"Peek not through a keyhole, lest ye be vexed" I recall reading this a while ago in Stephen King's Duma Key. The character said their mother always said it when they were a kid. On the internet, the only source was Stephen King, but I can't help but feel that it's been said somewhere else. Also, my first language not being English, does this really explain what it means: Don't look too far into things or you will find something that you do not like/did not expect. Anyway, for some reason ever since I read that quote, I keep reciting it in my head whenever I am upset or unhappy with someone. Does anybody else recite things in their head, given certain situations? It sometimes calms me.
Oh, I liked that quote. I have this problem where I overthink and I'm anxious about everything because I do look too far into things. And I have one myself, that I hate but... YOLO. Yes. Exactly because I'm too anxious and then I have to do things without thinking too much. So I just think: YOLO and go do whatever stupidity I'm thinking of doing.It's kind of annoying because I use it for real and I feel dumb. Yolo means you only live once if there's anyone who doesn't know about it.
I think the idea of Yolo is a bit rediculous. You also only die once (unless we talk about reincarnation, but assuming that's real, you'll never remember the old you anyway). Might want to start saying YODO from now on
Walid, yours is a common problem. In our family the accepted font of knowledge is my Aunt Clara. You need to know something, she has the full compendium of family lore and old Sicilian wisdom. As a small boy, I was having trouble deciding something, and I didn't know what to do. I told my Aunt Clara that I was afraid to make a bad decision, and I'll never forget her advice. She said, "Il mio caro ragazzo, scratch a man who looks like a turnip and I'll show you a man who looks like a scratched turnip." I think her wisdom applies to your problem.
The famous quote from Love Story has always bothered me. "Love means never having to say you're sorry." What?!? Just... what?!? Of course I want to hear you say you're sorry, dammit! Say you're sorry as many times as needed AND don't repeat the same mistake too many times if you can help it.
Whenever things get tough, I tell myself what my late stepfather would tell me: "Remember, D, they can kill you, but they cannot eat you." I think it was his screwy way of saying "things could be worse."
It's okay, Cassiopeia, I YOLO as well. At first it was just to be silly, but now I'm actually not so sure. As for quotes that bother me, I'd have to say the old pick-up line, "Did it hurt when you fell from Heaven?" I'm pretty sure the only angel who ever fell from heaven was Lucifer.
Oh, I just remembered this "brilliant" (ahem) teacher I had in college. She used to say that "One thing is one thing. Another is another. Both completely different from each other". I guess she learned that in her PhD.
I liked Duma Key and for some reason that quote bothered me too, never could pinpoint why though Quotes that bother me: My hubby is forever saying "Do your bid" after he asks me to do something for him and it drives me NUTS because he means "Do as you are bid." I keep telling him I am perfectly happy to do my own bidding. YOLO annoys me, but hey if it works for you go right ahead - just say it inside your own head Blue
Hey, I'm only 12 years too late, so forgive me, but it's funny 'cos I just heard this same line in an audio book and it stuck with be also, so I looked it up - and I'm not even sure why. But what's funnier is that it was also an SK book though a different one. So I thought maybe it was in his other work where you'd heard it before? It was 11.22.63, and even though that book was released after Duma Key it was already out before your post, so maybe you'd read that first?
Actually, it may not have been 11.22.63, it may have been SK's Storm of the Century . . . either way I heard it yesterday and it was certainly SK and certainly not Duma Key. I'm currently listening to 11.22.63 and I watched more of SotC last night (and have never read DK).
I can't believe I'm responding to a twelve-years-dead necropost, but this: probably has a more specific context of being careful about prying into someone's personal life too deeply. Not only could it utterly change the way you feel about them, but it could also end the relationship or at the very least make them no longer like you. Also, it sounds like it might come from well before Stephen King, or be based on some ancient saying.
A similar adage that turned up about the 17th century is "Eavesdroppers never hear any good of themselves." I suspect "peering through keyholes" is an attempt to say the same thing with new words. On the other hand, maybe the key is in the hole and one is vexed because a) one cannot see through the hole or 2) one gets poked in the eye by the protruding key.
Which in turn reminds me of " Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?" And let's not forget Jonathan Winters, who got the solemn advice: "A wet bird never flies at night."
The plot thickens further on this one. Now I've finished the audio of 11.22.63, I heard in it the saying ''peek not through a knothole, lest ye be vexed''. It seems like that's the original form of the saying and SK seems to enjoy putting it in his various works, in different forms. So we have confirmed variations of it in many SK works. SotC, 11.22.63, Duma Key - and I'm almost certain it's in the DT series. I wonder in how many other of his works . . . ?
Maybe he's treating it the way Lovecraft did his Necronomicon, sort of a piece of lore that seems like it might come from reality, and is mentioned in many of his works. Kinda cool that there are variations on the wording—that's the way it would work in reality too.
I think "What goes around comes around" is annoying, it is not applicable to the chaotic reality around us. A pattern that seems to suggest that, other than in works of writing, is more by chance outcome. That is the case unless we are counting on what comes in an afterlife to bring justice.
I'm not sure I agree with you on this one. If somebody is an asshole toward other people much of the time, the people close to them will see that and stop being freindly, or just cut him (or her) out of their lives entirely. Those people frequently end up alone and miserable toward the end of their lives. Karma doesn't always strike in obvious or expected ways.
