What is it about a well-written sentence that is so fascinating? I think there is magic in a thought expressed well. This, I suppose, explains my love for quotations. I am what you would call a ‘Quote buff’ (well, maybe more of a ‘Quote enthusiast’; see, I lose track of who said what but I do have a huge collection of quotations nonetheless.)
James Baldwin said, “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.” True, isn’t it? The moment when I come across a quotation expressing something I have personally felt or thought about, by somebody either dead for centuries or living in a completely different part of the world, I am amazed. We are unique no doubt, but we are also part of the common human experience. There is a bible quote that says, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”
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| johnboccio.com |
There is a peculiar thing though, for a species that has been in existence for so long, accumulating knowledge and experience, presumably learning from them, we do seem to be going around in circles. Every new person that comes into this world seems to make the same mistakes made by thousands before him in order to learn. (Really, when do we ever listen our parents? We have to try things out ourselves of course.) Paulo Coelho got it right when he said, “People never learn anything by being told, they have to find out for themselves.” I guess, that’s where the uniqueness lies, in the process.
Words may not substitute for experience but they connect us to each other and to people generations before us. Sigh, see, this is what quotes do to me, get me all philosophical. On a lighter note, Dorothy Sayers is known to have said, “I have a quotation for everything, it saves original thinking.” Well, true, also there is the added advantage of dropping names and sounding smart for something somebody else said!
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