Monday, March 21, 2011

Quote of the day

“The calla lilies are in bloom again. Such a strange flower, suitable to any occasion. I carried them on my wedding day, and now I place them here in memory of something that has died...Have you gathered here to mourn, or are you here to bring me comfort?...I’ve learned something about love that I never knew before. That I never knew before. You speak of love when it’s too late. Help should come to people when they need it. Why are we always so helpful to each other when it’s no longer any use?...This is my home. This is where I belong. Love was in this house once, and for me it will always be here, nowhere else...One should always listen closely when people say goodbye because sometimes they’re, they’re really saying farewell.”
..................-- Katherine Hepburn in Stage Door Canteen (1943)

(Click anywhere on the quotation for the full treatment.)

People around my age may spot Adolphe Menjou in the wings and Ginger Rogers in the audience.

Okay, so maybe it isn’t “Fourscore and seven years ago” or “Veni, vidi, vici” but it ranks right up there with “I am not a crook”....


It’s just my opinion, but that was one president who should have said farewell a little sooner.

A final thought: Katherine Hepburn’s emotion, though quite effective, was obviously artificial, but Mrs. Nixon’s was very real.

2 comments:

  1. But, I would like to know who wrote those beautiful words for her to say!

    A beautiful thought nonetheless.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mountain Thyme, you made me curious so I looked it up. The writer of Stage Door Canteen was one Delmer Daves, who also happened to be the writer of An Affair to Remember.

    As I said on another post, Sic transit gloria mundi.

    ReplyDelete

<b>Always true to you, darlin’, in my fashion</b>

We are bombarded daily by abbreviations in everyday life, abbreviations that are never explained, only assumed to be understood by everyone...