Truer Words
Joelle said before her coffee on March 25, 2008
I’m a casual collector of quotes. I don’t make a big deal out of it, but when I run across quotes that really speak to me, I jot them down. Some of my all-time favorites by women we included in our Blogging with Moxie (which is down a couple bucks on Amazon right now, if you’ve been waiting for a sale!). And no, it’s not the Tyra Banks one. 
I was reading Erin’s blog (one of my favorite parts of my day is checking out her photography… dogs! dogs dogs!) and one of her few entries not packed with wagging tails and regal Great Dane snouts was a list of quotes by Nelson Mandela*. A few lines from the words she posted really jumped out at me and I wanted to share them here, but by all means check out Erin’s blog, Bark!
“There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.”
“And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”
“As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Good stuff, huh? Some of my other all-time favorite quotes…
“A girl must be two things: classy and fabulous!” — Coco Chanel
“Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
“It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” — George Eliot
“The only thing better than singing is more singing.” — Ella Fitzgerald
“You can’t copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you’re working without any real feeling.” — Billie Holiday
“I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” — Mark Twain
“Never put a sock in a toaster.” — Eddie Izzard
Do you have any faves? 
* Edit: ShellyBeach noted in the comments that the Nelson Mandela quote isn’t really a quote from him at all. According to the Wikipedia entry on the author of the quote, Marianne Williamson, Mandela never quoted Williamson at all. Someone just decided that it sounded better coming from him, I guess, and it spread like wildfire. So now we know. Thanks for the tip, ShellyBeach!
Moxie Design Studios™
from Seattle
I love quotes. I’m always collecting them! You have some great ones here. I am particularly fond of that Ella quote.
I’ve been using, “Bite off more than you can chew, then chew it.” -Ella Williams as my signature on my emails lately. It’s very fitting for my life right now. I change it up depending on my mood. I’m rather partial to all things Mae West, my favorite being, “An ounce of performance is worth a pound of promises.”
I’ve quoted that one often to too many a man. Heh.
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@sizzle: That’s a good one! I love me some Mae. I love the good ol’ “I was Snow White, but I drifted.” and my personal favorite from Mae, “If I asked for a cup of coffee, someone would search for the double meaning.”
“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” - former UCLA Men’s Basketball coach John Wooden
“Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.” - Bruce Lee
“No touch, no talk, no eye contact.” - Cesar Milan
from Northern NY • Cocktail: Harvey Wallbanger
I love quotes too - one of my favorite websites is thinkexist.com - I have collected hundreds of quotes.
One of my favorites is “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” - Marcus Aurelius -
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it.” — Charles R. Swindoll
“Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.” — Winston Churchill
“You’re ghosting us, motherfucker. I don’t care who you are back in the world, you give away our position one more time, I’ll bleed you, real quiet, leave you here. Got that?” — Sergeant Mac Eliot, “Predator”
from CA
These are my favorites:
**If you stay ready, you don’t have get ready. (from a friend)
**To reach any significant goal, you must leave your comfort zone.
**Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. - Mark Twain
**I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.- Agatha Christie
**Accept that all of us can be hurt, that all of us can - and surely will at times - fail. Other vulnerabilities, like being embarrassed or risking love, can be terrifying, too. I think we should follow a simple rule: if we can take the worst, take the risk. --Dr. Joyce Brothers
from Pasadena, CA
Those are great. I posted some of my favorites from Henry David Thoreau on my blog nearly four years ago - http://atomicbombshell.com/2004/09/10/thoreauly-marvelous/
@ Dj—I thought the web site you referenced said “think sexist”! LOL!
One of my favorite quotes is “All of life’s big problems include the words ‘indictment’ or ‘inoperable’ - everything else is small stuff.” by Alton Brown
Cocktail: Amaretto Stone Sour
“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare that things are difficult."--???
“If you can’t run with the big dogs, stay on the porch.” --???
“Put your big girl panties on and deal with it."--???
“Do, or do not. There is no try."--Yoda
“I don’t believe it.” “That is why you fail.” Luke Skywalker, Yoda.
Seriously? I really like do like the last two despite the cheesieness.
from Michigan
I do that more with some lyrics. Off the top of my head, some of my favorites are…
“You must always know how long to stay and when to go.” - Patty Griffin
“There’s nothing like looking at your own history in the faces of your friends.” - Ani Difranco
“And her weapon of choice is a red patterned dress” - Ryan Adams
“My kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder” - Jeff Buckley
There are a million more that I love by since I’m at work I just can’t devote that much time. But the greats like Dylan and Simon have so many that I just adore.
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
Wow, there are some great quotes here!
Thanks!
from Ohio
Quotes? Love ‘em!
“The next best thing to being clever is being able to quote someone who is."— Mary Pettibone Poole
“Nothing can harm you till it comes. And it may never come."— Carl Sandberg
“If everyone likes you, you’re not interesting.” — ??
“I’ve had my allotment of liquor - and probably 20 other people’s” — Grace Slick
“The point of life is not to be a young girl forever, unless you’re particularly vapid and stupid… There ain’t nothing happening on a roll of white paper.” — Lauren Hutton
from in yer pants
“Swimmin’ ain’t fuckin!”
from Ohio
I typed that Nelson Mandela quote out and framed it last year when I moved into my house, and along the way learned that it wasn’t actually a Nelson Mandela quote...he was quoting someone else:
Http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marianne_Williamson
Just for accuracy’s sake
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@ShellyBeach: hey, thanks! I didn’t know that…
from Ohio
Know that I am smacking myself on the forehead for not reading even the short wikipedia article I sent you to learn that he never quoted her. Some advocate of accuracy I am!
Just read this one today:
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”
Douglas Adams
Actually, those words aren’t by Nelson Mandela. They’re from Marianne Williamson’s “A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles” and for some reason have been wrongly attributed to Nelson Mandela’s 1994 inaugural address.
Check here: http://marianne.com/book/index.htm (scroll down a bit)
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@Anty: Ah, yes. I know. Please read the entire entry; that’s been discussed a few times now.
Thanks for taking the time to comment, though. I appreciate your thoughts…
*is sheepish* Yeah, I saw that after I’d read the second half of the entry and the rest… I’m afraid I got into my Must. Point Out. Mistake. Right Now. mode…
from Charlotte, NC
Alone eeen eez leetle canoe, eee captures eet with force and mageeek. ~Jacques Cousteau