Witty Wordsmiths 152

“I would like to be the air that inhabits you for a moment only. I would like to be that unnoticed and that necessary.”

~ Margaret Atwood

 

Witty Wordsmiths 151

“Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.”

~ Mary Oliver

 

Witty Wordsmiths 144

“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”

~ Albert Einstein

Witty Wordsmiths 143

“She'd laughed, and if he could have bottled the sound and gotten drunk on it every night, he would have. It terrified him.”

~ Leigh Bardugo

 

Witty Wordsmiths 140

 

“I, myself, am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.”

~ Augusten Burroughs

Witty Wordsmiths 138

“I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.”

~ Mahatma Gandhi

Witty Wordsmiths 137

“Maybe there's something you're afraid to say, or someone you're afraid to love, or somewhere you're afraid to go. It's gonna hurt. It's gonna hurt because it matters.”

~ John Green

 

Witty Wordsmiths 135

“People, I have discovered, are layers and layers of secrets. You believe you know them, that you understand them, but their motives are always hidden from you, buried in their own hearts. You will never know them, but sometimes you decide to trust them.”

~ Veronica Roth

 

Witty Wordsmiths 133

“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.”

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Witty Wordsmiths 132

“Never close your lips to those whom you have already opened your heart.”

~ Charles Dickens

Witty Wordsmiths 131

 

“People are more difficult to work with than machines. And when you break a person, he can't be fixed.”

~ Rick Riordan

Witty Wordsmiths 128

“People who claim that they're evil are usually no worse than the rest of us... It's people who claim that they're good, or any way better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of.”

~ Gregory Maguire

 

Witty Wordsmiths 127

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”

~ Voltaire

 

Witty Wordsmiths 124

“And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.”

~ Madeline Miller

 

Witty Wordsmiths 121

 

“And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.”

~ Khaled Hosseini

Witty Wordsmiths 120

“Believe in your heart that you're meant to live a life full of passion, purpose, magic and miracles.”

~ Roy T. Bennett

 

Witty Wordsmiths 119

“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”

~ Mary Shelley

 

Witty Wordsmiths 113

“It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them. ”

~ Agatha Christie

Witty Wordsmiths 107

“There's plenty of sense in nonsense sometimes, if you wish to look for it.”

~ Cassandra Clare

Witty Wordsmiths 105

“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”

~ Abraham Lincoln

I have never understood this quotation or any rendition of it there of, because how could your enemy ever truly be your friend? And at what levels of life would this actually work? Maybe on the innocent days of the playground, or the exploratory moments of your school-aged angst, but as an adult, we have stuff to lose, and I am not just referring to materialistic things. Also, we have such little time as an adult...why would you want to spend any of it with an enemy? I barely want to associate with family at this point in my life and they are by far not my enemies.

     The sentiment of this quotation is valid—confusing your enemies, disabling their attack modes, “killing them with kindness” as some would say, would definitely throw a perverbial wrench in their diabolical gear shifts, but once again, could you really allow yourself to believe they were your friends? To act as if they were your friends? I would be worried, and wholeheartedly believe, they were participating in the “long game” and just waiting for the right moment to pull my rug of comfort from under my feet. Cyncial? Maybe. But as I stated earlier, as adults, we just have too much to lose in life and risking it on someone who is not worth our time just does not make sense. Now if the quotation was modified to “Do I not disarm my enemies when I make them my acquaintances?” it would be more believable and doable, because let us be honest, most people in our lives are just acquaintances, right?