“Your inner doom & gloom thoughts and feelings have no power over you unless you give it away. It’s possible to make mistakes and still be accepted and valued for who you are. It’s also possible to not be at your best and still make an impact. Hopefully, knowing this activates a sense of freedom that allows you to enjoy yourself more in all you do.”
Nat Couropmitree
“[Marketing for the U.S. Presidential Election] is going to make you feel like Tuesday, November 5, is the only day that matters. And that day does matter. But, man, November 6 ain’t nothing to sneeze at—or November 7. If your guy loses, bad things might happen. But the country is not over. And if your guy wins, the country is in no way saved. I’ve learned one thing over these last nine years. And I was glib at best and probably dismissive at worst about this. The work of making this world resemble one that you would prefer to live in is a lunch pail [bleep] job, day in and day out, where thousands of committed, anonymous, smart, and dedicated people bang on closed doors and pick up those that are fallen and grind away on issues till they get a positive result. And even then, have to stay on to make sure that result holds. So the good news is I’m not saying you don’t have to worry about who wins the election. I’m saying you have to worry about every day before it and every day after—forever.”
Jon Stewart, The Daily Show
“We have reduced the world to its present state of chaos by our self-centered activity, by our prejudices, our hatreds, our nationalism, and when we say we cannot do anything about it, we are accepting disorder in ourselves as inevitable. We have splintered the world into fragments and if we ourselves are broken, fragmented, our relationship with the world will also be broken. But if, when we act, we act totally, then our relationship with the world undergoes a tremendous revolution.”
J. Krishnamurti, Freedom From The Known (Page 119)
“Almost no difference is made by the individual who decides to do the right thing, to do an act of kindness, to insist on the truth when a falsehood is easier, to be a good parent, to care about the quality of their work. Is that a reason to be a liar, a cheat, an asshole, a bad parent, or a poor craftsman? Of course not. And imagine what the world would look like if everyone insisted it was?”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic Blog
“As long as we can love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had, we can die without ever really going away. All the love you created is still there. All the memories are still there. You live on—in the hearts of everyone you have touched and nurtured while you were here.”
Morrie Schwartz, via Tuesdays With Morrie (Page 174)
“As an organizer I start from where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be. That we accept the world as it is does not in any sense weaken our desire to change it into what we believe it should be—it is necessary to begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we think it should be.”
Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, via The Daily Stoic (Page 237)
“I never dreamed of being a Shakespeare or Goethe, and I never expected to hold the great mirror of truth up before the world; I dreamed only of being a little pocked mirror, the sort that a woman can carry in her purse; one that reflects small blemishes, and some great beauties, when held close enough to the heart.”
Peter Altenberg, via Sunbeams (Page 126)
“You are here to aid in the great expansion of consciousness. You are not here to cry about the miseries of the human condition but to change them when you do not find them to your liking through the joy, strength, and vitality that is within you; to create the spirit as faithfully and beautifully as you can in flesh.”
Jane Roberts, The Nature Of Personal Reality, via Sunbeams (Page 52)