My Life in Quotes- #101-110
101. Though joy is better than sorrow,
Joy is not great;
Peace is great, strength is great
Not for joy the stars burn
Not for joy the vulture
Spreads her gray sails on the air
Over the mountain;
Not for joy the worn mountain
Stands, while the years like water
Trench his long sides
“I am neither mountain nor bird
nor star, and I seek joy.”
The weakness of your breed: yet at length quietness
will cover those wistful eyes.”- Robinson Jeffers
The distinction between happiness and joy is always intriguing. Jeffers contrasts joy with peace and strength. Certainly, they can all co-exist. Jeffers addresses them hierarchically and, in a rather depressing fashion, reminds us that it will all eventually end.
102. “So our lives glide on: the river ends we don’t know where, and the sea begins, and then there is no more jumping ashore.”- George Eliot, Felix Holt, p. 360
George Eliot reminds us that the small decisions we make each day add up, and almost imperceptibly we are caught up in the current and are moving along at a swift pace. A caution to think deeply about what direction we hope to pursue.
103. “It is not true that love makes all things easy: it makes us choose what is difficult.”- ibid., George Eliot, Felix Holt, p. 591
This is a favorite quote, and one I very own share with couples under the chuppah at the time of their wedding. We will be deeply disappointed if we believe the myth of “happily ever after.” Anyone who is part of a long term relationship will tell you that the secret to a lasting connection is the willingness to work through the difficulties with kindness and understanding.
104. “Not true that she will ever master him. No woman ever will. He will make her fond of him, and afraid of him. that’s one of the things you have never gone through, Denner. A woman’s love is always freezing into fear. She wants everything; she is secure of nothing. This girl has a fine spirit- plenty of fire and pride and wit. Men like such captives, as they like horses that chomp the bit and paw the ground: they feel more triumph in their mastery. What is the use of a woman’s will?- if she tries, she doesn’t get it, and she ceases to be loved. God was cruel when he made women.”- ibid., George Eliot, Felix Holt, p. 488
I’d like to re-read the context in which this quote appears. Eliot seems to have a very cynical approach to male-female relations. And not a lot of faith in women’s ability to stay strong and self-focused and walk away from relationships that are problematic.
105. “Tragedy is all very well on stage, but it can seem mere perversity in ordinary life.”- John Fowles
Hmmmm. Can you give us an example, John Fowles? People certainly do misuse the notion of tragedy, applying it to everyday challenges that are easily surmountable. Sadly, there is real tragedy in life, and no one would ever confuse that with perversity.
106. “In general, I find that things that have happened to me out of doors have made a deeper impression than things that have happened indoors.”- The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, p. 60
It’s always good to spend time outdoors, restorative to the spirit and calming to the soul. When I ask people for a memory of a service that was especially meaningful, a significant percentage will cite an experience that they had of praying in a natural setting.
107. “The world is too serious a place, at times, for the barriers of reserve and good manners.”- ibid., The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, p. 271
Good manners and reserve are important, and sorely lacking in the world today. Yet in moments of crisis, sometimes you just need to act instantaneously to intervene and prevent disaster.
108. “It is the great reward of losing youth that one finds oneself able to be of use.”- ibid., The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, p. 273
Not to say that young people are not useful. I think of the wonder of an infant and the joy of watching a child grow and learn. There is something to be said, though, for gaining wisdom and sharing it with age.
109. “Life is a burden if those one loves best have others who come first, if there is no corner in the world where one’s loneliness is at an end.”- ibid., The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, p. 290
Russell wrote his autobiography in 1951. In 2025, loneliness is at epidemic proportions in our culture. The very first thing about which God says, “It is NOT good” in the Torah is, “It’s not good for humans to be alone.” (Genesis 2:18) Or, as Barbra Streisand put it, “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.”
110. “Why should you suppose I think it foolish to wish to see the people one is fond of? What else is there to make life tolerable? We stand on the shore of an ocean, crying to the night and the emptiness; sometimes a voice answers out of the darkness. But it is a voice of one drowning; and in a moment the silence returns. The world seems to me quite dreadful; the unhappiness of most people is very great, and I often wonder how they all endure it. To know people well is to know their tragedy: it is usually the central thing about which their lives are built. And I suppose if they did not live most of the time in things of the moment, they would not be able to go on.”- ibid., The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, p. 305
Russell here combines the thoughts expressed above in quotes #105 and 109, reflecting on tragedy and loneliness. What a comfort and a blessing it is to have people in one’s life to turn to for support.
I especially resonate with this sentence- “To know people well is to know their tragedy: it is usually the central thing about which their lives are built.” We can never really say that we know someone if we don’t know their heartache.
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 69 now, as I write these words, (2024), and there are 473 quotes in my collection. At this precise moment.
That’s not really that many over the course of 53 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 52 years. I look forward to pondering what it is that made me find each one meaningful enough to save.