Quotes August 15, 2017

Morality like art, means drawing a line some place.
Oscar Wilde
 
 
 
 
“There is a myth, sometimes widespread, that a person need only do inner work…that a man is entirely responsible for his own problems; and that to cure himself, he need only change himself…The fact is, a person is so formed by his surroundings, that his state of harmony depends entirely on his harmony with his surroundings.”
Christopher Alexander, The Timeless Way of Building
 
 
 
 
“At these best moments a great humility fused with a great ambition: to be only what I was, but to the utmost of what I was.”
Stephen Spender, World Within World
 
 
 
 
“For our duties and our needs, in all the fundamental things for which we were created, come down in practice to the same thing.”
Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain
 
 
 
 
“In the best times of my life I always think I am making room, even more room in me. Here I shovel away snow, there I raise aloft a piece of fallen sky; there are superfluous lakes, I let them run out (I save the fish), overgrown forests, I drive crowds of apes into them, everything is astir, but there’s never enough room, I never ask why, I never feel why, I just have to keep making room, on and on, and as long as I can do so, I merit my life.”
Elias Canetti, The Human Province
 
 
 
 
“I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great.”
Willa Cather, My Antonia
 
 
 
 
Happy people build their inner world; unhappy people blame their outer world.
T. Harv Eker
 
 
 
 
Invest in yourself. You can afford it. Trust me.
Rashon Caraway
 
 
 
 
Promise me you will not spend so much time treading water and trying to keep your head above the waves that you forget, truly forget, how much you have always loved to swim.
Tyler Knott Gregson
 
 
 
 
“In my opinion, there are two types of perfect. The first is the type that seems so obvious and intuitive to you and everyone else that in a perfect world it would simply be considered standard; but, in reality, in our flawed world, what should be considered standard is actually so rare that it has to be elevated to the level of ‘perfect.’ This is the type of perfect that makes you and most other people think, ‘Why isn’t everything like this? Why is it so hard to find…’ a black V-neck cotton sweater, or a casual non-chain restaurant with comfortable booths, etc.–‘that is just exactly the way everyone knows something like this should be?’ ‘Perfect,’ we all say with relief when we finally find something like this that is exactly as it should be. ‘Perfect. Why was that so hard to find?’
“The other type of perfect is the type you never could have expected and then could never replicate.”
B. J. Novak, “Sophia,” in One More Thing
 
 
 
 
“Associate with people who are likely to improve you.”
Seneca
 
 
 
 
I stopped explaining myself when I realized people only understand from their level of perception.
Anonymous
 
 
 
 
Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution.
Anonymous
 
 
 
 
Think once before you act, twice before you speak, and three times before you post on Facebook.
Anonymous