Revision Inspiration Quotes

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That’s the magic of revisions – every cut is necessary, and every cut hurts, but something new always grows.
Kelly Barnhill
But anyway, I look around sometimes and I think - this will maybe sound weird - it's like the corporate world's full of ghosts. And actually, let me revise that, my parents are in academia so I've had front row seats for that horror show, I know academia's no different, so maybe a fairer way of putting this would be to say that adulthood's full of ghosts." "I'm sorry, I'm not sure I quite --" "I'm talking about these people who've ended up in one life instead of another and they are just so disappointed. Do you know what I mean? They've done what's expected of them. They want to do something different but it's impossible now, there's a mortgage, kids, whatever, they're trapped. Dan's like that." "You don't think he likes his job, then." "Correct," she said, "but I don't think he even realises it. You probably encounter people like him all the time. High-functioning sleepwalkers, essentially.
Emily St. John Mandel (Station Eleven)
A book is kind of like a good Horcrux, if we can imagine that -- a piece of the writer's soul, preserved in a physical object for all time, and changing the lives of all those who come in contact with it.
Cheryl B. Klein (Second Sight: An Editor's Talks on Writing, Revising, and Publishing Books for Children and Young Adults)
Listen to me: everything you think you know, every relationship you've ever taken for granted, every plan or possibility you've ever hatched, every conceit or endeavor you've ever concocted, can be stripped from you in an instant. Sooner or later, it will happen. So prepare yourself. Be ready not to be ready. Be ready to be brought to your knees and beaten to dust. Because no stable foundation, no act of will, no force of cautious habit will save you from this fact: nothing is indestructible.
Jonathan Evison (The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving)
A really well-done first draft of a book bares your soul. The purpose of revision is so that everyone who reads the published version believes you were writing about theirs.
James A. Owen
It's easier to revise lousy writing than to revise a blank sheet of paper.
S.A. Bodeen
What Emily Dickinson does not rename or redefine, she revises beyond easy recognition.
Harold Bloom (The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages)
I am a woman with wings,' I once wrote and will revise these words again. 'I am a woman with wings dancing with other women with wings.' In a voiced community, we all flourish.
Terry Tempest Williams (When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice)
Gracious words refresh, restore and revive the soul.
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
To be successful in life , Plan, Implement, Revise, Update, and Build on Change.
Abhysheq Shukla (KISS Life "Life is what you make it")
We live and die by our stories if we don't rewrite our own history. The past is merely what we make of it, the future ours to create. Rewrite revise, erase.
Sheryl Mallory-Johnson
One great difference between good writing, that readers overlook, and bad writing, that they fail to notice, has to do with the number of rewrites and revisions usually required by the former. It isn’t at all easy to write clear, declarative prose—transparency evolves from ruthless cutting and trimming and is hard work—while lumpy, tangle-footed writing flows from the pen as if inspired by the Muse.
Ira Levin (The Stepford Wives)
Describing good relatedness to someone, no matter how precisely or how often, does not inscribe it into the neural networks that inspire love. Self-help books are like car repair manuals: you can read them all day, but doing so doesn't fix a thing. Working on a car means rolling up your sleeves and getting under the hood, and you have to be willing to get dirt on your hands and grease beneath your fingernails. Overhauling emotional knowledge is no spectator sport; it demands the messy experience of yanking and tinkering that comes from a limbic bond. If someone's relationship today bear a troubled imprint, they do so because an influential relationship left its mark on a child's mind. When a limbic connection has established a neural pattern, it takes a limbic connection to revise it.
Thomas Lewis (A General Theory of Love)
There's a kid or some kids somewhere. I'll never know them. They're particle-puzzle-cubing right now. They might be mini-misanthropes from Moosefart, Montana. They might be demi-dystopians from Dogdick, Delaware. They dig my demonic dramas. The metaphysic maims them. They grasp the gravity. They'll duke it out with their demons. They'll serve a surfeit of survival skills. They won't be chronologically crucified. They'll shore up my shit. They'll radically revise it. They'll pass it along.
James Ellroy (Destination: Morgue!)
You cannot simply tap your creative nature once and then expect to be done with it. It is a lifelong process: a continual commitment to being open to possibility, trusting your instincts, experimenting, taking risks, and revising.
Fran Sorin (Digging Deep: Unearthing Your Creative Roots Through Gardening)
For it is disheartening to inspire in a man the desire, and to take away from him the hope, of emulation.
Seneca (Letters From A Stoic: Epistulae Morales AD Lucilium (Illustrated. Newly revised text. Includes Image Gallery + Audio): All Three Volumes)
Once we begin to live the truth that we have found in our inner adventures, a more liberating world will open before our eyes.
M. Laurie Cantil (A Magician's Visit [Revised Edition])
The best advice I can give on this is, once it's done, to put it away until you can read it with new eyes. Finish the short story, print it out, then put it in a drawer and write other things. When you're ready, pick it up and read it, as if you've never read it before. If there are things you aren't satisfied with as a reader, go in and fix them as a writer: that's revision.
Neil Gaiman
For bravery is not thoughtless rashness, or love of danger, or the courting of fear-inspiring objects; it is the knowledge which enables us to distinguish between that which is evil and that which is not.
Seneca (Letters From A Stoic: Epistulae Morales AD Lucilium (Illustrated. Newly revised text. Includes Image Gallery + Audio): All Three Volumes)
I had to revise all my feelings once again. I pulled out the dregs of affection from the glass of misunderstanding to rebuild my faith. I had to reinvent the cause for love, as it were. It was something I had to draw inside me, a real portrait of her, not just the inspiration but the girl as a whole, with all her shortcomings to be able to love her again.
Anuradha Bhattacharyya (One Word)
God cannot always give us a satisfactory answer, because our finite minds cannot grasp the thoughts of the infinite. His thoughts are high above our thoughts, and His ways above our ways (see Isaiah 55:9), but we can trust God, always! “In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Henrietta C. Mears (What the Bible Is All About Handbook Revised NIV Edition: An Inspiring Commentary on the Entire Bible)
Volunteer sentences are the relics of your education And the desire to emulate the grown-up, workaday prose that surrounds you, Which is made overwhelmingly of sentences that are banal and structurally thoughtless. A volunteer sentence is almost always a perfunctory sentence. That can change. But only after years of questioning the shapes of sentences you read, And every sentence you write. Don’t let the word “years” alarm you. Think of it as months and months and months and months. You may think a volunteer sentence is an inspired one Simply because it volunteers. This is one reason to abandon the idea of inspiration. All the idea of inspiration will do Is stop you from revising a volunteer sentence. Only revision will tell you whether a sentence that offers itself is worth keeping.
Verlyn Klinkenborg (Several Short Sentences About Writing)
While philosophers were still debating whether a machine could be constructed to reproduce the thoughts of Newton, the emotions of Bach or the inspiration of Michelangelo, the average man of science was rapidly becoming convinced that no machine could be constructed to reproduce the light of a candle or the fall of an apple.
James Hopwood Jeans (The Mysterious Universe [New Revised Edition])
We have a moment of pure creative inspiration — writing or drawing or sculpting — and it feels exhilarating in the moment. And then… we revisit it. We overwork it. The singing intent dies a slow death. Our most basic fear is intellectualized and called “revision.” This is not watering the seed; it is poisoning the dirt with too many considerations.
Courtney Martin
If a plot is a novel's skeleton, and characters are the muscle, then theme is its soul.
Janice Hardy (Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft (Foundations of Fiction, #3))
It is not always self-centred to be centred around self.
Broms The Poet (FEAST: The Second Serving: Revised, Revitalized, and Re-Realized)
Try to revise your strategy before quitting something you've been working diligently at. Don't change the destination yet, because a different route may be the answer.
Robin S. Baker
The best friendships do not require that anyone keep the upper hand.
Alan Loy McGinnis (The Friendship Factor: Revised, 25th Anniversary Edition)
This idea inspires another impressive image, that of cosmic existence as a nightmarish dream, whose unreal nature is understood only when the dreamer wakes up
Unknown Nag Hammadi (The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: An Enlightening Compilation of Gnostic Manuscripts Revealing New Perspectives on Early Christianity, Ancient Judaism, and Greco-Roman Religions)
Forget how long the path to finishing your story. Address only what you have to write today.
Martha Alderson (Before the Next Draft; 26 Plot Steps to Revision Plot eBook)
While writing the first draft is an exercise in shutting down all of the things we think we know so that the story features come tumbling out, the revision is the end of the joy ride. We pull on the gloves and sort of poke around inside the body. Is that a tumor? Will that limb need amputation? I nearly second-guessed myself into heart failure while learning to self-edit.
Patricia Hickman (The Pirate Queen)
What's so magical about solitude? In many fields, Ericsson told me, it's only when you're alone that you can engage in Deliberate Practice, which he has identified as the key to exceptional achievement. When you practice deliberately, you identify the tasks or knowledge that are just out of your reach, strive to upgrade your performance, monitor your progress, and revise accordingly. Practice sessions that fall short of this standard are not only less useful - they're counterproductive. They reinforce existing cognitive mechanisms instead of improving them.
Susan Cain (Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking)
Sometimes you lie, Forest. Sometimes its the right thing to do." "I don't believe that, Ben." "And why is that?" "Because it always catches up with you." "It doesn't, not always." "It does." "Bullshit." "It's the truth, Ben." "No, Forest, it's another kind of lie. If Lizzie draws you a picture of a catfish and it looks like a big hairy turd, what do you tell her? That it looks like shit? That you could draw a better fucking catfish with a crayon up your asshole? No, Forest, you tell her it's the most beautiful catfish you ever saw, don't you? Of course you do. Truth's a slippery slope sometimes.
Jonathan Evison (The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving)
But the truth is, I have no way of accounting for all of the factors involved in any given success, and whenever I learn more, I have to revise what I think. That’s not a weakness or a flaw. That’s reality.
Ed Catmull (Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration)
Forest is the backbone of the O-fers. He pitches, bats cleanup, collects the fees, makes all the pre game reminder calls, fills out the lineup card, and is the undisputed (though unspoken) team captain. Few things inspire like watching Forest round third in the late innings with a head full of steam and two bad knees, his spare tire heaving violently beneath his snug jersey, just as the second basemen is fielding the relay. "Run, Forest, run!" We yell, from the dugout. It never gets old.
Jonathan Evison (The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving)
He renamed India’s untouchables harijan, “God’s people,” and raised them to human stature. And in doing so he provided the nonviolent strategy as well as the inspiration for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s comparable civil rights movement in the United States. Gandhi
Huston Smith (The World's Religions, Revised and Updated (Plus))
Neo-orthodoxy’s defining insight, taken from the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, was that people and God are known by personal encounter, not by rational analysis.11 The revelation of God comes not in an inspired book, but in the person of Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate.12 The Bible is a witness to Christ.
Jack Rogers (Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church)
Genghis Khan’s ability to manipulate people and technology represented the experienced knowledge of more than four decades of nearly constant warfare. At no single, crucial moment in his life did he suddenly acquire his genius at warfare, his ability to inspire the loyalty of his followers, or his unprecedented skill for organizing on a global scale. These derived not from epiphanic enlightenment or formal schooling but from a persistent cycle of pragmatic learning, experimental adaptation, and constant revision driven by his uniquely disciplined mind and focused will. His fighting career began long before most of his warriors at Bukhara had been born, and in every battle he learned something new. In every skirmish, he acquired more followers and additional fighting techniques. In each struggle, he combined the new ideas into a constantly changing set of military tactics, strategies, and weapons. He never fought the same war twice.
Jack Weatherford (Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World)
As an author the question I get asked the most is, “why do you write?” My knee jerk response is, “Because I love it,” which is true, but not the whole truth. So here is my revised response to that question; “I write for the thirteen year old me who hated reading and craved something different than the boring literature I was forced to read for school. I write to see something I want to read exist in the world. I write because it becomes unbearable to hold so many stories in my head without a way to express them, but most importantly, I write to be true to myself.
Day Parker
[The Great Gatsby] is a tour de force of revision. So much so that critics, who rarely mention the edit of a book, commented on the quality of Gatsby's rewriting, not just its writing, in reviews. For H. L. Mencken, the novel had 'a careful and brilliant finish. ... There is evidence in every line of hard work and intelligent effort. ... The author wrote, tore up, rewrote, tore up again. There are pages so artfully contrived that one can no more imagine improvising them than one can imagine improvising a fugue.' ... Careful, sound, carefully written, hard effort, wrote and rewrote, artfully contrived not improvised, structure, discipline: all these terms refer, however obliquely, not to the initial act of inspiration, but to editing. Organization and clarity do not dominate the writing process. At some point, though, a writer must pull coherence from confusion, illuminate what lives in shadow, shade what shines too brightly. Gatsby is the cat's meow case study of crossing what Michael Ondaatje calls 'that seemingly uncrossable gulf between an early draft of a book ... and a finished product' - in other words, editing.
Susan Bell (The Writer's Notebook: Craft Essays from Tin House)
Creativity is alive And thriving in my body. The energy you bring out in me Is within me infinitely. My power is overflowing. My lips are soft and welcoming To the exhale, The new Braille, The silence that persists After our moans die away, I look at myself and say, "Root down so you can burn. Beautiful girl, it's your turn To create magic within yourself. This time, without his help. Find your roots and find your fire, Be mindful of what you desire, Persist in what you know is true, Stay focused on the endless route Toward your own potential. Allow the existential Void to swallow you whole. Take on your old role: The lone seeker. Become quieter. Become meeker. Become the beauty that you seek. Embody strength if you feel weak. Find love within the walls Of this sacred temple. Let yourself shake and tremble, But keep your eyes ever fixed On the horizon Where it's rising, No revising, Fears capsizing As you sail, sail, sail Toward the wail Of your siren spirit Beckoning you to bloom The flower in your womb, The seed of creativity, Your triumphant legacy." These words, I will carry Within me as I bury Grains of wisdom In the whispers of the wind. And when I arrive To the altar of our origin, I'll be dressed in white and black, And I'll cradle that exact Feeling left on our sheets. And you'll be on your knees, Ready to receive The wholeness of my broken mind, Pried open by The sparkle gleaming in your eyes. And your hands will be full Of supple fruit and you'll Smile at me, and I will see That you have fed your hunger. You'll ooze with courage and wonder. And then, we will know That we've already lost each other A thousand times before. And I have found you As clear water after mud settles. And you have found me As a bee deep in a flower's petals. We have danced before, Pulled art out of each other's spines. We have died and birthed and died. We've already kissed a million times. This wasn't our first five act play, And it will not be the last. So when I thirst for your hands, I will sit and chant. We will meet again. We will meet again.
Vironika Tugaleva
Revising institutional views about the synagogue Reinterpreting Jewish values Reimagining the venue of the synagogue By unshackling synagogues from leftover views about how they do their work, by creating stronger points of connection between Jewish values and the real life concerns of individuals, and by reimagining the synagogue as a venue where people are empowered to find and create community on their terms, synagogues may become places of greater vision, inspiration, and relevance.
Zachary I. Heller (Synagogues in a Time of Change: Fragmentation and Diversity in Jewish Religious Movements)
the complexity and meaning of the Los Angeles revival still challenges historians. Its themes of eschatological expectancy and evangelistic power (Parham’s legacy) mapped the path taken by white Pentecostals in their aggressive efforts to preach the gospel “unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8, KJV).27 African-American Pentecostals, on the other hand, have drawn attention to the reconciliation of the races and the outpouring of power on the downtrodden at Azusa, evidenced by the uncommon interracial makeup of the services, catalyzed by the fruit of the Spirit (Seymour’s legacy).28 Both are vital parts of the story. Even though the burden for evangelism inspired global outreach, Pentecostals have much to learn from the message of reconciliation that also highlighted the revival.29
Stanley M. Horton (Systematic Theology: Revised Edition)
Friends are not by chance or coincidence, they have existed since the beginning of time.
William Sillyman (The Journey: The Revised Edition)
there is a short shelf life on inspiration without action.
Liz Wiseman (Multipliers, Revised and Updated: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter)
company’s managers are often labelled executives who passively execute routine activities. It’s little wonder that the public objects to CEO pay if millions are given to managers who simply execute. We sometimes use the word leaders to highlight how they can pursue new strategic directions and inspire their workforce.
Alex Edmans (Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit – Updated and Revised)
At this very moment, there are more amazing places to see & wonderful things happening in the world than you can possibly imagine. All you need to do is get there.
Russell Hannon (Stop Dreaming Start Traveling: The Ultimate Guide to Traveling More and Spending Less - Revised & Updated)
You have to build the skills of empathic listening on a base of character that inspires openness and trust. And you have to build the Emotional Bank Accounts that create a commerce between hearts.
Stephen R. Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Revised and Updated: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change)
Instead of urging us to place the same value on all things, Proust might more interestingly have been encouraging us to ascribe them their correct value, and hence to revise certain notions of the good life, which risked inspiring an unfair neglect of some settings and a misguided enthusiasm for others.
Alain de Botton (How Proust Can Change Your Life)
Depending on what your biological family was like, church-as-family may intimidate or inspire you. It’s easy to import our own baggage or expectations into the church, but it’s also important to be aware of the baggage. Creating some space to talk about these issues with one another can be very fruitful. But in our society, meeting with relative strangers for two-and-a-half hours a week, sharing a meal, giving and receiving grace from people very different from us, isn’t ordinary. We are used to being dependent on ourselves and, if we are honest, our highest obligation is to self—doing, saying, and feeling whatever we want. In an interesting twist, self-love is the paradigm for true love. Jesus tells us to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 19:19; see Lev. 19:18). Disciples of Jesus should do, say, and try to feel what is best for others, not just for themselves. To put it bluntly, disciples of Jesus should regularly sacrifice privacy, convenience, and comfort in order to love and serve one another.
Jonathan K. Dodson (Gospel-Centered Discipleship: Revised and Expanded)
The Chemistry of Mind: Emotion reacts, anger boils, logic cools, idea freezes, sympathy dissolves, apathy precipitates, love binds, hate dissociates, faith crystallizes, memory evaporates.
Abhijit Kar Gupta (Scientific Computing in Python (Revised edition, Python 3))
Happiness is a decision. If you decide to be happy, you will be happy.
Abhijit Kar Gupta (Scientific Computing in Python (Revised edition, Python 3))
the Haitian Revolution was the inspiration for the pursuit of liberty in the Americas.
Paul Ortiz (An African American and Latinx History of the United States (ReVisioning History Book 4))
Travel needn’t be expensive, and having the time of your life doesn’t need to cost a thing.
Russell Hannon (Stop Dreaming Start Traveling: The Ultimate Guide to Traveling More and Spending Less - Revised & Updated)
There is a difference between WISHING for a thing and being READY to receive it. You are never ready for a thing until you believe you can acquire it. The state of mind must be BELIEF, not mere hope or wish. Open-mindedness is essential for belief. Closed minds do not inspire faith, courage, and belief.
Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich!:The Original Version, Restored and Revised™: The Original Version, Restored and Revised(tm))
Leadership is communicating to another their worth and potential so clearly they are inspired to see it in themselves.
Stephen R. Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Revised and Updated: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change)
Sickness is real, is true that is, to the patient’s frightened perception. Disorders and problems are more than imagination, they are solid convictions of fear or ignorance and therefore need to be dealt with through an accurate comprehension of the truth of being. If Soul-healing is abused by those who are wise in their own conceit, treatment becomes an irksome trouble maker. Instead of scientifically affecting a cure, a boaster in Science starts petty crossfires over those who are disabled and sick. Humanity should not be knocked around with superficial and heartless remarks like: It’s all in your head. Matter is not real. Be more spiritual. You really are perfect.
Cheryl Petersen (21st Century Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: A revision of Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health)
Why admit that mind influences the body somewhat, yet act as though the organs, hormones, nerves, bones, etc., outweigh the power of Spirit? Controlled by this kind of thinking, people unthinkingly repeat learned reactions. They lean on the artificial or the unintelligent, never discerning how this deprives them of the available superiority of divine Mind.
Cheryl Petersen (21st Century Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: A revision of Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health)
Mind is not an entity inside the brain with the power to go against Life, Truth, and Love, now or anytime.
Cheryl Petersen (21st Century Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: A revision of Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health)
Mind is not necessarily dependent on the education process. Mind possesses of itself all eloquence, beauty, and poetry. Mind has the power to express prose. Spirit, God, is heard when the human mind’s noise is silent. We are all capable of more than we do. The action of Soul confers the freedom that explains excellent impromptu speeches, admirable movie scripts, or meaningful texts.
Cheryl Petersen (21st Century Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: A revision of Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health)
If yesterday was a tough one and you're still here today; still learning, still dreaming, still helping, still healing, still wanting, still needing, still breathing, still bleeding, still finding, still seeking, still feeling the feelings, still caring, still sharing, still giving, still being, if yesterday was a tough one and you're still here today, then you are a tough one, too.
Broms The Poet (FEAST: The Second Serving: Revised, Revitalized, and Re-Realized)
One day, sadly not so long from now, you will find yourself looking back with either great pride or grand penitence. Life is short. BELONG.
Broms The Poet (FEAST: The Second Serving: Revised, Revitalized, and Re-Realized)
Romans 8:26 lets us again know that the Holy Spirit empowers us to pray effectively. This means that without Him we are most likely just saying words. We need His unction and inspiration to pray efficiently and powerfully.
Robert Henderson (Operating in the Courts of Heaven (Revised and Expanded): Granting God the Legal Rights to Fulfill His Passion and Answer Our Prayers)
Good writers practice. They take time to write, crafting and editing a piece until it’s just right. They spend hours and days just revising.  Good writers take criticism on the chin and say “thank you” to helpful feedback; they listen to both the external and internal voices that drive them. And they use it all to make their writing better. They’re resigned to the fact that first drafts suck and that the true mark of a champion is a commitment to the craft. It’s not about writing in spurts of inspiration. It’s about doing the work, day-in and day-out. Good writers push through because they believe in what they’re doing. They understand this is more than a profession or hobby. It’s a calling, a vocation.
Jeff Goins (You Are A Writer (So Start Acting Like One))
If someone hates you it means he/she is thinking about you but your positivity may be changed to love...Just revise your thoughts and encourage yourself.
Tanmay Chand
(courtesy Travel Africa magazine) sums up the feeling rather well –: “Surely everyone who has had the honour of setting foot on African soil understands how difficult it is to answer the question: “Why Africa?” I’ve often found it impossible to do Africa justice in words. In the past I’ve felt that my answers never conveyed the joy I feel when I hear the word Africa, see a glimpse of her on television, or hear African people talking in the street. My answers are most often unsatisfying and frequently leave my audience unconvinced. But of late I’ve found a much simpler way to explain it. Africa is a feeling. Africa is an emotion. Of course it is much more detailed than that, but also just as simple. Africa is the awe-inspiring landscapes, the beauty in the people, the wild creatures that inhabit the land and the seas, and it’s the speed in which the sun leaves in the evening and comes again in the morning. The feeling of Africa waking up is indescribable, dramatic and incomparable. Africa seems to breathe life, into itself and into all things. And death. And the cycles in between. Africa is the longed-for lover, the oft-missed friend, and the trusted elder. Africa is all of these things but maybe none of them. Africa affects us in a deep, personal, individual way. It comes to us in an instant, inhabits our being, and never leaves. I long for Africa. I miss it every day. It embodies all that I believe about life, space and freedom, even though such things are often scarce commodities on the ground. Africa is a memory, a constant presence and is all future possibilities. Africa is old and wise, new and dynamic, and I will be there again.” Enough said...
Patrick Brakspear ((101 things to know when you go) ON SAFARI IN AFRICA: Third Edition (Revised))
Stephen Dewar, vice president of operations, cofounded WhalePower with Frank Fish, Bill Bateman and Phil Watts. I've known Stephen for several years and have watched with interest the challenges faced by the company since it was incorporated. I recently asked him if he had advice for aspiring biomimicry entrepreneurs. His number one message: Have a clear vision of why you're taking on your project and where you want to go. Then, like nature, be flexible and adaptable. his staff even made T-shirts that quote one of his favorite sayings: "For every vision, there is an equal and opposite revision." Second: Do your homework. Be deeply interested in the science, so you can clearly differentiate what's not just a good biomimetic idea but one for which there is a strong market demand.
Jay Harman (The Shark's Paintbrush: Biomimicry and How Nature is Inspiring Innovation)
Art, he proclaimed, is the process of actually sitting down and doing it. Not talking about doing it, not thinking or fantasizing about doing it, just doing it. Only after the work has been completed and exposed to public view will it be considered a work of “art” or not. If you think you're “an artist” just waiting for that one moment of inspiration to sit down and write, you'll be waiting forever.
Syd Field (The Screenwriter's Workbook: Exercises and Step-by-Step Instructions for Creating a Successful Screenplay, Newly Revised and Updated)
acknowledgements Huge thanks, obviously, to the superhuman Jane Austen for her books. Besides those masterpieces, I also reviewed (obsessively) the BBC 1995 production of Pride and Prejudice, as well as Emma (1996), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Persuasion (1995), and Patricia Rozema’s gorgeous revision of Mansfield Park (1999). I’m also indebted to Daniel Pool’s What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew for period information. The World of Jane Austen, by Nigel Nicholson, who also useful, and I scoured the Web site Jessamyn’s Regency Costume Companion for clothing information. Despite the research, I’d be surprised if I didn’t make mistakes, but they’re sure to be my fault, so please don’t blame my sources. Special thanks to the amazing Amanda Katz for her inspired editing, as well as to Nadia Cornier, Cordelia Brand, Ann Cannon, Rosi Hayes, and Mette Ivie Harrison. And can I just say again how much I love Bloomsbury? I do. Everyone there is so cool. And also quite attractive (though that hardly seems fair, does it?). And honey, you know that this Colin Firth thing isn’t really serious. You are my fantasy man and my real man. I need no other fella in all the world besides you. It’s just a girl thing, I swear.
Shannon Hale (Austenland (Austenland, #1))
In The End of Jobs, Taylor Pearson calls this The Turkey Problem, inspired by a clever analogy found in Nassim Taleb’s Black Swan. Taleb writes: “Consider a turkey that is fed every day. Every single feeding will firm up the bird's belief that it is the general rule of life to be fed every day by friendly members of the human race ‘looking out for its best interests,’ as a politician would say. On the afternoon of the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, something unexpected will happen to the turkey. It will incur a revision of belief.” Bye-bye Mr. Turkey. The turkey thinks he’s safe, until he realizes at the last minute that he’s not. We tend to believe that working at big corporations keeps us safe. But in reality, it’s the job of the HR department to make you feel that way, even if it’s not true. Every day you work at a large corporation, you’re building up silent risk. One day, you might realize you’re a turkey. Do you remember a company called Lehman Brothers? I know it’s a distant memory for some, but before 2008 it was the 4th largest investment bank in the United States. Then it went bankrupt. Bye-bye.
Jesse Tevelow (Hustle: The Life Changing Effects of Constant Motion)
As we try to learn from the past, we form patterns of thinking based on our experiences, not realizing that the things that happened have an unfair advantage over the things that didn’t. In other words, we can’t see the alternatives that might well have happened if not for some small chance event. When a bad thing happens, people will draw conclusions that might include conspiracy or forces acting against them or, conversely, if a good thing happens, that they are brilliant and deserving. But these kinds of misperceptions ultimately deceive us. And this has consequences in business—and for the way we manage. When companies are successful, it is natural to assume that this is a result of leaders making shrewd decisions. Those leaders go forward believing that they have figured out the key to building a thriving company. In fact, randomness and luck played a key role in that success. If you run a business that is covered with any frequency by the media, you may face another challenge. Journalists tend to look for patterns that can be explained in a relatively small number of words. If you haven’t done the work of teasing apart what is random and what you have intentionally set in motion, you will be overly influenced by the analysis of outside observers, which is often oversimplified. When managing a company that is often in the news, as Pixar is, we must be careful not to believe our own hype. I say this knowing that it is difficult to resist, especially when we are flying high and tempted to think we have done everything right. But the truth is, I have no way of accounting for all of the factors involved in any given success, and whenever I learn more, I have to revise what I think. That’s not a weakness or a flaw. That’s reality.
Ed Catmull (Creativity, Inc.: an inspiring look at how creativity can - and should - be harnessed for business success by the founder of Pixar)
In 1829 Rossini was at an age which has often proven critical in the lives of musicians, painters and writers. Lapses into silence far more complete than Rossini's, creative failures, suicides, and unanticipated deaths have been common in the middle to late 30s. As Charles Rosen has noted, 'It is the age when the most fluent composer begins to lose the ease of inspiration he once possessed, when even Mozart had to make sketches and to revise'.
Richard Osborne (Rossini (Master Musicians Series))
From the Bridge” by Captain Hank Bracker Appreciation! Appreciation…. One of the nicer things we can get or give is appreciation. It makes what we do worthwhile! It inspires us to work harder, do better and above all, makes us feel better about ourselves. I feel appreciated when someone says thank you…. It’s as simple as that! Of course it’s also nice to receive an award for something I wrote. I recently won two awards for The Exciting Story of Cuba and it made my day! It felt even better to share the moment with my crew because they deserved it and I certainly appreciate them and their contribution, for the effort I got credit for. It’s really very nice when we appreciate people for what they have done for us and remember that it is better to give than receive. Now here is an existential thought that I’ll run past you. You might have heard the ancient chestnut.… “Does a tree make a noise when it falls in a forest with no one around to hear it?” The answer is debatable, with no definitive answer that everyone accepts. Now let’s take this thought one step further by contemplating life itself. Is there really anything, if there is no one to appreciate it? Could this account for our existence? Do we really have to exist at this time and place, within this sphere of infinity, to appreciate everything we are aware of including the universe? To me it’s an interesting thought, since philosophically “I am!” More interesting is that so are you and everyone else. Without us, would there be universe? And if so, would it make any difference, because there would be no one to know. What makes the difference is that we are here and we know that we are here! Therefore, we can appreciate it! I’m not a philosopher. I’m really just another “id” that is contemplating my existence, but what I want to impart is the importance of sharing this existence with others by appreciating them. The English poet John Donne said, “No man is an Island.” I guess the original content is found in prose, not poetry; however it’s the thought that counts. Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytical theory of personality states that, “The id is the personality component made up of unconscious psychic energy that works to satisfy basic urges, needs and desires.” Now the way I see it, is that the reason that we are here is to appreciate each other and our wondrous surroundings. I might even take things a step further by getting religion into the mix. If we are made in our creator’s image, could that mean that our creator, like us, desires the appreciation of his creation and we are here to appreciate what he, or she, has created? The way we as a people are polarized causes me to wonder, if we are not all acting like a bunch of spoiled brats. Has our generation been so spoiled that we all insist on getting things our way, without understanding that we are interdependent. Seeing as how we all inhabit this one planet, and that everything we possess, need, aspire to and love, is right here on this rock floating in space; we should take stock and care for each other and, above all, appreciate what we have, as well as each other. So much from me…. I’ve been busy trying to get Suppressed I Rise – Revised Edition and Seawater One…. Going To Sea!, published before the holidays. It’s been a long time in coming, but I’m hoping that with just a little extra effort, these books will be available at your favorite book dealer in time to find a place under your Christmas tree or Hanukkah bush. That’s right! Just look at your calendar and you’ll see its October and that the holidays are almost here again! Take care, appreciate each other and have a good week. It’s later than you think….
Hank Bracker
The Exile In July 587 BCE, Babylonian soldiers broke through Jerusalem’s walls, ending a starvation siege that had lasted well over a year. They burned the city and Solomon’s temple and took its king and many other leaders to Babylon as captives, leaving others to fend for themselves in the destroyed land. Many surrounding countries disappeared altogether when similar disasters befell them. But Judah did not. Instead, the period scholars most often call the “Babylonian exile” inspired religious leaders to revise parts of Scripture that had been passed down to them. It also sparked the writing of entirely new Scriptures and the revision of ideas about God, creation, and history. Much of what is called the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament was written, edited, and compiled during and after this national tragedy.
Walter Brueggemann (Chosen?: Reading the Bible Amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict)
Inspiration, on the other hand, is a call to creative action. We act because we want to, not because we have to.
Barbara Winter (Making a Living Without a Job, revised edition: Winning Ways for Creating Work That You Love)
according to the Revised Version, that petition of conflict, peril, warning, and safety is, “Deliver us from the Evil One.” Evil is comparatively harmless, feeble and inert without the presence of its mighty inspirer. Deliverance from the devil is deliverance from the many evils of which he is the source and inspiration.
E.M. Bounds (Satan: His Personality, Power and Overthrow)
Everything We Keep wouldn’t be the story it is today without my first readers—Elizabeth Allen, Bonnie Dodge, Vicky Gresham, Addison James, and Orly Konig-Lopez—who patiently read revision after revision. Your honest feedback helped make me a better storyteller and writer. And while all this writing was happening, someone had the crazy notion of launching an association. To my cofounders of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, you are my inspiration! We can write books and build a national organization. How fabulous is that? I have to recognize my parents, Bill and Phyllis Hall. They’ve been my biggest champions
Kerry Lonsdale (Everything We Keep (Everything, #1))
America’s biggest Hispanic-owned food company, Goya Foods, began in 1936 as a specialty distributor of basic products, such as beans, to Hispanic immigrants. Today it is one of the USA’s fastest-growing food companies, introducing all sorts of Americans to a (wide) range of Hispanic-inspired food items. ‘We like to say we don’t market to Latinos, we market as Latinos’,
Jenni Romaniuk (How Brands Grow: Part 2 Revised eBook)
Most people wildly overestimate what they can accomplish in a day, and woefully underestimate what they can accomplish in a year, let alone a decade.
Rich Roll ([Finding Ultra, Revised and Updated Edition: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World's Fittest Men, and Discovering Myself] [By: Roll, Rich] [May, 2013])
A reading list that Jefferson first drafted in 1771, five years before he wrote the Declaration, provided an answer. Jefferson sent the list to his friend Robert Skipwith, who had asked for books to include in a private library, and revised it over the years. Under the category of “religion,” Jefferson’s reading list includes Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations, as well as a top ten list of other works of classical and Enlightenment moral philosophy:11 Locke’s Conduct of the Understanding in the Search of Truth. Xenophon’s memoirs of Socrates, translated by Sarah Fielding. Epictetus, translated by Elizabeth Carter. Marcus Aurelius, translated by Collins. Seneca, translated by Roger L’Estrange. Cicero’s Offices, by Guthrie. Cicero’s Tusculan questions. Ld.
Jeffrey Rosen (The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America)
It will feel impossible until it is done, after that it will feel essential.
Broms The Poet (FEAST: The Second Serving: Revised, Revitalized, and Re-Realized)
For every positive thought you have in your mind, there are fifteen negative thoughts you must eliminate, otherwise, for every positive thought, there are fifteen negative thoughts that enter our mind. Once you finally eliminate your negative thoughts, and run over, in your mind, with positive thoughts, you shall reach your reason of why you are here. Negative thoughts overrun ninety-seven point three percent of the population around the world, while less than two point seven percent of the world population knows this secret. The “Ones” and the “Shadows” are giving you just a glimpse of the Truth - for you to Truly comprehend this gift that has always been there for you. However, they know that no matter what positive information we relay to the mass population, the majority of you will be in denial of what is being given”.
Gino DiCaprio (Secrets and Laws of the Universe: Book I - Revised Edition (The Universal Law of Creation Chronicles))
The Universe knows everything about you, and will bring to you, either what matches you, or even better than what you may expect. You cannot just dream yourself to what you want; you have to work on it, for the Universe puts the possibilities in front of you, while it is your job to notice it and do something about it.
Gino DiCaprio (Secrets and Laws of the Universe: Book I - Revised Edition (The Universal Law of Creation, Chronicles 1))
You become what your thoughts envision. Therefore, you create what your life will be. You are each, your own Creator, and no one can create for you what you want or do not want. That is unless you give up your power to them. Do you comprehend this? A sound business sense should be your guide when making key decisions, not emotions. When you picked up this book, did you believe you just picked it up, or do you see that you were meant to pick it up to read it, as you secretly wished it to be there for you?
Gino DiCaprio (Secrets and Laws of the Universe: Book I - Revised Edition (The Universal Law of Creation Chronicles))
You Go by Attitude, Grow by Gratitude!
Abhijit Kar Gupta (Scientific Computing in Python (Revised edition, Python 3))
You need the strongest strength to express your weakest weakness.
Abhijit Kar Gupta (Scientific Computing in Python (Revised edition, Python 3))
Avoid jumping into conclusion. This may cause your idea fractured!
Abhijit Kar Gupta (Scientific Computing in Python (Revised edition, Python 3))
Freedom is when you can make your own mistakes.
Abhijit Kar Gupta (Scientific Computing in Python (Revised edition, Python 3))
Life is an open book where secrets are hidden in between unread pages like a dried leaf!
Abhijit Kar Gupta (Scientific Computing in Python (Revised edition, Python 3))
Killing is bad even if that is time!
Abhijit Kar Gupta (Scientific Computing in Python (Revised edition, Python 3))
Magic is when you don't know the reason. Love is when you don't want to know the reason. Magic of love is when the reason escapes!
Abhijit Kar Gupta (Scientific Computing in Python (Revised edition, Python 3))
Knowledge makes you bend but keeps you from breaking.
Abhijit Kar Gupta (Scientific Computing in Python (Revised edition, Python 3))
Peace comes by dissolving boundaries. The method is love.
Abhijit Kar Gupta (Scientific Computing in Python (Revised edition, Python 3))
inspiration, the problem or opportunity that motivates the search for solutions; ideation, the process of generating, developing, and testing ideas; and implementation, the path that leads from the project room to the market.
Tim Brown (Change by Design, Revised and Updated: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation)
Over the years, I’ve come to believe that revision and rewriting are most of what good writing entails: writing a successful book isn’t only making the most of the first burst of inspiration, as pleasurable as that is. It’s also the sustained and often small-scale work of making a promising manuscript better hour by hour, day by day, slowly but steadily moving it closer to your imagined ideal.
Matt Bell (Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts)
You Are An Inspiration Inspiring words from an inspirational Mother to her child Walk this journey without hesitation Make a solemn declaration Have solid determination Until you reach your destination This process has no clear definition Therefore, make sound decisions Remember, the past has no revisions Child, have a clear vision This is what I envision As a candid resolution That you will be part of the solution When you embark on the Great Commission To accomplish the massive mission Seek the right information Celebrate your liberation Fear no limitation Pursue restoration Surpass any expectation And value your contribution Can I have a confirmation? Because you are an inspiration!
Gift Gugu Mona (From My Mother's Classroom: A Badge of Honour for a Remarkable Woman)
So often, as writers, we keep pressing ourselves against a wall. We know we’re stuck. We know this direction isn’t working. But stubbornness and pride keep us pushing in the same direction. In backing away from our original plan, we must have faith that the essence is there, but some radical departure must take place.--Writer's Digest
Marina Budhos
Renaissance artists, inspired by Greek mythological themes, created frighteningly realistic portrayals of decapitated women with snakes for hair. The elegantly crafted sculpture by Benvenuto Cellini of a youthful Perseus holding Medusa's head aloft while he stands on her decapitated body was erected in the center of Florence in the mid-16th century. This popular theme was emblematic of the Inquisitional murders of women taking place in many areas of Europe during that time, considered necessary to protect civil society from the dangers of uncontrolled female powers. Later, during the 18th-19th centuries, Romantic artists, poets, and Decadents recast Medusa as a beautiful victim, not a monster. In their view, She represented the ecstatic discord between pain and pleasure, beauty and horror, and divinely forbidden sexuality.
Joan Marler (Re-visioning Medusa: from Monster to Divine Wisdom)
In a now-famous experiment, he and his colleagues compared three groups of expert violinists at the elite Music Academy in West Berlin. The researchers asked the professors to divide the students into three groups: the “best violinists,” who had the potential for careers as international soloists; the “good violinists”; and a third group training to be violin teachers rather than performers. Then they interviewed the musicians and asked them to keep detailed diaries of their time. They found a striking difference among the groups. All three groups spent the same amount of time—over fifty hours a week— participating in music-related activities. All three had similar classroom requirements making demands on their time. But the two best groups spent most of their music-related time practicing in solitude: 24.3 hours a week, or 3.5 hours a day, for the best group, compared with only 9.3 hours a week, or 1.3 hours a day, for the worst group. The best violinists rated “practice alone” as the most important of all their music-related activities. Elite musicians—even those who perform in groups—describe practice sessions with their chamber group as “leisure” compared with solo practice, where the real work gets done. Ericsson and his cohorts found similar effects of solitude when they studied other kinds of expert performers. “Serious study alone” is the strongest predictor of skill for tournament-rated chess players, for example; grandmasters typically spend a whopping five thousand hours—almost five times as many hours as intermediatelevel players—studying the game by themselves during their first ten years of learning to play. College students who tend to study alone learn more over time than those who work in groups. Even elite athletes in team sports often spend unusual amounts of time in solitary practice. What’s so magical about solitude? In many fields, Ericsson told me, it’s only when you’re alone that you can engage in Deliberate Practice, which he has identified as the key to exceptional achievement. When you practice deliberately, you identify the tasks or knowledge that are just out of your reach, strive to upgrade your performance, monitor your progress, and revise accordingly. Practice sessions that fall short of this standard are not only less useful—they’re counterproductive. They reinforce existing cognitive mechanisms instead of improving them. Deliberate Practice is best conducted alone for several reasons. It takes intense concentration, and other people can be distracting. It requires deep motivation, often self-generated. But most important, it involves working on the task that’s most challenging to you personally. Only when you’re alone, Ericsson told me, can you “go directly to the part that’s challenging to you. If you want to improve what you’re doing, you have to be the one who generates the move. Imagine a group class—you’re the one generating the move only a small percentage of the time.” To see Deliberate Practice in action, we need look no further than the story of Stephen Wozniak. The Homebrew meeting was the catalyst that inspired him to build that first PC, but the knowledge base and work habits that made it possible came from another place entirely: Woz had deliberately practiced engineering ever since he was a little kid. (Ericsson says that it takes approximately ten thousand hours of Deliberate Practice to gain true expertise, so it helps to start young.)
Susan Cain (Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking)
Expand your vocabulary to include accurate, beautiful, sensual, inspiring, thought-provoking, mysterious, and compelling words—words that express the beauty of your marvelous spirit.
Sonia Choquette (Trust Your Vibes (Revised Edition): Live an Extraordinary Life by Using Your Intuitive Intelligence)