Favorite Quotations

This is a list of quotes I like. Please feel free to let me know what you think about any of them and if you have a favorite quote you’d like to share with me, please do!

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“May we also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems and failures in life. May we always rise above them with morality, integrity, forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness and wisdom.” – Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

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“Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it — every, every minute?” – Emily Webb from Our Town, Thornton Wilder.
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“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.” – Mary Anne Radmacher
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“Any love which is dependent on something, when the ‘something’ ceases, the love ceases. Any love which is not dependent on anything will never cease. – Pirke Avot, Chapter 5, Mishna 19.
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“What was, was. What is, is. And that’s that.” – A guy at the gym named Jake.
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“You don’t fix faith… It fixes you.” – Shepherd Book (Firefly; ‘Jaynestown’)
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“We are all lonely and all seek a hand to hold in the darkness. It is not the harp, but the hand that plays it.” Uhtred of Bebbanburg (The Last Kingdom, Bernard Cornwell, 2004)
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“When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?” – Eleanor Roosevelt
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“Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.” – Isaac Asimov
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“What a strange machine man is! You fill him with bread, wine, fish, and radishes, and out comes sighs, laughter, and dreams.” -Nikos Kazantzakis, poet and novelist (18 Feb 1883-1957)
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“I would like to pass on one little bit of advice I give to everyone. Relax. Just relax. Be nice to each other. As you go through your life, simply be kind to people. Try to help them rather than hurt them. Try to get along with them rather than fall out with them. With that, I will leave you, and with all my very best wishes.” – Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche
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I happened to mention this to a hypnotist I saw many years ago, and he looked at me very nicely. At first I thought he was feeling around on the floor for the silent alarm button, but then he gave me the following exercise, which I still use to this day. Close your eyes and get quiet for a minute, until the chatter starts up. Then isolate one of the voices and imagine the person speaking as a mouse. Pick it up by the tail and drop it into a mason jar. Then isolate another voice, pick it up by the tail, drop it in the jar. And so on. Drop in any high-maintenance parental units, drop in any contractors, lawyers, colleagues, children, anyone who is whining in your head. Then put the lid on, and watch all these mouse people clawing at the glass, jabbering away, trying to make you feel like shit because you won’t do what they want—won’t give them more money, won’t be more successful, won’t see them more often. Then imagine that there is a volume-control button on the bottle. Turn it all the way up for a minute, and listen to the stream of angry, neglected, guilt-mongering voices. Then turn it all the way down and watch the frantic mice lunge at the glass, trying to get to you. Leave it down, and get back to your shitty first draft.” – Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

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“You gotta do the things that scare you.” – Charli Mills, Carrot Ranch Literary Community

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