For about ten years, I've been obsessed with quotes. Of all sorts. And from a variety of sources. I constantly look at K, or friends/family and exclaim, "That's a good line!" or underline a great sentence in a book, or hum a certain line from a song. I was reading my friend L's blog and she had a post about writing, and the reasons for writing, and she had a quote from W.H. Auden that read, "How do I know what I think until I see what I say?" I really liked that, and it seemed to be similar to a quote I heard many years ago from Cecil Day Lewis. It says, "We do not write to be understood. We write in order to understand." Just like speech, writing is a form of explicating not only what we think, but who we are. Who are we beyond what we say? Can we articulate our identities beyond outward indicators?
This is delving into the setimental just a bit, but I've been known to be a bit of a sentimentalist. Regardless, here are some favorite quotes that I remember most clearly (or have underlined in books that are on hand).
"Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given; forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries when they wrote these books."
- R. W. Emerson, "The American Scholar"
"Where shall we fix? where shall our labours end?
Whom shall we follow, and what fate attend?
Let not my prayers a doubtful answer find;
But in clear auguries unveil thy mind."
Virgil, The Aeneid
"... it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one's existence, - that which makes its truth, its meaning - its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream - alone."
J. Conrad, The Heart of Darkness
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy"
W. Shakespeare, Hamlet I.V.
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