Merritt Quotes & Sayings

A sign in the window advertised the
long extinct Miller Genuine Draft. — Tom Merritt

Do not try to paint the grandiose thing. Paint the commonplace so that it will be distinguished. — William Merritt Chase

Read Voraciously. Write Passionately. — Ruby Merritt

Many people are so busy just doing life, getting by day to day, that they lose touch with the deeper purpose and meaning of life itself. They wander aimlessly from day to day and, as days turn into years, on the final day of their journey here, they look back and think, "That's it? Where was the juice and sweetness and meaning of being here?" Without a vision, our life's journey can seem meaningless. — Dennis Merritt Jones

Theater has always been terrifying to me. — Merritt Wever

I used to joke that if acting didn't work out, poetry was my commonsense fallback. — Merritt Wever

Have you ever taken yourself a bit too seriously, thinking that who you are is actually defined by what you look like, how much talent you have (or don't have), how well known you are (or aren't), or how much money you have (or don't have)? Those are all "garments and labels" you wear during the course of your stay here on this planet, but it's not who you are. At the end of the day, when it's all said and done, you will turn all of that back in just like a car you had on lease. — Dennis Merritt Jones

I am not sure that it is a bad thing to go to a school, as I did, where the boys threw things at me, and asked if there was nothing else I could do [but draw]. — William Merritt Chase

I went to really good New York City public schools that had arts programs. So in junior high, I got into the drama department. From there, I went to a performing arts high school in New York City called Laguardia and I just kind of fell into the professional side by happenstance. — Merritt Wever

I'm a writer, first and foremost, and I sort of take my cues from the songwriters of the '70s, who are talking about what's really important to them. — Tift Merritt

Then he noticed a little row-boat at about two hundred yards from the shore. There were two or three people aboard, he could not quite make out how many, and they were no doubt fishing, and Merritt (who disliked fish) wondered how people could spoil such an afternoon, such a sea, such pellucid and radiant air by trying to catch white, flabby, offensive, evil-smelling creatures that would be excessively nasty when cooked. — Arthur Machen

Inherent in every living thing is an insatiable hunger, the innate desire to express life by freely and fully being "what" it was uniquely created to be. To personalize this, consider the possibility that there was a time when you were a "what" before you were a "who." If you can wrap your mind around that possibility, then, the question to explore is, what were you before you became a who - and why did you become the who you uniquely are when there are so many other "who"s on the planet you might have been? While this may seem like a bit of a paradoxi- cal tongue twister, it is the quintessential question that requires exploration if you are to follow your true North Star back to your point of origin, where you'll find your authentic self waiting to weave itself into the fabric of your human life today and every day. — Dennis Merritt Jones

A wonderful bird is the pelican His bill will hold more than his belican. He can take in his beak Food enough for a week, But I'm damned if I see how the helican. — Dixon Lanier Merritt

I don't believe in making pencil sketches and then painting landscape in your studio. You must be right under the sky. — William Merritt Chase

We were born to be free, to expand our horizons by going where we have never gone before, and not to hang out in the relative comfort and safety of the nest, the known. There is a place within us that is courageous beyond our human understanding; it yearns to explore beyond the boundaries of our daily life. — Dennis Merritt Jones

In Zen, there is an old saying: The obstacle is the path. Know that a whole and happy life is not free of obstacles. Quite the contrary, a whole and happy life is riddled with obstacles-they simply become the very stepping-stones that help lift us to a new perspective. It is not what happens to us in this life that shapes us, it is how we choose to respond to what happens to us. — Dennis Merritt Jones

I usually spend my free time worrying about when I'm going to work next. — Merritt Wever

It takes two to paint. One to paint, the other to stand by with an axe to kill him before he spoils it. — William Merritt Chase

You must be excessively hungry, Mr. Merritt," she said
graciously. Mademoiselle would have been so proud of her.
"Perhaps you are not a morning person?"
He smiled, finally bringing his devastating sky blue
morning gaze fully upon her face.
"I thought perhaps if I filled my mouth with biscuits, I
might keep my foot out of it for a while. — Mona Karel

This is the thing about the service industry, you can get trained to be slick and hospitable in any situation and it serves you well the rest of your life. Once you figure out that everything is performance and you bow to that, learn to modulate, you can dissociate from the mothership of yourself like an astronaut floating in space. — Merritt Tierce

I really enjoy being outside in L.A. because it's so warm and sunny. — Merritt Patterson

I really love music, and I definitely love playing music and getting to be a part of music. — Tift Merritt

You don't have to go on a quest to "find" silence-it's a matter of uncovering it right where you are. Think about it: if all external and internal sounds were eliminated, only silence would remain. The question is, how much silence can you bear? How deep are you willing to go below surface living to reconnect with who you truly are? — Dennis Merritt Jones

Smile. No one cares how you feel. — Stephin Merritt

My work is has always been very, very personal. — Tift Merritt

Mindfulness Makes the Mystery Meaningful — Dennis Merritt Jones

Do not imagine that I would disregard that thing that lies beneath the mask ... but be sure that when the outside is rightly seen, the thing that lies under the surface will be found upon your canvas. — William Merritt Chase

Combine a certain amount of indifference with your ambition. Be carefully careless. If you don't succeed today, there is always tomorrow. — William Merritt Chase

I would say that the evocative qualities of music are usually put there in post-production in the reverb. It's really not much about the musicians as the engineering. It's post-production that's being done by the musician at the time. — Stephin Merritt

It is clear we exist in an abundant living Universe that knows no restriction - only the impulse to eternally expand with no limits or boundaries, perpetually becoming more of what it is and can ever be - star-stuff . . . Life, pushing out by creating light and matter from within itself, shaping and giving form to itself, exquisitely clothing itself in an infinite and unique number of ways. — Dennis Merritt Jones

Broadway is like a club I haven't been invited to, and I'm hoping that maybe they will give me a guest pass one of these days. — Merritt Wever

My God, I'd rather go to Europe than go to heaven. — William Merritt Chase

Music is like a really sacred, awesome thing. That first 45 minutes to two hours that you're on stage spending time with music every night is always really great. — Tift Merritt

Taking care of the details was probably how Merritt took back control, and Loralee wondered whether every girl who lost her mother did the same thing when life got muddier than a puddle. — Karen White

Success is doing everything you could the right way and saying man, I did the best I could - that's success. — Aries Merritt

I wrote a lot when I was younger, though never anything like plays or scripts. — Merritt Wever

Claire Hodgson, born Clara Mae Merritt, was the daughter of a prominent Georgia attorney who had once represented Ty Cobb. She was still a teenager when she married Frank Hodgson, a gentleman caller nearly twice her age. — Jane Leavy

The only things those people have that you don't is guts. Do you wanna live forever? — Merritt A. Edson

Where do we find happiness? Unfortunately, the common belief with most people is that happiness is something that happens to them when conditions are just right rather than something that happens through them when they choose to make space for it. While outer conditions may stimulate the feeling of happiness, it can never come from anywhere other than within us. Authentic happiness isn't something we can go out and get, buy, borrow, or steal. Nor can any form of artificial sensory stimulus generate true happiness; it's only something we can be, and it's a choice we make with every breath we take. — Dennis Merritt Jones

Life probably does not hand us any more visceral experience of how we mistakenly define ourselves than by means of our physical body. From the day we were born, the message we received from the world was that we are our body. This was the first great lie we were given by means of the collective consciousness of humankind, which has always valued itself from the outside in. — Dennis Merritt Jones

New York Times v. Sullivan was about the suppression of speech in the South [during the 1960s]. Today's version of suppression is just another verse of the same song. — Gilbert S. Merritt Jr.

I think you need a concrete, real-world metaphor to talk about inner life without feeling like a jerk. — Tift Merritt

I am sure that as soon as speech was invented, efforts to suppress and control it began, and that process of suppression continues unabated. — Gilbert S. Merritt Jr.

Diversity ... is not casual liberal tolerance of anything not yourself. It is not polite accommodation. Instead, diversity is, in action, the sometimes painful awareness that other people, other races, other voices, other habits of mind have as much integrity of being, as much claim on the world as you do ... And I urge you, amid all the differences present to the eye and mind, to reach out to create the bond that ... will protect us all. We are all meant to be here together. — William Merritt Chase

You can always boil down the life of a musician to touring, playing, and writing. — Tift Merritt

You have to be vigilant about keeping your own fire alive. — Tift Merritt

One hundred rounds do not constitute fire power. One hit constitutes fire power. — Merritt A. Edson

I burn my neck with a fondue skewer while you watch The Cosby Show on my bed. — Merritt Tierce

This too shall pass." It confirms that you can and should expect change and Uncertainty as a natural part of your life experience because nothing (and no thing) lasts forever. The sooner you learn this life lesson, the less you shall suffer. — Dennis Merritt Jones

I think, at the end of the day, I have an outsider's heart. — Tift Merritt

I gave up music criticism because of the increasingly obvious conflict of interest. I couldn't say anything bad about the records when I might be meeting that person's manager backstage an hour later. — Stephin Merritt

A tremendous amount of energy is freed up when you feel that your vision is actually respected and cared for by the people you're working with. — Tift Merritt

Living closer to the center of our being is the practice of a lifetime, but so, too, is skillfully living on the horizontal plane-the surface of life-where our purpose for being on the planet is uniquely expressed. Redefining moments are simply energy vortexes that draw the authentic self up (vertically) and out (horizontally) and into present moment awareness, revealing it to the light of day and the gifts it holds. — Dennis Merritt Jones

It can be very seductive to tell our story to others who will listen because, lets face it, who doesn't love to 'commiserate' (in this context, meaning to share their misery) with other likeminded people. It justifies our attachment to the drama. The interesting thing about telling our story over and over is that it becomes even more deeply ingrained in our minds each time we tell it, and the universe delights in keeping whatever we claim as our story alive. — Dennis Merritt Jones

Some fall in love. I shatter. — Stephin Merritt

The thought of making work that's easily consumed and quickly forgotten - what's the point? I want my work to be cohesive, to age and improve like old leather. — Tift Merritt

I think you have to ask questions that are scary to ask, and you cannot apologize for that, and you cannot worry what anyone else thinks about your journey. — Tift Merritt

In France, I discovered that I love writing in the city. There's such an intensity to being in the city that matches the intensity of what you're experiencing in your head. — Tift Merritt

There it is. It is useless to ask ourselves why it is we who are here. We are here. There is only us between the airfield and the Japs. If we don't hold, we will loose Guadalcanal. — Merritt A. Edson

I don't want to be overly philosophical, but I think there are things you earn for yourself as you go. — Tift Merritt

The primary purpose of reading the Bible is not to know the Bible but to know God. — James Merritt

Association with my pupils has kept me young in my work. Criticism of their work has kept my own point of view clear. — William Merritt Chase

Being outside and being in the sun is great for me. — Merritt Patterson

One of the realities of life is that few things of value ever come easy. A great marriage takes years of hard work - every day. There is never a time when I can say that I no longer need to work on being patient, tender, and conversant. I believe that marriage is forever, which means that you work through your problems and learn how to relate to each other no matter what it takes. Hog Hole marriages require daily effort and sacrifice. So do Hog Hole careers, friendships, children, and churches. It's never easy; few things of value ever are. A Hog Hole life is available to every person, but it takes determination, sacrifice, and work. In a word, discipline. — Bob Merritt

I do think there are trends in your life once you've been auditioning long enough. I was the angry teenager and then the sweet victim. — Merritt Wever

You must try to match your colors as nearly as you can to those you see before you, and you must study the effects of light and shade on nature's own hues and tints. — William Merritt Chase

He [William Merritt Chase] is, I suspect, getting a very truthful likeness. I would like it better if [it] was not so gray, so cramped about the eyes, and not quite so corpulent. But is this not quarreling with nature? — Rutherford B. Hayes

You stuttered like a kaleidoscope, because you knew too many words. — Stephin Merritt

Unfortunately, I don't think I can call myself an activist because I don't really do enough of anything. — Merritt Wever

You can move from normal to real peace in 57 minutes. — Lionel Merritt

France was very opposite of the show-business experience I'd been living; I was anonymous and alone. I wore no makeup, wore the same clothes every day. And I wrote and wrote and wrote. — Tift Merritt

I think when you're on a show that takes place in N.Y.C. but film it in L.A. there is just a vibe that feels wrong. — Merritt Wever

Don't try to make comparisons between your own pictures. Forget what you have done and think only of making the best of what you are doing. — William Merritt Chase

If we were to excavate the deepest recesses of our consciousness, we would discover many beliefs about ourselves that are simply not true and that may never have been true. Yet we live from these beliefs as if they were true because we have never identified them clearly enough to question them, to challenge them. — Dennis Merritt Jones

I wanted to dedicate myself completely to the things that matter to me and let everything else go, and I think that's a really rewarding thing. — Tift Merritt

I travel in a Ford Econoline van with a trailer. So it's not quite so glamorous. — Tift Merritt

One of the telltale signs of one who has completely embraced their authentic self is that they are, with great consistency, the same person in public as they are behind closed doors. Until you learn how to access your authentic voice, the uniqueness of who you truly are will never be fully realized. What makes you special (just like everyone else) is that you were placed here on this planet to express the one-of-a-kind being only you can be. — Dennis Merritt Jones

I generally wear jeans and a T-shirt - very comfortable. — Merritt Patterson

I think that there are a lot of things that come along with being a musician, but I don't want to whine about them. I don't want to complain about my job. — Tift Merritt

Surf is that music which is entirely about evoking something. There's never any vocals, so it's not about the lyrics, it's about the reverb. — Stephin Merritt

Here we are being hard and relentlessly dazzling in spite of whatever shit. We are saying to each other If you have an affliction, any remorse or anguish, eat it, drink it, snort it, fuck it, use it, suck it, kill it. — Merritt Tierce

Herein lies the paradox: If you want more of whatever it is you desire, you have to first prove to the universe that you are capable of having it by developing a consciousness that affirms there is no shortage of it. The only way to do this is by creating a vacuum or space for it to be received, and the only way you can create a space for it to be received is by letting go of what you do have, trusting that the universe knows what it is doing. That's the law of circulation in action. — Dennis Merritt Jones

Design is everything. — William Merritt Chase

I wish feminism wasn't so scary to people. It should be an evolving concept. I think it's an umbrella term to embrace conflicting ideas. — Merritt Wever

I don't remember things initially when listening to music. Like, I don't remember where I first heard a song, I don't have nostalgic attachment to a song in that it reminds me of such and such a time or place. I think I probably did experience that somewhat when I was not a full-time, professional musician, but I don't think music works that way for people who are in it constantly. — Stephin Merritt

I really like Rag & Bone jeans; I wear a lot of those. — Merritt Patterson

Brooke turned to Luke. "Rescue me from this madness, Merritt. Tell me you retain some hold on your faculties of reason. What say you to the man-deer?"
"Werestag," Portia corrected.
Luke circled the rim of his glass with one thumb. "A cursed, half-human creature, damned to an eternity of solitude in Denny's back garden?" He shot Cecily a strange, fleeting glance. "I find the idea quite plausible. — Tessa Dare

Why do we resist the mystery that change brings? When we get too rigid and inflexible, rigor mortis of the soul sets in. For proof of this, we need look no further than to those who choose to stay in a relationship or job long after the soul, or life force, that originally brought it passion and joy has vacated the premises. — Dennis Merritt Jones

Someone told me - maybe it was the ugly one, unafraid to bash his own kind - that spine surgeons are weak among surgeons, that you can't really fix a back so you go in there and fuck around and bill the shit out of the insurance company and refer the patient to pain management. — Merritt Tierce

God is the supreme uncreated light of which Wisdom is born, but there was never a time when God's Wisdom did not exist. — Merritt Y. Hughes

When I was nominated for a Grammy, my label dropped me - I have a wariness about trying for a hit. — Tift Merritt

The tale begins well before my time. It's common knowledge, among the locals, that the woods stretching between Swinford and Corbinsdale are cursed." "Cursed," Brooke scoffed. "Ignorance and superstition are the true curses. Their remedy is education. Don't you sponsor a school on this estate, Denny?" "It's a story," Portia said. "Even schoolchildren know the difference. And they could teach you something about imagination. Your cynicism is not only tiresome, but pitiable." "You pity me? How amusing." "Pity won't get you on my list." "Really?" Brooke smirked. "It seems to have worked for Lord Merritt." Enough — Tessa Dare

We will never have a world free of violence until we teach our children to carry peace in their hearts, not guns in their hands. — Donna Marie Merritt

Every Brit I met had the best sense of humor. They're hilarious: very dry and witty. — Merritt Patterson

I was thinking about how a playlist is really so inadequate as opposed to a mixtape because it takes seventeen days to really make a mixtape with a homemade cover that you like and that you'd give away. — Tift Merritt

My point of view as a writer has to be a lot more ego-less than just like being some performer on stage with a hairdo. — Tift Merritt

I'm always kind of surprised how much I'm associated with country music. — Tift Merritt

Sometimes when you're writing on a ukulele, you're in a totally new land, rhythmically or melodically. — Tift Merritt

Life is very short ... but I would like to live four times and if I could, I would set out to do no other things than I am seeking now to do. — William Merritt Chase

When my husband and I went into the bayou between New Orleans and Baton Rouge for a week of intensive marriage counseling after I started burning myself. My parents paid for it and kept the baby. It didn't work but we did have anal sex and the woman counselor gave me a recipe for oatmeal blueberry pancakes that I still make. — Merritt Tierce