Compiled by Gottschalk

"Life has, indeed, many ills, but the mind that views every object in its most cheering aspect, and every doubtful dispensation as replete with latent good, bears within itself a powerful and perpetual antidote. The gloomy soul aggravates misfortune, while a cheerful smile often dispels those mists that portend a storm." ― Lydia Sigourney

"If you are not big enough to lose, you are not big enough to win." ― Walter Reuther

"Every Pawn is a potential Queen." ― James Mason

"What gives chess its great fascination is that the K, Q, R, B, N, and P move in different ways. In consequence we get a colorful diversity of possibilities unequaled in any other board game." ― Fred Reinfeld

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." ― Napoleon Bonaparte

"There is no remorse like the remorse of chess." ― H. G. Wells.

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." ― Harry S Truman, 33rd President of the United States, and former Colonel in the U.S. Army

"All of the real heroes are not storybook combat fighters either. Every single man in this Army play a vital role. Don't ever let up. Don't ever think that your job is unimportant. Every man has a job to do and he must do it. Every man is a vital link in the great chain." ― General George S. Patton, U.S. Army

General chess advice from Joe Brooks: https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comm...

"On the chessboard lies and hypocrisy do not survive long. The creative combination lays bare the presumption of a lie; the merciless fact, culmination in checkmate, contradicts the hypocrite." — Emanuel Lasker

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils

"You can only get good at chess if you love the game." ― Bobby Fischer

"Be active. I do things my way, like skiing when I'm 100. Nobody else does that even if they have energy. And I try to eat pretty correctly and get exercise and fresh air and sunshine." ― Elsa Bailey, first time skier at age 100

"Don't look at the calendar, just keep celebrating every day." ― Ruth Coleman, carpe diem at age 101

A Psalm of Life
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

What The Heart Of The Young Man Said To The Psalmist.

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,— act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

Apr-05-23 WannaBe: Can a vegan have a 'beef' with you? Or Vegans only have 'beet' with you? I am confused.

Apr-05-23 Cassandro: Vegan police officers should be exempt from doing steak-outs.

The Serpent and the File

A serpent, neighbour to a smith,
(A neighbour bad to meddle with,)
Went through his shop, in search of food,
But nothing found, it's understood,
To eat, except a file of steel,
Of which he tried to make a meal.
The file, without a spark of passion,
Addressed him in the following fashion:
"Poor simpleton! you surely bite
With less of sense than appetite;
For before from me you gain
One quarter of a grain,
You'll break your teeth from ear to ear.
Time's are the only teeth I fear."

This tale concerns those men of letters,
Who, good for nothing, bite their betters.
Their biting so is quite unwise.
Think you, you literary sharks,
Your teeth will leave their marks
On the deathless works you criticise?
Fie! fie! fie! men!
To you they're brass – they're steel – they're diamond!

"A species that enslaves other beings is hardly superior — mentally or otherwise." — Captain Kirk

"Now, I don't pretend to tell you how to find happiness and love, when every day is a struggle to survive. But I do insist that you do survive, because the days and the years ahead are worth living for!" — Edith Keeler

"Live long and prosper!" — Spock