"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." - Anais Nin "Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death." - Anais Nin
"Clarity of mind means clarity of passion too, this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what it loves." - Blaise Pascal
"Our scientific age demands that we provide definitions, measurements, and statistics in order to be taken seriously. Yet most of the important things in life cannot be precisely defined or measured. Can we define or measure love, beauty, friendship, or decency, for example?" - Dennis Prager
To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness. - Oscar Wilde
"How does one become a butterfly? You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar." - Trina Paulus
There's a lot of truth in that. When I was learning to hang glide on the rudimentary gliders of the mid-seventies, it took me over six hundred flights -- short, ground-skimming, barely-off-the-ground flights -- to compile my first hour of air time. In order to fly back then, you really had to want to learn.
Prolly would have gone faster if you'd wrapped yourself in snot then liquified and reformed, the way God intended.
"Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven't half the strength you think they have." - Norman Vincent Peale "Courage consists not in blindly overlooking danger, but in seeing it, and conquering it." - Jean Paul Friedrich Richter "Let fear be a counsellor and not a jailer." - Anthony Robbins
"Never underestimate your problem or your ability to deal with it." - Robert H. Schuller "All great achievements require time." - David Joseph Schwartz "One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity." - Albert Schweitzer
The most puzzling development in politics during the last decade is the apparent determination of Western European leaders to re-create the Soviet Union in Western Europe. - Mikhail Gorbachev
“Instead of seeing how much pain I can dish out towards those I disagree with, or who I believe have done me wrong, I seek to follow the golden rule and use my words and behavior to create more of what the world needs – love, compassion, and connection.” - Aspen Baker
The WeWork thing demonstrates that we have a class of investors that thinks that low margin businesses just need cocaine, tequila shots, and private jets to be successful, and an economic system that rewards that view. - Dan Lyke
"But I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before." Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn. "Sometimes a man realizes that. . . when he made his choice he had not the courage to take the risks he was called to take. In such a case the rebirth of the person may have to be paid for by a heavy sacrifice of material security. Such an honest choice, however late it comes, is as fruitful as the 'provisional' life is sterile . . . ." Paul Tournier, The Meaning of Persons. For me the common thread between those quotations is simple -- truth comes from within, even though the outside world tries to impose its own truth, and the only way to find truth is to risk finding it. Me.
Which reminds me of another quote, ascribed to the musician Dave van Ronk: "Sometimes you've just got to forget your principles and do the right thing."
"Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company." - George Washington "Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence." - George Washington
"Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change." - Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
"A master is someone who has made more mistakes than you, has made mistakes you haven't made yet, and has learned how to embrace them--thus learning to see them coming before they happen. So you go towards mastery one mistake at a time. How many mistakes can you stand? As many as it takes to be a master. The master has persevered past the errors until he's made all of them." - William Cumpiano “Where we fall are the stepping-stones for our journey.” - Lolly Daskal "Life is in ourselves and not in the external. - Fyodor Dostoevsky "By your own efforts, waken yourself, watch yourself. And live joyfully. You are the master." - Buddha "He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened." - Lao Tzu "Knowing others is intelligence knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power." - Lao Tzu "There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious." - Carl Jung "If you want to follow me to freedom, be prepared to swim upstream, against the river of conditioning. Be prepared to grapple continuously with the fierce flow of negative mental currents. In time our strokes will become effortless and our sense of purpose irresistible." - Buddha "Mindfulness refers to keeping one's consciousness alive to the present reality. It is the miracle by which we master and restore ourselves." - Thich Nhat Hanh "Never be afraid to sit awhile and think." - Lorraine Hansberry
I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I'm afraid of. Joss Whedon