God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
All I ask is one thing, and I’m asking this particularly of young people: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism, for the record, it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.
We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.
If you haven’t the strength to impose your own terms upon life, then you must accept the terms it offers you.
Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.
Re-examine all you have been told. Dismiss what insults your soul.
He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.
People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take.
And if my heart be scarred and burned,
The safer, I, for all I learned.
I would rather make mistakes in kindness and compassion than work miracles in unkindness and hardness.
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.
Do you really want to be happy? You can begin by being appreciative of who you are and what you’ve got.
Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place
Be yourself; no base imitator of another, but your best self. There is something which you can do better than another. Listen to the inward voice and bravely obey that. Do the things at which you are great, not what you were never made for.
A creative life cannot be sustained by approval any more than it can be destroyed by criticism.
Darling, when things go wrong in life, you lift your chin, put on a ravishing smile, mix yourself a little cocktail…
See, as much as you want to hold on to the bitter sore memory that someone has left this world, you are still in it
To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man.
The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers & cities; but to know someone who thinks & feels with us, & who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.
If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it – then I can achieve it.
If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.
Although I’m only fourteen, I know quite well what I want, I know who is right and who is wrong. I have my opinions, my own ideas and principles, and although it may sound pretty mad from an adolescent, I feel more of a person than a child, I feel quite indepedent of anyone.
I disregard the proportions, the measures, the tempo of the ordinary world. I refuse to live in the ordinary world as ordinary women. To enter ordinary relationships. I want ecstasy. I am a neurotic — in the sense that I live in my world. I will not adjust myself to the world. I am adjusted to myself.
I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing.
So early in my life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.
Never respond to an angry person with a fiery comeback, even if he deserves it…Don’t allow his anger to become your anger.
You can’t become a decent horseman until you fall off and get up again, a good number of times.
There’s life in a nutshell.
Down on the lake rosy reflections of celestial vapor appeared, and I said, “God, I love you” and looked to the sky and really meant it. “I have fallen in love with you, God. Take care of us all, one way or the other.” To the children and the innocent it’s all the same.
Your problem is how you are going to spend this one and precious life you have been issued. Whether you’re going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are.
We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.
There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.
The best relationships in our lives are the best not because they have been the happiest ones, they are that way because they have stayed strong through the most tormentful of storms.
Sometimes I think my head is so big because it is so full of dreams
To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.
Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine.
May Light always surround you;
Hope kindle and rebound you.
May your Hurts turn to Healing;
Your Heart embrace Feeling.
May Wounds become Wisdom;
Every Kindness a Prism.
May Laughter infect you;
Your Passion resurrect you.
May Goodness inspire
your Deepest Desires.
Through all that you Reach For,
May your arms Never Tire.
Sit in a room and read–and read and read. And read the right books by the right people. Your mind is brought onto that level, and you have a nice, mild, slow-burning rapture all the time.
The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.
You’re not obligated to win. You’re obligated to keep trying. To the best you can do everyday.
Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here.
It’s not about how to achieve your dreams, it’s about how to lead your life, … If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself, the dreams will come to you.
Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don’t give up the fight.
This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.
But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.
It [feminism] is mixed up with a muddled idea that women are free when they serve their employers but slaves when they help their husbands.
To the world you may be one person but to one person you may be the world.
When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.
Weekends don’t count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless.
The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.
When I was growing up I always wanted to be someone. Now I realize I should have been more specific.