Ya know what hasn't graced this blog in ages?

We haven't posted any quotes in like—what? Forever? Well here's some fun ones for this lovely April 14th. These quotes are related to anything and everything artsy, which are perfect for cards, layouts, home decor—you name it.

So let's get started!

ARTSY

Scrapbooking

Scrapbooking fills my days—not to mention my living room, bedroom and closets!

Blessed are the children of scrapbookers, for they shall inherit the scrapbooks.

I scrapbook, therefore I am.

I scrapbook, therefore I am....broke.

No scrap of paper bigger than my smallest punch shall be thrown away.

Keep some souvenirs of your past, or how will you ever prove it wasn't all a dream? —Ashleigh Brilliant.

My husband lets me have all the scrapbook supplies I can hide.

A true scrapbook addict is one who stages photographs to match paper she likes.

The album we've made is much more than a book / It's worth even more than the time that it took —Kimberly Rinehart

To crop, or not to crop—that is the question.

She glances at the photo, and the pilot light of memory flickers in her eyes —Frank Deford

When life gives you scraps, make something with them.

Runs with decorative scissors.

I'm so glam, I sweat glitter.

Painting/Art

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. —Scott Adams

Painting is just another way of keeping a diary. —Pablo Picasso

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures. —Henry Ward Beecher

Art is the only way to run away without leaving home. —Twyla Tharp

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. —Pablo Picasso

Painting is silent poetry. —Plutarch, Moralia

To send light into the darkness of men's hearts—such is the duty of the artist. —Schumann

All art requires courage. —Anne Tucker

Anyone who says you can't see a thought simply doesn't know art. —Wynetka Ann Reynolds

Great art picks up where nature ends. —Marc Chagall

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist. —Oscar Wilde

Art is the colors and textures of your imagination. —Meghan, Los Cerros Middle School, 1999

As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life. —John Lubbock

Photography

You don't take a photography. You ask, quietly, to borrow it.

Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art. —Ambrose Bierce

Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter. —Ansel Adams

When you photograph people in colour you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in B&W, you photograph their souls! —Ted Grant

A photograph is usually looked at—seldom looked into. —Ansel Adams

The world just does not fit conveniently into the format of a 35mm camera. —W. Eugene Smith

A good snapshot stops a moment from running away. —Eudora Welty

The camera can photograph thought. —Dirk Bogarde

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence. —Ansel Adams

My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph. —Richard Avedon

I hate cameras. They are so much more sure than I am about everything. —John Steinbeck

A photograph is memory in the raw —Carrie Latet.

All photos are accurate. None of them is the truth. —Richard Avedon

Buying a Nikon doesn't make you a photographer. It makes you a Nikon owner.

If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn't need to lug around a camera —Lewis Hine

Photography deals exquisitely with appearances, but nothing is what it appears to be —Duane Michals.

Singing

A bird doesn't sing because is has an answer, it sings because it has a song. —Maya Angelou

Those who wish to sing always find a song. —Proverb

So she poured out the liquid music of her voice to quench the thirst of his spirit —Nathaniel Hawthorne

O, she will sing the savageness out of a bear! —William Shakespeare

As long as we live, there is never enough singing —Martin Luther

Life is a song. Love the music.

Little dew-drops of celestial melody —Thomas Carlyle

It was his nature to blossom into song, as it is a tree's to leaf itself in April. —Alexander Smith

I don't sing because I'm happy; I'm happy because I sing. —William James

The singer has everything with him. The notes come out from his very life. —Rabindranth Tagore

Sing out loud in the car, even—or especially—if it embarrasses your children —Marilyn Penland

Music/Instruments

A painter paints pictures on a canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence —Leopold Stokowski

Without music life would be a mistake. —Friedrick Wilhelm Nietzche

Were it not for music, we might in these days say, the beautiful is dead —Benjamin Disraeli

Music is what feelings sound like.

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life. —Ludwig van Beethoven

Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. —Charlie Parker

Play the music, not the instrument.

Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence. —Robert Fripp

You are the music while the music lasts. —T.S. Eliot

Music is the universal language of mankind. —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. —Victor Hugo

It's language is a language which the soul alone understands, but which the soul can never translate. —Arnold Bennett

Theater

The novel is more of a whisper, whereas the stage is a shout. —Robert Holman

The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but is also the return of art to life. —Oscar Wilde

The theater is so endlessly fascinating because it's so accidental. It's so much like life. —Arthur Miller

The center of the stage is where I am. —Martha Graham

Applause begets applause in the theatre, as laughter begets laughter and tears beget tears. —Clayton Hamilton

The drama is not dead but liveth, and contains the germs of better things —William Archer

I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being. —Oscar Wilde

You may never get rid of the butterflies, but you can teach them how to fly in formation.

My play was a complete success. The audience was a failure. —Ashleigh Brilliant

Crayons

Life is about using the whole box of crayons —RuPaul

If you want an interesting party sometimes, combine cocktails and a fresh box of crayons for everyone. —Robert Fulghum

Never invest in any idea you can't illustrate with a crayon. —Peter Lunch

Artists are just children who refuse to put down their crayons. —Al Hirschfeld

Give crayons. Adults are disturbingly impoverished of these magical dream sticks. —Dr. SunWolf

Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling. —G.K. Chesterton

Creativity

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly. —Buckminster Fuller

Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity. —Edwin Land

Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. —Franklin D. Roosevelt

The world is but a canvas to the imagination. —Henry David Thoreau

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. —Linus Pauling

There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line. —Oscar Levant

The life of the creative man is lead, directed and controlled by boredom. Avoiding boredom is one of our most important purposes. —Saul Steinberg

Genius means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way. —William James

The ability to play is essential to being a creative artist. —Dewitt Jones

Nothing encourages creative like the chance to fall flat on one's face. —James D. Finley

Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training. —Anna Freud

Imagination

I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. —Michelangelo

Some stories are true that never happened. —Elie Weisel

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact. —William Shakespeare

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. —George Smith Patton

I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them. —Pablo Picasso

There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds. —G.K. Chesterton

Imagination and fiction make up more than three-quarters of our real life. —Simone Weil

Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. —Lewis Carroll

Trust that little voice in your head that says "Wouldn't it be interesting if..." and then do it. —Duane Michals

Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun. —George Scialabba

I doubt that the imagination can be suppressed. If you truly eradicated it in a child, he would grow up to be an eggplant. —Ursula K. Le Guin

It is far, far, better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought. —John Kenneth Galbraith

Some of us are pet people. And if you're one of those people, then have we got some quotes for you. The animal world is a wonderful one, and lasting friendships are often made. So get comfy in your computer chair, and hug your pet a little tighter, because these are sure to fit all your animal-crafting needs.

ANIMALS and PETS

Animals

The difference between friends and pets is that friends we allow into our company, pets we allow into our solitude. —Robert Brault

Animals are such agreeable friends, they as no questions, they pass no criticisms. —George Eliot

You enter into a certain amount of madness when you marry a person with pets. —Nora Ephron

An animal's eyes have the power to speak a great language. —Martin Buber

Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet. —Colette

I believe in animal rights, and high among them is the right to the gentle stroke of a human hand. —Robert Brault

Puppies and Dogs

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. —Roger Caras

Money can buy a fine dog....but only love can make him wag his tail.

There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face. —Ben Williams

Dogs are miracles with paws. —attributed to Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy

Man is a dog's idea of what God should be —Holbrook Jackson

My little dog, a heartbeat at my feet —Edith Wharton

One reason a dog can be such a comfort when you're feeling blue is that he doesn't try to find out why.

Scratch a dog and you'll find a permanent job. —Franklin P. Jones

Properly trained, a man can be a dog's best friend. —Corey Ford

Dogs laugh, but they laugh with their tails. —Max Eastman

Did you ever walk into a room and forget why you walking in? I think that is how dogs spend their lives. —Sue Murphy

Happiness is a warm puppy. —Charles M. Schulz

If you are a dog and your owner suggests that you wear a sweater...suggest that he wear a tail. —Fran Lebowitz

A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of. —Ogden Nash

Whoever said you can't buy happiness forgot little puppies. —Gene Hill

The average dog is a nicer person than the average person. —Andy Rooney

The best way to get a puppy is to beg for a baby brother, and they'll settle for a puppy every time. —Winston Pendelton

A dog can express more with his tail in seconds than his owner can express with his tongue in hours.

I love a dog. He does nothing for political purposes. —Will Rogers

The pug is living proof that God has a sense of humor. —Margo Kaufman

I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult. —Rita Rudner

My goal in life is to be as good of a person my dog already thinks I am.

Kittens and Cats

There is no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast.

Cats don't have owners, they have staff.

It is impossible to keep a straight face in the presence of one or more kittens. —Cynthia E. Varnado

The at is, above all things, a dramatist. —Margaret Benson

If you hold a cat by the tail, you learn things you cannot learn any other way. —Mark Twain

Cats were put into the world to disprove the dogma that all things were created to serve man. —Paul Gray

There is something about the presence of a cat....that seems to take the bite out of being alone. —Louis Camuti

In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him.

There are few things in life more heartwarming than to be welcomed by a cat. —Tay Hohoff

If cats could talk, they wouldn't. —Nan Porter

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

Who among us hasn't envied a cat's ability to ignore the cares of daily life and to relax completely? —Karen Brademeyer

Cats are connoisseurs of comfort. —James Herriot

Time spent with cats is never wasted. —Sigmund Freud

When my cats aren't happy, I'm not happy. Not because I care about their mood but because I know they're just sitting there thinking up ways to get even. —Percy Bysshe Shelley

The cat could very well be man's best friend but would never stoop to admitting it. —Doug Larson

As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat. —Ellen Perry Berkeley

Cats can work out mathematically the exact place to sit that will cause the most inconvenience. —Pam Brown

There is no more intrepid explorer than a kitten. —Jules Champfleury

Dogs come when they're called; cats take a message and get back to you later. —Mary Bly

In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this. —Terry Pratchett

Kittens are angels with whiskers.

Birds

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs. —Joseph Addison

Have you ever observed a hummingbird moving about in an aerial dance among the flowers, a living prismatic gem...it is a creature of such fairy-like loveliness as to mock all description. —W.H. Hudson

Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except for the best. —Henry Van Dyke

My favorite weather is bird-chirping weather. —Loire Hartwould

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song. —Chinese Proverb

I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven. —Emily Dickinson

It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds. —Aesop

I know why the caged bird sings —Maya Angelou

No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings. —William Blake

Horses

There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man. —Winston Churchill

The wagon rests in winter, the sleigh in summer, the horse never. —Yiddish Proverb

No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle. —Winston Churchill

The wind of heaven is that which blows between a horse's ears. —Arabian Proverb

To ride a horse is to ride the sky.

I can always tell which is the front end of a horse, but beyond that, my art is not above the ordinary. —Mark Twain

All I pay my psychiatrist is the cost of feed and hay, and he'll listen to me any day.

If the world was truly a rational place, men and women would ride sidesaddle. —Rita Mae Brown

There is just as much horse sense as ever, but the horses have most of it.

In riding a horse we borrow freedom. —Helen Thomson

Feeling down? Saddle up.

Small children are convinced that ponies deserve to se the inside of a house. —Maya Patel

To me, horses and freedom are synonymous —Veryl Goodnight

Horses lend us the wings we lack.

If you want a stable friendship, get a horse.

Horses—if God made anything more beautiful, he kept it for himself.

He flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions. —Stephen Leacock

Happy crafting!

Doing anything outdoorsy this summer? Let's hope so! There's a whole world out there to see—and scrapbook about! Lots of families like to spend family vacations by camping, hiking, biking, you name it—as long as it's outdoors. We already published a quote bank filled with sayings on camping and hiking and swimming and fishing and such, so today we're here to present some quotes on nature. You know, that stuff you'll be enjoying while you're out on all your excursions? Well, we're loaded with good ones.

But before that, there's just a few items of business that you're probably going to be glad we told you. First off—the ship for our October Canada/New England crafting cruise is filling up! A few more inside cabins remain, but they're dropping like flies. So book your spot NOW so you can take part in all the fun. We had an absolute ball on our May Alaskan adventure, and things can only get better! Plus, if you want to enjoy nature, this is definitely one way to do it—it's going to look heavenly there in the fall time. In fact, several of the same ladies who joined us in Alaska are planning on coming to Canada and New England because they enjoyed themselves so much.

And speaking of cruises, how about a Caribbean one? Well your chance all revolves in that Cricut Ticket! And this weekend only, you can get the Cricut Ticket cartridges—Home Decor, Jubilee, Simply Sweet and Stand and Salute—at Oh My Crafts for $39.99! What a steal, right?

Okay, now on to our quotes:

NATURE

Nature

God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars —Martin Luther

The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble —Blaise Pascal

Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere —Blaise Pascal

The richness I achieve comes from Nature, the source of my inspiration —Claude Monet

We cannot command nature except by obeying her —Francis Bacon

Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you —Frank Lloyd Wright

...everything in nature is lyrical in it's ideal essence, tragic in its fate, and comic in its existence —George Santayana

To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome that the most luxurious Persian rug —Helen Keller

If people think that nature is their friend, then they sure don't need an enemy —Kurt Vonnegut

The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship —Ralph Waldo Emerson

The world is always in movement —V.S. Naipaul

Earth

Every day is Earth day

There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew —Marshall McLuhan

I'm not an environmentalist. I'm an Earth warrior —Darryl Cherney

For 200 years we've been conquering Nature. Now we're beating it to death —Tom McMillan

Take nothing but pictures / Leave nothing but footprints / Kill nothing but time —Motto of the Baltimore Grotto

Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another —Juvenal

I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different —Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life —Rachel Carson

The earth is what we all have in common —Wendell Barry

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts —Rachel Carson

The best investment on earth is earth —Louis J. Glickman

Flowers

Perfumes are the feelings of flowers —Heinrich Heine

Flowers are love's truest language —Park Benjamin

The earth laughs in flowers —Ralph Waldo Emerson

I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck —Emma Goldman

It is at the edge of a petal that love waits —William Carlos Williams

I didn't know what narcissism was  until I beheld my own narcissus —Charles Kuralt

A flower is an educated weed —Luther Burbank

Clouds

You must not blame me if I do talk to the clouds —Henry David Thoreau

There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds —G.K. Chesterton

Behind the clouds is the sun still shining —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky —Rabindranath Tagore

Sky

When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky —Buddha

The night walked down the sky with the moon in her hand —Frederic Lawrence Knowles

If I could reach up and hold a star for every time you've made me smile, the entire evening sky would be in the palm of my hand.

All I need is my one star in the sky, to wish for you everyday.

We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened —Mark Twain

I saw a star, I reached for it, and missed. So I accepted the sky —Scott Fortini

And they were canopied by the blue sky, so cloudless, clear, and purely beautiful that God alone was to be seen in Heaven —Lord Byron

How bravely Autumn paints upon the sky / The gorgeous fame of Summer which is fled —Thomas Hood

They sky is that beautiful old parchment in which the sun and the moon keep their diary —Alfred Kreymborg

A sky full of silent suns —Jean Paul Richter

Trees

Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven —Rabindranath Tagore

The trees are God's great alphabet / With them He writes in shining green / Across the world His thoughts serene —Leonora Speyer

I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do —Willa Cather

Of all the wonders of nature, a tree in summer is perhaps the most remarkable; with the possible exception of a mosse singing "Embraceable You" in spats —Woody Allen

If trees could scream would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason —Jack Handey

The groves were God's first temples —William Cullen Bryant

Trees are your best antiques —Alexander Smith

A seed hidden in the heart of an apple is an orchard invisible —Welsh Proverb

There are rich counsels in the trees —Herbert P. Horne

Breeze is the conductor, trees the musicians, leave the instruments —Nathaniel Le Tonnerre

The best part of happiness is the pines —The Quote Garden

Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world —John Muir

Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence —Hal Borland

Grass

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars —Walt Whitman

The grass may be greener on the other side of the fence, but you still have to mow it —Proverb

When two elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled —African proverb

Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself —Zen proverb

Until man duplicates a blade of grass, nature can laugh at his so-called scientific knowledge —Thomas Edison

Grass is the cheapest plan to install and the most expensive to maintain —Pat Howell

Breathless, we flung us on a windy hill, laughed in the sun and kissed the lovely grass —Rupert Brooke

Grass is the forgiveness of nature—her constant benediction.  Forests decay, harvests perish, flowers vanish, but grass is immortal —Brian Ingalls

Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, 'grow, grow.' —Talmud

Water

We never know the worth of water till the well is dry —Thomas Fuller

A lake carries you into recesses of feeling otherwise impenetrable —William Wordsworth

The true peace of God begins at any spot a thousand miles from the nearest land —Joseph Conrad

I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man —Henry David Thoreau

Rivers are roads which move, and which carry us whither we desire to go —Blaise Pascal

What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well —Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Mountains 

Men trip not on mountains, they trip on molehills —Chinese proverb

I have climbed several higher mountains without guide or path, and have found, as might be expected, that it takes only more time and patience commonly than to travel the smoothest highway —Henry David Thoreau

In the mountains, the shortest way is from peak to peak: but for that you must have long legs —Friedrich Nietzsche

Great things are done when men and mountains meet —William Blake

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves —John Muir

Since we're in the midst of our Summer Kick-off Sale, we'd like to offer some fabulous quotes revolving around some activities you may or may not be participating during the next couple of months. Hopefully we hit all of 'em. So with no further ado, we give you....

SUMMER ACTIVITIES

Gardening/Yardwork

Dirty hands, iced tea, garden fragrances thick in the air and a blanket of color before me, who could ask for more? —Bev Adams

Gardening requires lots of water—most in the form of perspiration —Lou Erickson

Gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it

The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses —Hanna Rion

God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done

Don't wear perfume in the garden, unless you want to be pollinated by bees —Anne Raver

Gardens are a form of autobiography —Sydney Eddison

Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden —Orson Scott Card

You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt

Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed —Walt Whitman

One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides —W.E. Johns

The best fertilizer is the gardener's shower

A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken —James Dent

I always thought a yard was three feet, then I started mowing the lawn —C.E. Cowman

A weed is no more than a flower in disguise —James Russell Lowell

To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves —Mohandas K. Gandhi

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered —Ralph Waldo Emerson

A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule —Micheal Pollan

Fishing

A bad of fishing is better than a good day of work

May the holes in your net be no larger then the fish in it —Irish blessing

The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad —A.K. Best

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after —Henry David Thoreau

If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles — Doug Larsen

Fishing is boring, unless you catch an actual fish, and then it's disgusting —Dave Barry

I love fishing. You put that line in the water and you don't know what's on the other end. Your imagination is under there —Robert Altman

There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot —Steven Wright

Fishing is a...discipline in the equality of men — for all men are equal before fish —Herbert Hoover

Even if you've been fishing for three hours and haven't gotten anything except poison ivy and sunburn, you're still better off than the worm.

Good things come to those who bait.

Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn —Chuck Clark

Camping

Camping: nature's way of promoting the motel industry —Dave Barry

The ultimate camping trip was the Lewis and Clark expedition —Dave Barry

Camping: the art of getting closer to nature while getting farther away from the nearest cold beverage, hot shower and flush toilet

It always rains on tents. Rainstorms will travel thousands of miles, against prevailing winds for the opportunity to rain on a tent —Dave Barry

How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?

A lot of parents pack up their troubles and send them off to summer camp —Raymond Duncan

Is that weird, taking my Louis Vuitton bag camping? —Jessica Simpson

I thought YOU packed the toilet paper.

Rodeo-ing

I've just concentrated on rodeo and put the horse business on the back burner —Trevor Brazile

Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear, or a fool from any direction

Don't squat with your spurs on

Behind every successful rancher is a wife who works in town

Playing

In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play —Friedrich Nietzsche

Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions —Mark Twain

Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do —Mark Twain

One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards —Oscar Wilde

It is better to play than do nothing —Confucious

Life must be lived as play —Plato

When you play, play hard; when you work, don't play at all —Theodore Roosevelt

You can do anything with children if only you play with them —German Proverb

It is essential to our well-being, and to our lives, that we play and enjoy life. Every single day do something that makes your heart sing —Marcia Wieder

Work, love and play are the great balance wheels of man's being —Orison Swett Marden

The creative mind plays with the object it loves —Carl Gustav Jung

When you play it too safe, you're taking the biggest risk of your life. Time is the only wealth we're given —Barbara Sher

Letting your mind play is the best way to solve problems —Bill Watterson

Beach

Is it so small a thing to have enjoyed the sun? —Matthew Arnold

Don't grow up too quickly, lest you forget how much you love the beach —Michelle Held

In every grain of sand there is a story of the earth —Rachel Carson

A real friend is someone who takes a winter vacation on a sun-drenched beach and does not send a card —Farmer's Almanac

The cure for anything is salt water—sweat, tears, or the sea —Isak Dinesen

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each —T.S. Eliot

My life is like a stroll on the beach...as near to the edge as I can go —Henry David Thoreau

The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever —Jacques Cousteau

Picnics

It just wouldn't be a picnic without the ants

If the rain spoils our picnic, but saves a farmer's crop, who are we to say it shouldn't rain? —Tom Barrett

We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics —Bill Vaughn

Among the delights of Summer were picnics to the woods —Georg Brandes

If ants are such busy workers, how come they find time to go to all the picnics? —Marie Dressler

Never eat more than you can lift —Miss Piggy

The picnic's not over until someone starts eating the blanket —Hayden R

Zoo

Zoo: an excellent place to study the habits of human beings —Evan Esar

I've actually gone to the zoo and had the monkeys shout to me from their cages, 'I'm in here when you're walking around like that?' —Robin Williams

I think the monkeys at the zoo should have to wear sunglasses so they can't hypnotize you —Jack Handy

My parents used to take me to the pet department and tell me it was a zoo —Billy Connolly

Someone told me it's all happening at the zoo —Paul Simon

Life is a zoo in a jungle —Peter De Vries

And now here in this cage is a beast most ferocious / Who's known far and wide as the spotted atrocious / Who growls, howls and yowls the most bloodcurdling sounds / And each tooth in his mouth / Weighs at least sixty pounds —Dr. Suess

Lazy Days

Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired —Jules Renard

I like the word "indolence." It makes my laziness seem classy —Bern Williams

Efficiency is intelligent laziness —David Dunham

People who throw kisses are mighty hopelessly lazy —Bob Hope

It's true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance? —Ronald Reagan

There's no cure for laziness but a large family helps —Herbert Prochnov

Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy —Charlie McCarthy

It's hard work—bein' lazy

The time will come when winter will ask you what you were doing all summer —Henry Clay

Some folks can look so busy doing nothin' that they seem indispensable —Kin Hubbard

Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or endeavoring something for the public good —Thomas Kempis

Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberating how it shall be spent —Dr. Samuel Johnson

Sleeping/Naps

No day is so bad it can't be fixed with a nap —Carrie Snow

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one —Leo J. Burke

It's a cruel season that makes you get ready for bed while it's light out —Bill Watterson

A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book —Irish proverb

Life is too short to sleep on low thread-count sheets —Leah Stussy

Most people do not consider dawn to be an attractive experience—unless they are still up —Ellen Goodman

Consciousness: that annoying time between naps

Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation

A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow —Charlotte Bronte

People who snore always fall asleep first

Without enough sleep, we all become tall two-year-olds —JoJo Jensen

O bed! O bed! Delicious bed / That heaven upon earth to the weary head —Thomas Hood

Fatigue is the best pillow —Benamin Franklin

I'm not asleep...but that doesn't mean that I'm awake

The amount of sleep required by the average person is five minutes more —Wilson Mizener

The feeling of sleepiness when you are not in bead, and can't get there, is the meanest feeling in the world —Edgar Watson Howe

Repair work

The fellow that owns his own home is always coming out of a hardware store —Kin Hubbard

There's nothing to match curling up with a good book when there's a repair job to be done around the house —Joe Ryan

Law of the Workshop: Any tool, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner

This is a honeydew day. That is when you get a day off and the wife says, "Honey, do this," and "Honey, do that" around the house —Jim Lemon

Old houses mended / Cost little less than new before they're ended —Colley Cibber

Family Reunions

I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he's rich —Dan Wilcox and Thad Mumford, M*A*S*H

The family is a haven in a heartless world —Attributed to Christopher Lasch

If you don't believe in ghosts, you've never been to a family reunion —Ashleigh Brilliant

A family is a unit composed not only of children but of men, women, an occasional animal, and the common cold —Ogden Nash

When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses —Joyce Brothers

An ounce of blood is worth more than a pound of friendship —Spanish Proverb

When our relatives are at home, we have to think of all their good points or it would be impossible to endure them —George Bernard Shaw

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one —Jane Howard

Family life is a bit like a runny peach pie—not perfect but who's complaining? —Robert Brault

Friends are God's apology for relations —Hugh Kingsmill

Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family —Anthony Brandt

Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future —Gail Lumet Buckley

Don't forget to browse through some of our other quote bank topics for more quotes on family, vacations, sports, adventure and holidays!

The quote bank — Sports and Recreational Activities

Scrapbooks are just brimming with our sports and recreational activities. And sometimes it can be difficult to come up with something NEW to say from page to page, year to year. Here we come to save the day. P.S. Got any good quotes that you don't see here? Submit them and we'll post 'em!

SPORTS AND RECREATION

Basketball

There are really only two plays: Romeo and Juliet, and put the darn ball in the basket —Abe Lemons

Any American boy can be a basketball star if he grows up, up, up —Bill Vaughn

The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot —Bill Russell

Fans never fall asleep at our games, because they're afraid they might get hit by a pass —George Raveling

The secret is to have eight great players and four others who will cheer like crazy —Jerry Tarkanian

Basketball is like photography. If you don't focus, all you have is the negative —Dan Frisby

The only difference between a good shot and a bad shot is if it goes in or not —Charles Barkley

I keep both eyes on my man. The basket hasn't moved on my yet —Julius Erving

I haven't been able to slam-dunk the basketball for the past five years. Or, for the thirty-eight years before that either —Dave Barry

Basketball doesn't build character. It reveals it.

You don't play against opponents, you play against the game of basketball —Bobby Knight

Baseball/Softball

People ask me what I do in the winter where there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out teh window and wait for spring. —Rogers Hornsby

I'm convinced that every boy, in his heart, would rather steal second base than an automobile —Tom Clark

A hot dog at the ball game beats roast beef at the Ritz —Humphrey Bogart

You gotta be a man to play baseball for a living, but you gotta have a lot of little boy in you, too —Roy Campanella

I don't want to play golf. When I hit the ball, I want someone else to go chase it —Rogers Hornsby

I've come to the conclusion that the two most important things in life are good friends and a good bullpen —Bob Lemon

The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love —Bryant Gumbel

There are only two seasons—winter and baseball —Bill Veeck

When we played softball, I'd steal second base, feel guilty and go back —Woody Allen

Golf

It is almost impossible to remember how tragic a place this world is when one is playing golf —Robert Lynd

Golf is so popular simply because it is the best game in the world at which to be bad —A.A. Milne

Golf is a lot of walking, broken up by disappointment and bad arithmetic.

Forget your opponents; always play against par —Sam Snead

I have a tip that can take five strokes off anyone's golf game: it's called an eraser —Arnold Palmer

The say golf is like life, but don't believe them. Golf is more complicated than that —Gardner Dickinson

Golf combines two favorite American pastimes: taking long walks and hitting things with a stick —P.J. O'Rourke

A passion, an obsession, a romance, a nice acquaintanceship with trees, sand, and water —Bob Ryan

I know I am getting better at golf because I'm hitting fewer spectators —Gerald Ford

I got for a short swim at least once or twice every day. It's either that or buy a new golf ball —Gene Perret

Football 

Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that —Bill Shankly

When I played pro football, I never set out to hurt anyone deliberately—unless it was, you know, important, like a league game or something —Dick Butkus

When you win, nothing hurts —Joe Namath

You have to play this game like somebody just hit your mother with a two-by-four —Dan Birdwell

Football is, after all, a wonderful way to get rid of your aggressions without going to jail for it —Heywood Hale Brown

American football makes rugby look like a Tupperware party —Sue Lawley

The reason women don't play football is because eleven of them would never wear the same outfit in public —Phyllis Diller

Soccer

The rules of soccer are very simple, basically it is this: if it moves, kick it. If it doesn't move, kick it until it does —Phil Woosnam

I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion —Mia Hamm

Soccer is the opera of the people —A. Burgess

The goalkeeper is the jewel in the crown and getting at him should be almost impossible. It's the biggest sin in [soccer] to make him do any work —George Graham

Some people tell me that we professional players are soccer slaves. Well, if this is slavery, give me a life sentence —Bobby Charlton

Tennis

I let my racket do the talking. That's what I am all about, really. I just out and win tennis matches. —Pete Sampras

Tennis is an addiction that once it has truly hooked a man will not let him go —Russell Lynes

The serves was invented so that the net could play —Bill Cosby

In tennis the addict moves about a hard rectangle and seeks to ambush a fuzzy ball with a modified snow-show —Elliot Chase

Anybody who can dial a telephone can master tennis scoring in about 15 minutes —Bradley Whitford

My country is taking over in tennis —Yevgeny Kafelnikov

The only possible regret I have is the feeling that I will die without having played enough tennis —Jean Borotra

If you can't take a punch, you should play table tennis —Tracy Austin

If you can keep playing tennis when somebody is shooting a gun down the street, that's concentration —Serena Williams

It's pretty hard being a tennis player and a Mother Teresa at the same time and that's just the way is is —Maria Sharapova

Hockey

Hockey players have fire in their hearts and ice in their veins

Some people skate to the puck. I skate to where the puck is going to be. —Wayne Gretzky

My other care is a Zamboni

High sticking, tripping, slashing, spearing, charging, hooking, fighting, unsportsmanlike conduct, interference, roughing...everything else is just figure skating

Hockey is the original extreme sport —Tom Ward

I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out —Rodney Dangerfield

Ice hockey is a form of disorderly conduct in which the score is kept —Doug Larsen

A puck is a hard rubber disc that hockey players strike when they can't hit one another —Jimmy Cannon

Ice hockey players can walk on water

How would you like a job where, every time you make a mistake, a big red light goes on and 18,000 people boo? —Jacques Plante

Hockey is figure skating in a war zone

My goal is to deny yours

When Hell freezes over, I'll play hockey there too.

All hockey players are bilingual. They know English and profanity —Gordie Howe

We get nose jobs all the time in the NHL, and we don't even have to go to the hospital —Brad Park

Volleyball

Volleyball is my life. Everything else is just details.

Volleyball is a dandy game and more besides —Peter Wardale

We can handle a little floor burn now and then

It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog —Archie Griffin

Actions speak louder than coaches

Carnivorous volleyball: win or be eaten

Anyone serious about playing indoor, you should play outdoor —Sean Scott

Cheerleading

A good cheerleader is not measured by the height of her jumps but by the span of her spirit.

Simply because we do not run across goal lines, slam dunk basketballs, or hit home runs, doesn't mean we can't change the score.

There is no halftime for cheerleaders!

If cheerleading got any easier, it would be called football.

The referees have always been blind; it's our job to make them deaf.

Cheerleaders know that pyramids were not build in Egypt.

Cheerleaders are angels—we're the only humans who can fly.

It's hard to be humble when you can jump, stunt and tumble!

Dancing

How can we know the dancer from the dance? —William Butler Yeats

We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance —Japanese Proverb

There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good —Edwin Denby

Dancing is like dreaming with your feet —Constanze

The truest expression of a people is in its dance and in its music. Bodies never lie —Agnes de Mille

Dancers are instruments, like a piano the choreographer plays —George Balanchine

Dancing with the feet is one thing, but dancing with the heart is another.

Dancing can reveal all the mystery that music conceals —Charles Baudelaire

Dancing is the poetry of the foot —John Dryden

There are three steps you have to complete to become a professional dancer: learn to dance, learn to perform and learn how to cope with injuries —D. Gere

Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired —Martha Graham

Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul's weather to all who can read it —Martha Graham

It takes an athlete to dance, but an artist to be a dancer —Shanna Lafleur

Boating/Sailing

It is not the ship so much as the skillful sailing that assures the prosperous voyage —George William Curtis

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable —Seneca

Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hand have ever made —Robert N. Rose

There is NOTHING—absolutely nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats —Kenneth Grahame

Who is staring at the sea is already sailing a little —Paul Carvel

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails —William A. Ward

The lovely thing about cruising is that planning usually turns out to be of little use —Dom Degnon

There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea —Joseph Conrad

Never a ship sails out of bay, but carries my heart as a stowaway —Roselle Mercier Montgomery

Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit —Brooks Atkinson

The days pass happily with me wherever my ship sails —Joshua Slocum

Not all who wander are lost —JRR Tolkien

To young men contemplating a voyage I would say go —Joshua Slocum

I thought I would sail about a little and see the water part of the world —Herman Melville, Moby Dick

A sailor is an artist whose medium is the wind —Webb Chiles

Hiking

If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk —Raymond Inmon

Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow —Henry David Thoreau

Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time —Steven Wright

My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing —Aldous Huxley

After a day's walk everything has twice its usual value —George Macauley Trevelyan

I dream of hiking into my old age —Marlyn Doan

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks —John Muir

Walks. The body advances, while the mind flutters around it like a bird —Jules Renard

If I could not walk far and fast, I think I should just explode and perish —Charles Dickens

Not all who wander are lost —JRR Tolkien

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds —Edgar Abbey

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous —Aristotle

Just one more hill—it's all flat from there.

Swimming

Don't wait for your ship to come in—swim out to it.

H2O: two parts Heart and one part Obsession

Chlorine is my perfume

If the world was flat, I'd probably swim off it.

It's a good idea to begin at the bottom in everything except in learning to swim.

If one synchronized swimmer drowns, do all the rest have to drown too? —Steven Wright

When the earth floods from global warming, the swimmers will rule the world.

If you have a lane, you have a chance.

Oxygen is overrated.

Chlorine: The breakfast of champions!

We swim because we are too sexy for a sport that requires clothes.

The water is my sky.

Breaststroke is an athletic event; butterfly is a political statement —Paul Tsongas

Gymnastics

Flexible people don't get bent out of shape.

Gymnasts defeat gravity.

It's not the hours you put in your work that counts, it's the work you put in the hours —Sam Ewing

Rhythmic gymnastics makes football look easy.

Bowling

The bowling alley is the poor man's country club —Sanford Hansell

One advantage of bowling over golf is that you never lose the bowling ball.

Every bowling center should have a house pro —Don Johnson

Having a family is like having a bowling alley installed in your head —Martin Mull

Even if you don't knock a lot of pins down, be sure to strike a pretty pose! —Clyde Higa

I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm probably going to go bowling with all my girlfriends —Drew Barrymore

TURKEY!

Bowling is a sport that should be right down your alley.

If you can't hear a pin drop then something is definitely wrong with your bowling.

Exercise

Those who think hey have not time for bodily exercise will sooner than later have to find time for illness —Edward Stanley

Fitness—if it came in a bottle, everyone would have a great body —Cher

A man's health can be judged by which he takes two at a time—pills or stairs —Joan Welsh

I have to exercise in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing —Marsha Doble

I really don't think I need buns of steel. I'd be happy with buns of cinnamon —Ellen DeGeneres

My idea of exercise is a good brisk sit —Phyllis Diller

Aerobics: a series of strenuous exercises which help convert fats, sugars, and starches into aches, pains and cramps.

It is exercise alone that supports the spirits, and keeps the mind in vigor —Marcus Tullius Cicero

I am pushing sixty. That is enough exercise for me —Mark Twain