Catalyst Quotes

“Life Gives You Lemons / Rebuild Your Ladder and Climb and Climb …

 

“there is a loneliness in this world so great that you can see it in the slow movement of the hands of a clock.

people so tired mutilated either by love or no love.

people just are not good to each other one on one.

the rich are not good to the rich; the poor are not good to the poor.

we are afraid.

our educational system tells us that we can all be big-ass winners.

it hasn’t told us about the gutters or the suicides.

or the terror of one person aching in one place alone

untouched, unspoken to

watering a plant.”   (Charles Bukowski, Love is a Dog from Hell)

______ 

 

“Some people are at the top of the ladder, some are in the middle, still more are at the bottom, and a whole lot more don’t even know there is a ladder.”   (Robert Schuller)

______ 

 

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, and then throw it in the face of the person who gave you lemons until they give you the oranges you originally asked for.”   (Cassandra Clare)

______ 

 

“The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we hold of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us.”   (Quentin Crisp)

______ 

 

“What have I learned?  Man, where to start.  I learned that I am much stronger than I thought I was.  I learned that there are parts of me that have been sleeping for a very long time, silent and secret parts that have been aching to be awakened.  I learned the fragility of life and the whisper’s breath that holds it balanced, I have learned the weight of that breath.  I found out that I need to be touched more than I ever thought, that the importance of being shown my worth in physical gestures is unbelievably large, much larger than being told.  I have learned what it feels like to not be able to stop smiling for reasons only you know; I found the places in me starting to wake up.  I have learned these things, and countless others, and I have learned that it is a scary thing to let yourself learn … it is a very frightening thing to allow yourself to wake up, those silent aching parts asleep so long.”   (Tyler Knott Gregson)

______ 

 

“Life’s Ladder” 

Unto each mortal who comes to earth

A ladder is given by God at birth,

And up this ladder the soul must go,

Step by step, from the valley below;

Step by step to the center of space

On this ladder of lives to the starting place.

In time departed, which yet endures,

I shaped my ladder and you shaped yours,

Whatever they are, they are what we made,

A ladder of light or a ladder of shade;

A ladder of love or a hateful thing,

A ladder of strength or a wavering string,

A ladder of gold or a ladder of straw–

Each is the ladder of righteous law.

In useless effort, then, waste no time;

Rebuild your ladder, and climb and climb.

And climb and climb.”   (Ella Wheeler Wilcox)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~