Rudolph Valentino

“ If we could only combine the beauty of an orchid with the soul of a weed we would get an improvement in the orchid, for real weeds are grateful enough to spring up between cobblestones, even to be trampled upon. ”

“ They say life’s a stage, but what a sad thing we have so few good stage managers. Our productions have more in the way of Costume and lack, so often, the right lines. Lines do count, not always words, but sympathy of thought is quite as necessary. ”

“ But, happily, there is always the opportunity of skipping many grades upward. It’s a poor rule that doesn’t work both ways.
The Mind is the Grade we work in. We can have majestic thoughts, living in a hermit’s hut, or we can think as a swine in a palace on a throne of gold—let us choose our station—kingly children, or swineherds. Eternity is the Empire. ”

“ Woman, the unreasonable Reason for the Great Reason, which the sages call Life—Others not so knowing call it Love.
Faith—The Engagement—repartee of Love. Hope—Marriage—maybe its reply, but Charity—Divorce—is the retort courteous. ”

“ Why do the birds chant the psalm of glory?
Only because they alone are free throated and unafraid. Do they realize the danger in the sling-shot of civilization? No—they are only conscious of the Joy within. ”

“ Still vulgarity is necessary to development, for even a weed growing in a swamp can sometimes be cultivated into a hot house plant. Take an orchid not under its own surroundings, but dress it by putting it in a proper receptacle, and what a difference! ”

“ A dog is the nearest approach to the sweet submissive spirit God would have in us, Faithfulness in the highest form. He only is faithful because he believes in you, as God would have us believe in Him. ”

“ We always prefer the most difficult way. It seems so much more important, but once we realize it, truth is always simplest when it is Truth.
It takes a hero to accuse no one, but take another’s accusation to his heart. ”

“ Alas, that pigment be so badly used
And artistry brought to much sad disgrace.
Take freedom but take care lest it take your liberty from you.
To be a humorist one must be concise, witty, but short-lived, for the good die young. ”

“ There are millions of others in Life’s Motley Masque
Who follow the art of mime.
They mimic and play
At mockery today,
But they never fool Old Father Time.
{85}{84} PATCHWORK QUILT
A Patchwork Quilt,
Industrious name.
Once it was not quite the same.
A different fame,
A “Crazy Quilt,”
Same foolish dame
Entitled you.
It was sorry fame.
Life is like that,
We do not see
How little bits
Make harmony—
It’s up to man to take each bit
Of happiness and make it fit. ”

“ Lives are classes—we are pupils with excellent teachers. Experience should tutor us, but we so often shirk school. School can be made happy and we delight in making a higher grade—but through not heeding Experience’s teaching we often are left back in the old class, and sometimes, sad to relate, are put several grades lower. ”

“ Punishment is seldom unmerited, though we may not always see the cause.
It is unwise to doubt others when you are not sure of yourself.
Scientists are fools in some respects, I mean the so-called ones, for they ignore the science of all important things. ”

“ I am not a poet nor a scholar, therefore you shall find neither poems nor prose. Just dreams—Day Dreams—a bit of romance, a bit of sentimentalism, a bit of philosophy, not studied, but acquired by constant observation of that greatest of masters!... Nature! ”

“ R—Romance—Reveries—Realization—Remembrance.
S—Sympathy—Sacrifice—Shame—Settlement.
T—Thoughts—Truth—Temper—Tears.
U—Unkindness—Understanding—Uncertainty—Unfaithfulness.
V—Virtue—Vanity—Vows—Vengeance.
W—Wisdom—Wishes—Wedlock—Woman.
X—The Unknown—Love.
Y—Youth—Yearning—Yes—Yawn.
Z—Zenith—Zest—Zeal—Zero.
{125}{124} MEMORIAL
(To A. S. R.)
A Saint in a stained glass window,
To the memory of one
Who “lived the life,”
In sin and strife,
Is the epitome of fun. ”