I'm not a huge fan of the literature, having taken a graduate seminar in Twain & Melville and having rather more testosterone-intensive, water-logged reading in one semester than I'd ever anticipated, but I think I would have liked to sit down on the porch and visit with Twain. Here is what I think is perhaps the most useful thing he said. I offer it to you to go along with yesterday's post about being older:
"Twenty years from now
you will be more disappointed
by the things that you didn't do
than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover."
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10 comments:
OK so first of all a graduate seminar in any good writer is a guaranteed soul-killer. Sorry. The least favorite thing I did in college is pick nits over writers I loved.
All that super analysis becomes its own cottage industry.
BUT I do have to say that one of the best things I've ever read was The Screwtape Letters.
At a time in our life when we "should" be dropping anchor and settling into the ease of retirement we have been playing with the idea of selling our house, renting a place for 6mos to a year somewhere in the world and then moving on to a new rental in another city for another 6mos to a year. After 5 yrs. we'll decide if it's time to settle or to just keep seeing the world one rental at a time!
Thanks for posting that quote, it's inspiring. Do you know where it's from -- an interview or essay?
Absolutely. Life is too short.
Huh. In trying to track that down definitively for you, I find that although it's been attributed to Twain, one shouldn't regard that attribution as accurate. So it could have been said by almost anyone. Sorry about that--I should have checked more thoroughly.
No problem...still a great quote. Thanks for sharing it with us!
I have always loved that quote. We used it on all the tables at the high school graduation party at my son's school. We printed them on the sails of boats for the centerpieces. Good advice for everyone.
Diane
Ricë, thank you for looking into that for me. I'm sorry to be the kill-joy. :( It really is a great quote, and there is truth in it regardless of who said it.
Put that quote in a birthday card for my brother in law one year. Love it. I'm not sure who i attributed the quote to then.
No problem, Sarah--I should have checked better, but both Twain sites I looked at claimed it as his. My own rule: never trust things you find online.
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