"Quote, un-quote".

Any military presentation or publication has to be started with the inclusion of a suitable quotation from a long-dead specialist in the subject that is about to be passed before the eyes of the expectantly waiting audience. Whether or not this enhances the overall effect of the presentation or ensures the readers’ full enjoyment of the soon to follow text is debatable.  Often we are provided with a quote from an unsuccessful military leader or a statesman whose words were noble but his action said otherwise.  

However, other peoples’ quotes can have their uses.  Often they say things that we have failed to express adequately ourselves in the past, but wish we had been able to find the words.  Sometimes they can stimulate thought or motivate us to take action in our own lives.  And sometimes these quotes just sum up what we already knew and felt......but had just not bothered to vocalise or put down on paper.

Well I like a good quote; something to make you smile or stop and think or something that just sums up a moment in time.  If you have looked at my website or at any of my books you will know this and I thought it was time to add one to my blog.  

This is one by Robert Louis Stevenson from his book Travels with a Donkey. It reminds me of all those special nights when I slept under the stars and felt at peace with the world - wonderful times:

"Night is a dead monotonous period under a roof; but in the open world it passes lightly, with its stars and dews and perfumes, and the hours are marked by changes in the face of Nature. What seems a kind of temporal death to people choked between walls and curtains, is only a light and living slumber to the man who sleeps afield. All night long he can hear Nature breathing deeply and freely; even as she takes her rest, she turns and smiles..............."