Quotable Quotes: Bette Davis
by Miki Saxon
The weather was perfect today, so I spent eight hours with no breaks working in my garden barley denting what needs to be done.
At about hour five Bette Davis’ comment “Old age ain’t no place for sissies” kept cycling through my brain and boy, is it accurate!
So I decided what other words of wisdom that great lady might have for us.
I like this thought, “Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.” I like it because it really works and you end up accomplishing stuff that is truly amazing.
Davis’ other work insight that really hits home is this, “Without wonder and insight, acting is just a trade. With it, it becomes creation.” You don’t have to be an actor to benefit from this; apply it to every facet of your life and you’ll find the sky is bluer, the sun warmer, people are more interesting and work is more like play.
Terminating relationships, whether an employee or friend, is very difficult and many times people do anything to avoid doing it and it’s hard to say which is worse, especially when we feel sorry for them. But before backing off, it is good to remember Davis’ comment about what they do to us.
“The weak are the most treacherous of us all. They come to the strong and drain them. They are bottomless. They are insatiable. They are always parched and always bitter. They are everyone’s concern and like vampires they suck our life’s blood.”
I’ve always gone my own way, sometimes it was easier, more often more difficult, but even so, I think I’d rather have Sinatra’s words on my tombstone than Davis’, “You know what I’m going to have on my gravestone?”She did it the hard way.””
The final thought I want to leave you with is one that applies more often in hindsight than at the time. “Life is a jest; and all things show it. I thought so once; but now I know it.”
Image credit: Aura983 on flickr
