Tag: Quote Of The Week

Melody Beattie Quote of the Week from Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.”
Melody Beattie (1948-    )

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A St. Paul, Minnesota native, Beattie is best known for her writing on co-dependence, the excessive preoccupation with the needs of another, at the cost of paying attention to one’s own needs. She survived kidnapping at age 4, childhood sexual abuse, alcohol and drug addiction, marriage to an alcoholic, divorce, and the death of one of her own children. She spent three years caring for her mother as she died from Alzheimer’s disease. She has written more than a dozen books on topics including grief, denial, meditation and 12 Step programs.

Daniel Webster Quote of The Week From Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

“A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures.”

Daniel Webster (1782 – 1852)

A New Hampshire native and graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy and Dartmouth College, Webster, a member of the Whig Party, served New Hampshire in the House of Representatives and Massachusetts in the Senate during the turbulent years leading up to the Civil War. He worked tirelessly to preserve the Union, opposing efforts at secession by New England during the War of 1812, and by the South in the 1840’s and 50’s. Although known best for his fiery and (by today’s standards) flowery oratory in the Senate, he also served as Secretary of State in the Harrison, Tyler, and Fillmore administrations. Among his many accomplishments, it was Webster who filed legislation introducing pre-paid self-adhesive postage stamps in 1847; his portrait has appeared on Postal Service stamps 11 times, more than most presidents.

Pema Chödrön Quote of The Week From Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

“Letting there be room for not knowing is the most important thing of all. When there’s a big disappointment, we don’t know if that’s the end of the story. It may just be the beginning of a great adventure. Life is like that. We don’t know anything. We call something bad; we call it good. But really we just don’t know.”

Pema Chödrön (1936 –      )

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Born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown in New York City, Chödrön attended the elite Miss Porter’s School in Connecticut and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. After two marriages and a career as an elementary school teacher she began studying Buddhism with Lama Chime Rinpoche, becoming a nun in 1974 and a bhiksuni in 1981. She is thought to be the first American woman so ordained. A prolific writer, her books include When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times from which the above quote is taken, as well as the recent How to Meditate: A Practical Guide to Making Friends with Your Mind. She is the director of the Gampo Abbey on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia and spends seven months of the year in solitary retreat.

George Washington Addair, Jr. Quote Of The Week From Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.”

George Washington Addair, Jr. (1931-2012)

Although he founded the widely admired Omega Vector Foundation in 1978 there is little biographical information available about Addair, ostensibly because he did not want the work of the Phoenix, Arizona-based foundation to be about him, but rather about finding ways to help people discover their potential. Since his passing graduate volunteers continue to lead weekend workshops using the Socratic method to encourage freedom from fear through self-examination. Unlike most similar self-improvement programs the workshops are still being presented free of charge.

Neil Gaiman Quote of The Week from Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

December 26, 2013

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.
So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.
Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.
Make your mistakes, next year and forever.”

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Neil Gaiman (1960-    )

Although English by birth, Gaiman now divides his time between residences in Menomonie, Wisconsin and Cambridge, Massachusetts. He first rose to prominence with his graphic novel series The Sandman, and has continued to produce best sellers in science fiction, fantasy, young adult and children’s genres, including Anansi Boys, Good Omens, and American Gods, as well as screen plays such as “Stardust”, “Neverwhere”, and “Coraline”. He is the winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker Awards and the first writer to have won both the Newbery and Carnegie Medals for the same work, The Graveyard Book. He is married to the controversial musician and performance artist Amanda Palmer, founder of the Dresden Dolls.

Margaret Atwood Quote of the Week From Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

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13 December, 2013

“Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise.”

Margaret Atwood  (1939 –     )

Born in Canada to parents engaged in the study of forest entomology, Atwood spent much of her youth in the woods and did not attend school full time until she was a teenager. A voracious reader, she ultimately graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in English and the goal of becoming a writer. She did several years of postgraduate work at Radcliffe and Harvard, but did not finish her dissertation. Her poetry began to receive widespread notice in the 1960’s, but her novel The Handmaid’s Tale (1981) propelled her to celebrity status, winning the Arthur C. Clarke and Governor General’s award, and making her an icon of the feminist movement. Other works of speculative fiction, Oryx and Crake, (2003) and The Blind Assassin (2000) have won her the Booker Prize and the Dan David Prize, as well as a long list of honorary doctorates at prestigious institutions including Smith, Harvard, Oxford and the Sorbonne. Atwood is well regarded in humanist and liberal circles and is a member of the Green Party of Canada.

George Carlin Quote of The Week From Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

“I put a dollar in a change machine. Nothing changed”

George Carlin (1937-2008)

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A five-time Grammy award winner, Carlin’s often dark humor can be heard on 20 albums, in six books, and appears in ten movies. A native New Yorker, he made his name on the Ed Sullivan Shoe and the Tonight Show, first with Jack Paar and later and even more frequently with Johnny Carson, for whom he often substituted as host.  Carlin was the first host of Saturday Night Live. His best known routine was Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television, for which he was arrested and fined on several occasions. Liberal, brilliant, thoughtful and reflective, he took stand-up to a new level while supporting free speech and free thinking. He was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2008.

Max De Pree Quote of The Week From Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

November 15, 2013

“We cannot become who we want to be by remaining who we are.”

Max De Pree (1924- )

A Michigan native, Max De Pree is the son of D. J. De Pree, who started the very successful Herman Miller furniture company. Max and his brother Hugh ran and expanded the company from the 60’s up into the 90’s. He has written extensively on leadership in both the business and non-profit communities and his Leadership is an Art was a best seller. In the mid 1950’s he commissioned Charles and Ray Eames to design a home in Zeeland, close to corporate headquarters. It remains an icon of modernist architecture and interior design.

Henry David Thoreau Quote of The Week From Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

“If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

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Sometimes called the first environmentalist, Thoreau, born and raised in Concord, Massachusetts, was mentored by the Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson and Bronson Alcott, his neighbors. His book Walden, about the two years he spent living in a hut he had built himself on Emerson’s woodlot at Walden Pond, has become a classic of American literature for its introspection blended with natural history. His Civil Disobedience, written as an explanation of his non-payment of taxes as a protest against the Mexican-American war, is still influential, and his books on his journeys to Maine, Canada and Cape Cod go much deeper than mere travelogues. Thoreau is also credited with the invention of raisin bread.

Jay DiPrima will read from Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience at seven o’clock next Thursday evening at the Sawyer Free Library as part of the Gloucester Lyceum Series.

Esther (neé Weaver) Hicks Quote of The Week From Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

November 1, 2013

“Worrying is using your imagination to create something that you don’t want.”

Esther (neé Weaver) Hicks (1948-    )

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A Utah native, Hicks is a motivational speaker and the author, with her husband Jerry, now deceased, of nine books including the Law of Attraction series, which she says was inspired by a group of “non-physical entities called Abraham.” Hicks maintains that her connection to Abraham has taught her that the purpose of life is to seek joy, and that individuals are the extension of their thoughts. Many of the concepts Hicks expounds were first written about by William Walker Atkinson in the early twentieth century. Hicks has disavowed The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, a movie about her teachings and Abraham, because of her disagreements with Byrne over marketing and contractual issues. Her publishing house includes books, DVD’s, a speaker series, cruises, a YouTube channel, and phone apps.

Samuel Johnson Quote of The Week from Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

18 October, 2013

“Kindness is always in our power, even when fondness is not.”

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

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Dr. Johnson was the most important English literary figure of his age. He wrote plays, essays and poems including the perceptive “Vanity of Human Wishes,” but he was best known for his Dictionary of the English Language (1755), an almost incomprehensible feat of mainly solo scholarship, written in just nine years, and the first to feature examples, largely from Shakespeare, Dryden, and Milton, of the 114,000 words in a literary context. Johnson was also the subject of one of the most famous biographies ever written, the minutely detailed Life of Samuel Johnson, by James Boswell. It is from this biography and other descriptions of the tics and outbursts of the good Doctor that it is now thought that he suffered from Tourette’s syndrome, a condition not yet defined in his time. Johnson is also credited with the observation that “Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.”

Eleanor Roosevelt Quote of the Week From Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

October 10, 2013

“What other people think of me is none of my business”

Eleanor Roosevelt  (1884-1962)

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A New Yorker by birth and niece of Theodore Roosevelt, Eleanor lost both parents and a brother before she was eleven. She attended Allenwood Academy in London and was influenced by headmistress Marie Souvestre, an early feminist. She married Franklin Delano Roosevelt, her fifth cousin, in 1904, and supported his forays into politics despite his polio and her discovery of his extra-marital affairs. Wishing to carve out an identity for herself, she became active, first in the New York State Democratic Party when FDR was Governor, and then as the most outspoken of all First Ladies when he was elected President for the first of his four terms in 1932. She was an ardent supporter of the rights of women and minorities, and created much controversy when she opposed some of her husband’s policies, including Japanese-American internment during the Second World War. Following FDR’s death in 1945 she was named one of the first delegates to the United Nations, the founding of which she had strongly supported, and continued her social justice advocacy for the rest of her life, becoming one of the most admired and respected Americans of her era.

Note: This quote is also attributed to Wayne Dyer, Rupaul, Simon Cowell and several others. ER is the earliest author I could find.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens Quote of The Week From Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

“Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.”

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, (1835-1910)

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Best known by his pen name, Mark Twain, Clemens was a giant of American humor and letters. A Missouri native, he had brief careers as a miner and a river boat pilot before his short stories began to receive widespread notice. He was the keenest wit of his age and wrote what many call the greatest of American novels, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).  Through a series of bad investments he lost all of the money he made from his books and a good deal of his wife’s substantial inheritance, which motivated him to begin many years of international speaking tours. The money from these performances eventually overcame his debt and added to his fame. He was a friend and advisor to presidents, scholars, and scientists, Nicola Tesla chief among them. Born when Halley’s comet was in the sky, he died, as he predicted, when it returned.

Greg Bover

Felice Leonardo “Leo” Buscaglia Quote of The Week From Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

September 19, 2013

“Don’t brood. Get on with living and loving. You don’t have forever.”

Felice Leonardo “Leo” Buscaglia (1924-1998)

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A California native born to an Italian immigrant family, Buscaglia spent much of his childhood in Italy, returning to the United States for his education, which culminated in three degrees from USC including a PhD. After joining the faculty, he was motivated to begin offering a class on love following the suicide of a favorite student. He wrote more than a dozen books on how to connect with other humans. His arresting lecturing style caught the attention of producers at PBS who made him a celebrity speaker, often featured during pledge drives, and a sought after counselor. Five of his books were on the New York Times best seller list simultaneously. Another similar piece of his advice: “Don’t spend your precious time asking ‘Why isn’t the world a better place?’ It will only be time wasted. The question to ask is ‘How can I make it better?’ To that there is an answer.”

Greg Bover

Professor Irwin Corey Quote of The Week From Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

September 13, 2013

“If we don’t change direction soon we will end up where we are going.”

Professor Irwin Corey (1914-   )

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A New York born comedian and actor, Corey is known as “The World’s Foremost Authority” for his ability to improvise impressively and at length on almost any topic while making little real sense but sounding completely plausible. Blacklisted in the 40’s and 50’s for his leftist politics, he nonetheless rebounded to appear numerous times on the Tonight Show. Author Thomas Pynchon, famously publicity-shy, tapped “The Professor” to stand in for him at the National Book Award ceremony for Gravity’s Rainbow. Lenny Bruce was a fervent fan of Professor Corey, calling him one of the most brilliant comedians of all time.

Greg Bover

Joan Didion Quote of The Week From Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

September 5, 2013

“Character – the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life – is the source from which self-respect springs.”

Joan Didion  (1934-     )

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A Sacramento native, Didion grew up in an Army family, their constant relocations causing her to feel like a perpetual outsider. As a student at UC Berkeley, she won a writing contest sponsored by Vogue, leading to a job at the magazine. She was married to writer John Gregory Dunne, and is the author of five novels and more than a dozen non-fiction books.  Didion often writes about what she sees as chaos in American culture. Her work is permeated by a sense of foreboding dread of social change and anxiety at individual uncertainty. Her best known work, Slouching Toward Bethlehem, is a series of vignettes illustrating life in 1960’s California. One of her most recent works, The Year of Magical Thinking describes her experiences around the deaths of her husband and daughter in a short span of time. President Obama will present her with the National Medal of Arts and Humanities this year.

With this post the Quote of the Week celebrates three years with Good Morning Gloucester, one hundred and fifty entries. Just so you know, I write the biographies based on my research to give the quote context, and one can click on the name or the picture that Joey adds to be connected to a Wikipedia entry for that particular author. Sometimes the adages are only attributed when I can’t find evidence of the direct quote; famous quipsters like Abraham Lincoln and Yogi Berra are often credited with things others actually said first.

I am always encouraged by your comments, and your suggestions are welcome too.

Many thanks to Joey and the GMG team for creating a forum where these lines can be shared. I find it astonishing how much wisdom there is in the world, and how the thoughts of famous men and women can apply to my own life. I hope you do too.

Greg Bover

Marcus Tullius Cicero Quote of The Week From Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but also the parent of all the others.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC)

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A Roman statesman, philosopher, and orator, Cicero is credited with lifting Latin prose from its utilitarian origins to new literary and rhetorical heights. Born into a prominent family of the Roman Equestrian order, (the family name means “chickpea”), Cicero distinguished himself first as a lawyer and speaker, and was elected to a series of government offices at an early age, rising through the ranks during the dangerous years of the Sulla dictatorship, despite his support for a constitutional republic. He aligned himself with Pompey during the civil war that brought Julius Caesar to power, but was later assassinated for his support of Octavian (Augustus) and his antipathy to Marc Antony. Many of Cicero’s speeches and writings survived the Dark Ages to form the basis of later thinking on the formation of governments based on the consent of the governed. Leaders of the American and French revolutions often cited Cicero as the source of their belief in the natural rights of man.

Greg Bover

Hector Berlioz Quote Of The Week From Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

“Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.”

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)     suggested by Rick Isaacs

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Born in France, Berlioz was initially sent to Paris to study medicine, but spent the majority of his time in the library of the Conservatoire, in which he later enrolled to study composition. He himself was influenced by Beethoven, Gluck, and Mozart, among others, but would go on to have a profound effect on symphonic music, especially in powerful instrumentation, along with Liszt and Wagner, his contemporaries. Much of Berlioz’s work was inspired by the poetry of Byron, Goethe, and Shakespeare; his best known work, Symphonie fantastique, was inspired in part by Thomas deQuincey’s Confessions of an Opium Eater.  Later in life, Berlioz came full circle, returning to the Paris Conservatoire to serve as Head Librarian. Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov all gave credit to Berlioz for work that pre-figured their own.

Greg Bover

Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx Quote of The Week From Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.”

Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (1890-1977)

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Groucho’s comedy career spanned vaudeville, radio, film and later television. He made 26 movies, half of them with his brothers, Harpo, Chico, Gummo, and Zeppo. His solo career included the radio and television show “You Bet Your Life” which ran for 11 years in the 40’s and 50’s. Self-deprecating and self-taught, he was a voracious reader who said his greatest achievement was to have one of his books listed as a cultural treasure by the Library of Congress. Another favorite quote among his many witticisms is “Outside of a dog, man’s best friend is a book. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”

Greg Bover

William Arthur Ward Quote of the Week From Greg Bover

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”

William Arthur Ward (1921-1994)

A Louisiana native, Ward was as near to a professional proverbian as one can find in American society. After a stint in the Philippines with the US Army, Ward was Assistant to the President of Texas Wesleyan University, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church. He headed a number of church groups during his active community life and wrote an inspirational column that appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for many years. Among the publications that featured his extraordinary output of quotable sayings were The Reader’s Digest, The Christian Advocate, and Science of the Mind magazine. Ward also served on the boards of the Rotary, the Red Cross, and the Boy Scouts of America.

Greg Bover