Hello, awesome readers.
Do you like quotes?
I like quotes.
Why?
Because they remind me that ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things.
Sadly, some extraordinary things go unnoticed.
Like my friend, Lee. We’ve known each other forever and neither of us really remembers how we connected. We’re friends on Facebook and we both enjoy words, movies, and movie scores. We appreciate one another as “real people” and yet we’ve never met. To me, Lee is an ordinary person fighting an extraordinary battle: the battle of his life. He’s fighting the nasty “c” word (no title case on purpose).
Oh and I can’t talk about ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary feats without mentioning my friends Marlene, Wendy, Patty, and Isabelle. All single moms doing an awesome job with either no help from the co-creators of their creations or living with the complications of having created their creations with said co-creators.
They do it all. They bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and then scrub that pan clean for tomorrow after tomorrow after tomorrow.
My hat off to you, ladies!
And now, onto those quotes I promised you.
Like this one by Eleanor Roosevelt:
A woman is like a tea bag. You can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.
This is a great reminder that we ALL possess a secret inner power. So secret in fact, that even WE forget sometimes.
Or this one by Cherie Lunghi:
I just want to say to women, ‘Be yourself. It’s the inner beauty that counts. You are your own best friend, the key to your own happiness. And as soon as you understand that – and it takes a few heartbreaks – you can be happy.’
How profound is that? It makes you think … and ask questions. Why is it that we need to go through disappointment and heartbreak before we can finally realize that we are in charge of our own happiness; that we are enough for ourselves?
And then there’s this one by Madonna:
A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That’s why they don’t get what they want.
How many times have we quietly put ourselves aside because we didn’t want to inconvenience someone else. What is wrong with us? We matter too! In fact, we should all write this in lipstick across our bathroom mirrors:
I also like this one by Anita Roddick:
Whatever you do, be different – that was the advice my mother gave me, and I can’t think of better advice for an entrepreneur. If you’re different, you will stand out.
While she calls it ‘advice for an entrepreneur’, I think it applies to everyone. Be different. Be YOU. You’ll always do a better job at being you than you will at trying to be someone else.
And Ayn Rand’s:
The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.
Awesome. Just awesome.
Speaking of awesome, this quote by Virginia Woolf is my current fave:
The connection between dress and war is not far to seek; your finest clothes are those you wear as soldiers.
This quote can be interpreted in so many ways. It says that life is sometimes a battle between who we are to the outside world and who we’re struggling to be from the inside.
It also says that while we may have the best of intentions, sometimes we cross paths with someone who wants nothing more than to see us fail; not because it will affect them in any way but because their perception of our achievements is a direct indication that they should be making more of an effort. But they don’t. Instead they’d rather spend their time trying to sabotage our efforts.
Demented, I know. But there are people like that. What do you do in this case? Take the advice of Hellen Keller:
Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.
Your turn.
Feel free to leave your fave quote in the comments below. We all have days when life isn’t cooperating and maybe – just maybe – your comment will be exactly what someone else needed to hear.
M.
PS. I wrote this post while sitting at Enoteca Monza – Pizzeria Moderna. Thank you. I wasn’t able to write from home because the laundry was yelling at me so really appreciated the home-away-from-home ambiance. Also, the wine glass with the letter “M” … nice touch!
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Thanks Mona ! My quote and way to go in life : What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger! So now I can say I’m a very strong woman! ……. and so are my 4 beautiful daughters.
You, my friend, are one of the strongest people I know. And I’m proud to call you “my friend”. With so little time, we don’t see each other enough. But that’s the beauty of true friendship: it’s strong regardless 🙂
ahhhhhh love you ! xxx
Ditto!!!
My fav still is kinda a quote ….. you have two wolves inside you one evil and one good . Which one grows ? The one you feed 🙂
I believe that’s a Cherokee legend and a very profound one at that. We ALL have wolves living inside of us; some more than others 🙂
Thanks for the compliment and I think I will write that on my mirror
“The hardest part of any job is getting started” heard this all my life from my dad
Enjoy your day, and see you soon !
That’s a great quote – and philosophy for getting shit done!
The quote from Helen Keller made me smile! I wonder how many of the people whose “eye contact” feels heavy and insistent actually *see* the other person’s eyes?
I have an astigmatism; it takes me about as long for a face-shaped blur to appear clearly as a face, when I look up from a book/computer or in from the horizon while I’m walking, as it takes for the people who think with their eyes to write me off as either avoiding eye contact or making heavy, pushy, sexy eye contact.
And I earned money as a model in the 1980s. And most of my favorite people are sight-impaired…
Thanks for sharing this. It’s a great reminder that we judge way too quickly 🙂
“Don’t need to accomplish more than you’re willing to try, and make trying the goal every single day. Just try.”
—me
Great quote! Profound, actually. Thanks, Susan 🙂
Thanks for sharing! Really enjoyed the read!
Glad to hear. Thanks for taking the time to comment 🙂
“You owe no one an apology for who you are.” My mom
“What other people think of you is none of your business.” Unknown. ( somebody probably knows, but I don’t.
Love both of these! Your mom: clearly a smart woman 🙂 Also, during my “acting days”, I worked with a director that said this often: “What other people think of you is none of your business.” I have no idea where this quote originates from but it’s brilliant!