Category Archives: Words from the wise

Sage sayings, maxims and quotable quotes

Remembering Milan Kundera

Milan Kundera died earlier this month, July 11, 2023 at the age of 94. Kundera is a Czech novelist, short-story writer, playwright, essayist, and poet whose works combine erotic comedy with political criticism and philosophical speculation. His best-known work is The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

By George selects some of our favourite bons mots from this insightful and provocative author. R.I.P. Milan Kundera.

The heaviest of burdens is therefore simultaneously an image of life’s most intense fulfillment. The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become.

There is no perfection only life.

Optimism is the opium of the people.

When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object.

You can’t measure the mutual affection of two human beings by the number of words they exchange.

For there is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one’s own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels with someone, for someone, a pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echoes.

The sound of laughter is like the vaulted dome of a temple of happiness.

Anyone whose goal is ‘something higher’ must expect someday to suffer vertigo. What is vertigo? Fear of falling? No, Vertigo is something other than fear of falling. It is the voice of the emptiness below us which tempts and lures us, it is the desire to fall, against which, terrified, we defend ourselves.

There is no means of testing which decision is better, because there is no basis for comparison. We live everything as it comes, without warning, like an actor going on cold. And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself? That is why life is always like a sketch. No, “sketch” is not quite a word, because a sketch is an outline of something, the groundwork for a picture, whereas the sketch that is our life is a sketch for nothing, an outline with no picture.

To be a writer does not mean to preach a truth, it means to discover a truth.

Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring–it was peace.

Chris George provides reliable PR & GR counsel and effective advocacy. Need a go-to writer and experienced communicator? Call 613-983-0801 @ CG&A COMMUNICATIONS. Contact: ChrisG.George@gmail.com.

New Year’s Toasts, Quotes and Verse

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From the By George scribes at CG&A COMMUNICATIONS here’s to a healthy and happier 2023! Cheers!

Our bons mots to cheer in the New Year.

NEW YEAR TOASTS

– Here’s to a bright New Year and a fond farewell to the old; here’s to things that are yet to come and to the memories that we hold.
– As we start the New Year, let’s get down on our knees to thank God we’re on our feet.
– May all your troubles in the coming year be as short as your New Year’s resolutions.
– May your troubles be less and your blessings be more, and nothing but happiness come through your door.
– May the road rise up before you, and the wind be always at your back, and the good Lord hold you in the hollow of his hands.
– May your neighbors respect you, trouble neglect you, the angels protect you, and heaven accept you.
– Dance as if no one were watching, sing as if no one were listening, and live every day as if it were your last.
– Welcome are those that are here; welcome all, and make good cheer; welcome all, another year.

NEW YEAR QUOTES

– No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference. It is that from which all date their time, and count upon what is left. It is the nativity of our common Adam. – Charles Lamb
– Many people look forward to the New Year for a new start on old habits.
– A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.
– The new year begins in a snow-storm of white vows.– George William Curtis
– New Year’s Day is every man’s birthday. – Charles Lamb
– Each age has deemed the new-born year, the fittest time for festal cheer — Sir Walter Scott
– The merry year is born, like the bright berry from the naked thorn. — Hartley Coleridge
– Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go. — Brooks Atkinson
– Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunder-storm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols. — Thomas Mann
– An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in; a pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. – Bill Vaughan
– Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve – middle age is when you’re forced to. – Bill Vaughn

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NEW YEAR VERSE

– We meet today
To thank Thee for the era done,
And Thee for the opening one.
– John Greenleaf Whittier

– Then sing, young hearts that are full of cheer,
With never a thought of sorrow;
The old goes out, but the glad young year
Comes merrily in tomorrow.
– Emily Miller

– New Year’s eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights. – Hamilton Wright Mabie

– Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past. – Henry Ward Beecher

– Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true
– Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850

Chris George provides reliable PR & GR counsel and effective advocacy. Need a go-to writer and experienced communicator? Call 613-983-0801 @ CG&A COMMUNICATIONS.

For Your Christmas and New Year’s Celebrations

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From all of us at CG&A COMMUNICATIONS, we wish you the best through the holidays. Have a very Merry Christmas and we hope we will all have a much better 2023!

For our season’s greetings, we present ‘Toasts, Quotes and Verse for the holidays.’ Below you will find toasts, quotes, terrific sayings, and verse for both Christmas and New Year’s. We hope you can use this collection of sayings to make that holiday toast a memorable one, to use as inscriptions in those special cards, or to spice up your conversations at family and social gatherings.

The best of the season! Cheers!

TOASTS, QUOTES AND VERSE FOR THE HOLIDAYS

CHRISTMAS TOASTS

— Let the special memories of Christmases past bring new joy and delight to your heart this Christmas!
— May you have the gladness of Christmas which is hope; The spirit of Christmas which is peace; The heart of Christmas which is love. – Ada V. Hendricks
— I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. –Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)
— A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world!–Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)
— Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love. – Hamilton Wright Mabie
— Christmas is not a date. It is a state of mind. – Mary Ellen Chase
— A Christmas Cheer: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.
— From Home to home, and heart to heart, from one place to another. The warmth and joy of Christmas, brings us closer to each other –Emily Matthews
— May peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through!
— May peace be more than a season, may it be a way of life!

CHRISTMAS QUOTES

— Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.–Norman Vincent Peale
— Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.–Calvin Coolidge
— Christmas is not just a day, an event to be observed and speedily forgotten. It is a spirit which should permeate every part of our lives.–William Parks
— Christmas–that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance–a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved.–Augusta E. Rundel
— Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.–Washington Irving
— Best of all, Christmas means a spirit of love, a time when the love of God and the love of our fellow men should prevail over all hatred and bitterness, a time when our thoughts and deeds and the spirit of our lives manifest the presence of God.–George F. McDougall
— The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.–Burton Hillis
— There is no ideal Christmas; only the one Christmas you decide to make as a reflection of your values, desires, affections, traditions –Bill McKibben
— Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won’t make it “white”.–Bing Crosby
— Until one feels the spirit of Christmas, there is no Christmas. All else is outward display–so much tinsel and decorations. For it isn’t the holly, it isn’t the snow. It isn’t the tree not the firelight’s glow. It’s the warmth that comes to the hearts of men when the Christmas spirit returns again.–Anonymous
— It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.–W. T. Ellis
— I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.–Harlan Miller
— The three stages of man: He believes in Santa Claus. He doesn’t believe in Santa Claus. He is Santa Claus.
— Time was with most of us, when Christmas Day, encircling all our limited world like a magic ring, left nothing out for us to miss or seek; bound together all our home enjoyments, affections, and hopes; grouped everything and everyone round the Christmas fire, and make the little picture shining in our bright young eyes, complete –Charles Dickens

CHRISTMAS VERSE

— “But I am sure that I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round…as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely.” — Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

— Whatever else be lost among the years,
Let us keep Christmas still a shining thing;
Whatever doubts assail us, or what fears,
Let us hold close one day, remembering
It’s poignant meaning for the hearts of men.
Let us get back our childlike faith again.
— Grace Noll Crowell, Let Us Keep Christmas

— I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and wild and sweet
The word repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

–Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Christmas Bells

— When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow,
We hear sweet voices ringing from lands of long ago,
And etched on vacant places
Are half-forgotten faces
Of friends we used to cherish, and loves we used to know.
–Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Christmas Fancies

NEW YEAR TOASTS

— Here’s to a bright New Year and a fond farewell to the old; here’s to things that are yet to come and to the memories that we hold.
— As we start the New Year, let’s get down on our knees to thank God we’re on our feet.
— May all your troubles in the coming year be as short as your New Year’s resolutions.
— May your troubles be less and your blessings be more, and nothing but happiness come through your door.
— May the road rise up before you, and the wind be always at your back, and the good Lord hold you in the hollow of his hands.
— May your neighbors respect you, trouble neglect you, the angels protect you, and heaven accept you.
— Dance as if no one were watching, sing as if no one were listening, and live every day as if it were your last.
— Welcome are those that are here; welcome all, and make good cheer; welcome all, another year.

NEW YEAR QUOTES

— No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference. It is that from which all date their time, and count upon what is left. It is the nativity of our common Adam. — Charles Lamb
— Many people look forward to the New Year for a new start on old habits.
— A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.
— The new year begins in a snow-storm of white vows.– George William Curtis
— New Year’s Day is every man’s birthday. — Charles Lamb
— Each age has deemed the new-born year, the fittest time for festal cheer — Sir Walter Scott
— The merry year is born, like the bright berry from the naked thorn. — Hartley Coleridge
— Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go. — Brooks Atkinson
— Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunder-storm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols. — Thomas Mann
— An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in; a pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. — Bill Vaughan
— Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve – middle age is when you’re forced to. — Bill Vaughn

NEW YEAR VERSE

— We meet today
To thank Thee for the era done,
And Thee for the opening one.
— John Greenleaf Whittier

— Then sing, young hearts that are full of cheer,
With never a thought of sorrow;
The old goes out, but the glad young year
Comes merrily in tomorrow.
— Emily Miller

— New Year’s eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights. — Hamilton Wright Mabie

— Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past. — Henry Ward Beecher

— The Old Year has gone. Let the dead past bury its own dead. The New Year has taken possession of the clock of time. All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve months! — Edward P. Powell

— And ye, who have met with Adversity’s blast,
And been bow’d to the earth by its fury;
To whom the Twelve Months, that have recently pass’d
Were as harsh as a prejudiced jury –
Still, fill to the Future! and join in our chime,
The regrets of remembrance to cozen,
And having obtained a New Trial of Time,
Shout in hopes of a kindlier dozen.
— Thomas Hood

— Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true
— Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850

Again, Merry Christmas and the very best through 2023!

Chris George provides reliable PR & GR counsel and effective advocacy. Need a go-to writer and experienced communicator? Call 613-983-0801 @CG&A COMMUNICATIONS.

15 Christmas Quotes (shareable images)

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By George has presented these quotes so that you might right-click, save, and share the images. Spread the joy of the season in the weeks ahead!

Chris George provides reliable PR & GR counsel and effective advocacy. Need a go-to writer and experienced communicator? Call 613-983-0801 @CG&A COMMUNICATIONS.

Quotes from ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus

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Heraclitus is an ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from the 5^th century BC. Little is known of his life but he has been described as a misanthrope who was subject to melancholia – and he gained the title of the weeping philosopher. The central theme of Heraclitus’s philosophy is that the world as constantly in flux, changing as it remained the same.

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.
Character is destiny.
A man’s character is his fate.
Big results require big ambitions.
There is nothing permanent except change.
Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.
Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.
It is harder to fight against pleasure than against anger.
Eyes and ears are poor witnesses to people if they have uncultured souls.
Ten thousand do not turn the scale against a single man of worth.
The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle.
Dogs, also, bark at what they do not know.

Chris George, providing reliable PR counsel and effective advocacy. Need a go-to writer or experienced communicator? 613-983-0801 @ CG&A COMMUNICATIONS.

Quotes from Diogenes the Cynic

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Diogenes, also known as Diogenes the Cynic or Diogenes of Sinope, is a controversial Greek philosopher from 404-323 BC. He is one of the founders of cynic philosophy who questioned many of the cultural conventions of Athens.

Diogenes is best known for holding a lantern to the faces of the citizens of Athens claiming he was searching for an honest man. He rejected the concept of “manners” as a lie and advocated complete truthfulness at all times.

He has the most who is most content with the least.
It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.
We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.
I do not know whether there are gods, but there ought to be.
I know nothing, except the fact of my ignorance.
As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task.
Of what use is a philosopher who doesn’t hurt anybody’s feelings?
Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.
The mob is the mother of tyrants.
The sun, too, shines into cesspools and is not polluted.
The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.
It was a favorite expression of Theophrastus that time was the most valuable thing that a man could spend.
I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

Chris George, providing reliable PR counsel and effective advocacy. Need a go-to writer or experienced communicator? 613-983-0801 @ CG&A COMMUNICATIONS.

Bons mots of Queen Elizabeth II

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This week in social media the By George Journal featured some of the most notable quotes by our Queen Elizabeth, in her memory as the #ByGeorgeQOTD. Here are those posts…

Follow By George Journal on Facebook and on Twitter and receive a daily #ByGeorgeQOTD.

Chris George provides reliable PR & GR counsel and effective advocacy. Need a go-to writer and experienced communicator? Call 613-983-0801 @ CG&A COMMUNICATIONS.

Dozen Inspirational Quotes by Dani Johnson

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Dani Johnson is a very successful American life coach. Here are a dozen of her inspirational quotes to set you on the right path and provide that required motivation to achieve what you have set out to accomplish.

“ACT. Actions kills procrastination and creates momentum to keep yourself motivated to keep moving ahead.”

“Work harder on you than everyone else and you will become unusually successful.”

“If you never step up, you never step forward.”

“Never stop being teachable. If you think you know everything, you will never learn anything.”

“No matter what you do or what industry you are in, make a decision to master the basics. I promise it will pay off! Do not get bored in the basics. Do not settle for “good enough”. It’s time to truly master the basics!”

“When you have a vision for your money, when you have a purpose for making money, you will make more of it.”

“No matter what economy we’re living in, there’s ALWAYS opportunity!”

“Most people fail because they walk away from what they have already built because they have been seduced by shiny objects, better opportunities, or better jobs.”

“While most people are shrinking their dreams constantly to fit within their income circle, 2% of the population are finding ways to increase their income to fit their dreams’ circle.”

“You can choose to be a person ruled by excuses or choose to be one that is actively changing their life and radically impacting others”.

“Procrastinating might help you get by, but it won’t lead you down the path to success. The only thing you can do to beat procrastination is to take action.”

“Success is never convenient. In fact, neither is failure, so no matter what you are going to be inconvenienced.”

SOURCE: https://addicted2success.com/quotes/20-inspirational-quotes-by-dani-johnson/

Chris George, providing reliable PR counsel and effective advocacy. Need a go-to writer or experienced communicator? 613-983-0801 @ CG&A COMMUNICATIONS.

10 existential thoughts of Joseph Campbell

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I don’t think people are really seeking the meaning of Life. I think we’re seeking an experience of being alive…we want to feel the rapture of being alive.

Life is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived. Follow the path that is no path, follow your bliss.

The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.

You’ve got to say yes to this miracle of life as it is, not on condition that it follow your rules.

If you are to advance, all fixed ideas must go.

Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.

Nietzsche was the one who did the job for me. At a certain moment in his life, the idea came to him of what he called “the love of your fate.” Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, “This is what I need.” It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment-not discouragement-you will find the strength is there. Any disaster you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow.

All the gods, all the heavens, all the hells, are within you.

Chris George provides reliable PR & GR counsel and effective advocacy. Need a go-to writer and experienced communicator? Call 613-983-0801 @ CG&A COMMUNICATIONS.

12 poignant quotes of Alan Watts

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Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence.

Life is not a problem to be solved, but an experience to be had.

The future is a concept, it doesn’t exist. There is no such thing as tomorrow. There never will be, because time is always now. That’s one of the things we discover when we stop talking to ourselves and stop thinking. We find there is only present, only an eternal now.

No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen.

People sometimes fail to live because they are always preparing to live.

Don’t hurry anything. Don’t worry about the future. Don’t worry about what progress you’re making. Just be entirely content to be aware of what is.

Insecurity is the result of trying to be secure.

By replacing fear of the unknown with curiosity we open ourselves up to an infinite stream of possibility. We can let fear rule our lives or we can become childlike with curiosity, pushing our boundaries, leaping out of our comfort zones, and accepting what life puts before us.

We thought of life by analogy with a journey, a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at the end, and the thing was to get to that end, success or whatever it is, maybe heaven after you’re dead. But we missed the point the whole way along. It was a musical thing and you were supposed to sing or to dance while the music was being played.

Take a deep breath and tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so we can wipe our brow and know that we’re not alone.

Chris George provides reliable PR & GR counsel and effective advocacy. Need a go-to writer and experienced communicator? Call 613-983-0801 @ CG&A COMMUNICATIONS.

Life’s Beauty Tips

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A passage written by American author Sam Levenson are “words to live by” — an instructive passage to enrich the soul and share the best of yourself with those you love and all you encounter.

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair, let a child run his fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge you’ll never walk alone.

We leave you a tradition with a future.

The tender loving care of human beings will never become obsolete.

People even more than things have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed and redeemed and redeemed.

Never throw out anybody.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands: one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

Your “good old days” are still ahead of you. May you have many of them.

Chris George is an Ottawa-based government affairs advisor and wordsmith, president of CG&A COMMUNICATIONS. Contact: ChrisG.George@gmail.com

Thoughts to infuse the spirit of Christmas

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These are tremendous quotes to scribble in blank cards or to inscribe on the inside cover of a book… they are some of our favourite…

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home! – Charles Dickens

There is no ideal Christmas; only the one Christmas you decide to make as a reflection of your values, desires, affections, traditions. – Bill McKibben

Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind. – Mary Ellen Chase

Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles. – Anonymous

If there is no joyous way to give a festive gift, give love away. – Anonymous

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. – Norman Vincent Peale

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love. – Hamilton Wright Mabi

Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide open heart that thinks of others first. The birth of the baby Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history, because it has meant the pouring into a sick world of the healing medicine of love which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years… Underneath all the bulging bundles is this beating Christmas heart. – George Mathhew Adams

From Home to home, and heart to heart, from one place to another. The warmth and joy of Christmas, brings us closer to each other. – Emily Matthews

He who has no Christmas in his heart will never find Christmas under a tree. – Sunshine Magazine

What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace. – Agnes M. Pharo

The joy of brightening other lives, bearing each others’ burdens, easing other’s loads and supplanting empty hearts and lives with generous gifts becomes for us the magic of Christmas. – W. C. Jones

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. – Burton Hillis

I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month. – Harlan Miller

Christmas Toasts

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eggnog Here is a selection of ten toasts for your Christmas gathering.

May Peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through!
May peace, love and prosperity follow you always.
May the Blessings of Christmas be with you today and always.
May the closeness of friends, the comfort of home, and the unity of our nation, renew your spirits this holiday season
May the Good Lord fulfill you with His promises and bestow on you His many blessings
May the Holiday Season bring only happiness and joy to you and your loved ones.
May the Joy and Peace of Christmas be with you now and throughout the new year.
May the peace and joy of the holiday season be with you throughout the coming year.
May you have the gift of faith, the blessing of hope and the peace of His love at Christmas and always
Merry Christmas May God bless you richly throughout this holiday season.

Also, there are more sayings and toasts for both Christmas and New Years found on the By George Journal. Click here: For Your Christmas and New Year’s Celebrations.

Chris George provides reliable PR & GR counsel and effective advocacy. Need a go-to writer and experienced communicator? Call 613-983-0801 @CG&A COMMUNICATIONS.

10 favourite lines from It’s A Wonderful Life

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itisawol

Here are ten of my favourite sayings from this Christmas classic, It’s A Wonderful Life:

George Bailey: Well, you look about the kind of angel I’d get. Sort of a fallen angel, aren’t you? What happened to your wings?
Clarence (the angel): Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?
George and Mary – George: What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That’s a pretty good idea. I’ll give you the moon, Mary. / Mary: I’ll take it. Then what? / George: Well, then you can swallow it, and it’ll all dissolve, see… and the moonbeams would shoot out of your fingers and your toes and the ends of your hair… am I talking too much?
George: Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you’re talking about…they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn’t think so. People were human beings to him, but to you, a warped frustrated old man, they’re cattle. Well, in my book he died a much richer man than you’ll ever be!
Mary and George – Mary: Bread… that this house may never know hunger. [Mary hands a loaf of bread to Mrs. Martini] / Mary: Salt… that life may always have flavor. [Mary hands a box of salt to Mrs. Martini] / George: And wine… that joy and prosperity may reign forever. Enter the Martini Castle. [George hands Mr. Martini a bottle of wine]
Clarence: You see George, you’ve really had a wonderful life. Don’t you see what a mistake it would be to just throw it away?
George: Hello, Bedford Falls! Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas, movie house! Merry Christmas, Emporium! Merry Christmas, you wonderful old Building and Loan! Hey! Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter!
Clarence: [In book inscription] Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends.
Harry Bailey: A toast to my big brother George: The richest man in town.
Zuzu Bailey: Look, Daddy. Teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.

Chris George provides reliable PR & GR counsel and effective advocacy. Need a go-to writer and experienced communicator? Call 613-983-0801 @CG&A COMMUNICATIONS.

The Christmas Tree – quotes for the season

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The perfect Christmas tree? All Christmas trees are perfect! – Charles N. Barnard
Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall. – Larry Wilde
The best Christmas trees come very close to exceeding nature. – Andy Rooney
Gee, do they still make wooden Christmas trees? – Linus
Tradition: sit with husband in a room lit only by tree lights and remember that our blessings outnumber the lights. – Betsy Cañas Garmon
He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree. – Roy L. Smith
Christmas spirit that goes out with the dried-up Christmas tree is just as worthless. – unknown
Correction: Christmas trees don’t grow on trees; they need rainbows, lumberjacks, and Leprechauns on unicorns playing jock jams on glockenspiels. – Ryan Ross
Tall and majestic? No thanks. I’ll take the small, scrawny, neglected one. – Charlie Brown
I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It’s not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love. – Linus
The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. – Burton Hills
It’s a tradition that the Christmas season begins for our Family with the selection and dressing of our tree. The Magic of the season begins with the placement of the Angel. – Chris George

Chris George provides reliable PR & GR counsel and effective advocacy. Need a go-to writer and experienced communicator? Call 613-983-0801 @CG&A COMMUNICATIONS.

A Dozen Memes on Existential Matters

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Here are a dozen featured #QOTDs relating to existentialism from the By George Journal’s social media feeds over the last two months.

Click into By George each day for inspiration and motivation – on Twitter and Facebook!

Chris George is an Ottawa-based government affairs advisor and wordsmith, president of CG&A COMMUNICATIONS. Contact: ChrisG.George@gmail.com

In Flanders Fields – John McRae

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In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Chris George, providing reliable PR & GR counsel and effective advocacy. Need a go-to writer and experienced communicator? 613-983-0801 @ CG&A COMMUNIATIONS.

Dulce et decorum est – Wilfred Owen

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Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent(14) for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

(ed. – DULCE ET DECORUM EST are the first words of a Latin saying taken from an ode by Horace. These words were often quoted at the start of the First World War. They mean “It is sweet and right.” The full saying ends the poem: “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” which is “It is sweet and right to die for your country.”)

Chris George, providing reliable PR & GR counsel and effective advocacy. Need a go-to writer and experienced communicator? 613-983-0801 @ CG&A COMMUNICATIONS.

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This week in social media the By George Journal featured some of the most notable quotes by our Queen Elizabeth, in her memory as the #ByGeorgeQOTD. Here are those posts…

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