“Confidence isn’t optimism or pessimism, and it’s not a character attribute. It’s the expectation of a positive outcome.”
– Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Optimism
A Why To Live
‘He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.’
– Friedrich Nietzsche
(via)
Expectations
“Expectation is the root of all heartache.”
― William Shakespeare
Trust
“I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
Change is Good
“Even when change is elective, it will disorient you. You may go through anxiety. You will miss aspects of your former life. It doesn’t matter. The trick is to know in advance of making any big change that you’re going to be thrown off your feet by it. So you prepare for this inevitable disorientation and steady yourself to get through it. Then you take the challenge, make the change, and achieve your dream.”
– Harvey Mackay
The one quote I keep coming back to and feel the need to repost. Deep breaths!
Alive
“Anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you.”
– David Whyte
(via Ian)
Create
“If I couldn’t create there would be nothing for me to live for. It’s selfish, I know, but geniuses are selfish.”
– Miles Davis
Art
“You can either think of art as a pipe that you shout down, or as a way to make something happen in the world.”
– Brian Eno
Friendship
“The surprising finding is that the closest, most intimate, and most trusting relationships appear to be distinguished not by how the partners respond to each other’s disappointments, losses, and reversals but how they react to good news.”
– The Myths of Happiness
A quote found in this article titled: This Is How To Make Friends As An Adult: 5 Secrets Backed By Research
Details
The details are not the details; they make the product.
– Charles and Ray Eames
Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Marriage
“‘In every good marriage,’ she counseled, ‘it helps sometimes to be a little deaf.’ I have followed that advice assiduously, and not only at home through 56 years of a marital partnership nonpareil [Ginsburg’s husband Martin died in 2010]. I have employed it as well in every workplace, including the Supreme Court. When a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best tune out. Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.”
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Enjoyment
“Enjoyment appears at the boundary between boredom and anxiety, when the challenges are just balanced with the person’s capacity to act.”
― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Self-Education
“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.”
– Isaac Asimov.
Thank you Open Culture for making it easy: 1200 Free Online Courses from Top Universities
Being A Designer
“Being a designer is like being that friend with a pickup truck, and it’s always moving day.”
– Jay Quercia
Act of Rebellion
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” – Albert Camus
Optimism
“Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.”
– Dalai Lama XIV
Human Decency
This is not a question of politics, of Left vs. Right. This is a question of human decency, human dignity and the soul of our nation.
— J.M. DeMatteis (@JMDeMatteis) January 28, 2017
Activism
“Activism is my rent for living on the planet.”
― Alice Walker
Marriage
“Marriage: a hopeful, generous, infinitely kind gamble taken by two people who don’t know yet who they are or who the other might be, binding themselves to a future they cannot conceive and have carefully omitted to investigate.”
The Course of Love, by Alain de Botton
Retribution
“The noblest kind of retribution is not to become like your enemy.”
– Marcus Aurelius
Reclaim Your Creative Confidence
“Schedule daily “white space” in your calendar, where your only task is to think or take a walk and daydream. When you try to generate ideas, shoot for 100 instead of 10. Defer your own judgment and you’ll be surprised at how many ideas you have—and like—by the end of the week.”
Reclaim Your Creative Confidence, by Tom Kelley and David Kelley
… and it bends toward justice
“… It’s taken us 100,000 years to figure out that we are only as well off as the weakest ones in our tribe, and that connection and community and respect lead to a world that benefits everyone.
The irony of Dr. King’s holiday is that he surely believed that anyone could take on this calling, that anyone could organize, speak up and stand for justice.
We can connect, we can publish, we can lead. Anyone reading this has the ability to care, and to do something about it. We have more power than we dare imagine.
And so it bends.”
… and it bends toward justice, by Seth Godin
Productivity in Terrible Times
“When a solid 67% of your soul is engaged with battles elsewhere, how do you continue on with our ongoing, non-revolutionary work?”
Productivity in Terrible Times, by Eileen Webb
(via my favorite newsletter)
Keep Quiet or Stand Up?
“There comes a moment you have to decide: Do you keep quiet or do you stand up.”
– Malala Yousafzai