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"How can it be that I have been so blind to reality... that the walls that I put up to protect me from the deception of others could be brought down, only to leave me vulnerable to my own deceptions. How could I deceive myself... not about myself... but about this person for whom I trusted and loved... that i could subconsciously (or consciously) paint an image of that individual into something they are not... that I could see only the picture on the canvas, and not the person that had posed for the portrait..." chiphi2x "We find here a close imitation of man and manners; we see the very web and texture of society as it really exists, and as we meet it when we come into the world. If poetry has 'something more divine' in it, this savours more of humanity. We are brought acquainted with the motives and characters of mankind, imbibed our notions of virtue and vice from practical examples, and are taught a knowledge of the world through the airy medium of romance." - William Hazlitt "Bad things usually happen to forcefully slap us out of whatever stupor we are in at the time. We are supposed to start questioning our beliefs. We are supposed to figure out what is and what is not important to us. People usually don't change unless they feel sufficient pain to overcome their natural resistance to change. Change takes energy. Nothing energizes like tragedy. What suffering is usually supposed to encourage us to do is figure out how to avoid suffering in the future." "When you get what you want in your struggle for self And the world makes you king for a day, Just go to a mirror and look at yourself And see what that man has to say. For it isn't your father or mother or spouse Whose judgment upon you must pass, the fellow whose verdict counts most in your life Is the one staring back from the glass. Some people might think you're a straight-shootin' chum And call you a wonderful guy. But the man in the glass says you're only a bum If you can't look him straight in the eye. He's the fellow to please, never mind all the rest For he's with you clear to the end And you've passed your most dangerous test If the guy in the glass is your friend. You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years And get pats on the back as you pass But your final reward will be heartache and tears If you've cheated the man in the glass."--"The Man In The Glass" -Author Unknown "...God made people absolutely round, with four arms and four legs and two heads, and they would roll everywhere with terrific speed. In fact, people were so happy and powerful that God grew jealous and split them in half, with a little difference, so that now everybody keeps looking for their other half." - John Updike from Of the Farm "Didn't it ever occur to you, my dear Curle, that I knew what I was doing in leaving the facts of my life and even of my tales in the background. Explicitness, my dear fellow, is fatal to the glamour of all artistic work, robbing it of all suggestiveness, destroying all illusion. You seem to believe in literalness and explicitness, in facts and in expression. Yet nothing is more clear than the utter insignificance of explicit statements and also its power to call attention away from things that matter in the region of art." - Joseph Conrad…Heart of Darkness "I was listening, and I could hear that I was being judged intelligent. But I couldn't quite understand how an ordinary man's good qualities could become crushing accusations against a guilty man. At least that was what struck me, and I stopped listening to the prosecutor until I heard him say, "Has he so much as expressed any remorse?…." - The Stranger by Albert Camus "Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known." Winnie-the-Pooh "It takes only a minute to get a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone, but it takes a lifetime to forget someone. There are moments in life when you miss someone so much that you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real." "After awhile you learn the subtle difference between holding a hand and chaining a soul, And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning and company doesn't mean security, And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts and presents aren't promises, And you begin to accept your defeats with your head up and your eyes open, with the grace of an adult, not the grief of a child, And you learn to build all your roads on today because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for paths. After awhile you learn that even sunshine burns if you get too much. So plant your garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers. And you learn that you really can endure... That you really are strong, And you really do have worth." -Veronica A. Shoffstall "I am only one, But still I am one. I cannot do everything, But still I can do something; And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do." - Edward Everett "At a certain point, everything just becomes too much to process, and your brain gets taken out of the loop, and all you have to rely on is your heart, your natural human instincts. It's liberating... not at first of course, at first it's terrifying, like falling... but that's the point, isn't it?" "Life isn't about keeping score. It's not about how many people call you and it's not about who you've dated, are dating, or haven't dated at all. It isn't about who you've kissed, what sport you play, or which guy or girl likes you. It's not about your shoes or your hair or the color of your skin or where you live or go to school. In fact, it's not about grades, money, clothes, or colleges that accept you or not. Life isn't about if you have lots of friends, or if you are alone, and it's not about how accepted or unaccepted you are. Life just isn't about that. But life is about who you love and who you hurt. It's about how you feel about yourself. It's about trust, happiness, and compassion. It's about sticking up for your friends and replacing inner hate with love. Life is about avoiding jealousy, overcoming ignorance, and building confidence. It's about what you say and what you mean. It's about seeing people for who they are and not what they have. Most of all, it is about choosing to use your life to touch someone else's in a way that could never have been achieved otherwise. These choices are what life's about." -Nike ad "When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so regretfully upon the closed door that we don't see the one that has opened for us." -Alexander Graham Bell "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain "Did it ever occur to you that you're so caught up in trying to make the right choice that you've never stopped to consider the possibility that there may not be a right choice, or a wrong choice, just a bunch of choices?" "At times I just sit and think, wondering where all the people are, all the people I've ever met. I wonder what they are doing, how they are doing, and I wonder if I'm the only one who thinks of them." - Jay "I find it amazing that despite how different we all are, the commonalities which bind us together are nothing short of extraordinary. While personalities may differ, the experiences and lessons are often the same -- even if the outcomes or circumstances may differ slightly." - ChiPhi2x "Fear is often the chains we wear -- fear of change, fear of the unknown. It's easier to stay where you feel safe, despite your underlying unhappiness. A safety net. A cave that you can call your own. But I can't fear it anymore. At some point, you finally understand that life is too short -- you need to do what is right for you, what makes you happy -- taking the risks, the chances, jumping off that cliff, hoping that you will land safely." - ChiPhi2x "Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." -Ralph Waldo Emerson "When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. In the important decisions of personal life, we should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature." -Sigmund Freud "I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the strong." -Leo Rosten "Perhaps I know why it is man alone who laughs: He alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter."-Friedrich Nietzsche "Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there to serve some sort of purpuse, teach you a lesson, or help figure out who you are, or who you want to become. You never know who these people may be, but when you lock eyes with them, you know that very moment that they will affect your life in some profound way." "We often wrap ourselves into our own little world, looking only at the three feet of personal space that we have created for ourselves... we fail to see that there is a world outside of our own lives... that unless we open our eyes, our minds, our hearts to the potential around us... unless we are willing to take that chance and embrace the opportunities and experiences that come forth -- whether it be for love, for friendship, for fulfillment, or just for the experience -- we deprive ourselves -- we find ourselves trapped within our own little 3 foot prison cell... self-imprisonment of the soul." "Then why me? Why do I have to have every moment in my life that should be easy and fun, be judged and scrutinized? I didn’t ask for this role, y’know? I didn’t ask or want to be this different. I didn’t ask to be gay!" "Love is like closing your eyes to the sun, even though you can't see it, you can still feel it and know it's there." -an ex friend "It's a need-to-know world. Sometimes what I don't need to know, I don't want to know. And, how do you know what you need to know until you know it? You don't. But once you know it, you can't un-know it. Know what I mean? Do you know how much will happen to you in the next two years. Your heart will swell and break a hundred times…What you need right now is someone who not only understands what you're going through, but who can also go through it with you." - Dawson's Creek "There can be no relation more strange, more critical, than that between beings who know each other only with their eyes, who meet daily, yes, even hourly, eye each other with a fixed regard, and yet by some whim or freak of convention feel constrained to act like strangers. Uneasiness rules between them, unslaked curiosity, a hysterical desire to give rein to their suppressed impluse to recognize and address each other; even actually a sort of strained but mutual regard. For one human being instinctively feels respect and love for another human being so long as he does not know him well enough to judge him; and that he does not, the craving he feels is evidence." - Thomas Man from "Death in Venice" "Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Choose your words, for they become actions. Understand your actions, for they become habits. Study your habits, for they will become your character. Develop your character, for it becomes your destiny." "There is no future, there is no past; I live this moment as my last. There's only us. There's only this. Forget regret, or life is your to miss. No other road, no other way, no day but TODAY. I can't control my destiny. I trust my soul. My only goal is just to be. There's only now. There's only here. Give into love or live in fear." - Jonathan Larson "Every day the mystery of life unfolds and every night we go to sleep not quite sure we solved it. But today, I woke up sure of one thing…ME." "When is the age, or even the moment when we go from kids to being something else. I mean so much can happen in a year. People say that we're growing up to fast today. Sometimes adults make it sounds like its our fault…or at least our choice, but how can we not. We feel invincible when we know so much. One thing I do know is that we're so eager to lose our innocence and I wonder if one day we'll look back and wish we had it. When exactly do we go from being kids to being just people I'm not sure? I do know that its not about turning a certain age or graduating from school; it happens when you're not paying attention. We go from playing with our friends to playing with our friends feelings… without our knowledge or our consent. Our childhood slips away in the night, and our innocence escapes us, and we wake up one morning to find we have become who we are…" "Be yourself, what a cliché, we hear it over and over again in literature and fairy tales…songs. But we still don't get it. It might be because when we dream, we don't worry whether the dream is worthy of us, but whether we are worthy of the dream. So we lose our identities, in order to chase what we want. But, if we can stay proud of whom we are and not run from ourselves…then maybe our dreams, like the prince with the glass slipper, will come and find us..." "A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator, the smaller the fraction." - Tolstoy "Expectations, they change as we change. They're born of our biggest dreams and deepest fears. Sometimes we even inherit them. Sometimes they bring us moments we don't anticipate, the ones that make you think, and stop and take inventory. They give you a better understanding of where you're at and where you're headed, and ultimately create new expectations.. Lately I expect a lot of things, which can lead to happiness or disappointment. But regardless they'll bring me closer to the truth…" "I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary" -Henry David Thoreau (Walden, pp. 323- 324) "Maybe it's because I'm young, maybe because it's summer, but there are some days that you feel so lucky to be: where you are…when you are, and who you are. And, you can't help wondering if everyone else feels as lucky as you. When I was little I had this idea that life could be perfect… that if you were careful enough you'd never make a mistake…never be lonely…never be misunderstood…never be frightened. But it doesn't work that way. Life is big and messy, and you just have to climb in it .with your boots on, and hope for the best…like Thoreau said, heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads… and at the end of the day, I have to say that I still feel pretty lucky to be here…" "Resolve to be thyself. And know, that he who finds himself...loses his misery." "It is not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something. May I suggest that it be creating joy for others, sharing what we have for the betterment of personkind, bringing hope to the lost and love to the lonely." -Leo F. Buscaglia (1924-1998) "Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody is watching." -Mark Twain "Take action towards the fantasy world you believe in." Amy C "When the door of happiness closes, another opens, but often times we look so long at the closed door that we don't see the ones which have been opened for us." "Today. Today was a day. The world got smaller, darker. I grew more afraid. Not of what I am but of what I could be. I loosen my collar to take a breath. My eyes fade. And I see... Him. The image of perfection. His frame strong. His lips smooth. And I keep thinking. What am I so scared of... I wish I could escape the pain, but these thoughts invade my head. Bound to my memory, they're like shackles of guilt. Oh God, please set me free..." "Don't go for looks; they can deceive. Don't go for wealth; even that fades away. Go for someone who maked you smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright. Find the one that makes your heart smile." "It's true we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives." "The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything, they just make the most of everything that comes along their way." "People returning from a journey carry the distance they have traveled with them like outspread wings-until they put the key in their front door. Then the wings fold up, and they are home again, as though in the center of an impassable steel ring on the horizon. The moment they close the door behind them, they can no longer imagine they have ever been away." "Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly" Robert F Kennedy "I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more luck I have" Thomas Jefferson "And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." Abraham Lincoln "Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be, whisper words of wisdom, let it be" Lennon & McCartney " What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say." Ralph Waldo Emerson "Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody is watching." Mark Twain "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog." Archie Griffen "I learned that if you want to make it bad enough, no matter how bad it is, you can make it" Gale Sayers "Show class, have pride, and display character. If you do, winning takes care of itself." Paul "Bear" Bryant "Genius is one percent inspiration, and ninety-nine percent perspiration." Thomas edison "Confidence is a very fragile thing." Joe Monatna "Show me a guy who's affraid to look bad, and I'll show you a guy you can beat every time." Lou Brock "The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, and others willing to let them." Robert Frost "Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." Will Rogers "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart." Helen Keller "All you need is love, all you need is love, all you need is love, love is all you need." Lennon & McCartney "The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it." General H. Norman Schwarzkopf "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." Winston Churchill "If you want a place in the sun, you've got to put up with a few blisters." Abigail Von Buren 
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