“
Life throws challenges and every challenge comes with rainbows and lights to conquer it.
”
”
Amit Ray (World Peace: The Voice of a Mountain Bird)
“
The tallest and oldest trees that seemed to have just have casually always been there, hold the greatest love: as it nurtures love for others: providing shade for two lovers, becoming home for birds to build a nest, and giving food to the squirrels whom scurry upon it.
”
”
Forrest Curran (Purple Buddha Project: Purple Book of Self-Love)
“
When I rise up
let me rise up joyful
like a bird.
When I fall
let me fall without regret
like a leaf.
”
”
Wendell Berry (The Mad Farmer Poems)
“
Find out what you're good at...and then get even better. That's the key.
”
”
A.J. Pearce (Dear Mrs. Bird (The Emmy Lake Chronicles, #1))
“
The oak sleeps in the acorn. The bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul, a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of reality.
”
”
Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich (Start Motivational Books))
“
The sky’s dangers offer the eagle more opportunities than the nest’s comfort.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
Fail soon so that you can succeed sooner.
”
”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
Today it is cheaper to start a business than tomorrow.
”
”
Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
“
If a bird believes it is an eagle long enough, it will eventually end up soaring like one.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
Bird by bird buddy. Just take it bird by bird.
”
”
Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird)
“
She does not want the world to tell her how to live her life. She does not want the world to put her into a category. She will smile even when not all is good with her. She will believe what should not be. And she will dream wild! She is a bird. She just wants to fly in the wide blue sky!
”
”
Avijeet Das
“
A dove struggling in a storm grows stronger than an eagle soaring in sunshine.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
One of the gifts of being a writer is that it gives you an excuse to do things, to go places and explore. Another is that writing motivates you to look closely at life, at life as it lurches by and tramps around.
”
”
Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life)
“
A bird doesn't need a parachute when jumping off a cliff.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
If you throw a bird off a cliff, you are helping it find its wings.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
A bird only begins to realize its potential the day you throw it off a tall cliff.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
Quiet birds rob the universe of beautiful symphonies.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
It is a bird’s imagination, not its wings, that determines how high it can fly.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
Give not thyself up, then, to fire, lest it invert thee, deaden thee; as for the time it did me. There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he for ever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar.
”
”
Herman Melville (Moby-Dick or, The Whale)
“
Birds have done great jobs for the progression of humanity: They kept alive our love for freedom and they insistently motivated us to reach the skies, to reach the stars!
”
”
Mehmet Murat ildan
“
It is the strongest, not the prettiest birds that conquer the sky.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
A bird in a nest is secure, but that is not why God gave it wings.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
When the nest becomes too small a bird is ready to spread its wings and fly.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
A bird does not fly because of the wind around it, but because of the strength within it.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
I tore the crusts off my grilled cheese sandwich and set them aside to throw out for the birds. Their motives were pure -- hunger, thirst, shelter -- and they didn't mind leftovers.
”
”
Laura Wiess (Leftovers)
“
The real flight of this hawk is impending.
Still,this bird is yet to be tested for real.
Though I have leaped over the seas,
well,the entire sky is still remaining to fly.
And make sure that ,i am gonna do it with all my heart and all my soul.
#loveyoourlife #liveyourlife #hvFUN
”
”
Arunima Sinha (Born Again on the Mountain: a story of losing everything and finding it back)
“
If you want to sing,
sing like today is your last.
If you want to dance,
dance like today is your last.
If you want to laugh,
laugh like today is your last.
If birds sing without worrying
about who is listening to them,
and monkeys dance without worrying
about who is watching them,
and hyenas laugh without worrying
about who is mocking them,
then you too must do what you do best
without worrying about who is ridiculing you.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
I have drawn things since I was six. All that I made before the age of sixty-five is not worth counting. At seventy-three I began to understand the true construction of animals, plants, trees, birds, fishes, and insects. At ninety I will enter into the secret of things. At a hundred and ten, everything--every dot, every dash--will live
”
”
Katsushika Hokusai
“
The infinite loves of two birds were broken. I and You were the two birds. The strong pillars of faith, trust, hope, conviction and whatever that makes a strong building, the building is obviously known as relations, were now go down. Those pillars lose their strength. They were no more able to balance my and yours’s infinite love..Tamanna breaks down
”
”
Prakhar Srivastav
“
A bird that does not break out of its shell will die in its egg.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
that writing motivates you to look closely at life, at life as it lurches by and tramps around. Writing
”
”
Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life)
“
A bird that fears falling off of a tree branch is ignorant of its gifts.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
A bird only conquers the sky when it has mastered enough courage to lose sight of the ground.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
A bird does not give up flying today because it couldn't find any worms yesterday.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
A bird that sings too much will only lose its voice, but a bird that does not sing at all will lose its symphonies.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
Not a single bird makes its first leap from a tree without faith.
”
”
Suzy Kassem
“
Young people and dreams are like baby turtles on the beach. The eggs hatch and they have to scramble to the water before the birds get them. We all have our sights set on water, but only a lucky few make it there unscathed. Life has a way of swooping in and picking off the forces and beliefs that motivates us.
”
”
Chris Colfer (Struck By Lightning: The Carson Phillips Journal (The Land of Stories))
“
One of the hardest things for a teacher is to know when to keep quiet and when to let go. It is a terrible thing to hold someone back from success, or to insist on sharing credit, or to tie someone to your apron strings. We need to have faith that we have done all we can, and then we need to kick our birds out of the nest.
”
”
Tim Gunn (Tim Gunn: The Natty Professor: A Master Class on Mentoring, Motivating, and Making It Work!)
“
Similar ecological disasters occurred on almost every one of the thousands of islands that pepper the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Arctic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Archaeologists have discovered on even the tiniest islands evidence of the existence of birds, insects and snails that lived there for countless generations, only to vanish when the first human farmers arrived. None but a few extremely remote islands escaped man’s notice until the modern age, and these islands kept their fauna intact. The Galapagos Islands, to give one famous example, remained uninhabited by humans until the nineteenth century, thus preserving their unique menagerie, including their giant tortoises, which, like the ancient diprotodons, show no fear of humans. The First Wave Extinction, which accompanied the spread of the foragers, was followed by the Second Wave Extinction, which accompanied the spread of the farmers, and gives us an important perspective on the Third Wave Extinction, which industrial activity is causing today. Don’t believe tree-huggers who claim that our ancestors lived in harmony with nature. Long before the Industrial Revolution, Homo sapiens held the record among all organisms for driving the most plant and animal species to their extinctions. We have the dubious distinction of being the deadliest species in the annals of biology. Perhaps if more people were aware of the First Wave and Second Wave extinctions, they’d be less nonchalant about the Third Wave they are part of. If we knew how many species we’ve already eradicated, we might be more motivated to protect those that still survive. This is especially relevant to the large animals of the oceans.
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind)
“
Staring at a blank piece of paper, I can't think of anything original. I feel utterly uninspired and unreceptive. It's the familiar malaise of 'artist's block' and in such circumstances there is only one thing to do: just start drawing.
The artist Paul Klee refers to this simple act as 'taking a line for a walk', an apt description of my own basic practice: allowing the tip of a pencil to wander through the landscape of a sketchbook, motivated by a vague impulse but hoping to find something much more interesting along the way. Strokes, hooks, squiggles and loops can resolve into hills, faces, animals, machines -even abstract feelings- the meanings of which are often secondary to the simple act of making (something young children know intuitively). Images are not preconceived and then drawn, they are conceived as they are drawn. Indeed, drawing is its own form of thinking, in the same way birdsong is 'thought about' within a bird's throat.
”
”
Shaun Tan
“
If birds sing without worrying about who is listening to them, and monkeys dance without worrying about who is watching them, and hyenas laugh without worrying about who is mocking them, then you too must do what you do best without worrying about who is ridiculing you.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
Things I love about spring are these:
Blooming flowers on fruit-bearing trees.
Fire-red tulips—their first reveal—
Followed by sun-yellow daffodils.
Trees acquiring new coats of green.
Natural waterfalls glistening.
The chirps and melodies of birds.
Throaty ribbits of frogs overheard.
A passing whiff of mint to smell,
Oregano and basil as well.
Colorful butterflies with wings.
Fuzzy, industrious bees that sting.
Sunlight waning late in the day.
Warm breezes causing willows to sway.
Most of all, a sense of things new,
Including budding feelings for you.
”
”
Richelle E. Goodrich (Being Bold: Quotes, Poetry, & Motivations for Every Day of the Year)
“
Hey fellow busy human! Do not forget to take a quick pause to feel the magic of fresh air; to enjoy the change of seasons; to take a deep refreshing sigh standing under a tree; to lull your ears with bird's melodious symphonies; to sense the cool rain water; to walk barefoot on mud; to live like a real human.
”
”
RESHMA CHEKNATH UMESH
“
I let all go,
let if flow.
I let it be.
Now it's me
that's here for me.
All the forests and the rains
that filled my heart
when there were pains,
all the cats and dogs and birds
that sang for me,
that held my hurts,
even God and even light,
all the lovers, all delights,
I let them go
to find within
the medicine
of my soul twin.
”
”
Petra Poje - Keeper of The Eye
“
The Sun challenges us to Shine,the Clouds remind us to Move,the birds tell us We too can Fly and the sky tells us that there is no limit to our Dreams and Goals.-RVM
”
”
R.V.M.
“
Look around you. While dogs bark, birds sing and fly. People will talk; Don’t worry. You just walk- Just Fly!-RVM
”
”
R.V.M.
“
A bird must have faith in its wings if it wants to fly.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
When harsh winds blow harder strong birds soar higher.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
Turkeys can run with eagles but cannot fly with them.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
A bird that fears turbulence will never know how high it can fly.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
A bird is born knowing how to fly, but has to learn to conquer the skies.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
We can't expect roots to ground us, magnificent birds to surround us...or flowers to bloom from our deeds- without first planting the seeds.
”
”
Selin Senol-Akin (Earth Up Your Roots)
“
The Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Birds, the Animals, the Flowers, are all proof that a Universal Power exists. -RVM
”
”
R.V.M.
“
A bird will only fall from the sky when it stops believing in its ability to fly, and a fish will only drown in water when it stops believing in its ability to swim.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
The Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Birds, the Animals, the Flowers, are all proof that a Universal Power exists.
”
”
R.V.M.
“
One twig at a time. Like a bird making a nest.
”
”
Carol Lovekin (Ghostbird)
“
The Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Birds, the Animals, the Flowers, are all proof that a Universal Power exists.-RVM
”
”
R.V.M.
“
Life is like a beautiful bird that comes to your hand.If you let it go,it will fly into the sky,never to return.-RVM
”
”
R.V.M.
“
A rainbow in the sky or a bird that can fly often create Joy that money can't buy!
”
”
R.V.M.
“
Some birds learn how to fly only after falling off of a cliff.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
Birds keep singing beautiful songs, even if they have no audience.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
Passion without ambition is a bird without wings.
”
”
Hari krishnan Nair (WHO AM I: Author Hari Krishnan Nair)
“
A parrot's gift is to talk; an eagle's gift is to fly. I'd rather be an eagle.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
Every second of my time, every letter of my word.
One reason of my crime, two feathers of my bird.
”
”
Akash Verma
“
A winner is someone who recognizes his God given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals. Larry Bird ***
”
”
Darryl Marks (Inspirational Quotes - World’s Best Ultimate Collection - 3000+ Motivational Quotations Plus Special Humor Section)
“
For a migratory bird, there is one supreme truth, “Sky is the freedom.” If it enters into a room by accident, it tries to get out by flying upward. It keeps banging its head against the ceiling. It fails to find the door or windows because it firmly believes that freedom is upward, not sideways.
Challenge your existing beliefs no matter how true they seem to you.
”
”
Shunya
“
since the security hearing, he nevertheless no longer seemed to have the capacity or motivation to fight against the “cruelty” of indifference. In that sense, Rabi had been right: “They
”
”
Kai Bird (American Prometheus)
“
One of the gifts of being a writer is that it gives you an excuse to do things, to go places and explore. Another is that writing motivates
you to look closely at life, at life as it lurches by and tramps around.
”
”
Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird)
“
Someone told me the morning runs are the best healings and I was really curious to to know and yes he was right
Birds chirping, cold winds and the view that always was there but blurred because of my impatient eyes rushing for work.
”
”
Devashish kaushik
“
But still, it was not the desire to ‘write’ that was his real motive. To get out of the money-world—that was what he wanted. Vaguely he looked forward to some kind of moneyless, anchorite existence. He had a feeling that if you genuinely despise money you can keep going somehow, like the birds of the air. He forgot that the birds of the air don’t pay room-rent. The poet starving in a garret—but starving, somehow, not uncomfortably—that was his vision of himself.
The next seven months were devastating. They scared him and almost broke his spirit. He learned what it means to live for weeks on end on bread and margarine, to try to ‘write’ when you are half starved, to pawn your clothes, to sneak trembling up the stairs when you owe three weeks’ rent and your landlady is listening for you. Moreover, in those seven months he wrote practically nothing. The first effect of poverty is that it kills thought. He grasped, as though it were a new discovery, that you do not escape from money merely by being moneyless. On the contrary, you are the hopeless slave of money until you have enough of it to live on—a ‘competence’, as the beastly middle-class phrase goes.
”
”
George Orwell (Keep the Aspidistra Flying)
“
It is GOOD to cherish your yesterdays; It is BETTER to dream your tomorrows; but it is BEST to live your today's! Remember to hold fast to your dreams, for if your dreams die, then your life is like a bird with broken wings that cannot fly.
”
”
Donald Pillai
“
My beautiful little bird, you will come to learn that the value of a false apology is zero, worse than an insult even. Some will use these traits to hold power over you and you are the only one who should have that power. I will nurture it until you’re ready to own it fully.
”
”
Adam A. Fox (A Sinful Symphony: A Dark BDSM Romance)
“
Life is moving much too fast.
I think I can’t catch up with it.
A little bird flew out of nowhere
and sat calmly on my shoulder.
No worries, I’m not afraid
of being left out now.
I’ll never chase life.
Instead, I’ll try to see, understand
and enjoy life as much as I can.
Little bird, you opened my eyes.
”
”
Bhuwan Thapaliya
“
Oppie told his audience that he was not going to argue with the president’s motives and aims—but “we are 140 million people, and there are two billion people living on earth.” However confident Americans might be that their views and ideas will prevail, the absolute “denial of the views and ideas of other people, cannot be the basis of any kind of agreement.
”
”
Kai Bird (American Prometheus)
“
What are the fifty newspapers, which those precocious urchins are bawling down the street, and which are kept filed within, what are they but amusements? Not vapid, waterish amusements, but good strong stuff; dealing in round abuse and blackguard names; pulling off the roofs of private houses, as the Halting Devil did in Spain; pimping and pandering for all degrees of vicious taste, and gorging with coined lies the most voracious maw; imputing to every man in public life the coarsest and the vilest motives; scaring away from the stabbed and prostrate body-politic, every Samaritan of clear conscience and good deeds; and setting on, with yell and whistle and the clapping of foul hands, the vilest vermin and worst birds of prey.
”
”
Charles Dickens (The Complete Works of Charles Dickens)
“
In a jungle when you hear the cacophony of crows, you know a lion has come.
If there were no crows how would we know about the lion.
Do you think a lion goes out there, runs after a deer and kills it? Do you know that when a lion walks, all birds are chirping and circling above, monkeys and other animals are continuously taking positions while making war cries. In this cacophony, a lion has to find a prey.
LIONS CANNOT WAIT FOR THE NOISE TO END.
शेर शांति होने का इंतज़ार नहीं कर सकता
जंगल में जब हम कौवों का शोर सुनते हैं तो मालूम पड़ जाता है कि शेर आ गया।
अगर कौवे शोर न मचाएं तो शेर का पता कैसे चलेगा? क्या आप सोचते हैं कि एक शेर सिर्फ हिरण के पीछे दौड़कर उसे मार लेता है? सोचिए कि इस चिड़ियों के अंतर्नाद के बीच, बंदरों और तमाम जानवरों के हाहाकार के बीच एक शेर को अपना शिकार करना पड़ता है।
शेर शांति होने का इंतज़ार नहीं कर सकता!
”
”
Vineet Raj Kapoor
“
Everything is both complicated and simple. This is the fundamental rule that governs the world. [...] Things that appear to be complicated—and that, in fact, are complicated—are very simple where motives are concerned. It is just a matter of what we are looking for. Motive is the root of desire, so to speak. The important thing is to seek out the root. Dig beneath the complicated surface of reality. And keep on digging. Then dig even more until you come to the very tip of the root. If you will only do that everything will eventually come clear.
”
”
Haruki Murakami (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle)
“
After the physical, Oppenheimer had an officer’s uniform tailored for him. His motivations were complex. Perhaps donning a colonel’s uniform was a visible sign of acceptance important to a man who was self-conscious about his Jewish heritage. But wearing a uniform was also the patriotic thing to do in 1942. Across the country, men and women were donning military uniforms in a symbolic, primordial ritual of defending the tribe, the country—and the uniform was a visible statement of this commitment. There was a lot of apple pie in Robert’s psyche.
”
”
Kai Bird (American Prometheus)
“
great. This is a good description of Rovio, which was around for six years and underwent layoffs before the “instant” success of the Angry Birds video game franchise. In the case of the Five Guys restaurant chain, the founders spent fifteen years tweaking their original handful of restaurants in Virginia, finding the right bun bakery, the right number of times to shake the french fries before serving, how best to assemble a burger, and where to source their potatoes before expanding nationwide. Most businesses require a complex network of relationships to function, and these relationships take time to build. In many instances you have to be around for a few years to receive consistent recognition. It takes time to develop connections with investors, suppliers, and vendors. And it takes time for staff and founders to gain effectiveness in their roles and become a strong team.* So, yes, the bar is high when you want to start a company. You’ll have the chance to work on something you own and care about from day to day. You’ll be 100 percent engaged and motivated, and doing something you believe in. You can lead an integrated life, as opposed to a compartmentalized one in which you play a role in an office and then try to forget about it when you get home. You can define an organization, not the other way around. But even if you quit your job, hunker down for years, work hard for uncertain reward, and ask everyone you know for help, there’s still a great chance that your new business will not succeed. Over 50 percent of companies fail within their first three years.2 There’s a quote I like from an unknown source: “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.
”
”
Andrew Yang (Smart People Should Build Things: How to Restore Our Culture of Achievement, Build a Path for Entrepreneurs, and Create New Jobs in America)
“
This was only a different way of saying what he had learned from reading Proust forty years earlier in Corsica: that “indifference to the sufferings one causes . . . is the terrible and permanent form of cruelty.” Far from being indifferent, Robert was acutely aware of the suffering he had caused others in his life—and yet he would not allow himself to succumb to guilt. He would accept responsibility; he had never tried to deny his responsibility. But since the security hearing, he nevertheless no longer seemed to have the capacity or motivation to fight against the “cruelty” of indifference. In
”
”
Kai Bird (American Prometheus)
“
This was only a different way of saying what he had learned from reading Proust forty years earlier in Corsica: that “indifference to the sufferings one causes . . . is the terrible and permanent form of cruelty.” Far from being indifferent, Robert was acutely aware of the suffering he had caused others in his life—and yet he would not allow himself to succumb to guilt. He would accept responsibility; he had never tried to deny his responsibility. But since the security hearing, he nevertheless no longer seemed to have the capacity or motivation to fight against the “cruelty” of indifference. In that sense, Rabi had been right: “They achieved their goal. They killed him.
”
”
Kai Bird (American Prometheus)
“
Questioner: How can we know ourselves?
Krishnamurti: You know your face because you have often looked at it reflected in the mirror. Now, there is a mirror in which you can see yourself entirely – not your face, but all that you think, all that you feel, your motives, your appetites, your urges and fears. That mirror is the mirror of relationship: the relationship between you and your parents, between you and your teachers, between you and the river, the trees, the earth, between you and your thoughts. Relationship is a mirror in which you can see yourself, not as you would wish to be, but as you are.
I may wish, when looking in an ordinary mirror, that it would show me to be beautiful, but that does not happen because the mirror reflects my face exactly as it is and I cannot deceive myself. Similarly, I can see myself exactly as I am in the mirror of my relationship with others. I can observe how I talk to people: most politely to those who I think can give me something, and rudely or contemptuously to those who cannot. I am attentive to those I am afraid of. I get up when important people come in, but when the servant enters I pay no attention. So, by observing myself in relationship, I have found out how falsely I respect people, have I not?
And I can also discover myself as I am in my relationship with the trees and the birds, with ideas and books.
”
”
J. Krishnamurti (Think on These Things)
“
To live without comparison, to live without any kind of measurement inwardly, never to compare what you are with what you should be. The word 'meditation' means not only to ponder, to think over, to probe, to look, to weigh; it also has a much deeper meaning in Sanskrit - to measure, which is `to become'. In meditation there must be no measurement. This meditation must not be a conscious meditation in deliberately chosen postures. This meditation must be totally unconscious, never knowing that you are meditating. If you deliberately meditate it is another form of desire, as any other expression of desire. The objects may vary; your meditation may be to reach the highest, but the motive is the desire to achieve, as the business man, as the builder of a great cathedral. Meditation is a movement without any motive, without words and the activity of thought. It must be something that is not deliberately set about. Only then is meditation a movement in the infinite, measureless to man, without a goal, without an end and without a beginning. And that has a strange action in daily life, because all life is one and then becomes sacred. And that which is sacred can never be killed. To kill another is unholy. It cries to heaven as a bird kept in a cage. One never realizes how sacred life is, not only your little life but the lives of millions of others, from the things of nature to extraordinary human beings. And in meditation which is without measurement, there is the very action of that which is most noble, most sacred and holy.
”
”
J. Krishnamurti (Krishnamurti to Himself: His Last Journal)
“
As their conversation turned philosophical, Oppenheimer stressed the word 'responsibility'. And when Morgan suggested he was using the word almost in a religious sense Oppenheimer agreed it was a 'secular devise for using a religious notion without attaching it to a transcendent being. I like to use the word 'ethical' here. I am more explicit about ethical questions now than ever before although these were very strong with me when I was working on the bomb. Now I don't know how to describe my life without using some word like responsibility to characterize it. A word that has to do with choice and action and the tension in which choices can be resolved. I'm not talking about knowledge but about being limited by what you can do. There is no meaningful responsibility without power. It may be only power over what you do yourself but increased knowledge, increased wealth... leisure are all increasing the domain in which responsibility is conceivable. After this soliloquy Morgan wrote "Oppenheimer turned his palms up, the long slender fingers including his listener in his conclusion 'You and I' he said 'Neither of us is rich but as far as responsibility goes both of us are in a position right now to alleviate the most awful agony in people at the starvation level.' This was only a different way of saying what he had learned from reading Proust forty years earlier in Corsica... that indifference to the sufferings one causes is the terrible and permanent form of cruelty. Far from being indifferent, Robert was acutely aware of the suffering he had caused others in his life and yet he would not allow himself to succumb to guilt. He would accept responsibility. He had never tried to deny his responsibility but since the security hearing he nevertheless no longer seemed to have the capacity or motivation to fight against the cruelty of indifference. and in that sense, Robby had been right- they achieved their goal, they killed him.
”
”
Kai Bird (American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer)
“
But Oppenheimer was still capable of being a critic; he just wanted to stand alone and with far more ambiguity than his fellow scientists. He was consumed with the deep ethical and philosophical dilemmas posed by nuclear weapons, but at times it seemed that, as Thorpe puts it, “Oppenheimer offered to weep for the world, but not help to change it.” In truth, Oppenheimer very much wanted to change the world—but he knew he was barred from pulling on the levers of power in Washington, and he no longer had the spirit for public activism that had motivated him in the 1930s. His excommunication had not freed him to enter the great debates of the day; it had inclined him, rather, to censor himself. Frank Oppenheimer thought his brother felt enormously frustrated that he could not find a way back into official circles. “He wanted to get back into that, I think,” Frank said. “I don’t know why, but I think it’s one of these things where there’s a—when you get the taste of it, it’s hard to not want it.
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Kai Bird (American Prometheus)
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He spent the morning at the beach. He had no idea which one, just some open stretch of coastline reaching out to the sea. An unbroken mantle of soft grey clouds was sitting low over the water. Only on the horizon was there a glimmer of light, a faint blue band of promise. The beach was deserted, not another soul on the vast, wide expanse of sand that stretched out in front of him. Having come from the city, it never ceased to amaze Jejeune that you could be that alone in the world. He walked along the beach, feeling the satisfying softness as the sand gave way beneath his slow deliberate strides. He ventured as close to the tide line as he dared, the white noise of the waves breaking on the shingles. A set of paw prints ran along the sand, with an unbroken line in between. A small dog, dragging a stick in its mouth. Always the detective, even if, these days, he wasn’t a very good one.
Jejeune’s path became blocked by a narrow tidal creek carrying its silty cargo out to the sea. On each side of it were shallow lagoons and rock pools. When the tide washed in they would teem with new life, but at the moment they looked barren and empty. Jejeune looked inland, back to where the dark smudge of Corsican pines marked the edge of the coast road. He traced the creek’s sinuous course back to where it emerged from a tidal salt flat, and watched the water for a long time as it eddied and churned, meeting the incoming tide in an erotic swirl of water, the fresh intermingling with the salty in a turbulent, roiling dance, until it was no longer possible to tell one from the other.
He looked out at the sea, at the motion, the color, the light. A Black-headed Gull swooped in and settled on a piece of driftwood a few feet away. Picture complete, thought Jejeune. For him, a landscape by itself, no matter how beautiful, seemed an empty thing. It needed a flicker of life, a tiny quiver of existence, to validate it, to confirm that other living things found a home here, too.
Side by side, they looked out over the sea, the man and the bird, two beating hearts in this otherwise empty landscape, with no connection beyond their desire to be here, at this time. Was it the birds that attracted him to places like this, he wondered, or the solitude, the absence of demands, of expectations? But if Jejeune was unsure of his own motives, he knew this bird would have a purpose in being here. Nature always had her reasons.
He chanced a sidelong glance at the bird, now settled to his presence. It had already completed its summer molt, crisp clean feathers having replaced the ones abraded by the harsh demands of eking out a living on this wild, windswept coastline. The gull stayed for a long moment, allowing Jejeune to rest his eyes softly, unthreateningly, upon it. And then, as if deciding it had allowed him enough time to appreciate its beauty, the bird spread its wings and effortlessly lifted off, wheeling on the invisible air currents, drifting away over the sea toward the horizon.
p. 282-3
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Steve Burrows (A Siege of Bitterns (Birder Murder Mystery, #1))
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For a long time he frowned at the brick path that lay between himself and the bird, and then he let go of the wall. He took one step and then more, buoyed up by some impossible antigravity. After two steps the hummingbird was gone, but Nicholas still headed for the air it had occupied, his hands grasping at vapour. It was as if an invisible balloon floated above him, tied to his overall strap, dragging him along from above. He swayed and swaggered, stabbing one toe at a time down at the ground, pivoting on the ball of one foot, and then suddenly the string was cut and down he bumped on his well-padded bottom. He looked at me and screamed.
‘You’re walking,’ I told Nicholas. ‘I promise you it gets easier. The rest of life doesn’t, but this really does.’
I stayed out there with my book for the rest of the afternoon, surreptitiously watching as he tried it over and over. He was completely undeterred by failure. The motivation packed in that small body was a miracle to see.
I wished I could bottle that passion for accomplishment and squeeze out some of the elixir, one drop at a time, on my high-school students.
They would move mountains.
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Barbara Kingsolver (Animal Dreams)
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It was too easy! It was much too easy! Five hours had not yet gone by since I had met you. How easy it was! If only you had shown at least a modicum of resistance. Well, how long should you have resisted to satisfy me? Six hours? Seven? Eight? I was being stupid and ridiculous. Your licentiousness would be the same, if you held back for five, fifty, or five hundred hours.
Well, why didn’t I have the courage to put an end to this festering triangle? Because of a desire for revenge? Perhaps. But I think there was a different motive. Had it been simply desire for revenge, would it not have been more effective to tear the mask from my face on the spot? But I was afraid. Of course, the behavior of the mask, which was demolishing my calm everyday life, was cruel, but returning to the faceless, enclosed days was even more terrifying. Fear strengthened fear, and like a bird that has lost its feet and is unable to alight upon the ground, I would have to keep endlessly hovering. But that was not the end of it. If I really could not endure the situation, the mask, alive as it was, might well kill you. Your fornication would be difficult to deny, which gave me an alibi.
But I did not kill you. Why? I wonder. Because I did not want to lose you? No, precisely not wanting to lose you was reason enough for killing you. It would be senseless to seek rationality in jealousy. Just look at yourself. You who had rejected me so positively, who had rebelled against my face, now lay broken beneath the mask!
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Kōbō Abe (The Face of Another)
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The thunder howled and the rain splashed, the leaves played with the breeze and the lightning flashed, and the tigress growled at last.
She looked here and she looked there, she hadn't seen so much rain anywhere, a desire suddenly came in her heart, a mad longing that had to start, she felt deep love in the rain, looking at her cubs all over again
But two years ago she had been wounded, By cowardly men who wanted her grounded, They were afraid of her power, they wanted to capture her and to enslave her in their tower
They laid traps and they waited in the trees, The jungle was full of birds and the bees, The tigress was out hunting for meat, her cubs awaiting in the cave for their treat
There was something missing in the air, the fragrance of jasmine was not there, The tigress looked up into the trees and saw the men's faces painted in grease, She challenged them looking into their eyes, And saw fear, fright , and faces full of lies! She roared with all her might, This was her land, She had all the right!
The cowardly men crouching behind the trees, Fired their guns in twos and threes, The brave Tigress looked them in the eye, She was the fire and she was the sky, Indomitable force, invincible power, She was the Tigress, The Queen in her Empire
None of the bullets could break her Spirit,
Only one could graze her right leg a bit, She roared with all her heart's might, For she was the Queen for all to sight!
The guns emptied and no more bullets to shoot, The cowardly men jumped from the trees and ran away in two hoots! The Tigress laughed and loudly roared,
For she was the power and her Spirit soared
She is the Tigress inside every Woman,
She has the Power to defeat any Man,
Love her and she would love you back,
Respect her and she would respect you back,
Dare to harm her and she would defeat you till the Last!
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Avijeet Das
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Don’t just follow the herd. Be like a bird. Open your wings and fly high in the sky!-RVM
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R.V.M.
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Birds Fly in the Sky, because they don't know how to Cry! They know just one thing, to Sing!-RVM
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R.V.M.
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Raise up like a free bird shouting out the silence of the caged birds.
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Raise your voice, freedom, justice, motivation, humanity, love, peace
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If a bird has one wing it cannot fly, no matter how strong it is.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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It is this heightened state that may produce several relatively new phenomena in childhood today. As the clinical psychologist Catherine Steiner-Adair,10 the author of The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age, observes, the most commonly heard complaint when children are asked to go off-line is “I’m bored.” Confronted with the dazzling possibilities for their attention on a nearby screen, young children quickly become awash with, then accustomed to, and ever so gradually semi-addicted to continuous sensory stimulation. When the constant level of stimulation is taken away, the children respond predictably with a seemingly overwhelming state of boredom. “I’m Bored.” There are different kinds of boredom. There is a natural boredom that is part of the woof of childhood that can often provide children with the impetus to create their own forms of entertainment and just plain fun. This is the boredom that Walter Benjamin described years ago as the “dream bird that hatches the egg of experience.”11 But there may also be an unnatural, culturally induced, new form of boredom that follows too much digital stimulation. This form of boredom may de-animate children in such a fashion as to prevent them from wanting to explore and create real-world experiences for themselves, particularly outside their rooms, houses, and schools. As Steiner-Adair wrote, “If they become addicted to playing on screens,12 children will not know how to move through that fugue state they call boredom, which is often a necessary prelude to creativity.” It would be an intellectual shame to think that in the spirit of giving our children as much as we can through the many creative offerings of the latest, enhanced e-books and technological innovations, we may inadvertently deprive them of the motivation and time necessary to build their own images of what is read and to construct their own imaginative off-line worlds that are the invisible habitats of childhood. Such cautions are neither a matter of nostalgic lament nor an exclusion of the powerful, exciting uses of the child’s imagination fostered by technology. We will return to such uses a little later. Nor should worries over a “lost childhood” be dismissed as a cultural (read Western) luxury. What of the real lost childhoods? one might ask, in which the daily struggle to survive trumps everything else? Those children are never far from my thoughts or my work every day of my life.
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Maryanne Wolf (Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World)
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Studies show that enthusiastic people get better breaks. They’re promoted more often, have higher incomes, and live happier lives. That’s not a coincidence. The word enthusiasm comes from the Greek word entheos. Theos is a term for “God.”
When you’re enthusiastic, you are full of God. When you get up in the morning excited about life, recognizing that each day is a gift, you are motivated to pursue your goals. You will have a favor and blessing that will cause you to succeed.
The eight undeniable quality of a winner is that they stay passionate throughout their lives. Too many people have lost their enthusiasm. At one time they were excited about their futures and passionate about their dreams, but along the way they hit some setbacks. They didn’t get the promotions they wanted, maybe a relationship didn’t work out, or they had health issues. Something took the wind out of their sails. They’re just going through the motions of life; getting up, going to work, and coming home.
God didn’t breathe His life into us so we would drag through the day. He didn’t create us in His image, crown us with His favor, and equip us with His power so that we would have no enthusiasm.
You may have had some setbacks. The wind may have been taken out of your sails, but this is a new day. God is breathing new life into you. If you shake off the blahs and get your passion back, then the winds will start blowing once again--not against you, but for you. When you get in agreement with God, He will cause things to shift in your favor.
On January 15, 2009, Capt. Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger successfully landed a jet airplane in the Hudson River after the plane’s engines were disabled by multiple bird strikes. Despite the dangers of a massive passenger plane landing in icy waters, all 155 passengers and crew members survived. It’s known as the “Miracle on the Hudson.”
Just after the successful emergency landing and rescue, a reporter asked a middle-aged male passenger what he thought about surviving that frightening event. Although he was shaken up, cold and wet, the passenger had a glow on his face, and excitement in his voice when he replied: “I was alive before, but now I’m really alive.”
After facing a life-and-death situation, the survivor found that his perspective had changed. He recognized each moment as a gift and decided that instead of just living, he would start really living.
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Joel Osteen (You Can You Will: 8 Undeniable Qualities of a Winner)
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You cannot bribe a bird to stop flying, even if you offer it the world.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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The Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Birds, the Animals, the Flowers are all proof that a Universal Power exists.
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R.V.M.
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A bird must overcome its fear of heights before it can rule the skies.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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A bird must rely on its own wings if it is to conquer the sky.
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Matshona Dhliwayo