From Beginning to End Quotes

“to understand our love they'd have to turn the world upside down”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End

“The propositions: To be human is to be religious. To be religious is to be mindful. To be mindful is to pay attention. To pay attention is to sanctify existence.
Rituals are one way in which attention is paid. Rituals arise from the stages and ages of life. Rituals transform the ordinary into the holy.
Rituals may be public, private, or secret. Rituals may be spontaneous or arranged. Rituals are in constant evolution and reformation.
Rituals create sacred time. Sacred time is the dwelling place of the Eternal. Haste and ambition are the adversaries of sacred time.
Is this so?”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives

“The seeds of the day are best planted in the first hour. DUTCH PROVERB”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives

“Circumstances, luck, mutual need, affection and time played a part. No relationships were made in heaven. They were made because living things were looking for good company. And when you found good company, you valued it deeply and were responsible for its up-keep and well-being.”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End

“For forty years I combed my hair that way, and every time I did, I pushed my mother away from me. There was much she didn’t like about my life—and the parting of my hair became a ritual parting of the ways with her.”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives

“The most difficult mountain to cross is the threshold. DANISH PROVERB”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives

“Even now I carry my voter-registration card in my wallet—reminding me of both my privileges and my obligations as an adult citizen in a free country. The card tells me much more than just the location of my voting booth. It’s one of the most powerful talismans of my identity—even more important than a driver’s license. Anybody can drive a car.”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives

“For everything there is a season, And a time and purpose for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal, a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace. For everything there is a season, And a time and purpose for every matter under heaven.”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives

“People requested help with the rituals of solitude, such as meditation, prayer, and contemplation.”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives

“I have never liked the phrase that says we’re just made of dust and return to dust. We are energy, which is interchangeable with light. We are fire and water and earth. We are air and atoms and quarks. Moreover, we are dreams, hopes, and fears held together by wisdom and driven apart by folly. So much more than dust. The biblical verse should say, “Miracle thou art and to Mystery returneth.”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives

“The art of living well and dying well are one. EPICURUS”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives

“Revisiting the music of one’s youth is part of the reunion with self. Whatever your parents may have thought of the music, however the music may survive the test of time, if it was the music you listened to in high school or college days, then it plays forever in some ballroom of your mind. You can still mouth the words and do the dances.”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives

“Teachers want to know what difference they made in the lives of their pupils, and reunions are a great place to find out.”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives

“This is not just storytelling. It is the sharing of personal mythology. It’s how we all make sense out of our lives and give its events significance. It parallels the mythmaking of the human race. It is the ritual of remembrance.”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives

“Life is nothing but moments of crossing over.”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives

“All things which make noise at the side of the path do not come down the path. AFRICAN PROVERB”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives

“Rituals do not always involve words, occasions, officials, or an audience. Rituals are often silent, solitary, and self-contained. The”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives

“Only at some distance in time and place do you understand the significance of the crossing over—finding in the ritual retelling a way of sanctifying the memory.”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives

“As these anecdotes illustrate, ritual refers to two kinds of acts: those things we do for the first time that, in fact, have been done by the human race again and again forever—and those patterns that we ourselves repeat again and again because they bring structure and meaning to our individual and collective lives.”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives

“The shift of self-perception is the most powerful ingredient in the chain reaction of becoming the person you are always becoming.”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives

“No relationships were made in heaven. They were made because living things were looking for good company. And when you found good company, you valued it deeply and were responsible for its upkeep and well-being.”
― Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives