Book Review
Words that Matter
A Little Book of Life Lessons
Everyday truths to guide and inspire
O, The Oprah Magazine
HarperCollinsPublishers © 2010
This book is exactly what it says that it is, a little book of quotes that readers can use to seek inspiration every day. The book is dazzlingly organized by inspirational need, such as “Aging Brilliantly”, “Reinventing yourself with Boldness”, and “Honoring Your Body, Trusting Your Gut”.
I must confess, I have been obsessed with quotes my whole life. In my first career as a paralegal, I decorated a wall in my office with my favorite quotes from a big case on which I was working. My favorite, “Were there not different interpretations on relatively the same set of facts and data, there would be no litigation.” – Jim Piel, Plaintiffs’ Counsel. How brilliantly did Jim tell opposing counsel how silly they were?
I am enamored of the power of words. Why simply say “difficult” when you can suggest something is “brutal”? How boring would life be if a lesson was simply “informative” vs. “brilliant” or “life-altering”? Words are powerful. The brief glimpses of words in this book the power to help us feel comfort, inspiration and love.
You can digest these inspirational quotes as you would pieces of chocolate to bring small bits of joy across the days.
“What I know for sure is that no matter where you stand right now – on a hilltop, in a gutter, at a crossroads, in a rut – you need to give yourself the best you have to offer in this moment. This is it. Rather than depleting yourself with judgments about what you haven’t done, who you could have become, why you haven’t moved faster, or what you should have changed, redirect that energy toward the next big push – the one that takes you from enough to better. The one that takes you from adequate to extraordinary. The one that helps you rise up from a low moment and reach for your personal best.” — Oprah
“One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats.” – Iris Murdoch, novelist
Use this book as one of them.