Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Peter Marshall

Here's a quote I like from Peter Marshall:

" It is a far, far better thing in the realms of morals to be old fashioned than to be ultramodern. The world has enough women who know how to be brilliant. It needs some who will be brave. The world has enough women who are popular. It needs more who are pure. We need women, and men too, who would rather be morally right than socially correct."

In the first line, he said " in the realms of morals," but I think you could substitute the word "standards" or "worldview" there as well. The world has enough people who are going with the flow. It needs some who are willing to stand out and be different. And I'm not necessarily talking about a "cool" kind of different - but perhaps a kind of "different" that people may not understand or appreciate at all. Not different for the sake of being different- there's quite enough of that and there is little or no virtue in arbitrary strangeness- but because it's what God has asked of you - it's what you were meant to be.

Anyway...

6 comments:

Amy said...

Hm. That's a good quote. It makes you (and by "you" I mean me) look at your life...moments when it would have been better to have gone with the less socially correct option in favor of the more difficult choice. Hm. Hopefully next time I'm faced with a similar situation I will choose more wisely. :)

Have you seen Indiana Jones & the...um...the one where he goes in and has to chose the Holy Grail. Whenever I use/hear the phrase "choose wisely," I think of the old knight he meets in there. When the bad guy drinks from the wrong cup and dies, the old knight says calmy, "He chose [pause] poorly." When Indiana Jones drinks from the right cup, he says that Indiana chose wisely. I don't quote movies often, but when I do, more often than not it's something along the lines of "He chose [pause] poorly." And you have to draw out the "oo" in pooooorly. :D

Claire said...

Oh my GOODNESS, Amy! We quote that too! And yes- doing the voice right is half the quotation.

redsoxwinthisyear said...

Thanks for the insight, it's encouraging to one in my position!

Booker said...

now that was a drink of cool water! thanks...

drewey fern said...

GREAT quote! And your last (full) sentence made me think of something one of my college professors wrote in an e-mail (I think he may have been quoting someone else, but I'm not sure who): "Let us act in God's eye what in God's eye we are." So good!

TripleNine said...

Thanks for the encouragement. Too often it is to easy to just bend to the circumstances around us. May we all stand strong wherever we are.

On a side note, when I first read it, I thought it said,'In the realm of mortals...' :)