Once upon a time in a small made-up town in North Carolina, I found enough drama to last nearly a decade and lessons for a lifetime. As a 29-year-old teenage girl, it’s hard to believe One Tree Hill is already 20 years old – not because the early seasons are sooo WB or the storylines don’t hold up in 2023, but because there are still pieces of OTH that get me through my life today.
In the more recent years since we left Tree Hill, I had a hard time looking back after learning what Hilarie Burton and other cast and crew allegedly went through with creator Mark Schwahn. But, with so many castmembers remaining close (Drama Queens, anyone?) and fans annually celebrating in the real-life town of Wilmington, NC, I’ve come to accept while a monster may have started the idea, it was the cast and crew that made it so memorable, and I’m appreciating it again.
What sticks with me most? Quotes. Yes, OTH had scenes that I could still recite word-for-word, but between the music (Grade A soundtrack! Plus, did you know every episode was named after a song, album, artist, or band?), the drama, and the voiceovers, the voice of Chad Michael Murray still takes over my subconscious from time to time.
These Are The One Tree Hill Quotes Still Stuck In My Mind:
- “There is a tide in the affairs of men, or something like that.” – Karen Roe
- “And when you find yourself lost in the darkness and despair, remember it’s only in the black of night you see the stars.” — Coach Whitey Durham
- “What you do matters, and how you do it matters.” — Mouth McFadden
- “Sooner or later we all choose a path. Sometimes you never look back, and sometimes life forces you to.” — Dan Scott
- “Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone, and do not be troubled about the future, for it has yet to come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering.” — Ida Scott Taylor
- “You ever look at a picture of yourself and see a stranger in the background? It makes you wonder how many strangers have pictures of you, how many moments of other peoples lives have we been in, were we a part of someone’s life when their dreams came true, or were we there when their dreams died. Did we keep trying to get in, as if we were somehow destined to be there, or did the shot take us by surprise. Just think, you could be a big part of someone else’s life, and not even know it.” — Lucas Scott
- “When people get weepy at movies, it’s because in that dark theater the golden pool of magic is touched, just briefly. Then they come out into the hard sun of logic and reason again and it dries up, and they’re left feeling a little heartsad and not knowing why. When a song stirs a memory, when motes of dust turning in a shaft of light takes your attention from the world, when you listen to a train passing on a track at night in the distance and wonder where it might be going, you step beyond who you are and where you are. For the briefest of instants, you have stepped into the magic realm.” — Boy’s Life, Robert McCammon
- “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside of us while we live.” — Norman Cousins
- “It’s the oldest story in the world. One day you’re 17 and planning for someday. And then quietly and without you ever really noticing, someday is today. And then someday is yesterday. And this is your life.” — Nathan Scott
