Quotes To Live By
Commit To Memory
Hi friends.
I wanted to share with you some of my favorite quotes. In these trying times, these quotes can truly elevate you and your perspective. More importantly, they can keep you on the path.
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YouTopian Journey requires a lot of research. I am constantly reading, both for knowledge and action. Whenever I find a quote that I believe is valuable, I add it to a Google document. I started this during the pandemic and the document is now 200 pages and growing. I quote everyone from philosophers to poets, psychologists to generals. Whatever I think could personally benefit you.
Feel free to copy them and use them however you want.
It is my hope that these quotes inspire, motivate, and ultimately allow you to take action toward your goals. They are in no particular order and if just one helps you, then my job is done.
BEFORE WE BEGIN
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QUOTES TO LIVE BY
“There is no reality except in action. Man is nothing else than his plan; he exists only to the extent that he fulfills himself; he is therefore nothing else than the ensemble of his acts, nothing else than his life.”-Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism
"I have had dreams and I have had nightmares, but I have conquered my nightmares because of my dreams."-Jonas Salk
“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.”-Louisa May Alcott
“The best way to lift one’s self up is to help someone else.”-Booker T. Washington, The Story of My Life & Work
“A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”-Walter Bagehot
“Vacation means nothing till vocation means everything.”-Edward E. Purinton, Efficient Living.
“We hardly ever realize that we can cut anything out of our lives, anytime, in the blink of an eye.”-Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan
“The language of society is conformity: the language of the creative individual is freedom. Life will continue to be a hell as long as the people who make up the world shut their eyes to reality.”-Henry Miller
“Do you believe in bravery? I like to see it anywhere, in animals, birds, reptiles, humans. Why? Why? It makes me feel good. It’s a matter of style in the face of no chance at all.”-Charles Bukowski
“There exists no more repulsive and desolate creature in the world than the man who has evaded his genius and who now looks furtively to left and right, behind him and all about him. He is wholly exterior, without kernel, a tattered, painted bag of clothes.”-Friedrich Nietzsche, Untimely Meditations
“Diogenes said that true pleasure lies in having one’s soul in a calm and cheerful state, and that without that, the riches of a Midas or Croesus will bring no benefit…” -Diogenes, Sayings and Anecdotes
“Life is an unfoldment, and the further we travel the more truth we comprehend.”-Hypatia
“Everyone lets the present moment slip by, then looks for it as though he thought it were somewhere else.”-Yamamoto Tsunetomo
“Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.”-Frank Zappa
“It’s a hell of a responsibility to be yourself. It’s much easier to be somebody else or nobody at all.”-Slyvia Plath
“My life is more to me than all the wealth of Ilius”-Homer, The Iliad
“No pursuit can be successfully followed by a man who is preoccupied with many things, since the mind, when distracted, takes in nothing very deeply, but rejects everything that is, as it were, crammed into it. There is nothing the busy man is less busied with than living.”-Seneca
“The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.”-Walker Percy
“It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice -- there are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia.”-Frank Zappa, Zappa: A Biography
“To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth.”-Pearl S. Buck
“If you aspire to the highest place, it is no disgrace to stop at the second, or even the third, place.”-Cicero
“When one lives one’s own life, one must take mistakes into the bargain; life would not be complete without them. There is no guarantee-not for a single moment that we will not fall into error or stumble into deadly peril. We may think there is a sure road. But that would be the road of death. Then nothing happens any longer-at any rate, not the right things. Anyone who takes the sure road is as good as dead.”-Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections.
“This is our purpose: to make as meaningful as possible this life that has been bestowed upon us . . . to live in such a way that we may be proud of ourselves, to act in such a way that some part of us lives on. ― Oswald Spengler
And let’s end it with a personal favorite of mine.
“Nobody who says,
‘I told you so’
has ever been,
or will ever be,
A hero.”
-Ursula K. Le Guin
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If just one of these quotes helped you, think of what it could do for someone in your network. Please share this.
Shaun