- Albert Camus

Some cry:: ‘Love me!!’ Others:: ‘Don’t love me!!’ But a certain genus, the worst and most unhappy, cries:: ‘Don’t love me and be faithful to me!!’

- Robert Browning

God made all the creatures, and gave them our love and our fear, To give sign we and they are his children, one family here.

- Anonymous

Love is for fools wise enough to take a chance.

- Emily Brontë

Love is like the wild rose-briar; Friendship like the holly-tree. The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms, But which will bloom most constantly?

- Comte de Bussy-Rabutin

L'amour vient de l'aveuglement, l'amitie de la connaissance. (Love comes from blindness, friendship from knowledge.)

- George David Birkhoff

The transcendent importance of love and goodwill in all human relations is shown by their mighty beneficent effect upon the individual and society.

- George Albert Smith

With love in my heart for every one of you, may I say I am grateful. I haven't any way of expressing my thanksgiving to the people of this Church and many people out of the Church, for their kindnesses to me, one of the humblest of our Father's sons. I wish I could return in full measure all the good which has been done for me.

- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness.

- Jack H. Goaslind, Jr.

Much of our love is confined to mere lip service and dreams of good deeds accomplished, but true love must be expressed in unselfish acts of kindness that bring others closer to our Heavenly Father.

- Agnes Repplier

We cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh.

- Robert Browning

All’s love, yet all’s law.

-

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

- Anonymous

A love that defies all logic is sometimes the most logical thing in the world.

- Anacreon

I both love and do not love; and am mad and not mad.

- Nora Roberts

Love and magic have a great deal in common. They enrich the soul, delight the heart. And they both take practice.

- Joan Collins

Love may be a dream but marriage is a nightmare.

- Zsa Zsa Gabor

A man in love is incomplete until he is married. Then he’s finished.

- H. L. Mencken

There are two times in every man's life when he is thoroughly happy; just after he has met his first love and just after he has parted from his last one.

- William Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove::O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,That looks on tempests and is never shaken.It is the star to every wandering bark,Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeksWithin his bending sickle’s compass come;Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,But bears it out even to the edge of doom,If this be error, and upon me prov’d,I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.

- William Shakespeare.

Love moderately; long love doth so; too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.

- Henry David Thoreau

It is strange to talk of miracles, revelations, inspiration, and the like, as things past, while love remains.

- Tony Snow

Love can achieve unexpected majesty in the rocky soil of misfortune.

- Erich Fromm

Immature love says, "I love you because I need you." Mature love says, "I need you because I love you."

- Anonymous

If we deny love that is given to us, if we refuse to give love because we fear pain or loss, then our lives will be empty, our loss greater.

- Daisaku Ikeda

With love and patience, nothing is impossible.

- Anonymous

If you want something very, very badly,Let it go free.If it comes back to you, It’s yours forever.If it doesn’t, it was never yours to begin with. 

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a great deal longer.

- Henry Fielding

Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea.

- Cullen Hightower

Love is what is left in a relationship after all the selfishness has been removed.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

Love consists in this, that two solitudes protect and touch and greet each other.

- Empedocles

At one time through love all things come together into one, at another time through strife’s hatred, they are borne each of them apart.

- William Shakespeare

See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!O that I were a glove upon that hand,That I might touch that cheek!

-

How does one measure time? No, not in day, months, or years. It is measured by the most precious of all things:: Love. Without which all beings and things whether brave and/or beautiful would perish.

-

Love makes the time pass. Time makes love pass. 

- Anonymous

Love may conquer all, but it needs time as its field general.

- Dr. Joyce Brothers

The best proof of love is trust.

- William Shakespeare

Love all. Trust a few. Do wrong to none.

- William Shakespeare

When my love swears that she is made of truth I do believe her, though I know she lies, That she might think me some untutor'd youth, Unlearned in the world's false subtleties. Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young, Although she knows my days are past the best, Simply I credit her false speaking tongue:: On both sides thus is simple truth suppress'd. But wherefore says she not she is unjust? And wherefore say not I that I am old? O, love's best habit is in seeming trust, And age in love loves not to have years told:: Therefore I lie with her and she with me, And in our faults by lies we flatter'd be.

- Florence Allshorn

I used to think that being nice to people and feeling nice was loving people. Now I know it isn't. Love is the most immense unselfishness and it is so big I've never touched it.

- Francis Bacon

It is impossible to love and be wise.

- William Shakespeare

. . . but you are wise, Or else you love not, for to be wise and love Exceeds man's might . . .

- Elizabeth Bowen

When you love someone, all your saved-up wishes start coming out.

- Samuel Butler, the older

All love at first, like generous wine,Ferments and frets until ‘tis fine;But when ‘tis settled on the lee,And from th’ impurer matter free,Becomes the richer still the older,And proves the pleasanter the colder.

- Samuel Butler, the older

For money has a power aboveThe stars and fate, to manage love.

- John Milton

Freely we serve,Because we freely love, as in our willTo love or not; in this we stand or fall.

- Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore

Kind souls, you wonder why, love you, When you, you wonder why, love noneWe love, Fool, for the good we do, Not that which unto us is done!

- Thomas S. Monson

When I opened the door, there I would see a man, sometimes two, ill-clothed, ill-fed, ill-schooled. Generally, such a visitor held in his hand the familiar cap. His hair would be tousled, his face unshaven. The question was always the same:: "Could you spare some food?" My dear mother invariably responded with a pleasant, "Come in and sit down at the table." She would then prepare a ham sandwich, cut a piece of cake, and pour a glass of milk. Mother would ask the visitor about his home, his family, his life. She provided hope and words of encouragement. Before leaving, the visitor would pause to express a gracious thank-you. I would note that a smile of content had replaced a look of despair. Eyes that were dull now shone with new purpose. Love, that noblest attribute of the human soul, can work wonders. 

- David B. Haight

Knowing that we should love is not enough. But when knowledge is applied through service, love can secure for us the blessings of heaven.

- Anonymous

Love at first sight is one of the greatest labor-saving devices the world has ever seen.

- Robert Lee Frost

Love at the lips was touch As sweet as I could bear; And once that seemed too much; I lived on air.

- Robert Scheid

The only person to whom your love belongs is the one to whom your love belongs.

- Robert Burton

No cord or cable can draw so forcibly, or bind so fast, as love can do with a single thread.

- Saint Augustine

If bodies please thee, praise God on occasion of them, and turn back thy love upon their Maker; lest in these things which please thee, thou displease. If souls please thee, be they loved in God:: for they too are mutable, but in Him they are firmly established.

- John Donne

Who ever loves, if he do not proposeThe right true end of love, he's one that goesTo sea for nothing but to make him sick.

- Anonymous

Love can cure heartbreaks, misfortune, or tragedy. It is the eternal companion.

- James P. De Wolfe, D.D.

Some morning it is likely that the headlines of the world will scream forth the news that New York has been bombed. As tragic as this will be, it will nevertheless accomplish the deep unity that Christians should have. It is a sad commentary that our brotherhood, which exists by Christian love, is only truly cemented by Christian suffering.

- Walt Whitman

Love the earth and sun and animals, Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, Stand up for the stupid and crazy, Devote your income and labor to others . . . And your very flesh shall be a great poem.

- Benjamin Franklin

Love your enemies, for they will tell you your faults.

- R. A. Dickson

Love your enemies just in case your friends turn out to be a bunch of bastards.

- Ed Howe

You needn’t love your enemy, but if you refrain from telling lies about him, you are doing well enough.

- Oliver Goldsmith

I love everything that's old:: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.

- Alice Cary

He who loves best his fellow-manIs loving God the holiest way he can.

- William Cowper

Lord, it is my chief complaint, That my love is weak and faint;Yet I love thee and adore,Oh for grace to love thee more!

- George Gordon, Lord Byron

I have imbibed such a love for money that I keep some sequins in a drawer to count, and cry over them once a week.

- Meher Baba

To love God in the most practical way is to love our fellow beings. If we feel for others in the same way as we feel for our own dear ones, we love God.

- Richard Rolle

The commandment of God is, that we love Our Lord in all our heart, in all our soul, in all our thought. In all our heart; that is, in all our understanding without erring. In all our soul; that is, in all our will without gainsaying. In all our their ought; that is, that we think on Him without forgetting. In this manner is very love and true, that is work of man's will. For love is a willful stirring of our thoughts unto God, so that it receive nothing that is against the love of Jesus Christ, and therewith that it be lasting in sweetness of devotion; and that is the perfection of this life.

- Robert Green Ingersoll

Learn to love good books. There are treasures in books that all the money in the world cannot buy, but the poorest laborer can have for nothing.

- Barbara Cartland

France is the only place where you can make love in the afternoon without people hammering on your door.  

- David B. Haight

Love is a gift of God, and as we obey His laws and genuinely learn to serve others, we develop God’s love in our lives. Love of God is the means of unlocking divine powers which help us to live worthily and to overcome the world.

- William Shakespeare?

Love is a madness most discreet

- Joseph Addison

Love is a second life; it grows into the soul, warms every vein, and beats in every pulse. Joseph Addison

- David B. Haight

Someone has written, “Love is a verb.” It requires doing — not just saying and thinking. The test is in what one does, how one acts, for love is conveyed in word and deed.

- Robert Lee Frost

Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired. 

- Sir Philip Sidney

Ring out your bells! Let mourning show be spread!For Love is dead.

- Vincent van Gogh

Love is something eternal—the aspects may change, but not the essence. There is the same diflference in a person before and after he is in love as there is in an unlighted lamp and one that is buming. The lamp was there and it is a good lamp, but now it is shedding light, too, and that is its real function.

- Lew Wallace

Riches take wings, comforts vanish, hope withers away, but love stays with us. Love is God.

- Jeremy Taylor

Love is the greatest thing that God can give us; for Himself is love:: and it is the greatest thing we can give to God; for it will also give ourselves, and carry with it all that is ours. The apostle calls it the band of perfection; it is the old, and it is the new, and it is the great commandment, and it is all the commandments; for it is the fulfilling of the Law.

- Anonymous

Love is like a violin. The music may stop now and then, but the strings remain forever.

- Dorothy Parker

Love is like quicksilver in the hand, Leave the fingers open and it stays, Clutch it, and it darts away. Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) American writer and satirist

- Edna St. Vincent Millay

Love is not all:: it is not meat nor drink Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain; Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink. 

- Wystan Hugh Auden

He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever:: I was wrong.

- Albert Camus

I love life — that’s my real weakness. I love it so much that I am incapable of imagining what is not life.

- Robert Herrick

You say, to me-wards your affection’s strong;Pray love me little, so you love me long.

- Charles Dickens

I love little children—and it is not a slight thing when they, who are fresh from God, love us.

- Franklin P. Jones

Love doesn’t make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.

- Walter Lippmann

Love endures only when the lovers love many things together and not merely each other.

- Anonymous

A self-centered man admitted:: "Sure, I know that the Bible says to love our neighbors as ourselves. But frankly, I don't believe that my neighbors can stand all that affection." 

- Gilbert Keith Chesterton

The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.

- Anonymous

Ah, some love Paris,And some Purdue.But love is an archer with a low I.Q.A bold, bad bowman, and innocent of pity.So I’m in love withNew York City.

- John Donne

Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime, Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time. 

- Anonymous

Love is not blind, it sees more not less; But because it sees more it chooses to see less.

- William Goldman

But love is many things, none of them logical.

- Anonymous

If you fear nothing, you love nothing. If you love nothing, what joy can there be in life?

- Josh Billings

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.

- Felix Adler

Love of country is like love of woman — he loves her best who seeks to bestow on her the highest good.

- George Bernard Shaw

There is no sincerer love than the love of food.

- Jean Baptiste Moliére

The more we love our friends, the less we flatter them; it is by excusing nothing that pure love shows itself.

- Ben Jonson

Who falls for love of God, shall rise a star.

- Rex C. Reeve, Sr.

If men and nations did reach up to God with all their hearts, war would cease. If love of God were in the heart of man, a man would have no desire to destroy his brother.There would be no dishonesty if the love of God were in the heart. If God came first in his life, a man would love his neighbor as himself, and instead of taking from him, he would feel to give.

- Sterling W. Sill

That man loves God who puts his own life in harmony with him, and who serves his fellow men as though his life depends upon it, as indeed it does.

- Joseph Smith, Jr.

A man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race.

- Delbert L. Stapley

Keeping the commandments of God is not a difficult burden when we do it out of love of him who has so graciously blessed us.

- George F. Richards

If such love obtained in the world today as the Lord intended that it should, love of God and love of fellow men, there would be no wars, contentions, and strife among the children of men. And that there is such, is due to an indifference by men to heed the admonitions and teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

- Reginald John Campbell

It is no strain of metaphor to say that the love of God and the wrath of God are the same thing, described from opposite points of view. How we shall experience it depends upon the way we shall come up against it:: God does not change; it is man's moral state that changes. The wrath of God is a figure of speech to denote God's unchanging opposition to sin; it is His righteous love operating to destroy evil. It is not evil that will have the last word, but good; not sorrow, but joy; not hate, but love.

- Francis Bacon

Why should a man be in love with his fetters, though of gold?

- Charles Dickens

In love of home, the love of country has its rise.

- Jan van Ruysbroeck

The love of Jesus is at once avid and generous. All that He has, all that He is, He gives; all that we are, all that we have, He takes.

- Confucius

He who remembers from day to day what he has yet to learn, and from month to month what he has learned already, may be said to have a love of learning.

- Dr. Samuel Johnson

The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.

- Hester Lynch Piozzi

The tree of deepest root is found Least willing still to quit the ground:: 'T was therefore said by ancient sages, That love of life increased with years So much, that in our latter stages, When pain grows sharp and sickness rages, The greatest love of life appears. 

- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

My life is an indivisible whole, and all my activities run into one another:: and they have their rise in my insatiable love of mankind.

- Anacreon

Cursed be he above all others Who's enslaved by love of money. Money takes the place of brothers, Money takes the place of parents, Money brings us war and slaughter. 

- John Maynard, Baron Keynes of Tilton

The love of money as a possession — as distinguished from the love of money as a means to the enjoyments and realities of life — will be recognized for what it is, a somewhat disgusting morbidity, one of those semi-criminal, semi-pathological propensities which one hands over with a shudder to the specialists in mental disease.

- Ayn Rand

Or did you say it's the love of money that's the root of all evil? To love a thing is to know its nature. To love money is to known and love the fact that money is the creation of the best power within you, and your passkey to trade your effort for the effort of the best among men. It's the person who would sell his soul for a nickel, who is loudest in proclaiming his hatred of money — and he has good reason to hate it. The lovers of money are willing to work for it. They know they are able to deserve it.

- William Cullen Bryant

To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language.

- Edward Young

The love of praise, howe'er conceal'd by art, Reigns more or less, and glows in ev'ry heart.

- Gibbon

The love of study, a passion which derives fresh vigor from enjoyment, supplies each day and hour with a perpetual source of independent and rational pleasure.

- Jerome Klapka Jerome

"Nothing, so it seems to me," said the stranger, "is more beautiful than the love that has weathered the storms of life. . . . The love of the young for the young, that is the beginning of life. But the love of the old for the old, that is the beginning of — of things longer." 

- Ayn Rand

I sat there beside him till morning — and as I watched his face in the starlight, then the first ray of the sun on his untroubled forehead and closed eyelids, what I experienced was not a prayer, I do not pray, but that state of spirit at which a prayer is a misguided attempt:: a full, confident, affirming self-dedication to my love of the right, to the certainty that the right would win and that this boy would have the kind of future he deserved. . . . I did not expect it to be as great as this — or as hard.

- Susa Young Gates

We must love one another. Only [by doing] so can our long years of toil and struggle reach full reward and we be crowned with life everlasting.

- Mother Teresa

Jesus said love one another. He didn't say love the whole world. 

- John Tillotson

Are we not all members of the same Body and partakers of the same Spirit and heirs of the same blessed hope of eternal life? . . . Why do we not, as becomes brethren, dwell together in unity, but are so apt to quarrel and break out into heats, to crumble into sects and parties, to divide and separate from one another upon every trifling occasion? Give me leave . . . in the name of our dear Lord . . . to recommend to you this new commandment of his, that ye love one another. Which is almost a new commandment still, and hardly the worse for wearing, so seldom is it put on, and so little hath it been practiced among Christians. 

- Bill Balance

When a man is in love or in debt, someone else has the advantage.

- Robert Browning

Might she have loved me? just as wellShe might have hated, who can tell!

- Woody Allen

I was nauseous and tingly all over. . . . I was either in love or I had smallpox.

- Mary Martin

When you love others you aren't nervous.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

For one human being to love another:: that is perhaps the most difficult of our tasks; the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.

- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

We can't form our children on our own concepts; we must take them and love them as God gives them to us.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies—or else? The chain reaction of evil—hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars—must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the abyss of annihilation.

- George Albert Smith

We are commanded to love the Lord with all our heart, with all our might, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Our love should pass beyond the borderlines of the Church with which we are identified.

- George Matthew Adams

The difficult tasks to be performed are not the ones that mean physical and mental labor, but the ones that you dislike, are the ones that you do not love. There are unpleasant angles to nearly every important job to be done in this world, but there must be an over all love for doing each, else precious time and effort are uselessly wasted. I shall never forget noting a sign above a construction job that read:: "Builder of Difficult Foundations." That man must have loved that calling, else he would not have made a point of advertising the fact!

- William Penn

We are apt to love praise, but not to deserve it. But if we would deserve it, we must love virtue more than than.

- George Burns

"Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close knit family... in another city."

- Bill Cosby

"Human beings are the only creatures on earth that allow children to come back home."

- Mary Karr

"I think a dysfunctional family is any family with more than one person in it."

- Jerry Seinfeld

"There's no way that moving in with your parents is a sign that you life is on track."

- Cary Grant

Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops.

- Anonymous

A WIZE OLD OWL A wize old owl lived in an oak; The more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard:: Why can't we all be like that bird?

- THOMAS MOORE

ALL IN A FAMILY WAY My banks are all furnished with rags, So thick, even Freddy can't thin 'em; I've torn up my old money-bags, Having little or nought to put in 'em. My tradesman are smashing by dozens, But this is all nothing, they say; For bankrupts, since Adam, are cousins, So, it's all in the family way. My Debt not a penny takes from me, As sages the matter explain; Bob owes it to Tom and then Tommy Just owes it to Bob back again. Since all have thus taken to owing, There's nobody left that can pay; And this is the way to keep going, All quite in the family way. My senators vote away millions, To put in Prosperity's budget; And though it were billions or trillions, The generous rogues wouldn't grudge it. 'Tis all but a family hop, 'Twas Pitt began dancing the hay; Hands round! why the deuce should we stop? 'Tis all in the family way. My labourers used to eat mutton, As any great man of the State does; And now the poor devils are put on Small rations of tea and potatoes. But cheer up John, Sawney and Paddy, The King is your father, they say; So ev'n if you starve for your Daddy, 'Tis all in the family way. My rich manufacturers tumble, My poor ones have nothing to chew; And, even if themselves do not grumble, Their stomachs undoubtedly do. But coolly to fast en famille, Is as good for the soul as to pray; And famine itself is genteel, When one starves in a family way. I have found out a secret for Freddy, A secret for next Budget day; Though, perhaps he may know it already, As he, too, 's a sage in his way. When next for the Treasury scene he Announces "the Devil to pay", Let him write on the bills, "Nota bene, 'Tis all in the family way."

- RUSSEL EDSON

THE FAMILY MONKEY We bought an electric monkey, experimenting rather recklessly with funds carefully gathered since grandfather's time for the purchase of a steam monkey. We had either, by this time, the choice of an electric or gas monkey. The steam monkey is no longer being made, said the monkey merchant. But the family always planned on a steam monkey. Well, said the monkey merchant, just as the wind-up monkey gave way to the steam monkey, the steam monkey has given way to the gas and electric monkeys. Is that like the grandfather clock being replaced by the grandchild clock? Sort of, said the monkey merchant. So we bought the electric monkey, and plugged its umbilical cord into the wall. The smoke coming out of its fur told us something was wrong. We had electrocuted the family monkey.

- MARY OLIVER

THE FAMILY The dark things of the wood Are coming from their caves, Flexing muscle. They browse the orchard, Nibble the sea of grasses Around our yellow rooms, Scarcely looking in To see what we are doing And if they still know us. We hear them, or think we do: The muzzle lapping moonlight, The tooth in the apple. Put another log on the fire; Mozart, again, on the turntable, Still there is a sorrow With us in the room. We remember the cave. In our dreams we go back Or they come to visit. They also like music. We eat leaves together. They are our brothers. They are the family We have run away from.

- LOUISA MAY ALCOTT

THE ROSE FAMILY O flower at my window Why blossom you so fair, With your green and purple cup Upturned to sun and air? 'I bloom, blithesome Bessie, To cheer your childish heart; The world is full of labor, And this shall be my part.' Whirl, busy wheel, faster, Spin, little thread, spin; The sun shines fair without, And we are gay within. O robin in the tree-top, With sunshine on your breast, Why brood you so patiently Above your hidden nest? 'I brood, blithesome Bessie, And sing my humble song, That the world may have more music From my little ones erelong.' Whirl, busy wheel, faster, Spin, little thread, spin; The sun shines fair without, And we are gay within. O balmy wind of summer, O silver-singing brook, Why rustle through the branches? Why shimmer in your nook? 'I flutter, blithesome Bessie, Like a blessing far and wide; I scatter bloom and verdue Where'er my footsteps glide.' Whirl, busy wheel, faster, Spin, little thread, spin; The sun shines fair without, And we are gay within. O brook and breeze and blossom, And robin on the tree, You make a joy of duty, A pride of industry; Teach me to work as blithely, With a willing hand and heart: The world is full of labor, And I must do my part. Whirl, busy wheel, faster, Spin, little thread, spin; The sun shines fair without, And we are gay within.

- RAYMOND A. FOSS

FAMILY SECRETS Little and big secrets silence, unsharing from shame, for protection blank spots in the telling of our story Carved off areas sometimes casually shared As if we knew, forgetting the secret the missing words names crossed from address books pain pushed down Missing memories scraps of childhood undiscussed.

- THOMAS MOORE

ALL IN A FAMILY WAY My banks are all furnished with rags, So thick, even Freddy can't thin 'em; I've torn up my old money-bags, Having little or nought to put in 'em. My tradesman are smashing by dozens, But this is all nothing, they say; For bankrupts, since Adam, are cousins, So, it's all in the family way. My Debt not a penny takes from me, As sages the matter explain; Bob owes it to Tom and then Tommy Just owes it to Bob back again. Since all have thus taken to owing, There's nobody left that can pay; And this is the way to keep going, All quite in the family way. My senators vote away millions, To put in Prosperity's budget; And though it were billions or trillions, The generous rogues wouldn't grudge it. 'Tis all but a family hop, 'Twas Pitt began dancing the hay; Hands round! -- why the deuce should we stop? 'Tis all in the family way. My labourers used to eat mutton, As any great man of the State does; And now the poor devils are put on Small rations of tea and potatoes. But cheer up John, Sawney and Paddy, The King is your father, they say; So ev'n if you starve for your Daddy, 'Tis all in the family way. My rich manufacturers tumble, My poor ones have nothing to chew; And, even if themselves do not grumble, Their stomachs undoubtedly do. But coolly to fast en famille, Is as good for the soul as to pray; And famine itself is genteel, When one starves in a family way. I have found out a secret for Freddy, A secret for next Budget day; Though, perhaps he may know it already, As he, too, 's a sage in his way. When next for the Treasury scene he Announces "the Devil to pay", Let him write on the bills, "Nota bene, 'Tis all in the family way."

- THOMAS HARDY

HEREDITY I am the family face; Flesh perishes, I live on, Projecting trait and trace Through time to times anon, And leaping from place to place Over oblivion. The years-heired feature that can In curve and voice and eye Despise the human span Of durance - that is I; The eternal thing in man, That heeds no call to die

- ANDREA POTOS

FIRST KNOWING That second day of kindergarten, I ditched while Miss Clemens bent at the sink, helping Peter Farley wash the paint off his hands. I scurried across the wide green fields that led to the road where our row of white townhouses awaited me. I wanted no more days without my mother placed in the center of every hour. I wanted her voice, the scent of the perfume she dabbed on her writst each morning before we watched my father walk away. We stood at her dresser while she released the stopper from a crystal bottle so blue it rivalled sunlight staining the ocean surface. I wanted to travel with her from supermarked to bank, dry cleaners to drugstore, wherever the days life took her. As if sensing some hunger to come, I craved her with a fierceness that made me run, as if knowing I would soon lose her to a sadness vaster than any of these fields I could cover with the pace of my own feet.

- WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

WHEN YOU ARE OLD When you are old and grey and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep; How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty with love false or true, But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face; And bending down beside the glowing bars, Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled And paced upon the mountains overhead And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

- CRISTINE McAULIFFE

Hymn to Albaro The verdant country side rambles up the mountain pedestal. I feel the tingle of skin in light wind whispers, hear each instrument in the symphony of birds gathered together. In this stillness A shovel breaks earth. I hear the crunch And scrape of rocks. The rain comes, Tropical hills and mountains green. It is a good season for planting mango, limon, and coconut. He will be using a cane When the palm has grown tall And his childrens children sing in the tamed garden we only imagine, wrapped around the walls that will grow out of the ditches the amigos dig together today. In this place things are as they seem, the future is certain, the air clear, and we have time to wait playing dominoes while the coals meander their way to a fire. Butterflies kiss the grass. These children do as their parents did, certain of their place. One digs, one pours water over the fire. In this place there is time for the earth, for each other, the past and future. The promise they have is three fence posts wide and five deep. it is freedom, wealth, security. Together we breathe a foundation for the infant waiting in Lupitas belly. One uses a pick, the other a shovel, the cricket whirs in the grass. Digging is hard work In the insistent sun.

- CRISTINE McAULIFFE