Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week ("Attitude")

June 23—29, 2024 | THIS WEEK'S THEME: “Attitude"

Opening Line of the Week

These are the words that introduced criminal defense attorney Perry Mason to the literary world. Over the next several decades, Mason went on to become one of the mystery genre’s most popular characters, featured in 82 novels and 4 short stories.

The opening to the Velvet Claws novel is so well crafted that, after only a few words, readers are already beginning to grasp the essential nature of the man. The narrator helps to fill out the picture by continuing in a simple, but elegant way:

“That face seldom changed expression. Only the eyes changed expression. He gave the impression of being a thinker and a fighter, a man who could work with infinite patience to jockey an adversary into just the right position, and then finish him with one terrific punch.”

For modern readers, the word attitude denotes a set of thoughts and beliefs that suggest an underlying disposition, but in the 1930s, the word was commonly used to refer to the way people carried themselves physically—and the subsequent “vibe” they gave off to others. More on the etymology of the word below.

For nearly 2,000 memorable opening lines from every genre of world literature, go to www.GreatOpeningLines.com.

This Week’s Puzzler

On June 29, 1900, this man was born in Lyon, France. He was a mediocre student as a child and adolescent, in large part because he was constantly daydreaming about the exciting new “aeroplanes” that were showing up in Europe and America.  He finally became a pilot in 1922, helping establish airmail routes from France to Northern Africa and South America. As a test pilot for Air France in the 1930s, he won a reputation for courage and fearlessness. In 1939, he put a successful writing career on hold to become a French military pilot. 

After the fall of France in 1940, he escaped to the United States, settling in New York City. In 1943, he came out with two famous books, Letter to a Hostage, a call to resistance among French citizens under Nazi rule, and the wildly successful The Little Prince, a child’s fable for adults. In 1943, he joined the Allied air forces in North Africa and was shot down and killed in 1944 while on a reconnaissance mission. 

In his fiction and his non-fiction, this week’s Mystery Man offered memorable observations on countless topics, including this thought from Wisdom of the Sands, published posthumously in 1948: 

Who is this person? (Answer below)

What Do Your Attitudes Reveal About the Real You?

The three quotations above, along with the observation in this week’s Puzzler, illustrate one of history’s grand intellectual themes: the critical factor in human life is not what happens to us, but how we choose to view—or think about—what has happened.

Observations on the importance of how we think have been around since antiquity, and in the 20th century they became a central component of the emerging “self help” and “positive thinking” movements. A core idea in both was the phrase you are what you think, and one of the most influential early books conveying this idea was James Allen’s As a Man Thinketh (1903). The opening paragraph memorably expressed his thesis:

When a person’s thinking about something—or someone—begins to show a consistent and enduring pattern, the constellation of ideas, beliefs, and feelings are referred to as an attitude, formally defined this way:

“ATTITUDE, n.  A manner of thinking, feeling, or behaving that reflects a state of mind or disposition: has a positive attitude about work; kept a dignified attitude throughout the crisis. —  The American Heritage Dictionary (AHD)

In the AHD entry, the editors also provided a secondary definition that captured what people generally mean when they describe people who “have an attitude” or who “cop an attitude”:

“Arrogant or aggressive disposition or behavior: One customer with a lot of attitude really tried my patience.”

Attitude is not only a psychological construct, it is an English word—and one with a most interesting history. Originally, attitude was a gift from the French, where it was primarily used to mean “The posture or position of a figure,” as we might see in a statue, painting, ballet performance, shooting duel, fencing match, and so forth. The French borrowed the term from the Italian attitudine meaning “posture” or “a disposition of the body.”

In the original Italian, attitude didn’t mean posture in the way we currently view the term, but more as an orientation of the body to the surrounding world. That original sense lives on today in the world of ballet, where it is used to describe a variety of related positions in which dancers stand on one leg while the other is raised and turned out gracefully from the body.

Three ballet positions: attitude à la seconde, attitude devant, and attitude derrière.

Over time, the word attitude evolved to mean “a posture of the body supposed to imply some mental state” (this observation dates to 1725), and in the 1800s it continued to reflect the underlying postural sense when it took on the meaning of “a manner of carrying oneself.” Later in the 19th century, it took on something close to the modern idea of a positive mental attitude when Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in an essay in Letters and Spiritual Aims (1876):

“A determined man, by his very attitude and the tone of his voice, puts a stop to defeat, and begins to conquer.”

In discussing this week’s subject, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention one major non-human use of the word (but one with significant human implications). In the early 20th century, pioneers of the new science of flight picked up on the notion of a human body’s orientation to the world by using attitude to describe the orientation of an airplane’s axis relative to a reference line or plane, such as the horizon.

Illustration of an airplane’s faulty attitude leading to potentially dangerous flight conditions.

In flying, a knowledge of the plane’s precise attitude is crucial for maintaining control of the aircraft and ensuring safe flight operations, and it is imperative that pilots do everything in their power to avoid a “bad” attitude. The implication for human beings is so obvious that, I believe, nothing more needs to be said about it.

To pursue the bodily orientation analogy a bit further, though, it is clear to most people that, just as our postural alignment can be “off,” so can our predominant attitudes about the world in which we live. It happens all the time with people whose emotional states are not in synch with the reality of their lives—and it might even be showing up in your own life right now.

Perhaps you worry, feel anxious, or are quick to anger when there’s no rational basis for these emotions. Perhaps you’re tight-fisted and stingy, even when you’re financially well off, or even bordering on wealthy. Perhaps you feel undeserving of the success you’ve achieved—and maybe even feel a bit like an imposter—despite a lifetime of dedication and hard work to achieve your goals. Or maybe you’ve recently found yourself falling for conspiracy theories, despite a previous evidence-based approach to life. 

If any of this resonates with you, it’s quite likely that you would benefit from an “attitude adjustment.” It’s actually easier than you think, and doesn’t involve the help of a paid professional. Simply elect a trusted friend or two and ask them to read this post (including the compilation of “attitude” quotations below).  When they finish, ask them:

“Now that you’ve read this piece on the nature and importance of attitudes, I’d like your feedback on how well—or not—mine are working for me. In what ways are my attitudes serving me well, and where do you think I need to make some attitudinal changes in order to function more effectively in the future?” 

Once you ask the question, just listen attentively. Don’t interrupt. Don’t counter if you disagree. And don’t get defensive in any way. When your friend stops talking, don’t offer any immediate reactions. Simply ask, “What else?” And then listen some more.  In my experience, people often save the most important thoughts for last, and they will frequently offer them up when urged to go a little deeper.

Before you embark on the assignment, though, make sure you peruse the quotations on your own. And, as usual, let your thinking be stimulated by what some very wise people have had to say on the subject: 

• If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. — Maya Angelou

• The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. Author Unknown

ERROR ALERT: All over the internet, and in numerous printed quotation anthologies, this observation is attributed to William James, but it has never been found in his speeches and writings. The error originated in 1952, when Norman Vincent Peale wrote in The Power of Positive Thinking:

“William James said, ‘The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.’ As you think, so shall you be. So flush out all old, tired, worn-out thoughts. Fill your mind with fresh, new creative thoughts of faith, love, and goodness.”

• Attitude is the mind’s paintbrush. It can color a situation gloomy or gray, or cheerful and gay. In fact, attitudes are more important than facts. — Mary C. Crowley

• The essence of spiritual practice is your attitude toward others. — Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

• Anyone who desires to change his environment and outer conditions may do so by changing his inner attitude. — Harry Grandson Hill

• You can do everything wrong with the right attitude and succeed, and do everything right with the wrong attitude and fail! — Shirley Hutton

• Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different. Life would undergo a change of appearance because we ourselves had undergone a change of attitude. — Katherine Mansfield

• No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude. — Karl Popper

• I believe the single most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of attitude. It is more important than my past, my education, my bankroll, my successes or failures, fame or pain, what other people think of me or say about me, my circumstances, or my position. Attitude keeps me going or cripples my progress. — Charles R. Swindoll

• It’s your attitude and not your aptitude that determines your altitude. — Zig Ziglar

For source information on these quotations, and many others on the topic of ATTITUDE, go here.

Cartoon of the Week:

Answer to This Week’s Puzzler:

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944). For the correct pronunciation of his name, go here.

Dr. Mardy’s Observation of the Week:

Thanks for joining me again this week. See you next Sunday morning, when the theme will be “Independence.”

Mardy Grothe

Websites: www.drmardy.com and www.GreatOpeningLines.com

Regarding My Lifelong Love of Quotations: A Personal Note