A pithy phrase can nail me to the page.
Alliterations delight me.
Metaphors enlighten me.
Oxymorons slay me.
Imagery ignites my imagination.
And a good thought provoking quote sends me running for my personal Food for Thought notebook.
As a writer, communication instructor, and public speaker, words to me are like paints and paint brushes to Synthia St. James; lips, fingers, and trumpet to Miles; wood and chisel to sculptor Elizabeth Catlett. They are the tools of my trade.
Quotes have grabbed me ever since I read this sign in my Uncle John’s bathhouse at the age of five: “We don’t swim in your toilet, so please don’t pee in our pool.” Now that’s a keeper. Ever since, I have maintained a notebook of quotes. A good one can come in handy. This summer, I have been updating my Food for Thought quote book to include some favorite oldies.
Here are a few:
Meadisms (my Dad)
* You can please some of the people some of the time;
none of the people none of the time.
But you can’t please all of the people all of the time.
* You can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip.
* You can’t take it with you. (He’s and undertaker. Believe him.)
Marionisms (my Mom)
* Beauty is as beauty does.
* You can lead a horse to the water but you can’t make him drink.
* Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
YaYaisms (Me)
* You can’t afford the luxury of a cotton-candy brain.
* Hand it over to Goddess. She recycles.
* There’s no excuse for self-abuse.
* Don’t hand me no half-a$$ed paper and I won’t give you a half-a$$ed grade. (Advice my students have yet to heed.)
How about you? What are your favorite quotes? What are your favorite sayings from family members? Send them to me and I will include them in my blog.
In the meantime, if any one can figure out how to reword the bathouse quote into something I can use in the classroom, let me know.
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7 comments:
Yaya!
A fellow quote hound!
I loved yours!
My current favorite quote
is this one
by John Muir -
"Everybody needs beauty
as well as bread,
places to play in and pray in,
where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul."
Thanks Yaya for sharing your view!
I look forward to lots more!
Maggie
My favorite quote is from
"The Natural", my favorite movie of all time. Glenn Close's character is talking to Robert Redford close to the end of the film, and she says "I believe we are given two lives - the life we learn with, and the life we live once we've learned how to live."
YaYa,
I love quotes, adages and proverbs.
I can't even remember how many times I've heard some of your favorites during my life.
Here are some of my favorites:
(my dad)
* Birds of a feather, flock together. If you want to soar with eagles, you can't hang with ducks.
* You can do anything you want to do, if you're willing to work hard for it.
* If you didn't ask for it and you take it...that's stealing.
(My mom)
* Kids should be seen and not heard.
* Spare the rod, spoil the child.
(Tawandaisms)
* Favor ain't Fair!
(Isaiahisms) My grandson when losing the debate about bedtime.
* The things I do for love.
(Life experiences)
* No good deed goes unpunished.
And last but not least, my own creation (mimi-ism)
* If you're not going my way, you're in my way.
Thanks for the opportunity to share. Keep posting YaYa, I love it!
Mimi
*
YaYa, we did it.
Here is one quote you didn't cite:
* A,B,C,D...bad puppies, A,R, not bad puppies, O,S,A,R,- C,M,P,N?
Meadie Peadie
Hi YaYa,
You go girl! All three blogs are great; I particularly like PiPi.
Your quotes are great, wow, what a memory.
Can you use this with your students?
* I don't bathe in your toilet, so please don't relieve your urinary system, in my private pool.
Love you,
Belle
One of my favorites comes from Cat on A Hot Tin Roof:
"Silence about a thing,just magnifies it."
Another comes from the Counting Crow's Mr. Jones and Me:
"I want to be a lion everybody wants to pass as cats we all want to be big, big, stars--but we have different reasons for that."
yaya im a quote lover just as you are. Here is one of my favorites by Meret Oppenheim
"For women the implications are that they have to live their on female life as well as the female life that men project on them. Thus, they are woman times two. That's too much"
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