::: November 2023 Collected Quotes :::

::: November 2023 Collected Quotes :::

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"Your life is a story. Write the one you want to read."

- A. D. Posey

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"I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means."

- Joan Didion

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"I almost always tell people to write in the first person... Writing is an act of ego, and you might as well admit it."

- William Zinsser

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"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside of you."

- Maya Angelou

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"Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don't see any."

- Orson Scott Card

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"It is good to obey the rules when you're young so you'll have the strength to reak them when you're old."

- Mark Twain

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"The only true voyage of discovery … would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes."

— Marcel Proust

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“There is no greater pain than to remember a happy time when one is in misery.”

— Dante Alighieri

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"Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it."

— Martin Luther King Jr.

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"Nine-tenths of the ills from which intelligent people suffer spring from their intellect."

— Marcel Proust

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"I realized that the essential book, the one true book, is one that the great writer does not need to invent, in the current sense of the word, since it already exists in every one of us — he has only to translate it. The task and the duty of a writer are those of a translator."

— Marcel Proust

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"The impression is for the writer what experiment is for the scientist, with the difference that in the scientist the work of intelligence precedes the experiment and in the writer it comes after the impression."

— Marcel Proust

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"We feel in one world, we think and name in another. Between the two we can set up a system of references, but we cannot fill the gap."

— Marcel Proust

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"The best way to make a dream come true is to wake up."

— Dame Anna Wintour

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"No single, individual moment is in and of itself unendurable."

— David Foster Wallace

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"I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship."

— Louisa May Alcott

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"Sometimes in this life, under the stress of an exceptional emotion, people do say what they think."

— Marcel Proust

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"Love is space and time rendered perceptible by the heart."

— Marcel Proust

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"The creation of the world did not occur at the beginning of time, it occurs every day."

— Marcel Proust

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"Why can’t I try on different lives, like dresses, to see which fits best and is most becoming?"

- Sylvia Plath

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"Nothing stinks like a pile of unpublished writing."

- Sylvia Plath

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"The abstract kills, the concrete saves."

- Sylvia Plath

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"I love people. Everybody. I love them, I think, as a stamp collector loves his collection. Every story, every incident, every bit of conversation is raw material for me."

- Sylvia Plath"

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"Remember, remember, this is now, and now, and now. Live it, feel it, cling to it. I want to become acutely aware of all I’ve taken for granted."

- Sylvia Plath

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"Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it."

- Nelson Mandela

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"Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging."

- Joseph Campbell

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"There is no such thing as a little freedom. Either you are all free, or you are not free."

- Walter Cronkite

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"Take your job seriously, but don't take yourself too seriously."

- Alex Trebek

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"My life should be a textbook case study on how you turn pain into power."

— Cherelle Parker

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“It’s really hard to sing ‘Chevy truck’ and just like, not sing it country."

- Maggie Rogers

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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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"Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor."

- Thích Nhất Hạnh

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"Don’t believe every worried thought you have. Worried thoughts are notoriously inaccurate."

- Renee Jain

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"If you can't fly, run; if you can't run, walk; if you can't walk, crawl; but by all means keep moving."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

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"There must be quite a few things a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them."

- Sylvia Plath

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"The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward."

- Steve Maraboli

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"To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds."

- Gerald G. Jampolsky

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"You can’t go back and make a new start, but you can start right now and make a brand new ending."

- James R. Sherman

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"You have two choices: to control your mind or to let your mind control you."

- Paulo Coelho

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"This will remain the land of the free so long as it is the home of the brave."

- Elmer Davis

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"Ruins, for me, are the beginning. With the debris, you can construct new ideas."

- Anselm Kiefer

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“The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.”

— Aldous Huxley

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"I don't wanna live forever, but I don't wanna die tonight."

- Lucy Dacus

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"I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people."

- Rosa Parks

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"Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way."

- Booker T. Washington

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"A step backward, after making a wrong turn, is a step in the right direction."

- Kurt Vonnegut

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"Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties."

- Doug Larson

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"Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment."

- Robert Benchley

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"I have a theory that the truth is never told across a desk. Or during the nine-to-five hours."

- Hunter S. Thompson

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"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."

- Douglas Adams

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“The only thing you can do in this life is pursue your passions, celebrate your bloopers, and never stop following your fear.”

- Grace Helbig

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"I was wise enough to never grow up while fooling most people into believing I had."

- Margaret Mead

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"People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"Don't wait for the Last Judgment. It takes place every day."

— Albert Camus

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“There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.”

— Jane Austen

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"Your voice dries up if you don't use it."

– Patti Page

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"Accepting oneself does not preclude an attempt to become better."

— Flannery O'Connor

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“Sometimes, carrying on, just carrying on, is the superhuman achievement.”

— Albert Camus

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“The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding.”

— Albert Camus

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"Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality."

— Carl Sagan

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"To be great is to be misunderstood"

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"I restore myself when I'm alone. A career is born in public — talent in privacy."

— Marilyn Monroe

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"I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love."

— Marilyn Monroe

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“To become god is merely to be free on this earth, not to serve an immortal being.”

— Albert Camus

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“Only during hard times do people come to understand how difficult it is to be master of their feelings and thoughts.”

— Anton Chekhov

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“Having experienced both, I am not sure which is worse: intense feeling, or the absence of it.”

— Margaret Atwood

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“I challenge you to choose freedom over fear.”

— Janelle Monae

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“No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.”

— Virginia Woolf

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"In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion."

– Carl Sagan

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"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere."

— Carl Sagan

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“Keep reaching. Keep seeking. Keep using your abilities to bring out the best in those around you, and let them bring out the best in you.”

- Bill Nye

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"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"It is criminal to steal a purse, daring to steal a fortune, a mark of greatness to steal a crown. The blame diminishes as the guilt increases."

— Johan Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

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"One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water."

— Annie Dillard

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"Luxury has never appealed to me, I like simple things, books, being alone, or with somebody who understands.”

— Daphne du Maurier

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"I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“If one truly loves nature one finds beauty everywhere.”

- Vincent Van Gogh

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"The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences."

— Robert Louis Stevenson

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“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

— George Bernard Shaw

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"A great man is always willing to be little."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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"Knowledge is the antidote to fear."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"You must love in such a way that the person you love feels free."

— Thích Nhất Hạnh

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"He who, when called upon to speak a disagreeable truth, tells it boldly and has done, is both bolder and milder than he who nibbles in a low voice and never ceases nibbling."

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

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"I have learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances."

- Martha Washington

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"Woman’s mind is as strong as man’s — equal in all things and his superior in some."

- Lucy Hayes

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"We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time meeting each thing as it comes up, seeing it as not as dreadful as it appears, discovering that we have the strength to stare it down."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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"You never know what you can do until you have to do it."

- Proverb

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"You may not always have a comfortable life. And you will not always be able to solve all the world’s problems all at once. But don’t ever underestimate the impact you can have, because history has shown us that courage can be contagious, and hope can take on a life of its own."

- Michelle Obama

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"Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart.”

- Robin Wall Kimmerer

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"It has always seemed to me that the test of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised."

— Chinua Achebe

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"The first sentence can't be written until the final sentence is written."

- Joyce Carol Oates

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"It is the mind that makes the body."

- Sojourner Truth

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"I know very little about anything, but what I do know is that if you can live your life without an audience, you should do it."

- Bo Burnham

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"The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day."

- David Foster Wallace

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"People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”

— Mark Twain

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“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

— Rumi

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"Without a rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"When friendships are real, they are not glass threads or frostwork, but the solidest things we can know."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"The secret in education lies in respecting the student."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”

— Abraham Maslow

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“Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts, perhaps fear of a loss of power.”

— John Steinbeck

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"Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your mind."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"Good men must not obey the laws too well."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“To rush into explanations is always a sign of weakness.”

— Agatha Christie

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"Optimism is a perfectly legitimate response to failure."

— Stephen King

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"Something in me wants more. I can't rest."

— Sylvia Plath

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"Science does not know its debt to imagination."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."

— Marcel Proust

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"If more people were more thankful for what they have, instead of mournful for what they have not, much good would come to the world. Pessimism feeds on itself. So does optimism."

— Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy

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"Gratitude is a divine emotion; it fills the heart, but not to bursting; it warms it, but not to fever."

— Charlotte Brontë

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"A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude."

– Elie Wiesel

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"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder."

– G.K. Chesterton

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"Here’s the gift of gratitude: In order to feel it, your ego has to take a backseat. What shows up in its place is greater compassion and understanding. Instead of being frustrated, you choose appreciation. And the more grateful you become, the more you have to be grateful for."

— Oprah

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"We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe. And for that, I am extremely grateful."

— Stephen Hawking

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“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for?”

— Franz Kafka

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"A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning."

- Billie Jean King

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"The friendship of writers is the history of literature."

- Donald Hall

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"You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on Earth."

- Louise Erdrich

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“I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others."

- Cicero

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"Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."

- Melody Beattie

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"Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer."

- Maya Angelou

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"Nine-tenths of wisdom is appreciation. Go find somebody's hand and squeeze it, while there's time."

- Dale Dauten

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"It takes no money to respect the individual."

- Harvey Milk

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"What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?"

— George Eliot

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"The years teach much which the days never know."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"People rarely win wars; governments rarely lose them."

— Arundhati Roy

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"The good news is that the moment you decide that what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"The secret in education lies in respecting the student."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."

— William James

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"The world has to change to fit you. And if you stick to your principles, values, and morals long enough, it will."

- Berry Gordy

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"All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there. And a related thought: Early on, write your desired obituary – and then behave accordingly."

- Charlie Munger

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"Patience can be learned. Having a long attention span and the ability to concentrate on one thing for a long time is a huge advantage."

- Charlie Munger

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"You can learn a lot from dead people. Read of the deceased you admire and detest."

- Charlie Munger

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"Don’t bail away in a sinking boat if you can swim to one that is seaworthy."

- Charlie Munger

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"Don’t count on getting rich twice."

- Charlie Munger

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"Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it. Ignorance may deride it. Malice may distort it. But there it is."

- Winston Churchill

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"Although the connections are not always obvious, personal change is inseparable from social and political change."

- Harriet Lerner

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