How come you didn't.....?

Who doesn't employ a good quotation now and then? Something someone said sets off something in our heads and puts a previously fluttering thought into a clear glass jar. Then we turn it around and display it as needed. There are books and web sites full of pithy, profound or pleasant quotations for all occasions. It's much cooler to acquire statements the old fashioned way, by reading the work they come from. But that's principle. In practice talus from the bigger rock often lies at our feet waiting to be picked up.

Here's one from Eric Hoffer, the late longshoreman-philosopher. I forgot where I found it.

"There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still have to prove our worth anew each day: we have to prove that we are as good today as we were yesterday. But when we have a valid alibi for not achieving anything we are fixed, so to speak, for life. Moreover, when we have an alibi for not writing a book, painting a picture, and so on, we have an alibi for not writing the greatest book and not painting the greatest picture. Small wonder that the effort expended and the punishment endured in obtaining a good alibi often exceed the effort and grief requisite for the attainment of a most marked achievement."

Thus spake Hoffer. Now, as we reach our later years do we polish the alibi? Proceed to make up for lost time? Examine the possibility that all along there were Mitty daydreams of glory, or Houdini boxes we locked ourselves into but didn't have the skill to get out of? Or perhaps do we re-define "achievement" to include the work we showed up for every day, the families we raised, the homes we tended, those occasional worst-ever days and weeks we managed to survive?