"To stand on a precipice can be thrilling. To live there, less so."
I said that, but the person I said it to seemed both favorably impressed by the saying, and also familiar with it. Whereas I thought I made it up on the spot! She couldn't recall the source of the quote, though I suggested a few lofty possibilities. Later, I tried to Google various versions and permutations. No luck.
Anybody heard this one before? Who came up with that? ME??? Or did some otha sucka quipster beat me to the punch! If it's that damn Confucius again, I'm going to go all kung fu-cius on his ass I swear.
I was thinking also, that first off-the-head-top version might be fine-tuned a bit. Perhaps:
"To stand on a precipice can be thrilling. To live there, inconvenient."
I said that, but the person I said it to seemed both favorably impressed by the saying, and also familiar with it. Whereas I thought I made it up on the spot! She couldn't recall the source of the quote, though I suggested a few lofty possibilities. Later, I tried to Google various versions and permutations. No luck.
Anybody heard this one before? Who came up with that? ME??? Or did some otha sucka quipster beat me to the punch! If it's that damn Confucius again, I'm going to go all kung fu-cius on his ass I swear.
I was thinking also, that first off-the-head-top version might be fine-tuned a bit. Perhaps:
"To stand on a precipice can be thrilling. To live there, inconvenient."
Comments
"On the Verge or the Geography of Yearning."
When I first thought of the play I thought that the title was...
"On the Precipice or the Geography of Yearning."
I think this one is all you.
@Grant: that play sounds pretty deep and thinky!
Is it possible she was mistaken or heard you say it before? If it's someone to whom you've said a lot of pithy and punchy things, perhaps it was just very similar to something you'd said before. Especially if you'd discussed similar subjects in the past.
I tried to find something similar for you, but in a 15-minute search or so, haven't had much luck. I did, however, find a couple of nice other quotations.
"Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known."
Pooh's Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne
(Pooh is more daring than I'd thought! What a little risk taker he is! Sounds more like Piglet's actions with Pooh's contemplation, if you ask me.)
"If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business, because we'd be cynical. Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down."
Ray Bradbury
"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center."
Kurt Vonnegut
"The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over."
Hunter S Thompson
Interesting how those last two sort of pair off together, with Hunter S. of course going that bit further. But a little shocking and maybe disturbing that both Ray Bradbury and possibly Pooh sound more like all-in risk takers than Kurt Vonnegut!
That is a very zen Pooh quote I must say! Like it. In fact, something similar happened to Siddhartha, I believe. Pooh does seem to exhibit mildly Buddhianic aspects, does he not? Suggestive.
Shocking. Disturbing.
As to your first remarks, I think that might be it - but yet when I said it, I was so sure I'd only just come up with it then! Still. I do tend to churn out a shitload of pithiness, as I go. Perhaps I'd said something similar. As you suggest.
I often think , but try not to, of how impossible it would be to try to figure out where I heard or read something if I didn't note it down with a reference. And I don't often note things down with a reference anymore. There's just too little time. I'd rather just have the idea to consider, and not worry about where it came from. It's hard enough to make mind -room for all the ideas!
One way to tell: publish a book with this as a big statement in one part. If anyone comes at you with a lawsuit and original papers, there you go, you've found the similar statement!
Probably I DID. I just couldn't come up with a sweet one on pith-mode comeback style. Ah, me