Bits and Hints

More words of wisdom I have gathered the past 20 years:

A room without books is like a body without a soul. Cicero
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Poets are the ultimate philosophers. They surprise us with new observations, touch us with their empathy, startle us with their metaphors and delight us with their vision. Jan Lieberman
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It's hard for the modern generation to understand Thoreau, who lived beside a pond, but didn't own water skis or a snorkel. Bill Vaughan
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There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. W. Somerset Maugham
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(In writing my books) I try to leave out the parts that people skip. Elmore Leonard
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Those of us who have gone down a rabbit hole, who have climbed the mast of a plunging schooner with a pirate hot on our tails, who have gone back in time on the back of a cat, those of us who have done these things know how narrow and bleak our lives would have been if untouched by these mind-stretching adventures. For beyond the mere skills of learning to read lies a land of vision and enchantment. The child who is never pointed in that direction will grow to adulthood literate in the "letters" sense of the word, but with a sadly undernourished spirit. Knornei Chukovsky Reading Guidance in a Media Age
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In reviewing a book he had just read, Ambrose Bierce said, "The covers are too far apart."
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There is an old Yiddish custom--when young children completed a page of study, their teacher dropped a dot of honey on the bottom of the page. The children were encouraged to dip their fingers in the honey and taste the sweetness. Learning should always be sweet. ( I gave my students little pieces of Bit O' Honey candy when I could find them)
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From Reader's Digest: A friend introduced me to his daughter, a smartly dressed woman with the manner of a professional person. I learned she was a Roman Catholic nun on vacation from her position as an educational administrator. We agreed that her life-style as a nun was vastly different from what it would have been in earlier days.
"Sister," I said, half in jest, "who knows what changes are yet to come. Why, some future pope may decide to allow nuns to marry!"
"Perhaps," came the reply. "Perhaps she will."
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There is power in a dream of excellence.
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Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know. Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Getting tired of these? I am only half-way through the first of six books.

Word Treasures

Commonplace wisdom:

Dr. Seuss took 220 words, rhymed them and turned out Cat in the Hat, a little volume of absurdity that worked like a karate chop on the weary little world of Dick, Jane and Spot.
Ellen Goodman
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Good writing is supposed to evoke a sensation in the reader--not the fact that it is raining, but the feel of being rained upon. E. L. Doctorow
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A writer lives in awe of words
for they can be cruel or kind,
and they can change their meanings
right in front of you.
They pick up flavors and odors
like butter in the refrigerator.
John Steinbeck
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Making a decision to write was a lot like a decision to jump into a frozen lake. I knew I was going in....If I survived at all, it would be a triumph. If I swam, it would be a miracle.
Maya Angelou
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Joyce Maynard compares nurturing children to launching toy boats--we lower them gently, run along the bank aways...even get them unstuck a time or two...Then they'll be off toward some unknown destination, while we stand on the shore, waving and cheering, watching them go.
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A sixth-grade boy came to the desk, returning a book he really liked The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He asked, "Do you have any more books about deformed bell-ringers?"
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Ships in harbor are safe. But that's not what ships are for. John Shedd
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The best way out is always through. Helen Keller
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I still find that each day is too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see. John Burroughs
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Some people, no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty. They simply move it from their faces into their hearts. Max Bauxbaum
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Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh Gift from the Sea
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If you don't believe in ghosts, you have never been to a family reunion. Ashleigh Brillant
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Commonplace ideas

Here's more from my commonplace book:

From Max Lucado, Feb. 24, 1987:

The most valuable thing a Christian has is the edge of amazement he stands on. The church in the New Testament was overwhelmed with Jesus.
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Who would have believed that God would enter the world through the womb of a teen-age Jewish girl?
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Before he died Jack Benny arranged that his wife Mary would get a single red rose a day for the rest of her life.
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A boy saw a plaque on the wall of the church. He asked what it was. He was told it was a list of all who died in the service. He asked, "Which one, the first or the second?"
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There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein. Red Smith
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Get your facts first and then you can distort them as much as you please. Mark Twain
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Nothing makes a person more productive than the last minute.
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Seeds planted early take deep root. Elizabeth Yates
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(Books) Their pleasures linger like the smell of strawberries or the sound of a home run. Susan OHanion

Jane Austen

I saw Becoming Jane last week and really enjoyed it. In a holiday weekend in which there are absolutely no movies to see, I wish I had waited until this weekend. While it may be considered by some to be a chick flick, it was a good historical look at the era in which Jane and other women fought to become published writers. Working women of any ilk were considered second-class--women who wrote, almost perverse. Of course, Austen went on to write some of the great books in English literature.

Thank goodness that landscape has changed.