Acceptance is hard. To accept my pain means holding it in my arms, like a package handed to me, my proper burden to be carried. The package may be heavy as lead, or burning hot, or stuck through with razors, but I must concede that it is my package, simply because it has arrived in my life. It is not a mistake. It has not been sent by accident to the wrong person. I may not welcome it, but accepting it means I carry it without protest for as long as necessary – and then I lay it down.

 – Jeanne Duprau_

We have fought this fight as long, and as well as we know how. We have been defeated. For us, as a Christian people, there is now but one course to pursue. We must accept the situation.

– Robert E. Lee

 

Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.

– Jean-Paul Sartre

I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.

 – Willa Cather

The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt.

 – Thomas Merton

It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses. Hit it.

 – Blues Brothers

 

The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable.

  – Sign by an elevator in a Bucharest hotel

The best ideas are common property.

 – Seneca

I invent nothing. I rediscover.

– August Rodin

There is nothing new under the sun.

 – Ecclesiastes 1:9

Things will get better despite our efforts to improve them.

 – Will Rogers

Anna was saying to herself: why do I always have this awful need to make other people see things as I do? It’s childish, why should they? What it amounts to is that I’m scared of being alone in what I feel.

 – Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.

 – Bertrand Russell

Always remember you’re unique, just like everyone else.

 – Bumper sticker

(Each week this column features quotations gleaned from the readings and experiences of our editors, reporters, readers, and friends. All are invited to submit quotations for inclusion here. They may be sent to Gleanings, c/o The Newtown Bee, 5 Church Hill Road, Newtown, CT 06470 or emailed to editor@thebee.com.)