am afraid that as the mature ones die off, the young ones are not going to make it to 200-400 years old. There is a huge gap in the age distribution of the oaks here :(

"When I can't handle events, I let them handle themselves."

~Henry Ford, industrialist (1863 – 1947)

"When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people."

~Abraham Joshua Heschel, theology professor (1907-1972)

I've always admired kind people but I do find I appreciate kind people even more as time goes on. Aren't clever, kind people cool ;)?

"It is not necessarily true that averaging the averages of different populations gives the average of the combined population." (Simpson's Paradox)

~Edward H. Simpson, statistician (b. 1922)

"Like cars in amusement parks, our direction is often determined through collisions."

~Yahia Lababidi, author (b. 1973)

And like in the amusement park, not all collisions are painful ;)

"I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. I may not complete this last one but I give myself to it."

~Rainer Maria Rilke, poet and novelist (1875-1926)

"Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence."

~Hal Borland, journalist (1900-1978)