“When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” –When Harry Met Sally

“Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides.” –Captain Correlli’s Mandolin

When you decide to use a movie love quote with a woman you’re wooing, you should consider some things. Like her personality. If she’s a big fan of Rob Schneider and Adam Sandler movies, but she hates Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable movies, then it’s pretty easy to figure out that you needn’t bother writing, “We’ll always have Paris.” in your Valentine card. “Life is like a box of chocolates.” would probably be more appropriate for her.

On the other hand, if Paris is where you went on your honeymoon, the Casablanca quote might be very appropriate indeed. You might even be able to find some other quotes about Paris from various movies. Forget Paris has some quotable lines. So does Everyone Says I Love You, which is set, in part, in Paris.

When you’re deciding what kind of romantic quote to include on an inscription, whether it’s from a movie or not, it should be tailored to the recipient. Do you know what her favorite movie is? If so, then she’ll immediately recognize a quote from it, and that will make the inscription more special to her–especially if it’s a movie that has meaning for both of you.

If you don’t know what her favorite movie is, you can use the other things you know about her to help determine an appropriate love quote. Suppose she listens to an all-80’s station on XM Sirius constantly. If that’s the case, then chances are you can find a quote from the movie Footloose or The Breakfast Club that will knock her socks off.

Another option is to consider her interests, and choose a movie that coincides with her interests, and give it to her as a gift on DVD along with your other Valentines Day presents. Maybe she’s a fan of vampire movies. Buy her a copy of Interview with the Vampire, and include the following quote: “Love holds you to me.”

Read more love quotes from movies here.

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• Cynical Quotes, Quotations, and Sayings

A sonnet is a poem composed of a certain number of lines, usually with a specific rhyme and metrical scheme. William Shakespeare’s sonnets were fairly original, and had their own set of rules. For starters, all Shakespearean sonnets deal with some kind of specific and overarching “theme” — time, love, beauty, death, etc. As a side note, many of Shakespeare’s early sonnets were written in the voice of a person urging an attractive and interesting young man to go forth and have children, therefore spreading his beauty. These are called “procreation sonnets” and are fairly unique to Shakespeare.

Besides being written on a specific theme, Shakespeare’s sonnets had a specific form that set him apart from his fellow sonnet writers. His form requires a sonnet be fourteen lines long, and built out of three “quatrains” and a “couplet”. A quatrain is a group of four lines, while a couplet is a grouping of two lines. The first two quatrains set up the poem and the theme, while the third quatrain introduces a sudden thematic change called a “volta”. This “volta” keeps the sonnet from being too stale.

In Shakespeare’s sonnets, the final couplet at the end (known as the ‘heroic couplet’) summarizes the theme of the poem or occasionally introduces a fresh new look at the theme, a sudden bit of inspired poetic thought.

The usual meter for Shakepseare’s sonnets is called “iambic pentameter” — a complicated term that just means that each line is made up of ten syllables and they must follow a specific rhythm of the syllables. In Shakespeare’s sonnets, the even numbered syllables in a line are to bear the majority of the line’s accents or “emphasis”.  Saying this out loud, replacing the syllables with the nonsense words “ba bum”, the line would look like this — ba BUM ba BUM ba BUM ba BUM ba BUM. Even Shakespeare didn’t follow this metrical pattern exactly, so some alteration to the “iambic pentameter” is not only acceptable but expected.

Remember too that Shakespeare’s rhyme scheme is a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g. This means that the first and third lines rhyme, the second and fourth do as well, etc all the way to the “heroic couplet”, which rhymes directly with itself.

Here’s an example of a Shakespearean sonnet, so you can follow the rhyme, meter, and syllabic count.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds (a)
Admit impediments, love is not love (b)
Which alters when it alteration finds, (a)
Or bends with the remover to remove. (b)
O no, it is an ever fixed mark (c)
That looks on tempests and is never shaken; (d)
It is the star to every wand’ring bark, (c)
Whose worth’s unknown although his height be taken. (d)
Love’s not time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks (e)
Within his bending sickle’s compass come, (f)
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, (e)
But bears it out even to the edge of doom: (f)
If this be error and upon me proved, (g)
I never writ, nor no man ever loved. (g)

1. Break the word into parts. Many people’s biggest mistakes with difficult to spell words is trying to cram the whole word into their brain at once. Think of memorizing a difficult to spell word as eating a big piece of food. Rather than cramming a 10 ounce steak into your mouth in one bite, you probably cut it into smaller pieces, right? Treat difficult to spell words the same way. Take a look at the word “accidental”, for instance. If you think of it in pieces (ac – ci – den – tal) the word becomes very simple to memorize. Break difficult to spell words up into smaller pieces so your brain can digest them better.
2. Learn groups of words. Some difficult to spell words share common sounds with other words. A popular example of this phenomenon is the ending -easure. “Pleasure, measure, treasure” is a perfect word block to memorize, as the sound of the words in your head will resonate later on when you need to remember how to spell one of those words. Remember that English doesn’t always follow standard rules of word order or pronunciation, making it really difficult to memorize certain words. By grouping difficult to spell words into chunks, you’ll create “categories” that your brain can file a word into and remember later. Think of this step as like “filing” words in your brain.
3. Writing on your palm. Okay — it may feel stupid — but spelling a difficult to spell word onto your palm, or your arm, or your thigh, or some soft part of your body will help your brain visualize that word. For some people, the ONLY way to learn is through touch — these people are called “kinetic learners”. By drawing a difficult word on your body, you’re really touching the word three times. Once with your brain, once with your finger on your palm, and once when your palm feels your finger. Repetition and physical touch will help you memorize a difficult to spell word in no time.
4. Study better. Most people study by “cramming” — spending hours and hours in a row in one night trying to learn something. Research and common sense tell us that this isn’t the best way to study. Instead of trying to stay up all night drinking Red Bull and memorizing difficult to spell words, look at your difficult word list for a short amount of time over several days or weeks. By making yourself familiar with difficult to spell words over a longer period of time, you will become familiar with the way the word looks. Instead of “cramming” all your studying into one night, look at your word list for a few minutes every day for two weeks. This is simply a matter of how the human brain works. Utilize your brain the way it wants to work to make your brain work for you.
5. Get your body moving. Much like the step above that describes “spelling”  a word into your palm, use your whole arm to write the difficult word in the air, or jump rope and spell the word to yourself, or get a friend to spell the word with you, out loud, while playing a sport, letter by letter. Getting your body moving gets your creative juices flowing and your heart rate up, so you’re getting healthier as you get smarter. If you’re having trouble with a word after all four steps above, getting your body off the couch and moving around may be the step that cements the difficult to spell word in your brain.

Word search puzzles are good for a variety of purposes — keeping kids quiet in the car on long trips, an additional tool for school projects, staving off boredom, etc. Using your computer to make a word search puzzle takes all the hard work out of this otherwise arduous task.

1. Use a word search puzzle generator online. There are plenty of them to choose from, though admittedly some are less user-friendly than others. I like the generator at the blog A to Z Teacher Stuff. It is easy to use, the page isn’t too visually “busy”, and there are solid step by step instructions. Plus, you can generate a million word search puzzles if you’d like and play around getting it just right. Using a word search puzzle generator is by far the easiest way to do it, even though it may feel a bit like cheating. Just plug in the words you want in the puzzle, and the details of the puzzle you want to create, and like magic you’ve got your word search puzzle.
2. If you don’t want to use a word search puzzle generator, you can use the ubiquitous Microsoft Word program (most likely already present on your computer) to make your own puzzle. The first step is to decide on a theme for your word search puzzle and a list of words to be searched for. Just about any theme can be turned into a word search puzzle. For the purpose of this “how to”, let’s pretend we’re making a Halloween puzzle.
3. Once you’ve decided on your theme and puzzle words, it is time to open your Microsoft Word program.
4. When the program has opened, you’ll see a blank page. Start your word search puzzle by writing the theme (ours is “Halloween”) in a fairly large and interesting font centered at the top of the page.
5. Move down a few lines from the title (so there’s space between the title and the puzzle) to begin the word search puzzle itself.
6. Type any letter, doesn’t matter which. Now, highlight the letter you typed, select the font you want to use for the puzzle (don’t use anything too busy or it will distract the user) as well as the font’s size, and apply these settings to the letter you selected. Ideally, Microsoft Word will apply these settings to all of the other letters you’re about to type, but if not, you can simply alter the font size and style at the end of the puzzle making process.
7. A good size for a word search puzzle is 20 or so letters across and about 14 letters down. This will give you enough space to hide a good number of words without making a puzzle that’s too cramped on the page. Once you’ve decided on your size, it is time to start adding words in letter by letter.
8. Don’t forget to put a space between each letter across, to make the word search a bit easier on the eyes.
9. To insert your first word (for our Halloween theme, let’s make it “GHOUL”), try to hide the letters G H O U and L on the first horizontal line. Remember that you’ve got around 20 letters across to hide it in, so be creative.
10. Once you’ve got your first word hidden, the rest is easy. Where you put the words is up to you — hide them horizontally, vertically, diagonally, or however you want.
11. Don’t forget to make a word bank at the bottom so the word search puzzle user has a guide.
12. To finish formatting your puzzle, select all your letters (somewhere around 280 in total) and “Center” them by hitting the “Center” tab under the “Paragraph” selection at the top of the screen. This puts your puzzle firmly in the center of the page, where it belongs.
13. Print your new word search puzzle and let someone give it a go! It may be too difficult or too simple for the age group you’re after, so be sure and test it before handing it out.

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• Word Unscrambler

1. Determine your financial goal. It is impossible to create money affirmations without an understanding of what end result you want. Be specific, and list the reasons you think you’ve been financially unsuccessful in the past, and think about how you can change that behavior. Also, list your specific goals — don’t just think “I want to be rich” over and over . . . picture yourself retired, living somewhere near a big body of water, relaxing on the porch with a nice bottle of wine. Okay — that’s my personal retirement fantasy, but you can insert your own. The more specific you are during this step, the less work you have to do later.
2. Don’t use other people’s affirmations. This may sound strange, but taking money affirmations from another source won’t be as powerful or helpful as ones you write yourself. If you want to model your own moeny affirmations on ones you’ve read and appreciated before, that’s fine, but make the affirmation personal. Personalized affirmations are more specific and therefore more powerful.
3. Use positive language when writing and repeating affirmations. Never put words like “Won’t” or “Can’t” or “Fail” in your affirmation — those are triggers for nasty and negative parts of our brain that want us to fail. Use positive words like “Will”, “Can”, “Do”, and “Success”. Remember that you’ll be repeating these money affirmations in your head over and over and over — you don’t want a negative thought to slip in during a process of affirmation.
4. Take stock of how your affirmations make you feel. Once you’ve written and practiced your money affirmations a few times, take stock of how your body and mind feel. This is crucial — you may have written a money affirmation that isn’t specific or powerful enough to overcome the incredibly powerful negative forces floating around all of our heads. Testing your money affirmation before inserting it into your daily life could be the difference between overall success and quick failure. Maybe your affirmation needs to be more powerful, or your body is suggesting that you’re not being aggressive enough with your affirmation. Rewrite before you start using feckless and worthless affirmations.
5. Use your money affirmations appropriately. You don’t have to chant your money affirmation all day in your head like a mantra, but you don’t want to “underdo it” either. When I write a new affirmation, I start out saying it three times a day — once upon waking, once before lunch or dinner, and once just before falling asleep. This is how you program your head — repeated and specific affirmations at times when the affirmation will sink in. The failure of a set of money affirmations usually lies in the person’s use of these powerful phrases. Try to repeat your affirmations at least three times a day, more if necessary.

It is easy to feel weird about using simple affirmations to make you more financially successful. The fact remains — the lessons we teach ourselves are the most powerful lessons we receive. Create money affirmations, use them properly, and wait for the financial success to flow your way.

• Reading and Writing — When I was working with the Southwest Shakespeare Festival, I saw actors learn lines for three different Shakespeare plays in a manner of days. How’d they do it? They would read their line, write it down, read it again, write it down again, and continue this process until the words were memorized. Something about the act of writing something down cements it in your brain. Probably, your brain finds it easier to recall information that you have physically put down on paper. The very act of writing things down burns them into your brain. This method, used by actors for centuries, is the best starting place for memorizing anything.
• Flash Cards — Similar to the “reading and writing” method, using Flash Cards will “burn” the correct answer into your brain. Gather regular sized index cards and write the word you need to define on one side of the card. On the other side of the card, write the complete definition. Now, not only have you written the information down and used the physical memory to help you remember the definition, but you can have a friend hold the card up and “quiz you” about the definition. You don’t even need a friend, because the definition is hidden on the back side of the card. You can put the cards in front of you and quiz yourself.
• Friend Quiz — So we already mentioned the flash card quiz, but there are other “quiz methods” (especially involving friends) that will help you on your quest to memorize definitions for a test. Write a list (or make the index cards mentioned above) of the words you need to know, and have you friend quiz you randomly during the day. This will ensure that you KNOW the definition, not just that you can put the word into context when you’re in “study mode”. You could also have your friend help you come up with new ways to memorize definitions. Friends are there to help, and using others to help you learn is a great way to socialize while you increase your brain power.
• Word Association — If you simply can’t get the definition of a word lodged into your brain, try to form “pictures” of what the word means and memorize those pictures. I do this all the time when I can’t think of a word — I’ll close my eyes and try to picture what the word MEANS and usually the word will pop up. If you’re supposed to memorize the definition of a word like “exculpate”, you might think of the sounds of the word. The “ex” at the beginning is really useful, as we all know words like “ex-girlfriend” or “expire”. “Exculpate” means to clear someone of guilt, so if you can remember that “ex” is something you’ve gotten rid of, you may be able to remember that to “exculpate” is to get rid of the idea that someone is guilty of something. Word association may be your last shot at memorizing a difficult word definition.
• Mnemonics — A “mnemonic” is a kind of a word game to help you memorize things. If you were trying to memorize the order of the planets in our solar system, you may think of the mnemonic sentence “My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas” — the first letter of each word in that sentence corresponds to a different planet — Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturns, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. Figure out a mnemonic for the word you’re having trouble defining and make your life a little easier.
• Group Study — Just before your word definition test, get a group of people from your class together and study the words as a unit. You’ll learn memorization tactics used by other people, you’ll have a little bit of fun, and you’ll probably get a better score on your test because of it. Group studying can be a last minute way to calm yourself down before a difficult test, and is also a great way to meet friends and potential dates (by the way). Get a group together to study your difficult word definitions and you’ll most likely succeed.

The next time you have a difficult test that requires you to memorize words, don’t panic. Use the techniques described above to get yourself quickly to the head of the class.

• “It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, “Always do what you are afraid to do.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “Success does not consist in never making blunders, but in never making the same one a second time.” Josh Billings
• “Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.” George S. Patton
• “Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day.” Thornton Wilder
• “The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.” Arthur C. Clarke
• “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.” Aristotle
• “Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need.” Voltaire
• “Experience is the child of thought, and thought is the child of action.” Benjamin Disraeli
• “You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind.” Folk saying
• “Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.” William B. Sprague
• “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” Goethe
• “Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.” Confucius
• “Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose – a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.” Mary Shelley
• “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” Henry David Thoreau
• “To find what you seek in the road of life, the best proverb of all is that which says: ”Leave no stone unturned.” Edward Lytton
• “The more difficulties one has to encounter, within and without, the more significant and the higher in inspiration his life will be.” Horace Bushnell
• “First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.” Epictetus
• “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” Thomas Jefferson
• “The greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means and the exercise of ordinary qualities. These may for the most part be summed in these two: common-sense and perseverance.” Owen Feltham
• “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.” Vince Lombardi
• “If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.” Joseph Addison
• “I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure–which is:
  Try to please everybody.” Herbert Swope
• “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no use being a damn fool about it.” WC Fields

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• Cynical Quotes, Quotations, and Sayings

“The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” Chinese proverb

“I hold a doctrine, to which I owe not much, indeed, but all the little I ever had, namely, that with ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable.”  Sir T.F. Buxton

“Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.” Irish proverb

“When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.” Kahlil Gibran

“We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.” Kenji Miyazawa

“While we are mourning the loss of our friend, others are rejoicing to meet him behind the veil.” John Taylor

“Life is eternal, and love is immortal,
and death is only a horizon;
and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.”
Rossiter Raymond

“He kept at true good humour’s mark
The social flow of pleasure’s tide:
He never made a brow look dark,
Nor caused a tear, but when he died. ”
Thomas Love Peacock

“Good-night! good-night! as we so oft have said
Beneath this roof at midnight, in the days
That are no more, and shall no more return.
Thou hast but taken up thy lamp and gone to bed;
I stay a little longer, as one stays
To cover up the embers that still burn.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.” William Penn

“Time is not what you think. Dying? Not the end of everything. We think it is. But what happens on earth is only the beginning.” Mitch Albom

“”A man’s death makes everything certain about him. Of course, secrets may die with him. And of course, a hundred years later somebody looking through some papers may discover a fact which throws a totally different light on his life and of which all the people who attended his funeral were ignorant. Death changes the facts qualitatively but not quantitatively. One does not know more facts about a man because he is dead. But what one already knows hardens and becomes definite. We cannot hope for ambiguities to be clarified, we cannot hope for further change, we cannot hope for more. We are now the protagonists and we have to make up our minds.” John Berger

“In the midst of life, we are in death.” The Book of Common Prayer

“Only time itself reveals the hearts of men.” Chinese proverb

“What the heart has once owned and had, it shall never lose.” Henry Ward Beecher

Spiritual Encouragement

• “Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers,  Grow, grow.” The Talmud
• “Neither this world nor the happiness of the world beyond exists for the one who doubts.” Bhagavad Gita
• “The power of God is with you at all times; through the activities of the mind, senses, breathing, and emotions; and is constantly doing all the work using you as a mere instrument.” Bhagavad Gita

• “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
• “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Phillipians 4:6
• “God loves you and He has chosen you.” 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5
• “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9
• “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6

General Encouragement

• “Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you.” Aldous Huxley
• “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. ” Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, God calls a butterfly.” Richard Bach
• “Fall seven times, stand up eight.” Japanese proverb
• “If you’re going through hell, keep going. ” Winston Churchill
• “Problems are only opportunities with thorns on them.” Hugh Miller
• “Never let the odds keep you from doing what you know in your heart you were meant to do.” H. Jackson Brown
• “Leap and the net will appear. ” Zen proverb
• “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain
• “Age is no barrier. It’s a limitation you put on your mind.” Jackie Joyner-Kersee
• “Don’t wait for something big to occur. Start where you are, with what you have, and that will always lead you into something greater.” Mary Manin Morrissey
• “Everyone has inside them a piece of good news. The good news is you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!” Anne Frank

Spiritual Words of Wisdom

• “Seek and you will find.” Matthew 7:7
• “The foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom.” 1 Corinthians 1:25
• “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” Proverbs 11:2
• “The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious,  but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.” Ecclesiastes 10:12
• “Let your words be few.” Ecclesiastes 5:2
• “Do not squander your wealth senselessly.” Qur’an 17/26
• “Walk with humility and sedateness.” Qur’an 25/63
• “Be nice to people who work under your care.” Qur’an 4/36
• “Always speak the truth. Shun words that are deceitful and ostentatious.” Qur’an 22/30
• “Eat and drink in moderation.” Qur’an 7/31
• “All know the Way, but few actually walk it.” Bodhidharma
• “Follow the calmness, the absence of pride.” Sutta Nipata
• “Conquer the angry man by love.” The Dhammapada
• “Things are not what they appear to be: nor are they otherwise.” Surangama Sutra
• “Cast off pretense and self-deception and see yourself as you really are.” Dhammavadaka

Philosophical Words of Wisdom

• “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” Leonard Cohen
• “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.” His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama
• “Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.” Mother Theresa
• “If you live the sacred and despise the ordinary, you are still bobbing in the ocean of delusion.”  Lin-Chi
• “World history is a court of judgement.” Georg Hegel
• “The only reason why we are still here is because we believe there is a reason to be here.”  Zeph
• “Beware of the young doctor and the old barber.” Benjamin Franklin
• “Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.” Friedrich Nietzche
• “All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie.” Bob Dylan
• “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” Winston Churchill

Funny Words of Wisdom

• “I figure if my kids are alive at the end of the day I’ve done a good job.” Roseanne Barr
• “Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.” Louis Berlioz
• “Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.” Andy Rooney
• “Behind every successful man is a surprised woman.” Maryon Pearson
• “I have 3 things I’d like to say today.  First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition.  Second, most of you don’t give a shit.  What’s worse is that you’re more upset with the fact that I said ’shit’ than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.” Tony Campolo
• “There are two types of people: Those who come into a room and say, “Well, here I am!”, and those who say, “Ah, there you are”.” Frederick Collins
• “An educated fool is more foolish than an uneducated one.” Moliere
• “Money frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy.” Groucho Marx
• “A word to the wise ain’t necessary — it’s the stupid ones that need the advice.” Bill Cosby
• “Youth is wasted on the young.” George Bernard Shaw