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Link Quote Stars Tags Author
9ddb79d Not always getting what you want, but sometimes getting what you need. christmas first-kiss holiday life love my-true-love-gave-to-me winter Stephanie Perkins
b8e2ac6 "An acre of poppies and a forest of spruce boggle no one's mind. Even ten square miles of wheat gladdens the hearts of most . . . No, in the plant world, and especially among the flowering plants, fecundity is not an assault on human values. Plants are not our competitors; they are our prey and our nesting materials. We are no more distressed at their proliferation than an owl is at a population explosion among field mice . . . but in the animal world things are different, and human feelings are different . . . Fecundity is anathema only in the animal. "Acres and acres of rats" has a suitably chilling ring to it that is decidedly lacking if I say, instead, "acres and acres of tulips"." gross human life nature page-164 perspective plants Annie Dillard
41f7e15 For years of our lives the days pass waywardly, featureless, without meaning, without particular happiness or unhappiness. Then, like turning over a tapestry when you have only known the back of it, there is spread the pattern. life patterns Jane Gardam
8abaca1 You know what's wrong with scientific power?... It's a form of inherited wealth... Most kinds of power require a substantial sacrifice by whoever wants the power. There is an apprenticeship, a discipline lasting many years. Whatever kind of power you want. President of the company. Black belt in karate. Spiritual Guru. Whatever it is you seek, you have to put in the time, the practice, the effort. You must give up a lot to get it. It has to be very important to you. And once you have attained it, it is your power. It can't be given away: it resides in you. It is literally the result of your discipline. Now, what is interesting about this process is that, by the time someone has acquired the ability to kill with his bare hands, he has also matured to the point where he won't use it unwisely. So that kind of power has a built-in control. The discipline of getting the power changes you so that you won't abuse it. But scientific power is like inherited wealth: attained without discipline. You read what others have done, and you take the next step... There is no discipline... no mastery: old scientists are ignored. There is no humility before nature... A karate master does not kill people with his bare hands. He does not lose his temper and kill his wife. The person who kills is the person who has no discipline, no restraint, and who has purchased his power in the form of a Saturday night special. And that is the kind of power that science fosters, and permits. experience hard-work life meaning-of-life responsibility science Michael Crichton
488deab Indoors herself, partaking of tea with old Mrs Butterworth, she reflected that it is impossible to foretell the future with any degree of accuracy, that it is impossible to rehearse life. A fault in the scenery, a face in the audience, an irruption of the audience onto the stage, and all our carefully planned gestures mean nothing, or mean too much. em-forster forster life E.M. Forster
77b66db And that fear I'd felt, the disembodying confusion, seemed to be a drug I was now addicted to, because moving through the ordinary world- watching CNN, reading the Times, walking to Sant Ambroeus to have a coffee at the bar- made me feel exhausted, even depressed. Perhaps I was suffering from the same problem as the man who'd sailed around the world and now on land, facing his farmhouse, his wife and kids, understood that the constancy of home stretching out before him like a dry flat field was infinitely more terrifying than any violent squall with thirty-foot swells. fear life settling Marisha Pessl
cd30614 I have always said that the way to deal with the pain of other's is by sympathy, which is suffering with, and that the way to deal with one's own pain is to put one foot after the other. Yet I was never willing to suffer with others, and when my own pain hit me, I crawled into hole. Sympathy I have failed in, stoicism I have barely passed. But I have made straight A's in irony- that curse, that evasion, that armor, that way of staying safe while seeming wise. One thing I have learned hard, if indeed I have learned it now: it is a reduction of our humanity to hide from pain, our own or other's. to hide from anything. That was Marian's text. Be open, be available, be exposed, be skinless. Skinless? Dance around in your bones. humanity life pain suffering Wallace Stegner
f85103b "There are five people you meet in heaven," the Blue Man suddenly said. "Each of us was in your life for a reason. You may not have known the reason at the time, and that is what heaven is for. For understanding your life on Earth." Eddie looked confused. "People think of heaven as a paradise garden, a place where they can float on clouds and laze in rivers and mountains. But scenery without solace is meaningless. "This is the greatest gift God can give you: To understand what happened in your life. To have it explained. It is the peace you have been searching for." death enlightenment explanation god knowledge life life-after-death meaning-of-life peace power wisdom Mitch Albom
39cd249 I asked them: Does it hurt? And the scar people nodded, yes. But it felt somehow wonderful, they said. For one long second, it felt like the world was holding them close. life pain Aimee Bender
ab2514e Don't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were headed for shore. life ray-bradbury self-help Ray Bradbury
669f082 Dogs were not loyal but servile, that cats were opportunists and traitors, cats dogs life loyalty traitor Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
69be5de Ya me sobrara tiempo para descansar cuando me muera, pero esta eventualidad no esta todavia en mis proyectos. death-and-dying life Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
7a0c003 "... he was shaken by the overwhelming revelation that the headlong race between his misfortunes and his dreams was at that moment reaching the finish line. The rest was darkness. "Damn it," he sighed. "How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!" life suffering Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
ac7f166 Eddie told her he had made things square and her eyebrows lifted and her lips spread and Eddie felt and old, warm feeling he had missed for years, the simple act of making his wife happy life marriage Mitch Albom
7307fb5 "The backside of mountain is a fight against human nature," he said. "You have to care as much about yourself on the way down as you did on the way up." life mountain mountains Mitch Albom
842e005 "It takes a huge investment in introspection to learn that the thirty or more hours spent "studying" the news last month neither had any predictive ability during your activities of that month nor did it impact your current knowledge of the world." knowledge life news prediction time work Nassim Nicholas Taleb
7c4f66d You do not give your precious body to the billy clubs of Birmingham sheriffs, nor to the insidious activity of the streets. black-power blackness inspirational inspirational-quotes life life-lessons life-lessons-quotes living living-life living-now people-of-color strength Ta-Nehisi Coates
ad48e7e What really mattered in life, what gave it weight, was death. life Jeffrey Eugenides
87d67e9 Gabe, did you pray?' 'Sort of.' 'Me too. Do you believe?' 'No. Do you?' 'No.' 'I don't believe,' said Gabriel, 'But I have faith, if you know what I mean.' 'What in?' 'I don't know, life, carrying on, I suppose.' 'Yes. faith god in-the-kitchen life monica-ali Monica Ali
132249d When you understand that what you're telling is just a story. It isn't happening anymore. When you realize the story you're telling is just words, when you can just crumble it up and throw your past in the trash can, then we'll figure out who you're going to be. life Chuck Palahniuk
caefadc Every breath we draw wards off the death that constantly impinges on us.... Ultimately death must triumph, for by birth it has already become our lot and it plays with its prey only for a short while before swallowing it up. However, we continue our life with great interest and much solicitude as long as possible, just as we blow out a soap-bubble as long and as large as possible, although with the perfect certainty that it will burst. life Irvin D. Yalom
0677a76 If you won't share my life with me, maybe you'll share my death. death life pygmy Chuck Palahniuk
91ff8bc It is a mere cowardice to seek safety in negations. No character becomes strong in that way. You will be thrown into the world some day and then every rational satisfaction your nature that you deny now will assault like a savage appetite. decisions emotions fear inconfidence life rationalism safety weakness George Eliot
5237405 [W]hat makes earth feel like Hell is our expectation that it should feel like Heaven. heaven-and-hell hell life life-and-death Chuck Palahniuk
65cd5c6 I know now it is children who accept life; grown people cover it up and pretend it is different with drinks. children drinking life Rumer Godden
8cce462 There is so much about my fate that I cannot control, but other things do fall under my jurisdiction. There are certain lottery tickets I can buy, thereby increasing my odds of finding contentment. I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I can select what I eat and read and study. i can choose how I'm going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life - whether I will see them as curses or opportunities (and on the occasions when I can't rise to the most optimistic viewpoint, because I'm feeling too damn sorry for myself, I can choose to keep trying to change my outlook). I can choose my words and the tone of voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts. fate life Elizabeth Gilbert
7d70fe1 Do you think I lie to you? No. But you think I might lie to you about dying. Yes. Okay. I might. But we're not dying. Okay. lies life Cormac McCarthy
df7e05b I'm here. I love you. I don't care if you need to stay up crying all night long, I will stay with you. If you need the medication again, go ahead and take it - I will love you through that, as well. If you don't need the medication, I will love you, too. There's nothing you can ever do to lose my love. I will protect you until you die, and after your death I will still protect you. I am stronger than Depression and I am braver than Loneliness and nothing will ever exhaust me. life loneliness love Elizabeth Gilbert
5915692 The way you remember or dream about your loved ones - the ones who are gone - you can't stop their endings from jumping ahead of the rest of their stories. You don't get to choose the chronology of what you dream, or the order of events in which you remember someone. In your mind - in your dreams, in your memories - sometimes the story begins with the epilogue. death end family friends inspiration life love memories memory nostalgia relationships thoughts John Irving
abc4d93 Because we are human we have a long childhood, and one of the jobs of that childhood is to sculpt our brains. We have years--about twelve of them--to draw outlines of the shape we want our sculpted brain to take. Some of the parts must be sculpted at critical times. One cannot, after all, carve out toes unless he knows where the foot will go. We need tools to do some of the fine work. The tools are our childhood experiences. And I'm convinced that one of those experiences must be children's books. And they must be experienced within the early years of our long childhood. brains childhood children children-s-books children-s-lit children-s-literature development experiences life life-experiences literature reading E.L. Konigsburg
4541ade She thought of all the people in all the paintings she had seen that day, not just Father's, in all the paintings of the world, in fact. Their eyes, the particular turn of a head, their loneliness or suffering or grief was borrowed by an artist to be seen by other people throughout the years who would never see them face to face. People who would be that close to her, she thought, a matter of a few arms' lengths, looking, looking, and they would never know her. life painting Susan Vreeland
376dedf When you're lost in those woods, it sometimes takes you a while to realize that you are lost. For the longest time, you can convince yourself that you've just wandered a few feet off the path, that you'll find your way back to the trailhead any moment now. Then night falls again and again, and you still have no idea where you are, and it's time to admit that you have bewildered yourself so far off the path that you don't even know from which direction the sun rises anymore. life Elizabeth Gilbert
a9bc24f "Well... "why" is a hard question to answer in any language." life love why Elizabeth Gilbert
36148aa As long as you're breathing, your story's still going. ending life living story Darren Shan
b378ce2 You can't save everyone. It's not an option. choose choosing life option save Darren Shan
d34ca7f We often get into ruts, on treadmills, caught up in patterns and habits that aren't useful. We don't stop to ask, what can I learn from this week that will keep next week from essentially being a repeat of the same? inspirational life productivity repeating-the-past Stephen R. Covey
f4279bf When a boy's first romantic interlude is with Pheobe the Dog-Faced Girl, he feels a need to get out into the world and find a new life. circus dating funny girls humor life life-experience love teenagers Annette Curtis Klause
a66da67 On the earth, satellite of a star speeding through space, living things had arisen under the influence of conditions which were part of the planet's history; and as there had been a beginning of life upon it, so, under the influence of other conditions, there would be an end: man, no more significant than other forms of life, had come not as the climax of creation but as a physical reaction to the environment. human life man W. Somerset Maugham
e15c297 "I had to do something about my longing, so I got up, went to the kitchen in my nightgown, peeled a pound of potatoes, boiled them up, sliced them, fried them in butter, salted them generously and ate every bite of them - asking my body the whole while if it would please accept the satisfaction of a pound of fried potatoes in lieu of the fulfillment of lovemaking. My body replied, only after eating every bite of food: "No deal, babe." -- life longing love women Elizabeth Gilbert
7db365b Why did people always get tangled up with other people? Why put ourselves through this shit? life J.D. Robb
9bb5cb6 What are you doing?' Hugh moaned as I stepped out of the dressing room. 'That's three pairs of culottes you'll own now.' All I could say in my defense was 'Maybe I have a busy life. life David Sedaris
7e66bde See what's inside a drop of water. The whole seed of the universe. Come, come. See what's inside a drop of blood. The composition of life. It's all there. Hate as well. We approach the mystery of life, but it's impossible to understand the mystery of hate. The kind of hate that causes people not only to kill, but to want to erase you from the census of births. I have to concentrate on that mystery. Read everything there is. It has to be in a drop of blood. It has to have its chemistry. life war Manuel Rivas
1dc2fd1 It actually felt harder, not easier, to be with people. The toughest challenge was my face; maintaining a 'normal' expression was utterly exhausting. life love moving-on sad wife Marian Keyes
fc86fd4 God doesn't mock us. He never gives us a goal that we cannot accomplish in His strength. I want to assure you, you can glorify God, you MUST glorify God. But you have to determine deep within your heart that you're going to do it His way. god life strength Charles R. Swindoll
99503b3 Things didn't turn out the way they were suppsed to, but qhat can you do? You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it. life Yann Martel
8098418 Nao aprendeste nada, vai-te, dissera o Pastor, e quica quisesse dizer que ele nao aprendera a defender a vida. diabo life pastor vida José Saramago
a362d3b The living stayed home, haunting the world of the dead like ghosts. future life science-fiction Neal Stephenson
a9ee426 She says screens are the cigarettes of our age. They're toxic, and we're only going to realize the damage they're doing when it's too late. bully family friendship funny life starbucks sunglasses Sophie Kinsella
28529d9 I am a sacrifice bound with cords to the horns of the world's rock altar, waiting for worms. I take a deep breath, I open my eyes. Looking, I see there are worms in the horns of the altar like live maggots in amber, there are shells of worms in the rock and moths flapping at my eyes. A wind from no place rises. A sense of the real exults me; the cords loosen: I walk on my way. life purpose Annie Dillard
554a8b0 One should continue (of course with dignity) to develop, however old one may be. She had nothing against developing, against further ripeness, because as long as one was alive one was not dead -obviously, decided Mrs. Fisher, and development, change, ripening, were life. life Elizabeth von Arnim
e433ec3 Isn't it a mercy that we never get cured of being expectant? It makes life so bearable. However regularly we are disappointed and nothing whatever happens, after the first blow has fallen, after the first catch of the breath, the first gulp of misery, we turn our eyes with all their old eagerness to a point a little further along the road. expectation hope hoping life life-and-living Elizabeth von Arnim
e1f5874 Listen! I know it's not right to talk. Better to set an example, better to just start - I have already started - and - and can one really be unhappy? Oh, what do my grief and my misfortune matter if I have the strength to be happy? You know, I don't understand how one can walk by a tree and not be happy at the sight of it! Or to speak with a man and not be happy in loving him? Oh, it's just that I can't express it - and yet there are so many things at every stop so beautiful that even the most desolate of men find them beautiful. Look at a child, look at Go's sunrise, look at the grass, how it grows, look into eyes that look at you and love you - life love meaning-in-life Fyodor Dostoyevsky
e173991 Yes it's me, I myself, what I turned out to be, (...) I'm the one here in myself, it's me. (...) Whatever I was, whatever I wasn't--it's all in what I am. Whatever I wanted, whatever I didn't want--all of this has shaped me. Whatever I loved, or stopped loving--in me it's the same nostalgia (Alvaro de Campos) life loneliness love nostalgia self-knowledge Fernando Pessoa
9a6b936 Now, he thought, since all these most easily perishing things have slipped from me again, now I'm standing here under the sun again just as I have been standing here a little child, nothing is mine, I have no abilities, there is nothing I could bring about, I have learned nothing. How wondrous is this! Now, that I'm no longer young, that my hair is already half gray, that my strength is fading, now I'm starting again at the beginning and as a child! Again, he had to smile. Yes, his fate had been strange! Things were going downhill with him, and now he was again facing the world void and naked and stupid. But he could not feel sad about this, no, he even felt a great urge to laugh, to laugh about himself, to laugh about this strange, foolish world. life Hermann Hesse
f8053ff But death is not easy, and life can win by simulating it. life life-and-death Iris Murdoch
7a2a722 Y lo que, por el contrario, me sucede a mi en las raras horas de placer, lo que para mi es delicia, suceso, elevacion y extasis, eso no lo conoce, ni lo ama, ni lo busca el mundo mas que si acaso en las novelas; en la vida, lo considera una locura. Y en efecto, si el mundo tiene razon, si esta musica de los cafes, estas diversiones en masa, estos hombres americanos contentos con tan poco tienen razon, entonces soy yo el que no la tiene, entonces es verdad que estoy loco, entonces soy efectivamente el lobo estepario que tantas veces me he llamado, la bestia descarriada en un mundo que le es extrano e incomprensible, que ya no encuentra ni su hogar, ni su ambiente, ni su alimento. existencialismo existentialism hesse life lobo lobo-estepario modern-life vida-moderna Hermann Hesse
62d1458 But I will never ask anyone from our village-from any village in Tlanth-to risk his or her life unless I'm willing to myself. life morals war Sherwood Smith
68e78ff But the lost one is with you. Her tenderness strengthens you, Her gaiety uplifts you, Her honor purifies you. More than memory, The lost one is found. life memory Gail Carson Levine
9da2d31 As humans we are inclined to feel that life must have a point. We have plans and aspirations and desires. We want to take constant advantage of all the intoxicating existence we've been endowed with. But what's life to a cell? Yet it's impulse to exist, to be, is every bit as strong as ours - perhaps even stronger. Life just wants to be. desires existence history humans impulse life Bill Bryson
77aa610 How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book! life new-era reading Henry David Thoreau
3e03b2f Meaning. If you're going to die, you want to find meaning in life. You want to connect the dots. death find franny-billingsley life meaning Franny Billingsley
f084d36 It was a wonderful time to be alive, or even dead. life the-past Billy Collins
42617fd On his thirteenth birthday he had seen a film in which the central character was a painter who, unable to sell his work, grew cold and hungry as he went from one unsuccessful interview to the next; eventually he had become a vagrant, sleeping in the streets of the city where once he had walked in hope. Hawksmoor left the cinema in a mood of profound, terrified apprehension and, from that time, he was filled with a sense of time passing and with the fear that he might be left discarded on its banks. The fear had not left him, although now he could no longer remember from where it came: he looked back on his earlier life without curiosity, since it seemed to lack intrinsic interest, and when he looked forward he saw the same steady attainment of goals without any joy in their attainment. For him, the state of happiness was simply the state of not suffering and, if he cared for anything, it was for oblivion. anxiety goals life oblivion time Peter Ackroyd
07830f5 If we had directions, it wouldn't be life. It would be an assignment. Grunt work. life life-and-living James Patterson
c936336 So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, to your community around you, to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning. devote important life live love meaning purpose wrong Mitch Albom
05e28b0 "Why is it when people are proud of me that my life sucks?" "Because growing up means making tough choices, and doing the right thing doesn't necessarily mean doing the thing that feels good." -- life mrs-collins noah-hutchins right-thing sucks Katie McGarry
cc5d0e3 The stars are the apexes of what wonderful triangles! What distant and different beings in the various mansions of the universe are contemplating the same one at the same moment! Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another? Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant? empathy human-nature life miracle stars walden walden-pond Henry David Thoreau
1f6bdbc He sometimes asked himself a question about life. Which are truer, the happy memories, or the unhappy ones? He decided, eventually, that the question was unanswerable. julian-barnes life memories memory the-only-story truth unanswerable unhappy-memories Julian Barnes
fc5c3f4 Perhaps everyone had their own way of preparing to die. Life got you ready. life Lorrie Moore
c439d48 "Perhaps this is what Henry James meant when he talked about the "irresponsibility" of characters. Characters are irresponsible, art is irresponsible when compared to life, because it is first and foremost important that a character be real, and as readers or watchers we tend to applaud any effort made towards the construction of that reality. We do not, of course, indulge actual people in the world this way at all. In real life, the fact that something seems real to someone is not enough to interest us, or to convince us that that reality is interesting. But the self-reality of fictional characters is deeply engrossing, which is why villains are lovable in literature in ways that they are not in life." fiction-writing life morality James Wood
d2f8c65 I know at least what I am,' he simply went on; 'the other side of the medal's clear enough. I've not been edifying--I believe I'm thought in a hundred quarters to have been barely decent. I've followed strange paths and worshipped strange gods; it must have come to you again and again--in fact you've admitted to me as much--that I was leading, at any time these thirty years, a selfish frivolous scandalous life. And you see what it has made of me. life Henry James
38dfe1d In fact, I can't think of much I'd like better than for him to step into the room right now, glasses fogged and smelling of damp wool, shaking the rain from his hair like an old dog and saying: 'Dickie, my boy, what you got for a thirsty old man to drink tonight? donna-tartt the-secret-history horror humor life ocd Donna Tartt
0755597 Some things may never change but other things can be so completely different that they make the things that don't change bearable. hope life love Donna VanLiere
ba13855 "Look to the east," she said, "for always, while the light dies in the west, there is the promise of rebirth from the east." hope life rebirth Marion Zimmer Bradley
5cc3ad9 Welcome to the future, she thought, surveying all this wordage and tat. All our tragedies and triumphs, our lives and deaths, our shames and joys are just stuffing for your emptiness. future life tragedies triumphs Iain M. Banks
539d251 The petite bourgeoise and small property in general represent a precious zone of autonomy and freedom in state systems increasingly dominated by large public and private bureaucracies. bureaucracy capitalism freedom life petite-bourgeoise private-sector public-sector trade-unions work James C. Scott
eb7a484 It is time someone put in a good word for the petite bourgeoise. Unlike the working class and capitalists, who have never lack for spokespersons, the petite bourgeoise rarely, if ever, speaks for itself. freedom life petite-bourgeoise trade-unions work James C. Scott
ea07e09 All of life seems to me a strange dream about losing things you never had to begin with. About trying to find your glasses when you can't see because you don't have your glasses on. life Lorrie Moore
478401c You think this is living? This is eating, nothing else. life living Peter S. Beagle
da361f2 "So I had something to do, something I'd done, someplace to go, and something to look forward to. That's a reasonable way to live. I enjoyed myself living. I had a good time. How much else can you ask for?" "A lot more," Laura said softly, "if you're greedy. I was greedy once." "So was I, but that was a long time ago. You're greediest when you're born, and after that it's downhill all the way. Live to be two hundred and you wouldn't demand anything." life living Peter S. Beagle
114f533 I needed to make choices for me, whoever I was. I'd say I needed to find myself, if that didn't sound like I was heading into the Himalayas, taking only a backpack stuffed with angst and clean underwear life sarcastic Kelley Armstrong
0795283 Where would tourism be without a little luxury and a taste of night life? There were several cities on Deanna, all moderate in size, but the largest was the capital, Atro City. For the connoisseur of fast-foods, Albrechts' famous hotdogs and coldcats were sold fresh from his stall (Albrecht's Takeaways) on Lupini Square. For the sake of his own mental health he had temporarily removed Hot Stuff Blend from the menu. The city was home to Atro City University, which taught everything from algebra and make-up application to advanced stamp collecting; and it was also home to the planet-famous bounty hunter - Beck the Badfeller. Beck was a legend in his own lifetime. If Deanna had any folklore, then Beck the Badfeller was one of its main features. He was the local version of Robin Hood, the Davy Crockett of Deanna. The Local rumor mill had it he was so good he could find the missing day in a leap year. Once, so the story goes, he even found a missing sock. all and application atro badfeller beck blend bounty capital city coldcats collecting crockett davy deanna everything fast-foods features folklore for from goes had he hood life lifetime little local luxury make-up menü mill missing moderate of once planet-famous size sock square stall story taught the there to university was were where year Christina Engela
a70dfb9 "The past is what it is--good and bad, it's written and unchanging. And there's solace to be had in that." Tears pricked her eyes. "What do you mean?" There was a long pause. "The good parts are more luminous because you can trust them. And the bad parts can't get any more tragic for precisely the same reason. The past is safe because it is indelible." life past J.R. Ward
36e6162 That was the thing about life. Habit and routine made things feel permanent, but that was all an illusion based on the very flimsy foundation of repetition. Change and chaos was a far better bet to put your faith in. At least you would never be surprised when things went tits up. life J.R. Ward
e4d9c1b "True enough. I say this all the time. Trez looked at his hands. "I didn't ask for this." "No one asks for life." The executioner hiked iAm's body up higher. "And sometimes they do not ask for death..." life life-and-living life-quote J.R. Ward
eb440ac The search for contentment is, therefore, not merely a self-preserving and self-benefiting act, but also a generous gift to the world. Clearing out all your misery gets you out of the way. You cease being an obstacle, not only to yourself but to anyone else. Only then are you free to serve and enjoy other people. happiness life people Elizabeth Gilbert
2026f47 ... people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you're fortunate enough. But that's not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. life Elizabeth Gilbert
4b18ce2 But I was always coming here. I thought about one of my favorite Sufi poems, which says that God long ago drew a circle in the sand exactly around the spot where you are standing right now. I was never not coming here. This was never not going to happen. life philosophy spirituality Elizabeth Gilbert
316a08c "One by one, the thoughts and memories of sadness raised their hands, stood up to identify themselves. I looked at each thought, at each unit of sorrow, and I acknowledged its existence and felt (without trying to protect myself from it) its horrible pain. And then I would tell that sorrow, "It's OK. I love you. I accept you. Come into my heart now. It's over."..." life pain sadness Elizabeth Gilbert
907f30c "This is what we are like. Collectively, as a species, this is our emotional landscape. I met an old lady once, almost one hundred years old, and she told me, "There are only two questions that human beings have ever fought over, all through history. How much do you love me? And Who's in charge?" Everything else is somehow manageable. But these two questions of love and control undo us all, trip us up and cause war, grief and suffering." life love Elizabeth Gilbert
0579b2b Though I suppose people do reproduce sometimes for that reason - for insurance against later regret. I think people have children for all manner of reasons - sometimes out of a pure desire to nurture and witness life, sometimes out of an absence of choice, sometimes in order to hold on to a partner or create an heir, sometimes without thinking about it in any particular way. Not all the reasons to have children are the same, and not all of them are necessarily unselfish. Not all the reasons not to have children are the same, either, though. Nor are all those reasons necessarily selfish. life parenthood Elizabeth Gilbert
87be22f But at some point you have to make peace with what you were given and if God wanted me to be a shy girl with thick, dark hair, He would have made me that way, but He didn't Useful, then, might be to accept how I was made and embody myself fully therein. life personality Elizabeth Gilbert
69440dd Devotion is diligence without assurance. life Elizabeth Gilbert
fb34205 The sentences still form in my mind, and thoughts still do their little show-off dance, but I know my thought patterns so well now that they don't bother me anymore. My thoughts have become like old neighbors, kind of bothersome but ultimately rather endearing - Mr. and Mrs. Yakkity-Yak and their three dumb children, Blah, Blah and Blah. But they don't agitate my home. There's room for all of us in this neighborhood. life spirituality Elizabeth Gilbert
356c430 New life, new hope, new joy will start when this is given from the heart. hope joy life Melody Carlson
afa5dd7 You can let yourself off the hook anytime you want, Liz. That's the divine contract of a little something we call free will. life Elizabeth Gilbert
d1d279a Your treasure - your perfection - is within you already. But to claim it, you must leave the busy commotion of the mind and abandon the desires of the ego and enter into the silence of the heart. The kundalini shakti - the supreme energy of the divine - will take you there. energy life perfection spirituality Elizabeth Gilbert
96a9d67 I've spent so much time these last years wondering what I'm supposed to be. A wife? A lover? A celibate? An Italian? A glutton? A traveler? An artist? A Yogi? But I'm not any of these things, at least not completely. And I'm not Crazy Aunt Liz, either. I'm just a slippery antevasin - betwixt and between - a student on the ever-shifting border near the wonderful, scary forest of the new. life Elizabeth Gilbert
145e12f There has always been a 'and this is where I come in' feeling about a night call. And as my lights swept the cobbles of the deserted market place it was there again, a sense of returning to fundamentals, of really being me. calling career life profession vet James Herriot
ef3691f "...ask yourself, "Who's getting the glory in this ministry?" You see, if we do ministry OUR way, it won't be for His glory, because our ways are not His ways." glorifying-god god life wake-up Charles R. Swindoll
e08b440 That young man will go far, she said. I don't know in what direction, but he will go far. direction life Alexander McCall Smith
490ae80 He thought of all the ways that so many people felt about life. Life was a matter of regret--how could it be anything else? We knew that we would lose the things we loved; we knew that sooner or later we would lose everything, and beyond that was a darkness, a state of non-being that we found hard to imagine, let alone accept. life regret Alexander McCall Smith
51fe3e5 Nothing had just happened to her, she had made a choice, and then she had made another and another after that. Taken together, the small choices anyone made added up to a life. big-picture choice choices choices-and-consequences decisions life life-lessons maturation wisdom J. Courtney Sullivan
908bc25 Eddie admitted that some of his life he'd spent hiding from God, and the rest of the time he thought he went unnoticed. life Mitch Albom
233a9e8 Old age had distilled her down to her essence. elderly essence humanity life life-lessons old-age old-people wisdom womanhood J. Courtney Sullivan
7aa17fc But that I should have ended up in a place like this seems too custom-made a nightmare to be the work of mere ill fortune. ill-fortune life Zoë Heller
164316f It's not a big thing, but I guess it's true- big things are often just small things that are noticed. life Ned Vizzini
73fde13 There was a great deal of progress being made, right under their noses, particularly in Africa, and this progress was good. Life was much harder for tyrants than it had been before. alexander-mccall-smith life progress tyrants Alexander McCall Smith
e6e5fb2 It could be that God has absconded but spread, as our vision and understanding of the universe have spread, to a fabric of spirit and sense so grand and subtle, so powerful in a new way, that we can only feel blindly of its hem. believe god life understanding universe Annie Dillard
4df18fe "I glare at him and sigh. "Don't you understand what a book is?" "Obviously." emmahart life love novel quote reading reality romance standalone Emma Hart
a2111b5 bqytu l'r~. l'r~ kyf yktsH lmwt ldhbba tdryjyWan , w kdh l'`rf mn 'yn ynb`th hdh lmwt. mn lkhrj , mn kthf@ ljdr , 'm mn l'rD. mn 'y lylin y'ty , mn lbsyT@ 'm mn lsm , mn lGbt lqryb@ , 'm mn `dmin l sma lh , qryb jdWan rbm , l`lWh atin mnWy 'n lty tHwl 'n t`thr `l~ lmmrWt lty stslkh ldhbb@ lt`br l~ l'zl eternity life الأبد الأبدية الأزل الحياة الموت Marguerite Duras
2a9367e What happiness there had been in those days! What freedom! What hope! What an abundance of illusions! She had none left now. Each new venture had cost her some of them, each of her successive conditions: as virgin, wife and mistress; she had lost them all along the course of her life, like a traveler who leaves some of his wealth at every inn along the road. illusions life romaticism Gustave Flaubert
2ff55b9 "Marian's eyes absolutely blaze. To meet them is to have a shock of contact as if they were electrically charged. "Now you see? You wondered what was in whale's milk. Don't you know now? The same thing that's in a mushroom spore so small you need a microscope to see it, or in gophers, or poison oak, or anything else we try to pave under or grub out, or poison. There isn't good life and bad life, there's only life. Think of the force down there, just telling things to get born!" biology birth humanity life nature Wallace Stegner
1d116e4 As she rode, she tried to tell herself something. / You don't deserve to be this happy, Liesl. You really don't. / Can a person steal happiness? Or is it just another internal, infernal human trick? hope life Markus Zusak
49c9c25 Well, have you even tried again? You can't just sit around waiting for the new world to take it with you. You have to go out and be part of it - despite your past mistakes. life life-lesson mistake new-world try-again world Markus Zusak
3a4f16c The forces of blind life that work across this hilltop are as irresistible as she said they were, they work by a principle more potent than fission. But I can't look upon them as just life, impartial and eternal and in flux, an unceasing interchange of protein. And I can't find proofs of the crawl toward perfection that she believed in. Maybe what we call evil is only as she told me that first day we met, what conflicts with our interests; but maybe there are such realities as ignorance, selfishness, jealousy, malice, criminal carelessness, and maybe these things are evil no mater whose interests they serve or conflict with. good-vs-evil humanity life nature Wallace Stegner
56857cf I would recommend a solo flight to all prospective suicides. It tends to make clear the issue of whether one enjoys being alive or not. flying life suicide T.H. White
59dd835 Stress and anxiety cause our brains to release chemicals that put lines in our faces and tear us down emotionally and spiritually. inspiration life passages-malibu passages-ventura positive-thinking stress Chris Prentiss
eae2cd9 "Zen is a journey of exploration and a way of living that, in and of itself, does not belong to any one religion or tradition. It is about experiencing life in the here and now and about removing the dualistic distinctions between "I" and "you" between "subject" and "objective", between our spiritual and our ordinary, everyday activities." chris-prentiss happiness inspiration life philosophy zen zen-and-the-art-of-happiness Chris Prentiss
ca718ad Although you may have never sat down and defined what your philosophy is, it is fully operative and working in your life at all times. It deals with what you believe about the world in which you live, about its people and events, about how you affect them. life life-and-living philosophy zen zen-and-the-art-of-happiness Chris Prentiss
ae9533f When you change the way you see and interpret events, suddenly everything will be different for you. Everything will make sense. chris-prentiss inspiration inspirational life passages-malibu passages-ventura perspective philosophy Chris Prentiss
aa31634 Every belief that you hold manifests itself in some manner by either causing you to take some form of action or by preventing you from taking action. If you don't believe something is possible, you won't even attempt it. happiness life metaphysics philosophy zen zen-and-the-art-of-happiness Chris Prentiss
5aeb05c Stress comes from the way you relate to events or situations. life philosophy stress stress-management zen zen-and-the-art-of-happiness Chris Prentiss
4205ebb If you allow disagreements and arguments to escalate, you are making the bone of contention of whatever you are heatedly arguing about more important than your relationship. inspiration life love relationships self-help the-laws-of-love Chris Prentiss
6ef74cc We like to take credit when we get a new idea, as if we originated the idea in our brain, but what we actually did was no less extraordinary: we channeled the idea. creative ideas inspiration life new-ideas read reading writing Chris Prentiss
b2a9c9c You use your brain much as you would use a radio crystal; you tune in different frequencies. ideas inspiration life new-ideas quotes Chris Prentiss
2b30b9d Believe that is cure is possible for you. Discover and heal the underlying causes with a holistic recovery program. Adopt a philosophy based on what is true in the Universe. addiction-cure addiction-free addiction-treatment-center alcohol-addiction-treatment change change-the-world chris-prentiss curing-addiction drug-addiction-treatment freedom good-books happiness healing health holistic-health holistic-treatment inspiration inspire life non-12-step non12step passages-malibu passages-ventura philosophy recommended-reading renew self-help self-improvement sober sober-living sobriety treatment-program universe wisdom Chris Prentiss
dca1b95 The events that occur in my life are workout situations. They are there for my benefit so I can become strong and gain wisdom and information by working my way through those situations. addiction-and-recovery addiction-free chris-prentiss chris-prentiss-quotes guilt happiness joy life love pain passages-malibu passages-ventura peace philosophy philosophy-of-life wisdom Chris Prentiss
17d0104 Whatever you now do, whatever you now believe, whatever your current circumstances may be, you are perfectly equipped and fully capable of fulfilling your needs and desires. chris-prentiss life non-12-step passages-malibu passages-rehab passages-ventura quotes Chris Prentiss
60c10bd What we call coincidences, accidental and remarkable events occurring at the same time, are actually circumstances and events that have come into your life to serve a purpose- and that purpose is to benefit you. chris-prentiss inspiration inspirational life life-purpose non-12-step-program passage-ventura passages-malibu perspective philosophy quotes Chris Prentiss
a754030 "The word Universe is made up of two Latin words- uni (meaning "one") and versus (meaning "turned into"). It literally means "one turned into." life metaphysics universe Chris Prentiss
60d3c4d The energy everything is made of is conscious. It's alive. energy inspiration life metaphysics quotes Chris Prentiss
c260ac9 The challenges and changes you meet are, in effect, hand delivered to you by a generous, loving Universe for the purpose of making you stronger and wiser. inspiration life relationships self-help the-laws-of-love Chris Prentiss
aab80f3 "Once you look at your problems as "workout situations," they take on a whole new aspect." inspiration life self-help the-laws-of-love Chris Prentiss
96b2e45 Life is sacrifice and risk taking, and nothing that doesn't entail some moderate amount of the former, under the constraint of satisfying the latter, is close to what we can call life. If you do not undertake a risk of real harm, reparable or even potentially irreparable, from an adventure, it is not an adventure. harm life risk risk-taking sacrifice Nassim Nicholas Taleb
b127edb He put his life on hold as he waited for his life to begin. life living Keith Donohue
c97585c L'amore per un figlio non puo essere libero: sin dai primi segni di movimento nell'utero germoglia in noi una devozione tanto potente quanto viscerale, irresistibile come l'atto stesso della nascita. Ma, per quanto potente esso sia, si tratta pur sempre di un amore fatto di controllo; si diventa guardiani, protettori, custodi: c'e tantissima passione in questo, certo, ma mai abbandono. Avevo sempre, sempre dovuto bilanciare la compassione con la saggezza, l'amore con il giudizio, l'umanita con l'inflessibilita. Solo a Jamie avevo dato tutto cio che possedevo, rischiando tutto. Avevo gettato al vento cautela, giudizio e saggezza, insieme ai piaceri e alle limitazioni di una carriera duramente conquistata. Gli avevo portato in dono nient'altro che me stessa, non ero stata altro che me stessa con lui, donandomi anima e corpo, e avevo lasciato che mi vedesse nuda, confidando che mi avrebbe amata tutta intera, comprese le mie fragilita, perche un tempo era stato cosi. jamie-fraser life love Diana Gabaldon
1863f33 "We keep sending colonies up into space," Akilah says, "and we don't even know what's at the bottom of the sea." "Yeah, we do," I counter. "Fish and stuff." Akilah laughs. "We've barely explored the sea. There are places where the water is so deep that it has never seen light." She sighs. "I would like to go to those places. I would like to sink down and down and down and see what's hidden at the bottom." The sea is a dangerous place because it makes you believe in forever. I stare back at the shoreline, where heavy boulders clutter the shore, a remembrance of the attacks during the Secessionary War. For all the hundreds of thousands of people killed in the war, more are dead and gone beneath the waves of the sea. I tread water, turning slowly, so the island's behind me and all I can see is the blue-green waters. The sea goes on forever and ever. We are tiny, almost invisible specks. It could swallow us up. We are less than the bright stars of the night sky, compared to the vastness of the sea. And it is this place, as one tiny, barely visible speck bobbing in the water, where Akilah feels safe. Maybe being alone in the sea, with its unexplored depths, its clawing-finger waves, really is safer compared to the land, where there are people and malice and death." below-the-sea dangerous death earth ella-shepard ground life sea waves Beth Revis
d54bdd0 In a strange way, I envied the quality of Morrie's time even as I lamented its diminishing supply. Why did we bother with all the distractions we did? life wasted-time Mitch Albom
aed71e8 Cecilia had unleashed her blood in the bath, Amy Schraff said, because the ancient Romans had done that when life became unbearable, and she thought when Dominic heard about it, on the highway, amid the cactus, he would realize that it was she who loved him. jeffrey-eugenides life suicide the-virgin-suicides unbearable Jeffrey Eugenides
997ab6e We spent today sending men to hell. What's more natural than to pass the night dreaming of procreating a few more to take their place? life sex war A.J. Hartley and David Hewson
6bea6d2 So we gave the afternoon some sanity after all and I wonder, Uncle Andrew, is life sane, as we tried to make it? Or is it insanity, as it was yesterday on the Gerard plantation? And why don't more people try to make it sane? Or if it is full of sanity for them, why do they try to rip that sanity to pieces and impose their form of insanity? Can you help me understand? life sanity Ann Rinaldi
8c17eee Back in grade school, my shrinks tried to channel my viciousness into a constructive outlet, so I cut things with scissors. Heavy, cheap fabrics Diane bought by the bolt. I sliced through them with old metal shears going up and down: . The soft growl of the fabrics as I sliced it apart, and that perfect last moment, when your thumb is getting sore and your shoulders hurt from hunching and cut, cut, cut... free, the fabric now swaying in two pieces in your hands, a curtain parted. And then what? That's how I felt now, like I'd been sawing away at something and come to the end and here I was by myself again, in my small house with no job, no family, and I was holding two ends of fabric and didn't know what to do next. confusion fabric hate life school therapy Gillian Flynn
d6d4a75 Creativity is the result of renunciation on the journey of spiritual enlightenment, not of a thirst for glory or personal pride. creativity enlightenment glory life pride renunciation spirituality Ray Mancini
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