"You see things; and you say, 'Why?'
But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?' "
~ George Bernard Shaw
"I ask you to use two powerful words that we all should consider using more often, WHAT IF?
What if…the world isn’t as we think it is?
What if…we were humble enough to admit our mistakes – and courageous enough to correct them?
What if…we more often did as we aspire to do?
What if…we could embrace discomfort as necessary for change?
What if…we could be more flexible and adaptable?
What if…every day we told someone that we value them?
Thinking about these [questions] is the initial step in having what I call ‘crucial conversations’ – conversations we shy (often run) away from because they may create some mental discomfort… And yet these conversations are the very ones required to overcome our apparent inability to reconcile unity with diversity, uniqueness with uniformity, certainty with curiosity. Crucial conversations, though difficult, are required if we are to hurdle a big obstacle we face on the diversity and inclusion journey – the difference between what we think we know versus what we actually know. Yes, crucial conversations are needed."
~ Steve L. Robbins
"Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities no doubt have crept in; Forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with all its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I’m an aim-well, shoot-sharp, sharp-tongued,
sharp-thinking, fast-speaking, foot-loose,
loose-tongued, let-loose, woman on the loose
loose woman. Beware, honey."
~ Sandra Cisneros
"Why am I compelled to write?... Because the world I create in the writing compensates for what the real world does not give me. By writing I put order in the world, give it a handle so I can grasp it. I write because life does not appease my appetites and anger... To become more intimate with myself and you. To discover myself, to preserve myself, to make myself, to achieve self-autonomy. To dispel the myths that I am a mad prophet or a poor suffering soul. To convince myself that I am worthy and that what I have to say is not a pile of shit... Finally I write because I'm scared of writing, but I'm more scared of not writing."
~ Gloria Anzaldua
"If you don’t remember nothing else I tell you, baby, you remember this: if you got to dance or dream or anything at all, take it a step at a time and don’t let nothing and nobody get in your way when you doing right. I ain’t saying it’s gonna be easy, but we all got a dance to do. You remember this, you hear?"
~ Shay Youngblood
"Instead of judging, start accepting yourself with all the imperfections, all the frailties, all the mistakes, all the failures. Don't ask yourself to be perfect. That is simply asking something impossible, and then you are feeling frustrated. You are a human being."
~ Osho
sharp-thinking, fast-speaking, foot-loose,
loose-tongued, let-loose, woman on the loose
loose woman. Beware, honey."
~ Sandra Cisneros
"Why am I compelled to write?... Because the world I create in the writing compensates for what the real world does not give me. By writing I put order in the world, give it a handle so I can grasp it. I write because life does not appease my appetites and anger... To become more intimate with myself and you. To discover myself, to preserve myself, to make myself, to achieve self-autonomy. To dispel the myths that I am a mad prophet or a poor suffering soul. To convince myself that I am worthy and that what I have to say is not a pile of shit... Finally I write because I'm scared of writing, but I'm more scared of not writing."
~ Gloria Anzaldua
"If you don’t remember nothing else I tell you, baby, you remember this: if you got to dance or dream or anything at all, take it a step at a time and don’t let nothing and nobody get in your way when you doing right. I ain’t saying it’s gonna be easy, but we all got a dance to do. You remember this, you hear?"
~ Shay Youngblood
"Instead of judging, start accepting yourself with all the imperfections, all the frailties, all the mistakes, all the failures. Don't ask yourself to be perfect. That is simply asking something impossible, and then you are feeling frustrated. You are a human being."
~ Osho
“I learned to make my mind large as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes. Pearls are bone marrow; pearls come from oysters. The dragon lives in the sky, ocean, marshes, and mountains; and the mountains are also its cranium. Its voice thunders and jingles like copper pans. It breathes fire and water; and sometimes the dragon is one, sometimes many.”
~ Maxine Hong Kingston
"I still can't say whether I will ever want children. I was so astonished to find that I did not want them at thirty; the remembrance of that surprise cautions me against placing any bets on how I will feel at forty. I can only say how I feel now - grateful to be on my own. I also know that I won't go forth and have children just in case I might regret missing it later in life; I don't think this is a strong enough motivation to bring more babies onto the earth. "
~ Elizabeth Gilbert
"Some days we will not know whether to laugh or cry. But trying to be everything to everyone, all the time, is a recipe for disaster. And endlessly striving for perfect balance only turns our lives into a tightrope – upon which we never dare to dance, for fear of a terrible fall.
So remember: The pages of your life belong to you. Write a story that makes you happy and proud. And someday, somewhere, a wonderful little girl will read it and say, 'I want to be just like her.' "
~ Excerpt taken from a speech by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah, Queen of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, delivered to the Women as Global Leaders Conference, Abu Dhabi, UAE, April 12, 2006
~ Maxine Hong Kingston
"I still can't say whether I will ever want children. I was so astonished to find that I did not want them at thirty; the remembrance of that surprise cautions me against placing any bets on how I will feel at forty. I can only say how I feel now - grateful to be on my own. I also know that I won't go forth and have children just in case I might regret missing it later in life; I don't think this is a strong enough motivation to bring more babies onto the earth. "
~ Elizabeth Gilbert
"Some days we will not know whether to laugh or cry. But trying to be everything to everyone, all the time, is a recipe for disaster. And endlessly striving for perfect balance only turns our lives into a tightrope – upon which we never dare to dance, for fear of a terrible fall.
So remember: The pages of your life belong to you. Write a story that makes you happy and proud. And someday, somewhere, a wonderful little girl will read it and say, 'I want to be just like her.' "
~ Excerpt taken from a speech by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah, Queen of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, delivered to the Women as Global Leaders Conference, Abu Dhabi, UAE, April 12, 2006
"The most visible creators are those artists
whose medium is life itself.
The ones who express the inexpressible -
without brush, hammer, clay, or guitar.
They neither paint nor sculpt.
Their medium is simply being.
Whatever their presence touches has increased life.
They see, but don't have to draw...
Because they are the artists of being alive."
~J. Stone
"Come closer. See how feminism can touch and change your life and all of our lives. Come closer and learn firsthand what the feminist movement is all about. Come closer and you will see: feminism is for everybody."
~ bell hooks
"Caretaking is the utmost spiritual and physical responsibility of our time, and perhaps that stewardship is finally our place in the web of life, our work, the solution to the mystery of what we are."
~ Linda Hogan
"Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success. Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success. Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream."
~ Lao Tzu
"My best advice to any young person is to write down the top ten things you want in a partner, then become that person."
~ Kriss Hakala
"Remember, we are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not. Our actions and states of mind matter because we are so deeply interconnected. Working on our own consciousness is the most important thing that we are doing at any moment, and being love is the supreme creative act."
~ Ram Dass
"Bless those who challenge us to grow,
to stretch, to move beyond the knowable,
to come back home to our essential nature.
Bless those who challenge us
for they remind us of doors we have closed
and doors we have yet to open."
~ Native American Prayer
Attributed to the Navajo Indian Tribe
"It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, 'Always do what you are afraid to do.' "
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
"There is special JOY (Just Open Yourself) in canceling plans. Canceling plans can sometimes be the most self relieving, nurturing thing you can do for yourself."
~ Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy (SARK)
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
~ Margaret Mead
"I descend down the steep bluffs to the tide pool terraces between the sea and cliffs Squatting, I stare at a sea anemone in a pocket of water on the pitted rock.
Biologically, we are a single gene pool with minor variations and superficial cultural and genetic differences; we are interconnected with all life. I prod the anemone; it shudders and shakes, contracting into a protective ball. We all respond to pain and pleasure in similar ways. Imagination, a function of the soul, has the capacity to extend us beyond the confines of our skin, situation, and condition so we can choose our responses. It enables us to reimagine our lives, rewrite the self, and create guiding myths for our times.
As I walk back home along the cliffs, a westerly wind buffeting my back, the crashing breakers scour the shoulders of the bluffs, slowly hewing out keyholes,
fledging bridges in the making."
~ Gloria Anzaldúa
"Have compassion for everyone you meet
even if they don’t want it. What seems conceit,
bad manners, or cynicism is always a sign
of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen.
You do not know what wars are going on
down there where the spirit meets the bone."
~Miller Williams
"I beg young people to travel. If you don’t have a passport, get one. Take a summer, get a backpack and go to Delhi, go to Saigon, go to Bangkok, go to Kenya. Have your mind blown. Eat interesting food. Dig some interesting people. Have an adventure. Be careful. Come back and you’re going to see your country differently, you’re going to see your president differently, no matter who it is. Music, culture, food, water. Your showers will become shorter. You’re going to get a sense of what globalization looks like. It’s not what Tom Friedman writes about; I’m sorry. You’re going to see that global climate change is very real. And that for some people, their day consists of walking 12 miles for four buckets of water. And so there are lessons that you can’t get out of a book that are waiting for you at the other end of that flight. A lot of people—Americans and Europeans—come back and go, Ohhhhh. And the light bulb goes on."
~Henry Rollins
to stretch, to move beyond the knowable,
to come back home to our essential nature.
Bless those who challenge us
for they remind us of doors we have closed
and doors we have yet to open."
~ Native American Prayer
Attributed to the Navajo Indian Tribe
"It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, 'Always do what you are afraid to do.' "
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
"There is special JOY (Just Open Yourself) in canceling plans. Canceling plans can sometimes be the most self relieving, nurturing thing you can do for yourself."
~ Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy (SARK)
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
~ Margaret Mead
"I descend down the steep bluffs to the tide pool terraces between the sea and cliffs Squatting, I stare at a sea anemone in a pocket of water on the pitted rock.
Biologically, we are a single gene pool with minor variations and superficial cultural and genetic differences; we are interconnected with all life. I prod the anemone; it shudders and shakes, contracting into a protective ball. We all respond to pain and pleasure in similar ways. Imagination, a function of the soul, has the capacity to extend us beyond the confines of our skin, situation, and condition so we can choose our responses. It enables us to reimagine our lives, rewrite the self, and create guiding myths for our times.
As I walk back home along the cliffs, a westerly wind buffeting my back, the crashing breakers scour the shoulders of the bluffs, slowly hewing out keyholes,
fledging bridges in the making."
~ Gloria Anzaldúa
"Have compassion for everyone you meet
even if they don’t want it. What seems conceit,
bad manners, or cynicism is always a sign
of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen.
You do not know what wars are going on
down there where the spirit meets the bone."
~Miller Williams
"I beg young people to travel. If you don’t have a passport, get one. Take a summer, get a backpack and go to Delhi, go to Saigon, go to Bangkok, go to Kenya. Have your mind blown. Eat interesting food. Dig some interesting people. Have an adventure. Be careful. Come back and you’re going to see your country differently, you’re going to see your president differently, no matter who it is. Music, culture, food, water. Your showers will become shorter. You’re going to get a sense of what globalization looks like. It’s not what Tom Friedman writes about; I’m sorry. You’re going to see that global climate change is very real. And that for some people, their day consists of walking 12 miles for four buckets of water. And so there are lessons that you can’t get out of a book that are waiting for you at the other end of that flight. A lot of people—Americans and Europeans—come back and go, Ohhhhh. And the light bulb goes on."
~Henry Rollins
"Your present circumstances don't determine
where you can go; they merely determine where you start."
~ Nido Qubein
"There will always be dreams grander or humbler than your own, but there will never be a dream exactly like your own... for you are unique and more wondrous than you know!"
~ Linda Staten
"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now. "
~ Goethe
“Why Dream?
Life is a difficult assignment. We are fragile creatures, expected to function at high rates of speed, and asked to accomplish great and small things each day. These daily activities take enormous amounts of energy. Most things are out of our control. We are surrounded by danger, frustration, grief, and insanity as well as love, hope, ecstasy, and wonder. Being fully human is an exercise in humility, suffering, grace, and great humor. Things and people all around us die, get broken, or are lost. There is no safety or guarantees.
The way to accomplish the assignment of truly living is to engage fully, richly, and deeply in the living of your dreams. We are made to dream and to live those dreams.”
~ Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy (SARK)
where you can go; they merely determine where you start."
~ Nido Qubein
"There will always be dreams grander or humbler than your own, but there will never be a dream exactly like your own... for you are unique and more wondrous than you know!"
~ Linda Staten
"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now. "
~ Goethe
“Why Dream?
Life is a difficult assignment. We are fragile creatures, expected to function at high rates of speed, and asked to accomplish great and small things each day. These daily activities take enormous amounts of energy. Most things are out of our control. We are surrounded by danger, frustration, grief, and insanity as well as love, hope, ecstasy, and wonder. Being fully human is an exercise in humility, suffering, grace, and great humor. Things and people all around us die, get broken, or are lost. There is no safety or guarantees.
The way to accomplish the assignment of truly living is to engage fully, richly, and deeply in the living of your dreams. We are made to dream and to live those dreams.”
~ Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy (SARK)
“My relationship with my mom is really the single most profound relationship that I’ve ever had in my life. I said to her, ‘Mom, I’m going to be so lonely without you. And she just said, ‘You have to be your own best friend. If you always remember that, you will always have someone there with you.’”
~ Mindy Kaling