Quotable Wisdom
What I read: Quotes That Will Change Your Life: A Curated Collection of Mind-Blowing Wisdom by Russ Kick. Published April 1, 2017.
I'm on a plane flying to Chicago as I'm beginning to write this post. I just finished the book. I highlighted so many of the book's quotes on my Kindle I might as well copy and paste the entire text into my quotes to save file that resides dutifully on my laptop ready to capture those clever or insightful ideas encapsulated by a pithy quotation.
Well, I'm exaggerating. Not quite that many. I probably highlighted a good 10% of the quotes to record later. Being an enthusiastic quote and aphorism fan, that's a high enough percentage to serve as a testament that I enjoyed the book.
Speaking of aphorisms, one of my favorite books is The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism. I've read it a few times and it gets better with each reading. Check it out.
I'm not sure why quotes enthrall me so. But they do. I have been drawn to succinct, clever, and profound quotes since I was a child and began to write down the words of authors like Isaac Asimov and Dale Carnegie. I wish I still had those childhood notebooks. I'd love to read what I found so fascinating back then. The details of what I wrote fade into approximations of remembrance as each year advances.
The editor of this anthology is Russ Kick and we share this literary pastime.
I'm a quotation junkie.
Perhaps people who like quotes also share my love of the generally shorter versus longer. I won't yammer on here about that. I wrote about this in my last post, In Praise Of Brevity.
Why are quotes so appealing? We see them adorning web pages as interstitial place markers. Articles often include a pertinent quote just below the heading or to break up the text. We see calendars and desktop card decks featuring them. They are ubiquitous and I must therefore conclude quite popular. But why? Kick offers this.
The best quotes are the ones that crystallize a truth, that offer a new way of seeing things, or that point out something that you've always known even though the thought has never fully formed in your mind. Suddenly, there it is on the page. In a compact form. Your perspective shifts.
In no particular order, here are a few of the quotes in the book I found particularly interesting for various reasons. These all come from the first section: Reality, Truth, and Such Things.
This one speaks to our need to maintain an open mind. That also means being ready to change our minds when we’ve held onto a belief that is effectively challenged by new information.
Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it. – André Gide
Our world can be a cynical place these days that often dwells on the negative. For the most part, that doesn’t serve anyone well.
Many people today believe that cynicism requires courage. Actually, cynicism is the height of cowardice. It is innocence and open-heartedness that requires the true courage—however often we are hurt as a result of it. – Erica Jong
At age 68, here is some wisdom I now adamantly follow. If younger people can learn this, it will save them a lot of grief and turmoil
Don't postpone joy until you've learned all your lessons. Joy is your lesson. – Alan Cohen
Here’s another one that comes into clearer focus the older one gets. It conjures the memory of one of my absolute favorite quotes said by Rosalind Russell as Mame Dennis in the movie Auntie Mame, “Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death.”
I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time. – Jack London
For years I sought the meaning of life. I never found it. That’s because there really isn’t one except to live it to the fullest while we have the good fortune to walk the planet for a while.
I cannot believe the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all. – Leo Rosten
In addition to the section from which the preceding quotes were taken, the book includes others that contain specific categories of quotes: Living; Love; Well-Being; Self; Others; Art, Lit, and Creativity; Authority; and The Big Picture.
There’s so much wisdom in all of the book’s sections that you’ll likely reference it often.
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