Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week ("Stumbles & Stumbling")
May 26—June 1, 2024 | THIS WEEK: “Stumbles & Stumbling”
Opening Line of the Week
About this opener, Jackson Dean Chase wrote in The Ultimate Author’s Guide to Writing Dynamite Story Hooks: “Opening [a novel] with someone hurt, sick, or dying creates sympathy and excitement. Readers become invested in the outcome and want to find out what happened.”
For nearly 2,000 memorable opening lines from every genre of world literature, go to www.GreatOpeningLines.com.
This Week’s Puzzler
On May 30, 1960, this famous Russian poet and writer died at age 70 (of lung cancer) while living in an artist’s community just outside of Moscow.
Born in Moscow in 1890, he was raised in comfortable circumstances (his mother was a concert pianist, his father a successful painter). In 1917, he was on his way to becoming one of his country’s great young poets when the Russian Revolution began. Originally supportive of Lenin and the Bolsheviks, he paid a huge professional price when he later refused to support Stalin’s cruel and repressive regime (he was allowed to continue writing, but none of his work was allowed to be published after 1931). For many decades, he worked on a major historical novel about the Revolution and its impact on Russian citizens. But when he finally finished it in 1955, Soviet authorities refused to let it be published.
Over the years, he had shared early drafts of his novel with writers in the West, and after some secret and delicate negotiations, it was first published in Italy—and in Italian—in 1957. The following year, an English language translation shot to the top of The New York Times bestseller list, and few were surprised when the author was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958. When he was originally informed of the award, he graciously accepted it, but several days later he officially declined it as a result of pressure from Soviet authorities.
The back and forth regarding the Nobel Prize was Very Big News at the time (for more on the entire saga, go here). When the legendary political cartoonist Bill Mauldin decided to weigh in on the matter, his inspired depiction went on to win the 1959 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning:
In 1965, David Lean’s lush film adaptation of the novel became one of the year’s most successful films, with Omar Sharif and Julie Christie in the starring roles (nominated for ten Academy Awards, it won five).
The novel contains many quotable lines, including this one:
Who is this person? What was the title of the novel? (Answers below)
What Have You Learned from Your Stumbles in Life?
The quotation in this week’s Puzzler comes from the character Victor Komarovsky, a manipulative Russian lawyer and businessman who had—to put it delicately—a complicated relationship with Lara Guichard, the novel’s beautiful and resourceful heroine. His observation came in a conversation with Lara, and he preceded it by saying:
“I don’t think I could love you so much if you had nothing to complain of and nothing to regret.”
In his observation, Victor makes the intriguing suggestion that stumbles are a good thing because they make people more interesting. A little over a quarter of a century later, in 1985, the great Polish writer Ryszard Kapuściński also celebrated the role of stumbling in human life.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines stumble as “To miss one’s step in walking or running; to trip and almost fall.” The word trip is an almost exact synonym, and both words have that critical almost fall ingredient. Some dictionary definitions have even described a stumble as “a partial fall.”
Etymologists believe the word is of Scandinavian origin and the word stomblen (“to trip or miss one’s footing”) was already in wide use in England in the year 1300. In the sixteenth century, the concept of stumbling was extended metaphorically to refer to human mistakes or blunders. And by the 1600s, the various things that cause people to lose their footing began to be referred to as stumbling-blocks.
With metaphorical stumbles, as well as with real ones, a loss of footing may greatly upset people’s equilibrium but it will not generally bring them completely down. For this reason, stumbles have been preferred to falls, as we see in this famous observation on the subject:
Experience has shown, however, that a stumble can be as bad as an outright fall. In the natural world, for example, we know that gazelles can easily outrun lions. But if, under attack from a pride of lions, a gazelle happens to stumble for only a split-second, the misstep will be fatal. Something similar can also happen in human life, as the English writer Roger L’Estrange reminded us in a 1692 book.
While nobody wants to stumble—or fall—the truth is that a major loss of footing in human life can have enormous educational and character-building value. In fact, I believe stumbles can be appropriately viewed as helpful warning shots fired by chance, fate, or even, if you’re so inclined, a higher power (in a discussion on this subject with a devout Christian friend a few years ago, he referred to his stumbles as “Thank-You-Jesus” moments). Throughout history, many thinkers have highlighted the potential learning value of stumbles, but no one better than Joseph Campbell, who wrote in Reflections on the Art of Living (1991):
In my view, Campbell’s observation is a nice reminder of the Buddhist notion that we should be thankful for everything that happens to us—good, bad, or a combination of the two—because everything we experience, viewed properly, is a valuable learning opportunity.
As it turns out, stumbling is a far more expansive topic than I originally thought when I first began thinking about doing this post. So, while there’s much more that could be said on the subject, let me bring my remarks to a close by offering two somewhat related thoughts—the first is on being too careful and the second on not being careful enough.
One of life’s great ironies is that the people who are most cautious in life often end up experiencing more than their fair share of calamities—and Stein captures the essence of that theme beautifully here. While it may seem natural to seek safety and desire security, overly cautious people take it to an extreme and, in doing so, greatly diminish the chances they will live a richly rewarding life.
The second quotation I’d like to share with you—in many ways the exact opposite of the Stein observation—comes from the legendary writer Edmund Spenser.
This is one of history’s most important observations, in my opinion, serving as an important reminder that, in our pursuit of lofty goals, we must never lose sight of the path directly in front of us—and especially of the many stumbling-blocks and trivial-looking obstacles that pose a substantial danger to a traveler whose head is in the clouds.
The Spenser observation also reminds me of something I recall Louisa May Alcott saying about her father, A. Bronson Alcott. I don’t recall her exact words—and, so far, I’ve been unable to retrieve them—but it was something along the lines of him being a “man of the air.” She often wrote about his idealistic nature, once describing him as “an impractical philosopher” who could get lost in his thoughts and disconnected from practical realities. In many ways, her description of him reminded me of the way people have described me, so this is a tendency I have to watch out for in my own life.
The next time you stumble—and, believe me, there will be a next time—remember that these predictable-but-unwelcome aspects of life’s journey may not be as bad as you think, and may even provide a learning opportunity you might otherwise have missed. This week, as you reflect on this important theme in human life, let your thinking be stimulated by this week's selection of quotations:
Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains. — Earl Derr Biggers
QUOTE NOTE: The words come from the legendary Chinese detective Charlie Chan, in the 1928 mystery novel Beyond That Curtain. In the novel, Chan was speaking about the importance of paying attention to what others might regard as small or trifling matters. According to The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs (2012), the saying went on to become proverbial.
The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude. — Julia Child
Keep on going, and chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down. — Charles F. Kettering
And remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That’s why it’s a comfort to go hand in hand. — Emily Kimbrough
We are ourselves the stumbling-blocks in the way of our happiness. — L. E. Landon
A live body is not one that never gets hurt, but one that can to some extent repair itself. In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble. — C. S. Lewis
Even now one rarely hears of people achieving great things unless they first stumble in some respect. — Meister Eckhart
We stumble and fall constantly even when we are most enlightened. But when we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not even know that we have fallen. — Thomas Merton
Tripping is embarrassing, but I have learned that where we stumble is the place we dig for gold—where we trip is where the treasure lies. — Calvin Miller
There are many who stumble in the noon-day, not for want of light, but for want of eyes. — John Newton
For source information on these quotations, and many others on the topic of STUMBLES & STUMBLING, go here.
Cartoon of the Week:
Answer to This Week’s Puzzler:
Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago
Dr. Mardy’s Observation of the Week:
Thanks for joining me again this week. See you next Sunday morning, when the theme will be “Complicity by Silence.”
Mardy Grothe
Websites: www.drmardy.com and www.GreatOpeningLines.com
Regarding My Lifelong Love of Quotations: A Personal Note
Worth waiting on, Mardy! Thanks from a stumbler.
early in your writing this week you posed the question, 'what have you learned', & I believe the theme continued, that we all stumble & grow because of those stumbles...
some of what I've learned is to trust my gut, & w/ loved ones, no secrets
& a haha, Victor described as a "manipulative Russian lawyer"... leave out "Russian" & is there any other kind?