Words of advice, comfort or inspiration?

les24preludes

Forum GOD!
Two sayings I remember from my Oslo days were:

"du kommer ikke til fjelltoppen på et flatt vei" (you don't get to the mountain top by a flat road)

"kroken ma tideling krokes" (a crook must be bent early)

I'm sure these aren't quite correct - Halvor, can you correct them?
 

Rufusdog

Forum GOD!
‘Price is what you pay; value is what you get.’
‘Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.’
Warren Buffet
 
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halvor

a most elusive fish
Two sayings I remember from my Oslo days were:

"du kommer ikke til fjelltoppen på et flatt vei" (you don't get to the mountain top by a flat road)

"kroken ma tideling krokes" (a crook must be bent early)

I'm sure these aren't quite correct - Halvor, can you correct them?
Indeed got the meaning of them right, Andy, but the wording is a little off:

Det er i motbakke det går oppover.
Hard to translate. Motbakke is uphill, so directly translated, it’s in uphill you move upwards [sic]. Norwegian motbakke it’s literally “againsthill”, however, as if the terrain works against you. And then the saying makes sense: It’s when you’re struggling that you’re getting anywhere, moving up. Conversely, downhill is nice and easy but takes you, well, down. And anyone who has read ‘The metaphors we live by’, knows that in metaphors, up is good and down is bad. It’s said as a form of consolation in times of hardship. ‘Nothing comes free in life’ is related, I guess, but not quit the same.

Den må tidlig krøkes, som god krok skal bli has nothing to do with criminals (crooks), rather hooks. But the rest of it is correct, you need to bend early to become a good hook. Also related to the above, in establishing hard work as a prerequisite for getting anywhere. ‘Practice makes perfect’, kind of, only less direct and with more layers and meanings.
 

Chief Brody

Forum GOD!
“No man ever got very high by pulling other people down. The intelligent merchant does not knock his competitors. The sensible worker does not knock those who work with him. Don’t knock your friends. Don’t knock your enemies. Don’t knock yourself.” Alfred Lord Tennyson
 

les24preludes

Forum GOD!
Den må tidlig krøkes, som god krok skal bli has nothing to do with criminals (crooks), rather hooks. But the rest of it is correct, you need to bend early to become a good hook. Also related to the above, in establishing hard work as a prerequisite for getting anywhere. ‘Practice makes perfect’, kind of, only less direct and with more layers and meanings.
Yes - I know it's a shepherd's crook referred to. You start shaping it early on.

This allows for an interesting double-entendre in English - crooks (criminals) are bent (dishonest).

Of course, many English words come from Old Norse. And many place names, especially those by the coast. I assume Haverford West is havn-fjord-vest

My spelling in Norwegian is pretty terrible - I just learned to speak it. I should have read more Norwegian books and newspapers.
 

les24preludes

Forum GOD!
I like mysterious statements.......

Like "Why is there only one Monopolies Commission?"

Or "Nothing is real"

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science." Einstein

There are also the statements that don't make sense, e.g.

"When I was young I could run all the way round the park. Now I can only run half way and back again"

"The three men suddenly stopped talking as their eyes met across the table"

"I am writing to you in great danger, with a pistol in one hand and a sword in the other"

"The moon is more useful than the sun because it gives you light in the night when you most need it"
 
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RussellR5555

Forum GOD!
“If I could give you one thought, it would be to lift someone up. Lift a stranger up--lift her up. I would ask you, mother and father, brother and sister, lovers, mother and daughter, father and son, lift someone. The very idea of lifting someone up will lift you, as well.”

― Maya Angelou

"Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."

- Mark Twain
 

Paper Plane

Forum GOD!
My primary school music teacher was a right old battleaxe and one of her favourite remarks was "The lazy person takes the most pains."

Having a long streak of idleness within, I can relate to it much better as I have aged...

steve
 
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