"you get what anybody gets — you get a lifetime."

• (neil gaiman, sandman: preludes and nocturnes)

"beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself/ you are a child of the universe/ no less than the trees and the stars;/ you have a right to be here./ and whether or not it is clear to you,/ no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."

• (max ehrmann, the desiderata)

“you’re damn right my body is a temple / i am the god it was built for.”

• (savannah brown, hi, i'm a slut: a slam poem)

"i want to see the beast in the beauty./ the half smile, half snarl. the unapologetic anger. i would like to see the man forgive the monster. to see her, blood and all, and love her anyway."

• (caitlyn s., beauty and the beast)

"e surgiu-lhe então uma idéia bem clara da sua própria força e do seu próprio valor.

sorriu.

e no seu sorriso já havia garras."

• (aluísio de azevedo, o cortiço, chapter XII)

"legacy. what is a legacy? it's planting seeds in a garden you never get to see. i wrote some notes in the beggining of a song someone will sing for me. america, you great unfinished symphony, you sent for me."

• (lin-manuel miranda, hamilton: the musical)

"you know about the monarch butterflies of yucatan, don’t you? you have come here through generations of women like yourself; women with clayen pitchers & bronzed children on their hips, women like your mother who sat alone in a pregnancy ward, feet heavier than church bells, your grandmother - 15 when married, 18, illiterate with 2 children, 25 - a student of herbal medicine. you have flown through epochs of migratory trance, the ache of wintered wings, their chorus warming your chrysalis. respect their lives. respect yours."

• (scherezade siobhan, survival kit)

"bind the rains to your tongue. find that place in your mouth where a storm darkens. stand still while this hell handles you. trust me, you have begun to scare the fire out of its throat"

• (scherezade siobhan, survival kit)

"in the beggining,/ we held the universe/ in our mouths and/ stardust dripped bloody/ from our lips (...) we were wild and/ we were wide-eyed and/ we were forgotten./ we will rebuild the kingdom out of teeth."

• (emily palermo, genesis)

"here, stop for a minute/ catch your breath breathe deep/ we got time/ matter of fact, that's all we got left"

• (daveed diggs, wash)