Carew Papritz > Quotes

“You become a man when you give your family the best of who you are.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“I wish I could wrap up the glitter star-green of this moment and hand it to you like an angel gift. Give you the heat lightning flying in jagged silence over the distant mountains. And the smell of September prairie grass and the even fainter scent of October pine now descending . . .”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“Old is old at any age. Old is when you quit asking questions about this, that, and everything. Old is when you forget how to love-or worse, don't care. Old is when you don't want to dance anymore. Old is when you don't want to learn anything new except how to be old. Old is when people tell you that you are old-and you believe them.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“Just because you're breathing, doesn't mean you're alive.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“I travel because it makes me realize how much I haven't seen, how much I'm not going to see, and how much I still need to see."
- The Legacy Letters, by Carew Papritz”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“Eat Ice Cream. Read Books. Be Happy.”
― Carew Papritz

“Rain. Tumble, bumble and, fall on me. Any old day, any old way. Come for a visit, or come for a stay. Rain, rain, don't go away.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“Remember, life is too short to be spent dancing with idiots.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“Kids are kids and not little adults. They're watching and listening to you all the time. They're figuring out the game plan but still don't know all the rules. Talk straight to them and they'll respect you for it.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“Heavy rains and a good book. A perfect extravagance.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“Why travel? To be changed, and to be changed again and again.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“I travel because I become uncomfortable being too comfortable.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“Spring is a time to make up a big bouquet of flowers for someone you love, or are trying to love, or are in love with.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“There's so much to learn. So much to enjoy. So terribly much to be curious about. Take your life and run with it. Make a habit of being alive. This much of anything, I have learned. And am still learning.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“I promise to dream with you both great dreams and small dreams. To ask your counsel in times of uncertainty. To honor your silence when you seek to be alone. To be ever wondrous at your curiosities and revelations. And to be ever rejuvenated by your passions . . .”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“Sometimes we make being happy so difficult. And being thankful such a chore.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“I gather the last remnants of the evening’s breeze, so cool and lazy within my arms, feeling it curl up like a small and innocent kitten.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“Rain with an umbrella while holding hands with your lover is damned sure nice.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“Hunger
You are only here now, and then you are gone. So be hungry. Hunger toward beauty. Hunger toward love. Hunger towards the unimaginable and unthinkable.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“If you don’t know how to grow old, don’t start learning how to grow old.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“Who will you be, my Little Ones? Will you dance for the fires of your youth and run at midnight to water’s edge, diving into summer’s heat? Will you ride a wild mare to any thought or dream or love of your making? Will you seek the artistry of your own infatuations and explore . . .”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“Thanksgiving - fall's finale. Best damn holiday of the year in my worldly estimation.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“Take off my clothes and there becomes a man. Take off my skin and there becomes my bones. Break all my bones and there becomes my heart. Smash my heart and there becomes my soul. And that you cannot take. And what is my soul?...It is everything that make a man. It is everything that makes this man.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“Take off my clothes and there becomes a man. Take off my skin and there becomes my bones. Break all my bones and there becomes my heart. Smash my heart and there becomes my soul. And that you cannot take.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“Sometimes I travel just to be overwhelmed – for it’s good every now and then to be overwhelmed.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“The Losing of Love . . . Like discovering a shard of heaven’s handwriting in the snowflake that has landed upon your hand, desperately wishing you could give such beauty to your best friend before it melts away. And what you are left with is an exquisite regret—the eloquent conspiracy of memory—of the moment lived and the moment wished for that never will arrive.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“Love your kids and just be there for them. You don't have to eyeball their every moment or to orchestrate all their comings and goings. They know this. They know that's too much. All they want is to be assured that there's a home fire cooking, that there are two foremen and a rulebook, and that there's someone to tuck them in at night.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“Let my memories of you be like water on the moon. A beautiful impossibility - but allowing me to sleep and dream of infinite beginnings rather than Othello endings.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“I remember once kissing you, your face lit by northern stars. Promising to grow old with you, and now so simply breaking the promise.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift

“Remember, Little Ones, everything is not important all the time. Only living is important all the time. Not things. Not money. Not more things and more endless money. Spend well the quality of your time. And yes, be greedy with your hours. If only to then give those hours away as the most precious gifts you have to offer to yourself, your family, and your friends. And yes, to my Little Ones.” –From The Legacy Letters–“The Everything and Nothing of Money.”
― Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift