Reflecting

I like quotes. I like the way they prompt me to think about things in a more concise and simplified manner. I like the way they sum up things I have been thinking. I like that words can capture thoughts in that way. Here are some that have caught my eye:

Take off the masks you fear you can’t live without, but KNOW you can’t live within. 

"ring the bells that still can ring forget your perfect offering, there are cracks, cracks in everything, that's how the light gets in" (Leonard Cohen)

You, alone, you must do it.  But you don’t have to do it alone.

Nothing changes if nothing changes …

Change only occurs when the pain of staying the same becomes too great.

As long as your motivation to change is greater than your fear of responsibility, you will take action.

It’s not that some have willpower and some don’t, it’s that some people are ready to change and some are not (James Gordon)

You lose your grip and then you slip, Into the masterpiece. Leonard Cohen

Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are. Chinese Proverb

Above all, learning to accept others for the place they are at is the essence of love - a bigger love, a universal love, an unconditional love. It's not an easy path - unless you choose it to be. (me)

If you wait to do everything until you’re sure it’s right, you’ll probably never do much of anything.

 There is no old age. There is, as there always was, just you. Carol Matthau

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts. Winston Churchill

We make a difference to other people when we give gifts to them, when we bring emotional labor to the table and do work that matters. It's hard for me to imagine that this is only available to a few. Yes, the cards are unfairly stacked against too many people. Yes, there's too many barriers and not enough support. But ...no, your ability to create and contribute isn't determined at birth. It's a choice. Seth Godin, 2010.

An enemy will agree, but a friend will argue. Russian Proverb

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one. C.S. Lewis

Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced. James Arthur Baldwin

Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless. Jamie Paolinetti

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.  Theodore Roosevelt

A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary. Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands—and then eat just one of the pieces. Judith Viorst

Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths. Etty Hillesum

Positive anything is better than negative nothing. Elbert Hubbard

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to bloom. Anais Nin

If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down but the staying down. Mary Pickford.

Don’t compromise yourself. You’re all you’ve got. Janis Joplin

Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That’s why it’s a comfort to go hand in hand. Emily Kimbrough

Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. Anonymous

It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. Berke Breathed

Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction. Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Anything I’ve ever done that ultimately was worthwhile...initially scared me to death. Betty Bender

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present mment wisely and earnestly. Buddha

Don't go throught life, grow through life. Eric Butterworth

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. Howard Thurman

Life is partly what we make it, and partly what is made by the friends we choose. Tennessee Williams

The dreams of the rich and the dreams of the poor – they never overlap do they? See, the poor dream all their lives of getting enough to eat and looking like the rich. And what do the rich dream of? Losing weight and looking like the poor. (from The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga)

I do believe it is possible to create, even without ever writing a word or painting a picture, by simply molding one's inner life. And that too is a deed. Etty Hillesum

The kindest thing you can do for the people you care about is to become a happy, joyous person. Brian Tracey

In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth. Mahatma Gandhi

The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water, but to walk on the earth.  Chinese Proverb

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.  Eleanor Roosevelt

 What we hope ever to do with ease we may learn first to do with diligence. Samuel Johnson

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone. Coco Chanel

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are. Tobias Wolff

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear. Ambrose Redmoon

Life isn’t measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away! (author unknown)

If you celebrate your different-ness, the world will, too. It believes exactly what you tell it - through the words you use to describe yourself, the actions you take to care for yourself, and the choices you make to express yourself. Tell the world you are one-of-a-kind creation who came here to experience wonder and spread joy. Expect to be accommodated. Victoria Moran from Lit from Within

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow. Mary Anne Radmacher

There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do. Freya Stark

‎"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked."Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.""How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice."You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here".

The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them. Bernard Baruch