Stop ~ Leo Tolstoy

 “If, then, I were asked for the most important advice I could give, that which I considered to be the most useful to the men of our century, I should simply say: in the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.” 

~ Leo Tolstoy 

More at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy

Artwork from Lou Loeber https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Loeber

Reap What You Sow ~ James D. Wilson

 “ You can't instantly reap what you sow today, it does not work like instant grits, no matter what you sow in life it takes time to grow and be ready for harvest” ~James D. Wilson

Artwork from Edmund Leighton  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Leighton 

So many people called James D. Wilson on the internet, I can’t work out which of them wrote this!

Where I Exist~ Donna Tartt

"And just as music is the space between notes, just as the stars are beautiful because of the space between them, just as the sun strikes raindrops at a certain angle and throws a prism of color across the sky - so the space where I exist, and want to keep existing, and to be quite frank I hope I die in, is exactly this middle distance: where despair struck pure otherness and created something sublime." 

~ Donna Tartt 

More at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Tartt

Artwork from Carl Larsson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Larsson

Constant Dynamic Process~ Stephen Batchelor

"A genuine spiritual life is not one consisting of a series of disconnected and undefined experiences occurring at random; it is a constant dynamic process incorporating every element of our being."

~Stephen Batchelor

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Batchelor_(author)

Artwork from Ellie Ling http://www.ellieling.co.uk/

Being Told ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Our inability to see things that are right before our eyes, until they are pointed out to us, would be amusing if it were not at times so serious. We are coming, I think, to depend too much on being told and shown and taught, instead of using our own eyes and brains and inventive faculties, which are likely to be just as good as any other person's.”

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

More at
https://www.notablebiographies.com/We-Z/Wilder-Laura-Ingalls.html

Artwork from Paul Nash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Nash_(artist)

Draw Hard Breath~ John Ruskin

“To watch the corn grow, or the blossoms set; to draw hard breath over the plough or spade; to read, to think, to love, to pray, are the things that make men happy.”


~ John Ruskin

More at http://www.ruskinmuseum.com/content/john-ruskin/who-was-john-ruskin.php

Artwork from John Nolan https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/john-nolan.html

Where you Come From ~ Ron Franscell

“Some journeys take you farther from where you come from, but closer to where you belong.”

~ Ron Franscell

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Franscell

Artwork from Mig Wyeth https://www.greenpebble.co.uk/collections/mig-wyeth

Do Away With National Barriers ~ Charlie Chaplin

"Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it is written that the kingdom of God is within man, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power. Let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill that promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfill that promise. Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance! Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness. Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!” 

~ Charlie Chaplin

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Chaplin

Artwork From Eric Ravilious  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Ravilious

A Temperature of Thine Own ~ Herman Melville

“It does seem to me, that herein we see the rare virtue of a strong individual vitality, and the rare virtue of thick walls, and the rare virtue of interior spaciousness. Oh, man! admire and model thyself after the whale! Do thou, too, remain warm among ice. Do thou, too, live in this world without being of it. Be cool at the equator; keep thy blood fluid at the Pole. Like the great dome of St. Peter's, and like the great whale, retain, O man! in all seasons a temperature of thine own.” 

~ Herman Melville

More at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Melville

Artwork from Hugh Ribbans http://www.ribbans.demon.co.uk/e-commerce-update/intro.html

Spring was Moving ~ Kenneth Grahame

“Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.”

~  Kenneth Grahame

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Grahame

Artwork fom E.H.Shepard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._H._Shepard

The Memory ~ John Steinbeck

“I remember my childhood names for grasses and secret flowers. I remember where a toad may live and what time the birds awaken in the summer, and what trees and seasons smelled like how people looked and walked and smelled even. The memory of odors is very rich.” 

~ John Steinbeck

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck

Artwork ~I can't find the name of this artist listed, but work is available from 
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/townieART?ref=l2-shopheader-name

Every Parting ~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton

"A chord, stronger or weaker, is snapped asunder in every parting, and time’s busy fingers are not practiced in re-splicing broken ties. Meet again you may; will it be in the same way? With the same sympathies? With the same sentiments? Will the souls, hurrying on in diverse paths, unite once more, as if the interval had been a dream? Rarely, rarely!"

~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bulwer-Lytton
Artwork from Steve Bjorkman http://www.stevebjorkman.com/

The Only Path ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“Life always bursts the boundaries of formulas. Defeat may prove to have been the only path to resurrection, despite its ugliness. I take it for granted that to create a tree I condemn a seed to rot. If the first act of resistance comes too late it is doomed to defeat. But it is, nevertheless, the awakening of resistance. Life may grow from it as from a seed.”

~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_de_Saint-Exup%C3%A9ry

Artwork from 'typesticker'
https://www.flickr.com/photos/34564322@N03/sets/72157616842824366/?page=3

Like a Touchstone ~ Haruki Murakami

“We’re so caught up in our everyday lives that events of the past, like ancient stars that have burned out, are no longer in orbit around our minds. There are just too many things we have to think about every day, too many new things we have to learn. New styles, new information, new technology, new terminology … But still, no matter how much time passes, no matter what takes place in the interim, there are some things we can never assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away. They remain with us forever, like a touchstone.” 

~  Haruki Murakami

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haruki_Murakami

Artwork from Michael Kirkman http://www.stjudesprints.co.uk/collections/michael-kirkman

Must I really have this? ~ Richard Proenneke

“Needs? I guess that is what bothers so many folks. They keep expanding their needs until they are dependent on too many things and too many other people... I wonder how many things in the average American home could be eliminated if the question were asked, "Must I really have this?" I guess most of the extras are chalked up to comfort or saving time... Funny thing about comfort - one man's comfort is another man's misery. Most people don't work hard enough physically anymore, and comfort is not easy to find. It is surprising how comfortable a hard bunk can be after you come down off a mountain.”

~ Richard Proenneke

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke

Artwork from Henry Herbert La Thangue
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Herbert_La_Thangue

Skills and Craft ~ Gene Logsdon

“Sustainable farms are to today's headlong rush toward global destruction what the monasteries were to the Dark Ages: places to preserve human skills and crafts until some semblance of common sense and common purpose returns to the public mind.”

~ Gene Logsdon

More at https://thecontraryfarmer.wordpress.com/

Artwork from Sybil Andrews https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_Andrews

That's Rough ~ Maya Angelou

“It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes- it is inevitable. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, 'Well, if I'd known better I'd have done better,' that's all. So you say to people who you think you may have injured, 'I'm sorry,' and then you say to yourself, 'I'm sorry.' If we all hold on to the mistake, we can't see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror; we can't see what we're capable of being. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one's own self. I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now mind you. When a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thin or too sexual or too asexual, that's rough. But you can overcome that. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don't have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach.” 

~ Maya Angelou

More at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou

Artwork from Balas Volodymyr http://www.eudusa.org/index.php?title=Balas_Volodymyr

Way of Living ~ Madeleine L'Engle

“But unless we are creators we are not fully alive. What do I mean by creators? Not only artists, whose acts of creation are the obvious ones of working with paint of clay or words. Creativity is a way of living life, no matter our vocation or how we earn our living. Creativity is not limited to the arts, or having some kind of important career.” 

~ Madeleine L'Engle

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_L%27Engle

Artwork from Jeremy Sancha http://www.centralillustration.com/illustrators/jeremy-sancha

All the Time There is ~ Arnold Bennett

"Which of us lives on twenty-four hours a day? And when I say “lives,” I do not mean exists, nor “muddles through.” Which of us is free from that uneasy feeling that the “great spending departments” of his daily life are not managed as they ought to be? Which of us is quite sure that his fine suit is not surmounted by a shameful hat, or that in attending to the crockery he has forgotten the quality of the food? Which of us is not saying to himself — which of us has not been saying to himself all his life: “I shall alter that when I have a little more time”? We never shall have any more time. We have, and we have always had, all the time there is."

~ Arnold Bennett

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Bennett

Artwork by Charles W. Hobson
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Advertising_Material_Designed_by_Charles.html?id=LTHWSAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y

Plain and Functional ~ J.D. Belanger

"It's not a single idea, but many ideas and attitudes, including a reverence for nature and a preference for country life; a desire for maximum personal self-reliance and creative leisure; a concern for family nurture and community cohesion; a certain hostility toward luxury; a belief that the primary reward of work should be well-being rather than money; a certain nostalgia for the supposed simplicities of the past and an anxiety about the technological and bureaucratic complexities of the present and the future; and a taste for the plain and functional."

~ J.D. Belanger

More at
 http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/general-homesteading-forums/homesteading-questions/256632-my-visit-j-d-bellanger.html

Artwork from Mark Herald  http://www.stjudesprints.co.uk/collections/mark-hearld