MARIA SYBILLA MERIAN

Maria Sibylla Merian was born on April 2, 1647 in Frankfurt, Germany, into the family of Swiss engraver and publisher Matthaus Merian, the Elder. Her father died three years later and in 1651 her mother married still life painter Jacob Marrel.  Marrel encouraged Merian to draw and paint. As a small child she began collecting and studying insects. She learned that to simply raise her own moths and butterflies, made them easier to paint.  This early training was the beginning of a scientifc journey where one woman’s discovery changed the scientific world.  Her journals and drawings depicting insect metamorphosis, in which all life stages of the inset (egg, larva, pupa, and adult)  describe the life cycle of 186 insect species. Her work places her among one of the first naturalists to have observed insects directly. This approach gave her much more insight into their lives and was contrary to the way that most scientists worked at the time.

In 1665 Maria Sibylla Merian married her stepfather, Marrell’s,  apprentice, Johann Andreas Graff – an architectural  and portrait painter.   Their financial difficulties forced Sibylla to find ways to earn money. She worked as a botanical artist.  She also did crocheting for clients, taught art to students, created her own little art supply store that sold among other things her prized recipes for her paints.  She continued to collect and record her insect/plant specimens and also wrote and published three collections of engravings of plants in 1675, 1677, and 1680.

The work that Maria Sibylla Merian published, Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung und sonderbare Blumennahrung — The Caterpillars’ Marvelous Transformation and Strange Floral Food, became very popular in certain sections of high society as a result of being published in the her native language, but her growing success as a painter placed a strain on the married couple.   In Amsterdam, Sibylla and her botanical art work attracted the attention of various contemporary scientists. Following the interests of her brother in the rapidly growing religious sect known as The Labadistes, Sibylla  herself became a member. The Labadistes were a 17th century protestant religious community movement founded by Frenchman Jean de Labadie (1610–1674), roman catholic Jesuit priest who eventually was ordained as a Protestant minister in 1650. The Labadistes advocated  a revival of practical and devout Christianity and celibacy.

In 1685, at the age of 38, she sold most of her worldly possessions in order to leave Amsterdam for the Labadiste colony in Holland. Her decision to leave Amsterdam was perhaps based on three important issues.  In the first instance, it gave her legitimate freedom.  The Labadiste marriage tenets proclaimed that no valid marriage could exist between a Labadiste and a non-Labadiste. Further, she had learned that the communal living was, in fact, more affordable. Finally, because her work with spiders, insects, toads, and dead animals aroused suspicion that she practiced witchcraft – a crime for which resulted in execution – leaving Holland seemed the best thing to do. With her mother and two daughters in tow, Sibylla set out for the Labadiste commune in Wieuwerd in Friesland, Holland.  A year later, Johan traveled to Wieuwwerd to reclaim his family.  Sibylla refused.  She sent him away and reclaimed her maiden name of Merian.

Merian remained in Wieuwerd for six years where she was restrained from practicing her art because of religious doctrine. She made good use of her time, however, by recording the natural world around her and learning to speak and write Dutch.   The Labadiste colony began to dissolve and break apart and thus their restrictions upon members to leave off the practice of art was now no longer binding upon Merian.  In 1691, less than a year after Merian’s mother dies, Merian, at the age of 43, returns to Amsterdam and the world with Johanna and her younger daughter, twelve year old Dorothea.
Known to the world of academia for publishing, art, and science, Merian gained entrance to some of the more powerful families of Amsterdam.  Nestled in her new home with her two daughters, she continued her notes on collecting and began teaching young women the art of flower painting.  Only a year later, she learns of the new Labadiste colony in Surinam. Her older daughter, Johanna Helena, marries merchant Jacob Herolt and moved with him to Surinam, which was at that time a recently acquired Dutch colony.

Around this time the English were recording the flora of Virginia and the Caribbean but no one yet had published anything on South American flora or fauna. Merian hungered to study the insects and flora of South America and its jungles.   Father Charles Plumier at the behest of King Louis XIV, was the first to describe the natural world of the southern hemisphere.  With her inspiration tipping the scales of fate, soon the city of Amsterdam sponsored Merian to travel to Surinam along with her younger daughter, Dorothea Maria aboard the ship, Willem de Ruyter.

The Willem de Ruyter followed the Portuguese route initiated by Columbus -  from Lisboa to the African bulge, the Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands, on to Cape Verde Islands, the Island of Santiago, around the coast and finally reaching the mouth of the Surinam River and the port of Paramaribo in early August of 1699.  With help not as much from the members of the Labadiste community, but rather the Indians and Negro slaves, Merian and her daughter Dorothea were able to collect and record specimens from the jungle .  She would ultimately illustrate the symbiotic relationship between numerous plants and insects and collecting twenty huge boxes of specimens.

In 1701, malaria forced Merian to return to Netherlands. Back in the Netherlands she sold specimens she had collected and published a collection of engravings about the life in Surinam. In 1705 she published a book Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium about the insects of Surinam. She used Linnaeus’ classification of natural species.

Maria Sibylla Merian died in Amsterdam on January 13, 1717. Her daughter Dorothea published Erucarum Ortus Alimentum et Paradoxa Metamorphosis, a collection of her mother’s work, posthumously.

Resources

Patricia Kleps-Hok: Search for Sibylla: The 17th Century’s Woman of Today, U.S.A 2007, http://astore.amazon.com/theomartdesig-20/detail/1425743129

de Bray, Lys (2001). The Art of Botanical Illustration: A history of classic illustrators and their achievements. Quantum Publishing Ltd., London. http://astore.amazon.com/theomartdesig-20/detail/1845730712

Kim Todd: Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis. Harcourt, USA, 2007. http://astore.amazon.com/theomartdesig-20/detail/B0025VL8YO

Natalie Zemon Davis: Women on the Margins: Three Seventeenth-Century Lives

http://astore.amazon.com/theomartdesig-20/detail/0674955218

“We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experience and character”

 Henry David Thoreau

(American Essayist, Poet and Philosopher, 1817-1862)

******

“If one advances confidently in the direction of one’s dreams, and endeavors to live the life which one has imagined, one will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

 Henry David Thoreau

(American Essayist, Poet and Philosopher, 1817-1862)

******

“I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where

I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.”

 Rosalia de Castro 

(The most outstanding modern writer in the Galician language, 1837-1885)

******

“Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.”

 William Somerset Maugham 

(English short-story Writer, Novelist and Playwright, 1874-1965)

******

“It is only in adventure that some people succeed in

knowing themselves – in finding themselves.”

 Andre Gide

(French writer, humanist and moralist, 1947 nobel prize for literature, 1869-1951)

Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve.  Middle age is when you’re forced to. 

~Bill Vaughn

Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits.

~Author Unknown

A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.

~Author Unknown

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.  ~Benjamin Franklin

No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference.

It is that from which all date their time, and count upon what is left. 

It is the nativity of our common Adam. 

~Charles Lamb

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
~Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
~T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”

Glory to God in highest heaven,
Who unto man His Son hath given;
While angels sing with tender mirth,
A glad new year to all the earth.
~Martin Luther

Persimmon "Kaki" by O. M. Braida©

Dear Friends:

Now that we have gotten through the holidays and have already shipped our gifts to far and wide places, I thought I might provide you with some helpful information regarding shipping artwork and art related materials -like paper for instance.  I am sure you all have had the experience of shipments arriving with dents and dings – it might have even happened to you this Christmas.  The questions is always how to first prevent these damages from occurring and then what do we do when they do occur.

I have prepared a special presentation, which is linked at the end of this letter under the title “Damage Control – Recording Shipments.”  It will demonstrate the importance of opening shipments carefully.  If they should arrive with a damage to the outside, it is quite possible damage has occurred to the materials inside.  If you open the damaged packages without recording the process, then it is that much more difficult to report and claim insurance amounts.

This information is especially helpful for curators who are staging art exhibitions and asking artists to ship their artwork to the gallery, museum, or other location for the show.  Curators must be very careful to record the receiving and shipping process.

For those who are shipping sold artwork, it is important to both package up the artwork professionally and safely.  It is recommended that the protective sandwich that surrounds the artwork is larger than the art itself by at least two inches.  The “sandwiched artwork” is then placed inside a larger box and surrounded by stuffing.  For additional packing materials, bubble wrap is recommended and preferable to foam peanuts.

There are many ways to ship packages, but here are tips on three of them…

The United States Post Office (USPS) offers several classes of mail service:  Express Mail (Flat Rate or Weighed), Priority (Flat Rate or Weight), First Class, Parcel Post for non urgent and large packages, Media Mail for inexpensive book shipping.  You can ask for added services like tracking (VERY IMPORTANT); insurance (good to have it on expensive shipments); Certified and Registered. If you are looking to ship international, here are three of their best services: (1)  Priority Mail International is a reliable and affordable way to send mail and packages up to 70 lbs to over 190 countries with delivery in 6 to 10 business days but not in all cases. Remember to ask about insurance. When you ship online, you’ll get 5 percent off the Post Office^™ price.  (2) Express Mail International gives you affordable and fast international delivery to more than 190 countries. It includes Carrier Pickup™, delivery status information with our Track & Confirm tool, and $100 in insurance with additional insurance available up to $5,000. (3) Their fastest service is Global Express Guaranteed with transportation and delivery by FedEx Express. It features date-certain delivery in 1-3 business days* to more than 190 countries.  This service includes Carrier Pickup™, delivery status information with their Track & Confirm tool, and $100 in insurance with additional insurance available up to $2,499.  Free GXG Envelopes and packaging are available online or from your Post Office^®. Visit their link to compare prices for their different services: https://www.usps.com/send/service-chart.htm

United Parcel Service (UPS) offers Same Day Service (UPS Express Critical ), Next Business Day Service (UPS Next Day Air Early A.M. before 8am or UPS Next Day Air by 10:30am or UPS Next Day Air Saver by 3:00pm;   2 Business Days (UPS 2nd Day Air A.M. by 10:30am, or UPS 2nd Day Air A.M. by 3:00pm.   3 Business Days, (UPS 3 Day Select by end of day; and 1-5 Business Days (UPS Ground with delivery time based on distance.  Ask about their tracking and insurance services.  I have it set up with my UPS provider to email me on all shipments.  They send the tracking number and I can click on it to get the delivery information!!  For UPS International Service, they provide UPS Express Critical using the first available flight with delivery time provided when order is placed; UPS Worldwide Express Plus   1-3 Business Days with delivery typically by 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. UPS Worldwide Express   1-3 Business Days with delivery typically by end of day; UPS Worldwide Saver   1-3 Business Days with delivery by 10:30 a.m. or 12:00 noon;  UPS Worldwide Expedited  2-5 Business Days with delivery typically by end of day; UPS Standard  Day Definite by Date Scheduled with delivery typically by end of day.

Federal Express (FedEx)  – Visit their website to learn about their local, national, and international shipping services for private and business use.  With FedEx you can have your work boxed and shipped.  http://www.fedex.com/us/  Here are some helpful links for their US services

• Package/Envelope within the U.S.
  • Delivery today
  • Delivery first thing tomorrow
  • Delivery tomorrow
  • 2 or 3 day shipping
  • Economical delivery to businesses
  • Residential day-definite delivery
  • Cost-effective low-weight residential
  • Personal shipping to residences
  • If you need to learn more about shipping packages internationally, the FedEx website has information about shipping labels and customs duties.  Look here: http://www.fedex.com/us/international/prepare-documents/index.html

Damage Control

by O. M. Braida©2011

I hope you find this short video helpful.  Open it is large screen format for best viewing.

Recording-Shipments 2011

Thank you for a great year of learning, sharing, and caring. 

I wish you all a wonderful 2012.  God bless. OM

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!

Dear Friends:

The following is a commentary on the September 12, 2004 New York Times article The Undressed Art:  A Passion for Meaningful Lines by EDWARD SOREL who reports that Peter Steinhart in ”The Undressed Art: Why We Draw,” reminds us that there is something ”innate and human” about the impulse to draw what we see.
Steinhart, a naturalist and former columnist for Audubon magazine, wants us to know that a renaissance of drawing has arrived, not only here but around the world. I for one feel that this renaissance has not arrived, for in fact the desire to draw has never left us.  Whether we scratch, doodle, or draw exactly the likeness of something, everyone uses drawing to connect in some way to something.

In Harold Speeds, “The Practice and Science of Drawing” we are confirmed that truly classical books for art students are still in print and that drawing is as necessary and as revered as it was with the Masters.   Perhaps equally important, as one review states, Speed’s book relays “a kind of philosophical courage about art and instruction that has otherwise gone the way of the Dodo.”

In fact, in the book, “Secret Knowledge” – rediscovering the lost techniques of the Old Masters, by David Hockney we learn the many fascinating ways the Master’s found to see and draw the third dimension and depict the world around them with such accuracy, including drawings of dodos (‘Didus Ineptus’ renamed ‘Raphus Cuculatus’) by Jan Savery (1589–1654) and Carl Clusius (1526-1609)!

Perhaps it is true that today many galleries and museums are smitten with the works of modern artists who replace color for form.  But this is not to say that realism or classical art is dead by any means.  Even colleges renowned for their computer animation require students take classical drawing classes and stretch their skills in the disciplines of realistic art.

So why then do we have this continuing compulsion to draw? Some artists claim that drawing is ”an immediate emanation of personality,” or that drawing “trains your eye to see, or that drawing helps to “find our own originality.”

Perhaps it is more than a compulsion that drives us to relentlessly pursue transforming our three-dimensional world onto two-dimensional surfaces.  Perhaps the act of drawing itself, at any level, rather than a waste of time or pursuit for perfection is as Steinhart says, ”innate and human.” Perhaps it is our natural impulse to capture time and pursue friendships in what we see in the world around us.  Because as Georgia O’Keefe says, “Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven’t time, and to see takes time – like to have a friend takes time.”

As our holidays approach, I wish you all the impulse to capture time and pursue friendships. 

God Bless. OM

Book Buys

The Undressed Art: Why We Draw
By Peter Steinhart

http://astore.amazon.com/theomartdesig-20/detail/1400076056

Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters
 By David Hockney

http://astore.amazon.com/theomartdesig-20/detail/0142005126

Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters
By Robert Beverly Hale

http://astore.amazon.com/theomartdesig-20/detail/0823014010

The Practice and Science of Drawing
By Harold Speed

http://astore.amazon.com/theomartdesig-20/detail/0486228703

The Practice and Science of Drawing, Illustrated
By Harold Speed

http://astore.amazon.com/theomartdesig-20/detail/B004CLYMZW

The Natural Way to Draw:

A Working Plan for Art Study
By Kimon Nicolaides

http://astore.amazon.com/theomartdesig-20/detail/0395530075

Come out of the circle of time,

 and into the circle of love.

 Rumi

******

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience.

We are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

 ******

I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round,

 as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of,

 in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent

 to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as

 if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another

race of creatures bound on other journeys.

~Charles Dickens

******

Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall,

the genial flame of charity in the heart.

~Washington Irving

******

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!

~Hamilton Wright Mabie

******

Remember This December,

That love weighs more than gold!

~Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon

******

Dear Friends:

The following brief biography will give you some insight into the work of Mark Catesby (1682-1749) – an English naturalist.  Born in 1682, the fourth child of a lawyer, Catesby was raised in the town of Sudbury in Suffolk, England. He was not a trained artist or botanist, but was influenced strongly by the noted naturalist John Ray, a family acquaintance. As his own interest in natural history grew, Catesby developed a passion for viewing and recording fauna and flora production in their native habitats not common to England.

Taking advantage of the home base offered by his sister Elizabeth, who had moved to Williamsburg with her husband, Catesby first came to America in 1712 and spent seven years exploring the colonies where he collected specimens for noted botanists in England.  He drew those species he believed were indigenous to Virginia and diligently sent collections of plants and seeds to England.   He returned there 1719 to make further study and complete his artwork.

His illustrations brought him to the attention of the Royal Society and Sir Hans Sloane, later the founder of the British Museum. With the patronage of a number of notables, Catesby left in 1722 for a second expedition to the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, and the Bahamas to continue his observation of the region’s natural life. Altogether he spent ten years in the American colonies.  He worked predominantly alone, observing, researching, and illustrating native plants and animals in graphite, gouache, and watercolor.

In 1726,  he returned again to London and began work on The Natural History which he financed in part by working as a horticulturalist. Because Catesby lacked the funds to have the drawings professionally engraved, he engaged a print maker to teach him how to make his own etchings. He also wrote the descriptions of the species and added information about the climate, geology, agriculture, and native peoples of the regions he visited.   The book was finally completed in 1747. The finished Natural History consists of two volumes: the first devoted to birds, the second to fish, crustaceans, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and insects. Plants appear throughout both volumes as Catesby sought to pair the fauna with flora from their natural habitats.

Catesby can rightly be considered a founder of American ornithology. He was the first to publish pictures accompanied by reasonably accurate written descriptions. His style although unique for the time, set a certain precedent for how illustrators would work in the future.  Instead of illustrating his subjects independently, he chose to depict fauna and flora together by combining and synthesizing his research in compositions that revealed important natural history relationships. His interplay of plants and animals was revolutionary and influenced the style of later artists, notably John James Audubon.

Though Catesby may have lacked the technical skill of the later ornithological illustrators, his book remained the premier example of the art until the start of the next century. His work was in many ways a “first” at the same time that it was representative of an era. The fact that he was, for the most part, self-taught as both a naturalist and an artist, and that the massive volumes of The Natural History were produced from start to finish, largely by his own hand, is certainly cause for admiration.  God bless. OM

Bibliographical Notes:

http://www.people.virginia.edu/~jad7e/catesby/contents.html.  http://www.castlefinearts.com/fs_gallery.asp?page=/Japanese_fine_arts_woodblock_prints/Mark_Catesby_Biography.asp?category_id=22

http://oz.plymouth.edu/~biology/history/catesby.html

http://search.biography.com/print_record.pl?id=13489

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Book Buys

 Great Naturalists: Exploration and Biography

Find wonderful natural history books on

www.natural-history-books.com/natur.html

Mark Catesby

***

Chinese Proverb

***

Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862)

***

Robert Lynd (1879 – 1949), The Blue Lion and Other Essays

***

William Blake (1757 – 1827)

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Aesop (620 BC – 560 BC), The Jay and the Peacock

Dear Friends:

We’ve talked before about creating art that is fresh, alive, and contemporary.  It may be old information, but sometimes going back over what we think we know, helps us achieve a new perspective.

Contemporary still life is a testament to the mysterious act of seeing and relating images to contemporary culture.  Often it is sensuous, provocative, and psychological and reflects some influences from previous artistic styles dating as far back as 17^th century Dutch vanitas paintings — the still life genre that symbolized the passing of all things. “In all eras, the act of isolation of everyday objects, and the artist’s ability to dramatically present these subjects center-stage, make still life a powerful expression of the artist’s point of view, literally and metaphorically.” www.hackettfreedmangallery.com.

Many still life painters, and botanical painters, employ the techniques of the old masters.  The genre of botanical painting that specifically employs these concepts adds an air of historical importance to the artwork.  These techniques together with daring composition and an interesting, highly realistic subject, afford the viewer a plethora of pictorial information that can often take ones breath away. So it comes down to not “what the world needs” but “what makes you come alive.”  According to the Dalai Lama, “The very purpose of our life is happiness, the very motion of our lives is toward happiness.”  Creative expression that releases our happiness generates happiness.

Truly our entire state of being knows its direction.  Our blood travels its destined path, our feet nose and eyes point forward, we grow bigger, certainly older, and often wiser.  With all the road signs that indicate the direction of the flow, we often get caught in the catch.  The proverbial ‘road to happiness’ ends.  Somewhere we separate the act of exploring with the act of achieving.  Forgetting of course that the two are one.

I thumbed through an old edition of “Art News” and stumbled upon two road signs that helped to confirm and encourage “flow:” A quote from Georgia O’Keeffe and a painting by Morris Graves.

At the age of 36, Ms. O’Keeffe rebelled against her apparent attachment to critical opinion and produced a series of exquisite watercolors that were united with her true self.  This revelation was indeed for me supportive to a host of internal intuitive rumblings.

Then, a little bird carried me to the artwork of Morris Graves.  “Young Irish Bird” painted in 1954 (see it here: http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/147655/Young_Irish_Bird ) was just one of the marvelous nature paintings produced by Morris Graves (1910-2001) — one of America’s most esteemed artists. Although he is best known for paintings that reflect journeys into the spiritual realms, it is particularly informative to note that for the 20 years preceding his death, his paintings we primarily of flora and fauna.  See his delicate composition of Winter Bouquet (flowering quince, rosehaws, narcissus, winter rose and camellia), 1977 at David Kimball Anderson Gallery: http://davidkimballanderson.com/exhibition.html

A trip through the web in search of Morris Graves art reveals paintings that have a detectable mystical energy that one feels through sight.  Learn more about Morris Graves and his work here: http://www.humboldtarts.org/Collection/artists/MorrisGraves.html The Graves Foundation mission is to provide the former home of Morris Graves as an inspiring location for artists and art scholars to work and study together in harmony. The facility, known as “The Lake,” is a place of solitude and peace surrounded by ancient beauty. There is happiness at the end of this rainbow, or is it the beginning. “The Lake” was once offered as a retreat for artists and may still be available for use by visiting artists. Read about The Lake here: http://blackfishart.blogspot.com/2010/08/happy-100th-birthday-morris-graves.html and here: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2001/1209/cover.html

I hope you find many reasons this season to encourage your creative flow and that you find this happiness does in fact generate more happiness.

God bless. OM

Aventuras Naturales, a Florida based eco travel company, and FNPS have partnered together to create an exciting and educational plant expedition to Nicaragua for FNPS members only.  Following the success of our sold out trip in November, Aventuras Naturales has added a second expedition to this Central American nation.  As one of the least explored countries in the region, Nicaragua’s flora and fauna is only recently emerging as being very distinct from her neighbors Costa Rica and Panama.  Her dramatic geography, marked by volcanoes, lakes and forests, creates a striking landscape and biodiversity second to none. This is the perfect trip for the nature lover and plant enthusiast!  Trip Date:  January 14th, 2012  — Trip Length:  12 days.  Price:  $3300 (includes airfare from Miami International Airport)  Activities:  Hiking, Plant Exploration, City Walks.  There are only 3 spots available.  Act now if you want to be a part of this amazing trip!   Contact us today to reserve your spot!  954.603.2907  or email: tours@aventurasnaturales.org

Book Buys

Fleurs Étranges by André Martin – Photography

Click here

The Metamorphosis of Flowers, by Claude Nurisdsany

Click here

One Hundred Flowers by Harold Feinstein

Click here

Plantes Extraordinaires

by Arnoud Descat and Patrick Mioulane
Photography – Click here

Wild Flowers of the World

Paintings by Barbara Everard

Text by Brian Morley, Ph.D.

Click here

Georgia O’Keeffe and the Calla Lily in American Art

1860-1940 by Barbara Buhler Lynes with

Essays by Charles C. Eldredge and James Moore.

Click here

There may be more to learn from climbing the same mountain a
hundred times than by climbing a hundred different mountains.
-  Richard Nelson

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself
what makes you come alive. And then go and do that.
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
-  Harold Whitman

The very purpose of our life is happiness; the very motion of our lives is toward happiness.
-  Dalai Lama

When we look into our own hearts and begin to discover what is confused and what is brilliant, what is bitter and what is sweet, it isn’t just ourselves that we’re discovering.  We’re discovering the universe.
- Pema Chodron

Imagination was given to us to compensate for what we are not;
a sense of humor was given to us to console us for what we are.
 Mark McGinnis

In pursuit of happiness, the difficulty lies in knowing when you have caught up.
-  R.H. Grenville

If you are doing your best, you will not have time to worry about failure.
-  Robert Hillyer

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.
-  Kahlil Gibran

The more you prepare, the luckier you appear.
-  Terry Josephson

Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.
-  Margaret Lee Runbeck

Go out into the world today and love the people you meet.
Let your presence light new light in the hearts of people.
-  Mother Teresa