“Every Day We Slaughter our Finest Impulses” / “Don’t Edit Your Own Soul”
“Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heartache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there.” (Henry Miller)
________
“Sometimes life can be very painful. It gets complicated at the worst of times, and sometimes you have no idea where to go or what to do. Lots of times people just let themselves get lost. But that’s why we have to keep trying. We have to push through all that hurts us, work past all our painful memories. Because sometimes the things that hurt us are the things that make us strongest. A life without experience, in my opinion, is no life at all. And that’s why I tell everyone that, even when it hurts, never stop yourself from living, from loving, from hoping and dreaming. You deserve it.” (Lessons Learned in Life)
________
“Good advice is priceless. Not what you want to hear, but what you need to hear. Not imaginary, but practical. Not based on fear, but on possibility. Not designed to make you feel better, designed to make you better.
Seek it out and embrace the true friends that care enough to risk sharing it.
I’m not sure what takes more guts — giving it or getting it.” (Seth Godin, Seth’s Blog, 5.15.14)
________
“It’s a lot to live up to. These pressures of achieving. From the moment you’re born, you’re pounded with the expectations of what you need to actualize in order to become a success. Go to college. Get married. Raise a family. It’s what you’re supposed to do. The plans you’re supposed to make. The life you’re supposed to live. Diverge from the norm and you’re frowned upon. Questioned. Shunned. There’s something wrong with you if you’re not interested in improving yourself. If you can’t make a commitment of marriage. If you don’t want to have children. So people earn a college degree so they can get a good job. They work at a job they hate just to earn a living. They spend two months’ salary on an engagement ring. They pop out a couple of kids they don’t really want just so they can fit in. Because it’s what their parents did. Because it’s what society expects you to do. Because it’s safer to take the same path everyone else has traveled. Truth is, no one’s listening to Robert Frost.” (S.G. Browne)
________
“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.” (Franz Kafka)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Catalyst Quotes 