I have been crazy busy with an overnight trip to Houston that turned into 4 days then 3 days of 2 of our grandsons staying with us. As a result I started posting from my ipad, where I don’t have any of my napkins stored, but I do have a ton of digital drawings I’ve done over the years. So digital drawings it’s been for the past week or two.
“You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come in contacct with a new idea.”
Drawn 7/30/2009
“Anger is only one letter short of danger.”
Drawn 8/15/2011
“Many people will lose their tempers merely from seeing you keep yours.”
Drawn 8/16/2011
“How we do admire the wisdom of those who come to us for advice.”
Drawn 8/20/2001
“Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.”
Drawn 8/3/2010
“Communication: The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and lightning bug.”
Drawn 8/18/2015
“Communication: Who you are is speaking so loudly that I can’t hear what you are saying.”
Drawn 8/12/2015
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Jealousy is just love and hate at the same time.”
Drawn 7/26/2016
“If I had to live my life again, i’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.”
Drawn 7/11/2013
“Creativity is allowing your self to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
Drawn 7/12/2013
“Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.”
Drawn 7/15/2013
“Success in life is founded on making only the right mistakes.”
Drawn on 7/17/2013
“There are two mistakes one can make along the road of truth; not going all the way, and not starting.”
Drawn 7/18/2013
“The best way to sound like you know what you’re talking about is to know what you’re talking about.”
Drawn 7/13/2011
“Minds are like Flowers – They only open when the time is right.”
Drawn 7/22/2015
“Done is better than perfect.”
Drawn 7/15/2015
“A Promise is a cloud, fulfillment is the rain.”
Drawn 7/9/2014
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Some people change their ways when they see the light; others when they feel the heat.”
Drawn 7/19/2010
“Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than from the arguments of its opposers.”
Drawn 7/20/2010
Jade at Starbucks
Drawn 7/30/2014
Jade holding her drawing
Taken 7/30/2014
‘Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.”
Drawn 7/29/2013
“A person finds their identity by identifying.”
Drawn 7/30/2013
“Deciding what to remember is how we decide who we are.”
Drawn 7/31/2013
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“If there is anything we wish to change in a child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could be better changed in ourselves.”
Drawn 7/8/2011
“Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.”
Drawn 7/7/2011
“When you are finished changing, you are finished.”
Drawn 7/6/2011
“The only difference between a rut and a grave is the dimensions.”
drawn 7/5/2011
“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
Drawn 7/11/2015
“The Curious Paradox: When I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”
Drawn 7/21/2015
“Guns don’t kill people, bullets do.”
Drawn 7/20/2012
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.” – Thomas Jefferson
Drawn 6/4/2009
“What people want is simple. They want an America as good as its promise.”
Drawn 7/2/2015
“As mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality.” – George Washington.
Drawn 7/4/2014
“What makes a nation great is not primarily its great men, but the stature of its innumerable mediocre ones.”
Drawn 7/4/2010
“Unless you change direction, you will get where you are headed.”
Drawn 7/25/2011
“Beauty is a brief gasp between one cliche and another.”
Drawn 7/12/2017
“She poured coffee as if she was from Oshkosh but she poured it in Texas.”
Drawn at the Gaylord Hotel in Texas 7/5/2012
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable.”
Drawn on 6/9/2009
“She occasionally stumbled over the truth but hastily picked herself up and hurried on as if nothing had happened.”
Quote by Winston Churchill, commenting on a political opponent who had insulted him earlier.
Drawn on 6/16/2014
“Life is much more unexpected…than I expected.”
Quote by me.
Drawn on 6/13/2004
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Extroverts are introverts who haven’t had their fill yet.”
“to keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
Whenever you’re right, shut up.”
“You won’t love your neighbor if you don’t know your neighbor.”
“If you can give your son or daughter only one gift, let it be enthusiasm.”
“People who are brutally honest get more satisfaction out of the brutality than the honesty.”
“When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.”
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Women are the only exploited group in history to have been idealized into powerlessness.”
Drawn 6/5/2018
“A single hair casts a shadow.”
Drawn on a napkin 6/22/2020
“Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.”
Drawn 6/7/2011
“What happens to the hole when the donut is gone?”
“What happens to the donut when the hole is gone?”
Drawn 6/9/2011
“To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
Whenever you’re right, shut up.”
Drawn 6/29/2011
“Extroverts are introverts who haven’t had their fill yet.”
Drawn 5/10/2014
© 2026 Marty Coieman | napkindad.com
“Don’t love hating people” – Sarah Haines
“Self-pity makes even the simplest problem almost impossible to solve.”
Drawn 6/9/2010
“Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often.”
Drawn on a napkin 6/6/2016
“Never miss an opportunity to make others happy even if you have to leave them alone to do it.
Drawn 6/10/2015
“An intelligent woman has millions of born enemies…all the stupid men.”
Drawn 6/8/2010
“Blindspots don’t want to be seen.”
Drawn 6/1/2016
“You’re so ugly.”
“Really? I was trying to look like you today!”
Drawn 6/19/2014
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Hatred does not cease by more hatred but only by love.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities” – Voltaire
“A career is made in public, talent in private.”
“If hate has a shape it is of a boomerang.”
“Marriage has no guarantees. If that’s what you are looking for, go live with a car battery.”
Drawn 6/30/2011
“Consequence is no coincidence.”
Drawn 6/21/2016
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“If you feel indispensable, put your finger in a glass of water, withdraw it, and note the hole you have left.”
Drawn 5/8/2012
“It may take forever to win men’s minds by persuasion, but that’s quicker than you can do it by force.”
Drawn 5/18/2012
“The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example.”
Drawn on Memorial Day, 5/30/2011
“Just because you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town.”
Drawn 5/24/2013
‘Writing Lesson Number 1: Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.”
Drawn 5/24/2011
“There is nothing like a persuasive speedh to fuddle the mental apparatus, upset the convictions, and debauch the emotions of an audience not practiced in the delusions of oratory.”
Drawn 5/17/2012
“Taking Joy in living is a woman’s best cosmetic.”
Drawn 5/24/2013
“Never let your persistence and passion turn into stubbornness and ignorance.”
Drawn 5/13/2014
“If you have a radical idea, be conservative in how you carry it out.”
Drawn 5/16/2014
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“If your morals make you dreary, depend on it, they are wrong.”
Drawn 5/12/2016
“If the world were perfect it wouldn’t be.”
Drawn 5/10/2016
“If you would persuade others, seem open to persuasion yourself.”
Drawn 5/15/2012
“Would you persuade, speak of interest, not of reason.”
Drawn 5/14/2012
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.”
Drawn 5/6/2016
“Mothers are the gardeners of the human race.”
Drawn Mother’s Day 2016
“It is a poor family that hath neither a whore nor a thief in it.”
“It is hard to tell what brings happiness: poverty and wealth have both failed.” (I vote for art)
Drawn 5/18/2011
“At twenty we worry about what others think of us;
At forty we don’t care what others think of us;
At sixty we realize they haven’t been thinking about us at all.”
Drawn 5/6/2011
“You don’t think your way to creative work. You work your way to creative thinking.”
Drawn 5/3/2017
“Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add but when there is nothing left to take away.”
Drawn 5/9/2017
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
The first several days of this week were taken up with reintroducing myself to a new audience, explaining how I became the Napkin Dad. You can read that story at ‘Napkin Beginnings’ at the top menu.
“Creativity is not the finding of a thing but the making of something after finding it.”
Drawn 5/17/2016
“Being a woman is a terribly difficult trade since it consists primarily of dealings with men.”
Drawn 5/23/2016
“The bible tells us to love our neighbors and also to love our enemies – probably because they are generally the same people!”
Drawn 5/19/2011
“Mothers are the gardeners of the human race.”
“If the world were perfect it wouldn’t be.”
“If your morals make you dreary, depend on it, they are wrong.”
“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.”
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“to keep a fire burning have the logs close enough to keep each other warm and far enough apart for air to fan the flames.”
Draw 4/10/2012
“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.”
Drawn 4/11/2014
“Wounds teach better lessons than lectures.”
Drawn 4/16/2014
“In life, one is always alone. The important thing is with whom.”
Drawn 4/25/2014
“Every person must do two things alone. They must do their own believing and their own dying.”
Drawn 4/29/2014
“If you scatter thorns don’t go barefoot.”
Drawn 4/22/2013
“The name we give to something shapes our attitude towards it.”
Drawn 4/11/2019
“One plays the piano, gets discord. Another plays, gets harmony. The piano is not at fault. The same is true of life.”
Drawn 4/28/2010
“The foolish reject what they see. The wise reject what they think.”
Drawn 4/21/2017
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well.”
And I would add – forgiveness will start to happen when you take forgiving action, not just think about it.
Drawn 4/15/2009
“Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm.”
Drawn 4/22/2011
“Training boys is wiser than limiting girls.”
Drawn 4/23/2013
“What counts in a happy marriage isn’t how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility.”
Drawn 4/13/2012
“An ideal wife is any woman who has an ideal husband.”
drawn 4/12/2012
Drawn 4/13/2012
“By all means marry; if you get a good spouse you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.”
Drawn 4/12/2012
“Happy marriages begin when we marry the ones we love, and they blossom when we love the ones we marry.”
Drawn 4/11/2012
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening, no doubt, no awakening.”
drawn 4/9/2010
“to educate a man in mind but not morals is to educate a menace to society.”
Drawn 4/1/2004
“the illusion that exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.”
Drawn 4/27/2015
“When the heart grieves over what it has lost, the spirit can still rejoice over what it has left.”
Drawn 4/22/2009
“I have great faith in fools – self-confidence my friends call it.”
Drawn 4/1/2011
“It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.”
Drawn 4/23/2009
“You will know forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well.”
Drawn 4/15/2009
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“I think it’s about time we vote for people with breasts. After all, we’ve been voting for boobs long enough.”
Drawn 4/16/2012
“Do not mistake temptation for opportunity.”
This has been me too many times in my life. I rationalized it as an opportunity when it was just me being drawn to what I desired. Of course, both things can be true at the same time but even if it is an opportunity you might miss it if you are focused on the short term fulfillment of your desire. The long game is the hardest game to play.
Drawn 4/14/2016
“If you want to kill a good idea, get a committee working on it.
Drawn 4/28/2016
“Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences.”
Drawn 4/12/2011
“Don’t let imaginary dangers inflict real wounds.”
Drawn 4/14/2015
“Depression is the inability to construct a future.”
Drawn 4/27/2009
“You can be misunderstood once. After that, you are just communicating poorly.”
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Perfectionish doesn’t believe in improvement.”
Drawn 3/22/2012
“The best way out is always through.”
Drawn 3/22/2013
“Imagine walking a mile in someone else’s headlines.”
Drawn 3/24/2015
“Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.”
Drawn 3/25/2009
“Respect my existence or expect my resistance.”
Drawn 3/24/2021
“Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.”
Drawn 3/27/2014
“We shape clay into a pot but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.”
Drawn on 3/9/2011
“yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.”
Drawn on 3/24/2016
“He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” – MLK, Jr.
drawn 3/6/2001
“Research is what we are doing when we don’t know what we are doing.”
Drawn 3/31/2014
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“History is a race between education and catastrophe.”
Drawn 3/15/2011
“When calamity has been suffered, remember first how much has escaped.”
Drawn 3/16/2011
“Few women admit their age, few men act theirs.”
Drawn 3/17/2013
“What quarrel, what harshness, what unbelief in each other can subsist in the presence of a great calamity, when all the artificial vesture of our life is gone and we are all one with each other in primitive mortal needs.”
Drawn 3/18/2011
“If you are naturally kind you attract a lot of people you don’t like.”
Drawn 3/18/2014
“They say nobody’s perfect then they say practice makes perfect. I wish they would make up their mind.”
Drawn 3/20/2012
“The only nice thing about being imperfect is the joy it it brings others.”
Drawing 3/21/2012
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“People who change the world have declared independence from other people’s expectations.”
Drawn 3/8/2016
“Once you label me, you negate me.”
Drawn 3/9/2015
“Definitions belong to the definer, not the defined.”
Drawn 3/11/2014
“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?”
Drawn 3/11/2013
“Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.”
Drawn 3/12/2001
“Simplicity is less thoughts, not less thinking.”
Drawn 3/13/2014
Day 14
“Calamity is the great leveler.”
The napkin drawing is an interpretation of Hokusai’s ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’ from 36 views of Mt. Fuji – woodblock print, 1831
Drawn 3/14/2011
“No human chooses evil because it is evil, they just mistake it for happiness.”
Drawn 3/1/2017
“Only a fool tests the waters with both feet.”
Drawn 3/2/2011
“A resolution to avoid an evil is seldom framed till the evil is so far advanced as to make avoidance impossible.”
Drawn 3/3/2017
“We run carelessly over the precipice after having put something in front of us to prevent us seeing it.”
Drawn 3/4/2011
“Flatterers look like friends as wolves look like dogs.”
Drawn 3/5/2013
“there is no effect more disproportionate to its cause than the happiness bestowed by a small compliment.”
Drawn 3/5/2013
“It is a great mistake for men to give up paying compliments, for when they give up saying what is charming, then give up thinking what is charming.”
Drawn 3/4/2013
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“A discovery is an accident meeting a prepared mind.”
Drawn 2/13/2017
“Even if our choices aren’t free, we aren’t free to not choose.”
Drawn 2/25/2010
“Three letter words that Ignite Creativity: I can’t even draw a stick figure….YET.”
drawn 2/23/2016
“One of the advantages of being disorganized is that one is always having surprising discoveries.”
drawn 2/15/2017
“One reason a dog can be such comfort when you’re feeling blue is that they don’t try to find out why.”
Drawn 2/22/2011
“The phrase ‘Working Mother’ is redundant.”
Drawn on a napkin 2/19/2014
“If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?”
Drawn 2/18/2014
© 2026
Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Happiness is the sublime moment when you get out of your bra at night.”
Drawn 2/10/2014
“If you are happy you are fulfilling the purpose of existence.”
Drawn 2/11/2015
“Only mediocrity is safe from ridicule.”
Drawn 2/25/2013
“Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre.”
Drawn 2/28/2013
“There is something about a closet that makes a skeleton terribly restless.”
Drawn 2/16/2009
“Humility doesn’t mean you think less of yourself; it means you think of yourself less.”
Drawn 2/29/2012
“Be humble, for the worst thing in the world is of the same stuff as you; be confident, for the stars are of the same stuff as you.”
Drawn 2/27/2012
© 2026 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
