Rob Greitens > Rob's Quotes

“keep your hand moving”
― Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

“First, consider the pen you write with. It should be a fast-writing pen because your thoughts are always much faster than your hand. You don't want to slow up your hand even more with a slow pen. A ballpoint, a pencil, a felt tip, for sure, are slow. Go to a stationery store and see what feels good to you. Try out different kinds. Don't get too fancy and expensive. I mostly use a cheap Sheaffer fountain pen, about $1.95.... You want to be able to feel the connection and texture of the pen on paper.”
― Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

“The loves we share with a city are often secret loves.”
― Albert Camus, Summer in Algiers

“The daily press is the evil principle of the modern world, and time will only serve to disclose this fact with greater and greater clearness. The capacity of the newspaper for degeneration is sophistically without limit, since it can always sink lower and lower in its choice of readers. At last it will stir up all those dregs of humanity which no state or government can control.”
― Søren Kierkegaard

“People understand me so poorly that they don't even understand my complaint about them not understanding me.”
― Søren Kierkegaard, The Journals of Kierkegaard

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
― Søren Kierkegaard

“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.”
― Soren Kierkegaard

“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”
― Søren Kierkegaard

“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.”
― Søren Kierkegaard , The Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Orienting Deliberation on the Dogmatic Issue of Hereditary Sin

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”
― Soren Kierkegaard

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”
― Soren Kierkegaard

“The most common form of despair is not being who you are.”
― Søren Kierkegaard

“It is perfectly true, as philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards.”
― Søren Kierkegaard

“The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss - an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. - is sure to be noticed.”
― Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening

“The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly.”
― Soren Kierkegaard, Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard

“The most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly the one you'll never have.”
― Søren Kierkegaard

“I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations — one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it — you will regret both.”
― Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or: A Fragment of Life

“Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; and if it is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“A day without laughter is a day wasted.”
― Nicolas Chamfort

“If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.”
― Nicolas Chamfort

“Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live.”
― Nicolas de Chamfort

“Happiness is not easy to find. It's very difficult to find it in yourself — and impossible to find anywhere else.”
― Nicolas Chamfort

“And so I leave this world, where the heart must either break or turn to lead. [last words]”
― Nicolas Chamfort

“Public opinion reigns in society because stupidity reigns amongst the stupid.”
― Nicolas Chamfort

“Living is a sickness to which sleep provides relief every sixteen hours. It's a palliative. The remedy is death.”
― Nicolas Chamfort

“He who leaves the game wins it.”
― Nicolas Chamfort

“When you want to be well-liked in the world, you have to let a lot of people teach you things that you know and they don't.”
― Nicolas de Chamfort

“Having lots of ideas doesn’t mean you’re clever, any more than having lots of soldiers means you’re a good general.”
― Nicolas Chamfort