Alice Walker

Whenever we grow, we tend to feel it, as a young seed must feel the weight and inertia of the earth as it seeks to break out of its shell on its way to becoming a plant. Often the feeling is anything but pleasant. 

But what is most unpleasant is the not knowing what is happening.

Robert Frost

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.

V.S. Pritchett

Sooner or later, the great men turn out to be all alike. They never stop working. They never lose a minute. It is very depressing.

Anne Lammott, “A Velocity of Being”

If you love to read, or learn to love reading, you will have an amazing life. Period. Life will always have hardships, pressure, and incredibly annoying people, but books will make it all worthwhile.

Mike Kelley

The hidden burden of the gift is that it calls for payback, but the price is unspecified, repressed. 

Adventure Time, featuring Olivia Olson

Everything stays/right where you left it
Everything stays/but it still changes
Ever so slightly/daily and nightly
In little ways/everything stays

Karl Popper

If we wish to remain human…. we must go on into the unknown, the uncertain and insecure.

Sofia Rosenfeld paraphrasing Hannah Arendt

What individuals require is the return to a kind of public life that forces them to constantly weigh and consider things from the perspective of other people.

Billy Wilder

If you're going to tell people the truth, be funny or they'll kill you.

Dolly Parton

Find out who you are and do it on purpose.

Martha Graham (to Agnes de Mille)

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening htat is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.

Bob Woodward

All good work is done in defiance of management.

Vince Gillian

If everyone's telling you you're drunk, maybe you need to sit down.

Ad-Rock

I'd rather be a hypocrite than the same person forever.

Andrew Solomon, "Far From the Tree"

Perhaps the immutable error of parenthood is that we give our children what we wanted, whether they want it or not.

Alex Tabarrok, quoted in the New York Times

People say things like, 'You shouldn't cut corners.' But that's stupid. Of course you should cut corners when you need to get somewhere fast. Ambulances go through red lights!