Leatherhead Matters

It somehow seems inappropriate to wish everyone a Happy & Prosperous 2009, when we are in the middle of a global recession. Let’s face it 2009 is going to be tough for many, if not most, families. There are some notable New Year quotations below and I think Kersti Bergroth probably catches the essence of the start of a New Year best. However, I recognise that on New Year’s Eve, many will be following P.J. O’Rourke’s advice.

Kersti Bergroth
It is difficult not to believe that the next year will be better than the old one! And this illusion is not wrong. Future is always good, no matter what happens. It will always give us what we need and what we want in secret. It will always bless us with right gifts. Thus in a deeper sense our belief in the New Year cannot deceive us.

P. J. O’Rourke
It is better to spend money like there’s no tomorrow than to spend tonight like there’s no money.

Alfred Lord Tennyson
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.

Hamilton Wright Mabie
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.
Samuel Johnson
Surely, it is much easier to respect a man who has always had respect, than to respect a man who we know was last year no better than ourselves, and will be no better next year.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Look not mournfully into the past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future, without fear, and with a manly heart.

Albert Einstein
I feel that you are justified in looking into the future with true assurance, because you have a mode of living in which we find the joy of life and the joy of work harmoniously combined. Added to this is the spirit of ambition which pervades your very being, and seems to make the day’s work like a happy child at play.