Words To Live By & Some That Are Just B.S.

We love quotes. You can tell by the way we adorn the bottom of our home page with some of our favorite “bohemianisms.”

We appreciate the way some people can put just the right words together and create a phrase that inspires us, makes us laugh or even moves us to tears. You jot them down in a journal, include them in your signature line for e-mail, and try so very hard to commit them to memory.

Then, there are those quotes that move you in a different way. You read and ponder them for a minute, and then exclaim, “I’ve never in my life read such bullshit!”

For bohemian boomers, the distinction is obvious. Let’s start with words that truly encourage us as we journey through middle age:

I could not, at any age, be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. ~ Samuel Ullman

The other day a man asked me what I thought was the best time of life. “Why,” I answered without a thought, “now.” ~ David Grayson

My childhood may be over, but that doesn’t mean playtime is. ~ Ron Olson

We are always the same age inside. ~ Gertrude Stein

And then there’s the b.s. Not that they are poorly written phrases, but the sentiment is in stark contrast to our bohemian boomer outlook on life:

I don’t believe one grows older. I think that what happens early on in life is that at a certain age one stands still and stagnates. ~ T.S. Eliot (I guess this is to be expected from the man who wrote The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock)

I feel that life is divided into the horrible and the miserable. That’s the two categories. The horrible are like, I don’t know, terminal cases, you know, and blind people, crippled. I don’t know how they get through life. It’s amazing to me. And the miserable is everyone else. So you should be thankful that you’re miserable, because that’s very lucky, to be miserable. ~ Woody Allen (Granted, Allen had his tongue planted firmly in cheek when he uttered this line in Annie Hall. But we know some boomers who actually take this pessimistic view to heart.)

We grow gray in our spirit long before we grow gray in our hair ~ Charles Lamb (This may have been true in the 1800s when Lamb said it, but it’s baloney today!)

When you reach forty you can’t do anything every day. ~ Hank Aaron (Really Hank? We’ll concede that’s true if you’re talking ’bout hitting home runs.)

I refuse to admit I’m more than fifty-two, even if that does make my sons illegitimate. ~ Lady Nancy Astor (Pleeze! bohemian boomers don’t bother to lie about their age or the legitimacy of their children.)

Got a favorite quote you’d like to share with your fellow bohemians? Or maybe another stinker to add to our list of b.s.? Just click the Comments link below and add your two cents’ worth.