Category: Commonplace Quotes

Tuesday, January 27, 2026. TKR Day Two plus a few Commonplace Books Quotes

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I read a book once called Dr. Mutter’s Marvels about the development of anesthesia for surgeries. It was quite fascinating, partly because much of the medical community was dead set against it. I’m so glad that Dr. Mutter won the day. I lump the development and use of pain pills in with that as well. Many people told me before the surgery to stay ahead of the pain by taking the pills on schedule, rather than waiting for pain to get bad first. Good advice so far.

Here’s how it went last night:

Me: Let’s sequester Luna in the craft/laundry room area so she won’t be jumping all over my temporary bed on the main floor.

Luna: I know you’re out there and I will spend the whole night making you regret that decision with loud meowing and complaining.

Luna won that battle; she’ll be given free rein tonight. Other than that, I think I slept here and there. I tried out the borrowed ice machine and it was a thing of beauty. My excellent nurse came in at 3:00 a.m. to give me the next dose of pain pills and change out the thawed water bottles in the ice machine for frozen ones.

Today was all about staying the course with all the various meds and keeping my leg up and extended. They fill you with horror stories about what happens if you don’t extend your leg enough the first two weeks and it involves undergoing surgery again to fix your sorry mistakes.

Flowers from our church – very cheering!

How about a few commonplace quotes to round out the day?

Faith has cause to take courage from our very afflictions; the devil is but a whetstone to sharpen the faith and patience of the saints.
Samuel Rutherford

There is an affliction upon you and that is grievous,
but there is a murmuring heart within and that is more grievous. Oh, that we could but convince men and women that murmuring spirit is a greater evil than any affliction, whatever the affliction!
Jeremiah Burroughs

Love requires sacrifice.
If we never sacrifice,
we never learn to love deeply.
Elisabeth Elliot

We often treat Jesus the way Saul treated David.
We want him to slay giants and sing evil spirits away,
but we don’t want him to be King.
A.W. Tozer

God says “no” to make room for a better “yes.”
Douglas Wilson

Let’s sequester this post in the morning.

Wednesday, January 21, 2026 Commonplace Tiny Art

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One minute I was thinking, “I’ll put some commonplace book quotes on my blog” and the next minute it was the next day. So today will be a combo Tuesday/Wednesday blog post in which you will read interesting things and look at my usual display of mediocre art.

However much you deny the truth,
the truth goes on existing.
George Orwell

That’ll preach.

Age appears to be best in four things:
old wood is best to burn
old wine to drink
old friends to trust, and
old authors to read.
Francis Bacon

I can’t believe that FB forgot to mention cheese in that list.

Earth’s crammed with heaven,
and every common bush afire with God,
but only he who sees takes off his shoes;
the rest sit round and pluck blackberries.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Earth’s crammed with heaven…I’m savoring that one.

The more I study science,
the more I believe in God.
Albert Einstein

That’ll preach, too.

The ultimate aim is not to escape anxiety,
but to allow it to usher us into
the healing presence of Jesus Christ.
CH Spurgeon

That’s a good one to think of in the night seasons when anxieties do their best haunting.

And now, the Return of Tiny Art!

Ha ha – I just realized it looks like I wrote “The LADYBUG fakes a NAP…” which is quite droll. Let’s pretend that I meant to write it that way.

What does your cup runneth over with?

I’ll probably runneth this post over in the morning.

Tuesday, January 13, 2026 The Commonplace Book: Sourdough Edition

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It’s a windy, gray day today. My tea has cooled and I’m trying to decide whether or not I want to get up and put it in the microwave. There’s a loaf of sourdough bread baking in the oven. I have high hopes it will turn out better than the last one. The clock that my mother embroidered says that it’s 4:00. I grew up looking at that clock and probably never really appreciated the artistry of it.

That’s all for the musings o’ day. It’s time to share some thoughts and quotes from my commonplace book.

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few,
and let those few be well tried before
you give them your confidence.
George Washington

Good advice from George. Perhaps he got burned once giving someone his confidence and was betrayed. Oh wait…

Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell
in such a way that they look forward to the trip.
Winston Churchill

Ha ha! I suppose a statesman needs to have that kind of tact at the ready. I’m not sure that WC was known for his tact, though, as much as for his razor sharp wit. I would not have wanted to be on the receiving end of it.

Don’t ever take a fence down
until you know why it was put up.
Robert Frost

There’s a lot more to that saying than meets the eye. Think about it the next time you find yourself thinking about removing a boundary that is inconveniencing you. Perhaps the removal of it will bring consequences that are worse than inconvenience.

Live slowly enough
to be able to think deeply
about God.
J.I. Packer

Live s-l-o-w-l-y and think DEEPLY about God. You’re going to need to be reading your Bible to get on with that.

And now you can also think deeply about this beautifully embroidered clock.

When the sourdough bread gets crusty, this post will get dusty. And deleted.

Tuesday, January 6, 2026 Commonplace Book: Don’t Be Boring

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Today is Epiphany, the official end to the Christmas season. Have you taken your Christmas decorations down? Ours are scheduled to go back into hiding today. When I was a child, I was so sad about Christmas being over that I made a chain of 365 paper rings to count down until the next Christmas. What an astonishing display of industry! By mid-summer I was sick of it and threw it away.

Here are a few words from my Commonplace book to enrich your day. You’re welcome.

Every day, we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and if possible, speak a few sensible words.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

If you haven’t gotten started on that today yet, get going!

We are masters of the unsaid words,
but slaves of those we let slip out.
Winston Churchill

I go into “babble mode” sometimes when there’s too much silence in a conversation. Words slip out and there are regrets.

Discipline is choosing between what you want now,
and what you want most.
Abraham Lincoln

Words to encourage you when it’s 20 degrees out and you’d rather stay home than go swim laps. Oh, I guess that’s just me.

It’s a sin to be boring.
Elisabeth Elliot

The trouble is, when we’re being boring, we don’t always KNOW we’re being boring. See above about “babble mode.” But point taken, Elisabeth. I suspect that if you do what Wolfgang said above, you will never be boring.

Let’s pretend that’s an exquisite picture and you can cross that off Wolfgang’s list. And just to show you how much I care about you, I’ll end this with a “good” poem. Now all you have to do is hear a little song and say a few sensible words. You’re on your own for that.

I’ve often repeated
This might be deleted.
You should believe me
I wouldn’t deceive thee.

Tuesday, December 16, 2025 Commonplace Book: The Eyes of Your Heart

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Christmas music plays quietly in the background as I write this. The day is still dark, the room lit up by the Christmas tree. I just read the entire book of Ephesians in one sitting and am filled with wonder at the kindness of God in making me one of His own, one of His beloved. So let’s start off with something from that book, a prayer that I would pray for you if I knew you, especially if I knew that you were still wandering in darkness.

I pray also that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened, that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power toward us who believe.
Ephesians 1:18-19

I remember reading through Ephesians as a new Christian and being absolutely transported by the beauty, eloquence and poetry of Paul’s prose. And the Holy Spirit gave them wings in my heart.

I promise you that joy
runs deeper than despair.
Corrie Ten Boom

Repeat those words often when you need them.

If you want to know where your heart is,
look to where your mind goes when it wanders.
Walt Whitman

Very revealing!

The best way to shorten winter is to prolong Christmas.
GK Chesterton

And now, a quote from the poet Luci Shaw, who died on December 1 of this year.

Planting seeds
inevitably
changes my feelings
about rain.
Luci Shaw

So much packed into so few words – that’s fine wordsmithy right there.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning…or will I?

Tuesday, December 9, 2025 Commonplace Book: A Lovely Light

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Unwrapped gifts are stacked in a corner, while unkempt rolls of wrapping paper lounge carelessly on the couch. The two groups are destined to meet. And soon.

But you didn’t come here for my pithy observations. Let’s attend to the business of reading this week’s quotes in my book.

Christians have nothing to be smug about;
we are not righteous people trying to correct the unrighteous.
Just one beggar telling another beggar
where to find bread.
R.C. Sproul

And if you don’t know where to find the bread of life, crack open that dusty old Bible that lies forgotten on your shelf, turn to the Gospel of John chapter 6, and commence eating.

It was only a sunny smile
and little it cost in giving,
but like morning light
it scattered the night
and made the day worth living.
F. Scott Fitzgerald

The power of a sunny smile to vanquish the darkness in somebody else’s day.

We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.
Madeleine L’Engle

Ponder that one for a minute or so with me.

Cultivate the holy habit
of seeing the hand of God
in everything that happens to you.
Arthur W. Pink

Cultivating is a work of hoes, dirt, sweat and calluses. But in the end, ah, what a garden you have.

Be thankful for the thorns and thistles
which keep you from being in love with this world.
Charles Spurgeon

I’ll probably loudly discredit this post in the morning.

Tuesday, December 2, 2025 Commonplace Quotes: Advent(ish)

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Advent season has just begun…
Leaning into the breathlessness of waiting,
Embracing silence in order to hear,
Letting the darkness look like hope instead of despair,
And resting in the promises of light to come.

That’s just me talking, though. There’s better places to go to hear about waiting, silence, darkness, hope and light.

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
Those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them a light has shined.
Isaiah 9:2

Quietude, which some men cannot abide
because it reveals their inward poverty,
is as a palace of cedar to the wise,
for along its hallowed courts
the King in his beauty
deigns to walk.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The devil has made it his business
to monopolize on three elements:
noise,
hurry,
crowds.
He will not allow quietness.
Elisabeth Elliot

Comfort, comfort ye my people
Speak ye peace, thus saith our God;
Comfort those who sit in darkness,
Bowed beneath their sorrow’s load.
Speak ye to Jerusalem
Of the peace that waits for them;
Tell her that her sins I cover,
And her warfare now is over.
Johannes Olearius

There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tower high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.
JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings

Unto him who is able to keep us from falling,
and lift us from the dark to the bright mountain of hope,
from the midnight of desperation to the daybreak of joy,
to him be the power and authority forever and ever.
Martin Luther

My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him.
Psalm 62:5

Blessings on your collective heads.

I’ll probably delete this in the quiet of the morning.

Tuesday, November 18, 2025 Commonplace Book: Important Nothings

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Which of all my important nothings
shall I tell you first?
Jane Austen (in correspondence)

I believe I should adopt this as my correspondence motto, for this phrase accurately describes most of my letter writing.

The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.
Robert Frost

I love that so much.

Believe in the darkness
what you have seen in the light.
Lilias Trotter

Yes and amen!

The truth shall make you odd.
Flannery O’Connor

Flannery, that made me chuckle. It certainly made you odd, and although I hesitate to say it, the truth has made me odd as well. Sometimes knowing and speaking the truth makes us uncomfortable people to be around.

Wild is the music of the autumnal winds
amongst the faded woods.
William Wordsworth

I just want to read that one over and over.

One of my recent favorite photos
(I desperately want to say something Wordsworthian about it!)

This post of important nothings will never suspect what might happen to it in the morning.

Tuesday, November 11, 2025 Quote Round-up: Drink It Up

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Here we are again, meeting over some thought-provoking quotes that I’ve been copying in my Commonplace Book. May you find encouragement along the way.

If God has made your cup sweet,
Drink it with grace;
If He has made it bitter,
Drink it in communion with Him.
Oswald Chambers

(Stock photo, not one of mine)

God is good all the time. All the time, God is good. Drink it up.

If anything crosses your will,
see in it a chance to die.
Amy Carmichael

You can tell that these saints of old knew what it was to face affliction. May we follow in their train.

I walked a mile with Pleasure;
She chatted all the way;
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow,
And ne’er a word said she;
But oh! The things I learned from her,
When Sorrow walked with me.
Robert Browning Hamilton

The book Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard is an old favorite of mine. The main character, Much-Afraid, is given two companions on her journey to the High Places, Sorrow and Suffering. She recoils from them and dreads taking their hands at first, but soon comes to appreciate their companionship. This little poem recalled that to my mind.

And to end on a lighter note, here’s a quote from John Adams that is all too apropos even all these years later:

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that
one useless man is a shame,
two is a law firm,
and three or more is a congress.
John Adams

Ha ha! That’s what you call a trenchant observation!

Driving across Wyoming at sunset

One useless post is a shame that should be deleted in the morning.

Tuesday, October 21, 2025 You Cannot Make a Worm…

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Well, can you?

Some words for you this week:

Man is certainly stark mad.
He cannot make a worm
and yet he will be making gods
by the dozens.
Montaigne

It’s a funny thought, isn’t it? We who cannot make a low creature like a worm persist in thinking we can make gods.

The lowest ebb
is the turn of the tide.
Longfellow

Good old Henry Wadsworth. Tuck that one away for when you are at the lowest ebb. The tide is about to turn!

Courage is what it takes
to stand up and speak;
courage is also what it takes
to sit down and listen.
Churchill

Courage to speak; courage to listen. Never thought about courage perhaps being needed to “sit down and listen.” Thoughts?

The difference between
the right word
and the almost right word
is like the difference
between lightning
and the lightning bug.
Mark Twain

When the kids were in high school, they used a literature course called “Lightning Lit,” the name of which was based on that quote.

For God has not given us
a spirit of fear,
but of power
and of love
and of a sound mind.
St. Paul, 2 Timothy 1:7

Remember this! (I’m telling myself)

This worm of a post will be deleted in the morning.

Tuesday, October 14, 2025 Light My Lamp

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‘Twas a dark and rainy day today. Time to let some sunshine in…

For You will light my lamp;
The LORD will enlighten my darkness.
Psalm 18:28

I long to accomplish a great and noble task,
but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks
as if they were great and noble.
Helen Keller

Deep in their roots,
all flowers keep the light.
Theodore Roethke

A complaining spirit can make unhappiness out of anything,
and a long-suffering patience can find joy anywhere.
Douglas Wilson

But the secret to joy
is to keep seeking God
where we doubt He is.
Ann Voskamp

The morns are meeker than they were –
The nuts are getting brown –
The berry’s cheek is plumper –
The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf –
The field a scarlet gown –
Lest I sh’d be old-fashioned
I’ll put a trinket on.
Emily Dickinson

The blog is meeker than it was…time to put a trinket on or delete this in the morning.