β
Don't Just
Don't just learn, experience.
Don't just read, absorb.
Don't just change, transform.
Don't just relate, advocate.
Don't just promise, prove.
Don't just criticize, encourage.
Don't just think, ponder.
Don't just take, give.
Don't just see, feel.
Donβt just dream, do.
Don't just hear, listen.
Don't just talk, act.
Don't just tell, show.
Don't just exist, live.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
Surround Yourself with People Who Believe in Your Dreams:
Surround yourself with people who believe in your dreams, encourage your ideas, support your ambitions, and bring out the best in you.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
We can't be afraid of change. You may feel very secure in the pond that you are in, but if you never venture out of it, you will never know that there is such a thing as an ocean, a sea. Holding onto something that is good for you now, may be the very reason why you don't have something better.
β
β
C. JoyBell C.
β
Your conscience is the measure of the honesty of your selfishness.
Listen to it carefully.
β
β
Richard Bach (Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah)
β
Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.
β
β
Ralph Waldo Emerson
β
How would your life be different ifβ¦You walked away from gossip and verbal defamation? Let today be the dayβ¦You speak only the good you know of other people and encourage others to do the same.
β
β
Steve Maraboli (Life, the Truth, and Being Free)
β
You cannot expect victory and plan for defeat.
β
β
Joel Osteen
β
You can get a thousand no's from people, and only one "yes" from God.
β
β
Tyler Perry
β
Love the trees until their leaves fall off, then encourage them to try again next year.
β
β
Chad Sugg
β
Happiness is always there. You just have to choose to see it. There's no point dwelling in the dark and ignoring the light of the stars.
β
β
Carrie Hope Fletcher
β
It's just that in the Deep South, women learn at a young age that when the world is falling apart around you, it's time to take down the drapes and make a new dress.
β
β
Karen Marie Moning (Faefever (Fever, #3))
β
The harder you fall, the heavier your heart; the heavier your heart, the stronger you climb; the stronger you climb, the higher your pedestal.
β
β
Criss Jami (Killosophy)
β
Come friends, it's not too late to seek a newer world.
β
β
Alfred Tennyson
β
Head up, heart open. To better days!
β
β
T.F. Hodge (From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph over Death and Conscious Encounters With the Divine Presence)
β
The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight,
but they, while their companions slept,
were toiling upward in the night.
β
β
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
β
Surround Yourself with Positive People Who Believe in Your Dreams
Distance yourself from negative people who try to lower your motivation and decrease your ambition. Create space for positive people to come into your life.
Surround yourself with positive people who believe in your dreams, encourage your ideas, support your ambitions, and bring out the best in you.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
She remembered who she was
and the game changed.
β
β
Lalah Delia
β
A young outcast will often feel that there is something wrong with himself, but as he gets older, grows more confident in who he is, he will adapt, he will begin to feel that there is something wrong with everyone else.
β
β
Criss Jami (Killosophy)
β
Be an Encourager: When you encourage others, you boost their self-esteem, enhance their self-confidence, make them work harder, lift their spirits and make them successful in their endeavors. Encouragement goes straight to the heart and is always available. Be an encourager. Always.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
speak quietly to yourself & promise there will be better days. whisper gently to yourself and provide assurance that you really are extending your best effort. console your bruised and tender spirit with reminders of many other successes. offer comfort in practical and tangible ways - as if you were encouraging your dearest friend. recognize that on certain days the greatest grace is that the day is over and you get to close your eyes. tomorrow comes more brightly...
β
β
Mary Anne Radmacher
β
If you walked away from a
toxic, negative, abusive,
one-sided, dead-end
low vibrational
relationship or friendship
β you won.
β
β
Lalah Delia
β
If you're waiting until you feel talented enough to make it, you'll never make it.
β
β
Criss Jami (Healology)
β
I was suffering the easily foreseeable consequences. Addiction is the hallmark of every infatuation-based love story. It all begins when the object of your adoration bestows upon you a heady, hallucinogenic dose of something you never dared to admit you wanted-an emotional speedball, perhaps, of thunderous love and roiling excitement. Soon you start craving that intense attention, with a hungry obsession of any junkie. When the drug is witheld, you promptly turn sick, crazy, and depleted (not to mention resentful of the dealer who encouraged this addiction in the first place but now refuses to pony up the good stuff anymore-- despite the fact that you know he has it hidden somewhere, goddamn it, because he used to give it to you for free). Next stage finds you skinny and shaking in a corner, certain only that you would sell your soul or rob your neighbors just to have 'that thing' even one more time. Meanwhile, the object of your adoration has now become repulsed by you. He looks at you like you're someone he's never met before, much less someone he once loved with high passion. The irony is,you can hardly blame him. I mean, check yourself out. You're a pathetic mess,unrecognizable even to your own eyes. So that's it. You have now reached infatuation's final destination-- the complete and merciless devaluation of self." - pg 20-21
β
β
Elizabeth Gilbert
β
There are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our encouragement, who will need our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give.
β
β
Leo F. Buscaglia
β
I think the act of reading imbues the reader with a sensitivity toward the outside world that people who don't read can sometimes lack. I know it seems like a contradiction in terms; after all reading is such a solitary, internalizing act that it appears to represent a disengagement from day-to-day life. But reading, and particularly the reading of fiction, encourages us to view the world in new and challenging ways...It allows us to inhabit the consciousness of another which is a precursor to empathy, and empathy is, for me, one of the marks of a decent human being.
β
β
John Connolly (The Book of Lost Things (The Book of Lost Things, #1))
β
A man does not have to be an angel to be a saint.
β
β
Albert Schweitzer
β
If you always attach positive emotions to the things you want, and never attach negative emotions to the things you don't, then that which you desire most will invariably come your way.
β
β
Matt D. Miller
β
A rose can never be a sunflower, and a sunflower can never be a rose.All flowers are beautiful in their own way, and thatβs like women too. I want to encourage women to embrace their own uniqueness.
β
β
Miranda Kerr
β
Everything is within your power,
and your power is within you.
β
β
Janice Trachtman (Catching What Life Throws at You: Inspiring True Stories of Healing)
β
...itβs just another one of those things I donβt understand: everyone impresses upon you how unique you are, encouraging you to cultivate your individuality while at the same time trying to squish you and everyone else into the same ridiculous mould. Itβs an artistβs right to rebel against the worldβs stupidity.
β
β
E.A. Bucchianeri (Brushstrokes of a Gadfly (Gadfly Saga, #1))
β
Life is so outrageous I could not have imagined it, made all the
sweeter because it cannot last. It is all about today. Today is the
best day ever because tomorrow might not happen.
β
β
Hendri Coetzee (Living the Best Day Ever)
β
Temptation is not to be feared, but controlled.
β
β
Deborah Patrick
β
Hope springs forever.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (The Tales of Beedle the Bard (Hogwarts Library, #3))
β
You have to lift a person up before you can really put them in their place.
β
β
Criss Jami (Killosophy)
β
He asked, 'Croesus, who told you to attack my land and meet me as an enemy instead of a friend?'
The King replied, 'It was caused by your good fate and my bad fate. It was the fault of the Greek gods, who with their arrogance, encouraged me to march onto your lands. Nobody is mad enough to choose war whilst there is peace. During times of peace, the sons bury their fathers, but in war it is the fathers who send their sons to the grave.
β
β
Herodotus (The Histories)
β
You are not a burden, an accident, or a mistake. You are meant for amazing things that you can't even imagine for yourself.
β
β
Lacey Sturm
β
Opportunity may knock only once but temptation leans on the door bell
β
β
Oprah Winfrey (Oprah Winfrey Speaks: Insights from the World's Most Influential Voice)
β
One word of encouragement can be enough to spark someoneβs motivation to continue with a difficult challenge.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett
β
I know it is hard for you young mothers to believe that almost before you can turn around the children will be gone and you will be alone with your husband. You had better be sure you are developing the kind of love and friendship that will be delightful and enduring. Let the children learn from your attitude that he is important. Encourage him. Be kind. It is a rough world, and he, like everyone else, is fighting to survive. Be cheerful. Don't be a whiner.
β
β
Marjorie Pay Hinckley (Small and Simple Things)
β
It is not as much about who you used to be, as it is about who you choose to be.
β
β
Sanhita Baruah
β
I encourage readers recovering from a kidney transplant to heed the advice of their medical practitioners.
β
β
Gregory S. Works (Triumph: Life on the Other Side of Trials, Transplants, Transition and Transformation)
β
The greatest win is walking away and choosing not to engage in drama and toxic energy at all.
β
β
Lalah Delia
β
Life is glorious, but life is also wretched. It is both. Appreciating the gloriousness inspires us, encourages us, cheers us up, gives us a bigger perspective, energizes us. We feel connected. But if that's all that's happening, we get arrogant and start to look down on others, and there is a sense of making ourselves a big deal and being really serious about it, wanting it to be like that forever. The gloriousness becomes tinged by craving and addiction. On the other hand, wretchedness--life's painful aspect--softens us up considerably. Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another person. When you are feeling a lot of grief, you can look right into somebody's eyes because you feel you haven't got anything to lose--you're just there. The wretchedness humbles us and softens us, but if we were only wretched, we would all just go down the tubes. We'd be so depressed, discouraged, and hopeless that we wouldn't have enough energy to eat an apple. Gloriousness and wretchedness need each other. One inspires us, the other softens us. They go together.
β
β
Pema ChΓΆdrΓΆn (Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living)
β
What men and women need is encouragement. Their natural resisting powers should be strengthened, not weakened ... Instead of always harping on a man's faults, tell him of his virtues. Try to pull him out of his rut ... Hold up to him his better self, his real self that can dare and do and win out! ... People radiate what is in their minds and in their hearts.
β
β
Eleanor H. Porter (Pollyanna (Pollyanna, #1))
β
Along your pathway of life you will observe that you are not the only traveler. There are others who need your help. There are feet to steady, hands to grasp, minds to encourage, hearts to inspire, and souls to save.
β
β
Thomas S. Monson
β
For, after all, every one who wishes to gain true knowledge must climb the Hill Difficulty alone, and since there is no royal road to the summit, I must zigzag it in my own way. I slip back many times, I fall, I stand still, I run against the edge of hidden obstacles, I lose my temper and find it again and keep it better, I trudge on, I gain a little, I feel encouraged, I get more eager and climb higher and begin to see the widening horizon. Every struggle is a victory. One more effort and I reach the luminous cloud, the blue depths of the sky, the uplands of my desire.
β
β
Helen Keller (The Story of My Life)
β
With a hint of good judgment, to fear nothing, not failure or suffering or even death, indicates that you value life the most. You live to the extreme; you push limits; you spend your time building legacies. Those do not die.
β
β
Criss Jami (Venus in Arms)
β
I hope you find true meaning, contentment, and passion in your life. I hope you navigate the difficult times and come out with greater strength and resolve. I hope you find whatever balance you seek with your eyes wide open. And I hope that you - yes, you - have the ambition to lean in to your career and run the world. Because the world needs you to change it.
β
β
Sheryl Sandberg (Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead)
β
You need to be buried deep in the dirt before you can find your bloom.
β
β
Roz Inga
β
Most of us are not raised to actively encounter our destiny. We may not know that we have one. As children, we are seldom told we have a place in life that is uniquely ours alone. Instead, we are encouraged to believe that our life should somehow fulfill the expectations of others, that we will (or should) find our satisfactions as they have found theirs. Rather than being taugh to ask ourselves who we are, we are schooled to ask others. We are, in effect, trained to listen to others' versions of ourselves. We are brought up in our life as told to us by someone else! When we survey our lives, seeking to fulfill our creativity, we often see we had a dream that went glimmering because we believed, and those around us believed, that the dream was beyond our reach. Many of us would have been, or at least might have been, done, tried something, if...
If we had known who we really were.
β
β
Julia Cameron
β
If we are not allowed to deal with small problems, we will be destroyed by slightly larger ones. When we come to understand this, we live our lives not avoiding problems, but welcoming them them as challenges that will strengthen us so that we can be victorious in the future.
β
β
Jim Stovall (The Ultimate Gift)
β
If you make art, people will talk about it. Some of the things they say will be nice, some wonβt. Youβll already have made that art, and when theyβre talking about the last thing you did, you should already be making the next thing.
If bad reviews (of whatever kind) upset you, just donβt read them. Itβs not like youβve signed an agreement with the person buying the book to exchange your book for their opinion.
Do whatever you have to do to keep making art. I know people who love bad reviews, because it means theyβve made something happen and made people talk; I know people who have never read any of their reviews. Itβs their call. You get on with making art.
β
β
Neil Gaiman
β
Our job on earth isn't to criticize, reject, or judge. Our purpose is to offer a helping hand, compassion, and mercy. We are to do unto others as we hope they would do unto us.
β
β
Dana Arcuri (Harvest of Hope: Living Victoriously Through Adversity, A 50-Day Devotional)
β
Just pick a goal and stick to itβno big complicated secret.
β
β
Richelle E. Goodrich (Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, and Grumblings for Every Day of the Year)
β
Know yourself fearlessly (even quietly) for all the things you are.
β
β
Aberjhani (Visions of a Skylark Dressed in Black)
β
Shout out to everyone transcending
a mindset, mentality, desire, belief,
emotion, habit, behavior or vibration,
that no longer serves them.
β
β
Lalah Delia
β
Advice to my younger self:
1 Start where you are with what you have
2 Try not to hurt other people
3 Take more chances
4 If you fail, keep trying
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β
Germany Kent
β
At the root of all misery is unfulfilled desire.
β
β
Scott Hahn (Hope for Hard Times (30-Minute Read))
β
I spent all night
weaving a poem for you
to wear. You look so beautiful
when you wear my light.
β
β
Kamand Kojouri
β
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.
β
β
Henry David Thoreau
β
Till we recognize whatβs sick and messed up about ourselves this world is gonna stay sick and messed up.
β
β
Lacey Sturm
β
Don't follow your heart-follow the One who made it!
β
β
NOT A BOOK
β
People forget they have options. And they forget that those things don't really matter. They should concentrate on what they have and not what they don't have. And by the way, wishing and dreaming doesn't mean concentrating on what you don't have, it's positive thinking that encourages hoping and believing, not whinging and moaning.
β
β
Cecelia Ahern (If You Could See Me Now)
β
Be helpful. When you see a person without a smile, give him one of yours. ~
β
β
Zig Ziglar (Something To Smile About Encouragement And Inspiration For Life's Ups And Downs)
β
Do you consider yourself a blessing or just another person?
β
β
Jonathan Anthony Burkett (Neglected but Undefeated: The Life of a Boy Who Never Knew a Mother s Love)
β
Your nature is not the problem. The problem is that you have become alienated from your nature -- from your power source.
β
β
Laurie A. Helgoe (Introvert Power: Why Your Inner Life Is Your Hidden Strength)
β
If you are her man, she will talk to you until there just
arenβt any more words left to say, encourage you when youβre
at rock bottom and think there just isnβt any way out, hold you
in her arms when youβre sick, and laugh with you when youβre
up. And if youβre her man and that woman loves youβI mean
really loves you?βshe will shine you up when youβre dusty,
encourage you when youβre down, defend you even when sheβs
not so sure you were right, and hang on your every word, even
when youβre not saying anything worth listening to.
β
β
Steve Harvey (Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment)
β
Every chance worth taking will make you a little scared. That means you're taking a risk. And where there is risk, there is reward.
β
β
Elise Kova (Crystal Crowned (Air Awakens, #5))
β
But there was a special kind of gift that came with embracing the chaos, even if I cursed most of the way. I'm convinced that, when everything is wiped blank, it's life 's way of forcing you to become acquainted with and aware of who you are now, who you can become. What is the fulfillment of your soul?
β
β
Jennifer DeLucy
β
You become what you digest into your spirit. Whatever you think about, focus on, read about, talk about, youβre going to attract more of into your life. Make sure they're all positive.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
Iβm not out to compete with any one, Iβm here to complete, by encouraging and inspiring souls through a text at a time
β
β
Bernard Kelvin Clive (Your Dreams Will Not Die)
β
If you complain to someone, you assume that it's someone who really cares about you.
β
β
Scott Hahn (Hope for Hard Times (30-Minute Read))
β
Night never had the last word. The dawn is always invincible.
β
β
Hugh B. Brown
β
It's not where you start or even what happens to you along the way that's important. What is important is that you persevere and never give up on yourself.
β
β
Zig Ziglar (Something To Smile About Encouragement And Inspiration For Life's Ups And Downs)
β
Never give up hope. All things are working for your good. One day, you'll look back on everything you've been through and thank God for it.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
Remember diamonds are created under pressure so hold on, it will be your time to shine soon.
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β
Sope Agbelusi
β
Donβt let anyone tell you what you can and canβt do or achieve. Do what you want to do and be who you want to be. Just encourage and include each other, donβt ostracize the gender in front of you.
β
β
Emma Watson
β
Pride and power fall when the person falls, but discoveries of truth form legacies that can be built upon for generations.
β
β
Criss Jami (Venus in Arms)
β
Don't give up when dark times come. The more storms you face in life, the stronger you'll be. Hold on. Your greater is coming.
β
β
Germany Kent
β
You were created for more than to bear the weight of your shadows- but you have to choose to no longer let them define you. You have to choose to let the light shine through the shattered pieces.β β Tiger Lilly
β
β
Kara Swanson (Dust (Heirs of Neverland, #1))
β
Let today mark a new beginning for you. Give yourself permission to say NO without feeling guilty, mean, or selfish. Anybody who gets upset and/or expects you to say YES all of the time clearly doesnβt have your best interest at heart. Always remember: You have a right to say NO without having to explain yourself. Be at peace with your decisions.
β
β
Stephanie Lahart
β
Sometimes you're trying so hard to get your life together and still it's not enough, everything is falling apart. What to do, you're asking. Just keep going through hell for yourself, not for everyone else. Richer with that wisdom, I will build my happiness from nothing. I will rise from the dust. And I will do it on my own. I will live for myself and I wonβt look at the others.
β
β
Annette Dabrowska (Train to the Edge of the Moon)
β
Just as doubt, despair, and desensitization go together, so do faith, hope, and charity. The latter, however, must be carefully and constantly nurtured, whereas despair, like dandelions, needs so little encouragement to sprout and spread. Despair comes so naturally to the natural man!
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β
Neal A. Maxwell
β
I have faith in God to put me where I need to be at the right time, and to put on my heart what Iβm called to doβ¦ Sometimes weβre called to be very proactive about one thing, and then in another season, weβre supposed to let it go, trust God and pick up something else. You have to be in constant prayer and connected with the Holy Spirit to lead you.
β
β
Lacey Sturm
β
Why wait? So precious is this lifeβthis giftβthis temporary blindness. Burn and drown and embrace the false dark, then grasp the unthinkable height of resulting joy. For in the end, in the light of truth when the flesh is cast off, there is nothing but this.
β
β
Jennifer DeLucy
β
In fact that is why the lives of most women are so vaguely unsatisfactory. They are always doing secondary and menial things (that do not require all their gifts and ability) for others and never anything for themselves. Society and husbands praise them for it (when they get too miserable or have nervous breakdowns) though always a little perplexedly and half-heartedly and just to be consoling. The poor wives are reminded that that is just why wives are so splendid -- because they are so unselfish and self-sacrificing and that is the wonderful thing about them! But inwardly women know that something is wrong. They sense that if you are always doing something for others, like a servant or nurse, and never anything for yourself, you cannot do others any good. You make them physically more comfortable. But you cannot affect them spiritually in any way at all. For to teach, encourage, cheer up, console, amuse, stimulate or advise a husband or children or friends, you have to be something yourself. [...]"If you would shut your door against the children for an hour a day and say; 'Mother is working on her five-act tragedy in blank verse!' you would be surprised how they would respect you. They would probably all become playwrights.
β
β
Brenda Ueland
β
Christian does a great job helping an aspiring writer get inspired to write and finish their book. Itβs easy to read and understand, and provides encouragement and specific guidance, without being too harsh or detailed on fiction writing only. If you are struggling with how to put your thoughts onto paper, give this a read and establish a rhythm for your writing. Christianβs success at completing over 21 published manuscripts while leading a busy life are testament in if there is a will, there is a way. And it provides some good humor throughout.β
Rachel Braynin, Sr Program Manager at Lulu Publishing
β
β
Christian Warren Freed (So...You Want to Write a Book?)
β
You will and should do everything in your power to improve your actual writing skills. Youβll work hard to create characters that are compelling and unforgettable. But in the end, itβs the story that matters. Donβt ever let the other stuff get in the way of your inherent skills as a kick-butt storyteller. Move the reader, make them happy and sad and excited and scared. Make them stare into space after theyβve put the book down, thinking about the tale thatβs become a part of them. Be unpredictable, be real, be interesting. Tell a good story.
β
β
James Dashner
β
For within your flesh, deep within the center of your being, is the undaunted, waiting, longing, all-knowing. Is the ready, able, perfect. Within you, waiting its turn to emerge, piece by piece, with the dawn of every former test of trial and blackness, is the next unfolding, the great unfurling of wings, the re-forged backbone of a true Child of Light.
β
β
Jennifer DeLucy
β
The systematic looting of language can be recognized by the tendency of its users to forgo its nuanced, complex, mid-wifery properties for menace and subjugation. Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge. Whether it is obscuring state language or the faux-language of mindless media; whether it is the proud but calcified language of the academy or the commodity driven language of science; whether it is the malign language of law-without-ethics, or language designed for the estrangement of minorities, hiding its racist plunder in its literary cheek - it must be rejected, altered and exposed. It is the language that drinks blood, laps vulnerabilities, tucks its fascist boots under crinolines of respectability and patriotism as it moves relentlessly toward the bottom line and the bottomed-out mind. Sexist language, racist language, theistic language - all are typical of the policing languages of mastery, and cannot, do not permit new knowledge or encourage the mutual exchange of ideas.
- Toni Morrison, Nobel Lecture, 1993
β
β
Toni Morrison (The Nobel Lecture In Literature, 1993)
β
A NATION'S GREATNESS DEPENDS ON ITS LEADER
To vastly improve your country and truly make it great again, start by choosing a better leader. Do not let the media or the establishment make you pick from the people they choose, but instead choose from those they do not pick. Pick a leader from among the people who is heart-driven, one who identifies with the common man on the street and understands what the country needs on every level. Do not pick a leader who is only money-driven and does not understand or identify with the common man, but only what corporations need on every level.
Pick a peacemaker. One who unites, not divides. A cultured leader who supports the arts and true freedom of speech, not censorship. Pick a leader who will not only bail out banks and airlines, but also families from losing their homes -- or jobs due to their companies moving to other countries. Pick a leader who will fund schools, not limit spending on education and allow libraries to close. Pick a leader who chooses diplomacy over war. An honest broker in foreign relations. A leader with integrity, one who says what they mean, keeps their word and does not lie to their people. Pick a leader who is strong and confident, yet humble. Intelligent, but not sly. A leader who encourages diversity, not racism. One who understands the needs of the farmer, the teacher, the doctor, and the environmentalist -- not only the banker, the oil tycoon, the weapons developer, or the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyist.
Pick a leader who will keep jobs in your country by offering companies incentives to hire only within their borders, not one who allows corporations to outsource jobs for cheaper labor when there is a national employment crisis. Choose a leader who will invest in building bridges, not walls. Books, not weapons. Morality, not corruption. Intellectualism and wisdom, not ignorance. Stability, not fear and terror. Peace, not chaos. Love, not hate. Convergence, not segregation. Tolerance, not discrimination. Fairness, not hypocrisy. Substance, not superficiality. Character, not immaturity. Transparency, not secrecy. Justice, not lawlessness. Environmental improvement and preservation, not destruction. Truth, not lies.
Most importantly, a great leader must serve the best interests of the people first, not those of multinational corporations. Human life should never be sacrificed for monetary profit. There are no exceptions. In addition, a leader should always be open to criticism, not silencing dissent. Any leader who does not tolerate criticism from the public is afraid of their dirty hands to be revealed under heavy light. And such a leader is dangerous, because they only feel secure in the darkness. Only a leader who is free from corruption welcomes scrutiny; for scrutiny allows a good leader to be an even greater leader.
And lastly, pick a leader who will make their citizens proud. One who will stir the hearts of the people, so that the sons and daughters of a given nation strive to emulate their leader's greatness. Only then will a nation be truly great, when a leader inspires and produces citizens worthy of becoming future leaders, honorable decision makers and peacemakers. And in these times, a great leader must be extremely brave. Their leadership must be steered only by their conscience, not a bribe.
β
β
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
β
Donβt destroy yourself over somebody elseβs foolishness. I know they betrayed you. I know they lied on you. I know they talked behind your back and told all of your business. I know they hurt you to the core. I know they turned their back on you. I know they cheated on you. I know they mislead you. I know, I KNOW. In spite of it all, you have to know that you are worth more than what they dished out to you. You will survive! You will make it through! Remember who YOU are and know YOUR self-worth!
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Stephanie Lahart
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Ladies! I encourage you NOT to be so easily flattered by what a man has. Be flattered by his strength, courage, integrity, and character as a man. Be impressed by his ability to be honest, faithful, loving, and respectful to you. Be impressed because he can communicate and openly express his feelings. Be impressed because heβs got confidence, direction, and purpose in his life. Be impressed because heβs a quality man, NOT a fine man. Real Talk!
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Stephanie Lahart
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The last scud of day holds back for me, It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow'd wilds,
It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.
I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun, I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to your nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place, search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.
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Walt Whitman
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A personalized God can be a mere idol carved in our own image- a projection of our limited needs, fears, and desires. We can assume that he loves what we love and hates what we hate, endorsing our prejudices instead of compelling us to transcend them. When he seems to fail to prevent a catastrophe or seems even to desire a tragedy, he can seem callous and cruel. A facile belief that a disaster is the will of God can make us accept things that are fundamentally unacceptable. The very fact, as a person, God has a gender is also limiting: It means that the sexuality of half the human race is sacralized at the expense of the female and can lead to neurotic and inadequate imbalance in human sexual mores. A personal God can be dangerous, therefore. Instead of pulling us beyond our limitations, βheβ can encourage us to remain complacently within them; βheβ can make us cruel, callous, self-satisfied and partial as βheβ seems to be. Instead of inspiring the compassion that should characterize all advanced religions, βheβ can encourage us to judge, condemn, and marginalize.
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Karen Armstrong
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Donβt be afraid to stand tall in YOUR truth! Boldly and confidently face everything that has, and is, keeping you bound. Fight for your inner peace! Fight for your happiness! Fight for everything and everybody thatβs important to you! You are NOT a victim! Donβt even play into that. You owe it to yourself to LIVE! Live your life without the regrets, without the resentments, without the unforgiveness, without the blame game, without the self-pity, without any and everything that keeps you from experiencing true joy within! You are too important to waste your life away! Learn to appreciate and value your life, but most importantly, learn to appreciate and value yourself! You count too, no matter what youβve done!
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Stephanie Lahart
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I no longer have patience for certain things, not because Iβve become arrogant, but simply because I reached a point in my life where I do not want to waste more time with what displeases me or hurts me. I have no patience for cynicism, excessive criticism and demands of any nature. I lost the will to please those who do not like me, to love those who do not love me and to smile at those who do not want to smile at me. I no longer spend a single minute on those who lie or want to manipulate. I decided not to coexist anymore with pretense, hypocrisy, dishonesty and cheap praise. I do not tolerate selective erudition nor academic arrogance. I do not adjust either to popular gossiping. I hate conflict and comparisons. I believe in a world of opposites and thatβs why I avoid people with rigid and inflexible personalities. In friendship I dislike the lack of loyalty and betrayal. I do not get along with those who do not know how to give a compliment or a word of encouragement. Exaggerations bore me and I have difficulty accepting those who do not like animals. And on top of everything I have no patience for anyone who does not deserve my patience.
NOTE: She neither said nor wrote this quote. Just because you saw it on Facebook does not mean it's true. Snopes is your friend. The quote was written by JosΓ© Micard Teixeira
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Meryl Streep
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Blitz and Hearth were almost at the shore when Alex stopped abruptly.
I didn't have any energy left either, but I thought I should try to sound encouraging. "We - we have to k-keep going." I looked over. We were nose-to-nose under the blankets. Her eyes glinted, amber and brown. Her scarf had dipped below her chin. Her breath was like limes.
Then, before I even knew what was happening, she kissed me. She could have bitten off my mouth and I would have been less surprised. Her lips were cracked and rough from the cold. Her nose fitted perfectly next to mine. Our faces aligned, our breath mixed. Then she pulled away.
"I wasn't going to die without doing that," she said.
The world of primordial ice must not have frozen me completely, because my chest burned like a coal furnace.
"Well?" She frowned. "Stop gaping and let's move."
We trudged towards the shore. My mind wasn't working properly. I wondered if Alex had kissed me just to inspire me to keep going, or to distract me from our imminent deaths. It didn't seem possible she'd actually wanted to kiss me. Whatever the case, that kiss was the only reason I made it to shore.
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Rick Riordan (The Ship of the Dead (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #3))
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I was born free, and that I might live in freedom I chose the solitude of the fields; in the trees of the mountains I find society, the clear waters of the brooks are my mirrors, and to the trees and waters I make known my thoughts and charms. I am a fire afar off, a sword laid aside. Those whom I have inspired with love by letting them see me, I have by words undeceived, and if their longings live on hopeβand I have given none to Chrysostom or to any otherβit cannot justly be said that the death of any is my doing, for it was rather his own obstinacy than my cruelty that killed him; and if it be made a charge against me that his wishes were honourable, and that therefore I was bound to yield to them, I answer that when on this very spot where now his grave is made he declared to me his purity of purpose, I told him that mine was to live in perpetual solitude, and that the earth alone should enjoy the fruits of my retirement and the spoils of my beauty; and if, after this open avowal, he chose to persist against hope and steer against the wind, what wonder is it that he should sink in the depths of his infatuation? If I had encouraged him, I should be false; if I had gratified him, I should have acted against my own better resolution and purpose. He was persistent in spite of warning, he despaired without being hated. Bethink you now if it be reasonable that his suffering should be laid to my charge. Let him who has been deceived complain, let him give way to despair whose encouraged hopes have proved vain, let him flatter himself whom I shall entice, let him boast whom I shall receive; but let not him call me cruel or homicide to whom I make no promise, upon whom I practise no deception, whom I neither entice nor receive. It has not been so far the will of Heaven that I should love by fate, and to expect me to love by choice is idle. Let this general declaration serve for each of my suitors on his own account, and let it be understood from this time forth that if anyone dies for me it is not of jealousy or misery he dies, for she who loves no one can give no cause for jealousy to any, and candour is not to be confounded with scorn. Let him who calls me wild beast and basilisk, leave me alone as something noxious and evil; let him who calls me ungrateful, withhold his service; who calls me wayward, seek not my acquaintance; who calls me cruel, pursue me not; for this wild beast, this basilisk, this ungrateful, cruel, wayward being has no kind of desire to seek, serve, know, or follow them. If Chrysostom's impatience and violent passion killed him, why should my modest behaviour and circumspection be blamed? If I preserve my purity in the society of the trees, why should he who would have me preserve it among men, seek to rob me of it? I have, as you know, wealth of my own, and I covet not that of others; my taste is for freedom, and I have no relish for constraint; I neither love nor hate anyone; I do not deceive this one or court that, or trifle with one or play with another. The modest converse of the shepherd girls of these hamlets and the care of my goats are my recreations; my desires are bounded by these mountains, and if they ever wander hence it is to contemplate the beauty of the heavens, steps by which the soul travels to its primeval abode.
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Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Don Quixote)
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An attachment grew up. What is an attachment? It is the most difficult of all the human interrelationships to explain, because it is the vaguest, the most impalpable. It has all the good points of love, and none of its drawbacks. No jealousy, no quarrels, no greed to possess, no fear of losing possession, no hatred (which is very much a part of love), no surge of passion and no hangover afterward. It never reaches the heights, and it never reaches the depths.
As a rule it comes on subtly. As theirs did. As a rule the two involved are not even aware of it at first. As they were not. As a rule it only becomes noticeable when it is interrupted in some way, or broken off by circumstances. As theirs was. In other words, its presence only becomes known in its absence. It is only missed after it stops. While it is still going on, little thought is given to it, because little thought needs to be.
It is pleasant to meet, it is pleasant to be together. To put your shopping packages down on a little wire-backed chair at a little table at a sidewalk cafe, and sit down and have a vermouth with someone who has been waiting there for you. And will be waiting there again tomorrow afternoon. Same time, same table, same sidewalk cafe. Or to watch Italian youth going through the gyrations of the latest dance craze in some inexpensive indigenous night-place-while you, who come from the country where the dance originated, only get up to do a sedate fox trot. It is even pleasant to part, because this simply means preparing the way for the next meeting.
One long continuous being-together, even in a love affair, might make the thing wilt. In an attachment it would surely kill the thing off altogether. But to meet, to part, then to meet again in a few days, keeps the thing going, encourages it to flower.
And yet it requires a certain amount of vanity, as love does; a desire to please, to look one's best, to elicit compliments. It inspires a certain amount of flirtation, for the two are of opposite sex. A wink of understanding over the rim of a raised glass, a low-voiced confidential aside about something and the smile of intimacy that answers it, a small impromptu gift - a necktie on the one part because of an accidental spill on the one he was wearing, or of a small bunch of flowers on the other part because of the color of the dress she has on.
So it goes.
And suddenly they part, and suddenly there's a void, and suddenly they discover they have had an attachment.
Rome passed into the past, and became New York.
Now, if they had never come together again, or only after a long time and in different circumstances, then the attachment would have faded and died. But if they suddenly do come together again - while the sharp sting of missing one another is still smarting - then the attachment will revive full force, full strength. But never again as merely an attachment. It has to go on from there, it has to build, to pick up speed. And sometimes it is so glad to be brought back again that it makes the mistake of thinking it is love.
("For The Rest Of Her Life")
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Cornell Woolrich (Angels of Darkness)