Writing Prompts

To recieve a present handsomely, and in the right spirit, even when you have none to give in return, is to give one in return.

-Leigh Hunt

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Most of us know how to give. We are raised on sating like “It is better to give than to receive.”

But knowing how to receive is important, too, so we can give others the joy of pleasing us.

Write about an incident involving a present. Maybe you remember someone being especially glad to receive a present. Or maybe the person felt awkward about being on the receiving end that he or she took a lot of fun out of the day.

Kindness goes a long way lots o’times when it ought t’stay at home.

-Frank McKinney Hubbard

You’ve got to love what’s loveable and hate what’s hateable. It takes brains to see the difference.

Robert Frost

One of the most important things we can give someone is mental elbow room-the mental room for the other person to be his or her unique self, without constant judgement from us.

-Christian Science Monitor

It’s important that people know what you stand for. It’s equally imporant that they know what you won’t stand for.

-Mary Waldrop

Our national flower is the concrete cloverleaf.

-Lewis Mumford

I care more for that long age which I shall never see than for my own small share of time.

-Cicero

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Marcus Tullius Cicero lived in ancient Rome about 2,100 years ago. We are part of the future “Long age” he speaks about.

Imagine Cicero coming to visit us today. What would he think of our concern for the future? Would he praise our environmental progress? What would he say about our schools? What else might impress him as either good or bad?

In my family, there was never and difference between the women and the men. My mother said if you can make a dress from a pattern you can make a house.

-Jane Watson Hopping

When I say “I,” I mean a thing absolutely unique, not to be confused with any other.

-Ugo Betti

Butter’s dear bought when it’s licked off a briar.

-Irish proverb

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In this proverb, butter means something you really want-maybe popularity, love, praise, or a material thing. A briar is a bush with needlelike leaves. Licking butter off the briar would take a long time and be unpleasant, too

Write about a time in your life when the “butter” wasn’t worth what you would have had to do to get it. Or think of something you or a friend may be doing now that carries too high a price.