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Robert Fulghum Quotes (1937-)
Author, Artist
About Robert Fulghum
Robert Fulghum (born 4 June 1937) is an American author, primarily of short essays. He has worked as a Unitarian minister, artist, teacher and was a founding member of the authors' collective rock-and-roll band, the "Rock Bottom Remainders". He came to prominence when his first essay collection, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (1986), stayed on the New York Times bestseller lists for nearly two years.
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βLife-and-death. Lifedeath. One event. One short event. Donβt forget.β
βYou can't always explain everything you do to everybody, you know.β
βKnowledge is meaningful only if it is reflected in action. The human race has found out the hard way that we are what we do, not just what we think. This is true for kids and adults β for schoolrooms and nations.β
βFor all my good intentions, there are days when things go wrong or I fall into old habits. When things are not going well, when I'm grumpy or mad, I'll realize that I've not been paying attention to my soul and I've not been following my best routine.β
βFrom the first day we are told in words we can handle what has come to be prized as the foundation of community and culture. Though the teacher may call these first lessons βsimple rules,β they are in fact the distillation of all the hard-won, field-tested working standards of the human enterprise.β
βItβs hard to explain the cost and consequences of environmental pollution and destruction to a six year old. But we are paying a desperate price even now because adults did not heed the instructions of kindergarten: Clean up your own mess; put things back where you found them; donβt take whatβs not yours.β
βI recall an old Sufi story of a good man who was granted one wish by God. The man said he would like to go about doing good without knowing about it. God granted his wish. And then God decided that it was such a good idea, he would grant that wish to all human beings.
And so it has been to this day.β
And so it has been to this day.β
βI believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge β
That myth is more potent than history.
I believe that dreams are more powerful than facts β
That hope always triumphs over experience β
That laughter is the only cure for grief.
And I believe that love is stronger than death.β
That myth is more potent than history.
I believe that dreams are more powerful than facts β
That hope always triumphs over experience β
That laughter is the only cure for grief.
And I believe that love is stronger than death.β
βThere are places we all come from β deep-rooty-common places β that make us who they are. And we disdain them or treat them lightly at our peril. We turn our backs on them at the risk of self-contempt. There is a sense in which we need to go home again β and can go home again. Not to recover home, no. But to sanctify memory.β
βWe've associated that word philosophy with academic study that in its own way has gotten so far beyond the layman that if you read contemporary philosophy you've no clue, because it's almost become math. And it's odd that if you don't do that and you call yourself a philosopher that you always get 'homespun' attached to it.β
βLove the battle between chaos and imagination.
Remember: Acting is living truthfully in imaginary circumstances.
Remember: Acting is the way to live the greatest number of lives.
Remember: Acting is the same as real life, lived intentionally.
Never forget: The Fruit is out on the end of the limb. Go there.β
Remember: Acting is living truthfully in imaginary circumstances.
Remember: Acting is the way to live the greatest number of lives.
Remember: Acting is the same as real life, lived intentionally.
Never forget: The Fruit is out on the end of the limb. Go there.β
βWhat we learn in kindergarten comes up again and again in our lives as long as we live. In far more complex, polysyllabic forms, to be sure. In lectures, encyclopedias, bibles, company rules, courts of law, sermons, and handbooks. Life will examine us continually to see if we have understood and have practiced what we were taught that first year of school.β
βI tend to keep books of art more than anything else now. I'm interested in visual things. And astronomy books. Things you can look at over and over and over again and see something new. β¦ My notions of God and the universe have always been too small. And limited by language. So now I'm looking at picture books. My children say I'm just beginning to enter my dotage: can't read, just looks at picture books.β
βThe older I get, the more I realize the importance of exercising the various dimensions of my body, soul, mind and heart. Taken together, these aspects give me a sense of wholeness. I want to be a whole human being rather than one who limps on one leg because I don't know how to use all of my parts. Intellectual, emotional, and physical activity are not separate entities. Rather, they are dimensions of the same human being.β
βI don't do art to address other people but to address myself. I've never done art with a thought of being a professional artist who makes a living by selling his art. I've never had a commercial show in a gallery. I suppose I'm like those who write poetry or songs without seeking publication. I make art in and for the experience itself β to satisfy a need to express myself in a creative, colorful, non-verbal way.β
βOne of life's best coping mechanisms is to know the difference between an inconvenience and a problem. If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you've got a problem. Everything else is an inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat and a lump in the breast are not the same kind of lump. One needs to learn the difference.β
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Robert Fulghum on Balance 3 quotes
βHuman life is like that clay on the wheel. If there is too much of any one thing, life will be out of balance; it will fall.β
Robert Fulghum on Love 3 quotes
βYou want my opinion? We're all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness β and call it love β true love.β
Robert Fulghum on Poetry about love 2 quotes
βI believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge β That myth is more potent than history. I believe that dreams are more powerful than facts β That hope always triumphs over experience β That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.β
Robert Fulghum on Sunday school
βAll I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sand pile at Sunday School.β
Robert Fulghum on Grass
Robert Fulghum on Bombs
βMaybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A Beauty Bomb. And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one. It would explode high in the air β explode softly β and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air. Floating down to earth β boxes of Crayolas. And we wouldn't go cheap either β not little boxes of eight. Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in. With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest. And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with imagination instead of death. A child who touched one wouldn't have his hand blown off.β
What Robert Fulghum Said About Others
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Robert Fulghum on Dr. Seuss
About Robert Fulghum
Robert Fulghum (born 4 June 1937) is an American author, primarily of short essays. He has worked as a Unitarian minister, artist, teacher and was a founding member of the authors' collective rock-and-roll band, the "Rock Bottom Remainders". He came to prominence when his first essay collection, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (1986), stayed on the New York Times bestseller lists for nearly two years.