Well, we’ve hit that time of the semester: midterms are passing, there’s still a long haul to Thanksgiving and practically an eternity until finals. The work is long, the classes are getting tough, and the motivation is running short. In short, we’re stuck in the doldrums with no wind in our sails.

These are the weeks that make and break semesters.

But, no matter how many times our professors tell us not to give up or how much coffee we manage to consume in a day, eventually we’re all in need of a little inspiration.

That said, I’m an opinion writer – not an inspirational speaker. I’ll leave the inspiration up to greater minds than mine:

For the week before that huge project is due:

“These are the times that try men’s souls.” -Thomas Paine, American patriot

For the realization that that one professor you’ve been listening to for six weeks really doesn’t have a clue:

“The Oracles are dumb.” -John Milton, “Hymn,” stanza 20, line 173

For the nights you fall asleep face-down in a textbook:

“Reading furnishes the mind only with materials for knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.” -John Locke, English philosopher

For those long nights that turn into mornings:

“Night is a more quiet time to work. It aids thought.” -Alexander Graham Bell, American inventor

For those 15-page papers, of which only 10 are complete:

“One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.” -Marie Curie, Polish physicist and Nobel laureate

For the day after you bomb a big test and are just sure you will fail out of school:

“I would rather hire a man with enthusiasm, than a man who knows everything.” -John D. Rockefeller, business tycoon

For anyone who received three or more midterms:

“There is in the worst of fortune the best of chances for a happy change.” -Euripides, ancient Greek playwright

For those pop quizzes, when you haven’t cracked a book in weeks:

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” -Franklin D. Roosevelt, U.S. president

For those 10-page essay tests:

“Abandon every hope, ye who enter here.” -Dante Alighieri, Florentine poet, “The Inferno”

For the end of those 10-page essay tests, when your wrists are throbbing with writer’s cramp:

“The worst pain a man can suffer: to have insight into much and power over nothing.” -Herodotus, ancient Greek historian

For when your noon class goes long and you can’t get lunch:

“Thought depends largely on the stomach. In spite of this, those with the best stomachs are not always the best thinkers.” -Voltaire, French philosopher

For those long weeks with three papers and four tests spread throughout the week:

“My rule always was to do the business of the day in the day.” -Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, victor of the Battle of Waterloo

For the end of those long weeks:

“I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.” -Sir Winston Churchill, prime minister of Great Britain

Hopefully you’ve been inspired by this point, at least to laugh a bit. Fall semester 2007 is just over halfway done. Remember: only four weeks to Thanksgiving Break and seven weeks to finals! Oh – and one last thought:

“I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

So put down the paper and pay attention!

– Ryan Frederick is a senior in management from Orient.