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48 Best Maya Angelou Quotes To Inspire Your Life
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48 Best Maya Angelou Quotes To Inspire Your Life

Maya Angelou was one of America's most beloved and celebrated poets and authors, with dozens of awards and over 50 honorary degrees attesting to her inspirational role at the center of American life. In 1993, she was invited to recite her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at Bill Clinton's inauguration, making her the first poet since 1961 to deliver an inaugural recitation. Her lifetime of achievement was rewarded in 2000 when she received the National Medal of Arts, and in 2010 President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the country's highest honors.RELATED: Why Maya Angelou Stopped Speaking - and How She Found a Voice that Changed the WorldThe famed author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), the first of her seven autobiographies for which she became known, lived a long and storied life. We know her well as a memoirist, essayist and poet, who authored several books of poetry, three books of essays, and a list of plays, movies, and television shows. She was also a journalist who worked in Africa, a historian, songwriter, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer and singer. And as an activist, she was one of the Civil Rights Movement's most prominent women, who worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, and devoted her life to being a tireless voice for women and black people -- and for an openhearted vision of humanity where all could find their place. On May 28, 2014, the great Maya Angelou passed away at the age of 86, leaving a legacy that will surely be cherished for many decades to come.We've gathered 25 of Maya Angelou's most powerful and insightful quotes, hoping that it injects a hearty dose of beauty and inspiration into your day. Enjoy!The Best Maya Angelou Quotes About CourageCourage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.I got my own back. RELATED: Maya Angelou’s Inspirational Life Celebrated on 94th Birthday – Named First Black Woman on U.S. QuarterCourage – you develop courage by doing small things like just as if you wouldn’t want to pick up a 100-pound weight without preparing yourself. You may shoot me with your words,You may cut me with your eyes,You may kill me with your hatefulness,But still, like air, I'll riseThe Best Maya Angelou Quotes About SuccessYou can only become truly accomplished at something you love.I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass.If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it. Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.The Best Maya Angelou Quotes About Life & LoveI’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.If you're always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away.I work very hard, and I play very hard. I’m grateful for life. And I live it – I believe life loves the liver of it. I live it. Determine to live life with flair and laughter. Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.Photo via MayaAngelou.comI've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?I am a WomanPhenomenally.Phenomenal Woman,that's me.Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls.Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too. The Best Maya Angelou Quotes About Art & BeautyPhoto via MayaAngelou.comWe delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.In diversity there is beauty and there is strength.I believe in living a poetic life, an art full life. Everything we do from the way we raise our children to the way we welcome our friends is part of a large canvas we are creating.When members of a society wish to secure that society's rich heritage they cherish their arts and respect their artists. The esteem with which we regard the multiple cultures offered in our country enhances our possibilities for healthy survival and continued social development.Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.Find a beautiful piece of art. If you fall in love with Van Gogh or Matisse or John Oliver Killens, or if you fall love with the music of Coltrane, the music of Aretha Franklin, or the music of Chopin - find some beautiful art and admire it, and realize that that was created by human beings just like you, no more human, no less.The Best Maya Angelou Quotes About CreativityIf one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. Creativity or talent, like electricity, is something I don't understand but something I'm able to harness and use. While electricity remains a mystery, I know I can plug into it and light up a cathedral or a synagogue or an operating room and use it to help save a life. Or I can use it to electrocute someone. Like electricity, creativity makes no judgment. I can use it productively or destructively. The important thing is to use it. You can’t use up creativity. The more you use it, the more you have.The Maya Angelou Quarter (Image: U.S. Mint)Everybody born comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory. We come from the Creator with creativity. I think that each one of us is born with creativity.We are all creative, but by the time we are three of four years old, someone has knocked the creativity out of us. Some people shut up the kids who start to tell stories. Kids dance in their cribs, but someone will insist they sit still. By the time the creative people are ten or twelve, they want to be like everyone else.I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.Though we are many, each of us is achingly alone, piercingly alone. Only when we confess our confusion can we remember that he was a gift to us and we did have him. He came to us from the creator, trailing creativity in abundance. Despite the anguish, his life was sheathed in mother love, family love, and survived and did more than that. He thrived with passion and compassion, humor and style. We had him whether we know who he was or did not know, he was ours and we were his.Maya Angelou Quotes About Knowledge & WisdomPhoto via MayaAngelou.comWhen someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn. I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.We are only as blind as we want to be. I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one.There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.

18 Memorable Leo Tolstoy Quotes that Explore All Life’s Aspects
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18 Memorable Leo Tolstoy Quotes that Explore All Life’s Aspects

Best known for his two longest works, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy (in full Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy) was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time.Born in 1828, Leo Tolstoy came from an aristocratic Russian family, and though you probably imagine him living a luxurious life, he rather experienced a painful one. His mother died before he was two years old, his father when he was 9, and his grandmother passed away shortly after his father.Tragedy didn’t stop there. His next guardian also died in 1941 so he was transferred to the care of another aunt.Despite being surrounded by the death of his loved ones, Leo tried to preserve the happiest moments from his childhood. His much appreciated work is often described as a piece of life and he was known to be the type that would gaze into one’s eyes just to understand their unspoken thoughts.Tolstoy had a profound influence on other great personalities like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.Here are 18 Leo Tolstoy quotes that explore all life’s aspects.Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them.If you want to be happy, be.Rummaging in our souls, we often dig up something that ought to have lain there unnoticed.If you look for perfection, you'll never be content.You can love a person dear to you with a human love, but an enemy can only be loved with divine love.Let us forgive each other – only then will we live in peace.If one loves anyone, one loves the whole person, just as they are and not as one would like them to be…I often think that men don't understand what is noble and what is ignorant, though they always talk about it.The changes in our life must come from the impossibility to live otherwise to the demands of our conscience not from our mental resolution to try a new form of life.Each person’s task in life is to become an increasingly better person.It's not given to people to judge what's right or wrong. People have eternally been mistaken and will be mistaken, and in nothing more than in what they consider right and wrong.There is no greatness where simplicity, goodness, and truth are absent.In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you!

The Best Mark Twain Quotes on Life, Travel, Politics, Education, Truth and Love
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The Best Mark Twain Quotes on Life, Travel, Politics, Education, Truth and Love

An adventurer and one of the most influential writers of America, Mark Twain is the author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 28 other books, and a great number of essays. RELATED: 100 Motivational Quotes to Help You Rise AboveBorn Nov. 30, 1835, as Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Twain was also a journalist, a humorist, an entrepreneur and a riverboat pilot.Famous Mark Twain QuotesGreat enough to be read long after his passing, his popularity speaks volume of his talent. Here is a selection of the best quotes from the legend himself.Wrinkles should merely indicate where the smiles have been.Loyalty to the Nation all the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man.It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it.It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear.Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits. Fanatics will never learn that, though it be written in letters of gold across the sky. It is the prohibition that makes anything precious,Mark Twain Sayings About TravelPhoto by A.F. Bradley (courtesy of the Library of Congress)Here are some the author's quotes about travel, which may just inspire you to travel around the globe!Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime..There is no unhappiness like the misery of sighting land (and work) again after a cheerful, careless voyage.The gentle reader will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become until he goes abroad.RELATED: 50 Inspirational Quotes to Uplift and MotivateIt liberates the vandal to travel––you never saw a bigoted, opinionated, stubborn, narrow-minded, self-conceited, almighty mean man in your life but he had stuck in one place since he was born and thought God made the world and dyspepsia and bile for his especial comfort and satisfaction.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 harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.The secret of success is making your vocation your vacation.They spell it da Vinci and pronounce it da Vinchy. Foreigners always spell better than they pronounce.One must travel, to learn. Every day, now, old Scriptural phrases that never possessed any significance for me before, take to themselves a meaning.We wish to learn all the curious, outlandish ways of all the different countries, so that we can "show off" and astonish people when we get home. We wish to excite the envy of our untraveled friends with our strange foreign fashions which we can't shake off.Travel has no longer any charm for me. I have seen all the foreign countries I want to except heaven & hell & I have only a vague curiosity about one of those.Funny Mark Twain QuotesPhoto by A.F. Bradley (courtesy of the Library of Congress)Twain was lauded as the “greatest humorist the United States has produced,” and if this doesn’t speak volumes for itself, then we don’t know what will. His humor is second to none, which is evident in his writings. Check some of his funny, all while smiling and basking into the light full of positivity.There are no people who are quite so vulgar as the over-refined.When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.The only very marked difference between the average civilized man and the average savage is that the one is gilded and the other is painted.Laughter without a tinge of philosophy is but a sneeze of humor. Genuine humor is replete with wisdom.The funniest things are forbidden.RELATED: 50 The Princess Bride Quotes About Life and True LoveMan is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.English humor is hard to appreciate, though, unless you are trained to it. The English papers, in reporting my speeches, always put 'laughter' in the wrong place.Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.I did not attend his funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.God created war so that Americans would learn geography.What would men be without women? Scarce, sir...mighty scarce.Mark Twain Sayings About LifeCan you inspire someone through mere words? It might sound easy, but is way harder than it seems. Here are quotes about never giving up on yourself.Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.RELATED: 70+ Wise and Memorable Lord of the Rings QuotesClothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.There is a great deal of human nature in people.The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.What do we call love, hate, charity, revenge, humanity, forgiveness? Different results of the master impulse, the necessity of securing one's self-approval.Give every day the chance to become the most beautiful day of your life.Mark Twain Quotes About EducationPhoto by Charles E. Bolles (courtesy of the Library of Congress)It is not hard to comprehend the importance of education in an individual life. But what makes it even more important is how it can help you stand a league apart from others. RELATED: 23 Ian McKellen Quotes on Acting and Being HonestHere are some hand-picked quotes about education to put more light on the importance of education and to inspire you. Just in case you feel like giving up on education any time soon, or if you are feeling low because of bad grades, Twain has plenty of answers for you!Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.It is noble to teach oneself, but still nobler to teach others — and less trouble.The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.′Classic′ - a book which people praise and don't read.I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.Books are for people who wish they were somewhere else.Education: the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty.I was educated once - it took me years to get over it.A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read.Mark Twain's Thoughts About LovePhoto by Theodore C. Marceau (courtesy of the Library of Congress)Having a bad day? Missing your beloved? Feeling unloved? These emotions are hard to absorb and even more difficult to let go, because they might make you feel empty within. RELATED: 30 Encouraging Quotes That Will Motivate You to Keep GoingEnjoy the following Mark Twain quotes about love, which may put a smile on your face, even if you are not feeling your best today. They can inspire you to move through life with greater confidence, knowing that there is more to life than meeting the approval of others. How much more do we need to say? Enjoy! Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option.Wrinkles should merely indicate where the smiles have been.The trouble is not in dying for a friend, but in finding a friend worth dying for.The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself.Life is short, Break the Rules. Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly. Love truly. Laugh uncontrollably And never regret ANYTHING That makes you smile.When you fish for love, bait with your heart, not your brain.Love is not a product of reasonings and statistics. It just comes-none knows whence-and cannot explain itself.If you want love and abundance in your life, give it away.You can't reason with your heart; it has its own laws, and thumps about things which the intellect scorns.Man will do many things to get himself loved, he will do all things to get himself envied.Don't wake up a woman in love. Let her dream, so that she does not weep when she returns to her bitter reality.Don't wake up a woman in love. Let her dream, so that she does not weep when she returns to her bitter reality.Mark Twain Sayings About TruthFrom the George Grantham Bain Collection (courtesy of the Library of Congress)What is Truth? The sun rises from the east and sets in the west, is it the truth? From our perspective, perhaps. But it’s important to keep in mind that from another perspective, the sun never rises or sets. It’s the Earth that revolves. RELATED: 30 Inspirational Quotes for Work to Unlock Your Full PotentialHere are a few Mark Twain quotes about the concept of Truth. Much of it these quotes are much more than that now - many consider them to belong to the great cannon of common wisdom.A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.The best of all the lost arts is honesty.Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; truth isn’t.A clear conscience is the sure sign of a bad memory.Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, then success is sure.Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.All of us contain Music and Truth, but most of us can't get it out.No real gentleman will tell the naked truth in the presence of ladies.Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.Mark Twain's Memorable Words of AdvicePhoto by TE Marr (courtesy of the Library of Congress)Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.Never refuse to do a kindness unless the act would work great injury to yourself, and never refuse to take a drink — under any circumstances.Always obey your parents, when they are present. Most parents think they know more than you do; and you can generally make more by humoring that superstition than you can by acting on your own better judgement.A person with a new idea is a crank until that idea succeeds.Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.When your watch gets out of order you have a choice of two things to do: throw it in the fire or take it to the watch-tinker. The former is the quickest.KEEP READING: 135 Best Friend Quotes That Show the True Meaning of Friendship

Develop Resilience With These 17 Charles Bukowski Quotes
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Develop Resilience With These 17 Charles Bukowski Quotes

Charles Bukowski was a prolific American-German author and poet, noted for his unsparingly realistic and graphic writings depicting the social and cultural ambiance he lived in.Bukowski grew up as a socially withdrawn adolescent. Living in a family with an abusive father that used to beat him with a razor strap three times a week turned him into a shy and enraged young man. Nonetheless, Bukowski said the undeserved pain and depression served him as inspiration for his writings.His stories tackle relationships, alcohol, the lives of poor Americans, work and the act of writing. They often revolve around the life of his alter ego Henry Chinaski – an alcoholic writer, womanizing misanthrope who loves classical music.Bukowski wrote a great number of poems and short stories and six novels. His work was so popular that he became one of the best-known American authors.Here are 17 Charles Bukowski quotes to help you develop resilience.Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.People with no morals often considered themselves more free, but mostly they lacked the ability to feel or love.What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I'm not going to make it, but you laugh inside — remembering all the times you've felt that way.If you're losing your soul and you know it, then you've still got a soul left to lose.What is terrible is not death but the lives people live or don't live up until their death.We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.You have to die a few times before you can really live.You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn't. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.If you're going to try, go all the way. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.Find what you love and let it kill you.We don’t even ask happiness, just a little less pain.Things get bad for all of us, almost continually, and what we do under the constant stress reveals who/what we are.Some people like what you do, some people hate what you do, but most people simply don’t give a damn.If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.

30 James Baldwin Quotes to Bring you Closer to Humanity
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30 James Baldwin Quotes to Bring you Closer to Humanity

Born in 1924, James Baldwin was an American essayist, novelist, playwright and social critic. He became an important voice through writing passionately about racial discrimination, spirituality and humanity.Baldwin’s writings approach social issues and the psychological pressure affecting African Americans and individuals with different sexual orientations, a then-taboo subject. Baldwin explores another controversial subject – interracial relationships -- in his novel Another Country.Baldwin was born to a young single mother and never knew the identity of his biological father. When James was three years old, his mother married a Baptist minister named David Baldwin. The author discovered his passion for reading at an early age, but at first he followed his stepfather’s footsteps and served as a youth minister.However, when he was in high school he got the chance to work on the school’s magazine where he published numerous poems and short stories. Things appeared to go in the right direction for the young author, but his family struggled with poverty more and more so he had to put his plans for college on hold and dedicate his time working all sorts of jobs to support his younger siblings.Due to constant rejection from employers, Baldwin nearly lost all hope on becoming a black artist. That was until he met Beauford Delaney – a renowned painter that later became his mentor.As a victim of racism, Baldwin became an active participant in the civil rights struggle. The assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., pushed the author into using a more strident tone in his later work called No Name in the Street.Some of Baldwin’s best work includes The Fire Next Time, The Devil Finds Work, Nobody Knows my Name and Remember this House – which is an unfinished manuscript that forms the basis of the documentary film I Am Not Your Negro.An advocate for equity and acceptance, Baldwin died in December 1987.Here are 30 James Baldwin quotes to bring you closer to humanity:Please try to remember that what they believe, as well as what they do and cause you to endure does not testify to your inferiority but to their inhumanity.I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do.I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply; by the lives they lead.If you're treated a certain way you become a certain kind of person. If certain things are described to you as being real they're real for you whether they're real or not.You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated, and this was an immutable law.The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.Nakedness has no color: this can come as news only to those who have never covered, or been covered by, another naked human being.Love takes off the masks we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.People can cry much easier than they can change.Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind.Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle. Love is a war. Love is growing up.People can’t, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers and their friends, any more than they can invent their parents. Life gives these and also takes them away and the great difficulty is to say ‘Yes’ to life.A liberal: someone who thinks he knows more about your experience than you do.All I know about music is that not many people ever really hear it. And even then, on the rare occasions when something opens within, and the music enters, what we mainly hear, or hear corroborated, are personal, private, vanishing evocations.You have to decide who you are and force the world to deal with you, not with its idea of you.To accept one’s past—one’s history—is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it. An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life like clay in a season of drought.People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned.Love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters?It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.The purpose of education…is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions.To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the making of bread.There are so many ways of being despicable it quite makes one’s head spin. But the way to be really despicable is to be contemptuous of other people’s pain.Everybody’s journey is individual. If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality.Precisely at the point when you begin to develop a conscience, you must find yourself at war with your society.Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.

Increase your Appetite for Life with these 18 Hunter S. Thompson Quotes
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Increase your Appetite for Life with these 18 Hunter S. Thompson Quotes

A fearless American author, Hunter S. Thompson is the creator of the genre known as “Gonzo journalism,” which was basically his own style of reporting and ended up turning him into a counterculture icon.Thompson was born to be wild, and always had a distaste for authority. Ever since he was a child, the journalist built himself a reputation as a hooligan, getting arrested a few times. His habit of getting into trouble was also highlighted by alcohol and drug use.His career as a journalist started while serving in the United States Air Force, but Thompson had shown great writing skills at a young age. While traveling the country to write for numerous magazines, he developed his own writing style, which he would use in his famous book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream.Hunter S. Thompson is also the author of The Rum Diary, an autobiographical novel that was initially rejected by publishers. After seeing publication, the book became a national bestseller and was later turned into a movie starring Johnny Depp.Here are 18 Hunter S. Thompson quotes that will make you enjoy life to the fullest.A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled.I was not proud of what I had learned but I never doubted that it was worth knowing.Some people will tell you that slow is good – but I’m here to tell you that fast is better.Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.Freedom is something that dies unless it's used.Some may never live, but the crazy never die.I don’t see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.Weird behavior is natural in smart children, like curiosity is to a kitten.So we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?We cannot expect people to have respect for law and order until we teach respect to those we have entrusted to enforce those laws.The edge… there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is the ones who have gone over.In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.Morality is temporary, wisdom is permanent.The greatest mania of all is passion: and I am a natural slave to passion.Too weird to live, too rare to die!Never turn your back on fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed.

20 Stephen King Quotes that Will Scare Your Fear Away
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20 Stephen King Quotes that Will Scare Your Fear Away

Stephen King has a lot to be proud of. He is the author of Carrie, The Shining, The Shawshank Redemption, and IT – and those are just a few of his great horror and fantasy books that were adapted for film and TV.Stephen King has always wanted to be a writer. Ever since he was a child, he started sketching stories, and, by the time he was in high-school, he was writing for a weekly newspaper.However, when King finally wrote the first three pages of Carrie, he was rather disgusted with the result and threw them away. Luckily, his wife found them and encouraged him to continue the story. The book became a horror classic and launched the career of one of the most prolific authors.Here are 20 Stephen King quotes to help you step out of the darkness and chase your wildest dreams.The scariest moment is always just before you start.Remember, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.Get busy living or get busy dying.You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.I think that we're all mentally ill. Those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better -- and maybe not all that much better after all.Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.We lie best when we lie to ourselves.Alone, yes, that's the key word, the most awful word in the English tongue. Murder doesn't hold a candle to it and hell is only a poor synonym.We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.It was the possibility of darkness that made the day seem so bright.Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.The trust of the innocent is the liar's most useful tool.There's no harm in hoping for the best as long as you're prepared for the worst.Just remember that Dumbo didn't need the feather; the magic was in him.You can't deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.People who try hard to do the right thing always seem mad.We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why.Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.Don't let the sun go down without saying thank you to someone, and without admitting to yourself that absolutely no one gets this far alone.The only mortal sin is giving up.

25 Anne Frank Quotes that Will Restore your Hope
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25 Anne Frank Quotes that Will Restore your Hope

Anne Frank is one of the most discussed and famous victims of the Holocaust. The Jewish teenager journaled her World War II experiences in a diary that later became one of the most widely read books in the world.In 1940, after Germany invaded the Netherlands, Anne and her family couldn’t leave the country, so they decided to hide in a warehouse in an attempt to escape the persecution of Jews by the Nazis.For over two years, Anne wrote in her diary with an awareness that was extremely mature for her age. She detailed her experiences and insights while she and her family were in hiding, living in a constant fear of being arrested. Anne Frank’s diary is a record of her understanding of the war, and showcases her incredible storytelling abilities in such horrific circumstances.In 1944, the Franks were found and sent to concentration camps. Anne died before she turned 16, and her father, Otto Frank, was the only family member to survive the Holocaust. After the War, Otto returned to Amsterdam, where he found his daughter’s diary and later published it as The Diary of a Young Girl.Here are 25 Anne Frank quotes that will bring light into your darkest moments.How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.No one has ever become poor by giving.Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God.I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.People can tell you to keep your mouth shut, but that doesn't stop you from having your own opinion.In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit.Where there's hope, there's life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again.Whoever is happy will make others happy.Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness.As long as this exists, this sunshine and this cloudless sky, and as long as I can enjoy it, how can I be sad?There's only one rule you need to remember: laugh at everything and forget everybody else! It sound egotistical, but it's actually the only cure for those suffering from self-pity.Those who have courage and faith shall never perish in misery.The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!Dead people receive more flowers than the living ones because regret is stronger than gratitude.Sympathy, love, fortune... We all have these qualities but still tend to not use them!I can't imagine how anyone can say: ‘I'm weak’, and then remain so. After all, if you know it, why not fight against it, why not try to train your character?I think it's odd that grown-ups quarrel so easily and so often and about such petty matters. Up to now I always thought bickering was just something children did and that they outgrew it.An empty day, though clear and bright, is just as dark as any night.The young are not afraid of telling the truth.Whoever doesn't know it must learn and find by experience that 'a quiet conscience makes one strong!'I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same.

65 Great Rumi Quotes To Give You A More Positive Outlook On Life
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65 Great Rumi Quotes To Give You A More Positive Outlook On Life

Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi was a Persian poet, an Islamic dervish and a Sufi mystic. His discipline and wisdom have crossed all national and ethnic borders ever since the 13th century.Almost everyone has heard or read some Rumi quotes on life at some point. Rumi is seen as a great spiritual master and poet. His work influenced and inspired many other artists, and kept many people sane up to this day.Rumi was a jurist and religion teacher until the age of 37, when he met a wandering dervish named Shams Tabrizi. He soon became Rumi’s spiritual mentor and intimate friend and eventually changed the course of his life.Their friendship lasted for about three years until Shams mysteriously disappeared. It is rumored that one of Rumi’s sons murdered him because he was jealous of their close relationship. Rumi was devastated by the loss of his beloved friend, but used his pain as inspiration for writing poems where Shams is mentioned with great reverence.RELATED: 150 Meaningful Spiritual Quotes About Love, Life and HealingRumi’s poetry is a reflection on nature’s beauty, a song, a dance, an idea, a feeling… anything that makes us human, everything we’re able to see with our eyes open or shut. Below you will find a lot of Rumi love quotes that prove how spiritual and intense his poems are. He is among the poets that show us the importance of every experience, be it good or bad.Rumi’s work continues to resonate and today, his tomb draws dervish followers and heads of state each year for a ceremony that marks the anniversary of his death. Rumi's thought-provoking and meaningful words are worth keeping in mind, and if you're in doubt, this collection of Rumi quotes will prove it.The Most Inspiring Rumi QuotesAnyone who’s read Rumi’s words will understand just how inspiring his messages can be. In just a few words, he was able to draw out powerful emotions and force his reader to think about life in the most meaningful way. Using simple analogies and in a direct yet somehow comforting way, he makes you realize the positive hidden inside the negative. The following Rumi quotes will inspire you to see the light where you think there’s only darkness.If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you. Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion. Set your life on fire.Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone's soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.When I am with you, we stay up all night. When you're not here, I can't go to sleep. Praise God for those two insomnias! And the difference between them.What you seek is seeking you.Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it.Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.Love sometimes wants to do us a great favor: hold us upside down and shake all the nonsense out.You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.RELATED: 25 Quotes to Make You Feel Absolutely InvincibleYesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.Whoever finds love beneath hurt and grief disappears into emptiness with a thousand new disguises.You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?Be like a tree and let the dead leaves drop.Don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.Everything that is made beautiful and fair and lovely is made for the eye of one who sees.The rose's rarest essence lives in the thorns.Why should I be unhappy? Every parcel of my being is in full bloom.Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.Ignore those that make you fearful and sad, that degrade you back towards disease and death.There is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled.There is a void in your soul, ready to be filled.You feel it, don't you?Words are a pretext. It is the inner bond that draws one person to another, not words.RELATED: The Best Self-Love Quotes That Will Genuinely Empower YouGoodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation.Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames.I know you're tired but come, this is the way.This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.The wound is the place where the light enters you.And so it is, that both the devil and the angelic spirits present us with objects of desire to awaken our power of choice.Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love.Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah…it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.Reason is powerless in the expression of love.Wise Rumi Quotes About Love And LifeRumi recognized that matters of the heart were often behind the majority of life’s hardships. Romantic or not, when your heart hurts, it’s hard to see clarity and light in anything. He drew inspiration from pain and used his words to help guide people in overcoming their struggles. These Rumi quotes about love and life will give you a glimpse into how powerful his words can be.You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absentminded. Someone sober will worry about things going badly. Let the lover be.Your heart is the size of an ocean. Go find yourself in its hidden depths.I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think.Take someone who doesn’t keep score, who’s not looking to be richer, or afraid of losing, who has not the slightest interest even in his own personality: he’s free.When the world pushes you to your knees, you’re in the perfect position to pray.Live life as if everything is rigged in your favor.I am not this hair, I am not this skin, I am the soul that lives within.Be full of sorrow, that you may become hill of joy; weep, that you may break into laughter.RELATED: 3 Lessons from Einstein’s Ideas and Opinions on Living a Meaningful LifeSell your cleverness and buy bewilderment. Cleverness is mere opinion. Bewilderment brings intuitive knowledge.Be empty of worrying. Think of who created thought.Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.The lion is most handsome when looking for food.The very center of your heart is where life begins – the most beautiful place on earth.Don’t you know yet? It is your light that lights the worlds.Love is the bridge between you and everything.Seek the wisdom that will untie your knot. Seek the path that demands your whole being.To praise the sun is to praise your own eyes.Dance until you shatter yourself.It’s your road, and yours alone, others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open.RELATED: The Best Love Quotes for Him and HerAs you start to walk on the way, the way appears.Very little grows on jagged rock. Be ground. Be crumbled, so wild flowers will come up where you are.What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle.The only lasting beauty is the beauty of the heart.The universe is not outside of you. Look inside yourself; everything that you want, you already are.Close your eyes, fall in love, stay there.If light is in your heart, you will find your way home.Achieve some perfection yourself, so that you may not fall into sorrow by seeing the perfection in others.This is a subtle truth. Whatever you love you are.Forget safety. Live where you fear to live.What is planted in each person’s soul will sprout.In each moment the fire rages, it will burn away a hundred veils. And carry you a thousand steps toward your goal.KEEP READING:3 Crucial Ingredients and Rules For Living an Exceptional Life

Positive Affirmation Quotes You Should Read Daily
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Positive Affirmation Quotes You Should Read Daily

You know how smiling can literally make you happier in everyday life, right? That’s hard science, not crank science, and it’s been confirmed time and again. According to Science Daily (among a plethora of other respected sources) smiling really can make people feel happier and live their best life. A team of psychologists combined data from 138 studies, discovering that facial expressions actually do have a small impact on our feelings.Just as smiles have genuine power, so too do words. And the more information in your mind that is positive, and the more motivational words bring a sense of affirmation to your day, the more you will benefit.What is a positive affirmation?It’s more than just positive quotes, frankly. A positive affirmation is essentially a phrase, be it a mantra, a statement, or indeed a quote, that you use (and repeat) to help yourself manifest a goal or intention into a reality. They are a critical part of the process of learning how to manifest something, be your goal a better career, a cessation of old habits, a new outlook on relationships, and on it goes.On its own, the word “affirmation” means (among many definitions): “The act or an instance of affirming; state of being affirmed; the assertion that something exists or is true.something that is affirmed; [and] a statement or proposition that is declared to be true,” according to Dictionary.com.So now just add the “positive” part to all that truth and confirmation and such and you’ll see why their use can move you ahead in life. The benefits of positive affirmations for kids, adults, and everyone in between cannot be overstated, because they can be the boost that pushes one toward fulfillment, which is arguably the loftiest aim.How making positive affirmations a part of your daily life can help improve your lifeAgain, an inspirational quote is a great quote indeed, but its motivation can be static. That is to say, many inspirational quotes may inspire you in the moment. They might make you feel a greater sense of joy and self-esteem, they may impress you with their wisdom, they may inspire you to think about all you could achieve on the journey that is your life – but they often aren’t dynamic in the way a positive affirmation can be.With affirmation quotes fixed in your brain, you can remind yourself not just to find inspiration but motivation in the everyday, and those two are similar but distinct properties. Without inspiration, motivation may lead nowhere special, but without motivation, inspiration goes nowhere at all.Let these moving affirmation quotes give you the energy and the control you need to move toward success, with a mindset that knows it may take time for your goals to manifest. Once you transform hopes and dreams into goals and empower yourself to go after those goals, life success is in range. A daily reading of positive affirmations will genuinely help you turn your expectations for life into reality.Here are 25 great positive affirmations for you to touch upon each and every day"We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us."- Joseph Campbell“Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice. Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely.” - Roy T. Bennett"You are loved just for being who you are, just for existing."- Ram Dass"Nothing is impossible. The word itself says 'I’m possible!'”- Audrey Hepburn"Am I good enough? Yes I am." - Michelle Obama“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”- William Shakespeare“I am worthy of what I desire.”- Gabby Bernstein"Who you are inside is what helps you make and do everything in life.”- Fred Rogers"Every day above earth is a good day.” - Ernest Hemingway"Nothing can dim the light that shines from within." - Maya Angelou“I say looking on the bright side of life never killed anybody,- Jenny Han“Be happy with what you have while working for what you want.”- Hellen Keller"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.“I see failures as stepping stones.”- Albert Einstein“A positive attitude gives you power over your circumstances instead of your circumstances having power over you.” – Joyce Meyer“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.- James Baldwin“Loving others is easy when I love and accept myself.” - Louise Hay“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”- Maya Angelou“I think that little by little, I’ll be able to solve my problems and survive.”- Frida Kahlo“I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was.”- Muhammad Ali“Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently.”- Henry Ford“He who blames others has a long way to go on his journey. He who blames himself is halfway there. He who blames no one has arrived.” - Ancient Chinese Proverb“Bravery is not the absence of fear. Bravery is feeling the fear, the doubt, the insecurity, and deciding that something else is more important.”- Mark Manson“I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. If you are interested in something, no matter what it is. Go at it full speed. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good.”- Roald Dahl“Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.”- Farrah Gray Affirm, repeat, and stay positiveThe more you read and internalize these quotes and similar content that users provide, the more you will detect your whole outlook on life slowly but surely changing toward the more positive. You will start to see opportunities where before you saw only barriers, you will begin thinking of past failures as training and strength building exercises, and you will be on your path toward better self-actualization and success.And you’ll be happier, too. It’s OK to feel a bit silly when you start off your days with these messages of such unbridled hope and optimism, but soon they won’t seem like platitudes, but like part of the plan. Think about an artist who wants to quit his job to focus on earning paid commissions for what he loves to do, or a person who wants to take control of an issue that has been bothering them. Without first planning it in your imagination, it can never become reality. Don’t forget - there’s genuine power in positive thinking. Just like there is in a smile.