Pearls of Wisdom, Quinces of Gold

Index of Pearls and Quinces
Metaphor
Imagination
Teaching and Education
The Storyteller's Creed by Robert Fulghum
Metaphor
Fire Leaping
Defense
Tea
Deity
Mysteries
The Impossible
Earth Changes
Athames and Swords
A Harsh Truth
Poetry
Value in Trivia
Philosophical Observations
Advice
Homosexual marriage
Books
Ecology
Pantheism
Religious Freedom
Cats
Conflict
Humor
Jokes
Trad Wisdom
Movies
Nancy Buttons

Metaphor
The metaphor is probably the most fertile power
possessed by men.
-- Ortega y Gassett.

Imagination
Imagination is intelligence having fun.
--attributed to Tess

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.
-- Ray Bradbury

Teaching and Education
The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.
--Stobeaeus Diogenes

I am glad to learn, in order that I may teach.
--Seneca

Honor pre-school teachers.
--good advice

The Storyteller's Creed by Robert Fulghum
I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge,
That myth is more potent than history,
That dreams are more powerful than facts,
That hope always triumphs over experience,
That laughter is the only cure for grief,
And I believe that love is stronger than death.
--Robert Fulghum

Fire Leaping
"Of course they are naked. It’s much too dangerous to jump a fire with your clothes on."
--Lord Summer Isle in The Wicker Man

Defense
Christian pacifist: If man hits me with a stick, I have 3 choices.
I can hit him back. I can stand there and be hit again. Or I can walk away.
Qwai Chang Cain: There is a 4th choice. You can take the stick away.
--Kung Fu, the 1970's TV series

Tea
Teabing: (voice over intercom) But first, a test of honour. Three questions.
Langdon: Fire away.
Teabing: Shall I serve coffee or tea?
Langdon: Tea, of course.
Teabing: Excellent. Second, milk or lemon?
Sophie: (softly to Langdon) Milk?
Langdon: That would depend on the tea.
Teabing: Correct. ...
--The DaVinci Code movie

Tea was introduced to Europe in the mid-1600's. By the 1700's, it had replaced beer as the beverage of choice at breakfast.
--from inside an Honest Tea bottle cap, collected April 2007.

Drink your tea slowly and reverently,
as if it is the axis
on which the world earth revolves
- slowly, evenly, without
rushing toward the future;
Live the actual moment.
Only this moment is life.
--Thich Nhat Hahn, Vietnamese Zen Buddhist

Deity
Deity is who. Evolution is how.
--author unknown

Mysteries
Guard the Mysteries; constantly reveal them.
--popular Craft saying found on Nancy Button,
ultimately taken from a poem from the late Lew Welsh

There is no key to the universe. It was never locked.
--Nancy Button

In just two days, tommorow will be yesterday.
--bumpersticker

The Impossible
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It only wastes your time and annoys the pig.
--Nancy Button

Earth Changes
The Earth quakes and the Heavens rattle; the beasts of nature flock together and the nations of men flock apart; volcanos use up heat while elesewhere water becomes ice and melts; and on other days it just rains.

Indeed do many things come to pass.
--HBT; The Book of Predictions,Chapter 19

Sometime around 2700 c.e when the next aeon arrives--we're on our own.
--Astrological aphorism about the Age of Aquarius

Athames and Swords
Of course you can cast a perfectly fine circle with a kitchen knife...but there's something about a two-hundred dollar hand-forged designer athame that makes you want to cast it more often.
Athames are like penises. The size may not matter, but most people like 'em bigger anyway.
Never expect a police officer to understand the ritual nature of your athame.
-- from "Arachne's aphorisms for Wiccans"

Any excuse to wear a sword is a good excuse.
--Nancy Button

A Harsh Truth
I find that a lot of socializing is simply a way of communicating that we like one another. When we stand around the party, sloshing our wine around and catching up with each other, essentially we are just saying "I like you" over and over again. I respond, "I like you too."
--Michael Ian Black (2010)

Poetry
Superstition is the poetry of life.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Value in Trivia
If you gather enough trivia together in one place--especially if that trivia revolves around a specific subject--it ceases to be "trivia" and becomes "significa." --MW, 2013

Philosophical Observations
The most radical notion in Wicca is that religion can be fun.
-- from "Arachne's aphorisms for Wiccans"

Monotheists are "Peoples of the Book;"
the Pagans are the "People of the Library."
--Steven Posch

No magic is ever truly destructive. For what is destruction, except creation with an agenda?
--Nancy Button

If the Wiccan Rede was created, as some suggest, to alleviate the fears of cowans, it appears not to have worked.
-- from "Arachne's aphorisms for Wiccans"

Morris dancing is an exercise in fertility.
--Nancy Button

Two witches, eight opinions.
-- from "Arachne's aphorisms for Wiccans"

The border between the Real and the Unreal is not fixed, but just marks the last place where rival gangs of shamans fought each other to a standstill.
--Nancy Button

No witch stands so tall as when she stoops to clean the litter-box.
-- from "Arachne's aphorisms for Wiccans"

The Moon's children have the Moon's luck.
--source unknown

Laying a hoodoo trick in someone else's house does not make you a witch. Finding one in your own house probably will.
-- from "Arachne's aphorisms for Wiccans"

A squashed insect does not forgive the windshield.
--LWW

Never forget that there are genuinely good Christian people in the world, and that their religion may have something to do with it.
-- from "Arachne's aphorisms for Wiccans"

Good manners is the art of graciously pretending one is not superior.
--LWW

What's the difference between New Age and Neo-Pagan? About one decimal point in cost per weekend.
--Neo-Pagan saying

The meek shall inherit the Earth. The rest of us are going to the stars!
--SF fandom saying

In nature, there are no rewards or punishments, only consequences.
--source unknown

Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain.
--Common saying

All general statements are wrong.
--LWW

Rain happens.

Surveys have shown that there are only two types of people: those that answer surveys and those that don't.
--LWW

Courtesy is contagious.
--source unknown

Good manners are caught, not taught.
--source unknown

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
--source unknown

Artificial intelligence is no match for human stupidy.
--source unknown

A pile for everything and everything in its pile.
--Nancy Button

There are no answers, only cross-references.
--LWW

Those who dance are thought mad by those who hear not the music.
--source unknown

I realize it annoys people no end that I refuse to fit into any of their boxes.
--Aidan Kelly

A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular. --Adlai E. Stevenson

We are locked inside our own skulls for most of our lives.
--source unknown

The past is fixed, yet the future may be bent.
--Wiccan proverb

Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.... Forget this, and achieving enlightenment will be the least of your worries.
--Nancy Button

No one person can accomplish all.
--Wiccan proverb

Let them curse, for my Goddess doth bless.
--Wiccan saying

The cistern contains: the fountain overflows.
--William Blake

It might be "treason" to mention that the emperor has no clothes, but somebody's got to say it.
--Isaac Bonewits

Life imitates comedy.
--Kalabran

The occult arts are arts; their ultimate secrets can be learned but not taught.
-- Richard Cavendish

"Nothing is worth more than this day."
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

You can never go down the drain.
--Mr. Rogers

Coming together is a begining; staying together is progress; working together is success.
--author unknown

He who is lucky in love should never play cards.
--Italian saying

Faith is belief in what you cannot see, prove, or touch.
--Elizabeth Gilbert

If you don't like it, you can't have any.
--Church of All Worlds saying

Advice
Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
--MW

Don’t store garlic near other victuals.
--source unknown

Make the ordinary EXTRAORDINARY!
--source unknown

Be weird. Be random. Be who you are. Because you never know who would love the person you hide.
--source unknown

Follow your bliss.
--Joseph Campbell

Live now--procrastinate tomorrow!
--Nancy Button

Life is short. Dance often.
--source unknown

Practice wanton kindness and random acts of beauty.
--variation of a common New Age saying

Practice random intelligence and senseless acts of self-control.
--variation of a common New Age saying

Adopt an animal companion; save a life.
--source unknown

Don't piss off the faeries.
--general good advice

Always be excellent to one another! --Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

Strive for Exellence, not Perfection. --10 Things for Sucess

There is no trouble in this world so serious that it can't be cured with a hot bath, a glass of whiskey, and the Book of Common Prayer.
--annoymous grandmother in Eat, Pray, Love.

Live your life as you see fit. That's not selfish. Selfish is to demand that others live their lives as you see fit.
--Anthony de Mello

You should never give your money to an organization unless you know how the money's being spent and what the group really does.
--Lilith McLelland, Out of the Shadows, 2002

Play the Fool on April 1st.
--LWW

Never learn how to type; someone will ask you to do it.
--generic wisdom

When Dame Fortune comes to you, invite her in.
--source unknown

Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.
--His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso

Write a last will and testement and tell your relatives where it is. Update it from time to time.
--sound legal advice

Learn local historical legends and folklore.
--LWW

Savor vegetables.
--green advice

Smell the honeysuckle.
--LWW

Make compost, not war.
--tee shirt with drawing of someone composting a garden.

Buy locally grown produce.
--green advice

Acknowledge the spirituality in yourself and all others.
--New Age saying

Know when to keep silent.
Know when to speak up.
--source unknown

Don't tame a dragon to toast your marshmallows.

Cognite tute--think for yourself.

Homosexual Marriage
Civil marriage is a civil right.
--tee shirt

"In my 20 years of experience as a family therapist, no one ever blamed the breakup of their marriage on the fact that homosexuals might want to get married."
--Rabbi Michael Lern

"Kim Kardashian made 17 million dollars off her wedding, divorced 72 days later
And they're worried about gays ruining the sanctity of marriage?"
--source unknown

"These people are making a big deal out of gay marriage? I don't give a fuck about who wants to get married to anybody else. We're making a big deal out of things we shouldn't be making a big deal out of. They go on and on with all this bullshit about 'sanctity.' Don't give me that sanctity crap.! Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want."
--Clint Eastwood, from GQ interview, October 2011

"For me, it's not only a legal issue, but an emotional issue. Two people work, pay taxes, act responsibly as far as I'm concerned the State should have no issue if they want to be married and have a union that allows them to inherit and take advantage of the tax benefits of marriage. I have no problem with that."
--Judge Judith Sheindlin, aka "Judge Judy"

Books
So many books, so little time.
--Nancy Button

A chill in the air, a cat on the lap, a mug of java and a good book.
--Nancy Button

Books are the most mannerly of companions.
--Amos Bronson Alcott

Books can lift our spirits, heal our wounds, steel our courage and strengthen our religious resolve. --Scott Cunningham

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
--Ray Bradbury, Reader's Digest, January, 1994.

I was born with a reading list I will never finish. --Unknown

Ecology
Save Mother Earth--She's our only source of chocolate!

We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.

Pantheism
"If anyone cannot feel the power of God when he looks upon the stars, then I doubt whether he is capable of feeling at all. From the enduring wonder of the heavens flows all grace and power. If anyone thinks it is mindless then he himself must be out of his mind." -- Philosopher Cicero

The atoms of our bodies are traceable to stars that manufactured them in their cores and exploded these enriched ingredients across our galaxy, billions of years ago. For this reason, we are biologically connected to every other living thing in the world. We are chemically connected to all molecules on Earth. And we are atomically connected to all atoms in the universe. We are not figuratively, but literally stardust. --Neil deGrasse Tyson

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. --Max Ehrmann, Desiderata: A Poem for a Way of Life, 1927

Tell your kids: The atoms in our human bodies have been STARS, MAGMA, OCEANS, DINOSAURS, and FOOD. We are made of the stuff of the Universe and Time. --Anonymous

"I am a child of Earth and starry sky." --From the Golden Tablets of Orpheus and used in some modern Neo-Pagan intiations.

The Earth has music for those who listen. --Shakespeare

This planet is our home. Our life and hers are interdependent.--Doreen Valiente

The source of man's unhappiness is his ignorance of nature. --Paul Henri Thiry, Baron D'Holback (French Materlialist Philosopher)

The earth is one tiny part of a vast energy network. --Scott Cunningham

Religious Freedom
But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. --Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782

The Christian fear of the pagan outlook has damaged the whole consciousness of man. --D.H. Lawrence

Cats
Dogs think they're human. Cats know they're gods.
--common saying among catlovers

Thousands of years ago, the Egyptians worshipped cats. Cats have never forgotten this.
--common saying among catlovers

Conflict
Religion isn't the cause of war, it's the excuse.
--Nancy Button

Gods don't kill people. People with Gods kill people.
--Nancy Button

Humor
If you gathered together all the known pieces of the True Cross, you could build a house big enough to hold all the authentic Gardnerian Books of Shadows.
-- from "Arachne's aphorisms for Wiccans"

When witchcraft is outlawed, only outlaws will ride brooms.
--Wiccan humor

Oh sure, it's all fun and games until the flying monkeys show up.
--teeshirt

I'm not stupid, I'm not expendable, and I'm not getting out of this pentacle.
--Tess, '96

A witch in time is an hour early for the Sabbat.
--Wiccan humor

Jokes and Bad Puns
What do you get if you have thirteen witches in a hot tub? A self-cleaning coven.
--Wiccan humor

What does a Hellenistic Neo-Pagan do at a parking meter? Reads the signs, calls the quarters, and pays tribute to Demeter.
--Neo-Pagan humor

Non-Judgement Day is near.
--teeshirt

Trad Wisdom
Do not coddle weakness.
Do not submit your Life Force to anyone.
God is Self and Self is God.
I would know myself in all my parts.
--teachings from the Anderson Feri Tradition

If you don't like it, you can't have any.
--Church of All Worlds saying

As fast as speeding oak.
--ADF Druidism

It's true, it's true. I made it all up. And it's all true.
--Protean saying

Movies
You know what your problem is, it's that you haven't seen enough movies - all of life's riddles are answered in the movies.
--Steve Martin

You say listening to your heart and trusting what you feel, is that what you are callin' dangerous? You know what? I hope I am contagious, 'cause life isn't about your damn books and theories. You know what life is like an' --and IT'S MESSY! It's complicated! And, you know what, IT TAKES GUTS! And that's not something you are going to find in any book. And just because you don't understand it--that doesn't mean it's crazy.
--Marina in The Butcher's Wife, 1991

For those who note the attribute of "Nancy Button" on numerous of these pearls of wisdom and qunices of gold, please be aware this refers to Nancy's Buttons, and can be purchased from Nancy at:

Nancy's Buttons
1014 Mountain Street
Philadelphia, PA 19148
www.nancybuttons.com

I urge all people who find these sayings witty, wonderful or wise to purchase a genuine Nancy Button from Nancy.

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