Inspirational Quotes from Books discussion

You don't need reflections of yourself from other people. You're the original. There is no one in the world exactly like you. Enjoy that.

--E. J. Howard, Getting It Right

Why do I always have this awful need to make other people see things as I do? It's childish, why should they? What it amounts to is that I'm scared to be alone in what I feel.

--Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook

Neurotics are always trying to make other people feel responsible for them. They're often very good at that. It's often their only idea of a relationship. Don't you let it start being your only idea of one.

-- E. J. Howard, Getting It Right

You impress me most when you're not trying to.
--Joni Mitchell

OK, so it's not from a book. It's from an interview in Rolling Stone. So sue me.

Anybody who is spoken about at all is sure to be spoken against by somebody: and any action, however innocent in itself, is liable and not at all unlikely to be blamed by somebody. If you limit your actions in life to things nobody could possibly find fault with, you will not do much.

--Lewis Carroll

Well worth remembering.

When you walk into your memories you are opening a door to the past; the road within has many branches, and the route is different every time.

The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

From a book I read recently :
“External conflicts we can avoid, resolve, or manage. But, when it comes to internal conflicts, there is only one viable option: resolve. Whatever internal conflict, major or minor, we don't resolve will grate within us nonstop. Fortunately, we can resolve all our internal conflicts with one simple strategy: Act the way it feels right, no matter how inconvenient the consequences are.”
The seeker of well-being by Indrajit Garai

“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life; dream of it; think of it; live on that idea. Let the brain, the body, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, and this is the way great spiritual giants are produced.”

Swami Vivekananda, "Vedanta Philosophy: Lectures by the Swami Vivekananda on Raja Yoga Also Pantanjali's Yoga Aphorisms, with Commentaries, and Glossary of Sa"

I like that quote very much, Corrine!!

"Do you know what individuality is? Consciousness of will. To be conscious that you have a will and can act."
Journal of Katherine Mansfield

And later:
"When we can begin to take our failures non-seriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves." (ibid)

Indeed.

"We are all caged birds, and life weighs heaviest on those with the largest wings. We are all to a greater or lesser degree eagles or canaries." -- Flaubert's Parrot

I have never read Flaubert so I don't know if this is really an attribution or something Barnes' main character made up. But at times we all feel "caged"; if you're feeling a bit cramped, maybe you just need to stretch your wings and sing.

"Stretch your wings and sing" - a thought worth remembering. Thank you!

“Most successes are unhappy. That's why they are successes-they have to reassure themselves about themselves by achieving something that the world will notice.... The happy people are failures because they are on such good terms with themselves that they don't give a damn.” Agatha Christie, Sparkling Cyanide

"My name is growing up with me. As I am defined, then my name is defined and shaped around me like clothing. If that woman finds her road hard, but full of meaning that she makes sense of and sees clearly through lines of poetry, then she can say she has found truth."

Rita Williams Garcia, P.S. Be Eleven

Just remember, there are all kinds of stars in God's skies. Some are so bright and twinkly they take your breath away; others don't shine so brightly but they're still there. Their light's just a little softer, that's all.

Welcome to the Great Mysterious, Lorna Landvik

I found out too that you are bound to be jostled in "the crowded street of life." That in itself need not be dangerous unless you have the open razors of personal vanity in your pants pocket. The passers-by don't hurt you, but if you go around like that, they make you hurt yourself.

Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road

Belief in yourself is more important than endless worries of what others think of you. Value yourself and others will value you.Validation is best that comes from within.

Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, Dreams in a Time of War