Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Profound Wisdom

In a children's book first published 51 years ago, no less.

Anyone over a certain age probably remembers those paperback books we used to order from school for about 35 cents each. Between us my sister and I had quite a collection. (Click here for a trip down memory lane, if you're one of those long-ago readers.)

Something said by a character in "Follow My Leader" has stayed with me ever since I read the book long, long ago, and I have found myself quoting it more and more often these days.

The protagonist is an 11 year old boy who is blinded in a freak accident, and while at guide dog training school, he asks one of the instructors why a protruding sharp corner has not been padded, considering there are a lot of blind people around who could bump into it and get hurt.

The instructor's answer? (I may be paraphrasing; I don't have the book on hand to check the quote for accuracy.)

"You cannot expect the world to pad its corners for you."

Doesn't that just say it all?




6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome quotation and OH so true!

Anonymous said...

What an excellent quote... it wraps up so much in so few words!
I checked out the book site, and took a major trip down memory lane!! I think I must have read 80% of the books listed.

Anonymous said...

I had to take my helmet off and wipe my eyes to make sure I read this right.
Actually, I heard a comedian on XM go on a rant about this yesterday. I was howling with laughter. We had jungle gyms of steel on playgrounds of asphalt and we came out fine.
We are a country of PC idiots who must have a label on a cup of hot coffee to tell us it is HOT! Plastic bags: Not a toy. On 'sticky finger' for counting money in banks and stores: "Do not eat, not a food product."
Keep quoting the quote, Beach!

Anonymous said...

I LOVED that book - I still have it in my bookshelf, in fact, and that's going on almost 40 years now.
LOTS of good quotes there - but logic will NOT sway the liberal goons who want to run every last moment of your lives.
Orion

Anonymous said...

Hey, Orion... my copy of the book is long gone (garage sale) but since you have it... can you check and see if I got the quote right? Thanks. :)

Anonymous said...

Sure, I'll check!
I'll try to get to that tomorrow...
Orion

 
Template by simplebits.com
Major modifications by CrankyBeach
All original content copyright 2004-2019 CrankyBeach. All other content is given proper credit where known.