In August of last year, I invited readers to "Make Your Own Thought," posting a collection of quotes with the last word left out. I supplied my own preferred completions in the comments section. For the record, I'd like to bring the completed thoughts together here.
"Always carry with you a little reasonable doubt, should you meet someone who needs to be found innocent."
"Let us learn humility from the sun, which, in all its glory, will yet give anyone the time of day."
"I remember this from childhood: that when I had done something to earn my parents' respect, I didn't want their unconditional love."
"Try to do something each day that you would do if you didn't think it was too late."
"A senseless tragedy remains forever tragic, but it's up to us whether it remains forever senseless.
"Of the Seven Deadly Sins, Sloth is the only one I still have energy for."
"How do you know you died? Well, I guess you start meeting people you thought were dead."
"Having completed most of the book of life, I can tell you that the answers are not in the back."
"How often we overlook the happiness in our lives that it is not yet a memory."
"Who would not be a little dishonest if there were such a thing as a little dishonesty."
"I have made choices in life that would have been wise indeed had they been choices."
"As important as penciling in each day a new page of your life story is to go over some previous page in ink."
~~ Robert Brault
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
A Final Fifteen for February
"We can go to bed, having earned our night's sleep, but to awaken to a new day is a gift from God."
"Family life is a daily struggle to turn love into happiness."
"To accept yourself for who you are is not easy, for it takes nothing less than to adopt someone else's child."
"Ah, the things we would do if we could -- especially in the secure knowledge that we can't."
Most of us die having never made the mistake we spent our life making up for.
"I'm at the age where if you wake up to find your slippers on the bedside table, you know to look under the bed for your glasses."
"I look back on my life trying to figure out where I went wrong, finally acknowledging that that's probably where it happened."
"The ultimate consolation is to realize that things permanent in human experience can be temporary."
"Making a different mistake every day is not only acceptable, it is the definition of progress."
"Right this moment, before you do it, is the time to wonder what you might have done differently."
"I wish to die knowing that I took a fleeting instant of eternity and fashioned from it a lifetime."
"I'm at the age where I'm grateful to anyone who can tell me my whereabouts."
"The human mind has a wanderlust that in old age it surrenders to completely."
"People ask how I think up my thoughts. Mostly I think them up while reading Paul Simon's lyrics."
"There is an instinct in a woman to love most her own child -- and an instinct to make any child who needs her love, her own."
~~ Robert Brault
"Family life is a daily struggle to turn love into happiness."
"To accept yourself for who you are is not easy, for it takes nothing less than to adopt someone else's child."
"Ah, the things we would do if we could -- especially in the secure knowledge that we can't."
Most of us die having never made the mistake we spent our life making up for.
"I'm at the age where if you wake up to find your slippers on the bedside table, you know to look under the bed for your glasses."
"I look back on my life trying to figure out where I went wrong, finally acknowledging that that's probably where it happened."
"The ultimate consolation is to realize that things permanent in human experience can be temporary."
"Making a different mistake every day is not only acceptable, it is the definition of progress."
"Right this moment, before you do it, is the time to wonder what you might have done differently."
"I wish to die knowing that I took a fleeting instant of eternity and fashioned from it a lifetime."
"I'm at the age where I'm grateful to anyone who can tell me my whereabouts."
"The human mind has a wanderlust that in old age it surrenders to completely."
"People ask how I think up my thoughts. Mostly I think them up while reading Paul Simon's lyrics."
"There is an instinct in a woman to love most her own child -- and an instinct to make any child who needs her love, her own."
~~ Robert Brault
Friday, February 11, 2011
Thoughts More Sly Than Wry
"In explaining one's self to others, one should make especially clear the part where the explanation is over."
"One comes to suspect that more people are certifiably insane than can produce a certificate."
"Although death, we realize, is a part of life, there's a wider range of activities in the part before you die."
"Most of what we understand of the human soul goes under the name of art appreciation."
"A rule of thumb for artists is this -- if you can't think of anything you left out, you aren't finished."
"An art critic is someone who appreciates art, except for any particular piece of art."
"Politicians like to rely on slogans, lest their constituents become the unwitting pawns of reasoned discourse."
"It is not that a political party wishes to advocate nonsense, but sometimes it's the only opposing viewpoint."
"There is an inclination to treat unjustly those whose only crime is that we have unjustly treated them."
"Just heard from a friend in Texas, where, she says, it's now treason to plot against the overthrow of the federal government."
"One wonders, reading history, why our ancestors worked so hard for things they could have just demanded from the government."
"Personally I favor a strict interpretation of the Constitution, loosely applied."
"Every wise saying is actually two, depending on whether it ends with a period or a question mark."
"One hears little common sense spoken in politics, due to the risk of alienating its opponents."
"It is a central belief in democracy that ignorance, until eradicated, is entitled to representation."
The trick to writing an aphorism is to place a period at the point where you're inclined to say, "in other words... .'
As I may or may not say to the Lord on Judgment Day, "You ask a lot of questions for someone who has so much explaining to do."
~~ Robert Brault
"One comes to suspect that more people are certifiably insane than can produce a certificate."
"Although death, we realize, is a part of life, there's a wider range of activities in the part before you die."
"Most of what we understand of the human soul goes under the name of art appreciation."
"A rule of thumb for artists is this -- if you can't think of anything you left out, you aren't finished."
"An art critic is someone who appreciates art, except for any particular piece of art."
"Politicians like to rely on slogans, lest their constituents become the unwitting pawns of reasoned discourse."
"It is not that a political party wishes to advocate nonsense, but sometimes it's the only opposing viewpoint."
"There is an inclination to treat unjustly those whose only crime is that we have unjustly treated them."
"Just heard from a friend in Texas, where, she says, it's now treason to plot against the overthrow of the federal government."
"One wonders, reading history, why our ancestors worked so hard for things they could have just demanded from the government."
"Personally I favor a strict interpretation of the Constitution, loosely applied."
"Every wise saying is actually two, depending on whether it ends with a period or a question mark."
"One hears little common sense spoken in politics, due to the risk of alienating its opponents."
"It is a central belief in democracy that ignorance, until eradicated, is entitled to representation."
The trick to writing an aphorism is to place a period at the point where you're inclined to say, "in other words... .'
As I may or may not say to the Lord on Judgment Day, "You ask a lot of questions for someone who has so much explaining to do."
~~ Robert Brault
Monday, February 7, 2011
Thoughts in a Garden (REPOST)
"Yes. In the garden, growth has it seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again. "
~ Chance the Gardener (Peter Sellers in "Being There")
I cannot hope to match the wisdom of Chance the Gardener, but here nevertheless are a few thoughts:
"I sit in my garden, gazing upon a beauty that cannot gaze upon itself. And I find sufficient purpose for my day."
"A garden never disappoints, but it can be disappointed -- and does not hide its disappointment."
"Does a rose exist that I might behold it? Or do I exist that a rose might be beheld?"
"I cultivate my garden, and my garden cultivates me."
"There are years when my garden lives up to plan, and I behold a miracle. In other years I would settle for anything resembling a floral pattern."
"Spade and hoe in hand, I am summoned into my garden by the morning sun, an acolyte to its altar of worship."
"It pleases me to take amateur photographs of my garden, and it pleases my garden to make my photographs look professional."
Overnight it rained, and the wind switched into the west, and this morning my garden is fresh in the sun, and its scent wafts through my window. But if I sit in my garden, who will keep my appointment in town? But if I don't, who will sit in my garden?
~ Robert Brault
~ Chance the Gardener (Peter Sellers in "Being There")
I cannot hope to match the wisdom of Chance the Gardener, but here nevertheless are a few thoughts:
"I sit in my garden, gazing upon a beauty that cannot gaze upon itself. And I find sufficient purpose for my day."
"A garden never disappoints, but it can be disappointed -- and does not hide its disappointment."
"Does a rose exist that I might behold it? Or do I exist that a rose might be beheld?"
"I cultivate my garden, and my garden cultivates me."
"There are years when my garden lives up to plan, and I behold a miracle. In other years I would settle for anything resembling a floral pattern."
"Spade and hoe in hand, I am summoned into my garden by the morning sun, an acolyte to its altar of worship."
"It pleases me to take amateur photographs of my garden, and it pleases my garden to make my photographs look professional."
Overnight it rained, and the wind switched into the west, and this morning my garden is fresh in the sun, and its scent wafts through my window. But if I sit in my garden, who will keep my appointment in town? But if I don't, who will sit in my garden?
~ Robert Brault
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Round Up the Usual Subjects -- Part Two
On Kids
"It is not blindness to think our own child special; it is blindness to think that somebody else's isn't."
"Our children are beings completely invisible to us except through the eyes of hope."
On Optimism
"It can be said of optimism that while sometimes mistaken, it is never sadly mistaken."
"An optimist is someone who believes that good things come in threes -- and cockroaches come in ones."
"How do you tell an optimist that he or she has lived a happy life by mistake?"
On Moms
"There is a time early in life when there seem to be countless reasons for happiness, and then you discover your mom is making them up."
"There is little you achieve whose possibility was not first exaggerated by your mom."
"There is this about a mom's approval -- that the more you know you have it, the more you want to earn it."
On Fate
"Every person born has been chosen by fate from a trillion possibilities. So if you ever wondered what you would do if you won the lottery, you're doing it."
On Skepticism
"There is a mindset that rejects anything that cannot be further explained, including a complete explanation."
On Ingenuity
All I can say is, I'm cashing a lot more checks since I legally changed my name to "Non-Negotiable."
On Aging
"I arrive at age 72 convinced that sometime early in my life there was a briefing that I missed."
"A common disease of middle-age is late-onset pig-headedness."
On Artificial Intelligence
"Someday, all other things being equal, all other equals will be things."
On Letting Ourselves Be Happy
"There is no greater obstacle to happiness than our own better judgment."
"What is our better judgment but our own personal piece of the conventional wisdom, which is always wrong."
"If we can be unaccountably sad, then why insist that happiness have a reason?"
~~ Robert Brault
"It is not blindness to think our own child special; it is blindness to think that somebody else's isn't."
"Our children are beings completely invisible to us except through the eyes of hope."
On Optimism
"It can be said of optimism that while sometimes mistaken, it is never sadly mistaken."
"An optimist is someone who believes that good things come in threes -- and cockroaches come in ones."
"How do you tell an optimist that he or she has lived a happy life by mistake?"
On Moms
"There is a time early in life when there seem to be countless reasons for happiness, and then you discover your mom is making them up."
"There is little you achieve whose possibility was not first exaggerated by your mom."
"There is this about a mom's approval -- that the more you know you have it, the more you want to earn it."
On Fate
"Every person born has been chosen by fate from a trillion possibilities. So if you ever wondered what you would do if you won the lottery, you're doing it."
On Skepticism
"There is a mindset that rejects anything that cannot be further explained, including a complete explanation."
On Ingenuity
All I can say is, I'm cashing a lot more checks since I legally changed my name to "Non-Negotiable."
On Aging
"I arrive at age 72 convinced that sometime early in my life there was a briefing that I missed."
"A common disease of middle-age is late-onset pig-headedness."
On Artificial Intelligence
"Someday, all other things being equal, all other equals will be things."
On Letting Ourselves Be Happy
"There is no greater obstacle to happiness than our own better judgment."
"What is our better judgment but our own personal piece of the conventional wisdom, which is always wrong."
"If we can be unaccountably sad, then why insist that happiness have a reason?"
~~ Robert Brault
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