I have a confession.
I'm a quote collector. Not like Bartlett.
Letters for sale on Etsy by custompapercuts
I memorize quotes. I write them in a journal. I bookmark, I highlight, I tape scraps of paper to the fridge. I repeat my favorites to myself as if they could explain the world to me.
When I shop for books, I look first to see if the author has a included a quote after the title page. Here's one I saw at Borders today although I forget what book it was in - "Everything you can imagine is real." -- Picasso. That's cool.
It's a little like this quote from Walt Disney - "If you can dream it, you can do it." I used that in a ppt. presentation at work once. It totally worked.
My all time favorite quote is the first line in Daniel Martin by John Fowles, "Whole sight; or all the rest is desolation."
And a 2nd fav, "They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered." This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Romantic in the doomed kind of way that he loved Zelda.
And..."Curiouser and curiouser!", "No room, no room". The second one is said by the Dormouse when Alice arrives at the Mad Hatter's tea party. I love every sentence in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I must re-read it again soon.
I'm always looking for new great quotes, so please leave your favorite quote in the comments by midnight Friday Jan. 30th, I'll pick someone at random and send you a copy of Zakka Sewing or The Softies Kit - your choice. :-)
The best time to start was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.
- Kelly Shaw
I have always known that at last I would take this road but yesterday I did not know that it would be today. - - Narihira
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there. ~ Rumi
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.
— Emily Dickinson
Writing is easy. You only need to stare at a blank piece of paper until your forehead bleeds.
— Douglas Adams
Posted by: Morna Crites-Moore | February 01, 2009 at 02:58 PM
"Art is the triumph over chaos."
A friendship that can be ended didn't ever start.
I like these!
Deb
Posted by: Debbie | January 30, 2009 at 11:38 AM
I love these two quotes I just ran across!
"Live every day as if, when your feet hit the floor,
Satan shudders as says "Oh sh%$ she's up!"
And
"Why is everything I want to do, so easy, and everything I have to do, so hard"
Posted by: Roseanna Bogley | January 30, 2009 at 10:50 AM
"...object making need not take forever. Only indecision can take that long." Tommy Simpson
Posted by: sjhall | January 30, 2009 at 07:46 AM
I collect quotes too! A few faves:
"We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting laundry." --E. B. White
I feel lucky that my mother ascribed to the very same philosophy and always encouraged me to do whatever I wanted. I think the world would be a happier place if more people did what they loved, not what paid the most or what their family or others expected of them.
"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." --Joseph Chilton Pearce
Posted by: Jessica | January 30, 2009 at 07:00 AM
one of our favourite things to say is actually taken from george off seinfeld. he is annoyed with poeple and he says
'we're living in a society'
thats it, it doesnt make sense but in the right situation and as a personal joke between my husband and i, it always cracks us up.
%*_*%
Posted by: i cant sew | January 30, 2009 at 03:59 AM
Another great Walt Disney quote that I've used in presentations at work:
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible."
Also, by Leonard Bernstein:
"To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time."
Posted by: Jennifer | January 30, 2009 at 03:10 AM
Scatter your flowers as you go. For you will not pass this way again. O.S. Marden
The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. Eden Phillpotts
You meant Midnight Pacific time right?
Posted by: Heide | January 29, 2009 at 11:11 PM
My fav at the moment is from a book my son & I read.
"I love you right up to the moon and back".
Posted by: Hayley | January 29, 2009 at 07:34 PM
“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the
man who cannot read them.”
-Mark Twain
I'm an English teacher so I adore this quote!
Posted by: Sara | January 29, 2009 at 07:13 PM
Lately I like..
"Follow your bliss!"
Posted by: Frizz | January 29, 2009 at 09:54 AM
All you need is love.
-the Beatles
Posted by: LC | January 29, 2009 at 06:02 AM
I love-love-love quotes too! (I started a file in college and have page after page of randoms from movies, books, song lyrics, the children I teach!!...)
"If you live to be one hundred I want to live to be one hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you."
-Winnie the Pooh
"I'd like to quit thinking of the present as some minor insignificant preamble to something else."
-Dazed and Confused
"When you come to the end of everything you know, and the next step is into the depths of darkness of the great unknown, you must believe one of two things: Either you will step out onto firm ground or you will be taught to fly."
-Claire Norris
"Ok, Ms. Stout. You're talking too much. Can I have a turn now?"
-Student in my preschool class
(And an appropriate way to end this LOONNNGG comment!)
Posted by: Ashley Stout | January 29, 2009 at 04:08 AM
"You know the Germans always make good stuff."
Vince, the Sham Wow guy
Not my favorite, but funny
The one I always think of when I am doing something tedious is;
"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...."
Dori, "Finding Nemo"
Posted by: Danna Snider | January 28, 2009 at 10:40 PM
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real." "Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit. "Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt." "Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?" "It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."
-- by Margery Williams, from The Velveteen Rabbit --
Posted by: Cindie | January 28, 2009 at 06:36 PM
“"The best color in the whole world, is the one that looks good, on you!”
or my favorite:
Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.” both quotes by Coco Chanel
Posted by: Sachia Willis | January 28, 2009 at 04:32 PM
Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.” Coco Chanel
Also love this one:
“"The best color in the whole world, is the one that looks good, on you!” Coco Chanel
Posted by: Sachia Willis | January 28, 2009 at 04:28 PM
Well I'm not sure this is a quote or a saying--but I like
"inch by inch it is a cinch, yard by yard it is hard." I find myself repeating this to my daughter as she tries to do her homework.
Posted by: Lynn | January 28, 2009 at 12:17 PM
"Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about." - Oscar Wilde
Thanks for a great site!
Posted by: Joy | January 28, 2009 at 12:03 PM
"Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about." - Oscar Wilde
Thanks for a great site!
Posted by: Joy | January 28, 2009 at 11:56 AM
Gratitude is riches, and complaint is poverty, and the worst I ever had was wonderful!
Brother Dave Gardner
and another --
Success is getting what you want.
Happiness is wanting what you get.
Brother Dave Gardner
Posted by: Tracy C. | January 28, 2009 at 09:12 AM
Gratitude is riches, and complaint is poverty, and the worst I ever had was wonderful!
Brother Dave Gardner
and another:
Success is getting what you want.
Happiness is wanting what you get.
Brother Dave Gardner
Posted by: Tracy C. | January 28, 2009 at 09:01 AM
Great blog!
Posted by: belula | January 28, 2009 at 01:16 AM
ok. my newest one : live positively. that one belongs to coke. :)
Posted by: becky | January 27, 2009 at 08:12 PM
“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”
Roald Dahl is a genius. :)
Posted by: Meg | January 27, 2009 at 07:09 PM