Alan Watts: Incredible Nothing

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Pablo Neruda: In One Kiss

“If nothing saves us from death, at least love should save us from life.”

“He who has nothing—it has been said many times—has nothing to lose but his chains.”

“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.”

“Someday, somewhere – anywhere, unfailingly, you’ll find yourself, and that, and only that, can be the happiest or bitterest hour of your life.”

“All paths lead to the same goal: to convey to others what we are.”

“I grew up in this town, my poetry was born between the hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain, and like the timber, it steeped itself in the forests.”

“In one kiss, you’ll know all I haven’t said.”

All quotes by Pablo Neruda

Andy Warhol: So What.

“Security breeds stagnation.”

“Fantasy love is much better than reality love.”

“People are always so boring when they band together. You have to be alone to develop all the idiosyncrasies that make a person interesting.”

“The idea is not to live forever, it is to create something that will.”

“Why do people spend their time being sad when they could be happy?”

“Sometimes people let the same problem make them miserable for years when they could just say, “So what.” That’s one of my favorite things to say. “So what.” “My mother didn’t love me.” So what. “My husband won’t ball me.” So what. “I’m a success but I’m still alone.” So what. I don’t know how I made it through all the years before I learned how to do that trick. It took a long time for me to learn it, but once you do, you never forget.”

“My fascination with letting images repeat and repeat – or in film’s case ‘run on’ – manifests my belief that we spend much of our lives seeing without observing.”

“You need to let the little things that would ordinarily bore you suddenly thrill you.”

“I can never get over when you’re on the beach how beautiful the sand looks and the water washes it away and straightens it up and the trees and the grass all look great. I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want to own.”

“Isn’t life a series of images that change as they repeat themselves?”

“When I got my first television set, I stopped caring so much about having close relationships.”

“In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.”

“If everyone isn’t beautiful, then no one is.”

All quotes and self-portrait by Andy Warhol

Over & Over & Over

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”

Quote by Henry David Thoreau

Vincent Van Gogh: String of Failures

“The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.”

“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”

“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”

“Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.”

“Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.”

“Close friends are truly life’s treasures. Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves. With gentle honesty, they are there to guide and support us, to share our laughter and our tears. Their presence reminds us that we are never really alone.”

“I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.”

“The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths it has its pearls too.”

“Art is to console those who are broken by life.”

“In the end we shall have had enough of cynicism, skepticism and humbug, and we shall want to live more musically.”

“Success is sometimes the outcome of a whole string of failures.”

All quotes by Vincent Van Gogh

Viktor Frankl: The Final Wisdom

“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked.”

“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

“When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves.”

“A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life, I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth – that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire.”

“Even when it is not fully attained, we become better for striving for a higher goal.”

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

“When a person can’t find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.”

All quotes by Viktor Frankl

You Are Not a Tree

Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.

You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.

If you don’t like how things are, change it! You’re not a tree.

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.

If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us.

Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.

All quotes by Jim Rohn