The great American writer, novelist, and thinker Anne Lamott once penned “the truth doesn’t come out in bumper stickers…everyday meat-and-potato truth is beyond our ability to capture in a few words. Your whole piece is the truth, not just one shining epigrammatic moment in it.”
While the aforementioned quote may seem to prove otherwise, Lamott (probably) isn’t diametrically opposed to well crafted one-liners. Her thoughtful perspective simply offers a foil for our tendency to (literally) highlight our favorite phrases and forget the truth being communicated by larger pieces of work. In essence, the sentiment Lamott offers reminds us to bear in mind the greater context of our favorite quotes.
But what about isolated phrases that implore us to create our own context? What about shining beacons of prosaic artifacts that seem devoid of a larger and more truthful body of work? What about shining epigrammatic moments that encourage us to think more deeply? What follows is a short list of short quotes intentionally isolated from a larger piece of work, that through the act of individual contextualization have the potential to move our needle in a positive direction.
“Movement is medicine.”
“The grass is greener where you water it.”
“Not all trials are meant to be endured forever.”
“Assume most “opportunities” will lead nowhere, but pursue them anyway.”