(Mis)Remembered Lines

 I have to dash off to work in fifteen minutes---perfect timing to play this game:
What bits of writing come to mind, without looking them up?

I never get quotes right! Anything quoted on this blog, I've double-checked by looking it up.

So, off the top of my head, here are a few misremembered lines.

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Jane Eyre starts with the narrator (Jane), a child at the beginning, saying it's raining and there was no possibility of a walk.
Sounds ho-hum, but it sets the tone--the book is all about natural and social limitations and how Jane overcomes (or doesn't overcome) restrictions.
Later, she does plenty of walking in the rain.

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 David Copperfield starts with the narrator (David) wondering if he will be the hero of his life, or if that position will be held by another--"these pages must show".

Ha! That could be the introduction to The Collected Blog Posts of Anybody.
I always like that---the call to be the hero of my own life.
It reminds me of when I realized why I love Captain Kirk: I want to be my own version of him.

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"It is better to look for what you may never find than to find what you don't really want."

--"Alberic the Wise", short story for children, by Norton Juster (author of The Phantom Tollbooth)

I read this when I was nine or ten and thought that was a true and good guide, and I've always remembered it.

Along the way, I learned it's not that simple, of course. An attachment to purity can be dangerous. Sometimes it's better to work with "what you don't really want".
Have you seen the yard signs, "Settle for Biden", for instance?
They're actually sold by the Biden campaign!
I agree.

Still, yes, on a personal level, if I can, I want to keep exploring life, not settle for sleeping on half-measures. 

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"Like the green fuse drives the flower"

--Dylan Thomas. Not even sure what poem that's from, but I LOVE it. I think of it sometimes, and it gives me energy.

We were just talking about clarity in writing.
I want clarity when I read entertainment to pass the time, or when I'm reading nonfiction--the clearer the writer can explain difficult or new concepts, the better.

Poetry is different, of course.
Or writing qua writing--stuff you have to work at--unclear not because it's poorly written but because it's written differently, well.
Like James Joyce's writing: though I never bothered with Ulysses, I remember Molly Bloom saying Yes I will yes. 

And I liked Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man in high school.

Ah, I thought, you don't have to write in straight lines.

Okay, I don't remember a single thing from Portrait, so I looked this up:

“Her lips touched his brain as they touched his lips, as though they were a vehicle of some vague speech and between them he felt an unknown and timid pressure, darker than the swoon of sin, softer than sound or odor.”

Chewy.
Which reminds me of another misremembered line--
When we are children we drink milk, but when we are grown up, we eat meat.

That's from the Bible--don't know where, but I've found it strengthening to remember: this is hard but it's worthwhile, and YOU ARE CAPABLE (at least of trying).

Sigh. Sometimes I don't want to be the grown up. Won't someone cut up my meat for me?
I think that's a huge impulse when I or other people turn decision-making over to others---others who may not be all that capable, but are willing to do the cutting and chewing!

Hm. This all adds up:

Be the hero of your own life:
Go for a walk in the rain;
Change the fuse when it burns out;
Say yes, I can chew my own food!

Haha, I am such an American. Go west, young one!
I am not really so gung-ho. 

Hm. Or am I? Maybe I am a bit, personally, but I HATE the philosophy behind the saying "Failure is not an option."

Failure is a certainty.

So, let me add favorite lines from Capt. Picard:

"It is possible to do everything right and still fail. That is not weakness, that is life."

Care to share any lines yourself?

And now I must go to work.