• i will no longer mutilate and destroy myself in order to find a secret behind the ruins.
  • i treat myself like i would my daughter. i brush her hair, wash her laundry, tuck her in goodnight. most importantly, i feed her. i do not punish her. i do not berate her, leave tears staining her face. i do not leave her alone. i know she deserves more. i know i deserve more.
  • it is not thought that gets us through life—it is action; and what motivates and sustains action is passion, the desire to overcome hardships, pain, and suffering. it is also passion that enables us to die for ideals in the name of a higher reality.
  • on the path of self one must walk without meeting a single traveler.
  • oh, there is a lot of talk in the world about treachery, and faithlessness, and, god help us, it is unfortunately all too true, but still let us never because of this forget that the most dangerous traitor of all is the one every person has within himself.
  • to the girl that lives in the flowers: never stop creating your own worlds.
  • it’s not too late. to make it good. and if not good then peaceful. and if not peaceful then simple. today and any other day.
  • do not worry if you find nothing. this is what i tell myself. do not worry. the search alone is beautiful.
  • [...] but it cannot be a mistake to have cared... it cannot be an error to have tried... it cannot be incorrect to have loved.
  • there’s a legend about a chinese painter who was asked by the emperor to paint a landscape so pristine that the emperor can enter it. he didn’t do a good job, so the emperor was preparing to assassinate him. but because it was his painting, legend goes, he stepped inside and vanished, saving himself. i always loved that little allegory as an artist. even when it is not enough for others, if it is enough for you, you can live inside it.
  • 1. renounce useless guilt / 2. don't make a cult of suffering. / 3. live in the now (or at least the soon) / 4. always do the things you fear the most; courage is an acquired taste, like caviar. / 5. trust all joy. / 6. if the evil eye fixes you in its gaze, look elsewhere.
  • but there are moments, walking, when i catch a glimpse of myself in the window glass, say, the window of the corner video store, and i'm gripped by a cherishing so deep for my own blowing hair, chapped face, and unbottoned coat that i'm speechless: i am living. i remember you.
  • i feel profoundly alone, cut off, unattractive. i feel unloveable. but i respect that unloveable soldier, struggling to survive, struggling to be honest, just, honourable. i respect myself.
  • sometimes we need to struggle with a tragedy to feel the gravity of love.
  • there are days we live as if death were nowhere in the background; from joy to joy to joy, from wing to wing, from blossom to blossom to impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.
  • well, i am so sensitive and i am very fragile but so is everything else, and living with a dangerous amount of sensitivity is sort of what i have to do sometimes, and it is so very much better than living with no gusto at all. and i’d rather live with a tender heart, because that is the key to feeling the beat of all of the other hearts.
nov 17 2016 ∞
apr 6 2022 +