Inspiration from people born January 25

 

from Anglo-Irish chemist Robert Boyle (1627-1691):

God would not have made the universe as it is unless He intended us to understand it.

Even when we find not what we seek, we find something as well worth seeking as what we missed.

 

from Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796):

Oh would some power the gift give us, to see ourselves as others see us!

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men, Gang aft a-gley, And leave us nought but grief and pain, For promised joy.

Life is but a day at most.

There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing.

 

from English artist Benjamin Haydon (1786-1846):

The greatest geniuses have always attributed everything to God, as if conscious of being possessed of a spark of His divinity.

 

from English author W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965):

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation.

 

from English author Virginia Woolf (1882-1941):

If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.

You cannot find peace by avoiding life.

Arrange whatever pieces come your way.

 

from Finnish Functionalist architect Viljo Revell (1910-1964):

It was teamwork, you see.

 

from Filipino politician Corazon Aquino (1933-2009):

I would rather die a meaningful death than to live a meaningless life.

Faith is not simply a patience that passively suffers until the storm is past. Rather, it is a spirit that bears things—with resignations, yes, but above all, with blazing, serene hope.

I know there isn't anything I can do that will please everybody. But if I have done according to my beliefs, I sleep very very well.

I've reached a point in life where it's no longer necessary to try to impress. If they like me the way I am, that's good. If they don't, that's too bad.

Keep inviolate an area of light and peace within you.

I am not embarrassed to tell you that I believe in miracles.

 

from American runner Steve Prefontaine (1951-1975):

Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, 'I've never seen anyone run like that before.' It's more than just a race, it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative.

To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift.

 

from American actor Leigh Taylor Young (1945- ):

It's about loving one's self, first and absolutely foremost. The more one comes to know the self, forgive the self, and love the self, the better lover one is of anything and everybody in this life.

I would just say love God with all your heart, body, mind and soul. And whatever comes forward for you to follow, as that love progressively awakens in you, do it. And it will awaken in each person as long as they have the willingness to open to the journey, because it is a journey. Don't try and form it, just have the love and the willingness to listen, and it will guide you with impeccable perfection.

 

from American actor Jenifer Lewis (1957- ):

The elevator to success is broken, take the stairs.

 

from American singer-songwriter Alicia Keys (1981- ):

Everything you want to be, you already are. You're simply on the path to discovering it.

We are all one. We're not as separate as we oftentimes think.

 

from Japanese singer-songwriter and newscaster Sho Sakurai (1982- ):

Write it as a dream, read it as a goal.

 

from American singer-actor Ariana DeBose (1991- ):

When you feel your best, everybody else can feel it, too.

 

from Australian rocker Calum Hood (1996- ):

Just live right now, and be yourself, it doesn't matter if it's good enough for someone else.

What books do you read once a year?

 

A literary friend posted on FB: “What books do you read once a year?” I posted one (Masters and Masterpieces of the Short Story) off the top of my head but he got me thinking of the many anthologies I hold dear. I keep most of them within easy reach of my bed--a little Chekhov before sleep, perhaps? Or some Porter? There is something so neat, so compact about a short story, especially one acknowledged as a classic. You know you will get all the factors that compose a satisfying story—a set-up, a conflict, and a resolution—in short order without the time-commitment of a novel.

One of the (many) benefits of having older brothers and sisters was—I got to read all the English textbooks they brought home from college! And they attended Duke, Centre, and Georgetown. How fortunate for me! Through these volumes I discovered some of the greatest authors in the world--Hemingway, Faulkner, Melville, Conrad, Tolstoi, Joyce, Mansfield, Welty, de Maupassant, Bowen, Mann, Maugham, Dostoevsky, Balzac, Lawrence, Woolf, Camus, James—to name just a few. I devoured them all and paid close attention to the notes scribbled in the margins by my elders.

The Art of Modern Fiction (Rhinehart and Company, Inc. 1949) introduced me to Hemingway's “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily,”  Tolstoi's “Three Arshins of Land,” and Clark's “The Portable Phonograph.” Although it is fifty years now, I well remember reading each for the first time and the frisson I felt reading their last paragraphs. I’ve never forgotten Mann’s “Little Herr Friedemann,”” Zweig’s “The Invisible Collection,” or Trilling’s “The Other Margaret,” either.

I discovered Welty (“Petrified Man” and “A Worn Path”), Bowen (“A Queer Heart”), and Maugham (“Rain”) in Masters and Masterpieces of the Short Story (Holt, Rhinehart and Winston, 1966) mentioned above. Someone slipped a magazine article in this one which I use as a bookmark: “The Ten Greatest Thinkers” by Will Durant--from The American Magazine of March 1927!

One of my siblings brought home Twelve Short Stories (The MacMillan Company, 1961) in 1966. It includes Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams,” Mansfield’s “The Garden Party,” Joyce’s “The Dead” and nine other classics. What a great way for a 14-year-old to discover great literature!

Through Classic Short Fiction (The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1972) I discovered Conrad (“The Secret Sharer”), Kafka (“A Country Doctor”), and Lawrence (“The Rocking-Horse Winner”) and found another gem from Melville--“Bartleby the Scrivener.”

A Pocket Book of Short Stories (Washington Square Press, 1941) is perhaps my favorite. Cather’s “Paul’s Case,” O. Henry’s “A Municipal Report,”  Jacobs’s “The Monkey’s Paw,” and de Maupassant’s “The Necklace” had such an impact on me!

All of these volumes came to me at least slightly dog-eared, and perhaps I should I feel a little guilty that all lost their covers long ago—but I don’t. They are all well-worn, well-read, well-loved. Thank you, Amy, Andy, John, and Louisa!

What books do you read at least once a year?

 

Talk is Cheap

I collect aphorisms. From time to time I’ll post my favorites here.

Talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand.

The nice thing about being a celebrity is that when you bore people, they think it’s their fault.—Henry Kissinger

Two kinds of people fail—those who listen to nobody, and those who listen to everybody.

Take your choice: Talk about others and you’re a gossip. Talk about yourself and you’re a bore.

When you hear a simple idea expressed in a complicated manner, you should know that you‘re talking to an expert.

A mistake at least proves somebody stopped talking long enough to do something.

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who prefer to say what they think, and those who prefer to keep their friends.

Never argue with a fool; he may be doing the same.

Blessed are they who really have nothing to say and cannot be convinced to say it.

The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.—W. Somerset Maugham