General Chat

If you can see lightening and hear thunder and stand,you can fight.

Next to a battle lost,
The saddest thing is a battle won.


Quote: Wellington after the 'Battle of Waterloo.'

It is like a battlefield at rest - nothing but corpses & the crows that pick at them.

The devil is loose. Take care of yourself.

Talking of the Devil!!


A Priest advised Voltaire on his death bed, to 'renounce the Devil. Replied Voltaire, ' Now, Now, my good man, this is no time to be making new enemies'!

A slave's son is a slave too.

It is not possible to eat just one salted peanut.

Die I must, but let me die drinking in an inn!
Hold the wine-cup to my lips sparkling from the bin!
So, when sngels flutter down to take me from my sin,
'Ah, God have mercy on this sot', the cherubs will begin.

(Walter Map 1140-1208).

Death leaves a heartache that no-one can heal,
Love leaves a memory that no-one can steal.

(From a headstone in Ireland.)

Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same.

I haven't posted on this thread before but I have been reading right through it over the last couple of days with great enjoyment. I've been reminded of some poems from my schooldays and have read some that are new to me. I shall have to find something to add myself. Just for starters, a favourite saying of my husband's:

You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar

A warm welcome to this site SuffolkVera, I hadn't heard that saying before and it really made me chuckle!!! looking forward to further 'contributions'!

Thank you for the welcome Lilyl. When I was at school we had to work our way through Wordsworth's Intimations of Immortality Ode. I admit I've forgotten most of it but a few lines (probably the most famous ones) have always stayed with me:

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:

The wise old owl sat in the oak,
The more he saw, the less he spoke,
The less he spoke, the more he heard,
Now wasn't he the wise old bird!


My children gave this to my Step- father for his birthday years ago in the form of a poster, he was very amused to realise how his grandchildren perceived him and put up in his study,I finally took it down some twelve years later after he and my mother had died. It is now in my own home, once again gracing a study wall!!!

Sleep is a pointless waste of time.

My granddaughter, then aged 8 or 9, learnt about Japanese Haiku at school. The class were told to try and write one and that it should be 17 syllables in three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables. This is what she wrote, entitled One in a Million Nanny:

My special Nanny
I'm so glad we're family
You're the perfect one.

You can imagine the size of the lump in my throat when I read that one!

I certainly can SuffolkVera, my elder grandaughter once said to me when she was about 2. " The thing is Granny, I'm your friend and you're my friend!" I too suffered from that lump!

Bomber Command

I found this poem by John M Milne (57Sqdn) and thought I would post it in remembrance of ALL those young men who lost their lives (one of whom was my father) and only now have finally had a memorial dedicated to their bravery'

A long cold night, a star filled sky,
A blackened out world below,
The grim faced crew on faith rely that they'll live to see tomorrow.
The searchlights sweep, the hell flak sent a thousand shards of steel.
But on they press then bold attack,
And hide the fear they feel.

For near six years, night after night, Squadron after Squadron,
Shattered the dream of Nazi might, it's power a sham illusion,
They shared a duty, fate and fear that forged uncommon pride,
And paid a price in lives so dear,
More than fifty thousand died.

'Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy, you must have someone to share it with'. (A Wistful Eye by D J Kelly).

Dont worry about avoiding temptation,
As you grow older it will avoid you!!



Winston Churchill.

Never leave anything where it isn't.