Emily > Emily's Quotes

“Do not ask your children
to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable,
but it is the way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder
and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting
tomatoes, apples and pears.
Show them how to cry
when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure
in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself.”
― William Martin, The Parent's Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for Modern Parents

“But talent—if you don't encourage it, if you don't train it, it dies. It might run wild for a little while, but it will never mean anything. Like a wild horse. If you don't tame it and teach it to run on track, to pace itself and bear a rider, it doesn't matter how fast it is. It's useless.”
― Elizabeth Hand, Illyria

“...talent means nothing, while experience, acquired in humility and with hard work, means everything.”
― Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

“I had no ability, but I was determined to show heart.”
― Evan Handler, It's Only Temporary: The Good News and the Bad News of Being Alive

“You know what talent is? The curse of expectation. As a kid you have to deal with that, beat it somehow. If you can write, you think God put you on earth to blow Shakespeare away. Or if you can paint, maybe you think--I did--that God put you on earth to blow your father away.”
― Stephen King, The Mist

“The world loves talent but pays off on character.”
― John W. Gardner

“In extraordinary times, the ordinary takes on a glow and wonder all of its own”
― Mike A. Lancaster, Human.4

“What you need to learn, children, is the difference between right and wrong in every area of life. And once you learn the difference, you must always choose the right.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, The City of Ember

“The main thing to do is pay attention. Pay close attention to everything, notice what no one else notices. Then you'll know what no one else knows, and that's always useful.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, The City of Ember

“I play the notes as they are written, but it is God who makes the music.”
― Johann Sebastian Bach

“Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear.”
― Ludwig van Beethoven

“Plaudite, amici, comedia finita est.

(Applaud, my friends, the comedy is over.)

[Said on his deathbed]”
― Ludwig van Beethoven

“To play without passion is inexcusable!”
― Ludwig van Beethoven

“Never forget the days I spent with you. Continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours.”
― Ludwig van Beethoven

“Oh continue to love me -
never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved.

ever thine
ever mine
ever ours”
― Beethoven

“The real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder

“We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.”
― Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

“I do not pretend to set people right, but I do see that they are often wrong.”
― Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

“Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.”
― Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

“To talk well and eloquently is a very great art, but that an equally great one is to know the right moment to stop.”
― Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus / Traeg

“As death, when we come to consider it closely, is the true goal of our existence, I have formed during the last few years such close relationships with this best and truest friend of mankind that death's image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling.”
― Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

“Modern man is full of platitudes about living life to its fullest, with catchy keychain phrases and little plaques for kitchen walls. But if you've never retreated to the solitude of a dark room and listened to Beethoven's Ninth from start to finish, you know nothing. For music is a transcendental exploration of human emotion and experience, the very fabric of life in its purest form. And the Ninth our greatest musical achievement.”
― Tiffany Madison

“At a certain place in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, for example, he might feel that he is floating above the earth in a starry dome, with the dream of immortality in his heart; all the stars seem to glimmer around him, and the earth seems to sink ever deeper downwards.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits

“We do not look in great cities for our best morality.”
― Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

“We did our duty as human beings: helping people in need.”
― Miep Gies

“But even an ordinary secretary or a housewife or a teenager can, within their own small ways, turn on a small light in a dark room.”
― Miep Gies

“I would like to make a film to tell children "it's good to be alive".”
― Hayao Miyazaki

“We live in an age when it is cheaper to buy the rights to movies than to make them.”
― Hayao Miyazaki

“I try to dig deep into the well of my subconscious. At a certain moment in that process, the lid is opened and very different ideas and visions are liberated. With those I can start making a film. But maybe it's better that you don't open that lid completely, because if you release your subconscious it becomes really hard to live a social or family life.”
― Hayao Miyazaki

“Extreme remedies are very appropriate for extreme diseases.”
― Hippocrates