Finding wisdom
and inspiration in words of simple truth gives me great pleasure. I invite
you to share with me this treasury of universal insights and eternal values. I
hope you will enjoy my collection.
 My
Garden, Photography by Karen Gales Home
and Hearth
To be happy at home is
the ultimate result of all ambition.
Samuel Johnson
Home is the heart of
life. . . . Home is where we feel at ease, where we belong, where we can create
surroundings that reflect our tastes and pleasures. . . . Making a home is a
form of creativity open to everyone.
Terence
Conran
. . . I am absolutely
sure I knew it even then. I knew it the way . . . when you see a particular
house on a particular landscape you think: Yes, that is for me, I am going to
live there.
Anita Shreve (b. 1947)
American Writer
Home that our feet may
leave, but not our hearts.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
When friends enter a
home, they sense its personality and character, the family's style of living -
these elements make a house come alive with a sense of identity, a sense of
energy, enthusiasm, and warmth, declaring, "This is who we are; this is how we
live"
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Oh the fun of arriving at
a house and feeling the spark that tells you that you are going to have a good
time.
Mark Hampton
I learned early on that
setting a table is so much more than just laying down knives and forks. It is
creating a setting for food and conversation, setting a mood and an aura that
lingers long after what was served and who said what.
Peri Wolfman
If home doesn't make
sense, nothing does.
Henrietta Ripperger
I am told that when the
Chinese, who know everything, build a house, they consult the precepts of an
ancient science they call Feng Shui, which tells them exactly how, when, and
where the work must be done, and so brings good fortune to the home forever.
Jan Morris
Why do we love certain
houses, and why do they seem to love us? It is the warmth of our individual
hearts reflected in our surroundings.
T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings
Your diamonds are not in
far distant Mountains or in yonder seas; They are in your own backyard, if you
but dig for them.
Russell H. Conwell
The ache for home lives
in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.
Maya Angelou
To build a house is one
thing, but to make it a home is quite another . . .
Louis L'Amour
(1908-1988)
American Writer
To be happy at home is
the ultimate result of all ambition.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
English Writer
Through wisdom is an
house builded, and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge shall
the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
Proverbs
24: 3-4
Home is not just a place
to sleep, home is where we house our souls.
Alexandra Stoddard (b. 1941)
American interior designer
Ah, I like the look of
packing crates! A household in preparation for a journey! Something full of the
flow of life. . . . Movement, Progress.
Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965)
U.S. Dramatist
The great opportunity is
where you are. Do not despise your own place and hour. Every place is under the
stars, every place is the center of the world.
John Burroughs
(1837-1921)
And you'll find there's
no home like the home in the heart.
Eliza Cook
Return to top 
 Ocean City Sunrise 01-01-01,
Photography by Karen GalesInspiration and Dreams
Follow your dreams; for
as you dream, so shall you become.
James Alle
Whatever you can do, or
dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
W.H. Murray
On a clear evening, lie
on a blanket in your backyard and really look at the night sky. Gazing at the
stars reminds us that there's more to life than we'll ever realize and that
every day brings new chances.
Sarah Ban Breathnach
American Writer
To look for the best and
see the beautiful Is the way to get the best out of life each day.
Lincoln Steffens (1866-1936)
American Editor
If what you seek is
honorable, what is good, what is the truth in your life, then all the other
things you could not imagine come as a matter of course. I always feel if you
do right, right will follow.
Oprah
Winfrey
Nothing much happens
without a dream. For something really great to happen, it takes a really great
dream.
Robert Greenleaf
Be glad of life because
it gives Us the chance to love, work, play And look up at the stars.
Henry Van Dyke
Puttering is really a
time to be alone, to dream, and to get in touch with yourself . . . To putter
is to discover.
Alexandra Stoddard
Whatever you can do or
dream you can, begin it; Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Don't hurry, don't worry,
You're only here for a short visit. So be sure to stop and smell the flowers.
Walter C. Hagan (1892-1969)
American Writer
Nothing is worth more
than this day.
Goethe
No one has time; we have
to make time.
James Rohn
Return to top
 New York City 01-01-01, Photography
by Karen Gales |
|
Perseverance and Change |
Life is a succession of
lessons which must be lived to be understood.
Ralph Waldo
Emerson
All life is an
experiment. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935)
JAmerican
Jurist
Nothing in the world can
take the place of Persistence Talent will not; nothing is more commonplace than
unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a
proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Calvin
Coolidge
Great results cannot be
achieved at once, and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk - step
by step.
Samuel Smile (1812-1904)
Scottish Biographer
To be on the cutting
edge, you need an edge to cut with. That edge is your belief in yourself sharp
and ready to go.
Sara Ryan
American Artist
Patience and perseverance
have a magical effect before which difficulties and obstacles vanish.
John Quincy Adams
Spectacular achievement
is always preceded by spectacular preparation.
Dr. Robert
Schuler
Life is either a daring
adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free
spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.
Helen
Keller
There is always, always,
always a way.
Dr. Robert Schuler
All glory comes from
daring to begin. Eugene F. Ware (1841-1911)
American
poet
Man needs, for his
happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and
change.
Bertrand Russell
Do it better than it need
be done. Do it better each time. Do it better than anyone else can do it. I
know this sounds old-fashioned, But it has built the world.
Harlow
Curtice
I will is much more
important than IQ.
Karen Gales
Dreams and dedication are
a Powerful combination.
William Longwood
Luck means the hardships
you have not hesitated to endure; the long nights you have devoted to your
work. Luck means the appointments you have never failed to keep, the airplanes
you have never failed to catch.
Margaret
Clement
None of us knows what the
next change is going to be, what unexpected opportunity is just around the
corner, wanting to change all the tenor of our lives.
Kathleen
Norris
Return to top
|
Success and Achievement |
 Karen Receives "Top 100" RE/MAX
Award |
Down deep in every human
heart is a hidden longing, impulse and ambition to do something fine and
enduring.
Grenville Kleiser
We don't just go to work
to acquire, we go to work to become.
Elbert
Hubbard
You must be the change
you wish to see in the world.
Mohandas Ghandi (1869-1948)
Indian
Leader
Not to go out and do your
best is to sacrifice your gift.
Steve Prefontaine
We make a living by what
we get, but we make a life by what we give.
Sir Winston Churchill
(1874-1965)
Always do right. This
will gratify some people, and astonish the rest.
Mark Twain
(1835-1910)
Smile if you want a smile
from another face.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Most people see what is,
And never see what can be.
Albert Einstein
Thoughts are energy. And
you can make your world or break you world by your thinking.
Susan L.
Taylor (b.1946)
American Journalist
Smile if you want a smile
from another face.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
The greatest achievements
were at first and for sometime dreams.
James Allen (1864-1912)
English Writer
We rarely succeed at
anything unless we have fun doing it.
Rev. John
Naus
Your chances of success
in any undertaking can always be measured by your belief in yourself.
Robert Collier
When you win, let it go
to your heart rather than your head
HDon Ward
To laugh often and much,
to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn
the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to
appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better,
whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to
know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have
succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803-82)
Measure wealth not by the
things you have, but by the things you have for which you would not take money.
Frank Vizarre
Whoever I am or whatever
I am doing, some kind of excellence is within my reach.
John
Gardner
Destiny is not a matter
of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is
a thing to be achieved.
William Jennings Bryan
Return to top
 Historic Renovation of the
Washington Monument, 2000 Photography
by Robby Gales at age 11
America and Patriotism
America is a tune. It
must be sung together.
Gerald Stanley Lee
Freedom is a system based
on Courage.or, it is a thing to be achieved.
Charles
Peguy
Ask not what your country
can do for you, but what you can do for your country,
John Fitzgerald
Kennedy
The battle, sir, is not
to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.
Patrick Henry
The spirit of a nation
begins in the homes of its people.
Don Ward
God grants liberty only
to those who love it, and are always ready to guard it and defend it.
Daniel Webster
What has made this nation
great? Not its heroes but its households.
Sarah Josepha
Hale
A man's feet must be
planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world.
George
Santayana
The basis of a democratic
state is liberty..
Aristotle
Injustice anywhere is a
threat to justice everywhere.
Martin Luther King,
Jr.
Return to top
 For 12 years I've distributed
American FlagsService and Dedication
In helping others, we
shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and
comes back to us.
Flora Edwards
The more we focus on
others, the more we have a concern for others, it seems to bring an inner
strength.
His Holiness the Dalai
Lama
It is high time that the
ideal of success should be replaced by the ideal of service.
Albert
Einstein
You simply give to others
a bit of yourself - a thoughtful act, a helpful idea, a word of appreciation, A
lift over a rough spot, a sense of understanding, a timely suggestion. you take
something out and you put something back.
Charles H.
Burr
Learn to get in touch
with silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a
purpose.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
American Writer
The great and glorious
masterpiece of man is how to live with purpose.
Michel de Montaigne
(1533-1592)
French Writer
With the gift of
listening comes the gift of healing.
Catherine de Hueck Doherty,
Writer
Return to top
 My
Happy FeetPeace
and Happiness
It takes so little to
make people happy. Just a touch, if we know how to give it, just a word fitly
spoken . . . a slight readjustment of some bolt or pin or bearing in the
delicate machinery of a soul.
Frank
Crane
With the gift of
listening comes the gift of healing.
Catherine de Hueck Doherty,
Writer
Caring about others is a
great benefit for the self.
His Holiness the Dalai
Lama
The place to be happy is
here. The time to be happy is now.
Robert
Ingersoll
Happiness doesn't depend
upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely upon what you think.
Dale Carnegie (1888-1955)
American Writer
Nothing is so strong as
gentleness.
Don Ward
With the gift of
listening comes the gift of healing.
Catherine de Hueck Doherty,
Writer
Sometimes when I consider
what tremendous consequences come from little things, a chance word, a tap on
the shoulder, . . . I am tempted to think . . . there are no little things.
Bruce Barton (1886-1957)
American Executive and Writer
In helping others to
happiness we are on the road to the same goal ourselves.
Richard Cardinal
Cushing (1895-1970)
American Cleric
Nothing can bring you
peace but yourself. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
American
Writer
Happiness is not perfect
until it is shared.
Jane Porter
If you want to be happy,
be.
Aleksey Tolstoy (1817-1875)
Russian Writer
The best and most
beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt
by the heart.
Helen Keller
The secret of happiness
is not in getting what you like, but in liking what you get.
James M.
Barrie (1860-1937)
I have noticed that folks
are generally about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Abraham
Lincoln (1809-65)
Too often we
underestimate the Power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, Or the smallest act
of caring, all of which Have the potential to turn a life around
Leo
Buscaglia
Smile if you want a smile
from another face.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Return to top
Family
and Friends
Our children are living
messages we send to a time and place we will never see.
Elizabeth
David
Friends are kind to each
other's hopes. They cherish each other's dreams.
Henry David Thoreau
The family is one of
nature's masterpieces.
George Santayana
The supreme happiness of
life is the conviction that we are loved.
Victor Hugo
I desire no future the
will break the ties of the past.
George Eliot
Children do not know how
their parents love them, and they never will . . . till they have children of
their own.
Cooke
Happy is he that is happy
in his children.
Thomas Fuller
My mother had a great
deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.
Mark Twain
A child is not a vase to
be filled, but a fire to be lit.
Francois Rabelais
Children have more need
of models than critics.
Joseph Joubert
Your children will become
what you are: so be what you want them to be.
David Bly
My son, thou wilt dream
the world is fair, And thy spirit will sigh to roam, And thou must go; But
never, when there, Forget the light of home.
Sarah Josepha Hale
A happy family is but an
earlier heaven.
John Browning
There are only two
lasting bequests we can hope to give our children: One of these is roots, the
other is wings.
Hodding Carter
Walking, I am listening
to a deeper way. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say.
Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.
Linda
Hogan
Native American Writer
Return to top
 Sunset 2000 Reston, Virginia,
Photography by Karen Gales Our
Legacy
To make a difference is
not a matter of accident, a matter of casual occurrence of the tides. People
choose to make a difference.
Maya Angelou
One day at a time - this
is enough. live in the present and make it so beautiful that it will be worth
remembering.
Ida Scott Taylor
The next best things you
can give children, next to good habits, are good memories.
Sydney Harris
A great life is the sum
total of the worthwhile things you've been doing one by one.
Richard
Bach
Tomorrow is the most
important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect
when it arrives and puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something
from yesterday.
John Wayne
American Actor
Begin doing what you want
to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling
like a star in our hand - and melting like a snowflake.
Marie Beynon Ray
No trumpets sound when
the important decisions of our lives are made. Destiny is made known silently.
Agnes De Mille (1905-1993)
American Dancer
What the caterpillar
calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.
Richard Bach
(b. 1936)
American Writer
Return to top
| REAL ESTATE TRIVIA |
| Q |
What is the world's longest wall?
|
| A |
The Great Wall of China, at a length of 2,150 miles, nearly three times the length of Britain. |
| More Real Estate Trivia |
|
|
|
