Pieces of the past

"Well, I must endure the presence of two or three caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies." -- The Little Prince

"Love looks forward, hate looks back, anxiety has eyes all over its head." --Chinese proverb

"It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they may have is not ours to rule." --Gandalf in Tolkien's Trilogy

"Opportunity"

THIS I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream:-
There spread a cloud of dust along a plain;
And underneath the cloud, or in it, raged
A furious battle, and men yelled, and swords
Shocked upon swords and shields. A prince's banner
Wavered, then staggered backward, hemmed by foes.
A craven hung along the battle's edge,
And thought, "Had I a sword of keener steel-
That blue blade that the king's son bears,-but this
Blunt thing-!" he snapt and flung it from his hand,
And lowering crept away and left the field.
Then came the king's son, wounded, sore bestead,
And weaponless, and saw the broken sword,
Hilt-buried in the dry and trodden sand,
And ran and snatched it, and with battle-shout
Lifted afresh he hewed his enemy down,
And saved a great cause that heroic day.

--Edward Rowland Sill

"The devil flatters us that we are very righteous when we are feeding on the faults of others." --Joseph Smith

"Our lives are the only meaningful expression of what we believe and in whom we believe." --Gordon B. Hinckley

"Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic! With God wonders are possible." --Unknown

"The mainstay of those without facts is ridicule." --Unknown

"Bad news doesn't get better with time." --Unknown

"It doesn't matter where you serve, but how." --Lisle Updike

"I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand." --Unknown

"My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure." --Sir Galahad

"To you from falling hands I fling the torch. Be yours to hold it high; nor let its flame diminish." --Axel A. Madsen