If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

– Henry David Thoreau

Andrew Carnegie explains the Republican idea

If a man would eat, he must work. A life of elegant leisure is the life of an unworthy…

Restored bird’s eye view of East Hampton, Connecticut from 1880

This old map shows East Hampton, Connecticut in the late 19th century.

How a 14th Century Warlord Gained Courage from an Ant

Timur, the last great nomadic conqueror of the Eurasian Steppe, was a warlord who envisioned the restoration of Genghis Khan’s Mongol Empire. Timur’s army was feared throughout Asia, Africa, and Europe, but his extraordinary perseverance, displayed during fifty years of continuous battles, was imparted by an ant.

Vintage Picture of the Chicken Roost in Bridgeport from the 1950’s

The Chicken Roost was a restaurant in Bridgeport, CT that was famous for its “As You Like It” southern fried chicken.

Historic landowners map of South Windsor, CT from 1869

Vintage landowners map shows South Windsor, Connecticut as it used to be

Beautifully restored map of Ansonia, Connecticut from 1921

Old map showing an aerial view of Ansonia, Connecticut from 1921