L S Starrett Quotes & Sayings

Grant Allen once said that an Englishman's idea of God was another Englishman twelve feet high, and I suppose that is more or less everybody's idea of God- with the necessary geographical adjustment. Zenith Brown has an idea about God that pleases me. 'God,' says Mrs. Brown, 'is obviously a friendly enough Old Gentleman most of the time, Who wishes us well and tries to see to it that we are reasonably happy. It is equally obvious the He has an idiot brother who takes over the reins whenever God Himself goes fishing. It is when the idiot brother is in charge of things that the world goes wrong and we have wars, famines, and pestilences on earth. — Vincent Starrett

Well, let me try again,' he said. 'If it be true, and no doubt it is, that the proper study of mankind is man, it is also true that man is best studied in the books that he has written about himself; and all books, whatever their subject matter, are in essence autobiographical... Wherefore, it is clear - or is it? - that writers of books are what I have called them, the most fascinating people in the world. — Peter Ruber

I have come to understand church as this: the presence of Jesus among His people called out as a spiritual family to pursue His mission on this planet. — Neil Cole

What you do and learn in life physically changes what your brain looks like - it literally rewires it. — John Medina

Every new search is a voyage to the Indies, a quest for buried treasure, a journey to the end of the rainbow; and whether or not at the end there shall be turned up a pot of gold or merely a delightful volume, there are always wonders along the way. — Vincent Starrett

He was Lieutenant again. Which meant he was so screwed. Sam or even Roger would have had at least a slim chance of talking her out of bringing him in, but not Lieutenant Starrett. — Suzanne Brockmann

There is more power in unity than division. — Emanuel Cleaver

But Burnham also created an office culture that anticipated that of businesses that would not appear for another century. He installed a gym. During lunch hour employees played handball. Burnham gave fencing lessons. Root played impromptu recitals on a rented piano. "The office was full of a rush of work," Starrett said, "but the spirit of the place was delightfully free and easy and human in comparison with other offices I had worked in." Burnham — Erik Larson

Only those things the heart believes are true. — Vincent Starrett

Some delightful inscriptions are found in second-hand books. One, the most famous of all, may be found in every bookshop in the nation, repeated in a thousand and one volumes with only a single change of phrase in each. It is this: ', with love from Momma. — Vincent Starrett

And Aedan discovered that it only takes a single friend to put loneliness to flight. He would be able to face the next day. They both would. — Jonathan Renshaw

You hate to cultivate the mindset that anything that is not a braced neutral spinal position is probably going to kill you. — Kelly Starrett

It is difficult to imagine a greater imposition than adding genes to future generations that changes the nature of future people. — Ian Wilmut

Superficially it may appear that I am more interested in books than in people; but I think it nearer the mark to say that I am more interested in people as they are revealed to me in books than as they reveal themselves to me in daily contact. — Vincent Starrett

Man wants what he cannot have, or what is difficult to procure, or what he must wade through the blood of other men to get. So with collectors. — Vincent Starrett

For one thing, a first edition certainly is the edition nearest the heart of an author, the edition upon which his hopes were laid and his ambitions builded; and particularly is this true when the book in question happens to be an author's first publication. Imagine with what flatterings of the authorical heart, with what ecstatic apprehension, he handled his own copy of the book that day it came to him from the publisher! Is not something of this spirit communicated to the collector who loves his writer and his work? Or does that explanation partake too much of sorcery? Here is the original creation, just as it came first from the presses, with all ist strangenesses and wonder for ist orignal readers, with all ist uncorrected errors and inaccuracies to mark it as the curiosity it is. And, of course, with all those mystic values that accrue and attach to the thing that is rare and hard to find. That is all very sentimental, but it is also very practical, as will appear in due course. — Vincent Starrett

Think BIG right now- you can always make it smaller later! — Jack M. Sasson

Hunter held out the gun, stock first. "You want to just shoot me and save Dad the time?"
Jay smiled and took the weapon, checking the magazine before putting it back on the wall. "He's not going to shoot you."
"That would be too quick? — Brigid Kemmerer

If you've not been loved as a child, you don't know how to love a child. — Jane Gardam

Neutral feet start in your trunk, so really go after those tight hips: — Kelly Starrett

The shadows of leaves fall upon their arms, as they spread the branches apart, but their shoulders are in the sun. The skin of their arms is like a blue mist, but their shoulders are white and glowing, as if the light fell not from above, but rose from under their skin. We watch the leaf which has fallen upon their shoulder and it lies at the curve of their neck, and a drop of dew glistens upon it like a jewel. — Ayn Rand

I hold a theory that, sooner or later, if a man but live long enough, certain books destined for his peculiar delight will find him, however obscure they or he may be. — Vincent Starrett

Life's a quest - A long search for something we can't name; something we want and usually can't get. We don't know precisely what it is - all we know is that we don't get it. What a fellow needs is something in which he can lose himself when everything else is a mess. — Peter Ruber

the cold, hard truth is that exercise will not reverse the potentially harmful and irrefutable effects that too much sitting has on our bodies. — Kelly Starrett

Old books, yes! They are the true comforters; and principally because they are old and familiar. Many excellent new tales and poems and dramas are added yearly to the catalogues, and and some of these in time will stand beside the great companions under discussion; but only Time (and you and I and all other lovers of good books) will bring about their survival. — Vincent Starrett

When we are collecting books, we are collecting happiness. — Vincent Starrett

It is the subjective world that rules the objective. Change the subject, and the object is bound to change; purify youreslf, and the world is bound to be purified. — Swami Vivekananda

There was, like, a week straight of shooting, where, like, all I did was shoot a machine gun. And I hate to - every - it went against all my Jewish and Canadian instincts, but I enjoyed every second of it. — Seth Rogen

It is possible that the most misunderstood man upon earth is the collector of books ... — Vincent Starrett

When you can, avoid sitting, or even open up a direct attack. Set your phone or watch timer to go off every hour so that you get up out of your chair, mobilize for a minute or two, and then (if you have to go back to sitting) sit down with your butt and stomach muscles turned on and engaged. — Kelly Starrett

But there can be no grave for Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson ... Shall they not always live in Baker Street? Are they not there this moment, as one writes? Outside, the hansoms rattle through the rain, and Moriarty plans his latest devilry. Within, the sea-coal flames upon the hearth and Holmes and Watson take their well-won case ... So they still live for all that love them well; in a romantic chamber of the heart, in a nostalgic country of the mind, where it is always 1895. — Vincent Starrett

As we get older, we define happiness less in terms of excitement and more in terms of peacefulness. Reverend Veronica Goines sums this up as, "Peace is joy at rest, and joy is peace on its feet. — Sheryl Sandberg

My second meeting with Vincent Starrett began on a cool Sunday afternoon in May of 1962. After a short interlude, he returned from the kitchen precariously balancing a large cup of tea on a very small saucer. It was the largest tea cup I had ever seen, large enough to startle, I am inclined to suspect, even the Mad Hatter in 'Alice in Wonderland. — Peter Ruber

Mere lack of success does not discredit a method, for there are many things that determine and perpetuate our sanctified ways of doing things besides their success in reaching their proposed ends. — James Harvey Robinson

To some it is Napoleon, to some it is a philosophical struggle, to me it is allegro con brio. — Arturo Toscanini

The day before yesterday always has been a glamour day. The present is sordid and prosaic. Time colors history as it does a meerschaum pipe. — Vincent Starrett

Book collecting! First editions and best editions; old books and new books - the ones you like and want to have around you. Thousands of 'em. I've had more honest satisfaction and happiness collecting books than anything else I've ever done in life. — Peter Ruber