Alaska Inspirational Quotes

Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia. (...) You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.

There comes a time when we realize that our parents cannot save themselves or save us, that everyone who wades through time eventually gets dragged out to sea by the undertow- that, in short, we are all going.

Islam and Christianity promise eternal paradise to the faithful. And that is a powerful opiate, certainly, the hope of a better life to come. But there's a Sufi story that challenges the notion that people believe only because they need an opiate. Rabe'a al-Adiwiyah, a great woman saint of Sufism, was seem running through the streets of her hometown, Basra, carrying a torch in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. When someone asked her what she was doing, she answered, 'I am going to take this bucket of water and pour it on the flames of hell, and then I am going to use this torch to burn down the gates of paradise so that people will not love God for want of heaven of fear of hell, but because He is God.

Tell her I'm sorry I sold the diamond, eh?" Sammy said. "I broke my promise. When she disappeared in Alaska... ah, so long ago, I finally used that diamond, moved to Texas as I always dreamed. I started my machine shop. Started my family! It was a good life, but Haze; was right. The diamond came with a curse. I never saw her again." "Oh, Sammy," Hazel said. "No, a curse didn't keep me away. I wanted to come back. I died!" The old man didn't seem to hear. He smiled down at the baby, and kissed him on the head. "I give you my blessing, Leo. First male great-grandchild! I have a feeling you are special, like Hazel was. You are more than a regular baby, eh? You will carry on for me. You will see her someday. Tell her hello for me.

They forget that we, too, have earned the right to live! So I say if we are going to die, my friend, let us die trying, not sitting.

I need you to love me the same way the moon orbits around the earth, without intention to stop. "Confessing the heart

Thomas Edison's last words were "It's beautiful over there." I don't know where "there" is but I believe it's somewhere, and I hope it's beautiful.

If the boy who draws lets you look over his shoulder. If the poet smiles and shows you her words. If the girl who sings for the shower only, hums a song in front of you. Know that you’re no longer a person but the air and dust that fills their lungs. When the world perishes, and all things cease to exist, you’ll remain inside an ink stain, a paint brush, a song. Poem N. 8

Exist with me. We'd do so beautifully.

Because you may be smart, but I’ve been smart longer

She was drowning—in friendliness, in community—and she was starting to think she didn't want to get pulled out.

We all know the true beauty of people everywhere, because we have all looked into the eyes of children, and saw ourselves looking back.

Now, because we have spent so many years convincing the younger people that we are helpless, they believe that we are no longer of use to this world.

When Alex left for Alaska," Franz remembers, "I prayed. I asked God to keep his finger on the shoulder of that one; I told him that boy was special. But he let Alex die. So on December 26, when I learned what happened, I renounced the Lord. I withdrew my church membership and became an atheist. I decided I couldn't believe in a God who would let something that terrible happen to a boy like Alex.

Imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.

We had to forgive to survive in the labyrinth

He was gone and did not have time to tell him what I had just now realized: that I forgave him, and that she forgave us, and that we had to forgive to survive in the labyrinth.

Don't you realize it's the doing that often gets us into trouble? It's not the doing that makes God happy. It's not about what we've done...it's about what been done for us.

We are indefuckingstructible.

God brought you here for a purpose greater than your own.

It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly enough, it is your God-given right to have it. When I decided to go to Alaska that April, like Chris McCandless, I was a raw youth who mistook passion for insight and acted according to an obscure, gap-ridden logic. I thought climbing the Devils Thumb would fix all that was wrong with my life. In the end, of course, it changed almost nothing. But I came to appreciate that mountains make poor receptacles for dreams. And I lived to tell my tale.

We have to forgive to survive in this labyrinth [of suffering]

I don't know where there is, but I know it's somewhere, and I hope it's beautiful

We need never to be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken.

Your job is important. But it’s not worth your life.

This woman. She was feisty and determined. A force to be reckoned with.

The more I see as I sit here among the rocks, the more I wonder about what I am not seeing.

I'm not going to be one of those people who sits around talking about what they're gonna do. I'm just going to do it. Imagining the future is kind of nostalgia. You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. YOu just use the future to escape the present.

You are considered a Cheechako if you are new to the state. If you have been in the state for a while , you are considered a sourdough. Sour on the state, but you do not have enough dough to leave.

The poor Sufi dressed in rags walked into a jewelry store owned by a rich merchant and asked him, "Do you know how you’re going to die." And the Sufi said, "I do.""How?" asked the merchant. And the Sufi lay down, crossed his arms, said, "Like this," and died, whereupon the merchant promptly gave up his store to live a life of poverty in pursuit of the kind of spiritual wealth the dead Sufi had acquired.

It's hard to know, isn't it, whether the things we face are just because the world is full of sin and sinful people, or if God is working out a plan,' Grandma continued. 'I happen to think it's both. There's sin, but through it all, He takes the mess we make and paints a masterpiece. In fact, I'm quite certain that before God can ever bless a woman—and use her to impact many—He uses the hammer, the file, and the furnace to do a holy work.

If anyone can be trusted, it's the Savior. He's always true, always faithful, loving, kind, right. ... He never left me then, but stayed firm and strong, like a rock. I learned—even though it's tough sometimes—my Father knows best.

So I came here looking for a Great Perharps

nós somos tão indestrutíveis como acreditamos ser.

As últimas palavras de Thomas Edison foram: "Ali está muito bonito". Não sei onde fica o ali, mas sei que é algures, e espero que seja bonito.

Esas cosas horrorosas pueden sobrevivirse, porque somos tan indestructibles como queramos creerlo.

When adults say,"Teenagers think they are invincible" with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don't know how right they are.

If only we could see the endless string of consequences that result from our smallest actions

What the hell is instant? Nothing is instant. Instant rice takes five minutes, instant pudding an hour. I doubt that an instant of blinding pain feels particularly instantaneous.

He’d just have to do what a lot of people came to Alaska to do—vanish.

Grier had burrowed deep in this small town lost in Alaska, his only intention to remain under the radar until he didn’t have to disappear anymore.

And though keeping a low profile was in his best interest, opportunities to do good—to help people in need—kept presenting themselves.

All she knew was that she was fighting for a job she loved. Her place in this world.

Without knowing he was going to do it, Sonny smiled right at the general and said in a loud, firm voice, "It's okay. He's my brother, sir.

My Mother just lost my book... Looking for Alaska!! I'm still looking for you!!

Thomas Edison’s last words were “It’s very beautiful over there”. I don’t know where there is, but I believe it’s somewhere, and I hope it’s beautiful.

we never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think think that we are invincible because we are as indestructible as we believe ourselves to be. We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestation.

The PBA was a symptom of the Philippines' basketball obsession, not the cause. I was thrilled to be witnessing the professional game from inside Alaska's locker room, but that wasn't what brought me to Manila in the first place. I was inspired by the idea that a Southeast Asian nation populated by five-foot-five men and mostly forgotten by America except for its political corruption, widespread prostitution, and violent Muslim separatist movement could be devoted to hoops with a passion unequaled by any other country. It was a nationwide tale of unrequited love. Forty million short men obsessed with basketball--they might as well have been a nation of blind art historians.

TEN UNIVERSAL VALUES SHOW RESPECT TO OTHERS each person has a special gift ************* SHARE WHAT YOU HAVE giving makes you richer ************* KNOW WHO YOU ARE you are a reflection on your family ************* ACCEPT WHAT LIFE BRINGS you cannot control many things ************* HAVE PATIENCE some things cannot be rushed ************* LIVE CAREFULLY what you do will come back to you ************* TAKE CARE OF OTHERS you cannot live without them ************* HONOR YOUR ELDER they show you the way in life ************* PRAY FOR GUIDANCE many things are not known ************* SEE CONNECTIONS all things are related ************* {Taken from the Alaska Native Knowledge Network}

There is nothing wrong with feeling cold in Alaska at -70 degrees. It's when you feel nothing at all that it times to panic

There are three kinds of persons who practice discrimination against Indians and other Native people. First, the politician who wants to maintain an inferior minority group so he can always promise them something. Second, the Mr. and Mrs. Jones who aren't quite sure of their social position and who are nice to you on one occasion and can't see you on others, depending on who they are with. Third, the great superman who believes in the superiority of the white race. - Elizabeth Peratrovich

Tlingit Elder Richard Stitt once said public speaking is 'like waving a broom in a crowded rom.' It was easy for one's words to affect people in unintended, potentially negative, ways. -Roy Peratrovich, Jr.

The fighter in velvet gloves had punched more powerfully than any boxer. Yet her only weapon had been her carefully chosen words delivered with elegance and integrity.

Elizabeth walked slowly down the aisle with her head held high. As she turned to face the assembled legislators, the audience strained forward, pulled by her calm but powerful presence. If anyone in the room thought the young woman before them would mince her words, they quickly realized their mistake.

In those days, the ancient rainforests spread from Northern California to southeastern Alaska in a band between the mountains and the sea. Here is where the fog drips. Here is where the moisture-laden air from the pacific rises against the mountains to produce upward of one hundred inches of rain a year, watering an ecosystem rivaled nowhere else on earth. The biggest trees in the world. Trees that were born before Columbus sailed. And trees are just the beginning. The numbers of species of mammals, birds, amphibians, wildflowers, ferns, mosses, lichens, fungi, and insects are staggering. It's hard to write without running out of superlatives, for these were among the greatest forests on earth, forests peopled with centuries of past lives, enormous logs and snags that foster more life after their death than before. The canopy is a multi-layered sculpture of vertical complexity from the lowest moss on the forest floor to the wisps of lichen hanging high in the treetops, raggedy and uneven from the gaps produced by centuries of windthrow, disease, and storms. This seeming chaos belies the tight web of inter-connections between them all, stitched with filaments of fungi, silk of spiders, and silver threads of water. Alone is a word without meaning in this forest.

Todos somos diferentes en tanto que individuos, grupos o naciones, mas debemos sobreponernos a las doctrinas del odio y del mal, y luchar juntos como una sola tribu para conseguir el bien. Históricamente todos hemos sufrido y resistido. Tengamos confianza para afrontar nuestro futuro".

maintain such high levels of redistribution year on year. Far more secure is for every person to have a stake in owning the robot technology itself. What might that look like? Some advocate a ‘robot dividend’, an idea inspired by the Alaska Permanent Fund,

The sight of her praying lit a fire in his heart. She'd suffered so many traumas in the short amount of time and yet she still believed, still looked to God for help and answers. She was an amazing woman.

Rufous Hummingbirds that do not elect to make the easy stop in Southern California migrate north up the coast before nesting in forests from the Sierra and Rocky Mountains to south-central Alaska. Rufous remain in their northern habitats only a few months to breed and nest. By August, adult males spearhead the wave back south through the Rocky Mountains and the sky islands, reaching central Mexico in October, where they spend the winter molting their feathers before commencing their long flight north in March. To accomplish these mind-boggling journeys, hummingbirds rely on the wisdom of their genetic history and the information stored in tiny brains the size of silver cupcake beads. Envisioning these near-weightless fliers braving the formidable obstacles posed by wind, fire, rain and snow to adjust to the seasons of the earth is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

On March 30, 1867, Secretary of State William Seward agreed to buy Alaska from the Russians for $7.2 million.

Our greatest freedom,” he wrote, “is the freedom to choose our attitude.

I have seen the Aurora Borealis twice in my life–once in Anchorage, Alaska while we were walking home from the bar our band was playing at; and the other time in Salmon Arm, BC (Notch Hill area), coming home from a gig we played in Armstrong–gigantic curtains of green and pink waved across the sky; it is a mighty sight to see. High-pitched ethereal tones shook me down to the soles of my feet. The experience filled me with longing and a desire to know about more universal things. It reminded me that the Source loves to dance, too.

They seemed to be losing heart with every howl of the storm, and fearing that they might fail me now that I was in the midst of so grand a congregation of glaciers, which possibly I might not see again, I made haste to reassure them, telling them that for ten years I had wandered alone among mountains and storms, and that good luck always followed me; that with me, therefore, they need fear nothing; that the storm would soon cease, and the sun would shine; and that Heaven cared for us, and guided us all the time, whether we knew it or not: but that only brave men had a right to look for Heaven's care, therefore all childish fear must be put away.