My Life in Quotes: #116-#125
116. “But a man’s own safety is a god that sometimes makes very grim demands.”- George Eliot, Romola, p. 512
George Eliot is right. Many things about which we think- “I could/would never do that,” suddenly become feasible when we feel threatened. Or, when there is a threat to someone we care about.
117. “The wine and the sun will make vinegar without any shouting to help them.”- George Eliot, Romola, p. 533
I love this quote. We are all so quick to rush to judgment and call people’s wrongs to their attention. And yet I find that, given time, the truth will emerge without our input. Sometimes the best thing is just to sit back and watch reality unfold without interfering.
118. “There has been no great people without processions, and the man who thinks himself too wise to be moved by them to anything but contempt, is like the puddle that was proud of standing alone while the river rushed by.”- George Eliot, Romola, p. 96
Yes- it seems that every culture and every community has its festive occasions and times of celebration. We may think we are “too cool” to join in, and, that’s okay, but we may find that we are left behind and don’t get to share in the fun and the joy.
119. “Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five.”- Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage, p. 248
I think of this quote often. Statistics suggest that beyond a certain amount of income, happiness is not impact by money. Yet we need to have enough to meet our basic needs, the thought that Maugham poetically expresses.
120. “He had thought of love as a rapture which seized one so that all the world seemed spring-like, he had looked forward to an ecstatic happiness; but this was not happiness; it was a hunger of the soul, it was a painful yearning, it was a bitter anguish he had never known before.”- Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage, p. 278
Love is definitely beset by nuance. It certainly can be the source of profound happiness, but Maugham’s poor character seems to be having a hard time of it.
121. “He could not be positive that reason was much help in the conduct of life. It seemed to him that life lived itself.”- Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage, p. 323
The midrash suggests that as Moses stood by the Red Sea, with the Egyptians in hot pursuit, he prayed for God’s guidance. It was, famously, Nachshon ben Aminadav who jumped into the waters, after which they parted. The Israelites were able, finally to escape to freedom. There’s a time to think and a time to act. The 90% solution now beats the 110% solution in the future.
122. “Men may seem detestable as joint stock- companies and nations, knaves, fools, and murderers they may be; men may have mean and meager faces; but man in the ideal is so noble and so sparkling, such a grand and glowing creature, that over any ignominious blemish in him all his fellows should run to throw their costliest robes.”- Herman Melville, Moby Dick, p. 104
There’s the ideal and then there’s reality. We can all articulate noble ideals, but life is what is lived in the moment, in the face of the challenging choices that face us each day.
123. “Long exile from Christendom and civilization inevitable restores a man to that condition in which God placed him, i. e., what is called savagery. Now one of the peculiar characteristics of the savage in his domestic hours, is his wonderful patience of industry. And ancient Hawaiian war-club or spear-paddle, in its full multiplicity and elaboration of carving, is as great a trophy of human perseverance as a Latin lexicon, with but a bit of broken sea-shell or a shark’s tooth, that miraculous intricacy of wooden net-work has been achieved; and it has cost steady years of application.”- Herman Melville, Moby Dick, p. 232
I appreciate Melville’s elevating the craft of the so-called “savage.” The beauty and depth of art created with the most primitive of implements is mind-boggling and inspiring.
124. “God respects me when I work, But He loves me when I sing.”- Rabinadrath Tagore
Yes. As a rabbi, I painfully agonize over each word of each sermon. Yet Tagore reminds me that it is singing that reaches the highest heavens and brings the community together.
125. “If you have love, you will do all things well.”- T. Merton
Hmmm- clearly a quote saved when I was MUCH younger. Not sure I would agree today. If you have love, I guess you can get credit for trying, but it’s no guarantee.
About This Series- About This Series- I love words. I love when a word exactly captures the moment, the feeling. How it precisely describes something that you experienced but didn’t know exactly how to express. It’s like a warm bath or a deeply satisfying meal.
And beyond that- a collection of words. A deeply insightful phrase, thought-provoking and uplifting. A quote to remember.
I started collecting quotes when I was 16 years old. (1972) I’m 70 now, as I write these words, (2026), and there are 473 quotes in my collection. At this precise moment.
That’s not really that many over the course of 54 years. I guess I am fairly discriminating. Sometimes years can go by and the collection lays dormant. In other years there is a great harvest of quotes.
These are not necessarily famous quotes, things you’ll often hear referenced. For the most part, they simply represent words that I read that made me stop for a moment to meditate and bask in their impact. And quotes I enjoy reading and re-reading and quoting myself!
These quotes represent the evolution of my thinking over the course of 54 years. I look forward to pondering what it is that made me find each one meaningful enough to save.