Seven Quotes

When I was young, the world was overflowing with secret wisdom, and everyone seemed to have some polished shard of ancient knowledge to share, from famous physicists to artists to religious and political leaders to someone you happened to sit next to on a train from 30^th Street Station to Ambler. Song lyrics were scripture. I carried around a notepad and pen everywhere I went, a practice that had solidified into habit long before I became a staff writer at my college newspaper (the Michigan Daily, if you were wondering). Funny, I hadn’t thought about those scribbled notes and quotes for probably close to 30 years, but just the other week I found one at the indie flea market at Armature Works here in Tampa. It’s from Arthur C.  Clarke about technology and magic, and there it was staring me in the face from a rack full of typographic artwork – various famous quotes printed in visually interesting ways over pages from a dictionary.

I purchased it on a whim and I’m looking at it right now, as I write this. It’s just another reminder that if I’m going to chase down childhood wonder and wisdom, I need to do more than just put back on eyes I haven’t worn in a very long time, I need to revisit some small rituals that I long ago ceased observing. Collecting quotes, reciting a prayer before bed, making a wish on 11:11, avoiding the cracks in the sidewalk - you know what I mean, because you used to do it too, even if it's not something you would ever admit to anyone else.

And so I’ve been visiting the sub cellars of the mind palace, where under the layers of dust those quotes have remained as fresh as the day I first recorded them, stored in imaginary cardboard boxes alongside fifth grade science projects and cassette tapes.

  

Here are seven quotes that seemed most relevant to this journey and journal:

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

This one is an old favorite from Arthur C. Clarke, and now a piece of typographic artwork in my small collection.

“Not all those who wander are lost.”

I see this quote now frequently in the windows of boho boutiques and on hipster tee shirts, but I wonder how many recognize it as a line from the J. R. R. Tolkien poem “All that is gold does not glitter.”

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”

Yeates, who I like to think would appreciate my appreciation of his words and my attempt to sharpen my own sense.

“We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us.”

There’s some disagreement as to the precise origin of this quote – all I know for sure is that I heard it for the first time as a line in the film Magnolia.

“Children see magic because they look for it.”

Christopher Moore, whose books have on more than one occasion caused me to laugh out loud in crowded places, drawing quizzical glances from anyone nearby.

“Anytime you miss your friend who died, just say his name and he’ll be with you, even if he isn’t.”

Hands down, this has been the most valuable piece of wisdom I've ever received from any Chicago taxi cab driver. Like voodoo, it seems to work if you allow it to.

“Magic doesn’t come from talent, it comes from pain.”

Maybe you recognize this one from The Magicians by Lev Grossman.

Recalling these quotes have been a bit like discovering doorways to further doorways, leading me ever deeper into the vast structure I’ve imagined to house, catalog and recall my memories. Through winding, arched, cobwebbed brick tunnels illuminated by flickering torches, through secret passages I didn’t even realize that I had realized. Who knew this place had catacombs? But then, knowing the architect as I do, perhaps a better question is, how could this place not have catacombs?