It occurred to me as I read this today that I have actually done all these things… how strange…
although I would also add the affection of dogs, cats and other small creatures into the mix…
“To have laughed often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
To know that one life has breathed easier because you have lived;
This is to have succeeded.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
via Cabinet of Wonders (love this post today, go read, please!)
“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”
— Albert Einstein
“There is only one success –to be able to spend your life in your own way.”
— Christopher Morley
“You are forgiven for your happiness and your successes only if you generously consent to share them.”
— Albert Camus
“What is success? It is a toy balloon among children armed with pins.” — Gene Fowler
“I dread success. To have succeeded is to have finished one’s business on earth, like the male spider, who is killed by the female the moment he has succeeded in courtship. I like a state of continual becoming, with a goal in front and not behind.” — George Bernard Shaw
“Success has made failures of many men.” — Cindy Adams
“The moral flabbiness born of the bitch-goddess SUCCESS. That – with the squalid interpretation put on the word success – is our national disease.” — William James
“How can they say my life is not a success? Have I not for more than sixty years got enough to eat and escaped being eaten?” — Logan Smith
5 Responses
I find it interesting how we take stock of our lives. As I watch my mother prepare to leave this life, I’m fascinated by the things she recalls as successes and the things she laments as failures.
Case in point; the other day, she was sad about all the artwork she DIDN’T do. She’s angry at herself for making excuses and not getting things done. I tried to gently point out to her that, while I respect her thinking, I also respectfully disagreed with her focus. She’s the mother of generations of wonderful people; she’s taught and loved and guided, and the result of that is more than one good, kind, compassionate family. We truly are hardest on ourselves…
Yeah, I constantly lament my not doing art, even though I then do nothing about it…
“There’s no success like failure, and failure’s no success at all.” Bob Dylan, “Love Minus Zero/No Limit.”
I regret wasting time, yet I keep doing it.
I’m not sure how time is wasted, if you’re enjoying whatever you’re doing!
I keep the Emerson quote on my desk. A friend years ago make a postcard of it for
Christmas. As a teacher it reminded me of what I was to do each day.