“If you are working on something, about to deliver it, moments from opening the doors, an hour from everybody arriving, a week from the release date, two minutes from getting the results back, and you have butterflies in your stomach, be grateful.
You are in a wonderful place.
Nerves are God's gift to you, reminding you that your life is not passing you by.
Make friends with the butterflies.
Welcome when they come, revel in them, enjoy them, and if they go away, do whatever it takes to put yourself in a position where they return.
Better to have a stomach full of butterflies than to feel like your life is passing you by.”
― How to Be Here: A Guide to Creating a Life Worth Living
You are in a wonderful place.
Nerves are God's gift to you, reminding you that your life is not passing you by.
Make friends with the butterflies.
Welcome when they come, revel in them, enjoy them, and if they go away, do whatever it takes to put yourself in a position where they return.
Better to have a stomach full of butterflies than to feel like your life is passing you by.”
― How to Be Here: A Guide to Creating a Life Worth Living
“I’m not normal. I see people hurt in love and I want to hug them and tell them it’s going to be okay. That they need to keep that broken heart open. Because there’s nothing else really that matters beyond loving and being loved.”
―
―
“If you feel crappy, it's because that's your brain telling you that there's a problem unaddressed or an issue unresolved. In other words, negative emotions are a call to action. When you feel them, it's because you're supposed to do something. Positive emotions, on the other hand, are rewards for taking proper action. When you feel them, life seems simple and there is nothing else to do but enjoy it. Then like everything else, positive emotions go away, because more problems inevitably emerge.”
― The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
― The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
“Because, here’s the truth: life is catastrophe. The basic fact of existence—of walking around trying to feed ourselves and find friends and whatever else we do—is catastrophe. Forget all this ridiculous ‘Our Town’ nonsense everyone talks: the miracle of a newborn babe, the joy of one simple blossom, Life You Are Too Wonderful To Grasp, &c. For me—and I’ll keep repeating it doggedly till I die, till I fall over on my ungrateful nihilistic face and am too weak to say it: better never born, than born into this cesspool. Sinkhole of hospital beds, coffins, and broken hearts. No release, no appeal, no “do-overs” to employ a favored phrase of Xandra’s, no way forward but age and loss, and no way out but death. [“Complaints bureau!” I remember Boris grousing as a child, one afternoon at his house when we had got off on the vaguely metaphysical subject of our mothers: why they—angels, goddesses—had to die? while our awful fathers thrived, and boozed, and sprawled, and muddled on, and continued to stumble about and wreak havoc, in seemingly indefatigable health? “They took the wrong ones! Mistake was made! Everything is unfair! Who do we complain to, in this shitty place? Who is in charge here?”] And—maybe it’s ridiculous to go on in this vein, although it doesn’t matter since no one’s ever going to see this—but does it make any sense at all to know that it ends badly for all of us, even the happiest of us, and that we all lose everything that matters in the end—and yet to know as well, despite all this, as cruelly as the game is stacked, that it’s possible to play it with a kind of joy?”
― The Goldfinch
― The Goldfinch
“What pain do you want in your life? What are you willing to struggle for?” Because that seems to be a greater determinant of how our lives turn out.”
― The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
― The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
yasmin’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at yasmin’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by yasmin
Lists liked by yasmin













