A Selection of Quotes & Aphorisms

~ A Selection of Quotes & Aphorisms ~

A brief introduction.

I have been collecting interesting quotes I recently came across… Then, I decided to look back on the quotes/aphorisms that I’ve shared on social media (Twitter). These are a selection of what I’ve shared over just the past 2 months (& some newbies). I knew I was posting these fairly often…but perhaps not quite so often.

::: Quotes / Aphorisms :::

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“I believe that telling our stories, first to ourselves and then to one another and the world, is a revolutionary act. It is an act that can be met with hostility, exclusion, and violence. It can also lead to love, understanding, transcendence, and community.”

- Janet Mock

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“Sorrow eats time. Be patient. Time eats sorrow.”

- Louise Erdrich

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“Remember you are this universe and this universe is you.”

- Joy Harjo

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"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."

- Helen Keller

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“Hope will never be silent.”

- Harvey Milk

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“I do not think the measure of a civilization is how tall its buildings of concrete are, but rather how well its people have learned to relate to their environment and fellow man.”

- Sun Bear

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"Use your own unique perspective and try to contribute and not just consume.”

- Nicholas Galanin

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“If you can't do what you long to do, go do something else… You might think it's procrastination, but — with the right intention — it isn't; it's motion. And any motion whatsoever beats inertia, because inspiration will always be drawn to motion.”

- Elizabeth Gilbert

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“Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.”

- Elie Wiesel

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“I think that you find your own way… In the end, it’s what feels right to you… Not what anybody else told you but the still, small voice.”

- Meryl Streep

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“Very often you are in the right place, at the right time, but you don't know it.”

- Maria Tallchief

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“The first step toward transforming your life into art is to start paying more attention to it.”

- Austin Kleon

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“Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.”

- Rita Mae Brown

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“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.”

- Kurt Vonnegut          

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“If you hear a voice within you saying, “You are not a painter,” then by all means paint, boy, and that voice will be silenced, but only by working.”

- Vincent van Gogh

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“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.”

- Oscar Wilde

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“The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision.”

- Maimonides

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“We must travel in the direction of our fear.”

- John Berryman

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“A friend is, as it were, a second self.”

- Cicero

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“You still have a lot of time to make yourself be what you want. There’s still lots of good in the world.”

- S.E. Hinton

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“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

- Lewis Carroll (Through the Looking-Glass)

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“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

- Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Grey)

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“Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.”

- André Gide

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“You can’t depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus.”

- Mark Twain

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“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

- Will Durant

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“Turn off your logical brain that says 1 + 1 = 2. Open up your mind to the possibility that 1 + 1 can equal 48, a Mercedes-Benz, an apple pie, a blue horse.”

- Natalie Goldberg

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“You often meet your fate on the road you take to avoid it.”

- Goldie Hawn

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“What people in the world think of you is really none of your business.”

- Martha Graham

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“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not making decisions.”

- Catherine Cook

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“Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.”

- Buddhist proverb

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“We do not heal the past by dwelling there; we heal the past by living fully in the present.”

- Marianne Williamson

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“Maybe life isn’t about avoiding the bruises. Maybe it’s about collecting the scars to prove that we showed up for it.”

- Hannah Brencher

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“Nature never said to me: Do not be poor. Still less did she say: Be rich. Her cry to me was always: Be independent.”

 -Nicolas de Chamfort

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"The time to prepare for your next expedition is when you have just returned from a successful trip."

- Robert Peary

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“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.

- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry”

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"The highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them." – JFK

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"War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." – JFK

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“The man with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.” - Mark Twain

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"A lot of good things don't get made because of too much thinking." – Agnes Martin

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“Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the action. You don’t have to wait to be confident.”   - Carrie Fisher

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“Happiness is not a goal, it’s a by-product.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

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"Young girls need to see role models in whatever careers they may choose, just so they can picture themselves doing those jobs someday. You can’t be what you can’t see." - Sally Ride

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"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” - Wayne Dyer

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"It is the people who scream the loudest about America and Freedom who seem to be the most intolerant for a differing point of view." - Rosanne Cash

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"A problem is a chance for you to do your best." - Duke Ellington

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"I am all the things I have ever loved." - Toni Morrison

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“You can’t see the future coming — not the terrors, for sure, but you also can’t see the wonders that are coming, the moments of light-soaked joy that await each of us.” - John Green

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“Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”   - Brené Brown

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"Success is attaining your dream while helping others to benefit from that dream materializing." - Sugar Ray Leonard

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"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." - Søren Kierkegaard

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"Laughter helps you put everything into perspective." - Jim Henson

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“If we can love one another, we can break open the sky.” - Walter Mosley

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"The quality of our relationships determines the quality of our lives."

 - Esther Perel

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"It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it." - Lena Horne

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"Someone I loved once / gave me a box full of darkness. / It took me years to understand that / this, too, was a gift." - Mary Oliver

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"Grief is in two parts. The first is loss. The second is the remaking of life." - Anne Roiphe

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"I believe that you're here on Earth for a short time, and while you're here, you shouldn't forget it." - Bea Arthur

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"If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased." - Katharine Hepburn

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"You can do anything, but not everything." - David Allen

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"Burnout is nature’s way of telling you you’ve been going through the motions but your soul has departed." - Sam Keen

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"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you." - Anne Lamott

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"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." - Nelson Mandela

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"You have to fail in order to practice being brave."

– Mary Tyler Moore

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"There is no remedy for love but to love more." - Henry David Thoreau

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"A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties." - Harry Truman

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"Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes." - Carl Jung

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"No two persons ever read the same book." – Edmund Wilson

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"Whatever creativity is, it is in part a solution to a problem." - Brian Aldiss

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"Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve." - Roger Lewin

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"Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved." - Barbara Johnson

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"If we want to solve a problem that we have never solved before, we must leave the door to the unknown ajar." - Richard Feynman

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"If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them." ~ Isaac Asimov

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"A problem thoroughly understood is always fairly simple. Found your opinions on facts, not prejudices. We know too many things that are not true." - Charles Kettering

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"No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking." – Voltaire

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"If we go for the easy way, we never change." - Marina Abramović

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"The only person with whom you have to compare yourself is you in the past." – Freud

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"I realized up there that our planet is not infinite. It's fragile." - Alan Shepard

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"There are three ingredients to the good life; learning, earning, and yearning." – Christopher Morley

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"You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him." - Audrey Hepburn

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"It shows considerable wisdom to know what you want in life."

– P.D. James

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"It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." — Anne Frank

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"I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again."  – Eric Roth

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“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person." -William Somerset Maugham

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"All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster's autobiography." -Federico Fellini

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" 'Common' dismisses something that we should be paying attention to." - Drew Lanhan, ornithologist (On Being with Krista Tippett)

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"We live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must save from it, all the time, is love." - Tennessee Williams

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"The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members." - Coretta Scott King

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"Follow your heart, your instincts. People might try to dissuade you from your passion, but no one can live your life but you." -  Olympia Dukakis

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"Whatever you want emotionally, you have to start giving away." - Mary Karr

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"The creative process is a process of surrender, not control." — Julia Cameron

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"Life is to be lived, not controlled." — Ralph Ellison

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"The only real battle in life is between hanging on and letting go." — Shannon L. Alder

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"Everything in the world began with a yes."  – Clarice Lispector

who also said, "When I am not writing, I am dead."

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"The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience." - Atticus Finch

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"Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison." ⁃Mary Wollstonecraft

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"You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from."  – Cormac McCarthy

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"In life, all good things come hard, but wisdom is the hardest to come by." - Lucille Ball

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"It isn't where you came from; it's where you're going that counts." - Ella Fitzgerald

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"You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them." — Maya Angelou

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"May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears." — Nelson Mandela

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"Poetry isn't a profession, it's a way of life. It's an empty basket; you put your life into it and make something out of that." - Mary Oliver

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"Passion is what makes life interesting." - Pat Tillman

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"Success is a collection of problems solved." - I. M. Pei

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"When you have the intuition that there is something which is there, but out of the reach of your physical world, art and religion are the only means to get to it." — Guillermo del Toro

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"You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition… What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself." — Alan Alda

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"Women observe subconsciously a thousand little details without knowing that they are doing so. Their subconscious mind adds these little things together — and they call the result intuition." — Agatha Christie

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"Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment; cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment intuition." — Rumi

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"Without music, life would be a mistake." – Nietzsche

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"There are no beautiful surfaces without a terrible depth." – Nietzsche

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"You never teach a subject; you always teach a child." - Dorothy Height

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"If you wake up and the day feels broken, just lean into the crack." – Björk

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"All of us hate ourselves on some level. That’s not weird, just so you know." – James Acaster

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"The best stories in the world to me are the ones that elicit a real emotion, but have humor." – Jim Carrey

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"Do your thing and don't care if they like it." – Tina Fey

vs.

"Go ahead, switch the style up... if they hate, let 'em hate, and watch the money pile up" – 50 cent (slightly altered)

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"I’ve never really thought of myself as depressed so much as paralyzed by hope." – Maria Bamford

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"Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist." – George Carlin

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"There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself." – Hannah Gadsby (Nanette)

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"The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man." - Charles Darwin

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"Many who have spent a lifetime in it can tell us less of love than the child that lost a dog yesterday." – Thornton Wilder

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"There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still." – FDR

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"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."

- Kurt Vonnegut

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"But also I say this: that light / is an invitation / to happiness, / and that happiness, / when it’s done right, / is a kind of holiness, / palpable and redemptive." — Mary Oliver

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"Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what's more than enough." - Billie Holiday

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"You've got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body's sermon on how to behave." -Billie Holiday

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"Not all speed is movement." - Toni Cade Bambara

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"Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance." – Verna Myers

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"A genius is the one most like himself." -Thelonious Monk

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"Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else." - Maya Angelou

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"If you cannot find peace within yourself, you will never find it anywhere else." - Marvin Gaye

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"Find the good. It's all around you. Find it, showcase it, and you'll start believing in it." - Jesse Owens

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“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

- Andy Warhol

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“Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too. If she doesn’t show up invited, eventually she just shows up.”

- Isabel Allende

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“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

- Sylvia Plath

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“There is no “right” way to make art. The only wrong is in not trying, not doing. Don’t put barriers up that aren’t there — just get to work and make something.”

- Lisa Golightly

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“All profound distraction opens certain doors. You have to allow yourself to be distracted when you are unable to concentrate.”

- Julio Cortázar

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“Creativity doesn’t wait for that perfect moment. It fashions its own perfect moments out of ordinary ones.”

- Bruce Garrabrandt

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“Adults are always asking kids what they want to be when they grow up because they are looking for ideas.”

- Paula Poundstone

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