Quotes

"Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes." ~~ Oscar Wilde.
I was struggling for inspiration for tonight's entry so I picked up a a book off my bookshelf and closed my eyes and opened it to a page at random. The quote above was on that page.
I've heard many quotes about wisdom and learning things the hard way, but I can't recall one more eloquent than this.
Even if given the chance, I would not go back and relive my life. Now granted I've had a lot of great times but I can relive them in my memory. I was reading back over some old journals just recently and came across an entry about a visit to Virginia many years ago just after Jilda and I married. We went to see an Army friend that lived in the area.
He suggested a drive through the Shenandoah Valley so we loaded up the old Plymouth Valiant and headed out. We stopped at a small community near Blacksburg, Virginia and bought fresh apples, peaches, and picnic stuff. We stopped at a roadside park and sat beside the roadside and drank fresh squeezed apple cider and ate baloney sandwiches. We ate fruit for desert.
When we were finishing up, a car that had apparently been speeding in the state park got stopped by a park ranger about a hundred feet ahead of where we were parked. As we were cleaning up, an apple fell from the bag and rolled to the side. My friend Doug picked up the apple saying I have to dispose of this because it will draw yellow jackets and a hiker will get stung...so he picked up the apple and tossed it off into the woods. We heard a car door slam and here came a park ranger. He raked us over the coals for a bit but we understood that we had made a mistake. We told him as much. Doug did point out that it was an apple...that we would never have thrown trash into the park. The ranger considered this for a long moment and said yes, I saw it was an apple. "Had it been something that doesn't grow here, you would all be on your way to jail." I think it was the fact that we took responsibility and we remained respectful. We had a choice, we could have become defensive and argued with they ranger, but it has been my experience that when you err, take responsibility and what ever consequences that accompany them.
Do you have a favorite quote? I'd live to hear about it and why it's special to you.