Quote of the Day

...to be a teacher is to continue a certain kind of family line for people who don't have families.

-- Lynda Barry, "How Non-Artists Can Draw: Comics Great Lynda Barry on Teaching Creativity"

Quote of the Day

A small child typically laughs more than four hundred times each day, and an adult -- seventeen times. 

-- Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project, p. 259

Quote of the Day

If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.

-- Jack Kornfield, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, p. 28

Quote of the Day

In order for connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seen -- really seen.

-- Brene Brown

Quote of the Day

When he's not shooting a film, most of [Woody] Allen's creative energy goes toward mentally working out the problems of a new story.  This is the hard part; once he's satisfied with the story elements, the writing itself comes easy (and the filmmaking is mostly a chore).  But to get the story right requires "obsessive thinking," Allen has said.

-- Mason Currey, Daily Rituals, p. 120

Quote of the Day

In the nineteenth century, the central moral challenge was slavery.  In the twentieth century, it was the battle against totalitarianism.  We believe that in this century the paramount moral challenge will be the struggle for gender equality in the developing world.

-- Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

Quote of the Day

Beauty is a miracle of things going together imperfectly.

-- Anne Lamott, Stitches, p. 82-83

Quote of the Day

I don’t think there’s any other reason we have art than to save us, the way our liver is there to keep us alive. I have come to regard the arts as external organs. They have always been as critical to me as my kidneys are. It’s like a dialysis machine you draw yourself.

-- Lynda Barry, "How Non-Artists Can Draw: Comics Great Lynda Barry on Teaching Creativity"

Quote of the Day

We can be spacious, yet full of loving kindness; full of compassion, yet serene.  Live like the strings of a fine instrument -- not too taut and not too loose.

-- Jack Kornfield, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, p. 27

Quote of the Day

Audiences not only want to stumble across great work, but they, too, long to be creative and part of the creative process.  By letting go of our egos and sharing our process, we allow for the possibility of people having an ongoing connection with us and our work, which helps us move more of our product.

-- Austin Kleon, Show Your Work!, p. 38

Quote of the Day

The least strained and most natural ways of the soul are the most beautiful; the best occupations are the least forced.

-- Michel de Montaigne

Quote of the Day

It almost seems as though a writer's works, like the water in an artesian well, mount to a height which is in proportion to the depth to which suffering has penetrated his heart.

-- Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past

Quote of the Day

It appears that more girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century.

-- Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

Quote of the Day

People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quote of the Day

Pat [Mitchell] said to me, "Kerry I've worked with TED for a really long time, no man has ever said to me, I'm not ready to speak. But for TEDxWomen, you are part of a long list of women who have denied me by saying they're not ready."  I realized what that meant is, we as women put ourselves in this situation of feeling like we can't take a risk.  Like in order to step out there we have to be perfect because we're scared that if we don't say the right thing, or do the right thing, it will reflect poorly on ourselves and our community whether that be women, people of color, both. … I'm telling on myself because I didn't [speak] … I don't do that often, but when I do, I know that it's not good for me and it's not good for other women.  We each need to not be afraid to take risks. We need to be willing to be uncomfortable, to be flawed, to be imperfect, to own our voice, to step into our light, so we can continue to inspire other people and employ other people and make room for more and more voices and presence.
 
-- Kerry Washington, "Kerry Washington Stuns in First Post-Baby Appearance, Fangirls Over 'Frozen'"

Quote of the Day

Spiritual life should include a great measure of common sense.

-- Jack Kornfield, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, p. 26

Quote of the Day

I read the obituaries every morning ... Reading about people who are dead now and did things with their lives makes me want to get up and do something decent with mine.  Thinking about death every morning makes me want to live.

-- Austin Kleon, Show Your Work!, p. 27

Quote of the Day

An atmosphere of growth brings great happiness, but at the same time, happiness sometimes also comes when you're free from the pressure to see much growth.  That's not surprising; often, the opposite of a great truth is also true.

-- Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project, p. 231

Quote of the Day

There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time of rising and going to bed every day, and the beginning of every bit of work, are subjects of express volitional deliberation.

-- William James, Psychology: A Briefer Course

Quote of the Day

Justice is not a gift; it's a lifestyle, a commitment to the Jewish concept of tikkun olam -- "repairing the world."

-- Rachel Held Evans, A Year of Biblical Womanhood, p. 227

Quote of the Day

People like to say that it -- significance, import -- is all about the family.  But lots of people do not have rich networks of hilarious uncles and adorable cousins, who all live nearby, to help them.  Many people have truly awful families: insane, abusive, repressive.  So we work hard, we enjoy life as we can, we endure.  We try to help ourselves and one another.  We try to be more present and less petty.  Some days go better than others.  We look for solace in nature and art and maybe, if we are lucky, the quiet satisfaction of our homes.

-- Anne Lamott, Stitches, p. 4

Quote of the Day

I'm intoxicated and turned on by people who are really honest about themselves.  And so the coming-out process, given that, is a great move.  Because people know that you're sexual and that's who you like, and you're not guarded and sketchy and awkward.

-- Neil Patrick Harris

Quote of the Day

For three or four days after (my near-death experience), it was the most beautiful world.  To have gotten back in it, you know?  And I thought, if you could walk around like that all the time, to really have that awareness that it's actually going to end.  That's the trick.

-- George Saunders

Quote of the Day

We are not independent but interdependent.

-- Jack Kornfield, Buddha's Little Instruction Book, p. 25

Quote of the Day

Gratitude is important to happiness.  Studies show that consistently grateful people are happier and more satisfied with their lives; they even feel more physically healthy and spend more time exercising.  Gratitude brings freedom from envy, because when you're grateful for what you have, you're not consumed with wanting something different or something more.  That, in turn, makes it easier to live within your means and also to be generous to others.  Gratitude fosters forbearance -- it's harder to feel disappointed with someone when you're feeling grateful toward him or her.  Gratitude also connects you to the natural world, because one of the easiest things to feel grateful for is the beauty of nature.

-- Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project, p. 202-203

Quote of the Day

The more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own proper work.

-- William James, Psychology: A Briefer Course

Quote of the Day

Women should not have to pry equality from the grip of Christian men.  It should be surrendered willingly, with the humility and love of Jesus, or else we miss the once radical teaching that slaves and masters, parents and children, husbands and wives, rich and poor, healthy and sick, should "submit to one another" (Ephesians 5:21).

-- Rachel Held Evans, A Year of Biblical Womanhood, p. 219

Quote of the Day

It is not now and never was in anybody's best interest for you to be a seeker.  It's actually in everybody's worst interest.  It's not convenient for the family.  It may make them feel superficial and expendable.  You may end up looking nutty and unfocused, which does not reflect well on them.  And you may also reveal awkward family secrets, like that your parents were insane, or that they probably should have raised Yorkies instead of human children.  Your little search for meaning may keep you from going as far at your school or your company as you might otherwise have gone, if you had had a single-minded devotion to getting ahead.  Success shows the world what you're made of, and that your parents were right to all but destroy you to foster this excellence.

-- Anne Lamott, Stitches, p. 24-25