Today’s Monday Morning Quote features Paul Klee, an artist who offers an interesting perspective on the birth of a line.

A line is a dot that went for a walk. - Paul Klee An artist with a sense of humor

Swiss-born Paul Klee was talented in both music and art, playing the violin from a young age. His father, a German music teacher, and his mother, a Swiss singer, encouraged him to develop his musical talents; his grandmother, Anna Catharina Rosina Frick, on the other hand, gave Klee his first lessons in drawing and coloring.

In honor of National Autism Awareness Month, today’s Monday Morning Quote comes from British author and savant, Daniel Tammet:

In my mind, numbers and words are far more than squiggles of ink on a page. They have form, color, texture and so on. They come alive to me…I do not crunch numbers (like a computer). Rather, I dance with them. - Daniel Tammet

Tammet was born on January 31, 1979 in East London, England. At four years old, Tammet suffered from a massive epileptic seizure. It is speculated whether or not this episode was the source of Tammet’s diagnosis with Asperger’s syndrome shortly after.

Monday Morning Quote is back with wise words from a man who has seen it all, George Washington Carver.

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong—because someday you will have been all of these. - George Washington Carver

Towards the end of the American Civil War, in 1864, George Washington Carver was born on the Moses Carver plantation where his mother was a slave. One night during his early childhood, slave raiders snuck onto the plantation and kidnapped Carver and his mother. Carver was found alone by neighbors and traded back to the Carvers for a race horse.

Today’s Monday Morning Quote comes from an author who has been the receiver of love and loyalty from all around the world. My dear Watson, this one is a mystery that is easy to solve!

I feel that there is reason lurking in you somewhere, so we will patiently grope round for it. - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Creator of Sherlock Holmes

Scottish writer and physician, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for his creation of Sherlock Holmes, a sharp-eyed detective with acute deductive reasoning skills. Aside from crime fiction, Conan Doyle wrote science fiction, historical novels, romances, and poetry as well.

Conan Doyle was the third of ten children. It can be assumed that his mother’s gift for storytelling and love of books was passed onto him, but it wasn’t until years later when he began studying medicine that Conan Doyle would begin writing short stories himself. After getting his degree in medicine, Conan Doyle attempted to open an independent practice in Portsmouth, England. After a shaky start, the practice was able to provide him with a steady income in its third year, at which point he began dividing his time between seeing patients and writing.

Monday Morning Quote is back to motivate you with celebrated English poet and writer, Rudyard Kipling.

Fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run. - Rudyard Kipling

Kipling was born in present-day Mumbai, India in 1865 and lived until 1936. During this lifespan, he produced many prolific written works, most famously, The Jungle Book. In 1871, he and his sister Alice were sent to Southsea, England for schooling, where they lived with Captain and Mrs. Holloway. This transition was not easy for Kipling. When he finally left in 1877, his lasting impressions of this time were quite miserable to say the least—in his autobiography, Kipling refers to the Southsea home as “The House of Desolation”. Every story has a silver lining, though: it was during this time that Kipling began turning to literature, absorbing the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Daniel Defoe, and Wilkie Collins, among others.

Today’s Monday Morning Quote is from one of the most famous Surrealist artists of all time, Salvador Dali. He was known as much for his paintings as for his eccentric and flamboyant personality (the mustache merely being a supporting feature).

I seated ugliness on my knee, and almost immediately grew tired of it. - Salvador Dali Legendary artist and mustache groomer

Born on May 11, 1904 in a town called Figueres in the region of Catalonia, Spain, Dali’s talent for the arts was recognized early on. He received his first art lesson at the age of ten, and went on to attend the Special Painting, Sculpture and Engraving School (Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando) at the Royal Academy of Art in Madrid. There he befriended a number of students who would continue on to become renowned artists themselves, including Luis Bunuel, Federico Garcia Lorca, and Pepin Bello. Dali never finished his studies there, though, having been expelled for expressing his superiority over the professors, claiming he was more qualified than they were.

Raise those glasses in honor of today’s Monday Morning Quote, a salute to Irish culture and traditions.

May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night, and a smooth road all the way to your door. - Irish toast

The history of toasts themselves is unclear. During our research, we found that toasts may have arisen from the fear of being poisoned; by clanking glasses together, the drinks will spill over into other glasses, guaranteeing that if one drink was poisoned, everyone involved in the toast would also be affected. Other sources claim that the first recorded toast dates back to 450 AD, when King Vortigen of Britain arranged a feast for his Saxon allies. The toast that took place that night was supposedly to good health and fortune. In the 17^th century, it was believed that the noise from glasses clanking against one another would scare away devils.

Today’s Monday Morning Quote combines storytelling, imagination, and a whole lot of respect for the talented Will Eisner.

All professionals should teach at some time in their career because they are obliged to pass on what they have learned. - Will Eisner Creator of superheros

Recognized as “the most influential comic artist of all time” by Wizard Magazine, Will Eisner’s career in comics covered a period of nearly seventy years. One of his most popular creations, The Spirit, was first created in 1940. This series introduced protagonist Denny Colt to the world. In typically superhero form, Colt’s second identity, the Spirit, “attracts the most seductive and dangerous femmes fatale and wages a never ending war against streetwise crooks, criminal master-minds and otherworldly beings…with only quick wits, sharp humour and his two gloved fists.”

Today’s Monday Morning Quote comes from a writer whose bag of tricks contains sins, secrets and, more likely than not, death. With a loyal fan base and readers around the world, most would agree that Stephen King certainly knows how to spin a haunting tale.

People want to know why I do this, why I write such gross stuff. I like to tell them I have the heart of a small boy…and I keep it in a jar on my desk. - Stephen King

Well known for his literary talent and tendency to intertwine horror and storytelling, Stephen King published his first professional piece in 1967 en route to getting a job as an English teacher. After becoming employed at a public high school in 1971, King began devoting evenings and weekends to writing, producing short stories and developing novels during that time. Two years later, he would publish his first novel, Carrie. The earnings from Carrie provided him with enough resources to leave teaching and pursue writing full-time. Interestingly enough, King was supposedly so frustrated with the novel’s progress that he threw it out before its completion. It was his wife, Tabitha, who rescued the novel and encouraged King to continue with it.

Monday is upon us once again, and we’re back with another Monday Morning Quote from a tall, dark and handsome crooner of epic proportions:

There’s no half-singing in the shower, you’re either a rock star or an opera diva. - Josh Groban Singer-songwriter sensation/worldwide heartbreaker.

For those not familiar with Josh Groban, most likely there will be someone in your social circles that is. Singer-songwriter Josh Groban has created five albums to date; the sales from his fourth album, “Noël”, catapulted him to becoming the Best Selling Artist of 2007 in the US, with 3.7 million copies sold in three months. In 2002, he was also the most requested guest for the Oprah Winfrey Show, finally making an appearance in July of that year. Groban describes himself as “a tenor in training”, his voice hovering somewhere between a tenor and a baritone. His latest album “Illuminations” was release in November of last year.