If you can lighten your burden you must do so. There is no straw which lacks the power to break your back.
~ unknown
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The power to break your back →
All comes out even at the end →
Weak as I am, I carry on the war to the last moment, I get a hundred pike thrusts, I return two hundred and I laugh. I see near my door Geneva on fire with quarrels over nothing, and I laugh again; And, thank god, I can look upon the world as a farce even when it becomes as tragic as it sometimes does. All comes out even at the end of the day, and all comes out still more even when all the days are over.
~ Voltaire
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Thoughtful, committed citizens →
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. It is the only thing that ever has.
~ Margaret Mead
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Let the news come →
And what better use could you make of that time? A day that could be your last — you want to spend it in worry? In what other area could you make some progress while others might be sitting on the edges of their seat, passively awaiting some fate? Let the news come when it does. Be too busy working to care.
~ Ryan Holiday
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Not in the mood →
A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood.
~ E. B. White
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Raw material →
Just as the nature of rational things has given to each person their rational powers, so it also gives us this power – Just as nature turns to its own purpose any obstacle or any opposition, sets its place in the destined order, and co-ops it, so every rational person can convert any obstacle into the raw material for their own purpose.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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The muse →
Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too.
~ Isabel Allende
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True and steadfast judgment →
This can be swiftly taught in very few words: Virtue is the only good; There is no certain good without virtue; And virtue resides in our nobler part, which is the rational one. And what can this virtue be? True and steadfast judgment.
~ Seneca
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Get to work →
Inspiration is for amateurs—the rest of us just show up and get to work.
~ Chuck Close
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Never think you’ve got it all →
Children teach you that you can still be humbled by life, that you learn something new all the time. That’s the secret to life, really – never stop learning. It’s the secret to career. I’m still working because I learn something new all the time. It’s the secret to relationships. Never think you’ve got it all.
~ Clint Eastwood
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