A famous quotation is not so much an expression of an eternal truth as a demonstration of one person's eloquence. At least that's what I say...usually in a loud voice at cocktail parties.

But when somebody says something beautifully that you believe to be true - or discover that belief the moment you hear the quotation - or disagree with but gladly and knowingly allow in the Trojan horse of words anyway, then it can be something wonderful.

My list is not meant to be definitive which is ironic because the implication of choosing a quotation is that it is somehow etched on soul, eternal and guiding, and while these examples will always mean a great deal to me, they will often be joined and maybe crowded out by others. But I suppose they will always be there wherever there is.

To start, we go from the sublime to the ridiculous in a few sentences:

"To know you can do better next time, unrecognizably better, and that there is no next time, and that it is a blessing there is not, there is a thought to be going on with" - Samuel Beckett

"If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd better teach it to dance" - George Bernard Shaw

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear" - Mark Twain

"A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five" - Groucho Marx

"Try again. Fail again. Fail better" - Samuel Beckett

And then there is Kenneth Tynan's 'Gestalt Prayer':

I do my thing and you do your thing/I am not in this world to live up to your expectations/And you are not in this world to live up to mine/You are you and I am I/And if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful/If not, it can't be helped/Shalom.'

Which I only found today and think is utterly beautiful although I could well forget it tomorrow exept that I'm writing it down now and so it will echo on a little longer. It was in his diaries which were published after his death and so I don't know if it was ever published or meant to be published during his lifetime. I like not knowing this. Between witty aphorisms and bitchy gossip lies this bittersweet thought.

My last is my first. Beckett again. Because reading this back, I slip too quickly over the quotations so closely are they bunched together, and they deserve each one of them to be really savored. And if I'm to frame one tonight, it will be Beckett. And despite everything I say about quotations coming and going this stays with me as bi-polar defeat, hope and solace in one.

"To know you can do better next time, unrecognizably better, and that there is no next time, and that it is a blessing there is not, there is a thought to be going on with"

Learn more about this author, Irfan Shah.
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