Beyond the Quote

Keshavan Nair Quote on Being Lazy and How Productivity is a War, Not a Battle

“When I say I lack the time to exercise, is this really true given that I have time to watch television? Perhaps it is just difficult for me to admit that I may be lazy.”
Keshavan Nair, A Higher Standard of Leadership

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I am lazy. I am definitely not born with a “do more than I have to” nature. I desire the “comfortable” option. All of the time. I don’t want to wake up early. I don’t want to write every day. I don’t want to exercise. And I definitely don’t want to only ever eat healthy food. The easy way out is always at the forefront of my mind. The mind-numbing activities are always calling my name. And the option to do less is always looking mighty nice. Yet, day-in and day-out, I choose otherwise.

Kerry Washington Quote on Heroes and How Hero Worship Should Come To An End

In response to the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg: “It feels like we’re losing so many of our heroes this year, you know, John Lewis and Chadwick Boseman, and it just is like how is this possible? And I really do think there’s something about the idea that we’re being invited to realize that our heroes are human, which means that we all have the capacity to be the heroes of our communities and our lives and our story. The time for hero worship is maybe coming to an end and it’s time for us to all stand up and serve. These singular people can’t shoulder all the weight.”
Kerry Washington, Ellen

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Our heroes are human. They always have been. They have the same amount of time in their days as we do. They have the same basic needs for survival, too. And they certainly live lives filled with problems and challenges just like each of us. So, what’s the difference between the average human and our “heroes?” I like to think that the scale of their impact and influence is in proportion to how they choose to be selfish and in how they choose to be selfless.

“We started our relationship based on pinky promises, where we linked our pinkies and kissed our hands to demonstrate that we cannot lie and break that bond. Because like little kids a pinky promise means a lot more.”
Unknown

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I saw a meme that asked, “Do you trust pinky promises?” with the response, “You are wack if you don’t take these seriously.”

Unpopular opinion: You are wack if you need a promise to be “pinkyed” to be taken seriously.

Mark Ruffalo Emmy Award Acceptance Speech on Using Privilege To Fight For Those Less Fortunate

“[Our story] asks a big question, how are we going to deal and honor and take care of each other and our most vulnerable people? And we do that with love, and we do that with compassion, and we do that by fighting for them. And that’s what we have to do today. We have to come together with love, for each other. And if you have privilege, you have to fight for those who are less fortunate, and more vulnerable. And that is what is great about America, our diversity. One thing I’ve learned from my wife and children, is that we’re stronger together when we love each other and we respect each other’s diversity. And so we have a big, important moment ahead of us. Are we going to be a country of division and hatred? A country only for certain kind of people? Or are we going to be one of love, and strength, and fighting for those—all of us—so all of us can have the American dream and the pursuit of life, and liberty, and love, and happiness, in this great country of ours? That’s what we’re facing right now. So get out and vote, make a plan, and vote for love and compassion and kindness. I love you all. Thank you so much.”
Mark Ruffalo, Emmy Award Acceptance Speech

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Our first priority is to ensure that we are able to care properly for ourselves. Next, is to ensure that we are able to properly care for our family and loved ones. What’s next is where we are all given a destiny altering choice that can—quite literally—reshape the structure of our world. We can choose to either move from “properly cared for” to “overly cared for” or we can choose to continue broadening our circle of care outwards. In other words, with privilege, we can choose luxury or greater impact. The path you choose, and the degree to which you choose to follow that path, can alter the very essence and purpose of your life.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Quote on Intentionally Being A Little Deaf Towards Thoughtless Or Unkind Words

“Another often-asked question when I speak in public: ‘Do you have some good advice you might share with us?‘ Yes, I do. It comes from my savvy mother-in-law, advice she gave me on my wedding day. ‘In every good marriage,’ she counseled, ‘it helps sometimes to be a little deaf.’ I have followed that advice assiduously, and not only at home through fifty-six years of a marital partnership nonpareil. I have employed it as well in every workplace, including the Supreme Court of the United States. When a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best tune out. Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, My Own Words

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In every relationship in life, I think it helps to be a little deaf. And I, nor RBG, mean this in a demeaning, belittling, dismissive way for the other person. We mean it in a self-loving kind of way. We choose to be a little deaf towards the thoughtless and unkind types of remarks. The remarks that are not backed by thought, but are rather reactive, emotional, and are lacking of reason or fact. The remarks that do not serve the higher purpose of advancing the argument, but rather attack the person and are derogatory or unkind in nature. Those are the types of thoughts that should fall on deaf ears.

“For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining, is to let it rain.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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You can curse the clouds. Yell at the wind. Blame the rain for ruining your day. You can close your blinds and hide under your blankets. You can turn the TV up real loud so you don’t hear the thunder. You can even browse some “sunny 70” exotic destination locations on IG. But, whether you confront the rain with anger and hostility or dig your head into the pit of your couch and pretend like it doesn’t exist, one thing is for sure—it’s going to keep on raining.

The French have an expression: Reculer pour mieux sauter. This means that you have to step back, retreat a little, if you’re going to successfully jump over something. Want to jump across a ditch? You don’t just walk to the edge and then leap. You walk to the edge, gauge the distance, and then retreat a bit to give yourself room to get a full running start before you leap. Sometimes we can’t take the next leap forward unless we take the time to step back first. Where will you get the strength to sauter (leap forward) if you can’t allow yourself to reculer (pull back)?”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 87)

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Keep moving forward is the motto, yes. But, how to move forward if you walked yourself up to a ditch (as is often the case in life)? Moving forward in that case is to fall into the ditch and get stuck (or worse). So, as Kirshenbaum illustrates above, we move backwards so that we can gain the strength and momentum needed to run and jump over the ditch. In other words, sometimes the best way to keep moving forward is to move backwards, first.

“Who you are is always a more vital teaching and a more powerful transformer of the world than what you say, and more essential even than what you do.”
Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now (Page 202)

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But, isn’t what we say and what we do, who we are? Sure, our words and actions are key indicators of our identity, but what Tolle points out as being even more important is the intention behind the words and actions. It’s in how we say what we say and in how we do what we do that makes all of the difference. This is a crucial understanding because therefore, it’s the how that points us to understanding who we are.

“If the whole world was blind, how many people would you impress?”
Unknown

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As it stands, the world is predominantly vision based. Meaning, most of what we interpret from our worlds—our environments—is absorbed from what we see. Less of what we learn is from hearing and less from that is tasting, smelling, and feeling. And because most of us rely on vision, vision becomes the predominant method for hierarchically organizing our world. In other words, we organize our world into “desirable” and “less desirable” based on what we see more than any other sense, because sight is our primary source of information gathering.

“Whenever anything bad happens, you should try and recalibrate the universe or whatever you want to call it with its opposite.“
Yasmine, Modern Love

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Spoilers ahead. In the final episode of Modern Love, Season 1, we are shown a scene of a young man, Rob, who gets stood up at a café. Disheartened and upset, he goes to leave the café and (appropriately enough) walks out into the rain. He slowly pulls back to shield under the café’s awning as an attractive blond women, Yasmine, runs to shield on the other side.

“If you want to get something done, give it to someone busy.”
Stephen Covey

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But, why wouldn’t you give it to someone who isn’t busy? Because the Laws of Physics as they apply to motion, apply to people-in-motion, too. It’s easier to keep a body in motion than it is to get a body into motion that is at rest. The same is true for us. People who are in motion not only get more done, but they have an easier time getting more done than some might have in trying to do less. Why? Because a body at rest has a harder time getting started.

“When you say ROI, do you mean return on investment or risk of inaction?”
Paul Gillin

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Why do we push ourselves physically? Maybe so that we might better appreciate our physical normal. Why do we travel far from home? Maybe so that we can return home with fresh eyes. Why are we encouraged constantly to grow and expand our minds? Maybe so that we might have a better understanding of the world. Why do we ever do anything outside of our comfort zone? Maybe it’s so that we can expand our zone of comfort for the rest of the time we’re not outside of it?

“Social media is still an energy exchange… in case you were wondering why you’re exhausted all of the time.”
Unknown

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When it comes to social media, what do we do if what we post causes other people pain? Assuming that’s not the intention, I find this to be a very valid concern when one of the main criticisms of social media use is the pain it can cause. The pain in seeing others in seemingly happy relationships. The pain in seeing people post exotic pictures from across the globe when you’re stuck at home. The pain in seeing distorted perceptions of beauty and then comparing it to yourself. The pain in seeing other people hit milestones that you haven’t even set as goals for yourself. The pain that comes from comparing highlight reels to your “normal” reels. Not wanting to contribute to any of that, the question that I find constantly stirring in my mind is, what moments to share and what moments to keep to myself?

“We must look deeply into the nature of our volition to see whether it is pushing us in the direction of liberation from suffering and toward peace and compassion, or in the direction of affliction and misery. What is it that we really want deep in our heart? Is it money, fame, power? Or is it finding inner peace, being able to live life fully and enjoy the present moment?”
Thich Nhat Hanh, Savor

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How to achieve inner peace? Eliminate all inner conflict. For what is peace but the absence of war? And who is less at peace than the person who is constantly at war within themselves? As is evidenced from throughout human history and in modern times, eliminating war is no easy feat. There are very real threats that, time and time again, have called for war under the context that the fight was (and is) for the greater good. And while the means for achieving peace in the external world are (and will forever be) up for debate because we all share this world together—achieving inner peace is something that is (and will forever be) up to only you.

“You just like the idea of me. You like the person I present myself under circumstances that I can control. I choose what I say and how I say things. It’s like being attracted to a fictional character in a book. They are scripted and made up. If you think about it, through writings, we all script and make ourselves up. I don’t share the person I become when I am upset. I don’t show you how I look like when I sleep. I don’t tell you about all the times I’ve made someone cry. All the guilty things I’ve done and the bad thoughts I’ve had.”
Jiawei Han

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And so is all too often the case in today’s world. Who are we really falling in love with? Who are we idolizing and emulating? Who are we really putting on a pedestal? Is it really the person or is it really just the idea of the person? More often than not, after careful introspection, you’ll find that many people in our lives are really just a product of ideas that represent idealistic and unrealistic images of the people we wished for them to be. We don’t see them for who they are, we see them as a projection from our mind—and perception is reality.

“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”
John F. Kennedy

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With election season coming up it’s going to be easier than usual to get sucked into dividing lines, finger pointing, and blame shaming. And while fighting to ensure people take proper responsibility for their actions is a worthy and righteous fight, it also shouldn’t blind you to your own fight.

“Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year—and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade.”
Tony Robbins

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When I first started MoveMe Quotes in 2010, I was so self-conscious about my writing and my own voice as a writer that I could only post other people’s words. I wouldn’t add, subtract, change, or elaborate on anything—I shared quotes and that’s it. I refused to share my opinion because I felt unworthy when surrounded by such giants in the writing world. I would constantly ask myself, “Who am I to comment on words from this great person or that amazing writer?” And so that’s how it went for the first five years of MoveMe Quotes. I was merely a quote collector and organizer.

“The struggles along the way are only meant to shape you for your purpose.”
Chadwick Boseman

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Chadwick Boseman, the iconic “Black Panther” star, has died at age 43 after a 4-year battle with colon cancer. He was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in 2016, battled it until it progressed to stage IV, and up until it ended up taking his life here in 2020. And like so many others, I knew nothing about his cancer or that he was even sick at all.

“We can realize peace right in the present moment with our look, our smile, our words, and our actions. Peace work is not a means. Each step we make should be peace. Each step we make should be joy. Each step we make should be happiness. If we are determined, we can do it. We don’t need the future. We can smile and relax. Everything we want is right here in the present moment.”
Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step

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One day the Buddha held up a flower in front of an audience of 1,250 monks and nuns. He did not say anything for quite a long time. The audience was perfectly silent. Everyone seemed to be thinking hard, trying to see the meaning behind the Buddha’s gesture. Then, suddenly, the Buddha smiled.

“All of our emotions have value, and as unpleasant as some are, they’re reminders that we’re alive and have a whole lot going on inside. Why not approach life with curiosity and wonder, instead of dread and fear. We don’t avoid movies because we know they’ll end. We enjoy the journey they take us on.”
Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 46)

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Emotions are a signal of the state of your being. Many people categorize emotions as being either “positive” or “negative.” I think this is a dangerous practice that can lead you to suppress, ignore, invalidate, or even deny very valid signals from your body. Better to look at some emotions as being more desirable than others. States of happiness, excitement, enthusiasm, and joy, of course, are typically more desirable than sadness, anxiousness, or anger. But, don’t get it twisted. Sadness, anxiety, or anger are not “negative” emotions, per se.

Beyond the Quote

Keshavan Nair Quote on Being Lazy and How Productivity is a War, Not a Battle

Beyond the Quote (265/365)

Kerry Washington Quote on Heroes and How Hero Worship Should Come To An End

Beyond the Quote (264/365)

Why I DON’T Do “Pinky Promises”

Beyond the Quote (263/365)

Mark Ruffalo Emmy Award Acceptance Speech on Using Privilege To Fight For Those Less Fortunate

Beyond the Quote (262/365)

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Quote on Intentionally Being A Little Deaf Towards Thoughtless Or Unkind Words

Beyond the Quote (260/365)

Henry Longfellow Quote on Rain and What The Best Thing To Do When It’s Raining Is…

Beyond the Quote (259/365)

Mira Kirshenbaum Quote on Retreating Back So That You Can Keep Moving Forward in Life

Beyond the Quote (258/365)

Eckhart Tolle Quote on Understanding Who You Are and How You Might Best Influence Others

Beyond the Quote (257/365)

Quote On Inner Beauty and Questioning How People Would Treat You If They Were All Blind

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Quote from Modern Love About Recalibrating the Universe When Anything Bad Happens

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Stephen Covey Quote on Productivity and How Momentum Can Help You Get More Done

Beyond the Quote (248/365)

Paul Gillin Quote on ROI and How To Maximize Your Return On Investments in Life

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Thich Nhat Hanh Quote on Inner Peace and Understanding The Nature Of Our Inner World

Beyond the Quote (244/365)

Jiawei Han Quote on Expectations and How To Separate The Person From The Idea Of The Person

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John F. Kennedy Quote on Accepting Responsibility For What’s Wrong In The World And Doing Our Part

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Tony Robbins Quote on Accomplishments and Getting Better at Managing Time

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Chadwick Boseman Quote on Struggles and How they Shape You For Your Purpose

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Thich Nhat Hanh Quote on the Present Moment and Appreciating the Flower When It’s Shown To You

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Humble the Poet Quote on Emotional Intelligence and How To Deal With “Less Desirable” Emotions

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