Classic Comments on the Quote

"Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is the special occasion."
— Unattributed


sarahk809 on August 8th, 2012
Which is why I wear my wedding dress every day.

[LLapp]

Such a great community of players

I LOVE this thread!! Players helping each other understand the quote by way of the history of a single word, in the context of its translation date and its use in modern musical theater, and then connecting the whole thing back to an ancient reference by Plutarch. What a great crowd.
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"I choose the likely man in preference to the rich man. I want a man without money rather than money without a man." — Themistocles

kb83 on October 8th, 2014
"likely"? Is this really the best translation? I had lively, and.although I did not like it either, only the error message forced me to change it to likely, and that was right, much to my surprise.

skoogie2 on November 25th, 2014
me too, kb, me too

caa on February 4th, 2015
Webster says: likely : seeming to be right or suited for a purpose Sounds right to me.

judy100 on February 12th, 2015
It's likely to be right.

dovid1946 on April 4th, 2015
'likely' was a term popularized in Victorian literature. I doubt if it was used in Ancient Greece, however. I am willing to bet that this translation is around 200 years old.

ruxpin66 on July 19th, 2015
I was shocked to realize the word was "likely." I don't like that there at all

wolf on August 19th, 2015
Yeah, likely was a problem for me too.

Roxanne on December 8th, 2015
This is a paraphrase from Plutarch writing about Themistocles. "Likely" is what the translator used for a Greek word that means "suitable." The translation I found with the word 'likely' was published in 1914.

LLapp on December 14th, 2015
Roxanne, thanks for the research!

cryptospiridiagram on March 1st, 2016
It' a lost usage of "likely". Example: that line from *Carousel*: "Dozens of boys pursue her, / Many a likely lad..." Likely: up for the job, equal to the task. Suitable (as a suitor!).

SippyGurl on November 7th, 2016
yah, lively

darkyr on April 14th, 2017
So then, 'likely' is not the likely word, in this case, given we are in the far future of the translation.

kb83 on August 2nd, 2017
Wow. I love this site. Thanks, everyone!

blueladyblue on February 27th, 2018
So I guess it's a "purposeful" or "suitable" man rather than a rich man. Can't a rich man be likely too?

Lurker on March 3rd, 2018
Thank you, cryptospiridiagram! I couldn't remember which musical that line was from. It was going to bother me all day.

DonnaIrene on May 19th, 2018
Cryptospiridiagram is right. As Roxanne says, this quote is from a 1914 translation of "Plutarch's Lives." The context: "Of two suitors for his daughter's hand, he [Themistocles] chose the likely man in preference to the rich man, saying that he wanted a man without money rather than money without a man."

[Collier]

"I often thought that if there had been a good rap group around in those days, I might have chosen a career in music instead of politics."
— Richard Milhous Nixon

[puzzleme]

Joy to the world!

"Peace is not the absence of affliction, but the presence of God."
— Unattributed

kb83 on April 3rd, 2014
"joy" worked also, in lieu of "God". more inclusive?

abra on July 31st, 2014
I thought of both at the same time and tried JOY first.

skoogie2 on August 7th, 2014
Yep, I tried joy twice even! It made perfect sense

montyb on December 22nd, 2014
I went with "dog".

abra on April 1st, 2015
In any quote, trying to decide whether to put in GOD or JOY, I WILL choose incorrectly.

abra on August 9th, 2015
As I just did, apparently, for the third time.

LLapp on September 22nd, 2015
OMJ, me too!

marnita on September 25th, 2015
Well, I see I'm in good company!

akcruiser03 on November 18th, 2015
I put you. there's a lot of God in these.

kb83 on November 30th, 2016
LLapp, was that "Oh My Joy"?

abra on June 14th, 2017
Funny LLapp. I'm back. i tried JOY first.

LLapp on October 22nd, 2017
kb83- Yes it was Oh My Joy, not Jehova or Jujubes. And yes, I did it again!

LLapp on October 26th, 2017
4 days later and I did it again. "Joy" simply makes more sense here.

746tiger on February 4th, 2018
Wow, there are so many words that would work. Joy, you, and dog fit the unused letters. 163 seconds.

LLapp on May 9th, 2018
Argh. I don't want to talk about this anymore.

[TimmyTee]

kb83 on 2016-09-15 10:10:39
Once you start splitting infinitives, it is a slippery slope.

I adore mixed metaphors! They are infinitely funny.

Once I heard someone saying, when she was talking about having to be careful around a particularly sensitive person,

"You have to walk on kid gloves around her."