β
The past is a place of reference, not a place of residence; the past is a place of learning, not a place of living.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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
Let the improvement of yourself keep you so busy that you have no time to criticize others.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
The only way that we can live, is if we grow. The only way that we can grow is if we change. The only way that we can change is if we learn. The only way we can learn is if we are exposed. And the only way that we can become exposed is if we throw ourselves out into the open. Do it. Throw yourself.
β
β
C. JoyBell C.
β
We have to allow ourselves to be loved by the people who really love us, the people who really matter. Too much of the time, we are blinded by our own pursuits of people to love us, people that don't even matter, while all that time we waste and the people who do love us have to stand on the sidewalk and watch us beg in the streets! It's time to put an end to this. It's time for us to let ourselves be loved.
β
β
C. JoyBell C.
β
Maybe some people just aren't meant to be in our lives forever. Maybe some people are just passing through. It's like some people just come through our lives to bring us something: a gift, a blessing, a lesson we need to learn. And that's why they're here. You'll have that gift forever.
β
β
Danielle Steel (The Gift)
β
God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.
β
β
C.S. Lewis
β
Never stop dreaming,
never stop believing,
never give up,
never stop trying, and
never stop learning.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
I have learned all kinds of things from my many mistakes. The one thing I never learn is to stop making them.
β
β
Joe Abercrombie (Last Argument of Kings (The First Law, #3))
β
If there's a thing I've learned in my life it's to not be afraid of the responsibility that comes with caring for other people. What we do for love: those things endure. Even if the people you do them for don't
β
β
Cassandra Clare
β
The lesson I've learned the most often in life is that you're always going to know more in the future than you know now.
β
β
Taylor Swift
β
That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.
β
β
Aldous Huxley (Collected Essays)
β
I learned to walk as a baby and I haven't had a lesson since.
β
β
Marilyn Monroe
β
Some lessons can't be taught, they simply have to be learned.
β
β
Jodi Picoult (Vanishing Acts)
β
Perfectionism is the enemy of happiness. Embrace being perfectly imperfect. Learn from your mistakes and forgive yourself, youβll be happier. We make mistakes because we are imperfect. Learn from your mistakes, forgive yourself, and keep moving forward.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
A star falls from the sky and into your hands. Then it seeps through your veins and swims inside your blood and becomes every part of you. And then you have to put it back into the sky. And it's the most painful thing you'll ever have to do and that you've ever done. But what's yours is yours. Whether itβs up in the sky or here in your hands. And one day, it'll fall from the sky and hit you in the head real hard and that time, you won't have to put it back in the sky again.
β
β
C. JoyBell C.
β
Never let hard lessons harden your heart; the hard lessons of life are meant to make you better, not bitter.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
Most of us must learn to love people and use things rather than loving things and using people.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
Learning to distance yourself from all the negativity is one of the greatest lessons to achieve inner peace.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
Pain is a pesky part of being human, I've learned it feels like a stab wound to the heart, something I wish we could all do without, in our lives here. Pain is a sudden hurt that can't be escaped. But then I have also learned that because of pain, I can feel the beauty, tenderness, and freedom of healing. Pain feels like a fast stab wound to the heart. But then healing feels like the wind against your face when you are spreading your wings and flying through the air! We may not have wings growing out of our backs, but healing is the closest thing that will give us that wind against our faces.
β
β
C. JoyBell C.
β
Learning how to think in the midst of fear is a lesson that everyone needs to learn.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Divergent (Divergent, #1))
β
This is an important lesson to remember when you're having a bad day, a bad month, or a shitty year. Things will change: you won't feel this way forever. And anyway, sometimes the hardest lessons to learn are the ones your soul needs most. I believe you can't feel real joy unless you've felt heartache. You can't have a sense of victory unless you know what it means to fail. You can't know what it's like to feel holy until you know what it's like to feel really fucking evil. And you can't be birthed again until you've died.
β
β
Kelly Cutrone (If You Have to Cry, Go Outside: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You)
β
Some things cannot be taught; they must be experienced. You never learn the most valuable lessons in life until you go through your own journey.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett
β
The first lesson every child of Athena learned: Mom was the best at everything, and you should never, ever suggest otherwise.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus, #3))
β
Youβll learn, as you get older, that rules are made to be broken. Be bold enough to live life on your terms, and never, ever apologize for it. Go against the grain, refuse to conform, take the road less traveled instead of the well-beaten path. Laugh in the face of adversity, and leap before you look. Dance as though EVERYBODY is watching. March to the beat of your own drummer. And stubbornly refuse to fit in.
β
β
Mandy Hale (The Single WomanβLife, Love, and a Dash of Sass: Embracing Singleness with Confidence)
β
I've learned... . That being kind is more important than being right.
β
β
H. Jackson Brown Jr. (Live and Learn and Pass It on: People Ages 5 to 95 Share What They'Ve Discovered About Life, Love, and Other Good Stuff (002))
β
Lesson learned? When people say, "You really, really must" do something, it means you don't really have to. No one ever says, "You really, really must deliver the baby during labor." When it's true, it doesn't need to be said.
β
β
Tina Fey (Bossypants)
β
You need to spend time crawling alone through shadows to truly appreciate what it is to stand in the sun.
β
β
Shaun Hick
β
Grover murmured, "Well, Percy, what have we learned today?"
That three-headed dogs prefer red rubber balls over sticks?"
No," Grover told me. "We've learned that your plans really, really bite!
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
That's the thing about lessons, you always learn them when you don't expect them or want them.
β
β
Cecelia Ahern (If You Could See Me Now)
β
Hollowness: that I understand. I'm starting to believe that there isn't anything you can do to fix it. That's what I've taken from the therapy sessions: the holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mold yourself through the gaps
β
β
Paula Hawkins (The Girl on the Train)
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
All you have to do is to pay attention; lessons always arrive when you are ready, and if you can read the signs, you will learn everything you need to know in order to take the next step
β
β
Paulo Coelho (The Zahir)
β
To learn something new, you need to try new things and not be afraid to be wrong.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett
β
Most important thing in life is learning how to fall.
β
β
Jeannette Walls (Half Broke Horses)
β
All life lessons are not learned at college,' she thought. 'Life teaches them everywhere.
β
β
L.M. Montgomery (Anne of the Island (Anne of Green Gables, #3))
β
The lesson of history is that no one learns.
β
β
Steven Erikson (Deadhouse Gates (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #2))
β
Courage doesnβt happen when you have all the answers. It happens when you are ready to face the questions you have been avoiding your whole life.
β
β
Shannon L. Alder
β
Be compassionate," Morrie whispered. And take responsibility for each other. If we only learned those lessons, this world would be so much better a place."
He took a breath, then added his mantra: "Love each other or die.
β
β
Mitch Albom (Tuesdays with Morrie)
β
To suffer without complaint is the only lesson we have to learn in this life
β
β
Vincent van Gogh (The Letters of Vincent van Gogh)
β
The first lesson a revolutionary must learn is that he is a doomed man.
β
β
Huey P. Newton
β
I definitely learned a lesson this time. I know that I can be broken. I am not as tough as I thought. I see it now. At this point, it's the only thing good that came out of all of this. I know myself better now and know what I have to do.
β
β
Henry Rollins (The Portable Henry Rollins)
β
How much you can learn when you fail determines how far you will go into achieving your goals.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
No matter how much experience you have, thereβs always something new you can learn and room for improvement.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
One swing set, well worn but structurally sound, seeks new home. Make memories with your kid or kids so that someday he or she or they will look into the backyard and feel the ache of sentimentality as desperately as I did this afternoon. It's all fragile and fleeting, dear reader, but with this swing set, your child(ren) will be introduced to the ups and downs of human life gently and safely, and may also learn the most important lesson of all: No matter how hard you kick, no matter how high you get, you can't go all the way around.
β
β
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
β
The moon will guide you through the night with her brightness, but she will always dwell in the darkness, in order to be seen.
β
β
Shannon L. Alder
β
He had learned the worst lesson that life can teach - that it makes no sense.
β
β
Philip Roth (American Pastoral)
β
It is difficult to live in and enjoy the moment when you are thinking about the past or worrying about the future. You cannot change your past, but you can ruin the present by worrying about your future. Learn from the past, plan for the future. The more you live in and enjoy the present moment, the happier you will be.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
If I've learned one lesson from all that's happened to me, it's that there is no such thing as the biggest mistake of your existence. There's no such thing as ruining your life. Life's a pretty resilient thing, it turns out.
β
β
Sophie Kinsella (The Undomestic Goddess)
β
Life is like a game of chess.
To win you have to make a move.
Knowing which move to make comes with IN-SIGHT
and knowledge, and by learning the lessons that are
acculated along the way.
We become each and every piece within the game called life!
β
β
Allan Rufus (The Master's Sacred Knowledge)
β
There are certain life lessons that you can only learn in the struggle.
β
β
Idowu Koyenikan (Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability)
β
We tell ourselves stories in order to live...We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five. We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices. We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the "ideas" with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience.
β
β
Joan Didion (The White Album)
β
It is not so much about what life hands you, but what you do with what you get.
β
β
Idowu Koyenikan (Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability)
β
It is one of those lessons that every child should learn: Don't play with fire, sharp objects, or ancient artifacts.
β
β
Patricia Briggs
β
But one of the big lessons I have learned from my journey is you canβt please everyone, so donβt try.
β
β
Chris Colfer
β
Humans were so circular; they lived the same slow cycles of joy and misery over and over, never learning. Every lesson in the universe had to be taught billions of times, and it never stuck.
Maybe it was good that the world forgot every lesson, every good and bad memory, every triumph and failure, all of it dying with each generation. Perhaps this cultural amnesia spared them all. Perhaps if they remembered everything, hope would die instead.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3))
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
Iβve learned that everything happens for a reason,β the yogi Krishnan told him. βEvery event has a why and all adversity teaches us a lesson... Never regret your past. Accept it as the teacher that it is.
β
β
Robin S. Sharma (The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari)
β
Most things are forgotten over time. Even the war itself, the life-and-death struggle people went through is now like something from the distant past. Weβre so caught up in our everyday lives that events of the past are no longer in orbit around our minds. There are just too many things we have to think about everyday, too many new things we have to learn. But still, no matter how much time passes, no matter what takes place in the interim, there are some things we can never assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away. They remain with us forever, like a touchstone.
β
β
Haruki Murakami (Kafka on the Shore)
β
I am collecting the lessons each faction has to teach me, and storing them in my mind like a guidebook for moving through the world. There is always somthing to learn, always somthing that is important to understand
β
β
Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
β
It's the journey that matters, soak it in. Learn lessons out of it. Impact positively so that if you never get to your destination, at least you'd leave a legacy to be remembered.
β
β
Emem Uko
β
The moment you recognize what is beautiful in this world, you stop being a slave
β
β
Aravind Adiga (The White Tiger)
β
Sometimes it is good to be in uncomfortable situations because it is in finding our way out of such difficulties that we learn valuable lessons.
β
β
Idowu Koyenikan (Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability)
β
The Folk doubtlessly learned this lesson long ago. They do not need to deceive humans. Humans will deceive themselves.
β
β
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
β
I realized that the deepest spiritual lessons are not learned by His letting us have our way in the end, but by His making us wait, bearing with us in love and patience until we are able to honestly to pray what He taught His disciples to pray: Thy will be done.
β
β
Elisabeth Elliot (Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control)
β
And the most important lesson I learned is that Iβm not a victimβIβm a survivor.
β
β
Elle Kennedy (The Deal (Off-Campus, #1))
β
to learn and not to do is really not to learn. To know and not to do is really not to know.
β
β
Stephen R. Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change)
β
No matter what you do, you can never please everyone. And that was the hardest lesson to learn. In fact, I'm still learning it.
β
β
Chris Colfer (The Wishing Spell (The Land of Stories, #1))
β
We can say that Muad'Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn.
β
β
Frank Herbert
β
Dante said, βI tried talking Nora into a ride, but she keeps blowing me off.β
βThatβs because she has a hard-A boyfriend. He must have been
homeschooled, because he missed all those valuable lessons we learned in kindergarten, like sharing. He finds out you took Nora for a ride, heβll wrap this shiny new Porsche around the nearest tree.
β
β
Becca Fitzpatrick (Finale (Hush, Hush, #4))
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
Safety, stability--it's an illusion. It's a false god, Simon. It's like clinging to a sinking raft instead of learning to swim.
β
β
Rainbow Rowell (Carry On (Simon Snow, #1))
β
Life is still life. Itβs still tough, complicated, and more than a little messy, with lessons to be learned, mistakes to be made, triumphs and disappointments to be had, and not every day is meant to be a party.
β
β
Alyson Noel (Dark Flame (The Immortals, #4))
β
Chasing a person doesnβt give you value or build values in you. You earn your value by chasing morality and practicing dignity.
β
β
Shannon L. Alder
β
You can't force a person to show up, but you can learn a lesson when they don't
β
β
Emily Henry (Funny Story)
β
Children have a lesson adults should learn, to not be ashamed of failing, but to get up and try again. Most of us adults are so afraid, so cautious, so 'safe,' and therefore so shrinking and rigid and afraid that it is why so many humans fail. Most middle-aged adults have resigned themselves to failure.
β
β
Malcolm X (The Autobiography of Malcolm X)
β
The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship
β
β
Ralph Waldo Emerson (Nature)
β
We're all fools," said Clemens, "all the time. It's just we're a different kind each day. We think, I'm not a fool today. I've learned my lesson. I was a fool yesterday but not this morning. Then tomorrow we find out that, yes, we were a fool today too. I think the only way we can grow and get on in this world is to accept the fact we're not perfect and live accordingly.
β
β
Ray Bradbury (The Illustrated Man)
β
Before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons weβve learned as weβve moved toward that dream. Thatβs the point at which most people give up. Itβs the point at which, as we say in the language of the desert, one 'dies of thirst just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon.
β
β
Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist)
β
Growing up means learning what life is. When you're little, you have a set of ideals, standards, criteria, plans, outlooks, and you think that you have to sit around and wait for them to happen to you and then life will work. But life isn't like that, for anybody; you can't fall in love with a standard, you have to fall in love with a person. You can't live in a criteria, you have to live your life. You can't wait for your plans to materialize, because they may never materialize the way you think they will. You can't wait to watch your ideals and standards walk up to you, because you can't know what's yours until you have it. I always say, always take the first chance in case you never get a second one, but growing up takes that even one step further, growing up means that you have to hold on to what you have, when you have it, because what you have- that's yours- and all the ideals and criteria you have set in your head, those aren't yours, because those haven't happened to you.
β
β
C. JoyBell C.
β
One of the most important of lifeΒ΄s lessons is to learn independance, to understand freedom. This means independence from attachments, from results, from opinions, and from expectations. Breaking attachments leads to freedom, but breaking attachments does not mean abandoning a loving and meaningful relationship, a relationship that nourrishes your soul. It means ending dependency on any person or thing. Love is never a dependency.
β
β
Brian L. Weiss (Messages from the Masters: Tapping Into the Power of Love)
β
Wait. This was the first lesson I had learned about love. The day drags along, you make thousands of plans, you imagine every possible conversation, you promise to change your behavior in certain ways -- and you feel more and more anxious until your loved one arrives. But by then, you don't know what to say. The hours of waiting have been transformed into tension, the tension has become fear, and the fear makes you embarrassed about showing affection.
β
β
Paulo Coelho (By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept)
β
Death might appear to destroy the meaning in our lives, but in fact it is the very source of our creativity. As Kafka said, βThe meaning of life is that it ends.β Death is the engine that keeps us running, giving us the motivation to achieve, learn, love, and create.
β
β
Caitlin Doughty (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory)
β
When a baby comes into the world, its hands are clenched, right? Like this?" He made a fist. "Why? Because a baby not knowing any better, wants to grab everything, to say the whole world is mine. But when an old person dies, how does he do so? With his hands open. Why? Because he has learned his lesson." "What lesson?" I asked. He stretched open his empty fingers. "We can take nothing with us.
β
β
Mitch Albom (Have a Little Faith: a True Story)
β
I am your instructor", he says."My name is Four".
Christina asks, "Four? Like the number?"
"Yes", Four says. "Is there a problem?"
"No."
"Good. We're about to go into the Pit, which you will someday learn to love. It-"
Christina snickers. "The Pit? Clever name."
Four walks up to Christina and leans his face close to hers. His eyes narrow, and for a second he just stares at her.
"What's your name?" he asks quietly.
"Christina", she squeaks.
"Well, Christina, if I wanted to put up with Candor smart-mouths, I would have joined their faction", he hisses.
"The first lesson you will learn from me is to keep your mouth shut.Got that?
β
β
Veronica Roth (Divergent (Divergent, #1))
β
People who have a religion should be glad, for not everyone has the gift of believing in heavenly things. You don't necessarily even have to be afraid of punishment after death; purgatory, hell, and heaven are things that a lot of people can't accept, but still a religion, it doesn't matter which, keeps a person on the right path. It isn't the fear of God but the upholding of one's own honor and conscience. How noble and good everyone could be if, every evening before falling asleep, they were to recall to their minds the events of the while day and consider exactly what has been good and bad. Then, without realizing it you try to improve yourself at the start of each new day; of course, you achieve quite a lot in the course of time. Anyone can do this, it costs nothing and is certainly very helpful. Whoever doesn't know it must learn and find by experience that: "A quiet conscience mades one strong!
β
β
Anne Frank (The Diary of a Young Girl)
β
For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I want to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.
β
β
Carlos Castaneda (Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan)
β
When I was a little girl, everything in the world fell into either of these two categories: wrong or right. Black or white. Now that I am an adult, I have put childish things aside and now I know that some things fall into wrong and some things fall into right. Some things are categorized as black and some things are categorized as white. But most things in the world aren't either! Most things in the world aren't black, aren't white, aren't wrong, aren't right, but most of everything is just different. And now I know that there's nothing wrong with different, and that we can let things be different, we don't have to try and make them black or white, we can just let them be grey. And when I was a child, I thought that God was the God who only saw black and white. Now that I am no longer a child, I can see, that God is the God who can see the black and the white and the grey, too, and He dances on the grey! Grey is okay.
β
β
C. JoyBell C.
β
It has been a long trip," said Milo, climbing onto the couch where the princesses sat; "but we would have been here much sooner if I hadn't made so many mistakes. I'm afraid it's all my fault."
"You must never feel badly about making mistakes," explained Reason quietly, "as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.
β
β
Norton Juster (The Phantom Tollbooth)
β
I can get my head turned by a good-looking guy as much as the next girl. But sexy doesn't impress me. Smart impresses me, strength of character impresses me. But most of all, I am impressed by kindness. Kindness, I think, comes from learning hard lessons well, from falling and picking yourself up. It comes from surviving failure and loss. It implies an understanding of the human condition, forgives its many flaws and quirks. When I see that in someone, it fills me with admiration.
β
β
Lisa Unger (Beautiful Lies (Ridley Jones, #1))
β
Forget what hurt you in the past, but never forget what it taught you. However, if it taught you to hold onto grudges, seek revenge, not forgive or show compassion, to categorize people as good or bad, to distrust and be guarded with your feelings then you didnβt learn a thing. God doesnβt bring you lessons to close your heart. He brings you lessons to open it, by developing compassion, learning to listen, seeking to understand instead of speculating, practicing empathy and developing conflict resolution through communication. If he brought you perfect people, how would you ever learn to spiritually evolve?
β
β
Shannon L. Alder
β
When they killed him, Mother wouldn't hold her peace, so they slit her throat. I was stupid then, being only nine, and I fought to save them both. But the thorns held me tight. I've learned to appreciate thorns since. The thorns taught me the game. They let me understand what all those grim and serious men who've fought the Hundred War have yet to learn. You can only win the game when you understand that it IS a game. Let a man play chess, and tell him that every pawn is his friend. Let him think both bishops holy. Let him remember happy days in the shadows of his castles. Let him love his queen. Watch him loose them all.
β
β
Mark Lawrence (Prince of Thorns (The Broken Empire, #1))
β
Our lives are mere flashes of light in an infinitely empty universe. In 12 years of education the most important lesson I have learned is that what we see as βnormalβ living is truly a travesty of our potential. In a society so governed by superficiality, appearances, and petty economics, dreams are more real than anything anything in the βreal worldβ. Refuse normalcy. Beauty is everywhere, love is endless, and joy bleeds from our everyday existence. Embrace it. I love all of you, all my friends, family, and community. I am ceaselessly grateful from the bottom of my heart for everyone. The only thing I can ask of you is to stay free of materialism. Remember that every day contains a universe of potential; exhaust it. Live and love so immensely that when death comes there is nothing left for him to take. Wealth is love, music, sports, learning, family and freedom. Above all, stay gold.
β
β
Dominic Owen Mallary
β
This is the great lesson the depressive learns: Nothing in the world is inherently compelling. Whatever may be really βout thereβ cannot project itself as an affective experience. It is all a vacuous affair with only a chemical prestige. Nothing is either good or bad, desirable or undesirable, or anything else except that it is made so by laboratories inside us producing the emotions on which we live. And to live on our emotions is to live arbitrarily, inaccuratelyβimparting meaning to what has none of its own. Yet what other way is there to live? Without the ever-clanking machinery of emotion, everything would come to a standstill. There would be nothing to do, nowhere to go, nothing to be, and no one to know. The alternatives are clear: to live falsely as pawns of affect, or to live factually as depressives, or as individuals who know what is known to the depressive. How advantageous that we are not coerced into choosing one or the other, neither choice being excellent. One look at human existence is proof enough that our species will not be released from the stranglehold of emotionalism that anchors it to hallucinations. That may be no way to live, but to opt for depression would be to opt out of existence as we consciously know it.
β
β
Thomas Ligotti (The Conspiracy Against the Human Race)
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I hope you feel better about yourself. I hope you feel alive. I hope that good things happen to you, and I hope that when the inevitable bad things happen you can handle them and learn a lesson and move on. I hope you know you're not alone and I hope you spend plenty of time with your family and/or friends and I hope you write more and get a seven-figure book deal. I hope next year no more celebrities die and I hope you get an iPhone if you want one. Or maybe a pony. I hope someone writes a song for you on Valentines Day that's a bit like Hey There Delilah, and I hope they have a good singing voice, or at least one better than mine. I hope that you accept yourself the way you are, and figure out that losing 20 pounds isn't going to magically make you love yourself. I hope you read a lot. I hope you don't have to almost die to figure out how valuable life is. I hope you find the perfect nail polish/digital camera/home/life partner. I hope you stop being jealous of others. I hope you feel good, about yourself and the people around you and the world. I hope you eat heaps of salt and vinegar chips because they're the best kind. I hope you accomplish all your hopes & dreams & aspirations and are blissfully happy & get married to Edward Cullen/George Clooney/Megan Fox/Angelina Jolie (delete whichever are inappropriate) & ride a pretty white horse into the sunset & I hope it's all sweet and wonderful because you deserve it because you did well this year in the face of sparkly vampires/great evil/low self-esteem.
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Steph Bowe
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Bridaβs eyes filled with tears. She was proud of her Soulmate.
That is what the forest taught me. That you will never be mine, and that is why I will never lose you. You were my hope during my days of loneliness, my anxiety during moments of doubt, my certainty during moments of faith.
Knowing that my Soulmate would come one day, I devoted myself to learning the Tradition of the Sun. Knowing that you existed was my one reason for continuing to live.β
Brida could no longer conceal her tears.
Then you came, and I understood all of this. You came to free me from the slavery I myself had created, to tell me that I was free to return to the world and to the things of the world. I understood everything I needed to know, and I love you more than all the women I have ever known, more than I loved the woman who, quite unwittingly, exiled me to the forest. I will always remember now that love is liberty. That was the lesson it took me so many years to learn. That is the lesson that sent me into exile and now sets me free again.β
I will always remember you, and you will remember me, just as we will remember the evening, the rain on the windows, and all the things weβll always have because we cannot possess them.
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Paulo Coelho
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Back To December is a song that addresses a first for me. In that I've never apologized in a song before. Whether it be good or bad or an apology. The person I wrote this song about deserves this. This is about a person who was incredible to me- just perfect in a relationship- and I was very careless with him. So, this is a song full of words that I would say to him that he deserves to hear.
Iβve never felt the need to apologize in a song before, but in the last two years Iβve experienced a lot, a lot of different kinds of learning lessons And sometimes you learn a lesson too late and at that point you need to apologize because you were careless. ['Back To December'] is about a person who was incredible to me, just perfect to me in a relationship, and I was really careless with him
Iβve written songs about things like burning my ex boyfriends picturesβ¦ Iβve written songs about the times that Iβve been hurt by love. But then one day I woke up and realized that I had hurt somebodyβ¦ And so I wrote this song to tell him Iβm sorry
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Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift - Speak Now Songbook: Piano/Vocal/Guitar)
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Lieutenant Chatrand: I donβt understand this omnipotent-benevolent thing.
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: You are confused because the Bible describes God as an omnipotent and benevolent deity.
Lieutenant Chatrand: Exactly.
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: Omnipotent-benevolent simply means that God is all-powerful and well-meaning.
Lieutenant Chatrand: I understand the concept. Itβs just... there seems to be a contradiction.
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: Yes. The contradiction is pain. Manβs starvation, war, sickness...
Lieutenant Chatrand: Exactly! Terrible things happen in this world. Human tragedy seems like proof that God could not possibly be both all-powerful and well-meaning. If He loves us and has the power to change our situation, He would prevent our pain, wouldnβt he?
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: Would He?
Lieutenant Chatrand: Well... if God Loves us, and He can protect us, He would have to. It seems He is either omnipotent and uncaring, or benevolent and powerless to help.
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: Do you have children?
Lieutenant Chatrand: No, signore.
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: Imagine you had an eight-year-old son... would you love him?
Lieutenant Chatrand: Of course.
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: Would you let him skateboard?
Lieutenant Chatrand: Yeah, I guess. Sure Iβd let him skateboard, but Iβd tell him to be careful.
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: So as this childβs father, you would give him some basic, good advice and then let him go off and make his own mistakes?
Lieutenant Chatrand: I wouldnβt run behind him and mollycoddle him if thatβs what you mean.
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: But what if he fell and skinned his knee?
Lieutenant Chatrand: He would learn to be more careful.
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: So although you have the power to interfere and prevent your childβs pain, you would choose to show you love by letting him learn his own lessons?
Lieutenant Chatrand: Of course. Pain is part of growing up. Itβs how we learn.
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca: Exactly.
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Dan Brown (Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon, #1))
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Learning
After some time, you learn the subtle difference between
holding a hand
and imprisoning a soul;
You learn that love does not equal sex,
and that company does not equal security,
and you start to learnβ¦.
That kisses are not contracts and gifts are not promises,
and you start to accept defeat with the head up high
and open eyes,
and you learn to build all roads on today,
because the terrain of tomorrow is too insecure for plansβ¦
and the future has its own way of falling apart in half.
And you learn that if itβs too much
even the warmth of the sun can burn.
So you plant your own garden and embellish your own soul,
instead of waiting for someone to bring flowers to you.
And you learn that you can actually bear hardship,
that you are actually strong,
and you are actually worthy,
and you learn and learnβ¦and so every day.
Over time you learn that being with someone
because they offer you a good future,
means that sooner or later youβll want to return to your past.
Over time you comprehend that only who is capable
of loving you with your flaws, with no intention of changing you
can bring you all happiness.
Over time you learn that if you are with a person
only to accompany your own solitude,
irremediably youβll end up wishing not to see them again.
Over time you learn that real friends are few
and whoever doesnβt fight for them, sooner or later,
will find himself surrounded only with false friendships.
Over time you learn that words spoken in moments of anger
continue hurting throughout a lifetime.
Over time you learn that everyone can apologize,
but forgiveness is an attribute solely of great souls.
Over time you comprehend that if you have hurt a friend harshly
it is very likely that your friendship will never be the same.
Over time you realize that despite being happy with your friends,
you cry for those you let go.
Over time you realize that every experience lived,
with each person, is unrepeatable.
Over time you realize that whoever humiliates
or scorns another human being, sooner or later
will suffer the same humiliations or scorn in tenfold.
Over time you learn to build your roads on today,
because the path of tomorrow doesnβt exist.
Over time you comprehend that rushing things or forcing them to happen
causes the finale to be different form expected.
Over time you realize that in fact the best was not the future,
but the moment you were living just that instant.
Over time you will see that even when you are happy with those around you,
youβll yearn for those who walked away.
Over time you will learn to forgive or ask for forgiveness,
say you love, say you miss, say you need,
say you want to be friends, since before
a grave, it will no longer make sense.
But unfortunately, only over timeβ¦
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Jorge Luis Borges
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Be brave. Even if you're not, pretend to be. No one can tell the difference. Don't allow the phone to interrupt important moments. It's there for your convenience, not the callers. Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is. Don't burn bridges. You'll be surprised how many times you have to cross the same river. Don't forget, a person's greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated. Don't major in minor things. Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Helen Keller, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein. Don't spread yourself too thin. Learn to say no politely and quickly. Don't use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved. Don't waste time grieving over past mistakes Learn from them and move on. Every person needs to have their moment in the sun, when they raise their arms in victory, knowing that on this day, at his hour, they were at their very best. Get your priorities straight. No one ever said on his death bed, 'Gee, if I'd only spent more time at the office'. Give people a second chance, but not a third. Judge your success by the degree that you're enjoying peace, health and love. Learn to listen. Opportunity sometimes knocks very softly. Leave everything a little better than you found it. Live your life as an exclamation, not an explanation. Loosen up. Relax. Except for rare life and death matters, nothing is as important as it first seems. Never cut what can be untied. Never overestimate your power to change others. Never underestimate your power to change yourself. Remember that overnight success usually takes about fifteen years. Remember that winners do what losers don't want to do. Seek opportunity, not security. A boat in harbor is safe, but in time its bottom will rot out. Spend less time worrying who's right, more time deciding what's right. Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life. Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you get. The importance of winning is not what we get from it, but what we become because of it. When facing a difficult task, act as though it's impossible to fail.
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Jackson H. Brown Jr.