Quotes

A list, not at all comprehensive, of quotes that appeal to me, from sources frivolous and profound.
(note: this section has been ignored, and patiently waits for me to do something with it)

The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become. – Charles Du Bos, 1882-1939. French literary and art critic, atheist turned Catholic, Notre Dame professor, author of What is Literature?

When I stand before thee at the days end, thou shalt see my scars and know that I had my wounds and also my healing. – Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1941, Nobel Prize Laureate (1913, Literature).

Before a great vision can become reality there may be difficulty. Before a person begins a great endeavor, they may encounter chaos. As a new plant breaks the ground with great difficulty, foreshadowing the huge tree, so must we sometimes push against difficulty in bringing forth our dreams. Out of Chaos, Brilliant Stars are Born. I Ching, Hexagam #3

If we’re going to be damned, let’s be damned for what we really are. –
(spoken by Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Episode 101-102, Encounter at Farpoint, written by D. C. Fontana and Gene Roddenberry)

Any idiot can face a crisis, it’s this day-to-day living that wears you out. – Often attributed to Anton Chekhov, 1860-1904, but the 1954 movie The Country Girl, written for the screen by George Seaton from a Clifford Odets play, is more likely; see Quote Investigator.

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. — attr. to Antoine de Saint Exupéry, 1900-1944, Aviator, Writer, Author of The Little Prince, based on a passage from The Wisdom of the Sands: “Building a boat isn’t about weaving canvas, forging nails, or reading the sky. It’s about giving a shared taste for the sea, by the light of which you will see nothing contradictory but rather a community of love.”

Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sakes. Now, I mean, I’m talking about singing in the shower, I’m talking about dancing to the radio, I’m talking about writing a poem to a friend–a lousy poem. – Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007