Quotidian Quotes

“It is a good idea sometimes to think of the importance and dignity of our every-day duties. It keeps them from being so tiresome; besides, others are apt take us at our own valuation. ”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Oh no, I never do much ironing, except the outside clothes. We must not iron out the fresh air and sunshine, you know. It is much more healthful not to, the doctors say.” Seriously, there is something very refreshing about sheets and pillow slips just fresh from the line, after being washed and dried in the sun and air. Just try them that way and see if your sleep is not sweeter. ”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder

“The destiny of a man is determined by his daily action, God won't allow you go anywhere, if you don't make an attempt to move.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“A person with a clear heart and open mind can experience the wilderness anywhere on earth. It is a quality of one’s own consciousness. The planet is a wild place and will always be.”
― Gary Snyder

“Nothing attunes you to the beauty of the quotidian like a man who decides not to kill you after all”
― David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks

“We must certainly consider, not just in this class, but outside it, in our own turbulent and fretful lives, the element of chance. The number of people we deeply meet is strangely few. Passion may mislead us furiously. Reason may mislead us just as much. Our genetic inheritance might hamstring us. So might previous events in our lives. It is not just soldiers in the field who later suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. It is often the inevitable consequence of a seemingly normal sublunary existence.”
― Julian Barnes, Elizabeth Finch

“What's your usual gig?"

"Physical fitness coach. I find it rather humdrum. Your assignment will be a welcome break in the quotidian ennui.”
― Julian May, Perseus Spur

“I sometimes think that life must be a bit like tessellation for some people. You take one shape and fit it to the next and they sit comfortably together – you don’t mind a bit of repetition because it’s what makes the pattern form. Life is not like tessellation for me. Sometimes the shapes don’t fit, or I don’t fit into them, or I’m looking at the patterns but they don’t feel real or right to me.”
― Helen Jukes, A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings

“Working on novels, he reaffirmed his belief that nothing important could really be explained; it could only be experienced in the daily clutter of stuff that fiction was so good at cataloguing. [re: Larry McMurtry]”
― Tracy Daugherty, Larry McMurtry: A Life