The "Book of Wisdom"
Within this web site are collected words of wisdom, as well as what wisdom is, and what it isn't.   First, disclaimers and incentives:

The true measure of a wise person is their capacity to realize their ignorance.
-John Fife

I know heaps of quotations, so I can always make a fair show of knowledge.
-O. Douglas 1877-1948

A definition of Wisdom: A surprising, self-realizational, conclusional process of making mistakes and barely escaping disasters.
-John Fife

On Responsibility and Character
On Getting Older
On Death
On Living Life
Philosophies of Life
On Earth and Mother Nature
Love
Friendship
Thoughts to consider...

On Responsibility and Character

A winner tries to judge his own acts by their consequences and other people's acts by their intentions. A loser gives himself all the best of it by judging his own acts by his intentions and the acts of others by their consequences.
-unknown "Winners and Losers"

What I've Learned:
~that you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life.
~that we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.
~that either you control your attitude or it controls you.
~that sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.
~that maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.
~that credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being.
~that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.
~Cicero, Rome (106-43 B.C.)

Procrastinate:  something you do when you don't.
-Joe Heuer

The trouble with people today is that no one accepts personal responsibility for anything, but don't quote me.
-unknown

Oh, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive.
-Sir Walter Scott 1771-1832

... To feel for one who can't maintain, yet not afraid to fix the blame, on one who can, but won't the same...
-John Fife "Susan" 1973

 Success always occurs in private and failure in full view.
-Unknown

 Almost anyone can stand adversity. To test a person's character, give him or her power.
-Abraham Lincoln

Never give your reasons, for your judgment will probably be right, but your reasons almost certainly will be wrong.
-Lord Mansfield 1705-93

After the first blush of sin comes indifference.
-H.D. Thoreau

On Death

It seems to me that no one "dies", because when we are "dead". Our bodies are put back in the earth from hence all life first shed.

So since all living from days gone past are in the earth, the flowers and grass. How can anyone say so fast, that when they "die", it will be their last.
-John Fife "No End" 1968

 Take your dying with some seriousness, however. Laughing on the way to your execution is not generally understood by less advanced life-forms, and they'll call you crazy.
-Richard Bach, "Illusions"

 Since death is not an option (presently), why not consider its existence as a relative deadline for figuring out who you actually are?
-John Fife, 2001

On Living Life

You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest basketball player is Chinese, and Germany doesn't want to go to war."
-Charles Barkley

Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.
-Mark Twain

Suffering is optional (in life).
- Mark Twain

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less... We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life; we've added years to life, not life to years...
-Jeorge Carlin "The Paradox of our Time"

What I've Learned:
~that it takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it.
~that you can get by on charm for about fifteen minutes. After that, you'd better know something.
~that you can keep going long after you can't.
~that you cannot make someone Love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them.
~that it isn't enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.
~that you shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life forever.
~that it's hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice and not hurting people's feelings and standing up for what you believe.
~Cicero, Rome (106-43 B.C.)

Sometimes, you have to go through the house to get to the backyard.
-John Fife, 1998

It is the restriction placed on vice by our social code which makes its pursuit so peculiarly agreeable.
-Kenneth Grahame 1859-1932

 Caught between the devil's brew, Satin's daughter and thoughts of you. I take what's left when you're not near, and store them safely when you're here. That I Love all three tis fate. Then Love always has beat hate. Of life I've made my slave. I laugh at life yet fear the grave.
-John Fife "My Turn (Ha)" 1969

 Live and let live
A little Love give
Don't be afraid
To show how you're made
-Men's bathroom, San Francisco

 Most folks are about as happy as they make their minds up to be
-Abraham Lincoln

Society everywhere is in a conspiracy against the manhood of everyone of its members.
- H.D. Thoreau

 Often people attempt to live their lives backward. They try to have more things or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happy. The way it works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.
-Margaret Young "Life"

 The less we speak of our intentions, the more chance there is of realizing them.
-John Ruskin 1819-1900

 I realized a while ago how I deal with life and found a way to put it in words: "I obsessively, repeatedly and methodically use attrition to succeed."
-John Fife, 1998  

 Where one is at any point in life, is the the sum total of the positive and negative experiences they have had to that point. So regretting any part of your past is the same as being unhappy with who you are now. Everyone makes mistakes, and you can choose to try and not repeat them, but a regret makes you unhappy about that which you cannot change, and denies the reality of who you were when the event occurred, as well as who you have become as a result of those experiences.
-John Fife, 2000

 First the pants, then the shoes.
-Invest Services, 1996

All choices in life give us things and take others away. The art of living life, is making those choices that give us the things we really want, while losing the things that are not that important to us.
-John Fife, 1998

Philosophies of Life

 Think Simple
-Boeing engineer

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
A professor  stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.  He then asked the students if the jar was full.  They agreed it was.  So  the  professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar.  He  shook  the  jar  lightly.   The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.   He then asked the students again if the jar was full.   They agreed it was.  The  professor  next  picked  up  a  box  of sand and poured it into the jar.   Of course, the sand filled up everywhere else.   He  asked once again if the jar was full. The students answered with a unanimous "yes".   The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and poured the entire  contents  into the jar, effectively filling the empty spaces between the sand grains.  The students laughed.

"Now" said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognised that this  jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things.... your family,  your children, your health, your friends and your favourite passions... things  that  if everything else was lost and only they remained your life would still be full.  The  pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.   The sand is everything else.... the small stuff.  If  you  put the sand into the jar first" he continued "there is no room for the pebbles  or  the  golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and  energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important  to  you. 

Pay  attention  to the  things  that are critical to your happiness.  Play  with  your children, take time to get medical check-ups, take your spouse/girlfriend out to dinner.  There will always be time to clean the house and fix the  washer.   Take care of the golf balls first -- the things that really matter.   Set your priorities.  The rest is just sand!"  

One  of  the  students raised her hand and asked what the beer represented.
The professor  smiled,  "I'm glad you asked.  It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers".
~unknown

 Life is seldom as complex as it seems, or as simple.
~John Fife 2003

 The meaning of life:

While I dance I cannot judge, I cannot hate, I cannot separate myself from life.
I can only be joyful and whole. That is why I dance.
~Hans Bos

 Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right.
-Henry Ford

Perception is Reality
-John Fife 1994

What I've Learned:
~that money is a lousy way of keeping score.
~that two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.
~that your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don't even know you.
~that it's not what you have in your life but who you have in your life that counts.
~Cicero, Rome (106-43 B.C.)

Never argue -- repeat your assertion.
-Robert Owen 1771-1858

Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
-Mark Twain

Acceptance

Acceptance of our life as it unfolds, and as it is, can offer one peace-of-mind, composure and a joy that is boundless. This means not only being responsible for our decisions (or lack of them), but also the results of them with acquiescence and the patience of perspective. For there truly are no "quick fixes" that will allow us to ignore or avoid life's pain. Only the acceptance of accountability for our life can offer us "freedom" from our burdens.

All events in our lives offer us the choice of interpretation. A walk alone of a dark evening can be a scary, depressing experience if we let our fears color the event. Yet it could also be an opportunity to experience the serene beauty and quiet of the night as well as a catalyst for personal reflection. We constantly make judgments about the occurrences and events in our lives. Often it is not the events themselves that shape our lives, but rather the meaning and value we put on them. As no person or thing, can in truth, make us happy or unhappy, we can only subscribe to that belief, and in doing so give-up the power and control over our own lives. We not only hold the control over the complete destiny of our lives, but also our feelings about that. This style-of-life is not necessarily easier than others, as all roads offer unique challenges -- but never say you did not have a choice.
-John Fife "Acceptance" 1995

 There seems to be a reverse correlation between how much we focus on our personal problems to the exclusion of others, and the impact of those personal problems upon our lives.
-John Fife 2000

 What is it you are pretending not to know?
-LifeSpring, 1975

 In order to live free and happily, you must sacrifice boredom. It is not always an easy sacrifice.
-Richard Bach, "Illusions"

Life is but a walking shadow - a poor player. Who struts and frets his hour upon the stage and is heard no more. Tis a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing.
-William Shakespeare "Macbeth"

 Success has many fathers, yet failure is an orphan.
-unknown

I think our No. 1 problem is that nobody wants to take responsibility for anything -- but don't quote me.
-unknown

The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it?

Death.

I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way.

Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you're too young, you get a gold watch and you go to work. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities.

You become a little baby, you go back into the womb, spend your last nine months floating...and you finish off as an orgasm.
-George Carlin

 We hate change and love it at the same time. What we really want is for things to remain the same, yet get better.
-unknown

On Getting Older

Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill.
-unknown

We grow neither better nor worse as we get old, but more like ourselves.
-May Lamberton Becker

If you don't have wrinkles, you haven't laughed enough.
-Phyllis Diller

What I've Learned:
~that maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.
~Cicero, Rome (106-43 B.C.)

Its really too bad that our American society has chosen to discount the tremendous value that the older generation has to provide us: with their knowledge, experience and wisdom about life. They could also give us a greatly needed infusion of common sense.
They have learned the greatest lesson of life, that all choices in life both provide and take-away -- that the "art of living life" is making the choices that give you the most of what you want, while taking away the least of what you care about.
-"Ode to Old Age", John Fife 1999

 Dealing with Old age is often characterized as a struggle with our "state of mind". I would personally opt for it to be a "state of being", as successfully mastering this stage of life is more a challenge over mind, body and spirit.
-John Fife 2001

You know when you have grown old, when you loose your sensitivity to the feelings of the young
~(naj)(via Nash Jasmine)

On Earth and Mother Nature

Divine beauty all. Here I could stay tethered forever with just bread and water, nor would I be lonely; loved friends and neighbors, as love for everything increased, would seem all the nearer however many the miles and mountains between us.
-John Muir "My First Summer in the Sierra"

 No pain here, no idle empty hours, no fear of the past, no fear of the future. These blessed mountains are so compactly filled with God's beauty, no petty personal hope or experience has room to be.
-John Muir "My First Summer in the Sierra"

 Warm, sunny day, thrilling plant and animals and rocks alike, making sap and blood flow fast, and making every particle of the crystal mountains throb and swirl and dance in glad accord like star-dust. No dullness anywhere visible or thinkable. No stagnation, no death. Everything kept in joyful rhythmic motion in the pluses of Nature's big heart.
-John Muir "My First Summer in the Sierra"

Is it true, as it is said, that man will surely die? And in his place, a newborn race, will come down from the sky. They'll do things right, as we did wrong, and Peace and Love they'll hail. The truth they'll face, and from race to race, no one will say theirs prevail. They'll be no countries, nations or states, because they could find, the place to divide the common feelings of Life, Love and Truth, they all felt inside. But I'm not sure, that it is true, that man will die -- because of the few I have met, that have already descended down.
-John Fife, 1969 (after first acid trip)('Ode to Don')

Earthly Perspective
It is often said that we are ruining this planet with over-population, pollution of our air, water and food, extermination of species and overuse of our natural resources. Others think not, and resign such thinking as overreactive and unjustified.

Both claim the other side to be naive, self-serving and without perspective.

I would suggest that both are right.

In truth, "perspective is reality" to each person on this planet, especially when it concerns an issue such as this, that is so complex, dynamic and I would add ... uncomprehendable to human beings.

You see the very conceited concepts and attitudes that got humans into this current state, are the same ones being used by the ecologists to "get us out of it".

Human beings repeatedly make the same foolish mistake, of preteniously believing they understand something that they don't really understand in any debt.  And in that false knowledge comes the source of the damage.

Humans have always thought they understood Mother Nature and how life was structured and so continuosly manipulated our environment, life, and even death over the history of humans on this planet.  Breeding new species of plants and animals; introducing "corrective" or "improved" species into otherwise pristine ecologies; surfeit our naturals resources -- as if they were being "restocked in the back somewhere"; creating "improved" genetic organisms and "repairing defects" in existing ones.

That is why we now find ourselves on a planet that may well already be on an unstoppable cycle to eliminate human organisms from this planet.

You see life "finds a way", and reacts to an unfathomable, countless number of inputs and ways we are not capable of understanding, let alone know the final result of.   We humans have a mental defect of believing that we don't understand is not understandable or is attributed to a god.

What has been our reaction to this threat upon our existence? The exact same attitudes and beliefs that got us into the situation. Now we "remove destructive species of plants and animals"; isolate huge sections of the planet and "protect" endangered species within and without of those areas; continue our now, "benevolent" efforts to "improve and repair" species; prevent at all costs, the natural pattern of destruction of life that has existed from time beginning; and on and on... still trying to play God, because we see a portion of the power of life. Like someone playing a chess master, who has only learned how the pawn moves, yet thinks he can play and even "win" the game.

We now continue our efforts at self-destruction, most likely causing the same amount (or more) damage to the environment, but now under the belief we are "changing our destructive ways and repairing the damage we have already done".

We have learned nothing!

The biggest threat to our existence on this planet is our mistaken belief that we can understand the incredable complexity of life and then manipulate it to our benefit. That is exactly what is going to kill us all -- unless it changes.

Yet the planet will survive just fine -- another egotistical notion of humans, i.e. that we have the power to "destroy all life on earth". Even with our most purposeful efforts to do that, we would still fail. Yes, we may well affect this planet enough so that it will no longer support human life and some other species too, whether it be by nuclear war or sufficient pollution of all earthly life support. Yet, within a short geologic time, this planet will shurk us off like a bad dream and no one will ever know that we were on this planet. And yes, it will again be green and beautiful.

You see, it is not about manipulating life so that it works -- it already works just fine thank you! Our problem is that we do not understand that we do not understand. All ecological problems on this planet stem in reality from one, and none of the others can be resolved permanently until we deal with it: over-population. You cannot "fix" polluted air, water, food; destruction of rainforests; holes in ozone layer; changes in climate; decrease of food sources; crop failures, etc., if and until we "fix" our tendency to over-populate. Life knows what to do when a species over-populates and treathens other life forms: it either finds a way to decrease their numbers drastically, or it eliminates them altogether.  That can be anything from constantly mutating viruses to lack of protective layers of the ozone.

We need to finally shed our arrogant belief that we are the masters of life -- as we are, at best, merely masters of our own destiny.
~John Fife, 2002
 

Love

What I've Learned:
~that you should always leave loved with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.
~that regardless of how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, the passion fades and there had better be something else to take its place.
~that just because someone doesn't Love you the way you want them to doesn't mean they don't Love you with all they have.
~that just because two people argue, it doesn't mean they don't Love each other. And just because they don't argue, it doesn't mean they do.
~that you cannot make someone Love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them.
~Cicero, Rome (106-43 B.C.)

For what is best in all there is - a disease ne'er takes but only gives.
-John Fife "So it is..." 1975

 We are meant to Love people and use things. Usually we do the opposite.
-Unknown

 You cannot Love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you Love or hate about yourself.
-Unknown

 Caught between the devil's brew, Satin's daughter and thoughts of you. I take what's left when you're not near, and store them safely when you're here. That I Love all three tis fate. Then Love always has beat hate. Of life I've made my slave. I laugh at life yet fear the grave.
~John Fife "My Turn (Ha)" 1969

Unsaid
With gentle touch of sweet caress
all my words are put to death
for time has stopped and meanings fail
to describe my soul unveiled
my mind comes clear, emotions grow
to mate your heart, to warm your soul
and share sweet love as it unfolds.
~John Fife "For Susan" 1973

SO It is...
Time is past, life is done
Meet our needs, watch the sun
Then...
love not time nor need or plan
our life is love - it brings it's own
peace-of-mind, life's cold pierce not felt
it's warmth is drawn to shelter self
new eyes are given and vision captures
reflections of what can't be told nor can't be
taught and futile sold

 for what is best in all there is - a disease ne'er takes but only gives.
~John Fife 1963

Friendship

Friends are lost by calling often, and calling seldom.
-Anonymous

What I've Learned:
~that no matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt you every once and a while and you must forgive them for that.
~that my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have the best time.
~that we don't have to change friends if we understand that friends change.
~that even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cries out to you, you will find the strength to help.
~Cicero, Rome (106-43 B.C.)

I am learning to live close to the lives of my friends without ever seeing them.
-John Muir 1838-1914

The chain of friendship, however bright, does not stand the attrition of close contact.
-Sir Walter Scott 1771-1832

The best antique is an old friend.
-unknown

Thinking

On purple seas with hidden shores
Sail billowed dreams of promised lands
Fear of wind, yet current moves
To gather what we choose to lose
Caressing coasts of tempting lust
Or stagnate ends of lonesome dust
Warm hearts birth Love from dismal nights
To soothe forlorn dreams of harbor care
Chase the sun to find what of
Chance lose to you the oceans Love.
~John Fife 2/23/1972

Times
I feel the sun with visions pain
Bringing half-life clouds and rain
Fighting always for my soul
An age it be of very old
Oft times I ask for mercy grant
The Peace-of-mind to stay me last
The eluding pit that calls cold blast.
~John Fife around 1969

What It Is
What it is
I pretend to know
Pretends, as much, the world I show
Why it is, I cannot be
The one I am, the one I be
I fail to live the life I have
Instead to make a life so sad
It denies the Love that is
By always wondering: What it is.
~John Fife, 1986

We are not what we think we are, but, what we think, we are.
~Norman Vincent Peale

                            It is not the                            HUSK
                            But the                                  KERNEL
                            That is of                               VALUE
               The Husk is birthed then waxes, wanes, withers then dies
                            But the                                  KERNEL
                            Is the power of the                SPIRIT
                            And                                       ETERNAL
                                                                ~Don Lawrence