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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Quotes
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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Reset
Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.
~ Anne Lamott
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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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Success
This week I’ve been reading a lot and doing little work. That’s the way things ought to be. That’s surely the road to success.
~ Anne Frank
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Luck
Above all, recognize that if you have had success, you have also had luck—and with luck comes obligation. You owe a debt, and not just to your gods. You owe a debt to the unlucky.
~ Michael Lewis
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Humility
A man must have a good deal of vanity who believes, and a good deal of boldness who affirms, that all the doctrines he holds are true, and all he rejects are false.
~ Benjamin Franklin
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Curiosity
If we look with curiosity at people who do not share our values, they become interesting rather than threatening. […] Cultivating a questioning mind, of which conversation is the chief instrument, enriches our relationship with the world. Having a conversation with someone I may disagree with is, I have come to find, a great, life embracing pleasure.
~ Nick Cave
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