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Alphonse Karr Quotes

by Steve M Nash
(Milnsbrige, W Yorkshire, England)


Weekly Wonder Online: 18


Alphonse Karr wonders...

"Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns. I am thankful that thorns have roses."

Listen to my thoughts about Alphonse Karr's inspirational quote in the video below. You'll also discover a bit more about a favourite part of West Yorkshire, this time Milnsbridge, in West Yorkshire.

NOTE: Looking for 2015/16 version - click here!

What I Wonder...




(NOTE: Yes, I wrote any captions you see in this video. It's called self-deprecation, and it's mostly a healthy thing (I think!).)


So, as I say in the video, I really like Alphonse Karr's inspirational quote (and I also like the rest of Alphonse Karr's quotes below too) as it is a beautiful way of looking at topics like appreciation, gratitude, positivity and its opposite negativity.

The thing is these 'some people' who complain about thorns, probably don't consider themselves ungrateful - they probably just don't like the thorns.

They probably don't see themselves as being negative or 'glass half empty' types, either.

But just because we don't see ourselves as lacking in gratitude for what we have in our lives, doesn't mean to say that we don't lack gratitude.

Just because we don't think of ourselves as negative, doesn't mean we're not negative.

And just because we can appreciate 'obvious' things like beautiful sunny days doesn't mean that we are appreciative.

So Alphonse Karr's inspirational quote, to me anyway, is a great way of measuring our level of gratitude and appreciation.


So if you check out my Weekly Wonder video, I give you a personal example of how *I* look at the landscape that surrounds me. I treat the West Yorkshire landscape, I guess, as 'thorns with roses' rather than how many others do - many who live in Yorkshire, by the way - as 'roses with thorns'.

That's not to say that if you don't love the landscape as I do, that you're negative or ungrateful. This is just my example of *my* gratitude and appreciation in action.

Alfonse Karr's quote simply makes us think about roses and thorns in a more metaphorical way. His words urge us to look for the gratitude, maybe, in a situation that we're not grateful for.

And, really, how many lives would not be brightened by being able to do this each and every day.

So thank you very much, Alphonse, for being able to come up with such a simple, direct, way to encourage gratitude and appreciation.

That's what I say, anyway. And, as I hope you now know, I'm always eager to hear what you say, too.

Yes, that's right, I'd love to hear your wisdom, your thoughts, regarding this Alphonse Karr quote! :-)

Thanks for reading,
Steve

PS And here are three more free inspirational quotes from Alphonse Karr

"Every man has three characters - that which he exhibits, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has."

"If men knew all that women think, they would be twenty times more audacious."

"The more things change, the more they are the same."


PPS Now please comment, please have your say - thanks.

Comments for Alphonse Karr Quotes

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Nov 26, 2010
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Bloomin' Grumblers
by: Steve

I don't know, what's wrong with a bit of, um, lip-smacking now and then, eh. Er, and what's wrong if I don't always know what I'm, erm, talking about...

Tch!

I ask ya...

;-)

Steve
Nov 30, 2010
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Oh your thorns...you missed it
by: sandra

I had to laugh inside because the thorns may have been, in this video, that which you called "noise". In between the calcophony of sounds, your message out in the fore front of the "noise" was even more powerful as I tuned my ear to listen and listen once more.

Isn't that life?

Back to Karr and my comments in parenthesis:

"Every man has three characters - that which he exhibits, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has."

(ooh this touched a nerve, especially since this journey to the abundance of now goes through many states of mind)

About the rose and thorn:

Each day I awake, meditate and become conscious of the day and moments to come where, mistakingly, I think thorns will not be noticed...and I find: thorns still are prickly at the touch, yet I try and convince myself otherwise.

However, when I zoom into the garden(who said it's a rose garden??, anyway: when I zoom into the roses I wonder if the thorns are there to protect the roses or protect us from ourselves. I zoom in a little closer: there are no thorns, no roses there is "that". I zoom out farther and wonder if I am a rose or thorn and if it matters against the landscape. Adjusting the focus once again I see that it is all one and not just thorns and roses.

And we are all of that.

"If men knew all that women think, they would be twenty times more audacious."(This one I'm not sure about...)

"The more things change, the more they are the same." (Karr, I hear ya)

Thank you for this video.


Dec 01, 2010
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Thanks again, Sandra
by: Steve

Sandra

I had no idea that the 'noise' around me could have been thought of as 'thorns' - that's just great, thanks. Wow!

As for the other Alphonse Karr quotes, I must admit to adding a few quotations that seem 'stimulating' to me.

The one quote you had no comment on - about men's thoughts of women - kind of resonated with me (or a more mundane boy-girl level): I guess it reveals our complete lack of insight into the mind (and motivations) of another. (Great stuff on characters desperately 'animating' themselves because they think everyone else is real in Jed McKenna's Spiritual Enlightenment book)

I am actually - at last! - starting to see how 'real' other people are (both women and men)...

Anyway, Sandra - thanks, as ever! :-)

Have you subscribed to my Weekly Wonder video, yet? ;-)

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