Olivia Newton > Olivia's Quotes

“But no one is easier to delude than a parent; they see only what they wish to see.”
― Karen Joy Fowler, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

“Although she was fragile in appearance, every prohibition lost substance in her presence.”
― Elena Ferrante

“At that moment I knew what the plebs were, much more clearly than when, years earlier, she had asked me. The plebs were us. The plebs were that fight for food and wine, that quarrel over who should be served first and better, that dirty floor on which the waiters clattered back and forth, those increasingly vulgar toasts. The plebs were my mother, who had drunk wine and now was leaning against my father’s shoulder, while he, serious, laughed, his mouth gaping, at the sexual allusions of the metal dealer. They were all laughing, even Lila, with the expression of one who has a role and will play it to the utmost.”
― Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend

“A thought experiment courtesy of the Stoics. If you are tired of everything you possess, imagine that you have lost all these things.”
― Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation

“There are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 52 weeks in a year, and X years in a life. Solve for X.”
― Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation

“My husband gets a new job.... The pay is better. It has benefits. How is it, people ask. "Not bad," he says with a shrug. "Only vaguely soul-crushing.”
― Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation

“Anger looked like fireworks. Love was an indistinct blur.”
― Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation

“Three things no one has ever said about me:

You make it look so easy.

You are very mysterious.

You need to take yourself more seriously.”
― Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation

“Some women make it look so easy, the way they cast ambition off like an expensive coat that no longer fits.”
― Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation

“Advice for wives circa 1896: The indiscriminate reading of novels is one of the most injurious habits to which a married woman can be subject. Besides the false views of human nature it will impart … it produces an indifference to the performance of domestic duties, and contempt for ordinary realities.”
― Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation

“The only love that feels like love is the doomed kind. (Fun fact.)”
― Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation

“What did you do today, you’d say when you got home from work, and I’d try my best to craft an anecdote for you out of nothing.”
― Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation

“What Rilke said: Surely all art is the result of one’s having been in danger, of having gone through an experience all the way to the end, to where no one can go any further.”
― Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation

“I bought a warmer coat with many ingenious pockets. You put your hands in all of them.”
― Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation

“Of course it is difficult. You are creating a creature with a soul, my friend says.”
― Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation

“127     How do you express your creativity?        ”
― Rossi Fox, 365 Journal Writing Ideas: A year of daily journal writing prompts, questions & actions to fill your journal with memories, self-reflection, creativity & direction

“Bullies are just men who don't know they are cowards, of course.”
― Antonia Hodgson, The Devil in the Marshalsea

“I had an appointment with a ghost. It seemed impolite not to attend.”
― Antonia Hodgson, The Devil in the Marshalsea

“I had never been so poor in my life, and yet here I was, the very picture of an eligible young gentleman. I would marry myself if I could.”
― Antonia Hodgson, The Devil in the Marshalsea

“The truth about what happens to us in this world keeps changing ... it never stops.”
― Marisha Pessl, Night Film

“If it is true that you are what you eat, it may just as accurately be said that you are what you listen to. STEVEN HALPERN”
― Anodea Judith, Eastern Body, Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System as a Path to the Self

“I studied history at university. My mutinous discontent recalls something I read there on the subject of revolutions. They do not happen, it was argued, when the oppressed class is being maximally ground down by misery, but, rather, when conditions improve. It is the slight relief of pressure which gives the downtrodden the chance to lift their heads out of the slime, to look about them. and become cognisant of the true circumstances of their lives.”
― Anna Lyndsey

“For is there any practice less selfish, any labor less alienated, any time less wasted, than preparing something delicious and nourishing for people you love?”
― Michael Pollan, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation

“If someone is not treating you with love and respect, it is a gift if they walk away from you. If that person doesn't walk away, you will surely endure many years of suffering with him or her. Walking away may hurt for a while, but your heart will eventually heal. Then you can choose what you really want. You will find that you don't need to trust others as much as you need to trust yourself to make the right choices.”
― Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

“The Four Agreements
1. Be impeccable with your word.
2. Don’t take anything personally.
3. Don’t make assumptions.
4. Always do your best. ”
― don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

“Whatever happens around you, don't take it personally... Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves.”
― Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

“If others tell us something we make assumptions, and if they don't tell us something we make assumptions to fulfill our need to know and to replace the need to communicate. Even if we hear something and we don't understand we make assumptions about what it means and then believe the assumptions. We make all sorts of assumptions because we don't have the courage to ask questions.”
― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

“God is life. God is life in action. The best way to say, "I love you, God," is to live your life doing your best. The best way to say, "Thank you, God," is by letting go of the past and living in the present moment, right here and now. Whatever life takes away from you, let it go. When you surrender and let go of the past, you allow yourself to be fully alive in the moment. Letting go of the past means you can enjoy the dream that is happening right now.”
― Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

“But it is not what I am saying that is hurting you; it is that you have wounds that I touch by what I have said. You are hurting yourself. There is no way I can take this personally.”
― Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

“Wherever you go you will find people lying to you, and as your awareness grows, you will notice that you also lie to yourself. Do not expect people to tell you the truth because they also lie to themselves. You have to trust yourself and choose to believe or not to believe what someone says to you.”
― Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom