January 2023 Collected Quotes
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"Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right."
- Isaac Asimov
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“Real loneliness is not necessarily limited to when you are alone.”
— Charles Bukowski
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"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind."
- Rudyard Kipling
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"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected."
- Steve Jobs
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"Pain nourishes courage. You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you."
- Mary Tyler Moore
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"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
- TS Eliot
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"Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work."
- Stephen King
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"Success isn’t about how much money you make; it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives."
- Michelle Obama
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"Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."
- Robert Louis Stevenson
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"Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."
- Martin Luther King Jr.
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"It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials."
- Bruce Lee
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"Dreams are lovely but they are just dreams. Fleeting, ephemeral, pretty. But dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It’s hard work that makes things happen. It’s hard work that creates change."
- Shonda Rhimes
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"Do not whine … do not complain. Work harder. Spend more time alone."
- Joan Didion
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"When someone tells me “no,” it doesn’t mean I can’t do it, it simply means I can’t do it with them."
- Karen E. Quinones Miller
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"Never allow a person to say no who doesn’t have the power to say yes."
- Eleanor Roosevelt
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"You don’t have to let that one thing be the thing that defines you."
- Jojo Moyes
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"Closure isn’t closure until someone’s ready to close the door."
- Jonathan Maberry
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"I truly believe that closure doesn’t need to come from the other person. You can always get closure from yourself. Sometimes you’re required to do that."
- Nick Viall
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“My superpower is that I mind my own business.”
- Hanif Abdurraqib
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"My Goldilocks theory of creativity: how there’s a sweet spot when life is just annoying enough that writing is a nice alternative."
- Austin Kleon
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"Pay attention. It's all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager."
- Susan Sontag
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"I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship."
- Brené Brown
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"People leave traces of themselves where they feel most comfortable, most worthwhile."
- Haruki Murakami
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"There's a marked difference between acquaintances and friends. Most people really don't become friends. They become deep and serious acquaintances. But in a friendship you get to know the spirit of another person; and your values coincide."
- Maya Angelou
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"I believe the greatest gift I can conceive of having from anyone is to be seen, heard, understood and touched by them. The greatest gift I can give is to see, hear, understand and touch another person. When this is done, I feel contact has been made."
- Virginia Satir
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"Know the ways of the ones who take care of you, so that you may take care of them."
- Robin Wall Kimmerer
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"Anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you."
- Misty Copeland
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"One friend with whom you have a lot in common is better than three with whom you struggle to find things to talk about."
- Mindy Kaling
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The world of knowledge takes a crazy turn
When teachers themselves are taught to learn.
— Bertolt Brecht
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Here’s a good rule of thumb:
Too clever is dumb.
— Ogden Nash
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"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."
- Gandhi
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"Glory lies in the attempt to reach one’s goal and not in reaching it."
- Gandhi
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"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
- Gandhi
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"An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind."
- Gandhi
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"If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children."
- Gandhi
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"It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err."
- Gandhi
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"A “No” uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a “Yes” merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble."
- Gandhi
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"It is beneath human dignity to lose one’s individuality and become a mere cog in the machine."
- Gandhi
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"Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning."
- Gandhi
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"Mutual courtesy and respect is the foundation of culture."
- Gandhi
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"Action is the antidote to despair."
- Joan Baez
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"One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation, and compassion."
- Simone de Beauvoir
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"The whole language of writing for me is finding out what you don't want to know, what you don't want to find out. But something forces you to anyway."
- James Baldwin
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"Heroes always have their scars. Some you can see, some you read about later on."
- George Foreman
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"People's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive."
- Haruki Murakami
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"Historians do something different than journalists. We study how and why societies change. We are trained to see larger patterns in the facts we find in documents, speeches, letters, and photographs…and in the work of journalists. Some historians believe that mass movements change society, and so they focus on such movements; others believe that great figures change society, and they focus on biographies. Still others focus on economic change. And so on.
In my case, I am fascinated by the way ideas change society, and I am especially interested in the gap between what people believe and what is actually happening in the real world. That interest means that I always want to know how people think and especially how their worldview informs the way they act. Then I compare that worldview to the real-world policies they are putting into place. I sometimes think of what I study as the place where the rubber of ideas meets the road of the real world."
- Heather Cox Richardson, January 12, 2024
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“Envy those who see beauty in everything in the world.”
- Egon Schiele
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We never know the whole man, though sometimes, in quick flashes, we know the true man."
- Agatha Christie
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"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that."
- Martin Luther King Jr.
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"The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists, who are dedicated to justice, peace, and brotherhood. The trailblazers in human, academic, scientific, and religious freedom have always been nonconformists. In any cause that concerns the progress of mankind, put your faith in the nonconformist!"
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
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"Try to understand men. If you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and almost always leads to love."
- John Steinbeck
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"No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself."
- John Steinbeck
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"And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good."
- John Steinbeck
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"And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about."
- John Steinbeck
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"And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed."
- John Steinbeck
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“The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison.”
— Fyodor Dostoevsky
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"The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
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"For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love."
— Carl Sagan
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"Our preferences do not determine what’s true."
— Carl Sagan
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"Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality"
— Carl Sagan
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"Every kid starts out as a natural-born scientist, and then we beat it out of them. A few trickle through the system with their wonder and enthusiasm for science intact."
— Carl Sagan
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"The Universe is not obliged to conform to what we consider comfortable or plausible"
— Carl Sagan
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"The visions we offer our children shape the future. It matters what those visions are. Often they become self-fulfilling prophecies. Dreams are maps."
— Carl Sagan
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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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"I can’t stand chaos. I hate loud environments. Art makes me cry. Bright lights hurt my eyes. No, I am not a frigid, unsociable, boring buzzkill … I’m a textbook example of a highly sensitive person."
— Anne Marie Crosthwaite
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"I do not understand people who like to make noise; consequently I fear them … It is a vicious emotional cycle."
— Patricia Highsmith
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"If you feel too much, there’s still a place for you here. If you feel too much, don’t go. If this world is too painful, stop and rest. It’s OK to stop and rest. If you need a break, it’s OK to say you need a break."
— Jamie Tworkowski
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“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”
— Edith Wharton
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“The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do.”
- Amelia Earhart
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"We cannot overstate our debt to the past, but the moment has the supreme claim."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Every word has consequences. Every silence, too.”
— Jean-Paul Sartre
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“There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep and still be counted as warriors.”
— Adrienne Rich
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"The sum of wisdom is that time is never lost that is devoted to work."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
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"To study and not think is a waste. To think and not study is dangerous."
— Confucius
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"I am not bothered by the fact that I am not understood. I am bothered when I do not know others."
— Confucius
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"Isn't it a pleasure to study and practice what you have learned?"
— Confucius
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"Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“How many times have people used a pen or paintbrush because they couldn’t pull the trigger?”
— Virginia Woolf
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"Little minds have little worries, big minds have no time for worries."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
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"We are always getting ready to live but never living."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.”
— Viktor Frankl
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“Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you.”
— Walt Whitman
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"Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“I read for pleasure and that is the moment I learn the most.”
— Margaret Atwood
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"You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“The feelings that hurt most, the emotions that sting most, are those that are absurd: the longing for impossible things, precisely because they are impossible; nostalgia for what never was; the desire for what could have been; regret over not being someone else; dissatisfaction with the world's existence.”
— Fernando Pessoa
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“No intelligent idea can gain general acceptance unless some stupidity is mixed in with it.”
— Fernando Pessoa
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“Strictly speaking, we do not make decisions. Decisions make us.”
— José Saramago
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“Often it is the most deserving people who cannot help loving those who destroy them.”
— Hermann Hesse
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“Imagination needs watering and weeding.”
- Lynn Hardy Yeakel
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"Everyone has a belief system, B.S., the trick is to learn not to take anyone's B.S. too seriously, especially your own."
- Robert Anton Wilson
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"Freedom is something that dies unless it's used."
- Hunter S. Thompson
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"If you don't love me, it does not matter, anyway I can love for both of us."
- Stendhal
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“Mistakes are a part of the dues one pays for a full life.”
- Sophia Loren
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"Have no fear of perfection—you'll never reach it."
- Salvador Dalí
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"I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it."
- Maya Angelou
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"The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere."
- Barack Obama
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"The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places."
- Ernest Hemingway
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"Don’t be short-tempered with yourself, and you’ll be a whole lot nicer to be around with everyone else."
- Mary Tyler Moore
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"There's a lot of blood, sweat and guts between dreams and success."
- Paul "Bear" Bryant
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"Trust and the benefit of the doubt are more powerful and resilient than command and control."
- Seth Godin
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"It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then."
- Lewis Carroll
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"We love the things we love for what they are."
- Robert Frost
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"It is my belief that the writer, the free-lance author, should be and must be a critic of the society in which he lives. It is easy enough, and always profitable, to rail away at national enemies beyond the sea, at foreign powers beyond our borders who question the prevailing order. But the moral duty of the free writer is to begin his work at home; to be a critic of his own community, his own country, his own culture. If the writer is unwilling to fill this part, then the writer should abandon pretense and find another line of work: become a shoe repairman, a brain surgeon, a janitor, a cowboy, a nuclear physicist, a bus driver."
- Edward Abbey
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"Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough."
-Franklin D. Roosevelt
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“The fact that astrology nevertheless yields valid results proves that it is not the apparent positions of the stars which work, but rather the times which are measured or determined by arbitrarily named stellar positions. Time thus proves to be a stream of energy filled with qualities and not, as our philosophy would have it, an abstract concept or precondition of knowledge.”
— Carl Jung
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“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.”
— Carl Jung
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“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”
— Carl Jung
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"Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on... you're wasting your life."
- Jackie Robinson
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“Let’s take away from ourselves the pressure of believing we must achieve it all at 30 or 40 or any age, for that matter, or all at once.”
- Arianna Huffington
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“In the nineteenth century the problem was that God is dead; in the twentieth century the problem is that man is dead. In the nineteenth century inhumanity meant cruelty; in the twentieth century it means schizoid self-alienation. The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots.”
— Erich Fromm
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“Man is the only animal who does not feel at home in nature, who can feel evicted from paradise, the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem that he has to solve and from which he cannot escape.”
— Erich Fromm
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“The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.”
— Erich Fromm
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"Whatever it is you're seeking won't come in the form you're expecting.”
— Haruki Murakami
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“As time goes on, you'll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn't, doesn't. Time solves most things. And what time can't solve, you have to solve yourself.”
— Haruki Murakami
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“Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That's part of what it means to be alive.”
— Haruki Murakami
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“Miracles happen all the time. We’re here, aren’t we?”
- Marilyn Nelson
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“I had noticed that both in the very poor and very rich extremes of society the mad were often allowed to mingle freely.”
— Charles Bukowski
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“A wise man will make more opportunities, than he finds.”
— Francis Bacon
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