"Life is a great school for the development of character, and all, through strife and struggle, vice and virtue, success and failure, are slowly but surely learning the lessons of wisdom."
~James Allen, The Mastery of Destiny

"In a relationship, we can pretend to be the same, to think the same, to feel the same, to dream the same, but there is no way that can happen. There are two dreamers with two dreams. Every dreamer is going to dream his own way. That is why we need to accept the differences that exist between two dreamers; we need to respect each other’s dream."
~Don Miguel Ruiz, The Mastery of Love

"Only what is true will survive, and that includes the concepts you have about yourself."
~Don Miguel Ruiz, The Mastery of Love

"I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something. So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life. Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it. Make your mistakes, next year and forever."
~Neil Gaiman, Make Good Art

"The most terrible and beautiful and interesting things happen in a life. For some of you, those things have already happened. Whatever happens to you belongs to you. Make it yours. Feed it to yourself even if it feels impossible to swallow. Let it nurture you, because it will."
~Cheryl Strayed, Tiny Beautiful Things

"I recommend the following course of action for those who are just beginning their careers, or for those like me, who may be reconfiguring midway through: heed the words of Robert Frost. Start with a big, fat lump in your throat, start with a profound sense of wrong, a deep homesickness, or a crazy love sickness, and run with it. If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve. Do what you love, and don't stop until you get what you love. Work as hard as you can, imagine immensities, don't compromise, and don't waste time. Start now. Not 20 years from now, not two weeks from now. Now."
~Debbie Millman, Look Both Ways: Illustrated Essays on the Intersection of Life and Design

"To my mind, the world would be a much pleasanter and more civilized place to live in, if everyone resolved to pursue whatever is closest to his heart’s desire. We would be more creative and our productivity would be vastly increased. Altogether too much emphasis, I think, is being placed on what we ought to do, rather than what we want to do."
~William J. Reilly, How To Avoid Work

"Living has yet to be generally recognized as one of the arts. Being born and growing up are such common experiences that people seldom consider what they involve. As most readers of books pass from cover to cover, realizing not at all that the letters which form the words are the product of painstaking craftsmanship and that the imposition of the type upon the page, the composition of the title-piece, the binding of the volume, are the result of centuries of study and design, so also we take as a matter of course the miracle of being alive, and the comings and goings of the men and women about us."
~Karl De Schweinitz, The Art of Helping People Out of Trouble

"Be strong, be brave, be true. Endure."
~Dave Eggers, Zeitoun

"Do the best you can and never stop."
~Stephen Wiltshire

"Suspending criticism is killing the dragon Thou Shalt. Kill him."
~Joseph Campbell, Reflections on the Art of Living

"There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread."
~Mother Teresa

"I suggest everyone stop having day jobs. Just have as many night jobs as necessary to pay for your day."
~Jared Frank, Work Magazine

"I often wonder about the relationship between pain and creating.  In the bible it says that God created the world out of darkness and chaos. In the Hebrew version, it says that God began his work out of emptiness and futility. That always seemed to answer the question for me. Although, God was able to transform darkness and chaos into something he referred to as being 'very good'. So perhaps it's our duty to be the gods of our own emptiness and transform our darkness and chaos into something 'very good'."
~Wade Ryff, to me, via email

“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”
~André Gide

"You weren't created just to get your heart broken so God could laugh about it with his friends at a cloud bar."
~Théo Burkhardt, to me

"A human being is part of a whole called by us, the Universe."
~Albert Einstein (thanks Jamie)

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."
~Robert Frost (thanks Sara)

"woman next to me, 70 maybe. reading a book called Carnal Innocence. peeped some excerpts. holy cow."
~DCM, to me, via text, regarding his flight from Oakland to LA

"How we got to be who we are and what we are today is of supreme unimportance compared with coming together to get out of the mess we have made of our world."
~Jane Goodall, when asked where she stands on Darwinism vs. creationism