“
Race, gender, religion, sexuality, we are all people and that's it. We're all people. We're all equal.
”
”
Connor Franta
“
If you like nerds, raise your hand. If you don't, raise your standards.
”
”
Violet Haberdasher
“
My only regrets are the moments when i doubted myself and took the safe route. Life is too short to waste time being unhappy.
”
”
Daniel Howell
“
If you fulfill your obligations everyday you don't need to worry about the future.
”
”
Jordan B. Peterson
“
It warmed my heart that my children had the right priorities: their skills, their images, their views on YouTube.
”
”
Rick Riordan (The Hidden Oracle (The Trials of Apollo, #1))
“
Unless you had a popular video on YouTube
or could perform shows in front of thousands, musical ability meant nothing.
”
”
Nicholas Sparks (The Last Song)
“
I'm the living embodiment of 'it could be worse'.
”
”
Daniel Howell
“
I watched a lot of YouTube videos of cute geeky girls playing '80s cover tunes on ukuleles. Technically, this wasn't part of my research, but I had a serious cute-geeky-girls-playing-ukuleles fetish that I can neither explain nor defend.
”
”
Ernest Cline (Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1))
“
I don’t want anyone to hold back who they are. It’s not okay… it’s not a good thing
”
”
Connor Franta
“
It's like when a kitten tries to bite something to death. The kitten clearly has the cold-blooded murderous instinct of a predator, but at the same time, it's this cute little kitten, and all you want to do is stuff it in a shoebox and shoot a video of it for grandmas to watch on YouTube.
”
”
Jesse Andrews (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl)
“
It’s okay. It may not seem like it right now, but you are going to be fine. I know it’s scary, but don’t be afraid. You are who you are, and you should love that person, and I don’t want anyone to have to go through 22 years of their life afraid to accept that.
”
”
Connor Franta
“
To me, the meaning of a human life is to be happy. It's to achieve happiness right now, it's to make sure you're happy in the future.
And if some people on YouTube try to have a message to give people, I guess that mine is: do whatever you have to do to be happy.
”
”
Daniel Howell
“
I wish I knew how to quit you, Tumblr.
”
”
John Green
“
The world is your bookmark.
”
”
joelbooks
“
I want to touch you in real time
not find you on YouTube,
I want to walk next to you in the mountains
not friend you on Facebook.
”
”
V (formerly Eve Ensler) (I Am an Emotional Creature)
“
I'm just Phil from Rossendale. And now people are screaming for me 'cause I make YouTube videos - it's just crazy!
”
”
Phil Lester
“
As long as we have Netfix, Turner Classic Movies, Amazon, YouTube, and bookstores, there is no excuse ever to lack inspiration.
”
”
Tim Gunn (Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Lessons for Making It Work)
“
If you are on social media, and you are not learning, not laughing, not being inspired or not networking, then you are using it wrong.
”
”
Germany Kent
“
Amy [Winehouse] increasingly became defined by her addiction. Our media though is more interested in tragedy than talent, so the ink began to defect from praising her gift to chronicling her downfall. The destructive personal relationships, the blood soaked ballet slippers, the aborted shows, that YouTube madness with the baby mice. In the public perception this ephemeral tittle-tattle replaced her timeless talent. This and her manner in our occasional meetings brought home to me the severity of her condition. Addiction is a serious disease; it will end with jail, mental institutions, or death.
”
”
Russell Brand
“
Dreams are made of your potential.
”
”
Lilly Singh
“
Magnus noticed Maryse and Robert, who did not have the best relationship and hardly ever spoke to each other, having a brief whispered consultation about what YouTube might be.
”
”
Cassandra Clare (Born to Endless Night (Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, #9))
“
Anna looked at Brother Wolf. ‘I’d like to see someone try to put a radio control collar on Charles. It might be fun to watch on YouTube.
”
”
Patricia Briggs (Fair Game (Alpha & Omega, #3))
“
You're sure your new roommate won't be like the last one who wore tinfoil socks and had a tendency to occasionally urinate in the refrigerator. You're sure you'll pass Math 106 this time around. You're determined to actually join some clubs this year and not just sit around in your dorm eating spray cheese from a can and watching youtube videos about cats.
”
”
Patrick Rothfuss
“
I bet he never goes on YouTube. He's too busy. It's only tragic cases like you and me who are always online.
”
”
Sophie Kinsella (Mini Shopaholic (Shopaholic, #6))
“
It's a good thing I've got to live with you two or I'd be putting this on YouTube later. And mocking you
”
”
Rachel Caine (Fade Out (The Morganville Vampires, #7))
“
I take all the best parts of YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, and combine them into a whole new service called … YouTwit-face.
”
”
Mark Frost (The Paladin Prophecy (The Paladin Prophecy, #1))
“
Because we’ve transformed the world from a place of scarcity to a place of overwhelming abundance: Drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting . . . the increased numbers, variety, and potency of highly rewarding stimuli today is staggering. The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7 for a wired generation.
”
”
Anna Lembke (Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence)
“
If it isn't on YouTube, it might as well have never happened.
”
”
Gordon Korman (Ungifted (Ungifted, #1))
“
You need to come with a goddamn YouTube instructional video.
”
”
Huntley Fitzpatrick (What I Thought Was True)
“
I'm friggin' awesome! So screw the haters!
”
”
Jackson Pearce
“
Some Day Someone is going to pick up this book (The Bible) and believe it, and put us all to shame.
”
”
Leonard Ravenhill (Why Revival Tarries: A Classic on Revival)
“
That’s why I’m here, I’m here for two reasons. To entertain you with stories of my life so , you know, you can find them entertaining. But then maybe compare them to your own lives and not feel so alone with the issues that you go with, go through. And think, “Wow, I’m scared of going to my first day of work, but there is a guy called Dan who actually sold an axe to a child”. And the other half of it is me kind of like articulating my own profound observations on the universe, which is really just an excuse to give myself a therapy. Apparently other people enjoy watching it too wow
”
”
Daniel Howell
“
Never insult someone's OTP, if they kill you, it's your fault.
”
”
Dan Howell YouTuber
“
The comments on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter instantly switched from a small, friendly, supportive community to a selection of the loudest, most over-the-top opinions one could imagine. I was a traitor to my species. I was ultra-fuckable. I was a space alien. I was an ultra-fuckable space alien. And so on.
”
”
Hank Green (An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (The Carls, #1))
“
Whether your business sells Reiki healings or Jeans, Custom Pottery or YouTube Meditations, Computer Software or Construction materials…. Business fundamentals remain business fundamentals… Create value, communicate value, sell value.
”
”
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr. (The Wealth Reference Guide: An American Classic)
“
WHAT EVEN THE HECK!?!
”
”
Miranda Sings
“
Perfectionism may look good in his shiny shoes, but he's a bit of an asshole and no one invites him to their pool parties
”
”
Ze Frank
“
Don't forget to be awesome
”
”
Hank Green
“
."Please tell me you didn't take a picture."
"I didn't take a picture," he confirmed.
I exhaled.
"I recorded it and just uploaded to Youtube.".
”
”
Rachel Van Dyken (Tear (Seaside, #1))
“
You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do will probably be put on YouTube by the time you make bail. -Fact of life
”
”
Lani Lynn Vale (Center Mass (Code 11-KPD SWAT, #1))
“
Pop culture is just a rubik's cube of shit stacked on shit. And it's always turning and you can't figure it out. Ever. Unless you're a tiny Asian boy who can do it SO quickly! Where did this metaphore go? In Kim Kardashian's butt!
”
”
Grace Helbig
“
Reality is a crutch for people who can't handle science fiction.
”
”
Gene Wolfe
“
... (because) the only real danger that exists is men himself. He is the great danger and we are pityfully unaware of it. We know nothing of men. Far too little ...
Carl Gustav Jung, 1959 in an interview with John Freeman ( youtube watch?v=2AMu-G51yTY 38:04)
”
”
C.G. Jung
“
There was Heaven, then there was Earth, then there was YouTube, right?
”
”
Felicia Day (You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost))
“
You know, those unboxing videos you see everywhere on YouTube. They are the epitome of consumerist fetishism.
”
”
David Cronenberg (Consumed)
“
I don’t know about you driving. What if your beast comes out? I don’t think he’s got a driver’s permit.” In a weird voice, she said, “He don’t even have his license, Lisa.”
“Who’s Lisa?”
She blinked at him. “Weird Science? Never mind, crypt keeper. I’ll shoot you a YouTube sometime, through this thing we youngsters like to call ‘electronic mail.
”
”
Kresley Cole (MacRieve (Immortals After Dark, #13))
“
Love is like a fart. It's warm, unpredictable. And sometimes it stinks, but it can also be the best feeling in the world. That's why I'm so happy that I passed you that day. I know now...I fart you
”
”
Ryan Higa
“
I'd choose truth over cake but I'd try to find a way to get both to be honest.
”
”
Craig Benzine
“
Girl! I'm here to make you look Fa-Bu-Lous!
”
”
Fake Cinna
“
Kids on the Youtube, learning how to be cool.
”
”
Toby Keith
“
I happen to believe that no one inherently deserves anything, except basic human rights, and not to have to watch an ad before you watch a trailer on YouTube.
”
”
Mindy Kaling (Why Not Me?)
“
I like to watch beauty gurus who are younger than me on YouTube to get inspired to take showers. Even just thinking about them is making me pissed and somehow motivated.
”
”
Grace Helbig (Grace's Guide The Art of Pretending to Be a Grown-up)
“
Technology offers the illusion of companionship without the demands of intimacy, and communication without emotional risk, while actually making people feel lonelier and more overwhelmed.
“A song that became popular on YouTube in 2010, ‘Do You Want to Date My Avatar?’ ends with the lyrics ‘And if you think I’m not the one, log off, log off, and we’ll be done.’ ”
from a review of Alone Together by S. Turkle
”
”
Michiko Kakutani
“
He’d dreamt that watch for Adam when he left for Harvard. It was the closest he could come to a love letter; the language of affection had never felt right to Ronan. Clumsy. Overblown. False. Ronan speaking the language of another country, vocabulary learned from watching films on YouTube. But the watch—the watch told the time for whatever time zone Ronan was in, and it said exactly what Ronan meant to say.
Think of where I am, it said. Think of me.
”
”
Maggie Stiefvater (Greywaren (Dreamer Trilogy, #3))
“
I didn’t really want to go. Firstly, everyone was just gonna get drunk, which I could do perfectly well by myself in my den while watching YouTube videos instead of having to worry about catching the last train home or avoiding sexual assault.
”
”
Alice Oseman (Radio Silence)
“
This was the most fun I've ever had
”
”
Daniel Howell
“
I think it just says a lot about our chemistry!
”
”
Phil Lester
“
Be a lawyer, a doctor or a teacher", they say. But there's one thing they can't hear: the silent beat of creativity within you - that calling beckoning you to trust your gut, follow your heart, and do what your soul demands. You can never articulate to others what you feel in your bones because you rarely understand it yourself. Do you know how many times I get a bomb-ass idea but can't explain it to anyone? All. The. Time. They can't see it, but I can - and that's all that matters. They will see it when I bring my idea to life.
”
”
Connor Franta
“
Actually believe in your potential. You spend all day and all night daydreaming and sometimes talking to yourself... out loud, which people can see by the way so maybe consider stopping that, about all the things you wish you could be and do, but instead you doubt yourself and say its impossible, and instead of following your unrealistic dreams, you should accept that you're an average person that will never get lucky and should just do what the world seems to have laid out for you like.. study law at University.
That's not gonna go down well, just trust me there. You are a horrific procrastinator and one day you will just mature enough to look past what you have been told about the world, and decide to take it into your own hands, and that will finally make you happy.
”
”
Daniel Howell
“
People everywhere pray for a job where they can “work from home,” so I guess, going with the gratitude theme, I should be grateful for this opportunity. I wonder how, though, when people get one of these jobs, they keep themselves from spending the entire day going on YouTube and looking at videos about baby deer that have been adopted by golden retrievers. Because that’s all I’ve accomplished today so far.
”
”
Meg Cabot (Royal Wedding (The Princess Diaries, #11))
“
Even if you leave a negative comment on a video, youtube algorithm thinks that you want more such videos in your feed. The universe works in the same way. Don’t engage with the type of things that you don’t want in your life.
”
”
Shunya
“
My phone buzzes, and I shut off YouTube so I can access my messages.
Logan: Just found the perfect xmas present for you in Boston.
A photo promptly appears, summoning a loud groan from my throat. The asshole sent me a pic of a novelty My Little Pony dildo. Damn thing is bright pink, with rainbow sparkles on the handle.
Logan: And it’s rechargeable! U don’t have to buy batteries. THAT’S handy!
Me: Hardy-har-har. You = comedian.
Then I message Grace: Tell your BF to stop being mean to me.
She texts back a smiley face. Traitor.
”
”
Elle Kennedy (The Score (Off-Campus, #3))
“
De-abia plecaseşi. Te-am rugat să pleci.
Te urmăream de-a lungul molatecii poteci,
Pân-ai pierit, la capăt, prin trifoi.
Nu te-ai uitat o dată înapoi!
Ţi-as fi făcut un semn, după plecare,
Dar ce-i un semn din umbră-n depărtare?
Voiam să pleci, voiam şi să rămâi.
Ai ascultat de gândul ce-l dintâi.
Nu te oprise gândul fără glas.
De ce-ai plecat? De ce-ai mai fi rămas?
www youtube com/watch?v=Mv8lW_NY5ek
”
”
Tudor Arghezi
“
I find it’s more fun to write about something that you don’t know completely and that you will discover on route. A dear friend of mine...once said: 'The only time I know anything is when it comes to me at the point of my pen.' So I think that if you start to write about things that you know half well, that you’re fascinated by, that you sense you have an appreciation of that others might not have, but you do have to acquire the knowledge as you go, you discover a great many things at the point of a pen. And it keeps the writing alive in itself in a way.
(in an interview with Martin Amis, 1991, see YouTube)
”
”
Norman Mailer
“
Giving students iPads or allowing them to film homework assignments on YouTube prepares them for a high-tech economy about as much as playing with Hot Wheels would prepare them to thrive as auto mechanics.
”
”
Cal Newport (Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World)
“
Jason had attended debutante balls. Knew the drill. My crew would have to conduct research on YouTube. Jason was popular on the cotillion scene. My guys weren’t even on the radar. Asking Jason would get Whitney off my back. Inviting only Morris Island boys might plummet her into a depression.
”
”
Kathy Reichs (Code (Virals, #3))
“
No, I don’t think you’re gonna be single forever, and also I don’t understand your obsession with romantic love. There are other ways to have fulfilling relationships that can sustain you and make your life great and fun other than having a sexualized relationship. It’s not the only kind of fulfilling human interaction. So, even if you are single forever, that doesn’t mean that you’ve had some kind of failed life.
”
”
John Green
“
Selling bracelets to old ladies isn't as cute when you are a teenager with constant accidental boners.
”
”
Shane Dawson
“
He shrugged, working to make her understand. “There’s whole YouTube montages playing still shots of my butt to music. I don’t take credit for it. My mom’s been paying a trainer for years. Oh, and my six-pack won a Fan’s Choice Award called the SixPackAttack. Three years running.
”
”
Anne Eliot (Unmaking Hunter Kennedy)
“
I had a few good professors in my painting and drawing classes, but all my graphic design classes tried to teach us how to use Photoshop and Illistrator by showing the class demonstration video clips. You know, exactly like the kind you can watch for free on Youtube, except these video clips cost me thousands of dollars to watch. I felt like I paid a lot of money to learn martial arts, only to show up to find the instructor is fat, sluggish, and cowardly, and he tries to overcome that by trying to teach us how to fight by showing us Chuck Norris movies. (Fact: Chuck Norris could teach me how to fight without even bothering to show up to class).
”
”
Jarod Kintz (Gosh, I probably shouldn't publish this.)
“
I watched a lot of YouTube videos of cute geeky girls playing ’80s cover tunes on ukuleles. Technically, this wasn’t part of my research, but I had a serious cute-geeky-girls-playing-ukuleles fetish that I can neither explain nor defend.
”
”
Ernest Cline (Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1))
“
In the absence of a global tracking system to effectively track
pedophiles and checkmate their activities, the door will continue to
remain open to these group of people who sneak into Facebook,
connect with us on Twitter and show the world how they violated
and infected our children on YouTube.
”
”
Oche Otorkpa
“
Elliott performed a dance called the Dance of the Twenty-Eight Veils in Times Square. It is on YouTube. Many commenters described it as the most boring erotic dance ever performed in the history of the world. I have never been so embarrassed in my unlife. I’m thinking of quitting being leader of the clan and becoming a vampire nun.
”
”
Cassandra Clare (Born to Endless Night (Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, #9))
“
It was a complete rejection of genre norms in Korea’s idol industry, where every frame of every video was perfectly produced for public consumption. BTS members were not just idols. They were rappers who released mixtapes and YouTubers who gave tutorials on music production and dance.
”
”
BTS (Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS)
“
Swagger! Swoop. Swoop. Swoop.
”
”
JusReign
“
It’s tough enough to be a straight boy in a small town high school looking for the love of your life. But at least your possible loves are all out in the open.
”
”
JUVENALIUS
“
I think it just says a lot about our chemistry! -Dan
”
”
Phil Lester
“
What’s amazing is that things like hashtag design—these essentially ad hoc experiments in digital architecture—have shaped so much of our political discourse. Our world would be different if Anonymous hadn’t been the default username on 4chan, or if every social media platform didn’t center on the personal profile, or if YouTube algorithms didn’t show viewers increasingly extreme content to retain their attention, or if hashtags and retweets simply didn’t exist. It’s because of the hashtag, the retweet, and the profile that solidarity on the internet gets inextricably tangled up with visibility, identity, and self-promotion. It’s telling that the most mainstream gestures of solidarity are pure representation, like viral reposts or avatar photos with cause-related filters, and meanwhile the actual mechanisms through which political solidarity is enacted, like strikes and boycotts, still exist on the fringe.
”
”
Jia Tolentino (Trick Mirror)
“
He added, We knew it was going to be a big problem. You’ve got this guy with an army of upward of forty walking corpses that he acquired legally but was meant to bury a while back, it’s time for some hard conversations. He’s curing cancer, that’s great, but he’s bookended by two zombies that they’ve dressed in outfits, that’s bad. You’ve got a wizard out in the wop-wops who’s now got blanket bans from nearly every video upload site and a whole bunch of people have entered the country because of his YouTube channel, the government isn’t all, Love that small-business entrepreneur spirit. The government says, This is a cult.
”
”
Tamsyn Muir (Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #3))
“
One of the greatest tragedies of growing up is the discovery that your parents- and your teachers, and your sports heroes, and your favorite actors, singers, YouTube sensations- are fallible. Adults don't know all, and what they do know, they often won't tell you- because they've got their own agendas, or because they want to shield you from the hard truths "for your own good." Adults lie, they betray, they screw up in every way possible...
”
”
Robin Wasserman (Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader)
“
Surround yourself with people you like and make cool stuff with them. In the end, at least in my experience, what you do isn't going to be nearly as interesting or important as who you do it with.
”
”
John Green
“
simple love's hard to come by/ I'm just living my life, and I'm trying to be a lady.
”
”
L.divine
“
Failure is not an option. It just happens all the time. Like, all the time.
”
”
Craig Benzine
“
If you don't start somewhere, you'll never start.
”
”
Sean Klitzner
“
The more you open yourself up to the possibility that good things will happen the higher probability is that good things will in fact happen.
”
”
Jordan B. Peterson
“
There will be people that will say you can't make a living out of something you love to do. But are you really living buy not doing it?
”
”
Olan Rogers
“
I don’t think she let herself go Charlie, I think she just let’s herself be. I can’t expect Frances to do all that she's done in the last twenty years including simply gaining twenty years and not look different from the twenty-five year old I feel in love with.
If she’s comfortable carrying extra weight, fair enough, if it bothers her enough she’ll change it.
I don’t get it when guys are like ‘oh my wife isn’t like she used to be’. Why would she be? Don’t you expect to change as you get older? I mean I’ll look at the twenty-three year old as happily as the next guy. They’re pretty and their bodies are gorgeous, but what the f*** would we talk about, juice cleanses and youtube?
”
”
Abbi Waxman (Other People's Houses)
“
I sometimes wish I could fine people every time they use black street slang to prove how hip they are.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean.”
“Just charge them a residual. White people, Chinese people; even those boho Obamanegroes with their braided hemp necklaces, you understand me? … Except for dirt-poor white people surviving the life in some hood somewhere. And those Filipino prisoners you see on YouTube dancing to Michael Jackson songs. I figure those guys have earned the right to drop the occasional ‘homie’ now and then …
”
”
Nalo Hopkinson (Sister Mine)
“
As you know, there are several classes of truth. There are the truths that pour out on confessional blogs and YouTube channels. There are the supposed truths exposed in gossip magazines and on reality television, which everyone knows are just lies in truth clothing. Then there are the truths that show themselves only under ideal circumstances: like when you are talking deep into the night with a friend and you tell each other things you would never say if your defenses weren't broken down by salty snacks, sugary beverages, darkness, and a flood of words. There are the truths found in books or films when some writer puts exactly the right words together and it's like their pen turned sword and pierced you right through the heart. Truths like those are rare and getting rarer.
”
”
Susan Juby (The Truth Commission)
“
Opportunities pop up for everybody all of the time. It's the way that we progress. It's whether or not you're in the right frame of mind or in the right stage of your life or if you're even looking for them [that determines] whether or not you see them. [...] As you take more risks you see opportunities more easily.
[Risks are] never the safe option, but for me the safe option is the worst option. [...] The riskiest life I can think of is letting yourself to be molded into this comfortable, same-as-everybody-else routine. For me, that is risking my whole life.
”
”
Ben Brown
“
You don’t sound too excited about this,” Tucker comments twenty minutes later. He holds the door to the community center open for me.
“And you are?” A yellow sign decorated with balloons greets us. “This process is so hard that I have to learn how to breathe? That’s not normal.”
“You watch any of those YouTube videos?”
“God no. I didn’t want to psych myself out. Did you?”
“A few.”
“And?”
He gives me a thumbs-down. “I don’t recommend them. I’m wondering why we use brass balls to describe someone who’s really strong, because after the second video, my balls tried to climb inside my body. Plus, my YouTube history is officially fucked.”
“Ha. Exactly why I didn’t watch any.” I wag a warning finger at him. “Stay by my head during the birth or you’ll never want to have sex with me again.
”
”
Elle Kennedy (The Goal (Off-Campus, #4))
“
Since my earliest memory, I imagined I would be a chef one day. When other kids were watching Saturday morning cartoons or music videos on YouTube, I was watching Iron Chef,The Great British Baking Show, and old Anthony Bourdain shows and taking notes. Like, actual notes in the Notes app on my phone. I have long lists of ideas for recipes that I can modify or make my own. This self-appointed class is the only one I've ever studied well for.
I started playing around with the staples of the house: rice, beans, plantains, and chicken. But 'Buela let me expand to the different things I saw on TV. Soufflés, shepherd's pie, gizzards. When other kids were saving up their lunch money to buy the latest Jordans, I was saving up mine so I could buy the best ingredients. Fish we'd never heard of that I had to get from a special market down by Penn's Landing. Sausages that I watched Italian abuelitas in South Philly make by hand. I even saved up a whole month's worth of allowance when I was in seventh grade so I could make 'Buela a special birthday dinner of filet mignon.
”
”
Elizabeth Acevedo (With the Fire on High)
“
You will encounter resentful, sneering non-readers who will look at you from their beery, leery eyes, as they might some form of sub-hominid anomaly, bookimus maximus. You will encounter redditters, youtubers, blogspotters, wordpressers, twitterers, and facebookers with wired-open eyes who will shout at from you from their crazy hectoring mouths about the liberal poison of literature. You will encounter the gamers with their twitching fingers who will look upon you as a character to lock crosshairs on and blow to smithereens. You will encounter the stoners and pill-poppers who will ignore you, and ask you if you have read Jack Keroauc’s On the Road, and if you haven’t, will lecture you for two hours on that novel and refuse to acknowledge any other books written by anyone ever. You will encounter the provincial retirees, who have spent a year reading War & Peace, who strike the attitude that completing that novel is a greater achievement than the thousands of books you have read, even though they lost themselves constantly throughout the book and hated the whole experience. You will encounter the self-obsessed students whose radical interpretations of Agnes Grey and The Idiot are the most important utterance anyone anywhere has ever made with their mouths, while ignoring the thousands of novels you have read. You will encounter the parents and siblings who take every literary reference you make back to the several books they enjoyed reading as a child, and then redirect the conversation to what TV shows they have been watching. You will encounter the teachers and lecturers, for whom any text not on their syllabus is a waste of time, and look upon you as a wayward student in need of their salvation. You will encounter the travellers and backpackers who will take pity on you for wasting your life, then tell you about the Paulo Coelho they read while hostelling across Europe en route to their spiritual pilgrimage to New Delhi. You will encounter the hard-working moaners who will tell you they are too busy working for a living to sit and read all day, and when they come home from a hard day’s toil, they don’t want to sit and read pretentious rubbish. You will encounter the voracious readers who loathe competition, and who will challenge you to a literary duel, rather than engage you in friendly conversation about your latest reading. You will encounter the slack intellectuals who will immediately ask you if you have read Finnegans Wake, and when you say you have, will ask if you if you understood every line, and when you say of course not, will make some point that generally alludes to you being a halfwit. Fuck those fuckers.
”
”
M.J. Nicholls (The 1002nd Book to Read Before You Die)
“
But Charlie and I have a very special relationship and I wanted to let her know I was home. Don't worry, I'm not one of those crazy cat ladies. I just like my favorite cat to know I'm home so we can talk, have dinner together, and watch Hoarders.
I assumed she was in our master bathroom because that's where the cats like to hang out when we're not home. They record most of their "cute kitty with loofah" YouTube videos in there.
Now, in order to let her know I was home I could have walked to the bathroom or yelled for her, which is what I usually do. But for some reason in that day I did something else. We have an intercom where I can push a button and talk to someone in another room. Sometimes it's fun to use when we have company. I'll get on it from a different part of the house and whisper stuff like, "Is there anything you ever really wanted to tell God? I'm listening." Oh, we have fun.
Anyway, I got on the intercom and I said, "Charlie, I'm home! Charlie!" and I hung up and I waited for Charlie to come running. I didn't think anything of it until I looked over and Portia was staring at me.
She said, "Did you just intercom the cat?"
And I looked at her and I had no choice but to say, "Yes. I did just intercom the cat."
In my defense, I was very tired and if I wanted to walk all the way to the bathroom to find Charlie I would have had to get on my Segway, ride it to the escalator, take the escalator to the third floor, cross the champagne fountain, get my retina scanned, and deactivate dozens of laser beams.
Okay, that isn't true. I would have had to walk down the hall.
”
”
Ellen DeGeneres (Seriously... I'm Kidding)
“
In language that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, a young Moroccan named Brother Rachid last year called out President Obama on YouTube for claiming that Islamic State was “not Islamic”: Mr President, I must tell you that you are wrong about ISIL. You said ISIL speaks for no religion. I am a former Muslim. My dad is an imam. I have spent more than 20 years studying Islam. . . . I can tell you with confidence that ISIL speaks for Islam. . . . ISIL’s 10,000 members are all Muslims. . . . They come from different countries and have one common denominator: Islam. They are following Islam’s Prophet Muhammad in every detail. . . . They have called for a caliphate, which is a central doctrine in Sunni Islam. I ask you, Mr. President, to stop being politically correct—to call things by their names. ISIL, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab in Somalia, the Taliban, and their sister brand names, are all made in Islam. Unless the Muslim world deals with Islam and separates religion from state, we will never end this cycle. . . . If Islam is not the problem, then why is it there are millions of Christians in the Middle East and yet none of them has ever blown up himself to become a martyr, even though they live under the same economic and political circumstances and even worse? . . . Mr. President, if you really want to fight terrorism, then fight it at the roots. How many Saudi sheikhs are preaching hatred? How many Islamic channels are indoctrinating people and teaching them violence from the Quran and the hadith? . . . How many Islamic schools are producing generations of teachers and students who believe in jihad and martyrdom and fighting the infidels?1
”
”
Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now)
“
The work I do is not exactly respectable. But I want to explain how it works without any of the negatives associated with my infamous clients. I’ll show how I manipulated the media for a good cause. A friend of mine recently used some of my advice on trading up the chain for the benefit of the charity he runs. This friend needed to raise money to cover the costs of a community art project, and chose to do it through Kickstarter, the crowdsourced fund-raising platform. With just a few days’ work, he turned an obscure cause into a popular Internet meme and raised nearly ten thousand dollars to expand the charity internationally. Following my instructions, he made a YouTube video for the Kickstarter page showing off his charity’s work. Not a video of the charity’s best work, or even its most important work, but the work that exaggerated certain elements aimed at helping the video spread. (In this case, two or three examples in exotic locations that actually had the least amount of community benefit.) Next, he wrote a short article for a small local blog in Brooklyn and embedded the video. This site was chosen because its stories were often used or picked up by the New York section of the Huffington Post. As expected, the Huffington Post did bite, and ultimately featured the story as local news in both New York City and Los Angeles. Following my advice, he sent an e-mail from a fake address with these links to a reporter at CBS in Los Angeles, who then did a television piece on it—using mostly clips from my friend’s heavily edited video. In anticipation of all of this he’d been active on a channel of the social news site Reddit (where users vote on stories and topics they like) during the weeks leading up to his campaign launch in order to build up some connections on the site. When the CBS News piece came out and the video was up, he was ready to post it all on Reddit. It made the front page almost immediately. This score on Reddit (now bolstered by other press as well) put the story on the radar of what I call the major “cool stuff” blogs—sites like BoingBoing, Laughing Squid, FFFFOUND!, and others—since they get post ideas from Reddit. From this final burst of coverage, money began pouring in, as did volunteers, recognition, and new ideas. With no advertising budget, no publicist, and no experience, his little video did nearly a half million views, and funded his project for the next two years. It went from nothing to something. This may have all been for charity, but it still raises a critical question: What exactly happened? How was it so easy for him to manipulate the media, even for a good cause? He turned one exaggerated amateur video into a news story that was written about independently by dozens of outlets in dozens of markets and did millions of media impressions. It even registered nationally. He had created and then manipulated this attention entirely by himself.
”
”
Ryan Holiday (Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator)
“
I know this may be a disappointment for some of you, but I don’t believe there is only one right person for you. I think I fell in love with my wife, Harriet, from the first moment I saw her. Nevertheless, had she decided to marry someone else, I believe I would have met and fallen in love with someone else. I am eternally grateful that this didn’t happen, but I don’t believe she was my one chance at happiness in this life, nor was I hers.
Another error you might easily make in dating is expecting to find perfection in the person you are with. The truth is, the only perfect people you might know are those you don’t know very well. Everyone has imperfections. Now, I’m not suggesting you lower your standards and marry someone with whom you can’t be happy. But one of the things I’ve realized as I’ve matured in life is that if someone is willing to accept me—imperfect as I am—then I should be willing to be patient with others’ imperfections as well. Since you won’t find perfection in your partner, and your partner won’t find it in you, your only chance at perfection is in creating perfection together.
There are those who do not marry because they feel a lack of “magic” in the relationship. By “magic” I assume they mean sparks of attraction. Falling in love is a wonderful feeling, and I would never counsel you to marry someone you do not love. Nevertheless—and here is another thing that is sometimes hard to accept—that magic sparkle needs continuous polishing. When the magic endures in a relationship, it’s because the couple made it happen, not because it mystically appeared due to some cosmic force.
Frankly, it takes work. For any relationship to survive, both parties bring their own magic with them and use that to sustain their love. Although I have said that I do not believe in a one-and-only soul mate for anyone, I do know this: once you commit to being married, your spouse becomes your soul mate, and it is your duty and responsibility to work every day to keep it that way. Once you have committed, the search for a soul mate is over. Our thoughts and actions turn from looking to creating. . . .
Now, sisters, be gentle. It’s all right if you turn down requests for dates or proposals for marriage. But please do it gently. And brethren, please start asking! There are too many of our young women who never go on dates. Don’t suppose that certain girls would never go out with you. Sometimes they are wondering why no one asks them out. Just ask, and be prepared to move on if the answer is no.
One of the trends we see in some parts of the world is our young people only “hanging out” in large groups rather than dating. While there is nothing wrong with getting together often with others your own age, I don’t know if you can really get to know individuals when you’re always in a group. One of the things you need to learn is how to have a conversation with a member of the opposite sex. A great way to learn this is by being alone with someone—talking without a net, so to speak.
Dates don’t have to be—and in most cases shouldn’t be—expensive and over-planned affairs. When my wife and I moved from Germany to Salt Lake City, one of the things that most surprised us was the elaborate and sometimes stressful process young people had developed of asking for and accepting dates.
Relax. Find simple ways to be together. One of my favorite things to do when I was young and looking for a date was to walk a young lady home after a Church meeting. Remember, your goal should not be to have a video of your date get a million views on YouTube. The goal is to get to know one individual person and learn how to develop a meaningful relationship with the opposite sex.
”
”
Dieter F. Uchtdorf
“
www youtube com/watch?v=wRHxEj1HGHM
I want you to know
one thing.
You know how this is:
if I look, at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.
Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.
If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.
If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.
But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.
”
”
Pablo Neruda (If You Forget Me)