Category: Quotes

creativity · Quotes

A good blog is like this item of clothing 👗

patmcg3 Comments

The best quotes are both funny and true, and therefore memorable. At the end of this talk good on conversations, Celeste Headlee credits her sister with this quote.

A good conversation is like a miniskirt; short enough to retain interest, but long enough to cover the subject.

The sister might have borrowed the idea from Winston Churchill. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I think the idea generalizes to writing too, so I’m going to adapt the spirit of this quote for my own purposes.

A good conversation blog is like a miniskirt; short enough to retain interest, but long enough to cover the subject.

And it’s working. I already deleted three sentences from this post – and added this one. 🤔

Before I forget, here’s a salacious photo – as required – to catch your attention.

Via Pinterest (I don’t think miniskirts even existed in Winston Churchill’s time 😆)

See also

Don’t Be Like Uncle Colm

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”

Quotes

“You have to have a direction before you can get movement.”

patmcg2 Comments

A wise man told me this recently in regards to a specific problem, but I think it applies more generally.

You have to have a direction before you can get movement.

Unlike most of quotes I post, this one didn’t even come from a famous person, just a wise friend. 👨🏻‍🚀🙏

I would love to be able to illustrate like this myself some day, but for now I’ll borrow from Alex Mathers. #goals

Quotes

“Every noble work is at first impossible.”

patmcgLeave a comment

Pretty much any interesting/useful/beautiful human achievement you can think of was at first impossible. Mass-printing books? You’re crazy. Sailing ships across the oceans? No way. Putting a man on the surface of the freaking moon? That one still gets me.

While John F. Kennedy gets my award for the best speech about doing the impossible (and within the decade no less!), the Scotsman Thomas Carlyle had summed this idea up nicely a hundred years before.

Every noble work is at first impossible.

Thomas Carlyle

This quote is so clear and to-the-point: it is perfect from a writing perspective.

But can you picture JFK getting up on stage at Rice University in 1962, saying, “Every noble work is at first impossible… let’s go to the moon.” and then just leaving? 😆 I guess politics requires a little more bombast.

Thomas Carlyle, looking a lot like The Most Interesting Man in the World.