Q is for Quotes

“He wrapped himself in quotations -

 as a beggar would enfold himself 

in the purple of Emperors.”

- Rudyard Kipling 

WHY ARE WE DRAWN TO
QUOTES?

My best friend, Sandra, is still battling cancer.

Reading a volume of quotations is perfect for her as her mind struggles with the pain and medication.

A quote is short enough to grasp, yet often insightful enough to provide her food for diverting thought.

No one quote is read and digested the same way by different readers.

Every reader, as she or he reads, is actually the reader of herself.

The writer's work is only a kind of mental lens he provides the reader 

so he or she can discern what she might never have seen in herself without the book. 

The reader's recognition in himself of what the book says is the proof of the book's or quote's truth. 

Take Ophelia in Hamlet:

"We know what we are but not what we may be."

What does that say to you?

  

Or listen to Emily Dickinson:

"The brain is wider than the sky."

In our minds we can travel instantly to anywhere in the universe without boarding the Enterprise.

Speaking from experience, Einstein wrote:

"Great spirits have often overcome 

the opposition of mediocre minds."

What helps you keep true to your vision in the face of opposition? 

Decades before Einstein, Abraham Lincoln wrote:

"I am not bound to succeed, 

but I am bound to live up 

to what light I have."

 

Do you agree?  Why?  Why not? 

Mark Twain echoed those thoughts with his:

"The two greatest days of your life are the day you were born -- 

and the day you discover why."

Thousands of years earlier, Heraclitus wrote:

"Much learning does not teach understanding."

Do you have any 

favorite quotes?  

What are they?