no crossing

A lot of Christians wear crosses around their necks. You think when Jesus comes back he ever wants to see a fucking cross? It's like going up to Jackie Onassis wearing a rifle pendant.

-- Bill Hicks

transitive rockwellianism

On rare occasions one does hear of a miraculous case of a married couple falling in love after marriage, but on close examination it will be found that it is a mere adjustment to the inevitable.

-- Emma Goldman

really, now

Physicists have determined that even the most solid and heavy mass of matter we see is mostly empty space. But at the submicroscopic level, specks of matter scattered through a vast emptiness have such incredible density and weight, and are linked to one another by such powerful forces, that together they produce all the properties of concrete, cast iron and solid rock. In much the same way, specks of knowledge are scattered through a vast emptiness of ignorance, and everything depends upon how solid the individual specks of knowledge are, and on how powerfully linked and coordinated they are with one another.

-- Thomas Sowell

poetry for a rainy day

Life is a B Movie: it's stupid and it's strange, it's a directionless story, the dialogue is lame, but in the 'he said she said' sometimes there's some poetry, if you turn your back long enough and let it happen naturally.

-- Ani Difranco

no stranger than most

Fear makes strangers of people who would be friends.

-- Shirley MacLaine

I'll give you an answer in the morning

No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.

-- P.J. O'Rourke

build around it

I think complexity is mostly sort of crummy stuff that is there because it's too expensive to change the interface.

-- Jaron Lanier

seasonally challenged

My sorrow, when she's here with me, thinks these dark days of autumn rain are beautiful as days can be; she loves the bare, the withered tree; she walks the sodden pasture lane.

-- Robert Frost

Two dangers constantly threaten the world: order and disorder.

--  Paul Valery

farmer in dells

When I first became interested in photography, I thought it was the whole cheese. My idea was to have it recognized as one of the fine arts. Today I don't give a hoot in hell about that. The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each man to himself.

-- Edward Steichen

Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

--  Gen. Douglas MacArthur

illinois church door, from the parking lot

Illinois church door, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

Some of the most wonderful people are the ones who don't fit into boxes.

-- Tori Amos

marking space

Above all, it's hard learning to live with vivid mental images of scenes I cared for and failed to photograph. It is the edgy existence within me of these unmade images that is the only assurance that the best photographs are yet to be made.

-Sam Ebell

gotta hand it to you

handy-1, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

-- Maya Angelou

Junk Drawers by Beth McConnell | Make Your Own Book

slides down smooth

red glass, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

Cultivate your curves--they may be dangerous but they won't be avoided.

-- Mae West

twelve strings

thom jones, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self.

-- Benjamin Franklin

in her element

simmering drag, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

By the time we are women, fear is as familiar to us as air. It is our element. We live in it, we inhale it, we exhale it, and most of the time we do not even notice it. Instead of "I am afraid," we say, "I don't want to," or "I don't know how," or "I can't".

-- Andrea Dworkin

oh, puss

lemony snickerts, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.

-- William Shakespeare

the ordinary person

pearly whites, a photo by McBeth on Flickr.

Maybe it’s like this, Max--you know how, when you are working on a long and ordered piece, all sorts of bright and lovely ideas and images intrude. They have no place in what you are writing, and so if you are young, you write them in a notebook for future use. And you never use them because they are sparkling and alive like colored pebbles on a wave-washed shore. It’s impossible not to fill your pockets with them. But when you get home, they are dry and colorless. I’d like to pin down a few while they are still wet.

-- John Steinbeck