Quotes About Man's Best Friend (or Who Let the Dog Quotes Out?)

I still remember the evening we went to buy our first family dog. He was a springer-beagle mix, with the build of a spring and the short hair of a beagle. His name was Lucky. He was six weeks old and the new puppy smell is still fresh in my memory. And yes, he was cute and he was loved.

For some reason it just seems like a good day to think about our dogs.

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

“The world would be a nicer place if everyone had the ability to love as unconditionally as a dog.”
 --M.K. Clinton

“The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.”
--Charles de Gaulle

Lucky and me, 1967

“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
 ―Will Rogers

“The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.”
―Andy Rooney

“You want a friend in this city? Get a dog!”
 ―Harry Truman (on Wash. D.C.)

“Dogs' lives are too short. Their only fault, really.”
 ―Agnes Sligh Turnbull

This last quote above brought to mind the following recollection from my 20+ years at AMSOIL. The late A.J. Amatuzio, company founder and former president, loved dogs and always had a dog. In his later years he often brought his faithful companion to the office. After this last dog died he was once again heartbroken, as had sadly happened so many times before. He said to me, "When I die I am going to tell God that it isn't fair that people live 80 or 90 years but dogs lives are so short, so you have to have your heart broken so many times during your life on earth."

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On the Lighter Side

“Other useful commands to teach your dog are 'stay,' 'heel,' 'remove your snout from that person's groin,' 'stop humping the Barcalounger,' 'do not bark violently for two hours at inanimate objects such as a flowerpot,' ' do not eat poop,' and 'if you must eat poop, then at least refrain from licking my face afterward'.”
―Dave Barry

And finally, for an entertaining read, check out this blog post about national poet laureate Billy Collins and his poem Another Reason I Don't Keep a Gun in the House. A dog story from yet another amusing angle. Enjoy.

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May you stay forever young.

A Quote Nearly Guaranteed to Surprise You and Make You Think

I've been doing some housecleaning the last few days. By housecleaning, I mean organizing the files on my Mac, as well as some of the content on my blog. It was while doing the latter that I came across the following quote last night:

"The world is too big for us, too much is going on, too many crimes, too much violence and excitement. Try as you will, you get behind in the race in spite of yourself. It's a constant strain to keep pace... and still, you lose ground. Science empties its discoveries on you so fast that you stagger beneath them in hopeless bewilderment. The political world is news seen rapidly, you're out of breath trying to keep pace with who's in and who's out. Everything is high pressure. Human nature can't endure much more."

Can you believe it? That was published 135 years ago on this day in the Atlantic Journal, June 16, 1883. I hear Twilight Zone music.

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When I first started blogging it was out of a desire to learn what blogging was. There were very few rules so it was like feeling my way along in the dark. A lot of those early blog posts began with . excerpts from my 30 years of journalling. Usually I would copy the journal segment and then expound on it, but on a few occasions I simply shared something from my journal as I did on June 22. This was my shortest ever blog post.

Observation from William E. Simon's A Time For Truth. He compares freedom to air. It's something you take for granted until you're without it. 
Sept 4, 1985

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Today is Grandma's Marathon here in the Northland. For the moment it appears that the storms our weather folk predicted are being graciously held at bay, most likely due to the Lake Effect which makes nearly all weather here unpredictable.

The Marathon easily triggers images of runners, and when I think of runners this verse from Ecclesiastes often comes to mind: "I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all." --Eccles. 9:11

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Embrace it.

Eleven Mark Twain Quotes To Start Your Day

No question Mark Twain was one of America's great wits. Do you think he would have hosted a television show had he lived in the latter part of the last century? When I read some of these quotes, especially the latter ones on this page, I can't help but think of Groucho. His advice for writers is as pointed and spot on as his observations about life. It's interesting how Twain's observations and witticisms never go out of style.

“If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.”

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

“God created war so that Americans would learn geography.”

“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”

“If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.”

“Education: the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty.”

“Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times.”

“A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it.”

“A gentleman is someone who knows how to play the banjo and doesn't.”

“There is nothing so annoying as having two people talking when you're busy interrupting.”

“Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”

You can read all the Mark Twain quotes you want here at Goodreads. I just wanted to help get you started, in the event that it's been a while.