Courtesy of Gretchen Rubin Moment of Happiness
“There are no new truths, but only truths that have not been recognized by those who have perceived them without noticing.”
Mary McCarthy, “The Vita Activa,” On The Contrary: Articles of Belief, 1946-1961
“Who is strong? He that can conquer his bad habits.”
Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack
“Maybe I was reaching for authenticity through a funhouse mirror. I didn’t know. I just didn’t want to be who I was. It turns out that’s not a specific enough request.”
R. Eric Thomas, Here For It
“Such as are your habitual thoughts; such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.”
Marcus Aurelius
“Anything one does every day is important and imposing and anywhere one lives is interesting and beautiful.”
Gertrude Stein, Paris France
“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”
William Morris
“It isn’t necessarily the great and famous beauty spots that we fall in love with. As with people, so with places: love is unforeseen, and we can all find ourselves affectionately attached to the minor and the less obvious.”
Muriel Spark, “Tuscany by Chance,” The Informed Air
“No matter how mundane some action might appear, keep at it long enough and it becomes a contemplative, even meditative act.”
Haruki Murakami, “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running”
“I am a great believer in the seasons. Even here in my own world, I have no relish for sweet corn in January or strawberries in November.”
Pearl S. Buck, My Several Worlds
“We change, but always at a cost: to win this you lose that.”
Geoffrey Wolff, A Day at the Beach, “Apprentice”
“People pay for what they do, and still more, for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply: by the lives they lead.”
James Baldwin, No Name in the Street
“But what is colour? A kind of bliss.”
Roland Barthes, “Cy Twombly: Works on Paper”
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of convenience and comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love
“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book!”
“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.”
Henry David Thoreau
