Yet no matter how deeply I go down into myself, my God is dark and like a webbing made of a hundred roots that drink in silence.

 –Ranier Maria Rilke

Spend the afternoon. You can’t take it with you.

–Annie Dillard

Eighty percent of life is just showing up.

–Woody Allen

Work is life, you know, and without it, there’s nothing but fear and insecurity.

 –John Lennon

That life is worth living is the most necessary of assumptions, and were it not assumed, the most impossible of conclusions.

 –George Santayana

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.

–Anne Frank

The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mood of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form without being disappointed by the change; for happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up.

–Charles Langbridge Morgan

Soul is when you can take a song and make it part of you – a part that’s so true, so real, people think it must have happened to you. I’m not satisfied unless I can make them feel what I feel. It’s like electricity; it’s a force that can light up a room. Soul is power.

 –Ray Charles

When you’re singing and playing rock ‘n roll, you’re on the leading edge of yourself.

 –Neil Young

Opera is where a guy gets stabbed in the back, and instead of dying, he sings.

 –Robert Benchley

If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

 –Socrates

Hollywood’s a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss, and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty cents.

 –Marilyn Monroe

When you’re down and out, something always turns up – and it’s usually the noses of your friends.

–Orson Welles

Men make history and not the other way round. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.

 –Harry S. Truman

I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid.

–G.K. Chesterton

If you really want something in life you have to work for it. Now quiet, they’re about to announce the lottery numbers.

–Homer Simpson

(Each week this column features quotations gleaned from the readings and experiences of our editors, reporters, readers, and friends. All are invited to submit quotations for inclusion here. They may be sent to Gleanings, c/o The Newtown Bee, 5 Church Hill Road, Newtown, CT 06470 or emailed to editor@thebee.com.)