Florence > Florence's Quotes

“Whatever you did today is enough. Whatever you felt today is valid. Whatever you thought today isn't to be judged. Repeat the above each day.”
― Brittany Burgunder

“Your words control your life, your progress, your results, even your mental and physical health. You cannot talk like a failure and expect to be successful.”
― Germany Kent

“Quit searching for essence in everything you've gotten wrong. It's right there in everything you've gotten right. Just get better at it.”
― Chinonye J. Chidolue

“He doesn't understand yet that guilt comes to you not from the things you've done, but from the things that others have done to you.”
― Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace

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

“People often give us a piece of their mind with the intention to take away our peace of mind.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Chase after money and security
And your heart will never unclench.
Care about people's approval
And you will be their prisoner.
Do your work, then step back.
The only path to serenity.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Life is naturally going to have ups and downs, comings and goings, pleasures and hardships, joy and pain. Let us be kind to ourselves, understanding that we are here to learn. And let us be kind to others, knowing that peace is the ultimate prize of life and nothing is worth more. Simply to side with peace is to disempower the ego's hold. In so doing, the natural, beautiful, and healing rhythms of life have a chance to start singing their sweet song in our listening ear.”
― Donna Goddard, The Love of Devotion

“Calmness has the power to leave dirty water as clean water on top of dirt.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents... some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new Dark Age.”
― H.P. Lovecraft

“I only swim in deep waters. If you want to test my waters, you better know how to swim.”
― Lebo Grand

“If you're lonely when you're alone, you're in bad company.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre

“if you feel happy, Smile with all your heart. if you're down, smile with all your might.”
― Paul Ian Guillermo

“Stunning"

Melanin rich and honeyed, butter brown syrupy
‘Da blacker the berry, the sweeter the sweet
Girl, all hues of the ebony rainbow shine
Our rind so rare, age like fine wine
Lips plump like cherries ready to be picked.
Dey spend all kind of money tryin’ to look like ‘dis”
― D.B. Mays, Black Lives, Lines, and Lyrics

“This black woman rocks on a phenomenal level!”
― Stephanie Lahart

“And anything I have accomplished, I did so not in spite of being a black woman, but because I am a black woman".”
― Gabrielle Union, We're Going to Need More Wine

“My birthday is in March, and that year it fell during an especially bright spring week, vivid and clear in the narrow residential streets where we lived just a handful of blocks south of Sunset. The night-blooming jasmine that crawled up our neighborhood's front gate released its heady scent at dusk, and to the north, the hills rolled charmingly over the horizon, houses tucked into the brown. Soon, daylight savings time would arrive, and even at early nine, I associated my birthday with the first hint of summer, with the feeling in classrooms of open windows and lighter clothing and in a few months no more homework. My hair got lighter in spring, from light brown to nearly blond, almost like my mother's ponytail tassel. In the neighborhood gardens, the agapanthus plants started to push out their long green robot stems to open up to soft purples and blues.”
― Aimee Bender, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

“I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try.”
― Roger Ebert

“I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.”
― Roger Ebert

“I began to realize that I had tended to avoid some people because of my instant conclusions about who they were and what they would have to say. I discovered that everyone, speaking honestly and openly, had important things to tell me.”
― Roger Ebert

“Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you.”
― Roger Ebert

“Before I lost my father, I never understood the rituals surrounding funerals: the wake, the service itself, the reception afterward,the dinners prepared by well-meaning friends and delivered in plastic containers, even the popular habit of making poster boards filled with photos of the dear departed. But now I know why we do those things. It's busywork, all of it. I had so much to take care of, so many arrangements to make, so many people to inform, I didn't have a moment to be engulfed by the ocean of grief that was lapping at my heels. Instead, I waded through the shallows, performing task after task, grateful to have duties to propel me forward.”
― Wendy Webb, The Tale of Halcyon Crane

“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.”
― James Baldwin

“Mistakes and slips are a necessary evil part of our daily living. We learn through them all the time. Life is too broad for us to do everything so perfectly, but we must not justify our mistakes and slips when we know that we are far better than our mistakes! The best regret is to take a robust action in the right direction to prove how far better we are than our mistakes and slips.”
― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

“Take your time to find and understand what you don’t know and in the end, you shall know that it is not all the things you know that shows you something you don’t know, but something you don’t know!”
― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

“Our value is without compliments until we are gone, until we become unreachable, until we are scarce.”
― Victor Vote

“Truth never changes; it is the same now, yesterday, and forever, in itself; but our relations towards truth may change, for that which is hidden from us today may become known to us tomorrow.”
― James Cardinal Gibbons, Faith of Our Fathers

“Read a little. Meditate more. Think of God all the time.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda

“Girls you've gotta know when it's time to turn the page.”
― Tori Amos, Tori Amos: From the Choirgirl Hotel

“Only once in your life, I truly believe, you find someone who can completely turn your world around. You tell them things that you’ve never shared with another soul and they absorb everything you say and actually want to hear more. You share hopes for the future, dreams that will never come true, goals that were never achieved and the many disappointments life has thrown at you. When something wonderful happens, you can’t wait to tell them about it, knowing they will share in your excitement. They are not embarrassed to cry with you when you are hurting or laugh with you when you make a fool of yourself. Never do they hurt your feelings or make you feel like you are not good enough, but rather they build you up and show you the things about yourself that make you special and even beautiful. There is never any pressure, jealousy or competition but only a quiet calmness when they are around. You can be yourself and not worry about what they will think of you because they love you for who you are. The things that seem insignificant to most people such as a note, song or walk become invaluable treasures kept safe in your heart to cherish forever. Memories of your childhood come back and are so clear and vivid it’s like being young again. Colours seem brighter and more brilliant. Laughter seems part of daily life where before it was infrequent or didn’t exist at all. A phone call or two during the day helps to get you through a long day’s work and always brings a smile to your face. In their presence, there’s no need for continuous conversation, but you find you’re quite content in just having them nearby. Things that never interested you before become fascinating because you know they are important to this person who is so special to you. You think of this person on every occasion and in everything you do. Simple things bring them to mind like a pale blue sky, gentle wind or even a storm cloud on the horizon. You open your heart knowing that there’s a chance it may be broken one day and in opening your heart, you experience a love and joy that you never dreamed possible. You find that being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure that’s so real it scares you. You find strength in knowing you have a true friend and possibly a soul mate who will remain loyal to the end. Life seems completely different, exciting and worthwhile. Your only hope and security is in knowing that they are a part of your life.”
― Bob Marley