To this place, I owe everything. - Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln spoke those words about Illinois. This is the place where he was forged into the person who became president.
Last weekend neighbor Betty (the Queen Bee) reminded me that I'd forgotten to post on Saturday.
"I need something to read in the morning, I missed your daily post," she gently teased.
Sometimes I just lose steam. Before there were blogs, there were forums and I posted a daily quote for over six years on a gardener's forum. I love quotes, I collect them. To read a quote in the morning is like kick starting your brain for the day, it gives you something to think about.
Breathe deep the gathering gloom. - the Moody Blues
You might be surprised by the fact that this is one of my favorite quotes. It speaks to something that I learned in therapy. If some bad things are rolling down the hill in your direction, you need to quickly get past denial. It's coming and to deny is to delay your response, your defense and whatever inner resources you might need to deal with the challenge.
"How many leaves fall in wood, or perish from the hill without the privilege to know that they are beautiful?" - Emily Dickinson
My goodness that woman had a way with words. Think about this quote in the following context, some people fall between the cracks and their inner beauty is never recognized.
Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century.
- Mark Twain, Notebook, 1894
I've always loved Mark Twain since the first reading of Huckleberry Finn when I was a kid. His wit, wisdom and smart aleck nature suit me perfectly.
Tell me, do you have a favorite quote? Writer? Someone who never disappoints?
11 comments:
Simply love your post today...I too am a collector of quotes. They offer us glimpses of wisdom in a small package. Your Moody Blues quote hit home today, I found out last night that my sister has lung cancer...I guess we shall all be 'breathing deep the gathering gloom' over the coming weeks.
I love the Emily Dickinson quote put into that context. It's so true, and maybe even of Emily herself. How many people knew of that great inner beauty she possessed before she died? Fewer than a dozen of Emily Dickinson's poems were published while she was alive, and she lived a life of seclusion, though I have no doubt it was a very rich inner life. The bulk of her poetry was discovered by her sister after her death, and her first book was published four years after she passed.
I often think about Emily and wonder what the people she knew thought of her. Did they wish she would just be a little more normal? Did they worry about her shutting herself off from the world? Did they really know her or even try to know her?
A few years ago when I was teaching homeschool co-op classes, I had a student who reminded me of Emily Dickinson. She was painfully shy--so much so that she could not speak out loud in public. Her attempts came out as almost inaudible whispers. Yet she was happy for the most part and I could see through her writing and art that she had some talent and important things to say. I tried to encourage her without pointing to her specifically by discussing people like Emily Dickinson and Maya Angelou in class. My hope for her is that she will be able to come out of that shell enough to be comfortable and happy with others and herself and that her inner beauty isn't something that is discovered only when she's gone.
Do you know Maya Angelou's story? Did you know that she was once unable to speak? Unlike Emily, she overcame her difficulties in her lifetime. Hers is a heartbreaking yet very inspirational and triumphant story.
the first quote that always pops into my head whenever anyone asks me about quotes is from the movie "kissing a fool"
"True love cannot be found where it does not truly exist, nor can it be hidden where it truly does." - david schwimmer as max abbitt
i don't know why i remember such a random thing from a random movie that i saw years and years and years ago but for some reason it is has stuck with me and i guess that has to mean something
i, also, love quotes. 'wisdom in a small package', love that. for me, leading a full filling life is a daily effort. so i use lots of tools. a favorite is 'we are what we think. all that we are arises with our thoughts. with our thoughts, we make our world'
-budda-
love this post, as always!
bv
This is one of my most favorite quotes, and my life motto:
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and proclaiming, 'Wow, what a ride!'"
Yeah!!
Those are what I call thinking quotes. Sometimes we don't get the real meaning until we mull it out a bit.
I have two favs and couldn't tell you where they originally came from. This one is posted on my blog--
"Being happy doesn't necessarily mean that everything is perfect.
It just means that you've chosen to look beyond the imperfections."
and the other is "You can't fence time".
Bravo! I love the quotes you share here. I adore Mark Twain and I'm happy to say my dh and I have made it 17 years . . . and we look forward to the 25th (well, actually, each one coming).
"You never get a second chance to make a first impression", has served me well.
And, " Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is a mystery.
Today is gift, that's why we call it...the Present".
Quotes... I do love them. I have two that are my favorites.
We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the for the ungrateful, we have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
We had that one in our milk barn for the inspectors benefit. :)
Sir Winston Churchill gave the second favorite here.
Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
Two of my favorites:
Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't.
Eleanor Roosevelt, U.S. First Lady
It may be the cock that crows, but it is the hen that lays the egg.
Margaret Thatcher,
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
I love quotes and loved this post.
I just wanted to say that your first picture makes me homesick. Homesick for the place I grew up. Homesick for the way it was when I grew up. Homesick for the flat land and black dirt.
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