Quote of the day

I was going to write a long, descriptive, profound entry but then I couldn't log-on to Earthlink--it didn't recognize my name or password even though it did this morning. So, instead of letting it go and trying later, I got on the phone to technical support, waited forever, and finally got through, only to be passed back and forth between technical and customer support. Now, a couple hours later, the problem has gone away but I'm cranky. Therefore, only this quote:

No man is born in possession of the art of living, any more than of the art of agriculture; the one requires to be studied as well as the other, and a man can no more expect permanent satisfaction from actions performed at random, than he can expect a good crop from seeds sown without due regard to soil and season...Nothing is more conducive to happiness, than fixing on an end to be gained, and then steadily pursuing its attainment.

By J. C. London in An Encyclopedia of Agriculture, 1825, quoted on p. 20 in Living the Good Life: How to Live Sanely and Simply in a Troubled World by Helen and Scott Nearing. (The copy I linked to has two of the Nearings' books in one volume.)