Favourite Things Friday: Quotable Quotes

They say it is better to be poor and happy than rich and miserable, but how about a compromise like moderately rich and just moody? –Princess Diana

I have a fascination with words. I love it when a thought or idea is conveyed in a particularly concise, clever or witty way. About four years ago, I decided to compile enough thoughts into a little book to have one thought for every day of the year. And then I mass produced them, as I tend to do {see also: aprons}. I did several different covers and customized each one of them so that there was a special thought on the recipient's birthday. I made them for my sisters and sisters-in-law, for my mom and mother-in-law, aunts and special neighbors and friends as birthday gifts one year. I think I probably made about 30 of them.

When I hear a clever quote, I jot it down on one of half-a-dozen notebooks I have floating around. And if I can't find one of those, I scribble it out on the back of an envelope or the corner of any old paper lying around. I like to start each blog post with a thought. Sometimes I spend as much time searching for exactly the right thought to go with my post as I do actually writing the post. For Favourite Things Friday this week, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite quotes from my thought book, some that I haven't shared before.

It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
–J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Choose your words carefully, for they define who you are. –Unknown

While journeying east and west
The only folks we really wound
Are those we love the best.
We flatter those we scarcely know,
We please the fleeting guest,
And deal full many a thoughtless blow
To those who love us best.
–Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Live is like an old-time rail journey – delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride. –Jenkins Lloyd Jones

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts. –Albert Einstein

A change is as good as a rest. –My Cute Grandma Betty

If you don’t like something change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. –Mary Engelbreit

The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile. –Plato

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. –Friedrich Nietzsche

That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing itself has changed, but that our ability to perform it has improved. –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Attitude is everything. Pick a good one. –Unknown

I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. –Gilda Radner


The fact is, life is hard – but that’s okay. If we learn to turn to the Lord, he can make our burdens light. Distinguishing between burdens (the stuff mortality throws at us) and baggage (the junk we elect to pick up on our own) can help ease our way. –Sheri L. Dew, If Life Were Easy, It Wouldn’t be Hard: And Other Reassuring Truths

And here's one more just for fun. I remembered this quote as I was eating left-over ravioli for lunch today: Those who forget the pasta are doomed to reheat it.

Do you have a favorite poem, verse, bit of prose, adage, maxim, quip, saying, one-liner, thought or quotable quote? I'd love for you to share it with me. I've got my little notebook and pencil handy, so I can write it down.

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