A Quoteworthy Book

This is my purple quotes book.

I love quotes that inspire me, make me laugh or make me think. I used to jot down on a slip of paper a quotation that I liked or that I read in a book whenever I came across one worthy of remembering. It never failed that when I wanted to recall or share a quote, I couldn’t find the piece of paper I wrote it on.

While watching the movie A Walk to Remember several years ago, during the scene where Jamie gave her boyfriend the book filled with quotes that her mother had written in, a spotlight flooded my head. (Sorry, spotlights are synonymous with Pringle residents because of the tongue-in-cheek organization who uses them, known as the Pringle Poachers.) Watching that scene solved my problem of always searching for quotes I wanted to keep but could never keep track of.

After the movie—maybe during, I don’t remember, but it would be like me to stop a movie for something like this—I dug out my box of brand new journals (yes, now you know my disease—I have an addiction, and it’s called buying new journals unnecessarily) in search of one that seemed fitting for collecting quotes and I started filling up the book as soon as I got it out. I think while I watched the rest of the movie.

It’s purple because that’s my favorite color. To date, it’s not quite half filled. I record my favorite quotes here along with poems I like, mantras, advertising slogans, prayers I’ve heard or read, my favorite Bible verses, lines from books I’ve read and things I’ve heard people say that I thought was worth noting. Initially, I didn’t credit the person who said the quote because I thought it would only be for my use but now I’ve realized that was kind of dumb, so I try to include who said the quote.

I like to write in different ink colors. I guess because I’m just weird.

I still jot down a quote on scrap paper if I’m not at home when I discover a quote worth remembering, but now I make an effort to put it in a place I’ll always find it until I can write it in the book. That would be my checkbook, since I always carry my purse around unless I leave it someplace, and I’m always having to write checks for things, like new journals.

Here are a few quotes from my purple quotes book: 

• Remember the little things. One day they will become the big things. One of my first entries in the book, so I don’t know who said it.
• Whatever your 100% looks like, give it. (Advertising slogan)
• Ask yourself, “Am I using my mental ability to make history or am I using it to merely record history made by others?” & Give people more than what they expect to get. (From the book, The Magic of Thinking Big” by David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.)
• Always remember you are making memories.—my grandmother, Gayle W. Newberg
• I’m tough, ambitious, and know exactly what I want. –singer, Madonna
• You won’t find your calling on a cell phone.—Mike’s Hard Lemonade carton
• That which doesn’t kill me will only make you laugh—a quote I tweaked to make it more fitting to my life.
• Life is short. Stay awake for it.—quote on my girlfriend’s travel mug
• The best thing to do with a rotten day is throw it out because they stink up the place.—something I tell my kids.

Quotes have been a great source of encouragement, inspiration, and sometimes just entertainment. It’s cheap therapy. Something else that’s weird about me.