You can pretend to care, but you can’t pretend to show up.
“Life is a bitch–and then you die” (a bumper sticker)
“The unexamined life might not be worth living–but it works for me” (my wife)
This is going up on my fridge.
“Most people are about as happy as they decide to be.” - Abraham Lincoln
“My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.” – Carl Schurz
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead
"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” – John F. Kennedy
“I say to you that our goal is freedom, and I believe we are going to get there because however much she strays away from it, the goal of America is freedom.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“Where there is injustice, we should correct it; where there is poverty, we should eliminate it; where there is corruption, we should stamp it out; where there is violence, we should punish it; where there is neglect, we should provide care; where there is war, we should restore peace; and wherever corrections are achieved we should add them permanently to our storehouse of treasures.” – Earl Warren
“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”
-Helen Keller
“We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness.
We are monkeys with money and guns.”
Tom Waits (That’s about as close to inspirational as Tom gets)
In the same vein:
You choose with your feet.
Meaning: if you want to know someone’s real choice, watch his actions, not his words.
Awesome quotes y’all!
"I think everything in life is art. What you do. How you dress. The way you love someone, and how you talk. Your smile and your personality. What you believe in, and all your dreams. The way you drink your tea. How you decorate your home. Or party. Your grocery list. The food you make. How your writing looks. And the way you feel.
Life is art."
“If you can’t say something nice, come sit by me.” --Alice Roosevelt.
“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
-Gautama Siddharta
“There are always possibilities” - Spock
“Moderation in all things, including moderation.” Heinlein
“The smallest good deed is better than the greatest intention.” - John Burroughs
“Adversity introduces a man to himself.” (Also works as well with “woman to herself,” but never, ever, under pain of death, use “a person to themself.”).
I kept this taped to my office wall during grad school. I’ve seen it attributed to a lot of people (including, of course, Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln), but could never nail the source down.
“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Don’t fear the dark; it’s there we see the stars.
“Pain or damage don’t end the world. Or despair or fucking beatings. The world ends when you’re dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man… and give some back.”
- Al Swearengen on Deadwood
“‘Words are wind’, he wrote.”
ETA: Hmmm, according to Google, I may have just coined that one.
You know, I expounded upon that in a lecture to an astoundingly bitchy boss, shortly before I quit:
Life sucks and then you die.
It’s filled with [horrible events and loss – specifics chosen to strike raw nerves in her].
But there’s basically two ways to deal with it:
You can be nasty and vengeful and spiteful of life itself, making everyone else share your misery. And everyone will rejoice in your passing.
You can be kind and helpful and compassionate during the time you are given on this planet.
And the lives you improve will become a beautiful legacy.
—Grestarian, the Wanderer
I recognize it from something. Pretty sure its from a novel I read in the last few years. “Name of the Wind” maybe?