"You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can't, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world. The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change it." - James Arthur Baldwin "Stop making excuses for other people. Stop making excuses for ourselves. While it is our goal to develop compassion and achieve forgiveness, acceptance, and love, it is also our goal to accept reality and hold people accountable for their behavior. We can also hold ourselves accountable for our own behavior and, at the same time, have compassion and understanding for ourselves." - Melody Beattie "All descriptions of reality are temporary hypotheses." - Buddha "Science has to be understood in its broadest sense, as a method for comprehending all observable reality, and not merely as an instrument for acquiring specialized knowledge." - Alexis Carrel "If you haven't already, I strongly suggest that you begin to examine, right away, in whose reality you are living." - Douglas Davis "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity." - Albert Einstein "The limits you create will be real to you until you learn to step beyond them. Then they will cease to be real. Then, you will look back at the reality you used to inhabit and feel claustrophobic, wondering how you were able to stand its narrow confines." - Paul Ferrini "Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the nonpharmaceutical narcotics. It is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality." - John W. Gardner "Set up as an ideal, the facing of reality as honestly and as cheerfully as possible." - Dr. Karl Menninger "How many times do we stay at the edge of the abysses in our life, cowering with fear because we don't see the solution? Rather than take a deep breath and step into the unknown, we stay securely attached to our security blanket, to our present reality, to our comfort zone. Rather than trust that the future will bring us something, anything, better than what we have now, we choose instead to hang on to what we have, even if what we have "ain't so hot". - Marie T. Russell "You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams." - Dr. Seuss "Every one of us alone has the power to direct the course of our lives by choosing what actions we will or won't take. While sometimes it's easier to believe you don't have a choice, the reality is that you always have a choice to behave differently." - Francine Ward
"Using my ecological reasoning, someone who procrastinates is not irrational, it is his environment that is irrational." "In fact we humans are very bad at filtering information, particularly short-term information, and procrastination can be a way for us to filter better, to resist..." - Nassim Taleb in Antifragile
"A misery is not to be measured from the nature of the evil, but from the temper of the sufferer." - Joseph Addison "Pain is certain, suffering is optional." - Buddha "When I meet new people, in my mind there is no barrier, no curtain. As human beings you are my brothers and sisters; there is no difference in substance. I can talk with you as I would to old friends. With this feeling we can communicate without any difficulty and can make heart-to-heart contact. Based on such genuine human relations-real feeling for each other, understanding each other-we can develop mutual trust and respect. From that, we can share other people's suffering and build harmony in human society." - The Dalai Lama "It is the Law that any difficulties that can come to you at any time, no matter what they are, must be exactly what you need most at the moment, to enable you to take the next step forward by overcoming them. The only real misfortune, the only real tragedy, comes when we suffer without learning the lesson." - Emmet Fox "And once we have the condition of peace and joy in us, we can afford to be in any situation. Even in the situation of hell, we will be able to contribute our peace and serenity. The most important thing is for each of us to have some freedom in our heart, some stability in our heart, some peace in our heart. Only then will we be able to relieve the suffering around us." - Thich Nhat Hanh "People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar." - Thich Nhat Hanh "Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed." - Thomas Jefferson "Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it." - Hellen Keller "I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable." - Anne Morrow Lindbergh "The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering." - Ben Okri "The seeds of peace and joy are contained within the fruit of pain and suffering. Pain and suffering are contained within self, therefore peace and joy are also contained within." - Alexander Stillwater
God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time. - Terry Pratchett
“I turned around and was just pretty bummed out to see a mountain lion chasing after me." -Travis Kauffman
"The important thing is not that we avoid making mistakes, but that we avoid learning from them." -Anonymous/lost/forgotten
If someone breaks your heart, just punch them in the face. Oh sure, it seems obvious now, but you’d be amazed at how many people don’t think of it when it’s relevant. Seriously, just punch them in the face and go get some ice cream. - Chuck Klosterman
Garcia wondered why people with JESUS stickers on their bumper always drove twenty miles per hour under the speed limit. If God was my co-pilot, he thought, I'd be doing a hundred and twenty. - Carl Hiaasen, Strip Tease
"Learning to let go of the ways we inadvertently and unconsciously contribute to our own pain is the key to finding radiant physical and emotional health." - Ingrid Bacci "Every human being is the author of his own health or disease." - Buddha "Change. It has the power to uplift, to heal, to stimulate, surprise, open new doors, bring fresh experience and create excitement in life. Certainly it is worth the risk." - Leo Buscaglia "Your lifestyle - how you live, eat, emote, and think - determines your health. To prevent disease, you may have to change how you live." - Brian Carter "From a victim state-of-mind we become needy. Neediness is a form of negative dependency that brings up all kinds of negative emotions such as resentment, jealousy, and anger. Not knowing how to nurture ourselves and take care of ourselves emotionally, we depend on others to do so. When they fail to do so, we rage. And oddly enough, even when they do so, we rage even more. Why? Because we know deep inside that our emotional health is not dependent on others, but ourselves. We know that our strength to move beyond the victim state comes from within. Deep inside we know that absolutely no one can have power over us unless we allow it." - Susan Ann Darley "All strong souls first go to hell before they do the healing of the world they came here for. If we are lucky, we return to help those still trapped below." - Clarissa Pinkola Estes "Everything in our lives reflects where we are in the process of developing integration and balance. We can use everything that happens externally as a mirror to help us see the areas within us that need healing and development. Whenever we have a problem, especially a recurring or chronic problem, it is always an arrow pointing directly to some aspect of our psyche where we need more awareness." - Shakti Gawain "Love is within us. It cannot be destroyed. It can be ignored. To the extent that we abandon love we will feel it has abandoned us. Denying love is our only problem, and embracing it is the only answer. Through the power of love, we can let go of past history and begin again. Love heals, forgives, and makes whole." - Ernest Holmes "Our life crises tell us that we need to break free of beliefs that no longer serve our personal development. These points at which we must choose to change or to stagnate are our greatest challenges. Every new crossroads means we enter into a new cycle of change - whether it be adopting a new health regimen or a new spiritual practice. And change inevitably means letting go of familiar people and places and moving on to another stage of life." - Caroline Myss "In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted." - Bertrand Russell "The only way our world will change is for us to take action, in whichever way we feel appropriate. However, it behooves us to realize that acting from acceptance means letting go of the energies of anger, blame, criticism, revenge, self-pity, etc. We can much more efficiently affect change by doing so with an impartial energy - one that seeks to improve, to heal, to "make better" - rather than one that want to prove the "other behavior" wrong." - Marie T. Russell "Since you alone are responsible for your thoughts, only you can change them. You will want to change them when you realize that each thought creates according to its own nature. Remember that the law works at all times and that you are always demonstrating according to the kind of thoughts you habitually entertain. Therefore, start now to think only those thoughts that will bring you health and happiness." - Paramahansa Yogananda
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. - John Rogers
Internet porn makes everything more reasonable -- once you've realized there is a massive subculture of upwardly mobile people who think it's erotic to see an Asian woman giving a hand job to a javelina, nothing else in the world seems crazy. - Chuck Klosterman
