Pop artists deal with the lowly trivia of possessions and equipment that the present generation is lugging along with it on its safari into the future.
—J. G. Ballard (English Novelist)
I learned…that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness.
—Brenda Ueland (American Journalist)
In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.
—Laozi (Chinese Philosopher)
The interpretation of our reality through patterns not our own, serves only to make us ever more unknown, ever less free, ever more solitary.
—Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombian Novelist, Short-Story Writer)
There is nothing wrong with men possessing riches. The wrong comes when riches possess men.
—Billy Graham (American Baptist Religious Leader)
Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all of us love poorly. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour—unceasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family.
—Henri Nouwen (Dutch Catholic Priest)
The pleasure of criticism takes from us that of being deeply moved by very beautiful things.
—Jean de La Bruyere
That which causes us trials shall yield us triumph: and that which make our hearts ache shall fill us with gladness. The only true happiness is to learn, to advance, and to improve: which could not happen unless we had commence with error, ignorance, and imperfection. We must pass through the darkness, to reach the light.
—Albert Pike (American Military Leader)
What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
The way to avoid responsibility is to say, “I’ve got responsibilities.”
—Richard Bach (American Novelist)
Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (Swiss Philosopher)