More Than Words
The power of words. Whether to wound or delight, spoken or written, they have the ability to incite great emotion. As with music or a particular scent, words can, at once, pull a memory from the archives transporting one to another time; another place … I have always loved quotes, forever scribbling them down on random pieces of paper until, finally, my favourites found a home in my little red book of ‘Words’. Well-worn, the pages are filled with those which have struck a chord, sourced from books and films, mainly, or just gems from everyday life. A precious and growing collection, the words now spill into a second volume and I refer to both often, not least when sourcing a quote with which to end my blog posts, as has become my wont. I intend, one day soon, to acquire the ‘expertise’ needed to add to this page myself but, for now, the following are my old favourites and those which mean the most to me.
‘You cannot step twice in the same river, for other waters are continually flowing in.’
Heraclitis C. 500 BC
‘What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.’
Nelson Mandela, 2002
(Nelson Mandela By Himself)
‘No man is an island, entire of itself.’
John Donne
(Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, 1624)
‘… but the pathos and the gift of life is that we cannot know which will be our defining heartbreak or our most victorious joy.’
Alexandra Fuller
(Cocktail Hour Under The Tree Of Forgetfulness)
‘If I’m honest, I have to tell you, I still read fairy tales and I like them best of all.’
Audrey Hepburn
‘In history as in human life, regret does not bring back a lost moment and a thousand years will not recover something lost in a single hour’
Stefan Zweig
(Stellar Moments in Human History)
‘I didn’t like the play. But I saw it under unfavourable circumstances – the curtains were up.’
Groucho Marx
‘I admit it’s tempting to wish for the perfect boss or the perfect parent or the perfect outfit but maybe the best any of us can do is not quit, play the hand we’ve been given and accessorize the outfit we’ve got.’
‘Carrie’ (Sarah Jessica Parker)
(Sex & The City: Vogue)
‘Some moments will stay with me forever but not one would I choose to forget.’
Sir Billy Connolly
(Tracks Across America, 2016)
‘Nothing is ever really lost to us so long as we remember it.’
Adam Montgomery
‘One thing I know, why we tell the stories the most important of all … That’s how you keep them people belonging – always.’
‘Nullah’ (Brandon Walters)
(Australia, 2008)
‘… Almost there and nowhere near. All that matters is that we’re going.’
‘Lorelei’ (Lauren Graham)
(Gilmore Girls, 2006)
‘Just remember, no one can take away from you what you’ve put in your mind.’
Edith Eger
(The Choice)
‘You know that place between sleep and awake, that place where you still remember dreaming? That’s where I’ll always love you. That’s where I’ll be waiting.’
J.M Barrie
(Peter Pan)
‘When she was just a girl
She expected the world
But it flew away from her reach
So she ran away in her sleep …’
Coldplay
(Paradise)
‘For when night’s pillow nuzzles back the day, the only light you get to keep – is the love you gave away’
Noel Fitzpatrick
(Becoming The Supervet)
‘You will have bad times but they will always wake you up to the stuff you weren’t paying attention to.’
Robin Williams.
‘‘I do not want people to be very agreeable as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.’
Jane Austen.
‘Sorry, I can’t make it. I am tortoise-sitting for a neighbour.’
‘Toff’ (Georgia Toffolo)
(Made in Chelsea)