Like author Elise Lufkin, I have long been a collector of quotes. Whenever I find one I like, I'll write it down on a piece of paper and stick it away somewhere, only to find it years later. And it will still amuse me.

I even have a few hanging over my desk:

"I don't necessarily agree with everything I say," is one of my favorites. It's from Marshall McLuhan.

"The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons," is another. That's from Ralph Waldo Emerson.

So I was thrilled the other day when Lufkin's "Not Bartlett's" appeared on my desk. It's subtitled "Thoughts on the Pleasures of Life: People, Love, Gardens, Dogs and More." And that it is. A simple book of quotes.

Some people read cookbooks for pleasure. I'm a sucker for quotes. I warn you: If you pick up this book, an hour or two can quickly slip by. It did for me the other night. Here's a sampling of my favorites:

"Don't die guessing."

- Brooke Astor, quoting her mother

I spent a day with Brooke Astor years ago, and it appeared she had taken her mother's advice. Wise woman. It didn't appear to me she spent much time wondering what might have been.

"Thank heavens the sun has gone in and I don't have to go out and enjoy it."

- Logan Pearsall Smith

I don't have a clue who Logan Pearsall Smith is, but I love him. I've long hated daylight saving time. I have no desire whatsoever to throw a Frisbee around at 9 p.m.

"What a wonderful life I've had — I only wish I had realized it sooner."

- Colette

Don't we all?

"The only thing to do with family skeletons is to take them out of the closet and dance with them."

- Author unknown

The most interesting thing about growing up in a rural area is that everyone knows about everyone's skeletons already. So, yes, they might as well be allowed to dance.

"The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit."

- Nelson Henderson

A neighbor chopped down a tree behind his house the other day for no apparent reason. A perfectly fine tree. I will never look upon him the same.

"I am not a vengeful woman ... possibly for the perfectly working reason that if you just sit back and wait, the bastards will get theirs without your doing anything about it, and it will be fancier than anything you could have dreamed up."

- Dorothy Parker

My dad used to say you just have to wait long enough, and people will get what's coming to them. I know he and Dorothy Parker are correct, but sometime the wait is awfully long.

"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it."

- Mark Twain

It's nice to know some things never change.