“If a man has a talent and cannot use it, he has failed.
If he has a talent and uses only half of it, he has partly failed.
If he has a talent and learns somehow to use the whole of it,
he has gloriously succeeded, and won a satisfaction
and a truimph few men ever know.”
Thomas Wolfe, 1900-1938
Novelist from Asheville, NC
Blue-Eyed Grass
“Some seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge:
That is curiosity; Others seek knowledge so that
they themselves may be known:
That is vanity;
But there are still others who seek knowledge
in Order to serve and edify others;
And that is charity.”
Bernard of Clairvaux, 1090-1153
French abbot
“Nothing is really work unless
we’d rather be doing something else.”
James Matthew Barry, 1860-1937
Scottish author of Peter Pan
Rainy day hike at Roan
“Always do more than is required of you.”
George S. Patton, 1885-1945
Army General
Kingsport Exchange Place
“It used to take courage–
indeed, it was the act of courage par excellence–
to leave the comforts of home and family
and go out into the world seeking adventure.
Today there are fewer places to discover,
and the real adventure is to stay at home.”
Alvaro de Solva
Turk’s Cap Lillies
“Christian love is a moral virtue, not just,
and sometimes not at all, a warm quality to one’s feelings.
It is the sort of moral concern for others’ well-being
that motivates hard and sacrificial work.”
Arthur F. Holmes, b. 1924
Professor Emeritus at Wheaton College
“The Idea of a Christian College”
“None of us knows what the next change is going to be,
what unexpected opportunity is just around the corner,
waiting a few months or a few years
to change all the tenor of our lives.”
Kathleen Norris
Best-selling author of The Cloister Walk,
Dakota, and Amazing Grace
“It is for the doer to suffer.”
Aeschylus, 525-456 B.C.
Greek playwright, author of Prometheus Bound
Doe River, Roan Mountain State Park
“Somewhere we know that without silence
words lose their meaning,
that without listening speaking no longer heals,
that without distance closeness cannot cure.”
Henri Nouwen, 1932-1996
Dutch Catholic priest and writer
Poppy at Farmhouse Gallery, Unicoi
“The greatest of faults, I should say,
is to be conscious of none.”
Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881
Scottish author and historian
On this date in 1794, French botanist Andre Michaux (1746-1802)
climbed Roan Mountain for the 2nd time. Read more.
“If you do not raise your eyes
you will think that you are the highest point.”
Antonio Porchia, 1885-1968
Voce
“It is always the simple things that change our lives.
And these things never happen
when you are looking for them to happen.
Life will reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so.
You feel like running, but life is on a stroll.”
Donald Miller
Blue Like Jazz
“A good laugh and a long sleep
are the best cures in the doctor’s book.”
Irish Proverb
“I arise in the morning torn between a desire
to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world.
This makes it hard to plan the day.”
E. B. White, 1899-1985
Author
“The whole purpose of education
is to turn mirrors into windows.”
Sydney J. Harris
“When you are asked if you can do a job,
tell ‘em, ‘Certainly I can!’
Then get busy and find out how to do it.”
Theodore Roosevelt, 1858-1919
American 26th US President
Dutchman’s Breeches
“When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it,
it’s your world for the moment.
I want to give that world to someone else.
Most people in the city rush around so,
they have no time to look at a flower.
I want them to see it whether they want to or not.”
Georgia O’Keeffe
“Children are educated by
what the grown-up is
and not by his talk.”
Carl Jung
Unaka Mountain
“My recipe for dealing with anger and frustration:
set the kitchen timer for twenty minutes,
cry, rant, and rave, and at the sound of the bell,
simmer down and go about business as usual.”
Phyllis Diller, b. 1917
Comedienne
“Children are unpredictable.
You never know what inconsistency
they’re going to catch you in next.”
Franklin P. Jones
“The building has all the requisites of a great aunt.
She is neither very pretty nor elegant,
but she has enduring qualities of character.”
Richard Oulahan
