David Petersen > David's Quotes

“Consistency is the hallmark of the unimaginative.”
― Oscar Wilde

“The spiritual life does not remove us from the world but leads us deeper into it”
― Nouwen Henri J. M.

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
― Thornton Wilder

“It is reasonable that everyone who asks justice should do justice”
― thomas jefferson

“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast”
― Lewis Carroll

“Physicality is the basis of performance.”
― David Petersen, The Well-Tempered Body: Expressive Movement for Actors, Improvisers, and Performance Artists

“The 'will to peace' is the best answer that we can imagine to the 'will to war', which unfortunately seems as strong in this century as it was in the middle of the last.”
― David Petersen, Survivors: The A-bombed Trees of Hiroshima

“There is no such thing as a leap into literacy.”
― David Petersen, Absolute Beginner's Guide to Hiragana

“You are stronger than you know.”
― Lori Newman

“ The Paradoxical Commandments

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.”
― Kent M. Keith, The Silent Revolution: Dynamic Leadership in the Student Council

“belief is the death of intelligence.”
― Robert Anton Wilson, Cosmic Trigger: Die letzten Geheimnisse der Illuminaten oder An den Grenzen des erweiterten Bewusstseins

“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.”
― Benjamin Spock

“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”
― Walt Whitman

“I really should come with a warning label.”
― Tom Upton

“It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.”
― Marlene Dietrich

“The very essence of romance is uncertainty.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays

“Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect.”
― Margaret Mitchell

“It's a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy. ”
― Lucille Ball

“Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.”
― Mark Twain

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
― Oscar Wilde

“Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer; art is everything else.”
― Donald E. Knuth, Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About (Volume 136)

“Reality doesn't impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls.”
― Anaïs Nin, Incest: From "A Journal of Love": The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1932-1934