12 Life Lessons From Shakespeare

Considered to be “the greatest writer in the English language” and the most distinguished of dramatists, William Shakespeare and his work have withstood the test of time.

Despite there being great mystery surrounding his private life, the Bard of Avon’s plays and sonnets continue to be celebrated, studied, reinterpreted, adapted and performed.

Some of Shakespeare most quotable reflections on life.

1. “Live, love, and let be.”

2. “It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”

3. “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

4. “Love me or hate me, both are in my favor…If you love me, I’ll always be in your heart…If you hate me, I’ll always be in your mind.”

5. “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”

6. “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”

7. “Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

8. “Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting.”

9. “Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.”

10. “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

11. “Time travels in diverse paces with diverse persons. I’ll tell you who time ambles withal, who time trots withal, who time gallops withal, and who he stands still withal.”

12. “This above all: to thine own self be true.” 

Source: http://www.biography.com

Lee Harvey Oswald: 9 “Facts” About the Mystery Gunman

Lee Harvey Oswald: 9 “Facts” About the Mystery Gunman

1. Lee Harvey Oswald was born on October 18, 1939, in New Orleans, Louisiana. His father died only two months later and Lee and his two older brothers were sent to an orphanage.

2. Oswald said his interest in Communism began at the age of 15, when he was handed a pamphlet about saving Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, an American couple found guilty of passing nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union. Two years later, he joined the marines and earned high marks as a sharpshooter.

3. Seven months before assassinating JFK, Oswald is believed to have made an unsuccessful attempt at killing a military general, who was sitting in his home office when a bullet was fired through his window and narrowly missed his head.

4. Oswald had a tense relationship with his Russian-born wife, Marina, although he appeared to try to make peace with her the night before the shooting. The next morning, he left his wedding ring on his wife’s bedside before heading off to the Book Depository. In October 2013, Marina Oswald sold the ring at auction for $90,000.

5. On November 22, 1963, Oswald fired his deadly shots from the the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository in Dallas, the same building where only a month earlier he had gotten a temp job filling orders for schoolbooks.

6. On the morning of November 24, 1963, both the FBI and the sheriff’s office received calls from an unidentified man warning that Oswald was being targeted for an assassination. Despite taking steps to protect him, Oswald was fatally shot later that day by local nightclub operator, Jack Ruby.

7. Upon his insistence, Jack Ruby was given a lie detector test by the Warren Commission, which indicated that he had acted alone in murdering Lee Harvey Oswald. However, since Ruby was diagnosed as a psychotic depressive, the Commission said the polygraph results were not significant.

8. Oswald’s murderer, Ruby, died of a pulmonary embolism on January 3, 1967 at the same hospital where Oswald died and where President Kennedy had been pronounced dead.

9. Despite the fact that it has been five decades since the assassination of President Kennedy, there remains heated debate over whether Oswald acted alone. In 2017, however, about 1,100 government records relating to the assassination are scheduled to be declassified. Will they include any revelations about Oswald? We’ll have to wait just a little while longer.

 

Source: http://www.biography.com

The Literary Origins of Valentine’s Day

Did Geoffrey Chaucer invent Valentine’s Day? Yes and no. St Valentine’s Day has been marked in liturgical calendars for centuries. As a Christian feast day, Valentine’s Day actual…

Source: The Literary Origins of Valentine’s Day

Desiderata

DESIDERATA

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

 

 

Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

Truth

The man who tells the truth is universally disliked by every person because every person has an agenda and is hiding behind a fantasy which the truth penetrates like an arrow and leaves him stripped naked before the whole universe, and he does not like that.” ~ Milton William Cooper

Insanity

“Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.”
― Narcotics Anonymous

Trivia of the Day for Tuesday

The first leap year was 46 BC. Bird guano is 11 to 16 percent nitrogen, 8 to 12 percent phosphoric acid, and 2 to 3 percent potash. A baseball weighs between 5 and 5.25 ounces. 50,000 people can be…

Source: Trivia of the Day for Tuesday