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Some favorite quotes

Update 5/2009: This was originally posted back in 2007, but I've added a few more quotes and I'm always looking for more that strike my fancy. So comment with your favs--I might like it enough to add it to my list!

(I decided to start a list of favorite quotes. Yes, it's rather short right now. I'll keep adding as I find more I like)

The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon.--Robert Cormier

"It would be ridiculous for the donkey that carried Jesus to think that all the celebration and applause was for him."

A King may move a man, a father may claim a son, but remember that even when those who move you be Kings, or men of power, your soul is in your keeping alone. When you stand before God, you cannot say, "But I was told by others to do thus." Or that, "Virtue was not convenient at the time." This will not suffice. Remember that. –King Baldwin IV, Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure. --Elizabeth Bennett, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you. --William Gladstone, British Prime Minister

A woman’s heart should be so hidden in Christ that a man should have to seek Him first to find her. --Maya Angelou

Sometimes you're the windshield
Sometimes you're the bug
--"The Bug" by Mary Chapin Carpenter

If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out? --Will Rogers (1879-1935)

I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life. --Rita Rudner

I found simply imitating Jesus and leaving the results to God to be the scriptural approach. If God thought my contribution significant, He would arrange a wider hearing. It was not my business to be concerned about it. With this new outlook, obscurity was no threat, and fame no temptation. My reality was better, the anxiety space was closed, and my anxiety receded. --Anxious for Nothing by Bill Hull (thanks to Cynthia Ruchti for this quote)

"If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving's not for you." --unknown, I got this from my friend Erin Kawaye

Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank piece of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. --Gene Fowler (thanks to James Scott Bell for this quote)

If people were meant to pop out of bed, we'd all sleep in toasters. --Author unknown

Got any good ones?

Comments

Unknown said…
My favorite is by Anis Anis......No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.
Elysa said…
I love the quotes, Camy. Back in my single, pre-seven children days, I used to keep a journal of quotes and poems that I liked. I still will put them on my blog when I find ones that really connect with me.

Have you seen the Father Tim journals by Jan Karon? They are great inspiration for writers and quote lovers.
It's a rather long quote, as far as quotes go, but something about it just speaks to me.

"As little, I should think, can it matter whether the writer so designated is a man, or a woman, as one or two of my critics profess to have discovered. I take the imputation in good part, as a compliment to the just delineation of my female character; and though I am bound to attribute much of the severity of my censors to this suspicion, I make effort to refute it, because in my own mind, I am satisfied that if a book is a good one, it is so whatever the sex of the author may be." Anne Bronte, 1848 in response to a scathing review.
Brittanie said…
I found this in the November issue of Ladies Home Journal today.

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."
Thorton Wilder
Alexia said…
Here's just a few of my favorites - I have a whole WORD document full of them!

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those that mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ---Dr. Suess

“Life is not about how many breaths you take; it’s about how many of life’s moments take your breath away.”

"Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart." ---Kahlil Gibran
bigguysmama said…
Sometimes you have to be in a certain mood to have a quote seem right to you. This one was in an email I received today and I'm the type of person who might try doing it for the sheer fun of it. Not only that, I'd love to see the faces of the people when they found out what I was trying to do!

"For those of you that say nothing is impossible.....try slamming a revolving door."
Elysa said…
"Not a day passes over the earth, but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great words, and suffer noble sorrows."

The Cloister and the Hearth (1861) --- Charles Reade
Unknown said…
Love that Kingdom of Heaven quote...I'm going to have to rent that movie now.
Anonymous said…
I'm not religious, but that doesn't matter; that Kingdom of Heaven quote really spoke to me.

I'm glad you shared it.
Amy said…
One of my favorite quotes is from C.S. Lewis: We're not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.Not necessarily encouraging and uplifting, but very real in my experience.
Crystal Laine said…
"You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist."

- Isaac Asimov


If God gives you something you can do, why in God’s name wouldn’t you do it?
~Stephen King

"Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere." Anne Lamott

"Wipe the blood off...and continue." Crystal Laine Miller (ha, while playing golf...)
Josanne said…
“If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together… There is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart…I’ll always be with you.”
~ Winnie the Pooh (A.A. Milne)

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