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Robert Fulghum

Robert Fulghum Quotes

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Famous Robert Fulghum Quotes

“The Indian danced on alone. The crowd clapped up the beat. The Indian danced with a chair. The crowd went crazy. The band faded. The crowd cheered. The Indian held up his hands for silence as if to make a speech. Looking at the band and then the crowd, the Indian said, "Well, what're you waiting for? Let's DANCE.”

IfsWellsSaidHandsWaitingSilenceCrazyBandSpeechBeatsCrowdsIndianChairsFaded
Book:All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things
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“I know what I really want for Christmas. I want my childhood back. Nobody is going to give me that. I might give at least the memory of it to myself if I try. I know it doesn't make sense, but since when is Christmas about sense, anyway? It is about a child, of long ago and far away, and it is about the child of now. In you and me. Waiting behind the door of or hearts for something wonderful to happen. A child who is impractical, unrealistic, simpleminded and terribly vulnerable to joy.”

IfsKnowsWantGivingTryingHeartChildrenLongMightHappensJoyWaitingMemoriesBehindsWonderfulDoorsChildhoodGive MeChristmasVulnerableMake SenseFar AwayLong Ago
Author:Robert Fulghum
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“Instructions For Wayfarers They will declare: Every journey has been taken. You shall respond: I have not been to see myself. They will insist: Everything has been spoken. You shall reply: I have not had my say. They will tell you: Everything has been done. You shall reply: My way is not complete. You are warned: Any way is long, any way is hard. Fear not. You are the gate - you, the gatekeeper. And you shall go through and on . . . —Alexandros Evangelou Xenopouloudakis, THIRD WISH”

WayLongHas BeensHardDoneWishTakenJourneyThirdsMy WayGatesInstructionFear NotGatekeepers
Author:Robert Fulghum
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“I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have - I can reflect light into the dark places of this world - into the black places in the hearts of men - and change somethings in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of my life.”

PeopleKnowsMenWorldHeartMayI CanWholeLightBlackDarkDesignThis WorldShapesMirrorsNeverthelessFragmentsDark Places
Book:Robert Fulghum's All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
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“Always trust your fellow man. And always cut the cards. Always trust God. And always build your house on high ground. Always love thy neighbor. And always pick a good neighborhood to live in.”

MenHouseCuttingBalancePicksFellowsNeighborCardsNeighborhoodTrust In GodFellow ManLove Thy NeighborHigh Ground
Book:All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things
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“One of life's best coping mechanisms is to know the difference between an inconvenience and a problem. If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you’ve got a problem. Everything else is an inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat and a lump in the breast are not the same kind of lump. One needs to learn the difference.”

IfsKnowsNeedsKindProblemLife IsHouseChallengesDifferencesBreakFireNecksBreastsThroatMechanismCopingLumpsInconvenienceInconvenientCoping MechanismsOatmealLump In The Throat
Author:Robert Fulghum
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“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.”

WayMayChildrenI CanImportantYoungMotherFatherShareRedPatientSmellFamiliarGentleGenesGrandparentBeansLike HerGrandpaGiggleJellyParents And GrandparentsFeyGrandparents DayFunny GrandparentHappy Grandparents DayBest GrandparentsJelly Bean
Author:Robert Fulghum
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“To look this way is to see. To see is to have vision. To have vision is to understand. To understand is to know. To know is to become. To become is to live fully. To live fully is to matter. And to matter is to become light. And to become light is to be loved. And to be loved is to burn. And to burn is to exist. Off and on.”

KnowsWayLoveLooksMatterLightUnderstandingVision
Book:Uh-Oh: Some Observations from Both Sides of the Refrigerator Door
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“Public lives are lived out on the job and in the marketplace, where certain rules, conventions, laws, and social customs keep most of us in line. Private lives are lived out in the presence of family, friends, and neighbors who must be considered and respected even though the rules and proscriptions are looser than what's allowed in public. But in our secret lives, inside our own heads, almost anything goes.”

JobsLawCertainSocialLinesSecretNeighborCustomsConventionsPrivate LifeMarketplacePublic LifeSecret LifeFamily FriendsAnything Goes
Author:Robert Fulghum
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“If you notice phrases, ideas, and anecdotes that closely resemble those that appear elsewhere in my writing, it's not a matter of sloppy editing. I'm repeating myself. I'm reshuffling words in the hope that just once I might say something exactly right. And I'm still wrestling with dilemmas that are not easily resolved or easily dismissed. I run at them again and again because I am not finished with them. Any may never be. Work-in- progress on a life-in-progress is what my writing is about. And some progress in the work is enough to keep it going on.”

IfsLifeWritingMayStillsIdeasMatterEnoughMightRunningHopeProgressFinishedPhrasesWrestlingElsewhereAgain And AgainEditingDilemmaAnecdotesSloppyWork In Progress
Book:Uh-Oh: Some Observations from Both Sides of the Refrigerator Door
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“I'd like to speak a foreign language well enough to get the jokes. I'd like to talk with Socrates, and watch Michelangelo sculpt David. I'd like to see the world as it was a million years ago and a million years hence.”

WorldYearsWellsEnoughTimeSpeakLanguageWatchesMillionsJokesYears AgoForeign Language
Book:All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things
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“Arguing whether or not a God exists is like fleas arguing whether or not the dog exists. Arguing over the correct name for God is like fleas arguing over the name of the dog. And arguing over whose notion of God is correct is like fleas arguing over who owns the dog.”

NamesDogNotionArguingGod ExistsFleasWhether God Exists
Book:Uh-Oh: Some Observations from Both Sides of the Refrigerator Door
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“Only an open mind still has room for new knowledge. What is outgrown and used up must be discarded to make room for what is yet to be learned. And much of the best thinking is done alone-in deserts, on beaches, in bed, behind closed doors. It is why we say we need to get away-to escape from clutter and busyness-to hear ourselves think.”

ThinkingNeedsMindStillsDoneUsedRoomsBehindsLearningDoorsBedDesertBeachGet AwayOpen MindOpen MindedClutterDiscardedClosed DoorsNew KnowledgeBehind Closed DoorsNeed To Get Away
Book:Words I Wish I Wrote: A Collection of Writing that Inspired My Ideas
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“Sirius, the brightest star in the heavens.... My grandfather would say we're part of something incredibly wonderful - more marvelous than we imagine. My grandfather would say we ought to go out and look at it once in a while so we don't lose our place in it.”

LooksHeavenStarsLosesSpaceImagineWonderfulOughtGrandfatherMarvelousMy GrandfatherStar GazingSiriusBrightest Star
Book:All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things
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“Life is. I am. Anything might happen. And I believe I may invest my life with meaning. The uncertainty is a blessing in disguise. If I were absolutely certain about all things, I would spend my life in anxious misery, fearful of losing my way. But since everything and anything are always possible, the miraculous is always nearby and wonders shall never, ever cease.”

IfsWayLifeBelieveMayMightHappensLife IsCertainI BelieveWonderBlessingLosingAll ThingsMiseryCeaseMy WayUncertaintyAnxiousFearfulDisguiseMiraculousBlessings In Disguise
Book:Maybe (Maybe Not): Second Thoughts from a Secret Life
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“If someone were to ask me whether I believed in God, or saw God, or had a particular relationship with God, I would reply that I don't separate God from my world in my thinking. I feel that God is everywhere. That's why I never feel separated from God or feel I must seek God, any more than a fish in the ocean feels it must seek water. In a sense, God is the "ocean" in which we live.”

IfsThinkingWorldFeelsGodAsksWaterChristianitySawsParticularOceanFishesAsk MeRelationship With God
Author:Robert Fulghum
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“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.”

MotherNightFatherNaturalMy OwnSecretKnowingTeachingTalentCarChangedKeysPerceptionMajorsTestsDinnerDrivingOccasionsPrivacyNeighborhoodPassagesNot KnowingImpressedLicenseOne NightSanctionsRiteRite Of PassageNatural Talent
Author:Robert Fulghum
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