Quotes & forgotten words

Tending the Lawn
"The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be."
-Robert Fulghum, It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It.

"Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out in the ocean."
-Christopher Reeve (1952-2004), Actor.

"The game of life is like the game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later, with astounding accuracy." -Florence Shinn (1871-1940), Writer.

"One never knows what each day is going to bring. The important thing is to be open and ready for it." -Henry Moore (1898-1986), Sculptor.

"Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open." -Thomas Dewar

"Keeping score of old scores and scars, getting even and one-upping, always make you less than you are." - Malcom Forbes (1919-1990), Publisher.

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SQUACKETT: To make any disagreeable noise with the mouth.
-James Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1855

CUNCTATIOUS: Addicted to delaying; prone to delay.... Adapted from Latin cunctationem, the noun of action from cunctari, to delay.
-Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1893.

TOPOLOGY: The art or method of assisting the memory by associating the objects to be remembered with some place, the parts of which are well-known.
-Robert Hunter's Encyclopaedic Dictionary, 1894.

BOOKWRIGHT: A writer of books; an author; a term of slight contempt.
-Daniel Lyons's Dictionary of the English Language, 1897.

COW'S THUMB: Done to a cow's thumb, done exactly.
-Capt. Francis Groce's A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1796.

MATRONIZE: To attend a lady to public places as a protector.
-Daniel Lyons's Dictionary of the English Language, 1897.

STRAM: Any sudden, loud and quick sound; so to stram the doors means to shut them with noise and violence. Hence, a bold and unexpected lie that greatly surprises the hearer is called a strammer, and hence also to strammer means to tell great and notorious lies.
-Frederick Elworthy's Specimens of English Dialects: Devonshire Glossary, 1879.

A story is told about a preacher who concluded his sermon one Sunday by instructing his congregation to read Mark 17 as background for his next sermon, whose topic was insincerity. The following week, when he asked how many had read the biblical passage in question, most congregants' hands immediately went up. The preacher looked both shocked and determined. "You are just the people I want to talk to," he declared, "as there is no 'Chapter 17' of Mark!"