Quotes
Gestalt Prayer (Fritz Perls, 1969)
I do my thing and you do your thing.
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,
And you are not in this world to live up to mine.
You are you, and I am I,
And if by chance we find each other, it’s beautiful.
If not, it can’t be helped.
From Philadelphia Story (Spoken by the character Dexter as played by Cary Grant about and to Traci, the character played by Katherine Hepburn):
On Traci: Strength is her religion… She finds human imperfection unforgivable. And when I gradually discovered that my relationship to her was supposed to be not that of a loving husband and a good companion, but that of a kind of high priest to a virgin goddess…
To Traci: You could be the finest woman on this earth. I’m contemptuous of something inside of you that you either can’t help, or make no attempt to; your so-called ’strength’ - your prejudice against weakness - your blank intolerance… You’ll never be a first-class human being or a first-class woman, until you’ve learned to have some regard for human frailty. It’s a pity your own foot can’t slip a little sometimes.
"I think I’d be happier if I were stupider. I’d just call it love instead of infatuation, and build my castles in the sky."
- downstairs Jen
Dumb teen: Hey, look at this! It says "Train for jobs in biotch."
Smarter teen: Fool! That word is biotech. Why you gotta be ignorant all your life?
- 1 train (My favorite Overheard in New York)
"A pedestal is as much a prison as any other small space."
- Anonymous Woman (c. mid-1800s), African American feminist. As quoted in Moving Beyond Words, part 4, by Gloria Steinem (1994). Said sometime in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Steinem first heard this while organizing in the American south in the early 1970s. It was attributed to an anonymous African American woman of the suffragist/abolitionist era, who supposedly said it to white Southern women, with reference to their social situation.
"We think in generalities, but we live in detail."
- Alfred North Whitehead, English mathematician & philosopher (1861-1947)
"We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves."
- Eric Hoffer
"I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the strong."
- Leo Rosten
"Have compassion towards him. Have patience with him. Help him draw himself out to reveal his true self. Just show love and friendship and don’t worry about what you receive in return. Coming from a place of love (and this is true for everything) is healthier for YOU and has benefits for YOU, though you will be less concerned about yourself and your ego as you take this on. And remember, you are loved by many and you are loved by me."
- Advice from one friend of mine to another friend of mine (you know who you are)
Your eyes are burning low as you look out on this morning, but your eyes will return to their former glory.
Though the cold north wind may blow, it’s all sound and fury, and the summer will return in its former glory.
Everything will be just like you remember. Today won’t look as bad as it seemed, and though love’s become a dying ember, it will burn brighter than you ever dreamed.
For the day is coming soon. You don’t have to worry. Your light will return in its former glory.
Everything will be just like you remember. Today won’t look as bad as it seemed, and though love’s become a dying ember, it will burn brighter than you ever dreamed.
For the day is coming soon. You don’t have to worry. Your light will return in its former glory.
Your light will return. The summer will return. Your heart will rise again in its former glory.
- “Former Glory” by Ron Sexsmith (Katy and I both teared up when we saw him play this at the Carolina Music Hall in Durham)
Bloody men are like bloody buses
You wait for about a year
And as soon as one approaches your stop
Two or three others appear.
You look at them flashing their indicators,
Offering you a ride.
You’re trying to read the destinations,
You haven’t much time to decide.
If you make a mistake, there is no turning back.
Jump off, and you’ll stand there and gaze
While the cars and the taxis and lorries go by
And the minutes, the hours, the days.
- Wendy Cope
And if there is a promise of a storm, and you want change in your life, walk into it. If you get on the other side, you will be different. And if you want change in your life, and you are avoiding the trouble, you can forget it.
So Harriet would say, “Wade in the water. It’s gonna really be troubled water.”
- from Sweet Honey & the Rock’s recording of “Wade in the Water,” a Black spiritual
Cautionary quote heard on a random talk show: You carry out your own agenda quietly because to challenge her would be too much.
That Love is all there is,
Is all we know of Love;
- Emily Dickinson
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