Quotations

"If you could have that one day back, the one that you have kept a secret in your soul, what day would it be? What? One among the many? Well, let me make you this offering: It would be the day on which I stood on the rim of Monument Valley and beheld those ineffable monoliths for the first time. I was young, you see, like a fledgling who leaves the nest and flies out over the earth. I saw beyond time, into timelessness. It was the first and holiest of all days. On such a day— on that original day—did the First Man behold the First World. It filled him with wonder and humility. Then and there, looking for one enchanted moment into eternity, I was the First Man. I was present at Creation."

— Navarre Scott Momaday, Kiowa poet, born 1934

"We perceive existence by means of words and names. To this or that vague, potential thing I will give a name, and it will exist thereafter, and its existence will be clearly perceived. The name enables me to see it. I can call it by its name, and I can see it for what it is."

— Navarre Scott Momaday, Kiowa novelist and poet, born 1934

"Some years ago the prayer tree at Rainy Mountain was struck by lightning. It burned and turned black, but it did not fall. There had not been time to speak of the tree to Man-ka-ih, the storm spirit. The tree seemed to be dead. But a long time afterward there appeared a tiny sprig of green on a charred limb, and then the hidden life of the tree burst out in a hundred leaves. It was a wondrous sight, and I wept to see it. I believe that the earth gave of its irresistible life to the tree. How can we not give thanks in return?"

— Navarre Scott Momaday, Kiowa poet, born 1934

"There are a lot of people with a lot of money, and I'm amazed they don't understand what a great pleasure it can be to give."

— Robert Mondavi, American winemaker, born 1913

"The artist sees the tragic to such a degree that he is compelled to express the non-tragic."

— Piet Mondrian, Dutch painter, born 1872

"Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love."

— Claude Monet, French painter, born 1840

"I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers."

— Claude Monet, French painter, born 1840

"To see we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at."

— Claude Monet, French painter, born 1840

"The piano ain't got no wrong notes."

— Thelonious Monk, American jazz pianist, born 1917

"Its always night, or we wouldn't need light."

— Thelonious Monk, American jazz pianist, born 1917

"The ancient covenant is in pieces; man knows at last that he is alone in the universe's unfeeling immensity, out of which he emerged only by chance. His destiny is nowhere spelled out, nor is his duty. The kingdom above or the darkness below: it is for him to choose."

— Theodore Monod, French explorer, born 1902

"A totally blind process can by definition lead to anything; it can even lead to vision itself."

— Theodore Monod, French explorer, born 1902

"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring."

— Marilyn Monroe, American actress, born 1926

"We should all start to live before we get too old."

— Marilyn Monroe, American actress, born 1926