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Literary/
People Section
"A fool in a high station is like
a man on the top of a high mountain, everything appears small to him and
he appears small to everybody." T.L. Martin Malice in Blunderland
"We have a national compulsion to insist that people deny their grief. A friend loses a loved one, and three weeks later we're asking, ``Are you OK?'' And we want them to say, ``Why, yes, I'm doing just fine,'' so we can nod in approval. If we were really friends, we'd say, ``I imagine you still feel miserable,'' so they could say, ``Sometimes it's worse than ever.'' Robert Ebert in a review of a movie called To Gillian on her 37th Birthday. Click here if you would like to see the review in its entirety.
"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood." Marie Curie
"It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something." Franklin D. Reoosevelt
"We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed, as in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindness there is at last one which makes the heart run over." Samuel Johnson
"Don't be afraid of missing opportunities. Behind every failure is an opportunity somebody wishes they had missed." Lily Tomlin
Movies
"I never did mind about the little
things," Bridget Fonda, Point of No Return
"Somebody told me that the best thing you could do for kids is love each other. Kids need to marinate in love and then after about sixteen years they are really juicy." Actress ?, My Life
"How many dead hemofeliacs do you need? How many people have to die to make it cost-efficient for you people to do something about it? 100, 1000? Give us a number so we won't annoy you again until the amount of money you begin spending on lawsuits makes it more profitable for you to save people then to kill them." Mathew Bodine, The Band Played On
Quotes from Father of the Bride:
Television:
Drama is listed first. If you would like to skip Drama and go straight
to Comedy, click.
These next few quotes are from
a television show that was the equivilant of James Dean, a legend who died
too soon. To My So Called Life and the writers attached to that show, I
applaude you. You did excellent work. When I come into my fortune, I'll
hire you to make movies, television shows, you name it! *Grin*
"I hope that just once in my life I can make a difference like that in someone else's life." Young girl. Dr. Carter helped her brother, who had luekemia. Probably the best episode ever. ER
"I don't think its our "loves"(husbands, brothers, friends) who make our life, but the loving of them does." Dana Delaney, True Women
Another excellent show canceled before it's time was McKenna. At the end of each show, one of the main characters, played by Eric Close, would talk about what he learned, or how he felt, or how he'd changed in that episode. It was very touching, and now's it's very immitated on other shows. *Sigh* But at least, we can remember the original, McKenna, and I can pass on some of the excellent quotes to you that I kept.
Comedy:
"I could
just eat you up." (Aside) "Is it just me or is that a scary thing to tell
a kid?" Bobby's World.
"You've never been totally naked in your life, have you?" Grace, Grace under Fire
"You know Peperidge farms will go out of business when they start making anatomically correct gingerbread men." Letterman
Quotes from Friends. You had to know this was coming. *Grin*
Books
"Before a heart can be broken
it must have felt something splendid. That would be worth the pain." "The
trouble with you people is you don't laugh enough." Lucy Maud Montgomery,
The Blue Castle
"Her understanding of what was behind what people said, who they were, why they were, what they were and weren't and dreamed of being." Danielle Steel, To Love Again
"This is the secret to life, that you climb out on a limb to reach the sweetest fruit. And if you sometimes fall, then that was the chance you had to take. And you got back up and started climbing." Kumalt May, I'll always Love you.
"It was new to her, this feeling of being and remembering the dawn of life, and her memories of it were subconscious and vague. But their innermost, earliest levels matched. The beginnings were the same, the Mog-ur thought. She felt the indiviuality of her own cells as they grew split and diverged, and motion had purpose. Again a divergence and soft pulsations of life gave shape and form. Another divergence, and she knew the pain of the first explosion of air breathed by creatures in a new element. Diverge, and rich loamy earth and the green of young verdancy. Diverge, and the security in reaching a limb across a chasm. Diverge, and traces of a missing link lost in the sea that enlarged her form and stripped her fur and changed her contours." Jean M. Auel, Clan of the Cave Bears
"After he'd left for South America, Lily, too, had wished to avoid anything that might increase her attachment to Deep Water, which she would soon have to leave. Saige had interviews lined up at five multinational corporations and would surely get a job at one of them. As soon as he did, he'd send for Lily. He'd written almost daily, the pages filled with his excitement and craving for adventure. Then the letters stopped. And Lily wished her life would stop, too.
In the years since, Lily had slowly learned to numb the pain. Anger had taken its place, then that, too, had numbed. But the anguish of not knowing... Dear heaven, how many million times had she prayed for the answer? Only... did she want it now? Now that she'd learned to accept the loss, to bear the hurt, to find a new life, a stable life, a secure life-did she want to find Saige now?" This was a quote that I could identify with. Catherine Leigh, Something Old, Something New. This excerpt, I'm dedicating to someone. If he ever reads this, he'll know and understand. To B.
Jingles
"Sometimes you feel like a nut,
sometimes you don't. Almond Joy's got nuts, Mounds don't. Almond Joy's
got rich milk chocolate coconut munchy nuts too. Mounds got deep dark chocolate
and chewy coconut oooh Cause sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you
don't!"
"I like the way you make me laugh, I like the funny things you do, Your such a kick to have around. I like to Sprite in you!"
"Like a top down neon drive in, like a Sugar Ray with spritz, like taking in shade, like making a grace, like the code of the old wild west. I'm an American Original, first draft beer in a can, have an ice cold Coors with a friend of yours. Put a 12 oz. can in his hand." Coors commercial.
"Well, my daddy told me, when I was this tall, said if you can't buy the best, don't buy no truck at all. So I got me a Toyota, It's #1, This trucks like me, it's tough, but it's fun." Toyota Commercial
Government
Quotes
"Now I know what a statesman is;
he's a dead politican. We need more statesmen." Bob Edwards
"It makes no difference who you vote for- the two parties are really one party representing 4% of the people." Gore Vidal
"Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other." Oscar Ameringer
"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." Mao Tse-tung
"Whenever any form of governemnt becomes destructive... it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it." Thomas Jefferson
"The short memories of American voters is what keeps politicans in office." Will Rogers
"The business of government is to keep the government out of business- that is, unless business needs government aid." Will Rogers
Off
the Internet
"When paradise
is no longer fit for you to live in and your adolescent dreams are gone,
through the days you feel a little used up and you don't know where your
energy's gone wrong. It's just a feeling, a little down hearted. Sometimes
life is too ridiculous to live. You count your friends all on one finger.
I know it sounds crazy just the way we live between a laugh and a tear
smile in the mirror as you walk by."
"When you call me close to tell me your body is not beautiful I want to summon the eyes and hidden mouths of stone and light and water to testify against you."
"Through the trees, the light from the house looked like blinking stars, blinding bright and shining arms reaching out, in a cluster."
"The
Meaning of Life" by Sally Casper
For years I have listened to people
during a critical stage of despair, a stage where they've felt life no
longer had a meaning and they've been tempted to just end it all. At that
point in someone's life, there's no point in trying to hand over some package
and say, "Here, believe this" or "Think this" or "Do that" and hope that
it'll offer some kind of salvation. Nobody else's package really matters
at that instant.
And because I don't have a package to sell, what I've offered has been my own companionship in those moments when someone is trying to tolerate no meaning or to tolerate life not seeming to be worth the trouble or to tolerate the sense, as I did at an early age, that "Life isn't for me and it's gonna stretch on a long time and I might be doing myself and everybody a big favor by ending it right now." Sometimes the most valuable thing you can offer is not an answer but your presence, your being there to share the feeling of loneliness, your being there while someone goes on breathing in and out, whether it matters or not.
Usually, given enough time, there'll be something that'll click, that'll help that person get out of that frame of mind and move on to something else since that frame of mind never lasts. Maybe it'll be something quite simple: being needed by someone or finding some small pleasure that'll help that person feel he can go on.
Having shared in these moments of loneliness, I come to a sort of conclusion that the answer,if there is one, is tied up with human compassion. That's it. We are here to be there for someone else.
Back
My thanks
goes to Anamorph. Please go visit
this site and I would just like to thank Robert for being one of the only
places on the Internet that I could find a copy of Hemingway's short story,
"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," easily and without charge. *Smile*
A
Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway
"You
are what you think" by Doug Hooper Monday, March 28, 1983
Many people are lonely and without
friends. It is particularly sad because it is unnecessary. Each of us has
the power to attract to us all the love and friendship we can use, if we
would only take our attention away from our own problems.
The more we allow our minds to dwell upon our own difficulties and shortcomings, the smaller our world becomes. It is almost as if we place a barrier around ourselves and deliberately deny ourselves the friendship and love we so desperately seek.
Until we learn to expand our consciousness enough to encompass others, and feel love and compassion for them, we are doomed to remain in a small miserable world of our creation.
Take a good look at yourself and examine your attitudes toward others. Do you really care about their problems, and are you truly interested in what happens to them?
A reader in Minneapolis sent me "The Ten Commandments of Human Relations." I will list them as written by its anonymous author.
1--Speak to people. There is nothing as nice as a cheerful greeting.
2--Smile at people. It takes 72 muscles to frown, only 14 to smile.
3--Call people by name. The sweetest music to anyone's ear is the sound of his own name.
4--Be friendly and helpful. If you would have friends be friendly.
5--Be cordial. Speak and act as if everything you do were a genuine pleasure.
6--Be genuinely interested in people. You can like everybody if you try.
7--Be generous with praise--cautious with criticism.
8--Be considerate of the feelings of others. It will be appreciated.
9--Be thoughtful of the opinions of others. There are three sides to a controversy-- yours, the other fellow's, and the right one.
10--Be alert to service to others. What counts most in life is what we do for others.
Can you imagine what would happen to you if you were to follow these 10 commandments for a week? Sit quietly for a few minutes. Envision, if you can, the changes that would take place. Realize that you do not have to rely on outside influences for your life to change. Many spend their whole lives waiting for "ships that never come in," or a "knight in shining armour" to appear. They have the power within themselves to attract these things to them, but they do not know it.
It is not easy to change inwardly, because our habits of thinking and acting become deeply engrained in our minds. The first thing we must do is recognize the fact that we do have the power to change our lives for the better.
Many people spend a lifetime waiting for others to change, or for the world around them to change, but we only get back what we put out.
It is one's inner feelings and attitudes which detemine the quality of his life. The person who is withdrawn, and thinks constantly about himself and his own shortcomings, is not good company. No one wants to be around such a person, not even his own family.
Of the above 10 commandments, number seven is probably the one most of us fail to observe. "Be generous with praise, cautious with criticism." It is so easy to fall into the habit of being critical. If one is not careful he will find himself criticizing everything automatically, including himself. The person who is frustrated and critical of himself cannot be a friendly, outgoing, cheerful person. To be popular with others you must be popular with yoursef, so work on yourself first.
If you are not satisfied with your inner attitudes, strive to change them. It is these inner attitudes which will express themselves outwardly. The person who is happy and contented with himself projects the feeling to others unconsciously, and will attract people to him. Others will tend to evaluate you according to your evaluation of yourself.
If your self-esteem is low and you are disatisfied with yourself do this: Form a clear, mental picture of yourself the way you would like to be, and then endeavor to think, act, and feel, the way you would if you were that person now.
"A
few reminders as New Year nears," Ann Landers
Dear Readers: If todays's column
sounds familiar, you have a good memory. It appeared in this space last
year. Not much about New Year's Day has changed, so thank you for allowing
me to loaf a little.
If you want this coming year to be better than the others, vow to do some things you've always wanted to do but "couldn't find the time."
Call up a neglected friend. Drop an old grudge, and replace it with some pleasant memories. Share a funny story with someone whose spirits are dragging. A good laugh can be better than any medicine.
Vow not to make a promise you don't believe you can keep. Pay a debt. Give a soft answer. Free yourself of envy and malice. Encourage some youth to do his or her best. Share your experience, and offer support. Young people need role models more than they need critics.
Make a genuine effort to stay in closer touch with family and friends. Resolve to stop magnifying small problems and shooting from the lip. Words that you have to eat have no nutrional value and can be hard to digest. (*Laugh*)
Find time to be kind and thoughtful. All of us have the same allotment--24 hours a day. Give a compliment. It could provide someone with a badly needed lift. Think things through. Forgive an injustive. Listen more. (I need to work on that one!) Be kind.
Apologize when you realize you are wrong. An apology never diminishes a person. It elevates him. Don't blow your own horn. If you've done something praiseworthy, someone will notice eventually.
Try to understand a point of view that is different from your own. Few things are 100 percent one way or another. Examine the demands you make on others. Lighten up.
When you feel your temper reaching the boiling point, ask yourself, "Will it matter a week from today?"
Laugh the loudest when the joke is on you.
The sure way to have a friend is to be one. We are all connected by our humanity, and we need each other. Avoid malcontents and pessimists. They drag you down.
Don't discourage a beginner from trying something risky. Nothing ventured means nothing gained. Be optimistic. The can-do spirit is the fuel that makes things go.
Go to war against animoisity and complacency. Express your gratitude. Give credit when it's due--and even when it isn't. It will make you look good.
Read something uplifting. Deep-six the trash. You wouldn't eat garbage, why put it in your head? Don't abandon your old-fashioned principles. They never go out of style. When courage is needed, ask yourself, "If not me, who? If not now, when?"
Take better care of yourself. Remember, you're all you've got. Pass up that second helping. You don't need it. Vow to eat more sensibly. You'll feel better and look better, too.
Don't put up with secondhand smoke. Nobody has the right to pollute your air or give you cancer. If someone says, "This is a free country," remind him or her that the country may be free, but no person is free if he has a habit he can't control.
Return those books you borrowed. Reschedule that missed dental appointment. Clean out your closet.
Take those photos out of the drawer, and put them in an album. If you see litter on the sidewalk, pick it up instead of walking over it.
Give yourself a reality check. Phoniness is transparent, and it is tiresome. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonders of nature.
Walk tall, and smile more. You'll
look 10 years younger. Don't be afraid to say, "I love you." Say it again.
They are the sweestest words in the world. If you have love in your life,
this new year can be the best one ever.
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