2023 in Quotes
On beautiful sentences and insightful nonfiction.
Inspired by Ann Friedman’s lists of sentences, 2023 was the first year that I made my own, capturing things that I read that resonated in a Google Doc. It was part of my attempt to slow down, reading more mindfully and less like I was in a race to some undetermined finish line. I had a commonplace book for a long time (certainly without having any idea that that was a thing, brought to light by this post by Suleika Jaouad, but have found it difficult to keep up with, especially when I read so much online and can’t keep track of a device and extra notebooks for specific purposes simultaneously.
I divided this list into two categories: “Beautiful Sentences” and “Insightful Nonfiction,” though I’m not sure that those categories really work. I also wasn’t able to stick to the discipline of single sentences (see the first quote as a clue to why). I was, however, able to pull together a list of the words that took hold of me at various times this year, sometimes with and sometimes without comment. All bold text is my added emphasis. There is some strong language in a couple of the quotes, just a heads up.
“When someone is just verbose as fuck, I warm up to them quickly. Verbosity is often one manifestation of an extremely intense and restless mind that moves in several directions at once. I like to see this, out in nature, even when it’s inconveniencing me by taking up a lot of my time over Zoom.” -Heather Havrilesky
“How you do one thing is how you do everything.” -Felipe Gonzalez
“Standing up tall when someone’s trying to shrink you is a yoga posture. Protecting your loved ones is a yoga posture. Finding the breath in these moments inspires you to action and confirms your faith. Sometimes finding your breath can be the difference between seeing someone else’s point of view and punching them in the face.” -Jessamyn Stanley
Be a thermostat rather than a thermometer when it comes to the discussions you want to participate in. When you sense there’s something juicier to be explored, begin the more scintillating conversations you yearn for. -Chani Nicholas (borrowing from somewhere else, most likely) One of my supervisors kept the quote about being a thermostat rather than a thermometer posted in their office. I read it a lot, and it made a superficial level of sense, but the true depth of what that meant as a leader didn’t set in for me until I read it in this context; we can choose to set the tone, we can choose what to engage with, we can choose what kind of conversations we want to be part of, even when dealing with the ever-present nonsense of being alive in a bureaucracy that wasn’t built for humanity.
“She is at the bottom of the ocean floor. With all her reserves, she hurls herself toward the light she cannot see.” - Dani Shapiro
On not wanting to read early writing because it would be terrible: “I’d been afraid the stories of my youth would be as bad as my youthful poetry. I’d been afraid I’d somehow been given a life I hadn’t deserved, but that’s ridiculous. We don’t deserve anything – not the suffering and not the golden light. It just comes.” -Ann Patchett
“Meditation looks more peaceful than it feels. Our thoughts aren’t meant to be peaceful. They’re aggressive, unpredictable, and all-consuming. The point isn’t to manufacture quiet. Life is meant for living and living is suffering and chaos. You’re supposed to have thoughts, and they’re chaotic by nature. The point is to accept your chaos. When you accept your chaos, it gets a lot easier to get that shit in order.” -Jessamyn Stanley
“The future is not one thing”
-Ann Patchett
“Progress requires creativity and imagination. It always has. Ingenuity is born of boldness. We have to be able to envision what’s possible, summoning it from the unknown, whatever does not yet exist, the sort of world we hope to live in in order to even begin to actualize a plan to get there.” -Michelle Obama
After a challenging balancing practice: “Remember that you are not here to achieve some perfect version. You are not a robot. You are human, and you can take with this practice a way to remember that it’s beautiful to be alive in this moment and the next and the next.” -Amelia DeVivo
I’d love to hear what words worked their way into your consciousness this year!
Tonight’s 6:00 Hatha Flow class is my last one for this year; I’d love to see you there! Click on the image below to RSVP.
