“Be Daring, Be Different; And I Hope You Surprise Yourself.”
“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the common place, the slaves of the ordinary.” (Cecil Beaton)
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“You are a hero who helped her people. You are a beautiful woman who loved an ugly man. Really, really loved me. You find goodness in others, and when it’s not there you create it. You make me want to go back – back to the best version of me. And that never happened to me before. … So when you look in the mirror, and you don’t know who you are, that’s who you are.” (Rumple)
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“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art – write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.” (Neil Gaiman)
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“Every act of kindness gets the nod, opens the heart, dampens the fear, turns the page, ups the ante, tips the point, heightens the joy, changes the world, rows the boat, adds to the love, and if you’ve been rather extraordinary lately, turns Thursdays into Fridays. See?” (signed) The Universe (Mike Dooley, Notes from the Universe, June 12, 2013)
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“Life, he realized, was much like a song. In the beginning there is mystery, in the end there is confirmation, but it’s in the middle where all the emotion resides to make the whole worthwhile.” (Nicholas Sparks)
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“That’s the thing about the Earth: It doesn’t stop to acknowledge the daily disasters of the living. It just keeps spinning and sucking. I think that’s what drives people towards faith, that unsettling realization that the physical world goes on without them, before them, after them, without recognition or sympathy.” (Jim Lynch, The Highest Tide)
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