My Small Boat

I am because my little dog knows me.

Love’s Philosophy
THE fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever,
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one another’s being mingle:-
Why not I with thine?
See! the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower would be forgiven
If it disdained […]

During the first world war G K Chesterton was approached by a lady asking him “young man, why aren’t you out at the front”; having a famously rotund profile, he replied simply: “madam, if you go round to my side you will see that I am”

The graveyards are full of indispensable men.

Failure or success seem to have been allotted to men by their stars. But they retain the power of wriggling, of fighting with their star or against it, and in the whole universe the only really interesting movement is this wriggle.

Trust yourself, then you will know how to live.

It is a great art to saunter.

The heights of great men reached and kept, Were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upwards in the night.

Home-thoughts, from the Sea
Nobly, nobly Cape Saint Vincent to the North-west died away;
Sunset ran, one glorious blood-red, reeking into Cadiz Bay;
Bluish ‘mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar lay;
In the dimmest North-east distance dawn’d Gibraltar grand and gray;
‘Here and here did England help me: how can I help England?’–say,
Whoso turns as I, this evening, […]

If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.

You see, that’s the difference between us. I assume the best about people, while you assume the worst. So I get hurt, but you get nothing.