Throughout life, I'm sure you remember hearing phrases or quotes from varying people that left a lasting impression upon you. Some can even be so powerful as to become a mantra you live your life by or as simple as making you laugh when you need it most. The meaning we garner from these words much like life is complex and varied. With that sentiment, it would be fun to read some of your most favored quotes and what meaning you get from them. I'll start:

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves-- say rather, loved in spite of ourselves" -Victor Hugo


This is pretty funny and true when you think about it. We all have faults that can sometimes clash with another personality including those who we love the most. Still, people love us for all that we are and bring to the table even though we might have some faults. It's many times these faults on a social level that bring a unique flavor into the mix.

Ahh yes, SMR, this is great! I've got some I'll post later. Next post is one I remember. .

From childhood on a bathroom wall a saying read: "Don't dream or contemplate, impatient folks just cannot wait!"

ETA: Okay, okay, I admit this bathroom quote has country roots, can't you tell? Only 1 bathroom in a household with 6 kids, right? It WAS useful after all!

^^ That is a very astute and poetically rhythmic phrase. Self-generated quotes are as meaningful and applicable to daily life as from those who are famous. I welcome all types of quotes from a variety of sources!

If the thunder don't get you...the lighting will....one of my favorite lines from a song done by the The Grateful Dead...

*We can discuss them as we go along too :)*

Here is another:

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty--that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know" -John Keats

These are the final lines of John Keat's poem called "Ode on a Grecian Urn". From a literal standpoint it seems like the glorification of honesty as something that is attractive. It could also be a metaphor for knowledge because in many cases people consider intelligence beauty. Thus, the truth is an attractive thing because it is about awareness and knowing in a truthful context. As long as we have truth in our lives, we live genuinely.

I love writing that uses nature as a metaphor. Is that meant to be an ominous warning about tough situations? Usually when people use storm imagery in their writing it evokes the idea of struggle/adversity/difficult times. Is that how you interpret it?

Ooh man I have a lot! I used to have a quotation book, that whenever I'd hear something I like I wrote it down.

"Hearts will never be practical until they are made unbreakable." - The Wizard of Oz

This next one, is from my favorite band, not because they are my favorite but because this whole song is one big sob fest and really kind of changed my mind about life. Especially because many people had thought the lead singer was going to commit suicide after both of his bandmates did.

"To this evening and what a pleasure
Here in Balthazar’s red leather
A little private toast and a vow to die
A natural death in my own good time"-The Whitlams

Edit:
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The quote from TWOZ is very true, Berk. I've noticed through life that love and passion tends to win out over cool logic. If it was so simple and easy to stop feeling the way we do about someone, then relationships would turn out much differently.

As for the song lyrics.....whoa, wait till I start posting some of Plath and Sexton's work. Death and what it means is an important topic that may be cumbersome, but is a topic we all discuss about one time or another.

ETA: Ralph Waldo Emerson is a fantastic writer. He must have literally thousands of quotes that are wonderful. The powers of socialization and normality do have an effect on individuality, for sure. It's when people move beyond expectations that pressure to conform to them becomes apparent.

This quote is pretty universal:

"Education should be a lifelong process, the formal period serving as a foundation on which life's structure may rest and rise" -Robert H. Jackson

Each day presents new challenges for us. They might not be conventionally academic, but it was the inititation of curiosity and intellectual expansion that began in school. It can serve as a template and motivator alike in reminding us that no matter where we are in life we can always learn and grow.

This thread shall LIVE! Wonderfully wise, SMR! Cont . . .

That is my hope E2NK. The words of wise women and men can enhance our lives for the better. It's fascinating to garner various relevant statements made by people from thousands of years ago to today. Poets, dramatists, journalists, politicians, and those wise people in our lives have so much to say. I definitely look forward to reading peoples quotes, thoughts about them, and so on.

Here are 2 quotes I enjoy about theatre:

"A dramatist is one who believes that the pure event, an action involving human beings, is more arresting than any comment that can be made upon it" -Thornton Wilder

"The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but is also the return of art to life" -Oscar Wilde

I love both of these statements. It speaks to the humanization process of articulating human emotion beyond linguistic expression. Theatre is at its best when it represents what it means to be human with all of the great and not so great aspects of humanity. There is a convergance of what is really going on in the world and the artistic element of dramatization that the theatre brings to people. Hopefully everyone will get the chance to see a full out production.

These quotes are very clear and powerful:

"It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart." -Anne Frank

"If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace." -Franklin D. Roosevelt

"The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood." -Martin Luther King, Jr.

These three quotes remind and inspire me to continue the work/advocacy that I do in dealing with human rights. My optimism is easy to dismiss due to the immense negativity of the world, but how can we change the status quo if we don't dare to challenge ourselves and the world? I believe people can rise above the identity differences that divide us if we embody the changes in attitude to end these problems and finally raise a next generation free of our problems. It is the US promise that we leave our next generation with a better society....I hope and think we can do that.

Here's a dance quote I used to live by, I don't remember who said it though.

"I see dance being used as communication between body and soul, to express what is too deep to find the words for."


Here's another one about hope.

"Of all the forces that make for a better world, none is so indispensable, none so powerful, as hope. Without hope people are only half alive. With hope they dream and think and work.”- Charles Sawyer

Thanks so much, SMR! I love theater, too! But I'll leave the critiquing to you!

I love that! I love to dance. :)

"If you wait to do everything until you're sure it's right, you'll probably never do much of anything." -Win Borden

Thanks for adding these philosophical and awesome quotes everyone :)

Here is another:

"The older I get, the greater power I seem to have to help the world; I am like a snowball--the further I am rolled, the more I gain" -Susan B. Anthony

This is a great metaphor for life experience and how it empowers you to want to help the next generation.

Acouple more (I'm on a roll! LOL):

"Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character" -Margaret Chase Smith

"In the long run, the best proof of a good character is good actions" -John Stuart Mill

In my eyes of my pappa!! Quote:
"The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green." ~ Thomas Carlyle
My pop's business IS making the ground green!!

(P.S.: I can only do so many at a time tho' I've got infinite resources of them. I am extremely limited online these days.)

Just a few more while I'm at it:
"No man, for any considerable time, can show one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally becoming bewildered as to which may be the true one." ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

A couple of anonymous ones (in humor only, please no offense SMR!):
"A man begins cutting his wisdom teeth the first time he bites off more than he can chew."
"About the only time a woman can change a man is when he's a baby."

Alright, I'll shut up now!! Bye for now!!

I like this thread!!

I love this one eyes!

Here's one I heard this weekend...

To accept less than one deserves is sad, to request it is tragic.

"The greater the reform needed, the greater the Personality you need to accomplish it" -Walt Whitman

"Kindness is the oil that takes the friction out of life." ~ uknown

I like that one. I try to live my life with liberal doses of kindness sprinkled in.

"History, despite its wrenching pain
Cannot be unlived, and if faced
With courage, need not be lived again"

-Maya Angelou from the poem "On the Pulse of the Morning"

Angelou recited this powerful poem aloud at the inauguration of former President Bill Clinton. That may have been in 1993, but the above statement from her poem resonates with me just as much in 2008.

"Freedom
Is a strong seed
Planted
In a great need.

I live here, too.
I want freedom
Just as you."

-Langston Hughes from his poem "Democracy"

"Discontent is at the root of the creative process: ...the most gifted members of the human species are at their creative best when they cannot have their way, and must compensate for what they miss by realizing and cultivating their capacities and talents" -Eric Hoffer

"After you have pumped your brains for thoughts and verses, there is a better poetry hinted in whistling a tune on your walk" -Ralph Waldo Emerson

I like this one:

Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning. - anonymous

Interesting take SMR.

I've always thought that Beauty truth/ truth beauty was a reaction against science and logic which were the dominant strains during Keats' time. Keats was a well-known Romantic. Romantics were known for advocating beauty and imagination. By contrast, science was all about truth and objectivity. It was widely believed that the two were opposing forces.

With Grecian Urn, Keats attempts to ease this tension. He equates beauty with art and truth with science. Thus, it becomes poetry is science, science is poetry. Science can be beautiful in the same way that art can be objective. Keats believed that art, unlike most people during this period, can be truthful as well.

Ah, that's the academically sound interpretation of those lines! lol. My reaction was more of a personal interpretation as opposed to a historical criticism. You make very solid points about his identity in relation to the time in which he lived. I definitely agree with your interpretation. Very well said!

Here is yet another quote:

"Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures" -John F. Kennedy

Truth Is The Secret of eloquence & of virtue, the basis of moral authority; it is th highest summit of art & life. ~Henri Frederic Amiel

Great quotes/interpretations everyone. I love reading them. These are some interesting song lyrics:

"You got a lotta nerve
To say you are my friend
When I was down
You just stood there grinning

You got a lotta nerve
To say you gotta helping hand to lend
You just want to be on
The side that's winning"

-Bob Dylan with "Positively 4th Street"

Thanks, SMR, & you too, & good interpretations! I've unlimited resources!

You're right E2NK. There is a limitless supply of emerging and past words that enlighten and evoke emotion. Words that move people to action for the positive is a great thing.....and in that spirit:

"Today more than ever before life must be characterized by a sense of universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life" -Dalai Lama

These words are so very true. When will all of the violence and mistreatment of people across the planet stop?

Sometimes, the most meaningful quotes are the simplest.

From Peter Pan: "You can fly, you can fly, you can fly!"

Everyone can fly, but not everyone knows it.

Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. ~ anonymous

The test of first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

Be pleasant until 10 o'clock in the morning and the rest of the day will take care of itself. ~ Elbert Hubbard

"Why do they call it rush hour when nothing moves?" -Robin Williams

"Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creatures of men. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter" -Benjamin Disraeli