Mardy Grothe - Neverisms

Never do reluctantly that which you must do inevitably.HARLON B. CARTER

Never stand begging for that which you have the power to earn.MIGUEL DE CERVANTES, in Don Quixote (1605)

Never forget the difference between things of importance and trifles;

yet remember that trifles have also their value.SUSAN FENIMORE COOPER, in Elinor Wyllys (1846)

Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit.

Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever,

even if your whole world seems upset.ST. FRANCES DE SALES

Never apologize for showing feeling.

When you do so, you apologize for truth.BENJAMIN DISRAELI, from a character in Contarini Fleming (1832)

Never place loyalty to institutions and things

above loyalty to yourself.DR. WAYNE DYER, in Pulling Your Own Strings (1978)

Never work just for money or for power.MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN

This was one of twenty-five life lessons that Edelman laid out in The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours (1992). About money and power, she explained, “They won’t save your soul or build a decent family or help you sleep at night.” Edelman, the founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, also offered this lesson: “Never give up. Never think life is not worth living. I don’t care how hard it gets.”

Keep true; never be ashamed of doing right;

decide on what you think is right, and stick to it.GEORGE ELIOT, quoted in The Sabbath Reporter (1911)

Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion,

against injustice and lying and greed.WILLIAM FAULKNER

Faulkner said this in a 1951 commencement address to graduating seniors at University High School in Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner’s daughter Jill, a member of the senior class, had personally asked her father—a recent Nobel Prize winner—to deliver the speech. He added: “If you will do this, not as a class or classes, but as individuals, men and women, you will change the earth.”

Never feel self-pity, the most destructive emotion there is.MILLICENT FENWICK

She added: “How awful to be caught up in the terrible squirrel cage of self.” Fenwick was a fashion model, author, and Vogue magazine editor before becoming involved in politics via the civil rights movement. Blessed with striking good looks, exceptional intelligence, and a keen wit, she rose rapidly in the ranks of the Republican Party. She was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1974—at age sixty-four—and quickly became a media darling, famous for her pipe-smoking habit and memorable quips (in a 1981 60 Minutes interview, she said, “When the door of a smoke-filled room is closed, there’s hardly ever a woman inside”). During her four congressional terms she was one of the country’s most colorful politicians. She lives on in history as the model for the character of Lacey Davenport in Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury comic strip.

Never be bullied into silence.

Never allow yourself to be made a victim.

Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.HARVEY FIERSTEIN

Never reach out your hand unless you’re willing to extend an arm.ELIZABETH FULLER

Fuller was a seventeenth-century educator who founded a famous Free School for English girls and boys. Almost three centuries later, Jesse Jackson offered a similar thought: “Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping them up.” And on the same theme, Pope John XXIII said: “Never hesitate to hold out your hand; never hesitate to accept the outstretched hand of another.”

Never forget that you are one of a kind.

Never forget that if there weren’t any need for you

in all your uniqueness to be on this earth,

you wouldn’t be here in the first place.

And never forget, no matter how overwhelming

life’s challenges and problems seem to be,

that one person can make a difference in the world.

In fact, it is always because of one person

that all the changes that matter in the world come about.

So be that one person.R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER

Never accept an evil that you can change.ANDRÉ GIDE, in The Fruits of the Earth (1897)

Gide’s book had a major influence on the thinking of French intellectuals like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. It also contained another powerful admonition: “Never cease to be convinced that life might be better—your own and others.”

Never “for the sake of peace and quiet,”

deny your own experience or convictions.DAG HAMMARSKJÖLD, in Markings (1963)

Hammarskjöld was a respected Swedish economist and diplomat when he was named as his country’s first delegate to the UN in 1949. Elected secretary-general in 1953, he was reelected for a second term in 1957. He was on a peacekeeping mission to Northern Rhodesia in 1961 when he died in an airplane crash. Shortly after his death, he was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1963, his private journal—with a foreword by W. H. Auden—was published in Sweden, and a year later it was published in English under the title Markings. A compilation of philosophical reflections, the book was hailed by the New York Times as “Perhaps the greatest testament of personal devotion published in this century.” The book also contained these other words to live by:

Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top.

Then you will see how low it was.

Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step;

only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road.

Life yields only to the conqueror. Never accept what can be gained by giving in. You will be living off stolen goods, and your muscles will atrophy.

Never be afraid to sit awhile and think.LORRAINE HANSBERRY, from the character Asagai,

in the 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun

Never be afraid to dare.VLADIMIR HOROWITZ

Never give up on anybody.HUBERT H. HUMPHREY

Never ruin an apology with an excuse.KIMBERLY JOHNSON

Never regret the time that was needed for doing good.JOSEPH JOUBERT

Never succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter.MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., in a 1956 sermon

Never walk away from failure. On the contrary,

study it carefully—and imaginatively—for its hidden assets.MICHAEL KORDA

Never allow the integrity of your own way of seeing things and saying things

to be swamped by the influence of a master, however great.GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP

Never pretend to be something you’re not.RICHARD LEDERER,

in A Treasury for Dog Lovers (2009)

Lederer, who is best known for his books on words and language, has recently turned his attention to the world of pets. He offered this thought in a chapter titled “All I Need to Know I Learned from My Dog.” The saying is not original to Lederer; he was simply passing along a principle that human beings can learn from dogs. He also offered one other example of canine wisdom: “Never pass up an opportunity to go for a joy ride.”

Live each day of your life in a day-tight compartment.

Always go the extra mile, at home, at work, at play.

Never neglect the little things.

Never let anyone push your kill switch.

Never hide behind busy work.OG MANDINO, in The Spellbinder’s Gift (1994)

These five principles come from the spellbinding orator in Mandino’s 1994 parable. He continues: “If you follow these five, then the final rule of life I have for you will be easy. Never commit an act that you will have to look back on with tears and regret.”

Never let the odds keep you from pursuing

what you know in your heart you were meant to do.LEROY “SATCHEL” PAIGE

Never tell people how to do things.

Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.GEORGE S. PATTON JR.,