Every new year brings about a thoughtful look at the past. And what better way to gain more insight or guilt than to have a few quotes to increase your wisdom for this coming year. So read on and find out what a few bright minds thought about beginning a new year. Here are the top 10 quotes about New Years.
Youth
Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve. Middle Age is when you’re forced to. Bill Vaughan
Bill Vaughan was a Kansas City Columnist during the 50’s and 60’s. His sentiment about staying up on New Year’s Eve is reflected all over the internet, for sure. We thought that first we’d figure out WHY we think it’s necessary to stay up on New Year’s Eve. Turns out the custom has its origins in China, where staying up past midnight on the new year with friends and family wards off the “Nian” monster
and therefore protects against disease and disaster. If staying up past midnight is tough for you in your advanced age, there are all kinds of tips out there to help you: get enough sleep the night before, keep your eyes lubricated, and limit your alcohol intake. Which brings us to our next quote…
Drunkedness
The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates on New Year’s Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you’re married to. PJ O’Rourke
Over-drinking is not a good idea, especially on the one night that drunk driving accidents are 4 times more likely to occur. But more and more people are choosing to have New Year’s Eve at home or at hotels that offer attractive New Year’s packages. So if you’re in that situation, feel free to indulge. But beware, alcohol can make you sleepy (hence the number 10 quote), and it can lower your inhibitions (hence…smoochies).
Resolutions
New Year’s Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. Mark Twain
Twain (aka Samuel Clemens) made a clever play on the famous quote “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”. This quote is usually credited to Samuel Johnson, but it actually has its origins waaay earlier…like more than 600 years earlier. Good Ol’ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux said “Hell is full of good intentions or desires”. You learn something every day…
Resolutions II
Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account. Oscar Wilde
New Year’s Resolutions are a tradition that began long ago. In 153 B.C., Romans placed mythical king Janus at the head of the Roman calendar. He had two faces, one to see the past with and one to see the future. People would ask forgiveness of their enemies in preparation for a new year. It seems like Wilde suggests that such an activity is fruitless, but since he said “illusion is the first of all pleasures” he probably made plenty of resolutions himself.
A New Perspective
I don’t think New Year’s resolutions can’t technically be expected to begin on New Year’s Day, don’t you? Since, because it’s an extension of New Year’s Eve, smokers are already on a smoking roll and cannot be expected to stop abruptly on the stroke of midnight with so much nicotine in the system. Also dieting on New Year’s Day isn’t a good idea as you can’t eat rationally but really need to be free to consume whatever is necessary, moment by moment, in order to ease your hangover. I think it would be much more sensible if resolutions began generally on January the second. Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones Diary
Fielding’s Bridget Jones Diary took the world by storm in 1996, staying on the Best Seller’s list for a gazillion weeks and soothing the fragile egos of “singletons” everywhere. The beloved Bridget begins almost every day with a new resolution, pledging to eat healthy foods, not drink too much alcohol, not smoke cigarettes, yet every day proves as a failure to keep those resolutions. Who better, then, to debunk the January 1st resolution date?
A Universal Theme
New Year’s even is like every other night; here is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights. Hamilton Wright Mable
Hamilton Wright Mable, highly educated American essayist and literacy advocate, makes a very valid point. While not as “magical” as Christmas Eve with its imagined echoes of sleigh bells, New Year’s Eve holds a special significance our hearts and minds. Perhaps it is the possibility of reinvention?
Time
Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunderstorm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols. Thomas Mann
Another way that we celebrate a new year is by setting off fireworks. Fireworks were invented by the Ancient Chinese, and got their start in America on Independence Day in 1777 and have been a popular celebration tool ever since. In 2004 the folks at Disney started using compressed air instead of gunpowder to ignite fireworks. It’s important to refrain from using fireworks illegally, of course, and it’s important to remember (despite the popularity of doing so) that it’s not cool to fire off guns on New Year’s Eve. No matter how stoked you are to usher in a new year.
Resolutions III (I see a pattern here.)
Every New Year is the direct descendant, isn’t it, of a long line of proven criminals? Ogden Nash
Witty poet and lyricist Ogden Nash might have been on to something. Studies show that while 45% of Americans set New Year’s resolutions, only 8% carry out their resolution to a successful conclusion. Almost half of those resolutions are related to education and self-improvement. Get a jump start on your resolutions by learning something new. Take a look at the archives here at TopTenz.net and learn all types of factual tidbits.
Happiness?
Happiness is too many things these days for anyone to wish it on anyone lightly. So let’s just wish each other a bileless New Year and leave it at that. Judith Crist
About a year ago I wrote a research paper about happiness (and the lack thereof) in America. Not surprisingly, less than half of people polled in every single country in more than a dozen different studies reported being happy. I did a little research on natural ways to get happy. They seemed to be too easy to be believed. Spend time with people who make you happy, volunteer for a good cause, and read something you love…which brings us to our Number One quote about New Years.
Hope
For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning. TS Eliot
An incomparable poet, T.S. Eliot (1888 – 1965) wrote a lot of things that wouldn’t necessarily be considered uplifting. The Wasteland, for one. This excerpt from “Little Gidding (No. 4 of ‘Four Quartets’) is an exception. It contains the hope we can have for the coming year, and the good we can do with our resolutions and our attempts to make the world a better place. While you’re at it, have a little bit of fun. From all of us at TopTenz.net, Happy New Year!
Other Articles you Might Like