Shoots and Saplings

**

"Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every person present their views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population."

~~ Albert Einstein

**

**

We must not only control the weapons that can kill us, we must bridge the great disparities of wealth and opportunity among the peoples of the world, the vast majority of whom live in poverty without hope, opportunity or choices in life. These conditions are a breeding ground for division that can cause a desperate people to resort to nuclear weapons as a last resort. Our only hope lies in the power of our love, generosity, tolerance and understanding and our commitment to making the world a better place for all...
-- Muhammad Ali

**

**

"Ask the experimenters why they experiment on animals, and the answer is: "Because the animals are like us." Ask the experimenters why it is morally okay to experiment on animals, and the answer is: "Because the animals are not like us." Animal experimentation rests on a logical contradiction."

~~Charles R. Magel

**

There are a billion people in China. It's not easy to be an individual in a crowd of more than a billion people. Think of it. More than a BILLION people. That means even if you're a one-in-a-million type of person, there are still a thousand others exactly like you.
~~A. Whitney Brown, (The Big Picture)

**

**

Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.

**

**

All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naïve. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: that I am nobody but myself.
~~Ralph Ellison, "Battle Royal"

**

**

When my cats aren't happy. I'm not happy. Not because I care about their mood but because I know they're just sitting there thinking up ways to get even.

~~Percy Bysshe Shelley.

**

**

There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us. 'Tis good to give a stranger a meal, or a night's lodging. 'Tis better to be hospitable to his good meaning and thought, and give courage to a companion. We must be as courteous to a man as we are to a picture, which we are willing to give the advantage of a good light.
~~Ralph Waldo Emerson.

**

**
One of my favourite sayings.....so enigmatic!

**

If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live!

~~Lin Yutang.

**

**
A very dumb man fell overboard from a cruise ship and was washed up on a desert island. The only inhabitant was a beautiful young girl. immediately she administered to his needs - taking him to her shelter, feeding him and supplying him with whisky previously washed up. When he had fully recovered, she asked him if he would like to play around.
He looked at her in astonishment and replied, "I can't believe my luck. All this and you've got a set of golf clubs too?"

**