Henry James (15 April 1843 - 28 February 1916) There it is round you. Don't pass it by — the immediate, the real, the only, the yours, the novelist's that it waits for. Take hold of it and keep hold, and let it pull you where it will.
Stendhal On Love
Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle) (January 23, 1783 – March 23, 1842) Indeed, half — the most beautiful half — of life is hidden from one who has not loved passionately.
Adyashanti On The Now
Adyashanti (October 26, 1962 -) What you are is never born, never lives, and never dies. Birth-life-death happens within what you are, in the same way that a dream at night arises, has a span of time, and disappears within what you are . . . The nature of this that we are is to …
Virginia Woolf On Writing
Virginia Woolf (January 25, 1882 – March 28, 1941) So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say. But to sacrifice a hair of the head of your vision, a shade of its colour, in deference …
Blima Marcus On Vaccines
Blima Marcus We live in close quarters with extended family. So we should consider ourselves especially obligated to prevent harm to our fellow community members.
George Orwell On Foreigners
George Orwell (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) If he were allowed contact with foreigners, he would discover that they are creatures similar to himself, and that most of what he had been told about them is lies.
May Sarton On Solitude
May Sarton (May 3, 1912 – July 16, 1995) I am alone here for the first time in weeks to take up my “real” life again at last. That is what is strange — that friends, even passionate love, are not my real life, unless there is time alone to explore and to discover what …
John F Kennedy On Consumerism
John F Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963) The march of technology — affecting, for example, the foods we eat, the medicines we take, and the many appliances we use in our homes — has increased the difficulties of the consumer along with his opportunities.
Kahlil Gibran On Love
Kahlil Gibran (January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931) Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed: for love is sufficient unto love…Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
Laura Riding On Doing And Thinking
Laura Riding (January 16, 1901–September 2, 1991) People who for some reason find it impossible to think about themselves, and so really be themselves, try to make up for not thinking with doing. They try to pretend that doing is thinking.
John Trudell On Truth
John Trudell (Feb. 15, 1946 – Dec. 8, 2015) When one lives in a society where people can no longer rely on institutions to tell them the truth, the truth must come from culture and art.
Robert M Pirsig On Fanaticism
Robert M Pirsig (September 6, 1928 - April 24, 2017) No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it's going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals …
Henry Miller On The Miraculous
Henry Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) The greatest miracle is the discovery that all is miraculous. And the nature of the miraculous is utter simplicity. ...The ground for any kind of growth and cultivation is prepared by lying fallow.
Rebecca Solnit On Representation
Rebecca Solnit (June 24, 1961 -) What is onstage is a tragedy, the tragedy of the inequitable distribution of power and of the too-common silence of those who settle for being audience while paying the price of the drama. Traditionally, the audience is supposed to choose the actors, and the actors are quite literally supposed …
Erich Fromm On Humanism
Eric Fromm (March 23, 1900–March 18, 1980) Man can protect himself from the consequences of his own madness only by creating a sane society which conforms with the needs of man, needs which are rooted in the very conditions of his existence. A society in which man relates to man lovingly, in which he is …
Barack Obama On The Past
Barack Obama (August 04, 1961 -) When you hear someone longing for the “good old days,” take it with a grain of salt. Take it with a grain of salt. We live in a great nation and we are rightly proud of our history. We are beneficiaries of the labor and the grit and the …
Derek Walcott On Love After Love
Derek Walcott (January 23, 1930 - March 17, 2017) The time will come when with elation, You will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror, and each will smile at the other’s welcome, and say, Sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your Self. Give wine. Give …
John O’Donohue On Memory
John O’Donohue (January 1, 1956–January 4, 2008) Taking experience seriously must make it equally necessary to take the destiny or future of experience seriously. This is a particularly poignant necessity, given that the future of each experience is its disappearance. The destiny of every experience is transience…Everything, no matter how painful, beautiful or sonorous, recedes …
Simone de Beauvoir On Chance
Simone de Beauvoir (January 9, 1908–April 14, 1986) What astonishes me, just as it astonishes a child when he becomes aware of his own identity, is the fact of finding myself here, and at this moment, deep in this life and not in any other... Chance … has a distinct meaning for me. I do …
Sofia Valdivieso On Home
Sofia Valdivieso (October 12, 1982 -) Home...home is so relative. Home can be so many places. Some places feel more home than others but I am a true believer that home can be anywhere you feel warm and secure. Even a person can be home, smell like home. Flavors can taste like home. Even friends …
Huston Smith On Religion
Huston Smith (May 31, 1919 – December 30, 2016) If we take the world’s enduring religions at their best, we discover the distilled wisdom of the human race.
Buddha On Believing
Buddha (c. 563 BCE or c. 480 BCE - c. 483 BCE or c. 400 BCE) Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious …
Hitomaro On Aging
(c. 662 – 710) When, halting in front of it, I look at the reflection which is in the depths of my clear mirror. It gives me the impression of meeting an unknown old gentle man.
Michelle Obama On Diversity
Michelle Obama (January 17, 1964 -) Our glorious diversity — diversity of faiths and colors and creeds — that is not a threat to who we are. It makes us who we are. *International Women’s Day*
Ludwig van Beethoven On Death
Ludwig van Beethoven (December 16, 1770–March 26, 1827) I joyfully hasten to meet Death. If he comes before I have had the opportunity of developing all my artistic powers, then, notwithstanding my cruel fate, he will come too early for me, and I should wish for him at a more distant period; but even then …
Andre Lorde On Differences
Audre Lorde (February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992) It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences. In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction.
Jane Kenyon On Writing
Jane Kenyon (May 23, 1947–April 22, 1995) Be a good steward of your gifts. Protect your time. Feed your inner life. Avoid too much noise. Read good books, have good sentences in your ears. Be by yourself as often as you can. Walk. Take the phone off the hook. Work regular hours… Tell the whole …
William Rose Benét On Writing Poetry
William Rose Ben’et (February 2, 1886 – May 4, 1950) The poet (artist) must write as it pleases him to write. If he writes what other people tell him to write, he may get some good verse, but he won’t get poetry. When I write to please myself, I may write some very bad verse, …
Pablo Neruda On Keeping Quiet
Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904 - September 23, 1973) Now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still. For once on the face of the earth, let's not speak in any language; let's stop for one second, and not move our arms so much. It would be an exotic moment without rush, …
Henry David Thoreau On The Mind/Body Disconnect
Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) I am alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit. In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to Society. But it sometimes happens that I cannot …
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Gaston Bachelard On Dreams
Gaston Bachelard (June 27, 1884 – October 16, 1962) A dream visited me. That is certainly the formula which indicates the passivity of great nocturnal dreams. To convince ourselves that they are really ours, we must reinhabit these dreams. Afterwards we make up accounts of them, stories from another time, adventures from another world… The …
