Quotes about yourself
page 2

“You yourself may not be luminous, but you are a conductor of light.”

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish physician and author

“Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.”

George Sand (1804–1876) French novelist and memoirist; pseudonym of Lucile Aurore Dupin

“Be Prepared in Mind by having disciplined yourself to be obedient to every order, and also by having thought out beforehand any accident or situation that might occur, so that you know the right thing to do at the right moment, and are willing to do it.

Be Prepared in Body by making yourself strong and active and able to do the right thing at the right moment, and do it.”

Robert Baden-Powell (1857–1941) lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, founder and Chief Scout of the Scout Movement

Source: Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship

Strong

“Whenever you think or you believe or you know, you're a lot of other people: but the moment you feel, you're nobody-but-yourself.”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

People, Feeling, Thinking

“Hell is yourself and the only redemption is when a person puts himself aside to feel deeply for another person.”

Tennessee Williams (1911–1983) American playwright

Feeling, Hell, Personality

“Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. And it will leave you unfulfilled.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Life

“You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.”

Jonathan Safran Foer (1977) Novelist

Happiness, Sadness, Sad, Happy

“Have faith in God and in yourself; that will cure all. Hope for the best, expect the best, toil for the best and everything will come right for you in the end.”

Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) Indian religious leader

God, Faith, Hope

“Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

Books

“True human capabilities will not find expression in competition. True human capabilities will find expression only in absolute relaxation. Your mind, your body will work best, will find fullest expression, only when you are joyful and peaceful, and quiet within yourself.”

Sadhguru (1957) Yogi, mystic, visionary and humanitarian

Source: Inspire Your Child Inspire the World: In the Presence of the Master

Peace

“The very best thing you can do for the whole world is to make the most of yourself.”

Wallace D. Wattles (1860–1911) American writer

World, Motivational

“Someone else's vision will never be as good as your own vision of your self. Live and die with it 'cause in the end it’s all you have. Lose it and you lose yourself and everything else. I should have listened to myself.”

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986) American artist

“Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

Question

“Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself.”

Miles Davis (1926–1991) American jazz musician

Time

“Stop feeling sorry for yourself and you will be happy.”

Stephen Fry (1957) English comedian, actor, writer, presenter, and activist

Happiness, Feeling, Happy, Depressing

“There is a particular hapiness in giving a man whom you like very much, good food that you have cooked yourself.”

Karen Blixen book Out of Africa

Source: Out of Africa

Food, Cooking

“No matter who you are, no matter what you did, no matter where you've come from, you can always change, become a better version of yourself.”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

Change

“you can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another.”

Ernest Hemingway book The Sun Also Rises

Source: The Sun Also Rises

“Loving life is easy when you are abroad. Where no one knows you and you hold your life in your hands all alone, you are more master of yourself than at any other time”

Hannah Arendt book Rahel Varnhagen

Source: Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewess

Love, Life, Time

“Never do anything yourself that others can do for you.”

Agatha Christie book The Labours of Hercules

Source: The Labours of Hercules

“Judge not, before you judge yourself.
Judge not, if you're not ready for judgment.”

Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician

Song lyrics, Judge Not (single, 1961)

“That becomes the revolution, to be idealistic enough that you think you can change the world, and what you find is you can't change anything but yourself.”

Marilyn Manson (1969) American rock musician and actor

World, Thinking, Change

“If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Love, Valentine's Day

“We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and—in spite of True Romance magazines—we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely—at least, not all the time—but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don't see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

Source: The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967

Happiness, Way, Time, Heart

“You are what you believe yourself to be.”

Paulo Coelho book The Witch of Portobello

Source: The Witch of Portobello (2007), p. 152.
Context: You are what you believe yourself to be.
Don't be like those people who believe in "positive thinking" and tell themselves that they're loved and strong and capable. You don't need to do that because you know it already. And when you doubt it — which happens, I think, quite often at this stage of evolution — do as I suggested. Instead of trying to prove that you're better than you think, just laugh. Laugh at your worries and insecurities. View your anxieties with humor. It will be difficult at first, but you'll gradually get used to it. Now go back and meet all those people who think you know everything. Convince yourself that they're right, because we all know everything, it's merely a question of believing.
Believe.

For women, Deep, Faith, Friendship

“Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.”

Thomas à Kempis book The Imitation of Christ

Book I, ch. 16.
Source: The Imitation of Christ (c. 1418)

“Sometimes it helps to scold yourself, to give yourself advice.”

R.L. Stine book The Haunted Mask II

Source: The Haunted Mask II

Help

“whatever you think that you will be.
if you think yourself weak, weak you will be;
if you think yourself strong, you will be”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Thinking, Strong

“Your calling isn’t something that somebody can tell you about. It’s what you feel. It is the thing that gives you juice. The thing that you are supposed to do. And nobody can tell you what that is. You know it inside yourself.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

Feeling

“Commit yourself to lifelong learning. The most valuable asset you'll ever have is your mind and what you put into it.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Learning

“It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.”

Eleanor Roosevelt My Day

http://books.google.com/books?id=EcKZ8bbMLDMC&q=%22It+is+not+fair+to+ask+of+others+what+you+are+not+willing+to+do+yourself%22&pg=PA64#v=onepage
http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydoc.cfm?_y=1946&_f=md000366
15 June 1946
My Day (1935–1962)

“You're responsible for yourself. You messed up your life, and it's up to you to fix it. No one else is going to do it for you -- for any of you.”

Louis Sachar book Holes

Source: Holes

Life

“Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of your heart; confess to yourself you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.”

Rainer Maria Rilke book Letters to a Young Poet

Letter One (17 February 1903)
Letters to a Young Poet (1934)
Context: No one can advise or help you — no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.

Heart

“When you smoke the herb, it reveals you to yourself.”

Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician

“Get yourself out of whatever cage you find yourself in.”

John Cage (1912–1992) American avant-garde composer

“To know nothing about yourself is to live. To know yourself badly is to think.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

Thinking

“The thing you hate about yourself tends to be the thing that everyone likes about you.”

Nicole Kidman (1967) Australian-American actress and film producer

Hate

“Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.”

M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) American psychiatrist

Source: The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth

Time, Funny, Deep

“Attack the evil that is within yourself, rather than attacking the evil that is in others.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Evil

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can never live long enough to make them all yourself.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

Learning

“When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

A New Earth (2005)
Source: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

“Never complain, never explain. Resist the temptation to defend yourself or make excuses.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Inspirational

“I really like you, Midori. A lot.”
“How much is a lot?”
“Like a spring bear,” I said.
“A spring bear?” Midori looked up again. “What’s that all about? A spring bear.”
“You’re walking through a field all by yourself one day in spring, and this sweet little bear cub with velvet fur and shiny little eyes comes walking along. And he says to you, “Hi, there, little lady. Want to tumble with me?’ So you and the bear cub spend the whole day in each other’s arms, tumbling down this clover-covered hill. Nice, huh?”
“Yeah. Really nice.”
“That’s how much I like you.”

Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood

Source: Norwegian Wood

Spring

“Live for yourself and you will live in vain;
Live for others, and you will live again.”

Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician

“Don't forget love;
it will bring all the madness you need
to unfurl yourself across the universe.”

Meera Bai Hindu mystic poet

Mīrābāī, in ” Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West”, p. 251

Love, Universe, Madness, Forgetting

“Fame does not define me. If you are looking for fame to define you, then you will never be happy and you’ll always be searching for happiness, and you will never find it in fame. Fulfillment comes from within you, by being authentic to yourself — not chasing fame.”

Cameron Diaz (1972) American actress

Human the movie: Cameron's interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-HvL3TSf-8 ( New York Post http://nypost.com/2015/12/17/cameron-diaz-fame-will-never-make-you-happy/)

Happiness, Search

“I think there comes a point where you have to grow up and get over yourself, lighten up…and forgive.”

Jennifer Aniston (1969) television and film actress from the United States

Vogue (2004)

Forgiveness, Thinking

“When you feel restless, sad, sorrowful and embittered, look for the cause, and if it is not worth being sorry about (and nothing that does not offend God is worth being sorry about), get rid of your anxiety; if you do not see the causes but feel restless and dissatisfied all the same, put up with it, arm yourself with patience, let the storm pass, and your inner peace will return.
This union, my sister, demands a heart at peace, calm, unalterable, like some place in heaven, and we can and must acquire it fighting hard whatever threatens if from outside ourselves.”

Francisco Palau (1811–1872) Beatified Spanish Discalced Carmelite friar and priest

Letter to Juana Gratia (1857)

God, Sadness, Peace, Feeling

“Whatever you do, the only secret is to believe in it and satisfy yourself. Don't do it for anyone else.”

Keith Haring (1958–1990) American artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s b…

Letter to Michael http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/01/dont-do-it-for-anyone-else.html

Secret

“Watch people, because you can fake for a long time, but one day you're gonna show yourself to be a phony.”

Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapper and actor

1990s, Prison interviews and interrogations (1995)

People, Time

“If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.”

Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister

Compare sourced quote set forth above: "The English follow the principle that when one lies, it should be a big lie, and one should stick to it." Attributed to Goebbels in Publications Relating to Various Aspects of Communism http://books.google.com/books?id=iLAnAQAAMAAJ&q=%22If+you+repeat+a+lie+often+enough,+people+will+believe+it.%22&dq=%22If+you+repeat+a+lie+often+enough,+people+will+believe+it.%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=U4gPUvObG4qMyQHlhYAw&ved=0CGQQ6AEwCQ (1946), by United States Congress, House Committee on Un-American Activities. No reliable source has been located, and this is probably simply a further variation of the Big Lie idea. Variants: If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth. If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. If you repeat a lie long enough, it becomes truth. If you repeat a lie many times, people are bound to start believing it. Attributed in The Sack of Rome (2006) by Alexander Stille, p. 14, and also attributed in A World Without Walls: Freedom, Development, Free Trade and Global Governance (2003) by Mike Moore, p. 63. Misattributed

People, Lie

“And if you save yourself
You will make him happy.”

Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist

Sappy
Song lyrics, B-sides and compilation tracks (1989-1993)

Happiness

“Satanism encourages its followers to indulge in their natural desires. Only by doing so can you be a completely satisfied person with no frustrations which can be harmful to yourself and others around you. Therefore, the most simplified description of the Satanic belief is: indulgence instead of abstinence.”

Anton LaVey book The Satanic Bible

The Satanic Bible (1969)

Nature, Personality

“Ask yourself what “problem” you have right now, not next year, tomorrow, or five minutes from now. What is wrong with this moment?”

Eckhart Tolle book The Power of Now

The Power of Now (1997)

Problem

“A lot of people, they think, ‘Oh, I’m only going to be happy when I find a special person who is going to make me happy.’ No. In life, you have to be happy with yourself first, number one. When you’re happy with yourself, you have to find another person who is happy with herself so you can share your happiness.”

Fabio Lanzoni (1961) Italian model, actor and author

Fifteen hours with Fabio http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/style/2015/12/23/fabio/?utm_term=.55d4ac289b9c (December 23, 2015)

Life, Happiness, People, Thinking

“I just don't think religion should be a money making organization. There is never a need to send churches or cults money for any reason. If you want to feel good about yourself or make your God happy, give your money directly to a charity or a homeless person. But once again this is my opinion, and I don't want to be in a position of also dictating.”

John Roecker (1966) American film director

An Epic Interview with John Roecker, FilmJerk, www.filmjerk.com, Kristopher, Terrell, August 23, 2003 http://www.filmjerk.com/interviews/article.php?id_int=12,

Money, God, Happiness, Religion

“When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.”

Eckhart Tolle book A New Earth

Source: A New Earth (2005)

World

“Study me as much as you like, you will never know me, for I differ a hundred ways from what you see me to be. Put yourself behind my eyes, and see me as I see myself, for I have chosen to dwell in a place you cannot see.”

Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet

Frequently quoted on social media, but was not written by Rumi in Persian.
Misattributed

Way, Study

“I am inviting you to step forward, to be seen, and to ask yourself if not me, who, if not now when.”

Emma Watson (1990) British actress and model

UN Speech on the HeForShe campaign (2014)
Context: If you believe in equality, you might be one of those inadvertent feminists that I spoke of earlier.
And for this I applaud you.
We are struggling for a uniting word but the good news is that we have a uniting movement. It is called HeForShe. I am inviting you to step forward, to be seen, and to ask yourself if not me, who, if not now when.

“And there is another feeling that is a great consolation in poverty. I believe everyone who has been hard up has experienced it. It is a feeling of relief, almost of pleasure, at knowing yourself at last genuinely down and out. You have talked so often of going to the dogs--and well, here are the dogs, and you have reached them, and you can stand it. It takes off a lot of anxiety.”

George Orwell book Down and Out in Paris and London

Source: Down and out in Paris and London (1933), Ch. 3
Context: For, when you are approaching poverty, you make one discovery which outweighs some of the others. You discover boredom and mean complications and the beginnings of hunger, but you also discover the great redeeming feature of poverty: the fact that it annihilates the future. Within certain limits, it is actually true that the less money you have, the less you worry. When you have a hundred francs in the world you are liable to the most craven panics. When you have only three francs you are quite indifferent; for three francs will feed you till tomorrow, and you cannot think further than that. You are bored, but you are not afraid. You think vaguely, 'I shall be starving in a day or two--shocking, isn't it?' And then the mind wanders to other topics. A bread and margarine diet does, to some extent, provide its own anodyne. And there is another feeling that is a great consolation in poverty. I believe everyone who has been hard up has experienced it. It is a feeling of relief, almost of pleasure, at knowing yourself at last genuinely down and out. You have talked so often of going to the dogs--and well, here are the dogs, and you have reached them, and you can stand it. It takes off a lot of anxiety.

Pleasure, Dogs, Feeling

“Think for yourself and question authority. ”

Тимоти Фрэнсис Лири (1920–1996)

Question, Thinking

“Your basic problem is that you don’t yet know yourself inside and simply want to know what’s outside. This will only make you agitated and confused, without serving any purpose.”

Ajahn Maha Bua (1913–2011) monk

Straight from the Heart

Making love, Problem

“There is something about yourself that you don't know.”

Jason Statham (1967) English actor, film producer, martial artist and former diver

“Spiritual awakening is not a special feeling, state, or experience. It is not a goal or destination, somewhere to reach in the future. As the Buddha was trying to tell us (though few actually listened), it is not a superhuman achievement or attainment. You don’t have to travel to India to find it. It is not a special state of perfection reserved for the lucky or the privileged few. It is not an exclusive club. It is not an out-of-body experience, and it does not involve living in a cave, shutting off all your beautiful senses, detaching yourself from the realities of this modern world. It cannot be transmitted to you by a fancy bearded (or non-bearded) guru, nor can it be taken away or lost. You do not have to become anyone’s disciple or follower, or give away all your possessions. You do not have to join a cult. You do not have to follow anyone.

Rather, is a constant and ancient invitation – throughout every moment of your life – to trust and embrace yourself exactly as you are, in all your glorious imperfection. It is about being fully present and awake to each precious moment, coming out of the epic movie of past and future (“The Story of Me”) and showing up for life, knowing that even your feelings of non-acceptance are accepted here. It is about radically opening up to this extraordinary gift of existence, embracing both the pain and the joy of it, the bliss and the sorrow, the ecstasy and the overwhelm, the certainty and the doubt. Knowing that you are never separate from the Whole, never broken, never truly lost.”

Jeff Foster (1980) Spiritual teacher

Source: https://www.lifewithoutacentre.com/writings/shockingly-simple-principles-of-spiritual-awakening/

“For the dreadful thing about the kind of brutalities here described, is that they are quite unavoidable. When a subject population rises in revolt you have got to suppress it, and you can only do so by methods which make nonsense of any claim for the superiority of western civilisation. In order to rule over barbarians, you have got to become a barbarian yourself.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

Source: Review of Zest for Life by Johann Wöller, in Time and Tide (17 October 1936)

Making love

“When you meet someone better than yourself, turn your thoughts to becoming his equal. When you meet someone not as good as you are, look within and examine your own self.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

“Supporters will come and go, but nobody will invest in your craft more than yourself. Stay focused and start crossing goals off the list one by one, it takes time but practice makes perfect”

Alireza Kohany

Support, Time, Perfection

“Once you know yourself, then you do not need a mediator between you and God.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

God

“You should be ashamed for not trusting yourself.”

Hà Lê

Source: https://filmfreeway.com/authentic_hale

“The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself — the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us — that's where it's at.”

Jesse Owens (1913–1980) American track and field athlete

As quoted in Blackthink: My Life as Black Man and White Man https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0688011632 (1970) 1970s

Motivational, Success, Inspirational, Life

“Don't mind anything anyone tells you about anyone else. Judge everyone and everything for yourself.”

Henry James book The Portrait of a Lady

Source: The Portrait of a Lady (1881), Ch. XXIII.

“You never find yourself until you face the truth.”

Pearl Bailey (1918–1990) American singer

Quoted in Criminal Minds Season 8, November 2012

Truth

“One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy. One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.”

Gretchen Rubin (1966) American writer

Source: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

Happiness, People, Way

“The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Loneliness

“Emancipate yourself from mental slavery,
None but ourselves can free our minds.”

Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician

Redemption Song; the song was inspired by a speech by Marcus Garvey in Nova Scotia in October 1937, published in his Black Man magazine, Vol. 3, no. 10 (July 1938), pp. 7-11:
Uprising (1979)
Variant: None but ourselves can free our minds.
Context: Emancipate yourself from mental slavery,
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them can stop the time.

“Once in a while you find yourself in an odd situation. You get into it by degrees and in the most natural way but, when you are right in the midst of it, you are suddenly astonished and ask yourself how in the world it all came about.”

Thor Heyerdahl (1914–2002) Norwegian anthropologist and adventurer

World, Way, Nature

“You have two choices. you can keep running and hiding and blaming the world for your problems, or you can stand up for yourself and decide to be somebody important.”

Sidney Sheldon book Nothing Lasts Forever

Source: Nothing Lasts Forever

World, Problem

“If you love without evoking love in return - if through the vital expression of yourself as a loving person you fail to become a loved person, then your love is impotent, it is a misfortune.”

Karl Marx book Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

Source: Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

Love, Personality

“She is so naked and singular
She is the sum of yourself and your dream.
Climb her like a monument, step after step.
She is solid.
As for me, I am a watercolor.
I wash off.

(For My Lover, Returning To His Wife)”

Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States

Source: Selected Poems

Dreams, Lovers

“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

Life, Silence, Deep, Life

“It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

“Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successfull personality and duplicate it.”

Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker

Bruce Lee radio interview with Ted Thomas
Bruce Lee
Context: When I look around, I always learn something: to be always yourself, and to express yourself, to have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.
Context: When I look around I always learn something, and that is to be yourself always, express yourself, and have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate him. Now that seems to be the prevalent thing happening in Hong Kong, like they always copy mannerism, but they never start from the root of his being and that is, how can I be me?

Faith, Personality

“All profound distraction opens certain doors. You have to allow yourself to be distracted when you are unable to concentrate.”

Julio Cortázar book Around the Day in Eighty Worlds

Source: Around the Day in Eighty Worlds

“Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what's left and live it properly. What doesn't transmit light creates its own darkness.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

Life, Thinking, Light, Dead

“Learn to value yourself, which means: fight for your happiness.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

Happiness, Learning, Fight, Happy

“I'm not so fond of people myself, Evvy, but I took my vows for a reason. There are two classes of people in the world, the destroyers and the builders. I want to build, not destroy. You need to ask yourself who you're going to be.”

Tamora Pierce book Melting Stones

Source: Melting Stones

People, World

“Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society.”

Francis of Assisi (1182–1226) Catholic saint and founder of the Franciscan Order

“What can you do, thought Winston, against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

Intelligence

“Veganism is not about giving anything up or losing anything; it is about gaining the peace within yourself that comes from embracing nonviolence and refusing to participate in the exploitation of the vulnerable”

Gary L. Francione (1954) American legal scholar

Peace

“Sometimes, being true to yourself means changing your mind. Self changes, and you follow.”

Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer

Source: The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

Change

“No one can construct for you the bridge upon which precisely you must cross the stream of life, no one but you yourself alone.”

Friedrich Nietzsche Untimely Meditations

Niemand kann dir die Brücke bauen, auf der gerade du über den Fluß des Lebens schreiten mußt, niemand außer dir allein.
“Schopenhauer as educator,” § 3.1, R. Hollingdale, trans. (1983), p. 129
Untimely Meditations (1876)

Life, Courageous

“Folks, I'm telling you,
birthing is hard
and dying is mean-
so get yourself
a little loving
in between.”

Langston Hughes (1902–1967) American writer and social activist

Love, Birth

“If you do not worship God, you worship something, and nine times out of ten it will be yourself. You have a duty to worship God, not because He will be imperfect and unhappy if you do not, but because you will be imperfect and unhappy.”

Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) Catholic bishop and television presenter

God, Time

“What do you think an artist is? An imbecile who only has eyes, if he is a painter, or ears if he is a musician, or a lyre in every chamber of his heart if he is a poet, or even, if he is a boxer, just his muscles? Far from it: at the same time he is also a political being, constantly aware of the heartbreaking, passionate, or delightful things that happen in the world, shaping himself completely in their image. How could it be possible to feel no interest in other people, and with a cool indifference to detach yourself from the very life which they bring to you so abundantly? No, painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war.”

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer

Life, War, People, World

“Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.”

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) French writer (1821–1880)

Correspondence, Letters to Mademoiselle Leroyer de Chantepie
Variant: Do not read as children do to enjoy themselves, or, as the ambitious do to educate themselves. No, read to live.
Context: Do not read as children do to enjoy themselves, or, as the ambitious do to educate themselves. No, read to live. (June 1857)

Children, Reading, Deep