5 of My Favorite Quotes

bonnaroo-66d0f821ca528ac8I was interviewed tonight via Skype for an entrepreneurial blog. I love to talk about Kickstarter and Stonemaier Games, so most of my answers flowed easily. However, there was one seemingly easy question at the end that stumped me: What is your favorite quote?

We ended the interview without me providing an answer, and I said I would try to answer it over e-mail. I was still stumped, though. I wanted to think of something clever, some tiny reference to a movie or book I love. But nothing came to mind.

Then I remembered that I used to keep quotes from blogs and books on an online list-making app. I really enjoyed reading back over these quotes, and I thought I’d share 5 with you that resonate with me at this point in my life:

“Be true to the dreams of your youth.”—Herman Melville

“I seek in fiction some hint that imagination can change the world, that the world is unfinished, a hint that we are not always doomed to make copies of copies but possess the power to see differently and the guts and good fortune to render accessible to others some glimmer of what our souls experience. Stories, after all, are a gift. Unless we’re willing to imagine what it might feel like inside another skin, then we are imprisoned in our own.”—John Edgar Wideman

“Don’t ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive. Then do that. The world needs people who have come alive.”—Howard Thurman

“The loneliest sound in the world is other people making love.” City of Thieves by David Benioff

“We’re not just programming music. We’re programming some of the most memorable moments of their lives.”—Richard Goodstone, founder of the Bonnaroo concert in Tennessee

I left off this list the quote that I chose for the interview–you’ll have to wait for the interview to see that one. 🙂

7 thoughts on “5 of My Favorite Quotes”

  1. Memorable quotes come easy if you enjoy philosophy, which I do. A couple of my favorites:

    “The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for.” –Ludwig Wittgenstein

    “Life can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forwards.” –Soren Kierkegaard

    “The beginning of love is to let those we love be truly themselves and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.” –Thomas Merton

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  2. I like those! Especially Whitman’s. Here are my tops lately (first two were read at our wedding):

    “There are things you do because they feel right & they may make no sense & they may make no money & it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other & to eat each other’s cooking & say it was good.”

    “When I first met him, I knew in a moment I would have to spend the next few days re-arranging my mind so there’d be room for him to stay.”
    – all 3 are from StoryPeople (Brian Andreas)

    “Anything’s a toy if you play with it.” – Andy Dwyer on Parks and Rec

    And paring down from a super long Dave Eggers diatribe:

    “The thing is, I really like saying yes. I like new things, projects, plans, getting people together and doing something, trying something, even when it’s corny or stupid. I am not good at saying no. And I do not get along with people who say no. When you die, and it really could be this afternoon, you will not be happy about having said no. You will be kicking your ass about all the no’s you’ve said. No to that opportunity, or no to that trip to Nova Scotia or no to that night out, or no to that project or no to that person who wants to be naked with you but you worry about what your friends will say.

    What matters is that you do good work. What matters is that you produce things that are true and will stand. What matters is not the perception, nor the fashion, not who’s up and who’s down, but what someone has done and if they meant it. It is a fuckload of work to be open-minded and generous and understanding and forgiving and accepting, but Christ, that is what matters. What matters is saying yes.”

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  3. Those are some pretty good quotes Jamey. Though I do have to correct you because the “Don’t ask what the world needs…” is one of my favorites too and it’s not Whitman, but Howard Thurman. 😉 Some of my other’s are:

    “Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire.” ~ St. Catherine of Siena

    “Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” ~Blessed Mother Teresa (my patron Saint) 🙂

    “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” – Abe Lincoln

    “Whatever you are, be a good one.” ~ Abe Lincoln

    “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” ~Gandhi

    “Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.” ~ Ben Franklin

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    • Leandra–Good to know about Thurman! I’ll change that in a sec.

      I particularly love the Mother Teresa quote and the Ben Franklin quote. Thanks for sharing!

      Reply
  4. Very nice quotes! I also like the Gandhi one. Two of my favorites are:

    “Every heart that has beat strong and cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind it in the world, and bettered the tradition of mankind.” –Robert Louis Stevenson

    “May you be happy always.” –Honore de Balzac

    Reply

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