R Fulghum Quotes & Sayings

The Sikh gave him the money. When Menon asked for his address so that he could repay the man, the Sikh said that Menon owed the debt to any stranger who came to him in need, as long as he lived. The help came from a stranger and was to be repaid to a stranger. — Robert Fulghum

The winding down of summer puts me in a heavy philosophical mood. — Robert Fulghum

Nobody goes "AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" when they sing it. Maybe because it puts the life adventure in such clear and simple terms. The small creature is alive and looks for adventure. Here's the drainpipe
a long tunnel going up toward some light. The spider doesn't even think about it
just goes. Disaster befalls it
rain, flood, powerful foces. And the spider is knocked down and out beyond where it started. Does the spider say, "To hell with that"? No. Sun comes out
clears things up
dries off the spider. And the small creature goes over to the drainpipe and looks up and thinks it really wants to know what is up there. — Robert Fulghum

My goal now is to dance all the dances as long as I can, and then to sit down contented after the last elegant tango some sweet night and pass on because there wasn't another dance left in me. — Robert Fulghum

Children are sent to school to be civilized, to learn to be part of the social enterprise. — Robert Fulghum

The point is that getting married for lust or money or social status or even love is usually trouble. The point is that marriage is a maze into which we wander - a maze that is best got through with a great companion. — Robert Fulghum

I believe it is in my nature to dance by virtue of the beat of my heart, the pulse of my blood and the music in my mind. — Robert Fulghum

You may never have proof of your importance but you are more important than you think. There are always those who couldn't do without you. The rub is that you don't always know who. — Robert Fulghum

I love this child. Red-haired - patient and gentle like her mother - fey and funny like her father. When she giggles I can hear him when he and I were young. I am part of this child. It may be only because we share genes and that therefore smell familiar to each other ... It may be that a part of me lives in her in some important way ... But for now, it's jelly beans and 'Old MacDonald' that unite us. — Robert Fulghum

Anything can happen. The great banana peel of existence is always on the floor somewhere. — Robert Fulghum

Pardon me, but my father says that it is a lie that Americans have everything. You have no sheep, no goats, no trees, no oil, no vines, no wine, not even chickens. He asks, 'What kind of life is that?' He says, 'No wonder you don't sing or dance or recite poetry very often. — Robert Fulghum

Speed and efficiency do not always increase the quality of life. — Robert Fulghum

So you drive as far as you can, even when you can clearly read the sign. You want to think you are exempt, that it doesn't apply to you. But it does. Life is still a dead end. And we still have a hard time believing it — Robert Fulghum

We are the only creatures that both laugh and weep. I think it's because we are the only creatures that see the difference between the way things are and the way they might be. — Robert Fulghum

My secret agenda is to convey my values to my kids. — Robert Fulghum

I do not want to know what you will hope for. I want to know what you will work for. I do not want your sympathy for the needs of humanity. I want your muscle. As the wagon driver said when they came to a long, hard hill: 'Them that's going on with us, get out and push. Them that ain't, get out of the way'. — Robert Fulghum

Imagination is better than knowledge. — Robert Fulghum

Even if your watch is full of diamonds the hour is still 60 minutes — Robert Fulghum

Do you ever go off with a long grocery list and come home from the store with a bunch of different stuff? And somebody in the family unsacks the groceries and wants to know why you got this and didn't get that and just where is the whatever? And you want to say, 'Well, just be glad I came back, okay?' And the unpacker says, 'Well, next time bring what's on the list.' — Robert Fulghum

Now Everybody has some secret goals in life ... Sometimes you can get what you want and what you need at the sames time. — Robert Fulghum

Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work everyday some. — Robert Fulghum

Love is the grand prize and the garbage heap. Love is a spiritual root canal and the only thing that makes life worth living. Love is a little taste of always and a big bite of nothing. And love is everything in between these extremes. — Robert Fulghum

I get tired of hearing it's a crummy world and that people are no damned good. What kind of talk is that? I know a place in Payette, Idaho, where a cook and a waitress and a manager put everything they've got into laying a chicken-fried steak on you. — Robert Fulghum

Why is love easy? I don't know. And the raccoons don't say. — Robert Fulghum

I don't think there is a hidden purpose to the universe that you have to puzzle out. — Robert Fulghum

When my father finally got around to teaching me to drive, he was impressed at my "natural" talent for driving, not knowing that I had already been secretly driving my mother's car around the neighborhood. When I took the test and got my license and my father gave me my own set of keys to the car one night at dinner, it was a major rite of passage for him and my mother. Their perception of me had changed and was formally acknowledged. For me the occasion meant a private sanction to do in public what I had already been doing in secret. — Robert Fulghum

The leaves let go, the seeds let go, and I must let go sometimes, too, and cast my lot with another of nature's imperfect but tenacious survivors. — Robert Fulghum

Life is lumpy. And a lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat, and a lump in a breast are not the same lump. One should learn the difference. — Robert Fulghum

The examined life is no picnic. — Robert Fulghum

But love may have to be left off the exam. Most of us will never learn. — Robert Fulghum