I love it when someone can put a lot of meaning into just a few words or express a universal truth in a unique way.  So I’m always on the lookout for great quotes.  Here are thirteen great ones:

(1) “Courage is only an accumulation of small steps.”  ~George Konrad~

(2) “Not everything can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” ~James Baldwin~

(3) “You can’t throw a stone in any direction without finding someone in more need than you.” ~Will Rogers~

(4) “There’s no labor a man can do that’s undignified - if he does it right.” ~Bill Cosby~

(5) “A man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful.  But if he confesses and forsakes them, he gets another chance.”  ~Proverbs 28:13~

(6) “Divine service done here three times a day.” ~a sign hanging over the sink at the home of Ruth and Billy Graham~

(7) “A complaining tongue reveals an ungrateful heart.” ~William Arthur Ward~

(8) “The best way to teach character is to have it around the house.”  ~Anonymous~

(9) “Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.” ~African proverb~

(10) “You can stand tall without standing on someone.  You can be a victor without victims.” ~Harriet Woods~

(11) “Try not to become a person of success, but rather a person of value.” ~Albert Einstein~

(12) “Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!” ~From the musical Mame~

(13) “The most influential of educational factors is the conversation in a child’s home.” ~William Temple~

I just saw this story over at Hot Air.  It’s hilarious.   Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright makes no sense at all.

Albright’s message centered on the need for equality – not just domestically, but also on a global scale.

“If we were all rich, that would be very nice,” Albright said. “If we were all poor, it would be too bad, but we would be the same. What the problem is now is the poor know what the rich have as a result of information technology and the spread, generally, of knowledge. And, it creates a whole new host of problems in terms of disquiet and anger.”

It’s sad when a supposedly intelligent person can’t put together a coherent few sentences.

I found the following site that has 2007 Quotes of the Year.  Amazing things that people say.  This will make you incredulous . . . and angry!

 Okay, I can’t resist.  Here are a couple samples - and neither of these quotes were the winners in their respective categories:

ABC’s Sam Donaldson: “[Senator Barack Obama is] an African-American. Is the country ready? Well, I think it is. And he said he thinks it is. He said he thinks he’ll lose some votes because of that, and so the question is, what does the word ‘some’ mean?…”
Moderator George Stephanopoulos: “Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m naive, but Sam, I guess I think that anyone who’s not going to vote for Barack Obama because he is black isn’t going to vote for a Democrat anyway.”
— Exchange on ABC’s This Week, May 13. [71]

“I think a draft produces a better Army than the one we would have with all volunteers, because I think you get average Americans if you have a draft. And if it’s an all-volunteer Army, you get people who join up because of some problem in their own lives. They don’t have anything else to do, they don’t have a job, or they can’t find what they want to do, so they join the Army. And it doesn’t produce the best Army.”
— CBS’s Andy Rooney on MSNBC’s Imus in the Morning, March 14. [71]

Tiara-Tip to Beth at Yeah, Right, Whatever.

I’m an elementary school reading specialist, and so I’m always reading.  I also love quotes.  Thus I’ve done Thursday Thirteens on various topics related to reading and quotes.  There are Thursday Thirteens on quotes about Mothers, quotes from American History,  poems to read with children,  quotes to write in the sand,  my favorite read-aloud books for children,  my favorite quotes about reading, and thirteen books for Read Across American week.  Here is a second set of quotes about reading that I love:

(1)  “To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all of the miseries of life.”   ~W. Somerset Maugham~

(2) “The real purpose of books is to trap the mind into doing its own thinking.”  ~Christopher Morley~

(3) “Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.” ~Emilie Buchwald~

(4) “A house without books is like a room without windows.”  ~Horace Mann~

(5) “To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul.”  ~Cicero~

(6) “Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”  ~Richard McKenna~

(7)  “To read is to empower;

To empower is to write;

To write is to influence;

To influence is to change;

To change is to live.”

~Jane Evershed~

(8) “The more that you read,

The more things you will know.

The more that you learn,

The more places you’ll go! ”

~Dr. Seuss~

(9)  “There is no substitute for books in the life of a child.”  ~Mary Ellen Chase~

(10)  “Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.”  ~Chinese proverb~

(11) ”Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” ~Sir Richard Steele~

(12)  “Books, I found, had the power to make time stand still, retreat or fly into the future.”  ~Jim Bishop~

(13)  “A book is a like a garden carried in the pocket.”  ~Chinese proverb”

Here’s another favorite quote about reading.  This one is from Dr. Seuss.

“The more that you read,

The more things you will know.

The more that you learn,

The more places you’ll go!”

~Dr. Seuss~

Heather Mills is angry that people drink milk.  Really.  Supposedly ”meat, dairy and fish are principal causes of global environmental collapse.”  I kid you not.  That’s what they claim.  The full story is HERE, but here’s the quote.  Don’t you just love it?

“We are the only species that drinks another person’s milk, so why aren’t we drinking rat’s milk, or dog’s milk, or cat’s milk, that’s how crazy it is,” she said.

“It’s mad that we are having cow’s milk. Even cows don’t drink it after one year but we continue forever.”

Here are two of my favorite quotes about reading. 

“To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul.”

~Cicero~

“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.”

~Emilie Buchwald~

You can NEVER underestimate the importance of parents in building the foundation for success in school.

“No matter how busy you think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.”

~Atwood H. Townsend~

I apparently like this quote more than I thought because when I was looking over my reading newsletters for this year, I realized that I used this same quote in two issues - and there are only four issues so far this school year.  Yikes!  How did I let that slip past me? 

“Reading makes immigrants of us all.  It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.”

~Hazel Rochman~

We’re all immigrants in more ways than one.