In my little library is a collection of tiny books – small enough to be placed inside my tote bag and carried with me wherever I go. On some days when frustrations are most felt, I go back to these books to be reminded once again that life is not and cannot be just one basket of rotten apples.
A lot of things in our day and life disappoint us – things, events, or people. Maybe a few are but trivial or petty and could be allowed to pass through without the slightest of concern, but often something comes up with earth-size issues that can truly overwhelm and bog us down if allowed to. I often find myself exhausted, drained, and weary by it all. I turn to my books for comfort and solace.
My collection of books covers a diversity of subjects a portion of which is about favorite essays poems and quotes by noted authors and personalities through time. Some of them I know by history and literature, yet also others who I regret have not had the pleasure of knowing their good works. But always I can find the right one to suit the need of the moment.
May I share with you some of my favorite quotes from my minute collection?
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We live in deeds, not years; In thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. –Bailey
To live so completely in the future, or in the past, dulls one’s enjoyment of the present, and robs life of its richest pleasures. To live the well-lived life means that we learn to enjoy intelligently each day and hour in the here and now. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
The further I advance in life, the more convinced I am of the necessity of that principle of wisdom which befits our nature: enjoy what lies in your own hands. –Eugene Delacroix
Every year I live I am more convinced that the waste of life lies in the love we have not given, the powers we have not used, the selfish prudence that will risk nothing, and which, shirking pain, misses happiness as well. –Mary Cholmondeley
If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I am living for, in detail, and ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for. –Thomas Merton
It’s a funny thing about life: if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. –W. Somerset Maugham
Your attitude is most important, for it finally decides the quality of your life, and ultimately makes you the kind of person that you are. –George Bernard Shaw
Making a life is infinitely more important than making a living. It is sheer folly to be ever reaching for the moon while ignoring the things for which we really live. Let us make happiness a daily duty. Let us find it in the little things of each golden moment of time. –Sir Humphry Davy
I believe in my fellow man– in my obligation to respect him as ‘him’ and not as a unit of ‘them’ or even of ‘us’, and to accept him as a neighbor who has as much right to enjoy life as I have. Since my own tastes are not everybody’s, I must tolerate differences of behavior, and since many of my opinions may be wrong, I believe in the value of saying ‘perhaps’ and ‘probably’ very often. –James Hilton
A man may be a genius but he can still do things that practically break your heart. –James Q. Du Pont
We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in GROWTH, in fluidity. –Anne Morrow Lindbergh
True faith is not a fruit of security; it is the ability to blend mortal fragility with the inner strength of the spirit. It does not shift with the changing shade of one’s thought. –Helen Keller
Don’t seek to live someone else’s life; it’s just not you. You have no right to put on a false face, to pretend what you are not, unless you want to rob others. Say to yourself: “I am going to bring something new into this person’s life, because he has never met anyone like me nor will he ever meet anyone like me, for in the mind of GOD, I am unique and irreplaceable.” -Anonymous
One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon – instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today. –Dale Carnegie
If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you like to win but think you can’t
It’s almost a cinch you won’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost;
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow’s will;
It’s all in the state of mind.
If you think you are outclassed, you are;
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man;
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.
-Sir Walter Scott
Through this toilsome world, alas!
Once and only once I pass;
If a kindness I may show,
If a good deed I may do
To a suffering fellow man,
Let me do it while I can
No delay, for it is plain
I shall not pass this way again.
-Unknown
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There you are – each one of these quoted here have served me well --- in putting my feet back on solid ground, in believing in the good and understanding the bad, in seeing differences in a better light and perspective, in knowing where I stand in the midst of everything, and continuing to hope – have faith, and believe in the goodness of people – the beauty of life – and the magnificence of God.
posted on Monday, July 30, 2007 8:55 AM
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