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    “‘History has failed us, but no matter’ serves as my thesis statement. I believe history has failed almost everybody who is ordinary in the world …I am also arguing that the discipline of history has failed. It is not that historians aren’t doing their jobs but rather that the memory of history has been reconstructed by the elite, because the overwhelming majority of ordinary people rarely leave sufficient primary documents; they do not have others recording their lives in real time. The phrase ‘but no matter’ is a statement of defiance. It doesn’t matter that history has failed us because ordinary people have persisted anyway. This idea gives me an enormous amount of strength and hope as a writer because I am an ordinary person. Those of us who may be women of color, immigrants, or working class aren’t often meant to be people who write novels about ideas, but no matter.”

    Min Jin Lee, The Guardian

    Osho Quote on Balance and How Both Happiness and Sadness Are Needed In Life

      “Sadness gives depth. Happiness gives height. Sadness gives roots. Happiness gives branches. Happiness is like a tree going into the sky, and sadness is like the roots going down into the womb of the earth. Both are needed, and the higher a tree goes, the deeper it goes, simultaneously. The bigger the tree, the bigger will be its roots. In fact, it is always in proportion. That’s its balance.”

      Osho

      Beyond the Quote (191/365)

      We don’t go through life, we grow through life. We don’t move along a timeline from birth to death in a unilateral direction. We move bilaterally through life—both upward and downward—like a tree. A tree doesn’t just grow a trunk and branches and leaves in a singular direction towards the sun. It grows roots, too—it grows downward. And without a proportional amount of roots the tree cannot stand. And neither can we.

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      James Allen Quote on The Portals To Heaven and The Kind Of Strength That Will Take You There

        “To live continually in thoughts of ill will, cynicism, suspicion, and envy, is to be confined in a self-made prison hole. But to think well of all, to be cheerful with all, to patiently learn to find the good in all – such unselfish thoughts are the very portals of heaven; and to dwell day by day in thoughts of peace toward every creature will bring abounding peace to their possessor.”

        James Allen, As a Man Thinketh

        Beyond the Quote (190/365)

        The people who put you through hell aren’t strong—they’re weak. And this isn’t an attack on their character, per se. They may be weak through no fault of their own—they might be a product of their environment. After all, if you grow up in hell how does one not carry feelings of hell with them? It is no easy feat to make your way from hell to heaven—but, that’s the point. It’s hard. It requires deliberate daily effort. It requires strength. People who are in heaven and treat others in “heavenly ways”—they are the ones who are strong.

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        Steven Pressfield Quote on Creative Work and How To Overcome The Resistance To Express It

          “Are you a born writer?  Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end the question can only be answered by action.  Do it or don’t do it.  It may help to think of it this way.  If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don’t do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself.  You hurt your children.  You hurt me.  You hurt the planet.  You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God.  Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor.  It’s a gift to the world and every being in it.  Don’t cheat us of your contribution.  Give us what you’ve got.”

          Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

          Beyond the Quote (189/365)

          Don’t think that just because I write every day that it’s easy for me. Writing is always hard. Just like sprinting is always hard. Neither ever gets easier—you just get better. Just today, for example, I sat down to write and noticed—really felt—the potency of the resistance that I had to overcome in order to begin. Here’s what the start to my writing looked like:

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          NF Quote from “Only” on Trust

            “If you made a list of people that you trusted/

            Would you put your name down?”

            NF, Only

            Beyond the Quote (187/365)

            When I heard this line in NF’s song it stayed with me. It brilliantly orients an issue that so many of us confront on a regular basis—trust. Trust is the foundation of every relationship in our lives. Without trust there cannot be a stable relationship. Just like without a proper foundation there cannot be a stable building. Why is trust so important? Because trust is the key that unlocks and opens a person’s vulnerable side. And until a person is vulnerable and open to another—no true relationship can form.

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            J. Cole Quote from Snow On Tha Bluff and How It’s More Effective To Treat People Like Children

              “I would say it’s more effective to treat people like children

              Understandin’ the time and love and patience that’s needed to grow

              This change is inevitable but ain’t none of us seen this before

              Therefore we just gotta learn everything as we go”

              J. Cole, Snow On Tha Bluff

              Beyond the Quote (186/365)

              There’s no disrespect in treating people “like children” in this way. It’s actually a brilliant way to look at uniquely challenging situations. For, what’s the difference between adults and children anyway? Development and experience? Adults are obviously developmentally more mature physically, mentally, and emotionally. And beyond that, the only other real difference is experience. Adults have undergone more experiences in their lives which have had more direct effects on how they think, feel, and act. And the reason most adults make better decisions is because their “better” judgement comes from their “bad” judgement remembered. Most children are still in the “bad” judgement phase.

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              Naval Ravikant Quote on Freedom and Living Below Your Means

                “People who live far below their means enjoy a freedom that people busy upgrading their lifestyles can’t fathom.”

                Naval Ravikant

                Beyond the Quote (184/365)

                Most people think that freedom is the absence of responsibility. But, when you look closely, the opposite is actually the case: freedom is a byproduct of responsibility. You can’t be free until you’ve taken proper responsibility for yourself and your life. You can’t even free up the mental resources needed to enjoy said freedom until you’ve covered the bases for your survival, right? How free are you really if you’re starving? How free can you possibly be if you’re without water? Is being free of a house freedom? Or is it a constant threat to your survival and a chronic cage of worry that haunts you? Let’s start by looking at the relationship between freedom and responsibility more closely.

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                Glenn Danzig Quote on Shopping Carts and How They Are The Ultimate Litmus Test

                  Glenn Danzig Quote on Shopping Carts and How They Are The Ultimate Litmus Test

                  “The shopping cart is the ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self-governing. To return the shopping cart is an easy, convenient task and one which we all recognize as the correct, appropriate thing to do. To return the shopping cart is objectively right. There are no situations other than dire emergencies in which a person is not able to return their cart. Simultaneously, it is not illegal to abandon your shopping cart. Therefore the shopping cart presents itself as the apex example of whether a person will do what is right without being forced to do it. No one will punish you for not returning the shopping cart, no one will fine you or kill you for not returning the shopping cart, you gain nothing by returning the shopping cart. You must return the shopping cart out of the goodness of your own heart. You must return the shopping cart because it is the right thing to do. Because it is correct. A person who is unable to do this is no better than an animal, an absolute savage who can only be made to do what is right by threatening them a law and the force that stands behind it. The Shopping Cart is what determines whether a person is a good or bad member of society.”

                  Glenn Danzig

                  Beyond the Quote (183/365)

                  …Maybe not an “animal” or an “absolute savage,” but certainly a person who has given in to their lazy tendencies. I think we all have that moment when we load the last grocery bag into the car and we look back at the cart only to deeply contemplate how to handle the no-longer-needed thing that’s just sitting there staring at us. We look around for the nearest cart return station and try to minimize the amount of effort it will take to get the thing out of our way so that we can quickly make our escape back home. Isn’t it amazing how quickly we can change our minds about something that provided us so much convenience to all-of-a-sudden being something that is such an annoyance and has become such a hassle? Ah, but how quickly we do that for so much in life, eh?

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