from A Separate Peace by John Knowles

• “But I was used to finding something deadly in things that attracted me; there was always something deadly lurking in anything I wanted, anything I loved. And if it wasn’t there…then I put it there myself.”
• “…Or rather, I felt that everything - all the buildings and all the people were intensely real, wildly alive and totally meaningful, and I alone was a dream, a figment which had never really touched anything. I felt that I was not, never had been and never would be a living part of this overpoweringly solid and meaningful world around me.”
• “Looking back now across fifteen years, I could see with great clarity the fear I had lived in, which must mean that in the interval I had succeeded in a very important undertaking: I must have made my escape from it.”

from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

• “This is for you," he said, holding one of the parts out to the monk. "It’s for your generosity to the pilgrims." // "But this payment goes well beyond my generosity," the monk responded. // "Don’t say that again. Life might be listening, and give you less next time."
• “But don’t worry," the alchemist continued. "Usually the threat of death makes people a lot more aware of their lives."
• “My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer,” the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky. // “Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams.”
• “When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too."
• We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.”
• "The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present what comes later will also be better.

from Coraline by Neil Gaiman

• "You really don’t understand, do you?" she said. "I don’t want whatever I want, not really. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted? Just like that, and it didn’t mean anything. What then?"
• "Because," she said, "when you're scared but you still do it anyway, that's brave."

Aldous Huxley

• “It isn’t a matter of forgetting. What one has to learn is how to remember and yet be free of the past."

Beth Ditto

• "Don’t hang out with people who don’t love you. Don’t try to impress people who aren’t worth it. Don’t try to win people over who aren’t worth it. Focus on yourself, and focus on the people who are really awesome and who love you. Don’t hang out with people who make you feel like shit. Don’t spend your energy on them. There is so much pressure to be part of the right thing: well, you should create the right thing. If you don’t see it, create it. If you don’t see what you want, be the change you want to see.”

Jack Kerouac

• "Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain."

Joyce Meyer

• “Stop being tormented by everyone else’s reaction to you.”

Dream Hampton

• “Never waste your time trying to explain who you are to people who are committed to misunderstanding you.”

Epicurus

• "Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for."

Ivan Turgenev

• “If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.”

Osho

• “Tonight go to sleep as though your whole past has been dropped. Die to the past. And in the morning wake up as a new man in a new morning. Don’t let the same one who went to bed get up. Let him go to sleep for good. Let the one who is ever-new and ever-fresh awake instead.”

Rainer Maria Rike

• “Let everything happen to you. Beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

• “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, you shall begin it serenely with too high a spirit to be encumbered by your old nonsense.”

Sass, Class and Smart Ass

• “I know today is Monday and you assume it’s going to suck, but according to statistics, there will be over 5,000 weddings, 10,000 childbirths, and 42 million hugs occurring today throughout the United States. Also today, there will be at least 4 people that will win the multimillion dollar lotteries, 600 people will get promotions at work, and 3,000 people will lose their virginity. There will also be 600 dogs adopted, 35,000 balloons sold, and 800,000 skittles eaten. Plus, the words “I love you” will be said over 9 million times. So again, I know today is Monday and you assume it’s going to suck, but just smile, because according to statistics, it should actually be a really nice day.”

Inspiration

• Dexter's Lab
• National Geographic
• The Iron Giant
• Shakespeare
• Carl Sagan
• Wallace and Gromit
• Pursuit of Happyness
• Roseanne
• Confidence Moth
• PMMM
• The Incredibles
• Buddha
• Get Out There
• Only a Fool
• Courage
• Kendra
• Recovery
• Every Day
• List