Thank you for the positive feedback to the recent post on quotable quotes – simple thoughtlines that say so much. As this post proved to be so popular, I have decided to add a weekly post which include a fresh lot of quotations to ponder. The post will come out every Sunday under the umbrella title ‘Is this anything?’. A few will be will be well know, a few less so. Enjoy! Kindest, David
Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead.
Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Just walk beside me and be my friend.
Albert Camus
Whilst this quote is properly attributed to the famous French existentialist author and philosopher Albert Camus (1913 – 1960), it has also been made popular in the stories of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet by AA Milne. It’s a beautiful thought, whether from a philosopher or a piglet!
In a similar vein of important life lessons, comes this one:
No matter how old you are, when you go out into the world it is best to hold hands and stick together!
Robert Fulghum
These perfect words are from the 1986 book All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten that was such a huge hit for American author Robert Fulghum. He’s now written eight non-fiction best-sellers and is in demand as a columnist and motivational speaker. He was also a Unitarian Universalist minister and preacher for many years. ‘Hold hands and stick together’ is great advice in these uncertain times. It’s become a motto in our house that we repeat often to the family!
And more sage advice on life, love, and relationships, this time from the Bard himself.
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.
William Shakespeare
There you have it – in less than ten words, Will Shakespeare tells you all you need to know about human relationships! And how wonderful that it still resonates now, some four hundred years after it appeared in the first publication of All’s Well That Ends Well in 1623.
And a few more words on finding love, peace and fulfilment:
A single rose can be my garden and a single friend can be my world.
Leo Buscaglia
I just love this quote from the American author, speaker, and academic Dr Dr. Felice Leonardo (Leo) Buscaglia (1924 – 1998). To me, it encapsulates being happy, appreciating the simple things in life, and valuing those close to you. Importantly, in these days when everyone seems to need thousands of ‘friends’ on socials, this reinforces that maybe all we really need is that one special person. Buscaglia wrote extensively about love and relationships, once saying he was such an expert in the field that he ‘held the copyright’ on love. He also gets my vote for one of the best book titles ever: Bus 9 to Paradise. (If only it were that simple!)
Here’s one that you will probably know even if you don’t know its origins – and it’s a sentiment we have all experienced for ourselves at some stage in our life:
Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, but has trouble enough of its own…
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
These achingly poignant words are the opening lines of a beautiful poem called Solitude by the much-loved, but now sadly often overlooked, American poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850 – 1919). Her most popular book Poems of Passion sold over 60,000 copies, an amazing achievement for any poet. Of all her many poems, most now long forgotten, it is these few lines that have become immortal.
And my last quotation for today, and surely an apt and cautionary tale for our times, is also by the wonderful Ella Wheeler Wilcox:
To sin by silence, when they should protest, makes cowards of men.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Don’t we all know that to be true! In the same work, she goes on to say ‘No vested power in this great day and land can gag or throttle’…sadly something we definitely can’t say today.
Featured image : Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Photo of Ella Wheeler Wilcox by Jessie Turbox. The New York Historical Society/Getty Images
Article by Dr Diana Carroll.