If dandelions were rare and fragile, people would knock themselves out to pay $14.95 a plant, raise them by hand in greenhouses, and form dandelion societies and all that. But, they are everywhere and don't need us and kind of do what they please. So we call them weeds and murder them at every opportunity
Robert FulghumIt is the chair in honor of all those who, however competently, embrace the impossible. Sit in that chair someday.
Robert FulghumWe even make ourselves up, fusing what we are with what we wish into what we must become. I'm not sure why it must be so, but it is.
Robert FulghumTo ponder is not to brood or grieve or even meditate. It is to wonder at a deep level.
Robert FulghumPublic lives are lived out on the job and in the marketplace, where certain rules, conventions, laws, and social customs keep most of us in line. Private lives are lived out in the presence of family, friends, and neighbors who must be considered and respected even though the rules and proscriptions are looser than what's allowed in public. But in our secret lives, inside our own heads, almost anything goes.
Robert FulghumOne of the very few reasons I had any respect for my mother when I was thirteen was because she would reach into the sink with her bare hands - bare hands - and pick up that lethal gunk and drop it into the garbage. To top that, I saw her reach into the wet garbage bag and fish around in there looking for a lost teaspoon. Bare hands - a kind of mad courage.
Robert Fulghum