“Geologists have a saying – rocks remember.” — Neil Armstrong
“You are never stronger…than when you land on the other side of despair.” — Zadie Smith
“A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.” — Jean de La Fontaine
“When a person tells you, ‘I’ll think it over and let you know’ — you know.” — Olin Miller
“Potential has a shelf life.” — Margaret Atwood
“There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.” — Booker T. Washington
“Anything that’s truly real can stand up to scrutiny.” — Carl Sagan
“Like all young men I set out to be a genius, but mercifully laughter intervened.” — Lawrence Durrell
“Contentment is the wealth of nature.” — Socrates
“Some things in life cannot be fixed. They can only be carried.” — Megan Devine
“Leave the beaten track occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do so you will be certain to find something that you have never seen before. ” — Alexander Graham Bell
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” — Albert Einstein
“Doubt grows with knowledge.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“People want to know how much you care before they care how much you know.” — Daniel Coleman
“An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.” — Pliny the Younger
“I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me.” — Cary Grant
“My hopes are not always realized, but I always hope.” — Ovid
“I stand behind you because I trust you to lead the way. I lead the way because I know you will always have my back.” — Kim Harris
“Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!” — Maya Angelou
“Be a good listener. Your ears will never get you in trouble.” — Frank Tyger
“When you are a great observer, everything is your teacher.” — Unknown
“If you want to see the truth, you have to be brave enough to look.” — Rune Lazuli
“Action speaks louder than words but not as often.” — Mark Twain
“Pleasure is often spoiled by describing it.” — Stendhal
“The world is changed by your example, not your opinion.” — Paulo Coelho
“The greatness of humanity is not in being human, but in being humane.” — Mahatma Gandhi
“…everyone here is seeking that magic bullet. Wants it. Desires that something ‘more’. But do they know what it is? How will they know when they’ve found it? And what will they do once they have it?” — Karen Hutton
“If the left side of your brain controls the right side of your body and the right side controls the left half, then isn’t it also true that left-handers are the only people in their right minds?” — Bill Lee (adapted)
“Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they’re yours.’” — Richard Bach
“Make your peace with the fact that saying ‘no’ often requires trading popularity for respect.” — Greg McKeown
“And suddenly all the love songs were about you.” — Unknown
Golf: “Hitting the ball is the fun part of it, but the fewer times you hit the ball the more fun you have.” — Lou Graham
“O, it is excellent to have a giant’s strength; but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.” — William Shakespeare
“One of my rules is: Never try to do anything. Just do it.” — Ani DiFranco
“The shifts of fortune test the reliability of friends.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero
“I lapsed into rude.” — Dennis Miller
From time-to-time JBRish will post items under the heading of Words Worth that demonstrate the quirkiness, humor, beauty and flexibility of the English language.
To initiate this category of posts, what could be more fitting on the heels of Halloween than to present interesting epitaphs that are punny, witty or just plain humorous? I cannot verify that these are valid, but I think you will agree that they are indeed clever.
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Harry Edsel Smith of Albany, New York:
Born 1903–Died 1942.
Looked up the elevator shaft to see if the
car was on the way down. It was.
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In a Thurmont, Maryland:
Here lies an Atheist, all dressed up
and no place to go.
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East Dalhousie, Nova Scotia:
Here lies Ezekial Aikle, Age 102.
Only the good die young.
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London, England:
Here lies Ann Mann, who lived an old maid
but died an old Mann. Dec. 8, 1767
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Ribbesford, England:
The children of Israel wanted bread,
And the Lord sent them manna.
Clark Wallace wanted a wife,
And the Devil sent him Anna.
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Ruidoso, New Mexico:
Here lies Johnny Yeast.
Pardon him for not rising.
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Uniontown, Pennsylvania:
Here lies the body of Jonathan Blake,
Stepped on the gas instead of the brake.
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Silver City, Nevada:
Here lays The Kid,
We planted him raw.
He was quick on the trigger,
But slow on the draw.
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England:
Sir John Strange.
Here lies an honest lawyer,
and that is Strange.
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Wimborne, England (John Penny’s Grave):
Reader, if cash thou art in want of any,
Dig 6 feet deep and thou wilt find a Penny.
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Hartscombe, England:
On the 22nd of June,
Jonathan Fiddle went out of tune.
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Enosburg Falls, Vermont:
Here lies the body of our Anna,
Done to death by a banana.
It wasn’t the fruit that laid her low,
But the skin of the thing that made her go.
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Nantucket, Massachusetts:
Under the sod and under the trees,
Lies the body of Jonathan Pease.
He is not here, there’s only the pod,
Pease shelled out and went to God.
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England:
Remember man, as you walk by,
As you are now, so once was I.
As I am now, so shall you be,
Remember this and follow me.
To which someone replied by writing on the tombstone:
To follow you I’ll not consent,
Until I know which way you went.