Ancestry Daily News, 26 January 2006
Say What?!
I puttered around the Internet recently, searching for the exact wording to a quote I vaguely recalled, and as I'm prone to do, allowed myself to get pulled into a cyberspace sinkhole. In this instance, I spent a couple of hours meandering through virtual quote-land -- all sorts of sites devoted to quotations.
Not surprisingly, I decided to see what memorable words had been uttered about genealogy and everything related to it. I've gathered a few to share with you today. Not all are positive and a few of them are downright peculiar, but these are the ones that caught my attention one way or another and I hope you'll find them interesting as well. So here we go -- in no particular order . . .
Genealogy Quotes
Not a bad collection for a single online expedition, but I bet some of you reading this have favorite remarks that aren't here. If so, please consider dropping me a line to share them. If I gather enough, I'll share another round of pithy and not-so-pithy comments in a future article.
Here is the ‘future article’……. Ancestry Daily News, February 16, 2006noring Our Ancestors More Genealogical Quotes
by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak
Wow! Who knew there were so many fun and intriguing quotes relating to genealogy? In my last article, I shared some memorable quotations I found strewn around the Internet and invited readers to share their favorites. Many of you took me up on my invitation.
One of the first to catch my attention was from Alice McPhee Mombourquette of Canada. According to Kevin Estey, from an article in the December 2005 Aged to Perfection newsletter, "To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research." If that's true, the balance of this article is the result of extensive research!
The past is a source of knowledge, and the future is a source of hope. Love of the past implies faith in the future. - Stephen Ambrose, 1936-2002
To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain perpetually a child. For what is the worth of a human life unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?
- Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 B.C.
People will never look forward to Posterity who never look backward to their ancestors. - Edmund Burke
He that has no fools, knaves, or beggars in his family must have been begot by a flash of lightning!
- Thomas Fuller, 1608-61
It's a poor family tree that doesn't have either a thief or madam hanging from its branches.
- Source unknown
Human beings look separate because you see them walking about separately. But then we are so made that we can see only the present moment. If we could see the past, then of course it would look different. For there was a time when every man was part of his mother, and (earlier still) part of his father as well, and when they were part of his grandparents. If you could see humanity spread out in time, as God sees it, it would look like one single growing thing--rather like a very complicated tree. Every individual would appear connected with every other. - C. S. Lewis
Those who do not look upon themselves as a link, connecting the past with the future, do not perform their duty to the world. - Daniel Webster
Found a Yankee in my family tree; will trade for horse thief or other black sheep. - Author unknown
(Lisa explains that she can say this since she was born a Yankee with Southern maternal roots.)
We live with a heritage from earlier generations and must seek to create positive legacies for those who follow us. When the old are not allowed to tell their story, the young grow up without history. If the young are not listened to, we have no future. - Dr. Gunhild O. Hagostad
Family is everything. It defines you--the heart of your spirit, the heritage of your smile, not only the color of your eyes but how they see the world. You are bound by kinship. You add your own link to the chain, and that is where you strengthen or weaken what you have been blessed--or burdened--with. That is where you use the indefinable quality that belongs to only you, the bit of uniqueness you pass on to your children for good or bad, the part of you that will always be separate from those who share your name, your blood, and your past.
- Deborah Smith, from Blue Willow
Though the generations wander, the lineage survives, and all of us, from dust to dust . . . we all become forefathers, by and by. - Dan Fogelburg
The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future.
- Herbert Spencer
The theory of relativity says that no matter what you do in life, your relatives will have a theory.
- Snapple bottle cap
I can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial atomic globule. Consequently, my family pride is something inconceivable. I can't help it. I was born sneering. - Sir W. S. Gilbert from "The Mikado"
Our ancestors are very good kind of folks; but they are the last people I should choose to have a visiting acquaintance with. - Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Family History: It is not just a hobby. It is a vitally important preservation mission for future generations of our family. submitted by Judith Mable:
The farther back you look, the farther back you see. - Winston Churchill
What is research but a blind date with knowledge? -- Will Henry
To live in the hearts we leave behind, is not to die. - Thomas Campbell
If you want a place in the sun, you must leave the shade of the family tree. - Osage saying
As the leaves on the trees is the life of man. - Homer
There is something about a closet that makes a skeleton terribly restless. - John Barrymore
The only thing wrong with immortality is that it tends to go on forever. - Herb Coen
Genealogy taglines:
Nothing is so soothing to our self esteem as to find our bad traits in our forebears. It seems to absolve us.
- Van Wyck Brooks, 1886-1963
None of us can boast about the morality of our ancestors. The record does not show that Adam and Eve were ever married. - Edgar Watson Howe, 1853-1937
Hereditary honors are a noble and a splendid treasure to descendants. - Plato, 427-347 B.C.
It is worthwhile for anyone to have behind him a few generations of honest, hard-working ancestry.
- J. P. Marquand, 1893-1960
More Genealogical tag lines:
I trace my family history so I will know who to blame.
It is not how old you are, but how you are old.— Marie Dressler
Always remember that you're unique, just like everyone else.
May you have the hindsight to know where you've been, the foresight to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you're going too far.
Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.____Booker T. Washington
There are two lasting bequests we can give our children: One is roots. The other is wings.— Hodding Carter, Jr.
Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different.— Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
What lies behind us and lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.— Ralph Waldo Emerson
The distance is nothing; it's only the first step that is difficult.— Marquise du Deffand
Just when I was getting used to yesterday, along came today.___Unknown
The achievement of one goal should be the starting point of another.— Alexander Graham Bell
There is no life that does not contribute to history.— Dorothy West
I trace my family history so I will know who to blame.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. -- Albert Einstein
Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.— Willis Whitney
For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.— Harry F. Banks
Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.— Samuel Johnson
We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own.— Ben Sweetland
Genealogy - Confusing the dead while irritating the living.
A setback is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.— Henry Ford
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.— Albert Einstein
The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times, the same good things for the first time.— Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.— Mark Twain
Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.— H. Jackson Brow
You always pass failure on the way to success.— Mickey Rooney
The great use of a life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.— William James
Make up your mind to be happy. Learn to find pleasure in simple things.— Robert Louis Stevenson
In creating, the only hard thing's to begin; a grass blade's no easier to make than an oak.— James Russell Lowell
Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.— Henry David Thoreau
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.- Helen Keller
When we have arrived at the question, the answer is already near.- Ralph Waldo Emerson
In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us.- Flora Edwards
Happiness comes through doors you didn't even know you left open.
Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.- Winston Churchill
People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.- Dale Carnegie 1888-1955
If you lend someone $20 and never see them again, it was probably worth it.
Without enthusiasm you are doomed to a life of mediocrity, but with it you can accomplish miracles.--Og Mandino
Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."-- Albert Einstein
"Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory."-Gen. George S. Patton
"Destiny is not a matter of chance; but a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."--William Jennings Bryant
"Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end."--Scott Adams
Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
"With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts."--Eleanor Roosevelt
"Logics will get you from A to B, Imagination will take you everywhere."--Albert Einstein
"Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend--or a meaningful day."--Dalai Lama
The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
"Show me the manner in which a nation cares for it's dead, and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender mercies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land and their loyalty to high ideals."--William Gladstone
"Absence of occupation is not rest, A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd."--William Cowper, 1731-1800
Typos are not typos ... they are actually genealogical alternate spellings, while poor grammar ... is added for interest.
"Whatever you do, do with all your might."--Marcus Tullius Cicero
"Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally."--David Frost
"Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live."--Mark Twain
"A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds."--Francis Bacon
"Why waste your money looking up your family tree, just go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.." Mark Twain
"If we begin with certainties, we shall end in doubts; but if we begin with doubts, and are patient in them, we shall end in certainties."--Francis Bacon
FLOOR -- The place for storing your priceless genealogy records.
JUSTICE --- When you get what you deserve. MERCY ----- When you don't get what you deserve. GRACE ----- When you get what you don't deserve. --Unknown
"It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving." -- Mother Teresa
Knowledge not shared is knowledge wasted.
Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.--Abraham Lincoln
"The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things."--Henry Ward Beecher
Yesterday is only a memory. Tomorrow is only a dream. Today is the only day we really have.--Unknown
"The lofty oak from a small acorn grows." -- Lewis Duncombe
"Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for."--Joseph Addison
"If you want to know your past--look into your present conditions. If you want to know your future---look into your present actions."--Padmasambhava
"Self-sacrifice is never entirely unselfish, for the giver never fails to receive."--Dolores E. McGuire
"Every man's memory is his private literature."--Aldous Huxley
"Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable."--Francis Bacon
...searching for my roots by moving one leaf at a time.
"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."--Abraham Lincoln
"The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see."--Winston Churchill
"None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm."--Henry David Thoreau
"Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I'll remember. Involve me and I'll understand."--Confucius
"The Grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for."--Allan K. Chalmers
"The only thing you take with you when you're gone is what you leave behind."--John Allston
If you can't be kind at least have the decency to be vague.
It may be that your sole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others.
Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
"To look backward for a while is to refresh the eye, to restore it, and to render it the more fit for its prime function of looking forward."--Margaret Fairless Barber
"Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance."--Samuel Johnson
Freedom is never letting your fears stop you from following your heart.--Susie Switzer
A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.--Rober Heinlein
"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."--Helen Keller
The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.--Winston Churchill
I'm going through my Snapdragon phase: part of me has snapped and the rest of me is draggin'.
It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.__Henry Ward Beecher
The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.__B. B. King
You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.__Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance__Emma Goldman, 1869-1940
Don't run through life so fast that you forget not only where you've been, but also where you are going. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.
If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it!___Jonathan Winters
Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.__David Frost
If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.__George Bernard Shaw
Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.__William James
One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.__A. A. Milne
If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done.__Dale Carnegie
It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.__Eleanor Roosevelt
This last group of quotations were gotten from: Cindy Blankenship’s web site http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/%7Ecindyblankenship/index.htm
Say What?!
I puttered around the Internet recently, searching for the exact wording to a quote I vaguely recalled, and as I'm prone to do, allowed myself to get pulled into a cyberspace sinkhole. In this instance, I spent a couple of hours meandering through virtual quote-land -- all sorts of sites devoted to quotations.
Not surprisingly, I decided to see what memorable words had been uttered about genealogy and everything related to it. I've gathered a few to share with you today. Not all are positive and a few of them are downright peculiar, but these are the ones that caught my attention one way or another and I hope you'll find them interesting as well. So here we go -- in no particular order . . .
Genealogy Quotes
- Simone Weil, French philosopher
To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul. - William Lyon Phelps
I am glad my ancestors arrived on the Mayflower, but I am gladder that there are nine generations between us. - Alex Haley
When you start about family, about lineage and ancestry, you are talking about every person on earth. - Ambrose Bierce, U.S. author & satirist, 1842-1914
GENEALOGY, n. An account of one's descent from an ancestor who did not particularly care to trace his own. - Ambrose Bierce
DEGENERATE, adj. Less conspicuously admirable than one's ancestors. - Walter Lippman, US author & journalist, 1889-1974
Men can know more than their ancestors did if they start with a knowledge of what their ancestors had already learned. . . . That is why a society can be progressive only if it conserves its traditions. - George Bernard Shaw
If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance. - Laurence J. Peter
Every man serves a useful purpose. A miser, for example, makes a wonderful ancestor. - Jane Howard
Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. - Jeff Foxworthy
If you ever start feeling like you have the goofiest, craziest, most dysfunctional family in the world, all you have to do is go to a state fair. Because five minutes at the fair, you'll be going, "You know, we're alright. We are dang near royalty." - Alexander Hamilton, "The Farmer Refuted," February 23, 1775, U.S. (Scottish-born) lawyer & politician, 1755-1804
The changes in the human condition are uncertain and frequent. Many, on whom fortune has bestowed her favours, may trace their family to a more unprosperous station; and many who are now in obscurity, may look back upon the affluence and exalted rank of their ancestors. - Douglas Adams, English humorist and science fiction novelist, 1952-2001
Humans are not proud of their ancestors, and rarely invite them round to dinner. - Richard Dawkins, "River out of Eden"
All organisms that have ever lived . . . can look back at their ancestors and make the following proud claim: Not a single one of our ancestors died in infancy. . . Not a single one of our ancestors was felled by an enemy, or by a virus, or by a misjudged footstep on a cliff edge, before bringing at least one child into the world. Thousands of our ancestors' contemporaries failed in all these respects, but not a single solitary one of our ancestors failed in any of them. - Sam Levenson, 1911-1980
The reason grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy. - Author Unknown
Some families can trace their ancestors back three hundred years, but can't tell you where their children were last night. - Ben Johnson, 1572-1637
Confound these ancestors . . . they've stolen our best ideas! - Thomas Overbury, 1581-1613
The man that hath not anything to boast but his illustrious ancestors is like a potato: the only good belonging to him is underground. - Robert Darwin, to his son Charles (recounted in Darwin's autobiography)
You care for nothing but shooting, dogs, and rat-catching, and you will be a disgrace to yourself and all your family. - Helen Keller, U.S. blind and deaf educator, 1880-1968
There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his. - Jimmy Carter
We've uncovered some embarrassing ancestors in the not-too-distant past. Some horse thieves, and some people killed on Saturday nights. One of my relatives, unfortunately, was even in the newspaper business. - John Ciardi, U.S. poet, 1916-1986
Gentility is what is left over from rich ancestors after the money is gone. - Rose Cherin
Heirlooms we don't have in our family. But stories we've got. - Ad slogan "Pepsi Comes Alive" as initially translated into Chinese
Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave. - Alex Haley
In all of us there is a hunger, marrow deep, to know our heritage--to know who we are and where we came from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in life, there is still a vacuum, an emptiness, and the most disquieting loneliness.
Not a bad collection for a single online expedition, but I bet some of you reading this have favorite remarks that aren't here. If so, please consider dropping me a line to share them. If I gather enough, I'll share another round of pithy and not-so-pithy comments in a future article.
Here is the ‘future article’……. Ancestry Daily News, February 16, 2006noring Our Ancestors More Genealogical Quotes
by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak
Wow! Who knew there were so many fun and intriguing quotes relating to genealogy? In my last article, I shared some memorable quotations I found strewn around the Internet and invited readers to share their favorites. Many of you took me up on my invitation.
One of the first to catch my attention was from Alice McPhee Mombourquette of Canada. According to Kevin Estey, from an article in the December 2005 Aged to Perfection newsletter, "To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research." If that's true, the balance of this article is the result of extensive research!
The past is a source of knowledge, and the future is a source of hope. Love of the past implies faith in the future. - Stephen Ambrose, 1936-2002
To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain perpetually a child. For what is the worth of a human life unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?
- Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 B.C.
People will never look forward to Posterity who never look backward to their ancestors. - Edmund Burke
He that has no fools, knaves, or beggars in his family must have been begot by a flash of lightning!
- Thomas Fuller, 1608-61
It's a poor family tree that doesn't have either a thief or madam hanging from its branches.
- Source unknown
Human beings look separate because you see them walking about separately. But then we are so made that we can see only the present moment. If we could see the past, then of course it would look different. For there was a time when every man was part of his mother, and (earlier still) part of his father as well, and when they were part of his grandparents. If you could see humanity spread out in time, as God sees it, it would look like one single growing thing--rather like a very complicated tree. Every individual would appear connected with every other. - C. S. Lewis
Those who do not look upon themselves as a link, connecting the past with the future, do not perform their duty to the world. - Daniel Webster
Found a Yankee in my family tree; will trade for horse thief or other black sheep. - Author unknown
(Lisa explains that she can say this since she was born a Yankee with Southern maternal roots.)
We live with a heritage from earlier generations and must seek to create positive legacies for those who follow us. When the old are not allowed to tell their story, the young grow up without history. If the young are not listened to, we have no future. - Dr. Gunhild O. Hagostad
Family is everything. It defines you--the heart of your spirit, the heritage of your smile, not only the color of your eyes but how they see the world. You are bound by kinship. You add your own link to the chain, and that is where you strengthen or weaken what you have been blessed--or burdened--with. That is where you use the indefinable quality that belongs to only you, the bit of uniqueness you pass on to your children for good or bad, the part of you that will always be separate from those who share your name, your blood, and your past.
- Deborah Smith, from Blue Willow
Though the generations wander, the lineage survives, and all of us, from dust to dust . . . we all become forefathers, by and by. - Dan Fogelburg
The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future.
- Herbert Spencer
The theory of relativity says that no matter what you do in life, your relatives will have a theory.
- Snapple bottle cap
I can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial atomic globule. Consequently, my family pride is something inconceivable. I can't help it. I was born sneering. - Sir W. S. Gilbert from "The Mikado"
Our ancestors are very good kind of folks; but they are the last people I should choose to have a visiting acquaintance with. - Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Family History: It is not just a hobby. It is a vitally important preservation mission for future generations of our family. submitted by Judith Mable:
The farther back you look, the farther back you see. - Winston Churchill
What is research but a blind date with knowledge? -- Will Henry
To live in the hearts we leave behind, is not to die. - Thomas Campbell
If you want a place in the sun, you must leave the shade of the family tree. - Osage saying
As the leaves on the trees is the life of man. - Homer
There is something about a closet that makes a skeleton terribly restless. - John Barrymore
The only thing wrong with immortality is that it tends to go on forever. - Herb Coen
Genealogy taglines:
- Only a genealogist regards a step backwards as progress.
- Genealogists live in the past lane.
- Genealogy is the marriage of a jigsaw puzzle to a Dungeons & Dragons game.
- Genealogists are time unravelers.
- Genealogists don't die, they just lose their census.
- Genealogy: It' all relative in the end.
- I'd rather look for dead people than have them look for me.
- I'm always late; my ancestors arrived on the Juneflower.
Nothing is so soothing to our self esteem as to find our bad traits in our forebears. It seems to absolve us.
- Van Wyck Brooks, 1886-1963
None of us can boast about the morality of our ancestors. The record does not show that Adam and Eve were ever married. - Edgar Watson Howe, 1853-1937
Hereditary honors are a noble and a splendid treasure to descendants. - Plato, 427-347 B.C.
It is worthwhile for anyone to have behind him a few generations of honest, hard-working ancestry.
- J. P. Marquand, 1893-1960
More Genealogical tag lines:
I trace my family history so I will know who to blame.
- Searching for lost relatives? Win the lottery!
- Friends come and go, but relatives tend to accumulate.
- Genealogy: A haystack full of needles. It's the threads I need.
- Take nothing but ancestors, leave nothing but records.
It is not how old you are, but how you are old.— Marie Dressler
Always remember that you're unique, just like everyone else.
May you have the hindsight to know where you've been, the foresight to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you're going too far.
Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.____Booker T. Washington
There are two lasting bequests we can give our children: One is roots. The other is wings.— Hodding Carter, Jr.
Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different.— Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
What lies behind us and lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.— Ralph Waldo Emerson
The distance is nothing; it's only the first step that is difficult.— Marquise du Deffand
Just when I was getting used to yesterday, along came today.___Unknown
The achievement of one goal should be the starting point of another.— Alexander Graham Bell
There is no life that does not contribute to history.— Dorothy West
I trace my family history so I will know who to blame.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. -- Albert Einstein
Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.— Willis Whitney
For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.— Harry F. Banks
Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.— Samuel Johnson
We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own.— Ben Sweetland
Genealogy - Confusing the dead while irritating the living.
A setback is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.— Henry Ford
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.— Albert Einstein
The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times, the same good things for the first time.— Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.— Mark Twain
Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.— H. Jackson Brow
You always pass failure on the way to success.— Mickey Rooney
The great use of a life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.— William James
Make up your mind to be happy. Learn to find pleasure in simple things.— Robert Louis Stevenson
In creating, the only hard thing's to begin; a grass blade's no easier to make than an oak.— James Russell Lowell
Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.— Henry David Thoreau
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.- Helen Keller
When we have arrived at the question, the answer is already near.- Ralph Waldo Emerson
In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us.- Flora Edwards
Happiness comes through doors you didn't even know you left open.
Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.- Winston Churchill
People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.- Dale Carnegie 1888-1955
If you lend someone $20 and never see them again, it was probably worth it.
Without enthusiasm you are doomed to a life of mediocrity, but with it you can accomplish miracles.--Og Mandino
Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."-- Albert Einstein
"Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory."-Gen. George S. Patton
"Destiny is not a matter of chance; but a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."--William Jennings Bryant
"Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end."--Scott Adams
Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
"With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts."--Eleanor Roosevelt
"Logics will get you from A to B, Imagination will take you everywhere."--Albert Einstein
"Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend--or a meaningful day."--Dalai Lama
The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
"Show me the manner in which a nation cares for it's dead, and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender mercies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land and their loyalty to high ideals."--William Gladstone
"Absence of occupation is not rest, A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd."--William Cowper, 1731-1800
Typos are not typos ... they are actually genealogical alternate spellings, while poor grammar ... is added for interest.
"Whatever you do, do with all your might."--Marcus Tullius Cicero
"Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally."--David Frost
"Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live."--Mark Twain
"A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds."--Francis Bacon
"Why waste your money looking up your family tree, just go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.." Mark Twain
"If we begin with certainties, we shall end in doubts; but if we begin with doubts, and are patient in them, we shall end in certainties."--Francis Bacon
FLOOR -- The place for storing your priceless genealogy records.
JUSTICE --- When you get what you deserve. MERCY ----- When you don't get what you deserve. GRACE ----- When you get what you don't deserve. --Unknown
"It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving." -- Mother Teresa
Knowledge not shared is knowledge wasted.
Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.--Abraham Lincoln
"The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things."--Henry Ward Beecher
Yesterday is only a memory. Tomorrow is only a dream. Today is the only day we really have.--Unknown
"The lofty oak from a small acorn grows." -- Lewis Duncombe
"Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for."--Joseph Addison
"If you want to know your past--look into your present conditions. If you want to know your future---look into your present actions."--Padmasambhava
"Self-sacrifice is never entirely unselfish, for the giver never fails to receive."--Dolores E. McGuire
"Every man's memory is his private literature."--Aldous Huxley
"Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable."--Francis Bacon
...searching for my roots by moving one leaf at a time.
"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."--Abraham Lincoln
"The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see."--Winston Churchill
"None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm."--Henry David Thoreau
"Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I'll remember. Involve me and I'll understand."--Confucius
"The Grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for."--Allan K. Chalmers
"The only thing you take with you when you're gone is what you leave behind."--John Allston
If you can't be kind at least have the decency to be vague.
It may be that your sole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others.
Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
"To look backward for a while is to refresh the eye, to restore it, and to render it the more fit for its prime function of looking forward."--Margaret Fairless Barber
"Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance."--Samuel Johnson
Freedom is never letting your fears stop you from following your heart.--Susie Switzer
A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.--Rober Heinlein
"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."--Helen Keller
The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.--Winston Churchill
I'm going through my Snapdragon phase: part of me has snapped and the rest of me is draggin'.
It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.__Henry Ward Beecher
The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.__B. B. King
You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.__Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance__Emma Goldman, 1869-1940
Don't run through life so fast that you forget not only where you've been, but also where you are going. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.
If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it!___Jonathan Winters
Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.__David Frost
If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.__George Bernard Shaw
Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.__William James
One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.__A. A. Milne
If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done.__Dale Carnegie
It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.__Eleanor Roosevelt
This last group of quotations were gotten from: Cindy Blankenship’s web site http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/%7Ecindyblankenship/index.htm