Quoting the greats

by Joan

Recently I’ve witnessed loved ones in pain, either from lost first love, death of a treasured pet, an ailing mother, divorce, or a daily grind making someone physically ill. I’ve sent cards or books, jotted well-meaning yet trite sentiments, trying to convey how much I care, how much I hurt for their hurt.

As writers, we labor over phrases and sentences, struggle to mine the truth from words, not only for ourselves, but to touch others. Words that drape private shrouds over our readers, leave them thinking, “Yes, that’s exactly it.”

Maybe because I’m too close, I find I cannot write the words now. I turn instead to the truly great minds, to quotes I’ve discovered in my quest to understand life. Whether from philosophers, comedians, literary geniuses or children’s authors, these people “get” pain. They "get" truth.

I share a few here in the hopes that maybe one will speak to you.

The presence of the absence is everywhere.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

My candle burns at both ends; it will not last the night; but ah, my foes, and oh, my friends - it gives a lovely light!

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sadness flies on the wings of the morning and out of the heart of darkness comes the light.

Jean Giraudoux

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Maya Angelou

My Mama always said you've got to put the past behind you before you can move on.

Forrest Gump

It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.

Theodore Roosevelt

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, Begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it, Begin it now.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

When one door of happiness closes, another opens,
but often we look so long at the closed door
that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.

Helen Keller

Yet leave me not; yet, if thou wilt, be free;
Love me no more, but love my love of thee.

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Love one another but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Khalil Gibran

Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

Alfred Lord Tennyson

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

Lao Tzu

People can be more forgiving than you can imagine.
But you have to forgive yourself.
Let go of what's bitter and move on.

Bill Cosby

How do geese know when to fly to the sun?
Who tells them the seasons?
How do we, humans know when it is time to move on?
As with the migrant birds, so surely with us,
there is a voice within if only we would listen to it,
that tells us certainly when to go forth into the unknown.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.

C. S. Lewis

Every wall is a door.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

E.M Forster

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

Eleanor Roosevelt

And maybe we really did learn all we needed to know in kindergarten:

Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.

Dr. Seuss

Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.

Dr. Seuss

If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together... there is something you must always remember... you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think... but the most important thing is, even if we're apart, I'll always be with you.

Winnie the Pooh

Thanks to my talented husband, Rick Mora, for matching my thoughts with photos:
Photo #1 - Branch
Photo #2 - Broken
Photo #3 - Reach