In the description for this year’s Feldenkrais Summer Camp, The Power Within, I quoted: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
It’s been one of my favorite quotations for a long time. I have included it in every training program prospectus I created, starting with the first Strasbourg International Feldenkrais Training back in the early 1990s. Back then, I attributed it to Ralph Waldo Emerson.
I am not the only person who likes it. It pops up in books, pep talks, graduation speeches, eulogies, and memes.
Over the years, this quotation has also been attributed to others, including Henry David Thoreau and Oliver Wendell Holmes.
None of them ever said it.
Thankfully, I had the presence of mind to take a few moments to research the quote. My search revealed that the first known source was an anonymous book of aphorisms called Meditations in Wall Street, published in 1950. Thanks to research done by The New York Times, we know that the author was Henry S. Hawkins, a disgraced securities trader.
It is altogether too easy — and tempting — to pass along what you hear without checking it. That’s how rumors get started and conspiracy theories spread.
Just because someone else said something or many people repeat it doesn't mean it’s true.
I used a photo by Cup of Couple found on Pexels as the basis for the image in today’s blog.
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Responses:
Larry Goldfarb -June 23, 2022
Thanks, Lavinia!
Lavinia Plonka -June 24, 2022
I couldn't agree more!
Larry Goldfarb -June 27, 2022
Hell Göran - So good to hear from you! Yes, I do believe that this, indeed, is the book from which this quote comes. I've searched online for a digital version of the book and haven't been able to find out. The closest places that I could find a physical copy available (to my location) are the San Francisco Public Library and the library at the University of California at Berkeley. I also found a few copies for sale online, though I haven't purchased it. Onward. Together, Larry
Göran Mörkeberg -June 23, 2022
Is this the book? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24868754-meditations-in-wall-street
linda-rulli -June 27, 2022
Ha! I wonder if Mr. Hawkins considered that thought before, or after he was disgraced! At any rate, I love that quote and will always consider it in the most positive and affirmative light!
Larry Goldfarb -June 24, 2022
Hello Linda - Hmmm . . . From the information I found online, Mr. Hawkins was Governing Committee of the New York Stock Exchange voted to take disciplinary action against Mr. Hawkins in 1910 and the book was published in 1940. Of course, that doesn't tell us when (or why) he came up with this particular aphorism. I'm with you, though: best to think of this in the most positive and affirmative light. Thanks, Larry
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