"It's such a pleasure to write down splendid words - almost as though one were inventing them." Rupert Hart-Davis.
I have been collecting quotes ever since I started reading. Statements that I found memorable, profound, funny or struck me as wise. I keep these in my own personal Bartlett's, my "I wish I'd said that" collection. Someone always seems to have said it better than I.
Here's a small sampling.
2. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you." Unknown
A gentle reminder to keep your mouth shut, especially in this pervasive YouTube everything age.
3. "You know, Monopoly is a great game, but when it is all over, the pieces just go back in the box. Amass your properties, your hotels, your wealth, your accomplishments, your awards, your whatevers and eventually, it will all be over with and the pieces go back in the box. And all you are left with is how you lived your life." Grandma Ortberg
Words to live by. In the end it is how you lived your life. I have this engraved on my RoadID - along with my blood type and emergency phone number.
4. "If you always tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything." Samuel Clemens
Ah, yes. Something politicians should consider.
5a. "New ideas are delicate. They can be killed by a sneer or a yawn, stabbed to death by a joke, or worried to death by a frown on the right person’s face." Charles Brower
5b. "Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt. " Shakespeare
If you believe in yourself, there will come a time you will have to be fearless in the face of scorn. Persist. Thomas Edison tried dozens of materials for a light bulb filament before striking on tungsten.
6. "It takes two to feel inferior." Eleanor Roosevelt
Don't let anyone else define you.
7. "Though no one can go back and make a new beginning, anyone can start over and make a new ending." Chico Xavier
We all have made mistakes and have regrets. Don't let the past define your future.
8. "Do what you can while you can before you cannot." Richard Powers
Don't use the excuse that my little effort cannot make a difference.
9. "The difference between what we do, and what we could do, would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems." Mohandas Ghandi
And while you're at it, give a little extra. Be generous.
10. "We come unbidden into this life and if we are lucky we find a purpose beyond starvation, misery and early death, which, lest we forget, is the common lot." Abraham Verghese
Think thrice when judging those who struggle in poverty.
11. "... truth passes through 3 stages before it is recognized. In the first, it is ridiculed. In the second, it is opposed. In the third, it is regarded as self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer
Be humble. Your first (and second) opinion may not be correct.
12. "An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes it will also make better soup." H.L. Mencken
You gotta love Mr. Mencken, but don't be afraid to be an idealist.
13. "There is no tolerance unless there is something to tolerate. And that, in practice, is likely to mean something which most people would consider intolerable." Alfred North Whitehead
You have a right to your beliefs ... but everyone else has a right to theirs as well.
14. "Whenever you do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world watching you, and act accordingly." Thomas Jefferson
Don't do anything for prestige or status only.
15. "Speak when you are angry and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret."
Lawrence J. Peter
The old count-to-ten rule. Perhaps twenty ... or fifty.
16. "I think it would be a good idea." Ghandi, when asked his views on Western Civilization
Ghandi was a great critic.
17. "The mathematicians are a sort of Frenchman. When you talk to them, they immediately translate it into their own language and right away it is something entirely different." Goethe
Just because I was a math major.
18. "In science one attempts to explain something no one knew before in ways everyone can understand. In poetry, it is the exact opposite." Paul Dirac
Think about it. Made me smile.
19. "The optimist sees the glass half full. The pessimist sees the glass half empty. The engineer sees the glass as twice the size it needs to be." Every Engineer
For the nerds out there.
20. "It is easier to bear some abuse if I reflect. I do not deserve this reproach but I do deserve others that have not been made." Francois Mauriac
Temper your resentment of criticism you feel is unwarranted.
21. "We could learn a lot from color crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box." Robert Fulghum
Diversity is a strength not a weakness.
22. "It’s a hard road, daddyo, turning lead to gold." Van Morrison
Ponder song lyrics for the joy of language - and for insights.
23. "I'll moider da bum." Boxer Tony Galento when asked what he thought of William Shakespeare
Cracked me up.
24. "We all have our time machines. Those that take us back are memories ... and those that carry us forward are dreams." H.G. Wells
Treasure your memories but don't lose your dreams.
25. "Be yourself. Well, maybe someone a bit nicer." Barbara Bush
Yes, Barbara. We can all be better than we are.
26. "I used to think getting old was about vanity - but it's actually about losing people you love. Getting wrinkles is trivial." Eugene O'Neill
Amen.
And the good Lord Tennyson
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices.
Come, my friends,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
from Ulysses
