A day of reflection and the key to a happy life

[Bob Boze Bell]

January 1, 2013

On the first day of the year I like to go through my daytimer for for all 365 days and see if I accomplished anything. Had a pretty decent year: married off two kids and directed a TV show. Oh, and True West is still in business.

 

I also like to cull my favorite quotes of the year:

 

"The facts are always less than what really happened."

—Nadine Gardiner

 

"If you find a job you really love, you'll never work again."

—Winston Churchhill

 

"In Arizona, you can be a nut but at least people will leave you alone."

—Bill Goodykoontz (a Kingman boy, or, in this case, a Kingman nut, by the way)

 

"Don't look back. You're not going that way."

—Old Vaquero Saying

 

"The past does not haunt us. We haunt the past."

—Augusten Burroughs

 

"Sometimes you have to be silent to be heard."

—Old Vaquero Saying

 

"I think I'll buy a car a toot around."

—George Maharis, of the TV show "Route 66"

 

"If there's one thing people can't stand, it's intolerance."

—Old Vaquero Saying

 

"When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest."

—William Hazlett

 

"We rewrite the past to serve the needs of the present."

—Stephen Marche

 

"To be a success—be daring, be first, be different."

—Old Vaquero Saying

 

"I've always thought that writing isn't really that hard. It's having a good idea that's hard."

—Lyle Lovett

 

"Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought."

—Henri Bergson

 

"The only thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from history."

—Old Vaquero Saying

 

"Don't be consistent, but be simply true."

—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

 

"The freedom to be an imbecile is one of our core values."

—Nicholas D. Kristof

 

And what exactly is the key to a happy life?

 

"Be silly. Be honest. Be kind."

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

[anthony martin]

  Bob,

    Some terrific quotes there.I really like the Emerson one.Man,those old vaqueros sure were dropping lots of pearls of wisdom!Keep 'em coming!

[Jim Holden]

I'm pretty sure that 2012 should go down as the year we "couldn't fix stupid", an old saying by someone.
Yesterday I heard a saying somewhere - the reason we cry at funerals and celebrate at weddings is that we aren't the person involved.
Great to marry off the kids - less chance they'll want their old bedrooms back - Jim Holden.
Happy New Year Bob.

[Sue Cauhape]

Happy New Year, BBB and everyone at True West and on this forum. You've been good friends this year.

BBB, I love the Old Vaquero. A wise one is he. This year, I'll take his advice and look where I'm going instead of backward. It's harder to trip that way.

[Margaret-Anne Moore]

LONG LIVE THE OLD VAQUERO AND SIR WINSTON.  And Jim, maybe somebody will get the smarts so we can at least try to "fix stupid,"