β
Becoming fearless isn't the point. That's impossible. It's learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Divergent (Divergent, #1))
β
Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.
β
β
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (Frankenstein)
β
Don't be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.
β
β
John Lennon
β
To me, Fearless is not the absense of fear. It's not being completely unafraid. To me, Fearless is having fears. Fearless is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, Fearless is living in spite of those things that scare you to death.
β
β
Taylor Swift
β
Let everything happen to you
Beauty and terror
Just keep going
No feeling is final
β
β
Rainer Maria Rilke
β
Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers,
but to be fearless in facing them.
Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but
for the heart to conquer it.
β
β
Rabindranath Tagore (Collected Poems and Plays of Rabindranath Tagore)
β
The conversation of kisses. Subtle, engrossing, fearless, transforming.
β
β
Alice Munro (Runaway: Stories)
β
And when someone apologizes to you enough times for things they'll never stop doing, I think it's FEARLESS to stop believing them. It's FEARLESS to say "you're NOT sorry" and walk away.
β
β
Taylor Swift
β
Our fearlessness shall be our secret weapon.
β
β
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
β
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
β
β
Alexander Pope (An Essay On Criticism)
β
Being FEARLESS isn't being 100% Not FEARFUL, it's being terrified but you jump anyway...
β
β
Taylor Swift
β
A man is not called wise because he talks and talks again; but if he is peaceful, loving and fearless then he is in truth called wise.
β
β
Gautama Buddha (The Dhammapada: The Sayings of the Buddha)
β
Always be fearless. Walk like lion, talk like pigeons, live like elephants and love like an infant child.
β
β
Santosh Kalwar (Quote Me Everyday)
β
Atheism is more than just the knowledge that gods do not exist, and that religion is either a mistake or a fraud. Atheism is an attitude, a frame of mind that looks at the world objectively, fearlessly, always trying to understand all things as a part of nature.
β
β
Emmett F. Fields
β
Never regret thy fall,
O Icarus of the fearless flight
For the greatest tragedy of them all
Is never to feel the burning light.
β
β
Oscar Wilde
β
Only priests and fools are fearless and I've never been on the best of terms with God.
β
β
Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1))
β
Courage is feeling fear, not getting rid of fear, and taking action in the face of fear.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
The only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with. To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately at ourselves, we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else's eyes.
β
β
Pema ChΓΆdrΓΆn
β
FEARLESS is getting back up and fighting for what you want over and over again....even though every time you've tried before you've lost.
β
β
Taylor Swift
β
I'm already crazy. I'm a fearless person. I think it creeps up on you. I don't think it can be stopped. If my destiny is to lose my mind because of fame, then that's my destiny. But my passion still means more than anything.
β
β
Lady Gaga
β
Be that strong girl that everyone knew would make it through the worst, be that fearless girl, the one who would dare to do anything, be that independent girl who didn't need a man; be that girl who never backed down.
β
β
Taylor Swift
β
The more you are motivated by Love,
The more Fearless & Free your action will be.
β
β
Dalai Lama XIV
β
Jesus promised his disciples three thingsβthat they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble.
β
β
William Barclay (The Gospel of Luke - Enlarged Print Edition (The New Daily Study Bible))
β
Fate loves the fearless.
β
β
James Russell Lowell
β
The one who falls and gets up is stronger than the one who never tried. Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
Focus on your goals, not your fear.
Focus like a laser beam on your goals.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
To me, βFEARLESSβ is not the absence of fear. Itβs not being completely unafraid. To me, FEARLESS is having fears. FEARLESS is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, FEARLESS is living in spite of those things that scare you to death. FEARLESS is falling madly in love again, even though youβve been hurt before. FEARLESS is walking into your freshmen year of high school at fifteen. FEARLESS is getting back up and fighting for what you want over and over againβ¦ even though every time youβve tried before, youβve lost. Itβs FEARLESS to have faith that someday things will change. FEARLESS is having the courage to say goodbye to someone who only hurts you, even if you canβt breathe without them. I think itβs FEARLESS to fall for your best friend, even though heβs in love with someone else. And when someone apologizes to you enough times for things theyβll never stop doing, I think itβs FEARLESS to stop believing them. Itβs FEARLESS to say βyouβre NOT sorryβ, and walk away. I think loving someone despite what people think is FEARLESS. I think allowing yourself to cry on the bathroom floor is FEARLESS. Letting go is FEARLESS. Then, moving on and being alrightβ¦ThatβsFEARLESS too. But no matter what love throws at you, you have to believe in it. You have to believe in love stories and prince charmings and happily ever after. Thatβs why I write these songs. Because I think love is FEARLESS.
β
β
Taylor Swift
β
Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.
β
β
Pema ChΓΆdrΓΆn (The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times)
β
You were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it courageously.
β
β
Steve Maraboli (Life, the Truth, and Being Free)
β
If I am to be fallen into love, I will. And if as a result I will appear to be stupid, disillusioned, and of poor judgment, I will. And I would be damned if I cared what other people think. For I would rather be thought of as all of these things, than not love. If in loving, I become the naked woman on the horse, I will ride that horse with my head held high. This is my spirit. I am unbreakable.
β
β
C. JoyBell C.
β
Ack!" I said.
Fearless master of the witty dialogue, that's me.
β
β
Jim Butcher (Changes (The Dresden Files, #12))
β
Successful people have no fear of failure. But unsuccessful people do. Successful people have the resilience to face up to failureβlearn the lessons and adapt from it.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett
β
This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook- try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!
β
β
Julia Child (My Life in France)
β
To learn something new, you need to try new things and not be afraid to be wrong.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett
β
may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old
may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it's sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young
and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there's never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile
β
β
E.E. Cummings (E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962 (Revised, Corrected, and Expanded Edition))
β
But no matter what love throws at you, you have to believe in it. You have ot believe in love stories and prince charmings and happily ever after. That's why I write these songs. Because I think love is FEARLESS.
β
β
Taylor Swift
β
These things will destroy the human race: politics without principle, progress without compassion, wealth without work, learning without silence, religion without fearlessness, and worship without awareness.
β
β
Anthony de Mello
β
But maybe what I saw as fearless was actually fear under control.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Divergent (Divergent, #1))
β
To acquire true self power you have to feel beneath no one, be immune to criticism and be fearless.
β
β
Deepak Chopra
β
What would you do if you weren't afraid?
β
β
Spencer Johnson (Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life...)
β
Itβs not: I jumped in, and it was cold. No. It was cold, and I jumped in. Always arrange a sentence so you appear to be fearless, when in fact you are far less than fearlessβyou are clueless.
β
β
Jarod Kintz (At even one penny, this book would be overpriced. In fact, free is too expensive, because you'd still waste time by reading it.)
β
Fearlessness is the first requisite of spirituality. Cowards can never be moral.
β
β
Mahatma Gandhi
β
Be not Afraid of anything. You will do Marvelous work. it is Fearlessness that brings Heaven even in a moment.
β
β
Vivekananda
β
Hide yourself in God, so when a man wants to find you he will have to go there first.
β
β
Shannon L. Alder
β
I stand in front of my window and imagine myself a fearless knight, imagine myself a witch who hid her heart in her finger and then chopped her finger off.
β
β
Holly Black (The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air, #1))
β
Many times, the thought of fear itself is greater than what it is we fear.
β
β
Idowu Koyenikan (Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability)
β
No one knows what you have been through or what your pretty little eyes have seen, but I can reassure you ~ whatever you have conquered, it shines through your mind.
β
β
Nikki Rowe
β
...I want to be fearless and free. It's just life, Will. It'II be over before we know it.
β
β
Rachael Lippincott (Five Feet Apart)
β
Mindless fear is greater than mindful fear.
β
β
Idowu Koyenikan
β
Fearlessness in those without power is maddening to those who have it.
β
β
Tobias Wolff (This Boy's Life)
β
There is strange comfort in knowing that no matter what happens today, the Sun will rise again tomorrow.
β
β
Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
β
Nothing is more terrifying than fearlessness.
β
β
Cornelia Funke (Inkdeath (Inkworld, #3))
β
Fear robs you of your freedom to make the right choice in life that can bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be. On the other side of fear, lies freedom. If you want to grow, you need to be brave and take risks. If you're not uncomfortable, you're not growing.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
Part of falling in love with someone is actually falling in love with yourself. Realizing that you're gorgeous, you're fearless and unpredictable, you're a firecracker spitting light, entrancing a hundred faces that stare up at you with starry eyes.
β
β
Leah Raeder (Unteachable)
β
Mastering others is strength. Mastering oneself makes you fearless.
β
β
Lao Tzu
β
Plants are more courageous than almost all human beings: an orange tree would rather die than produce lemons, whereas instead of dying the average person would rather be someone they are not.
β
β
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
β
I write a lot of songs about love and I think thatβs because to me love seems like this huge complicated thing. But it seems like every once in a while, two people get it figured out, two people get it right. And so I think the rest of us, we walk around daydreaming about what that might be like. To find that one great love, where all of a sudden everything that seemed to be so complicated, became simple. And everything that used to seem so wrong all of a sudden seemed right because you were with the person who made you feel fearless.
β
β
Taylor Swift
β
Be fearless. Have the courage to take risks. Go where there are no guarantees. Get out of your comfort zone even if it means being uncomfortable. The road less traveled is sometimes fraught with barricades bumps and uncharted terrain. But it is on that road where your character is truly tested And have the courage to accept that youβre not perfect nothing is and no one is β and thatβs OK.
β
β
Katie Couric
β
Feed your fears and your faith will starve. Feed your faith, and your fears will.
β
β
Max Lucado (Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear)
β
Defend the weak, protect both young and old, never desert your friends. Give justice to all, be fearless in battle and always ready to defend the right."
βThe law of Badger Lords
β
β
Brian Jacques (Lord Brocktree (Redwall, #13))
β
I launched into a graceful ninja-like front roll, then stood my ground to face the monstrous heathen, fearless in my determination to vanquish the deadly foe.
Nah, just kidding. I bolted, discretion being the better part of not getting dead.
β
β
A. Kirk (Demons at Deadnight (Divinicus Nex Chronicles, #1))
β
Everyone thought I was bold and fearless and even arrogant, but inside I was always quaking.
β
β
Katharine Hepburn
β
The person I am in the company of my sisters has been entirely different from the person I am in the company of other people. Fearless, powerful, surprising, moved as I otherwise am only when I write.
β
β
Franz Kafka (Diaries, 1910-1923)
β
We think a flower on a cliff is beautiful
Because we stop our feet at the cliff's edge
Unable to step out into the sky
Like that fearless flower
--Sosuke Aizen,Flower on the Precipice
β
β
Tite Kubo
β
You have two choices, to conquer your fear or to let your fear conquer you.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid ... Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.
β
β
Bertrand Russell (Why Men Fight)
β
The struggles we endure today will be the βgood old daysβ we laugh about tomorrow.
β
β
Aaron Lauritsen (100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip)
β
Speak what you think today in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today.
β
β
Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance: An Excerpt from Collected Essays, First Series)
β
How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property β either as a child, a wife, or a concubine β must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the faith: all know how to die but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.
β
β
Winston S. Churchill (The River War)
β
I'm shining like fireworks over your sad, empty town
β
β
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift - Fearless Songbook: Piano/Vocal/Guitar Artist)
β
and you come away with a great little story of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you
β
β
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift - Fearless Songbook: Piano/Vocal/Guitar Artist)
β
Forget the self and you will fear nothing, in whatever level or awareness you find yourself to be.
β
β
Carlos Castaneda (The Active Side of Infinity)
β
But oh! the blessing it is to have a friend to whom one can speak fearlessly on any subject; with whom one's deepest as well as one's most foolish thoughts come out simply and safely. Oh, the comfort - the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person - having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.
β
β
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik (A Life For A Life)
β
I don't think you should wait. I think you should speak now.
β
β
Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift - Speak Now Songbook: Piano/Vocal/Guitar)
β
F-E-A-R has two meanings: 'Forget Everything And Run' or 'Face Everything And Rise.' The choice is yours.
β
β
Zig Ziglar
β
Riches, prestige, everything can be lost. But the happiness in your own heart can only be dimmed; it will always be there, as long as you live, to make you happy again.
Whenever you're feeling lonely or sad, try going to the loft on a beautiful day and looking outside. Not at the houses and the rooftops, but at the sky. As long as you can look fearlessly at the sky, you'll know that you're pure within and will find happiness once more.
β
β
Anne Frank (The Diary of a Young Girl)
β
This is the ending. Now not day only shall be beloved, but night too shall be beautiful and blessed and all its fear pass away.
β
β
J.R.R. Tolkien
β
Can you imagine a life with no fear? What if faith, not fear, was your default reaction to threats?
β
β
Max Lucado (Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear)
β
It's so trendy, almost bleeding to death. All the cool girls are doing it.
β
β
Francine Pascal (Fearless (Fearless, #1))
β
For what prevents us from saying that the happy life is to have a mind that is free, lofty, fearless and steadfast - a mind that is placed beyond the reach of fear, beyond the reach of desire, that counts virtue the only good, baseness the only evil, and all else but a worthless mass of things, which come and go without increasing or diminishing the highest good, and neither subtract any part from the happy life nor add any part to it?
A man thus grounded must, whether he wills or not, necessarily be attended by constant cheerfulness and a joy that is deep and issues from deep within, since he finds delight in his own resources, and desires no joys greater than his inner joys.
β
β
Seneca (The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca: Essays and Letters)
β
To escape fear, you have to go through it, not around.
β
β
Richie Norton (RΓ©sumΓ©s Are Dead and What to Do About It)
β
We should write as we dream; we should even try and write, we should all do it for ourselves, itβs very healthy, because itβs the only place where we never lie. At night we donβt lie. Now if we think that our whole lives are built on lying-they are strange buildings-we should try and write as our dreams teach us; shamelessly, fearlessly, and by facing what is inside very human being-sheer violence, disgust, terror, shit, invention, poetry. In our dreams we are criminals; we kill, and we kill with a lot of enjoyment. But we are also the happiest people on earth; we make love as we never make love in life.
β
β
Hélène Cixous
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
I know this world is far from perfect.
I am not the type to mistake a streetlight for the moon.
I know our wounds are deep as the Atlantic.
But every ocean has a shoreline
and every shoreline has a tide
that is constantly returning
to wake the songbirds in our hands,
to wake the music in our bones,
to place one fearless kiss on the mouth of that new born river
that has to run through the center of our hearts
to find its way home.
β
β
Andrea Gibson (Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns)
β
To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude. The movement from loneliness to solitude, however, is the beginning of any spiritual life because it it is the movement from the restless senses to the restful spirit,l from the outward-reaching cravings to the inward-reaching search, from the fearful clinging to the fearless play.
β
β
Henri J.M. Nouwen (Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life)
β
For too many centuries women have been being muses to artists. I wanted to be the muse, I wanted to be the wife of the artist, but I was really trying to avoid the final issue β that I had to do the job myself.
β
β
AnaΓ―s Nin
β
INTO MY OWN
One of my wishes is that those dark trees,
So old and firm they scarcely show the breeze,
Were not, as βtwere, the merest mask of gloom,
But stretched away unto the edge of doom.
I should not be withheld but that some day
Into their vastness I should steal away,
Fearless of ever finding open land,
Or highway where the slow wheel pours the sand.
I do not see why I should eβer turn back,
Or those should not set forth upon my track
To overtake me, who should miss me here
And long to know if still I held them dear.
They would not find me changed from him they knewβ
Only more sure of all I thought was true.
β
β
Robert Frost (A Boy's Will)
β
And now I realize Lindsay's not fearless. She's terrified. She's terrified that people will find out she's faking, bullshitting her way through life, pretending to have everything together when really she's just floundering like the rest of us. Lindsay, who will bite at you if you even look in her direction the wrong way, like on of those tiny attack dogs that are always barking and snapping in the air before they're jerked backward on the chains that keep them in one place.
β
β
Lauren Oliver (Before I Fall)
β
FEARLESS' is not the absense of fear.
It's not being completely unafraid.
FEARLESS is having fears.
FEARLESS is having doubts. Lots of them.
FEARLESS is living in spite of those things that scare you to death.
FEARLESS is falling madly in love again, even though you've been hurt before.
FEARLESS is getting back up and fighting for what you want all over again... even though every time you've tried before, you've lost.
It's FEARLESS to have faith that someday things will change.
FEARLESS is having the courage to say goodbye to someone who only hurts you, even if you can't breathe without them.
It's FEARLESS to say "you're NOT sorry," and walk away.
I think loving someone despite what people think is FEARLESS.
β
β
Taylor Swift
β
The greatest heroes in life are those that never give up on someone. They stick it out and make it work. They sacrifice things in their life, in order to help others grow. They give up what they want because someone needs it more. They work hard and overcome adversity. They fail for a moment, but get back up on their feet to show others they donβt have to stay down. They show their loved ones that love is not βprovedβ by conformity. They teach others that having a voice is a sign of courage, and they will not stay silent to make people feel comfortable. They are fearless and will do whatever it takes to bring about the greatness in the ones they love because doing so brings them peace. Their name is---MOM.
β
β
Shannon L. Alder
β
[...] just remember, the storm doesn't last forever. It can scare you; it can shake you to your core. But it never lasts. The rain subsides, the thunder dies, and the winds calm to a soft whisper. And that moment after the storm clouds pass, when all is silent and still, you find peace. Quiet, gentle peace.
β
β
S.L. Jennings (Fear of Falling (Fearless, #1))
β
For ages you have come and gone
courting this delusion.
For ages you have run from the pain
and forfeited the ecstasy.
So come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.
Although you appear in earthly form
Your essence is pure Consciousness.
You are the fearless guardian
of Divine Light.
So come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.
When you lose all sense of self
the bonds of a thousand chains will vanish.
Lose yourself completely,
Return to the root of the root
of your own soul.
You descended from Adam, by the pure Word of God,
but you turned your sight
to the empty show of this world.
Alas, how can you be satisfied with so little?
So come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.
Why are you so enchanted by this world
when a mine of gold lies within you?
Open your eyes and come ---
Return to the root of the root
of your own soul.
You were born from the rays of God's Majesty
when the stars were in their perfect place.
How long will you suffer from the blows
of a nonexistent hand?
So come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.
You are a ruby encased in granite.
How long will you decieve Us with this outer show?
O friend, We can see the truth in your eyes!
So come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.
After one moment with that glorious Friend
you became loving, radiant, and ecstatic.
Your eyes were sweet and full of fire.
Come, return to the root of the root
of your own soul.
Shams-e Tabriz, the King of the Tavern
has handed you an eternal cup,
And God in all His glory is pouring the wine.
So come! Drink!
Return to the root of the root
of your own soul.
Soul of all souls, life of all life - you are That.
Seen and unseen, moving and unmoving - you are That.
The road that leads to the City is endless;
Go without head and feet
and you'll already be there.
What else could you be? - you are That.
β
β
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
β
Courage to me is doing something daring, no matter how afraid, insecure, intimidated, alone, unworthy, incapable, ridiculed or whatever other paralyzing emotion you might feel. Courage is taking action....no matter what. Β So you're afraid? Be afraid. Β Be scared silly to the point you're trembling and nauseous, but do it anyway!
β
β
Richelle E. Goodrich (Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, and Grumblings for Every Day of the Year)
β
Shahrzad,
I've failed you several times. But there was one moment I failed you beyond measure. It was the day we met. The moment I took your hand and you looked at me, with the glory of hate in your eyes. I should have sent you home to your family. But I didn't. There was honesty in your hatred. Fearlessness in your pain. In your honesty, I saw a reflection of myself. Or rather, of the man I longed to be. So I failed you. I didn't stay away. Then later, I thought if I had answers, it would be enough. I would no longer care. You would not matter. So I continued failing you. Continued wanting more. And now I can't find the words to say what must be said. To convey to you the least of what I owe. When I think of you, I can't find the air to breathe. And now, though you are gone, there is no pain or fear. All I am left with is gratitude.
When I was a boy, my mother would tell me that one of the best things in life is the knowledge that your story isn't over yet. Our story may have come to a close, but your story is still yet to be told. Make it a story worthy of you.
I failed you in one last thing. Here is my chance to rectify it. It was never because I didn't feel it. It was because I swore I would never say it, and a man is nothing if he can't keep his promises.
So I write it in the sky-
I love you, a thousand times over. And I will never apologize for it.
Khalid
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RenΓ©e Ahdieh (The Wrath and the Dawn (The Wrath and the Dawn, #1))
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With your face and your beautiful eyes and the coversations with the little white lies and the faded picture of a beautiful lie you carry me from your car up the stairs,and I broke down crying was she worth this mess? After everything and that little black dress.After everything i must confess...I need you <3'':)
-Taylor Swift
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Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift - Fearless Songbook: Guitar Recorded Versions)
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Like a Columbus of the heart, mind and soul I have hurled myself off the shores of my own fears and limiting beliefs to venture far out into the uncharted territories of my inner truth, in search of what it means to be genuine and at peace with who I really am. I have abandoned the masquerade of living up to the expectations of others and explored the new horizons of what it means to be truly and completely me, in all my amazing imperfection and most splendid insecurity.
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Anthon St. Maarten
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Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery. It is far better to be free, to leave the forts and barricades of fear, to stand erect and face the future with a smile. It is far better to give yourself sometimes to negligence, to drift with wave and tide, with the blind force of the world, to think and dream, to forget the chains and limitations of the breathing life, to forget purpose and object, to lounge in the picture gallery of the brain, to feel once more the clasps and kisses of the past, to bring life's morning back, to see again the forms and faces of the dead, to paint fair pictures for the coming years, to forget all Gods, their promises and threats, to feel within your veins life's joyous stream and hear the martial music, the rhythmic beating of your fearless heart. And then to rouse yourself to do all useful things, to reach with thought and deed the ideal in your brain, to give your fancies wing, that they, like chemist bees, may find art's nectar in the weeds of common things, to look with trained and steady eyes for facts, to find the subtle threads that join the distant with the now, to increase knowledge, to take burdens from the weak, to develop the brain, to defend the right, to make a palace for the soul. This is real religion. This is real worship
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Robert G. Ingersoll (The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. IV)
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For Jenn
At 12 years old I started bleeding with the moon
and beating up boys who dreamed of becoming astronauts.
I fought with my knuckles white as stars,
and left bruises the shape of Salem.
There are things we know by heart,
and things we don't.
At 13 my friend Jen tried to teach me how to blow rings of smoke.
I'd watch the nicotine rising from her lips like halos,
but I could never make dying beautiful.
The sky didn't fill with colors the night I convinced myself
veins are kite strings you can only cut free.
I suppose I love this life,
in spite of my clenched fist.
I open my palm and my lifelines look like branches from an Aspen tree,
and there are songbirds perched on the tips of my fingers,
and I wonder if Beethoven held his breath
the first time his fingers touched the keys
the same way a soldier holds his breath
the first time his finger clicks the trigger.
We all have different reasons for forgetting to breathe.
But my lungs remember
the day my mother took my hand and placed it on her belly
and told me the symphony beneath was my baby sister's heartbeat.
And I knew life would tremble
like the first tear on a prison guard's hardened cheek,
like a prayer on a dying man's lips,
like a vet holding a full bottle of whisky like an empty gun in a war zoneβ¦
just take me just take me
Sometimes the scales themselves weigh far too much,
the heaviness of forever balancing blue sky with red blood.
We were all born on days when too many people died in terrible ways,
but you still have to call it a birthday.
You still have to fall for the prettiest girl on the playground at recess
and hope she knows you can hit a baseball
further than any boy in the whole third grade
and I've been running for home
through the windpipe of a man who sings
while his hands playing washboard with a spoon
on a street corner in New Orleans
where every boarded up window is still painted with the words
We're Coming Back
like a promise to the ocean
that we will always keep moving towards the music,
the way Basquait slept in a cardboard box to be closer to the rain.
Beauty, catch me on your tongue.
Thunder, clap us open.
The pupils in our eyes were not born to hide beneath their desks.
Tonight lay us down to rest in the Arizona desert,
then wake us washing the feet of pregnant women
who climbed across the border with their bellies aimed towards the sun.
I know a thousand things louder than a soldier's gun.
I know the heartbeat of his mother.
Don't cover your ears, Love.
Don't cover your ears, Life.
There is a boy writing poems in Central Park
and as he writes he moves
and his bones become the bars of Mandela's jail cell stretching apart,
and there are men playing chess in the December cold
who can't tell if the breath rising from the board
is their opponents or their own,
and there's a woman on the stairwell of the subway
swearing she can hear Niagara Falls from her rooftop in Brooklyn,
and I'm remembering how Niagara Falls is a city overrun
with strip malls and traffic and vendors
and one incredibly brave river that makes it all worth it.
Ya'll, I know this world is far from perfect.
I am not the type to mistake a streetlight for the moon.
I know our wounds are deep as the Atlantic.
But every ocean has a shoreline
and every shoreline has a tide
that is constantly returning
to wake the songbirds in our hands,
to wake the music in our bones,
to place one fearless kiss on the mouth of that brave river
that has to run through the center of our hearts
to find its way home.
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Andrea Gibson