“To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”
The Courage to Be Yourself: E.E. Cummings on Art, Life, and Being Unafraid to Feel
“To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight.”
“The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,”
~from “Forgetfulness” by Billy Collin’s
Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.
~Dorothy Parker, Resume
“For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there's something stronger, something better, pushing right back.”
~Albert Camus
“Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!”
~from If We Must Die by Claude McKay
“I loved you in the morning
Our kisses deep and warm
Your hair upon the pillow
Like a sleepy golden storm
Yes many loved before us
I know that we are not new.”
~Leonard Cohen
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
~from “The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
~Langston Hughes, “Dreams”
“Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don't let yourself lose me.”
~Rilke
“Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting–over and over announcing your place in the family of things.”
~from “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver
“With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.”
~from “Desiderata: Words for Life” by Max Enhrmann
