Garth Stein

There is no dishonor in losing the race. There is only dishonor in not racing because you are afraid to lose.

He died that day because his body had served its purpose. His soul had done what it came to do, learned what it came to learn, and then was free to leave.

That which we manifest is before us; we are the creators of our own destiny. Be it through intention or ignorance, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves.

To live every day as if it had been stolen from death, that is how I would like to live. To feel the joy of life, as Eve felt the joy of life. To separate oneself from the burden, the angst, the anguish that we all encounter every day. To say I am alive, I am wonderful, I am. I am. That is something to aspire to.

The true hero is flawed. The true test of a champion is not whether he can triumph, but whether he can overcome obstacles - preferably of his own making - in order to triumph.

That which is around me does not affect my mood; my mood affects that which is around me.

So much of language is unspoken. So much of language is compromised of looks and gestures and sounds that are not words. People are ignorant of the vast complexity of their own communication.

I don't understand why people insist on pitting concepts of evolution and creation against each other. Why can't they see that spiritualism and science are one? That bodies evolve and souls evolve and the universe is a fluid package that marries them both in a wonderful package called a human being. What's wrong with that idea?

The human language, as precise as it is with its thousands of words, can still be so wonderfully vague.

Robert M.Pirsig II

The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.

When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion.

The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away. Puzzling.

You look at where you're going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you've been and a pattern seems to emerge.

We’re in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk. The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it’s all gone.

You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. 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 are in doubt.

Sometimes it's a little better to travel than to arrive.

Is it hard?'
Not if you have the right attitudes. Its having the right attitudes thats hard.

To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.

The only Zen you find on tops of mountains is the Zen you bring there.

Banksy

I mean, they say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.

You're mind is working at its best when you're being paranoid.
You explore every avenue and possibility of your situation at high speed with total clarity.

The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It's people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages.

A lot of mothers will do anything for their children, except let them be themselves.

Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a fucking sharp knife to it.

Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.

Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you don't come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can make someone smile while they're having a piss.

There's nothing more dangerous than someone who wants to make the world a better place.

The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artists.. Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little.

Nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful people with talent, leave the house before you find something worth staying in for.

If you want to say something and have people listen then you have to
wear a mask. If you want to be honest then you have to live a lie.

Laurie Halse Anderson

You have to know what you stand for, not just what you stand against.

When people don't express themselves, they die one piece at a time.

In one aspect, yes, I believe in ghosts, but we create them. We haunt ourselves.

We are crayons and lunchboxes and swinging so high our sneakers punch holes in the clouds.

There is no magic cure, no making it all go away forever. There are only small steps upward; an easier day, an unexpected laugh, a mirror that doesn't matter anymore.

Homework is not an option. My bed is sending out serious nap rays. I can't help myself. The fluffy pillows and warm comforter are more powerful than I am. I have no choice but to snuggle under the covers.

I have survived. I am here. Confused, screwed up, but here. So, how can I find my way? Is there a chain saw of the soul, an ax I can take to my memories or fears?It's easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button your lip, can it. All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie. Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say.

Art without emotion its like chocolate cake without sugar. It makes you gag.

I have never heard a more eloquent silence.

Pablo

No matter how old you are now. You are never too young or too old for success or going after what you want. Here’s a short list of people who accomplished great things at different ages
1) Helen Keller, at the age of 19 months, became deaf and blind. But that didn’t stop her. She was the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.
2) Mozart was already competent on keyboard and violin; he composed from the age of 5.
3) Shirley Temple was 6 when she became a movie star on “Bright Eyes.”
4) Anne Frank was 12 when she wrote the diary of Anne Frank. . . .

Gratitude means to recognize the good in your life, be thankful for whatever you have, some people may not even have one of those things you consider precious to you (love, family, friends etc). Each day give thanks for the gift of life.You are blessed.

No matter how many people believe or don’t believe in you, you must be
the ultimate believer in yourself!

Always Remember to take your Vitamins: Take your Vitamin A for ACTION, Vitamin B for Belief, Vitamin C for Confidence ,Vitamin D for Discipline, Vitamin E for Enthusiasm!!

Never underestimate the difference YOU can make in the lives of others. Step forward, reach out and help. This week reach to someone that might need a lift.

Stop searching the world for treasure, the real treasure is in yourself.

We only live once. We all have an expiration date after that we will never come again. I am not saying that to make you sad. I am saying that so you can cherish each moment in your life and be grateful that you are here and you are Special.

Everyday it gets easier to connect with an electronic device that it is to connect with real people.

Stay away from conflictive, negative people that pull you down, because they contaminate your energy and impede your progress. Search for people who look at the world with optimism, that inspire you, make you happy and provide peace of mind.

Federico Fellini

All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster's autobiography.

There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life.

If there were a little more silence, if we all kept quiet...maybe we could understand something.

You have to live spherically - in many directions. Never lose your childish enthusiasm - and things will come your way.

I don’t like the idea of “understanding” a film. I don’t believe that rational understanding is an essential element in the reception of any work of art. Either a film has something to say to you or it hasn’t. If you are moved by it, you don’t need it explained to you. If not, no explanation can make you moved by it.

No matter what happens, always Keep your childhood innocence. It's the most important thing.

Don't tell me what I'm doing; I don't want to know.

Life is a combination of magic and pasta.

A different language is a different vision of life.

Censorship is advertising paid by the government.

We must get beyond passions, like a great work of art. In such miraculous harmony. We should learn to love each other so much to live outside of time... detached.

Even the most miserable life is better than a sheltered existence in an organized society where everything is calculated and perfected.

I don't believe in total freedom for the artist. Left on his own, free to do anything he likes, the artist ends up doing nothing at all. If there's one thing that's dangerous for an artist, it's precisely this question of total freedom, waiting for inspiration and all the rest of it.

Henri Matisse

Creativity takes courage.

There are always flowers for those who want to see them.

You must forget all your theories, all your ideas before the subject. What part of these is really your own will be expressed in your expression of the emotion awakened in you by the subject.

We ought to view ourselves with the same curiosity and openness with which we study a tree, the sky or a thought, because we too are linked to the entire universe.

To look at something as though we had never seen it before requires great courage.

You study, you learn, but you guard the original naïveté. It has to be within you, as desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover.

Nothing can be accomplished without love.

Exactitude is not truth.

I don't know whether I believe in God or not. I think, really, I'm some kind of a Buddhist. But the essential thing is to put oneself in a frame of mind which is close to that of prayer.

To arrive is to be in prison.

I am unable to distinguish between the feeling I have for life and my way of expressing it.

Walter Kirn

Art, art of any kind, shows that folks are trying.

Everyone loves a witch hunt as long as it's someone else's witch being hunted.

Just breathing can be such a luxury sometimes.

I still believe in love. I always will. It's my blessing and my burden.

He knows, as all the cleverest ones do, that no human being is so interesting that he can't make himself more interesting still by acting retarded at random intervals. 

I've been told my old city possesses a 'thriving arts scene,' whatever that is; personally, I think artists should lie low and stick to their work, not line-dance through the parks.

To apologize for your personal absolutes, for what Sandy Pinter calls your “Core Attachments,” means apologizing for your very existence.

Overpopulation has a ceiling: earth’s total surface area divided by the dimensions of one economy seat. One more baby is born and hello cannibalism.

Sometimes, when a person is truly lost in this world, suffocating inside her private bubble where all she can hear is her own droning heartbeat, a touch can be enough.

Love is a powerful painkiller.

Jennifer Egan

I don’t want to fade away, I want to flame away - I want my death to be an attraction, a spectacle, a mystery. A work of art.

I'm always happy," Sasha said. "Sometimes I just forget.

If I had a view like this to look down on every day, I would have the energy and inspiration to conquer the world. The trouble is, when you most need such a view, no one gives it to you

Like all failed experiments, that one taught me something I didn’t expect: one key ingredient of so-called experience is the delusional faith that it is unique and special, that those included in it are privileged and those excluded from it are missing out.

There's a fine line between thinking about somebody and thinking about not thinking about somebody, but I have the patience and the self-control to walk that line for hours - days, if I have to

Sure, everything is ending," Jules said, "but not yet.

We stand there, quiet. My questions all seem wrong: How did you get so old? Was it all at once, in a day, or did you peter out bit by bit? When did you stop having parties? Did everyone else get old too, or was it just you? Are other people still here, hiding in the palm trees or holding their breath underwater? When did you last swim your laps? Do your bones hurt? Did you know this was coming and hide that you knew, or did it ambush you from behind.

Baltasar Gracián

Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.

A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.

Never compete with someone who has nothing to lose.

The best skill at cards is knowing when to discard.

A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one.

Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.

Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.

Two kinds of people are good at foreseeing danger: those who have learned at their own expense, and the clever people who learn a great deal at the expense of others.

It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterward.

One should cultivate good habits of memory, for it is capable of making existence a Paradise or an Inferno.