Guest Author - Guest Editor

“For every quote there is an opposite and equal Other quote.”
- Dr. Paula Grant-LeClaire, Director, NASA Quotations Office


We need to comfort each other. We need to form a battle plan. We need chocolate. We need to face what we fear most in the Wacky Wonderful World of Quotations:

Quotes That Directly Oppose One Another.

You’ve seen it and it’s driven you nuts and it’s about time that we confront this wooley-eyed monster.

For example, there’s the old adage, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” which is directly opposed by the other old adage, “It’s never too late to learn!” Both are true, both are snappy and relevant. But they're antonyms!

There are quotes on beauty from wise people such as, “Beauty is only skin-deep” by Sir Thomas Overbury. What Tom meant by this was that beauty is a superficial thing and not to be taken too seriously as a character attribute. I agree with this and find it to be truthful and insightful, a great quote.

But then someone else had another idea: “I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin deep. That's deep enough! What do you want, an adorable pancreas?” asked the beautiful American playwright Jean Kerr. And this is true too. I mean, we aren’t slathering wrinkle cream onto our pancreas every night. We don’t go shopping so that our girlfriends can tell us, “That new pantsuit really brings out the color of your pancreas!”.

There’s the subject of success, a favorite quotations topic. “There are no secrets to success. Success is simply the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure” said super successful Colin Powell and he should know right? Well, maybe not. “The secret of success lies not in doing your own work, but in recognizing the right man to do it” said super successful Andrew Carnegie.

And then there’s the subject of money, a never-ending topic on nearly every quotes website and quote book out there. “Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time” said wealthy American business author Jim Rohn. But wealthy ol' Ben Franklin told us that “Time IS money”. Oh my.

And then there’s time. “Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted” said the leisurely American economist Bertrand Russell. You've got to slow down a little and smell the roses every now and then as Shakespeare advised us. And we should I think, because life can be hectic and too busy and we get burned out.

But then Henry David Thoreau warns us, “You cannot kill time without injuring eternity.” Injuring eternity! Get back to work Dear BellaOnline Reader NOW! You're injuring eternity while you peruse the internet!

I guess this is why we love quotes so much. For every single philosophy, thought process, religion, opinion, and idea there is an apt quote to go along with it. Quotes can help us or hinder us depending on the situation, they can affirm our ideas or cause us to doubt them.

I know that I love quotations so much because they reflect humanity in such a specific way unlike anything else - everyone has something to say just as everyone has a need to hear it. So enjoy a few quotes this week and be sure to share your faves with us here.

Just don’t injure eternity while you’re doing it…