THE VALUE OF "OLD SAYINGS"

Image by Feuillu via Flickr

Image via Wikipedia

I've made a hobby of collecting and remembering old sayings.  We hear them everyday from everywhere and by everybody--whether as coined phrases, one-liners, words to live by, or lines from a movie: 

"Hey dude let's party" helped launch Sean Penn as 'Jeff Spicoli' in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High".  'Scarlett O'hara's' "Tomorrow is another day"(Vivien Lee in "Gone With the Wind") echoed throughout my childhood. 

True, some old sayings get old fast, however,  many become thought-provoking, words of wisdom which enlighten us--as I hope this blog does for YOU!  Are you there?  Still reading? 

I got interested about 20 years ago in the office restroom of all places, where, above the urinal hung a two-foot by three-foot painting frame totally filled with hundreds of tiny sentences, each a different color, and each--an old saying!  The first was; "The journey of a thousand miles starts with but one, single step"...and the last was; "Have a nice day". 

 In between, I read hundreds of great ones over a period of bathroom visits--only a handful of which I will share!(I promise)  One night I took that painting down and started jotting them down:

"Those who talk the most have the least to say".

"A welcome guest is one who knows when to leave".

"Easy street is a blind alley"

"Those who pays too much attention to their reputation, often loose their character".

"Those who ignore the past, are condemned to repeat it".

"A person who trusts no one, should include himself".

"To truly hear you must quiet the mind".

"Trust is like money; you spend it, lend it, save it, and sometimes get robbed of it".

"A rumor is as difficult to unspread as butter".

Here are a few sales meeting motivators:

"A goal without a plan is just a wish". 

"Nobody plans to fail, they just fail to plan".

"A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner".

"A wish changes nothing, a decision changes everything".

"If a situation is constantly confusing, to solve the problem...look to the financial interest".

"A meeting is an event at which the minutes are kept, and the hours are lost"...(the one I prefer)

Then there are the love letter tools:

"Success in marriage is more than finding the right person, it's becoming the right person".

"The heart has reasons which reason does not understand".

"Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all". (Boo,hoo,hoo) "A woman never shot a man while he was doing the dishes".

Are you still reading? These are good aren't they?  Here are a few more:

"Good taste is boundless, while bad taste has no bounds".

"When there's nothing on TV, most people will watch it anyway".

"A young person knows the rules, but an old person knows the exceptions".

"Smile. It increases your face value".

"Stewardesses is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand".(You stopped to visualize that one, didn't you?) "Life is like playing a violin solo in public, and learning the instrument as you go along".

"There are no atheists in foxholes".(My dad taught me that one) "Life is a bowl of cherries, just watch out for the pits"--"Life is a bed of roses, just watch out for the pricks".(My sisters taught me those) "Chance favors the prepared mind".

"Fortune favors the brave".

"Once in a while, you meet someone who thinks they are all eight wonders of the world".

"To be a good sport, one has to lose to prove it".

"Show me a good loser, and I'll show you someone who's playing golf with their boss".

That last one came from my family priest, the late Reverend John Sweeny, who pastored the much known "Our Lady of Peace" Parish in Santa Clara, California.What a wonderful soul he was, an not a bad golfer.  He helped inspire me to add this next batch of quotes--all with authors.

"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves". Confucius "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody". Bill Cosby "The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still, small voice of conscience". Mahatma Gandhi "To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible". St. Thomas Aquinas "Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who, only dream by night". Edgar Allan Poe "A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the moment it starts raining'. Mark Twain "A hero is someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom". Bob Dylan "A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs, who has never learned to walk forward". Franklin D. Roosevelt "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise". Benjamin Franklin "You can't separate peace from freedom, because no one can live in peace unless they have their freedom". Malcom X "The bitterest tears shed over graves, are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone". Harriet Beecher Stowe "All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word; freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope". Winston Churchill "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have told me...faster horses". Henry Ford "Sure there are dishonest men in local government, but there are dishonest men in national government too". Richard Nixon "The nice thing about being a celebrity, is that when you bore people they think it's their fault". Henry Kissinger "If all economists were laid end to end, they would never reach a conclusion". George Bernard Shaw "Death is not the greatest of evils; It is worse to want to die, and not be able to". Aristotle "Do not fear death so much, but, rather the inadequate life". Bertolt Brecht "Thanks to the interstate highway system, it's now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything". Charles Kuralt "I'm the one who's got to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to". Jimmy Hendrix "I have a dream",that one day all mankind "shall not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character". Martin Luthur King Jr.

"It is easier to fight and die for one's principles, than to live up to them". Alfred Adler "Charity is no substitute for justice withheld". St.Augustine "Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face". John Updike "My brain; it's my second favorite organ". Woody Allen "Ninety-eight percent of this country's adults are decent, hard working, honest Americans.  It's the other lousy two-percent that get all the publicity...but we elected them". Lily Tomlin "It is not an old movie if you haven't seen it". Lauren Bacall "Nobody in the game of football should be called a genius.  A genius is somebody like Norman Einstein". Joe Theismann "Computers are useless. They can only give you answers". Pablo Picasso "Life....is a sexually transmitted disease". R.D. Laing "Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance". Edgar Bergen

"If the law is against you, bang on the facts. If the facts are against you, bang on the law. If both are against you, bang on the table". No One

I can't end this thing without sharing the first saying that inspired me, the worst ever written, my all-time favorite, and one I made up myself!

As a TV sports anchor-reporter some 26-years ago in Bakersfield, California, I did my first quality feature package(story) on a guy who's legs were blown off in Viet Nam--yet he lived life fuller than most! Entertaining 500 school children, Bob Weilan took batting practice sitting down with the baseball team, bench-pressed 380 pounds in the gym, and told of how he walked across the entire country on specially made hand-shoes! He also walked the LA Marathon a few years later!

I closed the feature with his final message...that the joy is truly in the journey--and that, "The only time you fail in this life, is the last time that you try". 

My favorite saying comes from the late comedian George Carlin, of all people...who wrote:"Life should not be measured by the amount of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away".

The most diabolical, hypocritical saying of all still remains posted above the front gate at 'Auschwitz' death camp in Poland, where innocent millions(mostly Jews) were murdered during World War Two. It reads: (In German) "Arbeit Macht Frei"...work will set you free.

 Almost finally, Diogenes of Sinope happily wrote once:

"One original thought is worth a thousand mindless quotations". 

Nevertheless I end with an original: 

"Men have all the lines, and women have all the curves. Happy are those who can read between both". 

I hope you enjoyed all of these inspired words! Take care and check out more blogs on www.streetwisesd .com

Sincerely, PeteCam4

  

  

"Best Wishes"--PTCJr

Related articles by Zemanta

• 57 reviews of Fast Times at Ridgemont High (rateitall.com)