Quotes, Folks

Hey, Friends.

The other day at work I was doing research on a project.  I was looking for quotes from various authors for a display.  I really loved a lot of them but couldn't use them for the display for various reasons -- too long, not relevant to what I was trying to do, etc.  Rather than forget them completely, or have to try to hunt them down again, I decided that I should gather them all in one place.  Why yes, that place would be here.

There's literally nothing more to this post.  It's just going to be a bunch of quotes that struck a chord with me and I wanted to save them for later.  Maybe you would enjoy reading them as well.  Maybe not.  Feel free to skip out now if this just isn't your thing.

(Bonus question: can you figure out what all of these people have in common other than being authors?  Give yourself a prize if you can...something nice.  Pretend it's from me for being super proud of you. )



"The hell of it is, I know the answer.  The answer is that you never, ever, rely on another person for your peace of mind. If you do, you're screwed but good.  Not right away, maybe, but sooner or later. You have to -- I don't know -- you have to learn to live with yourself. You have to learn to turn back your own sheets and set a table for one without feeling pathetic. You have to be strong and confident and pleased with yourself and never give the slightest impression that you can't hack it without that certain goddamn someone.You have to fake the hell out of it."  -- Armistead Maupin

"Some people are born mediocre, some people achieve mediocrity, and some people have mediocrity thrust upon them." -- Joseph Heller

"Feelings of longing seemed to burst from her heart; they ran in all directions, like streams of blood, seeking out paths to all the places in the wide landscape where she had lived, to all her sons roaming through the world, to all her dead lying under the earth." -- Sigrid Undset

"Credo quia absurdum -- I believe because it is absurd." -- Robert Ludlum

"Loneliness becomes a lover, solitude a darling sin." -- Ian Fleming

"We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be." -- May Sarton

"Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.  Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe, the less taste we shall have for destruction." -- Rachel Carson

"There are always some lunatics about.  It would be a dull world without them." -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

"Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent." -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

"This is what you should do: love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take your hat off to nothing known or unknown to any man or number of men...re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss what insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem." -- Walt Whitman

"I know you think that when you're 35, 45, 55, you'll be different. But I'm going to let you in on a bit of a secret. You're going to look different, and your life is going to be different, but in your head you'll always be that 16-year-old girl." -- Francine Pascal

Snippets

I have this habit of writing down bits and passages from books that strike me when I'm reading.  Sometimes it is just the way something is phrased, or it is funny, witty. Sometimes it strikes a deep chord of truth, even if wrapped in a joke. They aren't all from great works of literature, religion, or philosophy. The snippets aren't necessarily deep thoughts that bear reflection and change your view of the world, is what I'm saying.  For whatever reason, at that particular moment they seemed important and worth noting for future reference.

I've been doing this for years -- literally, years.  I have journals full of this stuff.  Being me, I also noted the title, author and page number of each one, like I was going to have to provide a citation in a paper at some point.  They are things I wanted to remember, and I have always remembered things better when I physically write them down.  I was the person in school who took a ridiculous amount of notes during class.

I was reorganizing things last night, and I was moving all of these journals again, and I took a peek through.  I thought I'd share some of them here. Maybe you'll like them too, or feel inspired to read the books they came from.  Maybe not.  Maybe I will unwittingly be giving you a peek into the deep inner workings of my psyche.  Who knows?

On to the snippets (and I will spare the you the page citations.)

Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint

He called them mythistories, those odd little tales of his.  They were the ghosts of fancies that he would track down from time to time and trap on paper.  Oddities.  Some charming, some grotesque.  All of them enchanting.  Foolishness, he liked to say, offered from one fool to others.

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams

But it was the chance carelessness of it which particularly appealed to Dirk because words used carelessly, as if they did not matter in any serious way, often allowed otherwise well-guarded truths to seep through.

Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid by Lemony Snicket

Taking one's chances is like taking a bath, because sometimes you end up feeling comfortable and warm, and sometimes there is something terrible lurking around that you cannot see until it is too late and you can do nothing else but scream and cling to a plastic duck.

Shopgirl by Steve Martin

He doesn't understand the subtleties of slights and pains, that it is not the big events that hurt the most but rather the smallest questionable shift in tone at the end of a spoken word that can plow most deeply into a heart.

Personal Days by Ed Park

Jack II says that when you feel a tingling in your fingers, it means someone is Googling you.

I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley

As most New Yorkers have done, I have given serious and generous thought to the state of my apartment should I get killed during the day.

Who Let the Blogs Out? by Biz Stone

The self-organizing power of a hyper-connected population is frightening to regimes that are used to the illusion that they have control over the information that citizens receive. When knowledge can spread virally anywhere in the world, we will be getting somewhere.

Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar... by Thomas Cathcart

Without logic, reason is useless.  With it, you can win arguments and alienate multitudes.

Austenland by Shannon Hale

I wasn't aware until this precise and awkward moment that when startled in a strange place, my instincts would have me pretend to be a ninja.

A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut

The arts are not a way to make a living.  They are a very human way of making living more bearable.  Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake.  Sing in the shower.  Dance to the radio.  Tell stories.  Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem.  Do it as well as you possibly can.  You will get an enormous reward.  You will have created something.

My Drunk Kitchen by Hannah Hart

You think that a delicious jelly snack is ever crippled by self-doubt?  Nope.  And you shouldn't be either.

Still Life by Louise Penny

The mixture of cafe-au-lait and impatience was producing an exquisite vibration.

The Bhagavad Gita (I believe this is the edition I read)

The mind that regulates itself by the undisciplined senses loses discernment, as the wind blows a ship from its course at sea.

The Between Boyfriends Book by Cindy Chupack

I believe in soul mates, although lately I've been wondering if mine might be agoraphobic.

See?  Told you they weren't all deep thoughts that would change the world.  I think I've prattled on long enough now.  You're busy.  You've got lots of things to do beside read my nonsense.