I should not talk so much about myself if there was anybody else whom I knew so well.
~ H. D. Thoreau
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Inspirational Quotes book (reviewed)
Separation
[O]ne of the most fundamental struggles for any leader—in business, in organizations, or in public life—stems directly from the separation that most of us feel between who we are as people and what we do as practical professionals.
~ William Isaacs
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Precious
What is this little, agile, precious fire, this fluttering motion which we call the mind?
~ Prior
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Strangeness
This planet is genuinely strange. If we were all flown to the moon or to Mars and walked around on them, they wouldn’t seem that strange to us because there would be no yardsticks or anything to measure their strangeness by—they’re just vast museums of geology. Whereas the Earth is a deranged zoo, and somebody left the doors of the cages open. We have real strangeness because we can measure the degree to which things are or are not what they ought to be.
~ J. G. Ballard
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Giving
The impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.
~ Annie Dillard
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Confidence
The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.
~ Robert Hughes
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Perspective
The mind grows narrow in proportion as the soul grows corrupt.
~ Rousseau
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Wisdom
I’ve come to believe that wise people don’t tell us what to do; They start by witnessing our story. They take the anecdotes, rationalizations, and episodes we tell, and see us in a noble struggle. They see the way we’re navigating the dialectics of life—intimacy versus independence, control versus uncertainty—and understand that our current self is just where we are right now, part of a long continuum of growth.
~ David Brooks
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Listening
When people realize they’re being listened to, they tell you things.
~ Richard Ford
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Virtue
Beauty vanishes; Virtue is lasting.
~ Goethe
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Creativity
The truth is that one day you hate yourself, and the next day you can’t wait to use your gifts.
~ Adam J. Kurtz
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The mind
The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.
~ Milton
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Discovery
Part of the act of creating is in discovering your own kind. They are everywhere. But don’t look for them in the wrong places.
~ Henry Miller
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Patience
Be patient. You’ll know when it’s time for you to wake up and move ahead.
~ Ram Dass
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Books
Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labeled ‘This could change your life.’
~ Helen Exley
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Journaling
I find that whatever hindrances occur I write just about the same amount of truth in my journal; For the record is more concentrated, and usually it is so very real and earnest life, after all, that interrupts. All flourishes are omitted.
~ H. D. Thoreau
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Possibility
I have rarely sat down at my desk with something to say, other than I am ready. The sitting comes first, turning up with a certain alertness to possibility. Only then does the idea feel free to settle. It settles small and very tentatively, then, through your active attention, it can grow into something much bigger. Sitting in a readied state can sometimes last a long and anxious time. But you must not despair! I have never found a situation where the idea refuses to come to the prepared mind.
~ Nick Cave
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Dedication
I ain’t going to give up. Every time you think I’m one place, I’m going to show up someplace else. I come pre-hated. Take your best shot.
~ Cyndi Lauper
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Minds
A mind once cultivated will not lie fallow for half an hour.
~ Bulwer-Lyton
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Projection
What you meet in another being is the projection of your own level of evolution.
~ Ram Dass
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