Roberta Dombrowski

“There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence to which the idealist most easily succumbs: activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.”
― Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

“Don't try to be useful. Try to be yourself: that is enough & that makes all the difference.”
― Paulo Coelho, Manuscript Found in Accra

“If you are never alone, you cannot know yourself.”
― Paulo Coelho, Manuscript Found in Accra

“The only real battle in life is between hanging on and letting go.”
― Shannon L. Alder