For centuries, philosophers, scholars, lawyers, doctors, theologians, artists, and poets have gathered the memorable thoughts and words of others and organized them in commonplace books.   I'll be sharing some of mine with you.   I'm encouraging my 13 yo to begin a commonplace book of her own this year.  Not only are individual selections a reflection of one's desires, dreams and goals, but they are an excellent basis for developing conversation beyond everyday concerns.  We often become stuck in the daily grind of life.  Keeping a commonplace book keeps our "head above the trees", focusing more on our vision and less on our obstacles.

"The education of a man is never completed until he dies"

"You can have anything you want - if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, have anything you desire, accomplish anything you set out to accomplish - if you will hold to that desire with singleness of purpose. "

"Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, you should never wish to do less."

all are the words of General Robert E. Lee

Related Tags: commonplace book, vision, quotations

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Posted by shaunms

I wasn't doing comments on vacation, but this post was so exciting I had to respond. How great to start your DS with this. I started a commonplace book in grad school -- I was reading wonderful, cool stuff all the time and could not include *everything* in my papers or dissertation. I started the commonplace book as a way to save stuff that was not directly related to my work but that I wanted to remember.
Sadly, it is lost somewhere in my house right now, but coincidentally I had been thinking of digging it out recently, as I still read a lot of wonderful sayings, phrases, maxims, etc. that I want to keep.

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Posted by kateyz

I didn't know, until about a month ago what a commonplace book was. I'm now keeping one and working with my children to do it as well. It's such a great idea. I know in a few years I will really enjoy going back through and seeing what quotes and things appealed to me.
I have enjoyed visiting your blog
Kathleen

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