Musing on…A Handful (or so) of Quotes

While reading one of those survey lists that are ubiquitous on social networking sites, and the Internet in general, I came across one that I’ve seen hundreds of times but this time made me pause: Favorite Quote.

I paused because I don’t have one favorite quote. While I don’t collect quotes like some, I have accumulated some over the years that bounce around my head and sometimes issue forth from my lips.

I suppose the one that I’m fondest of was introduced to me in the movie April Fool’s Day. It’s a slightly altered version of Boswell’s famous observation (and my apologies because of my faulty memory of Deborah Foreman’s eminently delightful delivery):

We can never know the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel, drop-by-drop, there is at last one that makes it run over. And so, in a series of kindnesses, there is at last one, that makes the heart run over.

I’ve used this quote on a couple of occasions. It never fails to get emotions moving (even in me), and is one of the most literate and true things I will ever say to the people that matter to me.

Two others also came from visual media, though their source is impeccable:

I am a true laborer: I earn that I eat, get that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man’s happiness, glad of other men’s good, content with my harm.
— Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act III/Scene ii

Am I so round with you as you with me, that like a football you do spurn me thus?
— Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, Act II/Scene i

An abbreviated form of the first quote comes from a first season episode of Charmed (The Witch is Back), while the second I first appreciated from the Flying Karamozov Brother’s raucous (and quite excellent) interpretation of Shakespeare’s play.

The laborer quote I like because it reminds me to be happy with what I have. As long as I do my best, I can have no complaint even if others are better, or more successful, or more prosperous. It also reminds me to not look down on others if they can’t do what I’m able to do. It’s really the trying and the personal victories that matter, not some arbitrary score.

Now the football quote I like simply because it surprises just about everyone. I mean, who expects that quote from Shakespeare? Really?

For pure inspiration (and not infrequently, a tear or two), I turn no farther than the poem, “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee Jr. When I lived in the DC area it would show up on TV at the end of the broadcast day, recited while images of aircraft were showing. It made quite the impression. While I did commit it to memory long ago, I mostly use the first, second, and final lines as my internal verse:

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
…
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Perhaps because as a child I dreamed that one day I might be able to slip the surly bonds of earth myself, this poem touched me like none before and few since. Though he died young, his words have given him immortality.

Lately, since I’m so often time-strapped that I have to prioritize things, the quote I’ve been using most is one that has been attributed to Mark Twain:

Do not put off till tomorrow what can be put off till day-after-tomorrow just as well.

That always seems to me to have the flavor of well-thought-out country living :-)

On a more serious note, I often cling to a quote by Benjamin Franklin–arguably one of the smartest Americans to have ever lived and one of the few witnesses and blacksmiths to the events that forged the foundations of the American nation:

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Especially since the start of the century, this very profound observation has been ever on my mind. In fact, it serves as one of the litmus tests I have for deciding if a political candidate is worthy of my consideration.

There are of course many more words that I carry with me to help me navigate the complicated road that is called life. Some very silly, some considerably more sublime. I think most of us do. Many choose from their religious work(s) of choice. I’m somewhat more ecclectic. For example, when times get a little difficult, I fall back on an exchange from the movie, Josie and the Pussycats:

Josie McCoy: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. And when the going gets tough…
Melody: The tough make lemonade!

It’s amazing how that can be comforting.

As I wind this up, I should include a couple of quotes from me. The first is my standard tag line, which is probably the piece of writing I’ve gotten more comments on by far over the years:

It’s hard to reach for a star and still keep your shirt tucked in.

The second is a distillation of all of my explorations and studies and stuff about religion over a couple of decades. It’s short, but widely applicable. It helps me to keep my focus when life throws the occasional curve-ball:

Be good to others; try to not be afraid.

And finally, a quote that warms my heart because it coincided with a time when my heart was warmed by some very special ladies. From the movie Practical Magic:

There are some things I know for certain: always throw spilt salt over your left shoulder, keep rosemary by your garden gate, plant lavender for luck, and fall in love whenever you can.