Everyone loves a good quote. I made my living off finding the best quotes to fill up all the gift books I used to help produce for Harvest House Publishers back in the day. Quotes on friendship and love, quotes on mothers and sisters, I even wrote quotable prose for my series of gift and kid’s books back then.
What is it about quoting other people?
It really does connect us. There’s something about Jane Austen’s opening to Pride & Prejudice that does me in every time:
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
It sets the mood, it makes me want to settle in and read the book (for the fifteenth time), it does the job.
Even though nowadays, I’m not so sure it’s true.
Quotes by Shakespear, Thoreau, Dickinson, Frost, Eliot, Lewis, McInerney, King, and now Obama (his writing, not his speaking;he has the best speechwriter I’ve ever seen; his candid stuff is still too stuttering yet; he’ll get there).
These people fill up our minds with their words. I feel better knowing what they’ve said and written. I feel better realizing that we all walk the same path–figuring out this human life.
“You don’t throw a whole life away cause he’s banged up a little” is my new favorite quote. It’s from Seabiscuit (the movie) and after yesterday’s amazing Kentucky Derby, I imagine we’ll be hearing more about this quote in days to come.
My sister said it best last night, “Every time America is in trouble, a horse like this shows up.”
Yep.
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