My compilation of quotes, poems, lyrics, and excerpts continues! Here's the lineup from December 2021, January 2022, and February 2022.
As a reminder: each season, I'll post the list of Wednesday Wisdom shout-outs into an article for my non-instagram friends to enjoy.
Here we go! Which one is your favorite?
December 8, 2021
We have SNOW today…along with one of my favorite J.R.R. Tolkien quotes from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken:
The crownless again shall be King.”
I feel like so many of these lines can be applied to so many different feelings and situations in life. My favorite is the first line, and actually, this was in some small part inspiration for my historical fiction novel: All the Gold in Abbotsford.
December 15, 2021
Another day of Wednesday Wisdom and I’m feeling the energy and joy that comes with the holidays, so piling on the inspo today with some Lord Byron and Frederico Fellini:
“There are four questions of value in life. What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for? And what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same—only love.” ~Lord Byron (horrid womanizer, mind-blowing poet)
“There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the [infinite] passion for life.” ~ Frederico Fellini (film director of the late 1900s)
December 22, 2021
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is short and sweet.
“I have found the paradox that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” ~ Mother Teresa
May you call remember to love hard this Christmas and feel all the feels in return.
December 29, 2021
The last Wednesday Wisdom of the year!!! This one goes out to all the book lovers who are putting together their reading goals for 2022.
“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you.” ~ Mortimer Adler (philosopher, educator, and author)
I think there's something to be said about cranking out 150 reads in a year. Such a flex of accomplishment. BUT...my reading goals for 2022 will focus on quality over quantity, and being present in my current reads to make sure I'm truly enjoying them and not worrying over how long it takes me to finish or what I'm going to pick up next.
January 5, 2022
Celebrating J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday this week (Jan 3rd). Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are some of the greatest works of literature of all time. Tolkien’s way of writing is so magical and poetic that it’s impossible to choose just one quote. Here are four of my favs:
1. “It’s a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” (Fellowship of the Ring)
2. “In western lands beneath the sun the flowers may rise in spring, the trees may bud, the waters run, the merry finches sing. Or there maybe ‘tis cloudless night and swaying beeches bear the Elven-stars as jewels white amid their branching hair. Though here at journey’s end I lie in darkness buried deep, beyond all towers strong and high, beyond all mountains steep, above all shadows rides the sun and stars forever dwell; I will not say the day is done, nor bid the stars farewell.” (Return of the King)
3. “Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. For even the wisest cannot see all ends.” (Fellowship of the Ring)
4. “The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such oft is the case and course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.” (Fellowship of the Ring)
I think I like 4 the best! Which one is your favorite?
I think I like #4 the best! Which one is your favorite?
January 12, 2022
Since I finished reading Dune last week, today’s Wednesday Wisdom is one of the most key [in my opinion] passages in the whole book. It’s written not even halfway in, and as a reader I did not understand its significance at that point.
But after I reread the quote once I finished the book...OH--MY--GOSH!
“Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn to see fear’s path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” -Frank Herbert (Dune)
January 19, 2022
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is inspired by Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights because in Minnesota in the winter I feel surrounded by desolate moors LOL. Four quotes for you:
1. “He shall never know I love him: and that not because he’s handsome, but because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
2. “If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.”
3. “If he loved you with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn’t love as much in eighty years as I could in a day.”
4. “I am now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it country or town. A sensible man ought to find sufficient company on himself.”
January 26, 2022
Another Wednesday Wisdom. To be honest, I'm struggling to find inspiration today. Blame it on the snow and the -10 degree weather. Whatever it is, I’m going with these three random quotes that I categorized together for some reason still unknown to me.
1. “Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality.” ~ Emily Dickinson
2. “I will not say ‘do not weep’ for not all tears are evil.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien
3. “When you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.” ~Friedrich Nietzsche
Which one is speaking to you today?
February 22, 2022
It’s the LOVE MONTH so my Wednesday Wisdom quotes will be romance themed…ish.
Today’s excerpt comes from a Tennyson poem:
As fast she fled thro’ sun and shade,
The happy winds upon her played,
Blowing the ringlet from the braid:
She looked so lovely as she swayed.
The rein with dainty finger-tips,
A man had given all other bliss,
And all his worldly worth for this,
To waste his whole heart in one kiss
Upon her perfect lips.
~Alfred, Lord Tennyson
(Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere)
February 9, 2022
Slightly longer poem today but sticking with the romance theme. John Donne is one of my favorite poets. I just find his metaphors so unique yet still so lovely:
I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?
‘Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.
And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love, all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,
Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.
My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.
~The Good-Morrow by John Donne
February 16, 2022
Wednesday Wisdom is back and more romantic than ever! This ballad comes from a book I recently finished called The First Princess of Wales, which is filled with love and longing and beautiful heartbreak. These song lyrics embody the theme perfectly so I had to include it in February’s WW.
Sweet passion’s pain doth pierce mine heart,
For I have loved thee from the start.
But foolishly behind high walls
I hid such proof, nor saw this truth.
Sweet passion’s pain doth urge me plead
That I might be thy love indeed.
But blindingly and armored bright
I hid such proof, nor saw this truth.
And now sweet passion’s pain doth teach
That my last chance must be great reach.
For wildly doth Dame Fortune’s wheel
Spin by such proof, nor halt for truth.
Welcome, sweet passion’s pain, until
My heart shall recognize its will.
Whatever prophecies proclaim,
I know such proof, accept this truth.
February 23, 2022
Final romance-themed post. Hope you’ve been feeling all the love this month. This one is a romantic classic… none other than The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks:
“I couldn’t sleep last night because I know that it’s over between us. I’m not bitter anymore because I know that what we had was real. And if in some distant place in the future we see each other in our new lives, I’ll smile at you with joy and remember how we spent a summer beneath the trees, learning from each other and growing in love. The best kind of love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. And that’s what you’ve given me. That’s what I’d hoped to give to you forever. I love you. I’ll be seeing you. - Noah
I'm not crying. You're crying!
And that's a wrap for Winter 2021/2022! Look for the Spring compilation toward the end of May.
Have any good quotes you want to share? Share them below or send them to me via social media! If I like them, I'll add them to my journal, share in an upcoming #WW post, and give you a shoutout.