Laurence Overmire Quotes

Through the various branches of your tree, you are connected to the entirety of human history. When we talk about the ancient Egyptians building the pyramids, we're not talking about a bunch of exotic strangers, we're talking about our great-great-many-times-great grandparents!

You can't really appreciate a work of art until you can understand how difficult it was to create. And that's probably true of any work of art - a rock, a tree, a bird, a fish, a sunrise made of light and air.

Despite the pressing insistence of the ordinary and the mundane, we must make the best time of the time we have before the tick tick ticking ends.

Love is the great truth we all know in our hearts and must eventually recognize.

A society that has no respect, no regard for its bards, its historians, its storytellers, is a society in steep decline, a society that has lost its very soul and may never find its way.

If God spent 180 million years making dinosaurs, what makes us think Man is so special, a tick of the clock before midnight?

The future is won or lost in the war of ideas.

Prose pretends to be straightforward in its application to the truth, but truth itself is a dissembler. Poetry, much more honest, knows the deception can't be overcome.

Art is always, even at its most repulsive, an impassioned cry of love.

Americans think anything you do not get paid for is not worth doing. As a consequence, the things that don't get done are often the most worthwhile.

Wisdom is finding the path that is best for all - considering the options, the positives and the negatives - and having the courage to change what must be changed for the sake of the entire world.

My forebears played a significant part in making me who I am. I honor their legacy. I will never forget what they gave me. I will love them until the day I die. And no one can take them away from me.

Life is a poem most people never read.

Truth is the greatest enemy of tyrants everywhere.

There is no nobler profession, nor no greater calling, than to be among those unheralded many who gave and give their lives to the preservation of human knowledge, passed with commitment and care from one generation to the next.

Our stories make us who we are. And each story has its own purpose and its own reward. Each story rings true and each story is worthy of the ages. There is no such thing as an insignificant life.

Welcome to the figurative world of poetry where nothing is 'real,' but everything matters.

Orwell couldn't see that Big Brother would not be The State, but The Corporation.

The more we understand the One Idea, how all of life is interconnected and interdependent, the more we can act in positive ways for the good of all.

Real life is never quite as interesting as the story told afterward.

Some of us are given more time on this Earth than others, but none of us should ever take the gift of life for granted. If we strive to be the best we can be, committing ourselves to what is right and true, while helping others along the way, then we will leave our own story worth the telling and be a shining example for our children and our grandchildren and all those great, great, great, great grandchildren in those far off times to come.

The age of selfishness and greed is over. The age of kindness and generosity is underway.

Good people turn to love, courage and kindness in times of crisis, not hate, fear and cruelty.

It's no use trying to reasonably argue with unreasonable people. Better to spend your time in more productive pursuits.

Life is inherently disturbing. That's why we've created the myths-to help us overcome, defend or deny, to transcend the grim reality of what here seems to be.

We are the last generation with a real opportunity to save the world.

Creativity is at the root of love and meaning in this life.

There is no such thing as failure for an artist, unless failure is the refusal to attempt, the unwillingness to dream.

All of our ancestors give us the precious gift of life. Do we use it wisely? Do we use it well? Do we make a name for ourselves and for our children of which we can be proud?

I reserve the right to evolve. What I think and feel today is subject to revision tomorrow.

Recognizing your own ignorance is the first step toward wisdom.

As a genealogist, I have seen the Big Picture as very few have. Most people now living have no clue who they are or where they come from. We are all descended from the ancient kings of our various cultures. There is nothing unique about it. And let's be honest, most of those kings were pretty ruthless individuals. What's important for us today is that we wake up to the fact that we are all literally cousins. How would our world change if we honored that relationship and started treating one another as family?

When you trace your genealogy, you find connections to many of the people and events that shaped history. History is not the story of some old irrelevant strangers. No. History is your story. Your family was there - your grandmothers and grandfathers, uncles and aunts, cousins, nephews and nieces. If not for them, you wouldn't even be here.

Those of us who oppose hateful bigotry must not be silent when it rears its ugly head. When the tolerant tolerate the intolerant they risk losing the very freedoms they are trying to protect. Bigotry should never be allowed to become acceptable and commonplace in a healthy society.

Being good or being evil is not something that is inherent in our nature over which we have no control, rather we define ourselves by the choices we make, moment by moment, situation by situation. All it takes is an act of will to be the best that we can be.

Cupid's bloody bow is strung with a million hearts, wisdom bought at a terrible price, and love laid to rest on the river of Time.

The truth hurts. But if we want to heal the world, we had better start paying attention to the pain.

Love is active, not passive. It is our love for one another, for Mother Earth, for our fellow creatures that compels us to act on their behalf.

From generation to generation, lights are extinguished and darkness threatens until some one stoops to bear the torch.

All of our ancestors live within each one of us whether we are aware of it or not.

Every creature has a right to be on this Earth. Who am I to disrupt the natural order? "Respect" is a good word worth handing down to our children.

While most of our major religions acknowledge the truth of universal brotherhood, too many human beings are still hanging on to their hate and fear of "the other." We have created our own misery. We can also heal ourselves through kindness, cooperation, compassion, generosity, forgiveness, honesty, understanding and sacrifice. The choice is ours.

Every being has its own important and unique place in the cosmic dance.

Only in making peace - with ourselves, with others, and the world - will any of us find the life we are hoping for.

Dare to find your own truth, despite what others say, then have the courage to live it.

I don't make much of a living, but I do live much of a making.

Life is much more than the evanescent present. We should do all we can to preserve our antiquities, lest we forget who we are.

Love is kindness, compassion, generosity, empathy, respect, understanding, forgiveness and sacrifice: the very best in us.

War, hatred, and violence all spring from one infernal idea: that one person, race, creed, or culture is better than another.

Poetry is the art of using language to transcend language.

To listen to the silence is to hear the heartbeat of the Universe.

Del Usion
If you knew the person
He thinks he is
You'd have to admit
He's one very special guy.

Freedom is an idea that no tyrant will ever crush.

We are the collective creator of our own agony. It is time for a re-awakening of consciousness when we recognize the best in ourselves and overcome the worst.