Catalyst Quotes

“Your Creators and Experiences Have Made You” – Find Purpose

“In the beginning, God created the earth, and he looked upon it in his cosmic loneliness.

And God said, ‘Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what We have done.’

And God created every living creature that now moveth, and one was man.  Mud as man alone could speak.  God leaned close to mud as man sat, looked around, and spoke.  ‘What is the purpose of all this?’ he asked politely.

‘Everything must have a purpose?’ asked God.

‘Certainly,’ said man.

‘Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this,’ said God.

And He went away.”   (Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle)

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“Life is difficult.”   (M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled)

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“Perhaps the most terrible (or wonderful) thing that can happen to an imaginative youth, aside from the curse (or blessing) of imagination itself, is to be exposed without preparation to the life outside his or her own sphere – the sudden revelation that there is a there out there.”   (Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume)

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“I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy.  I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate.  It is, above all to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.”   (Leo Rosten)

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“Coincidences give you opportunities to look more deeply into your existence.”   (Doug Dillon)

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“I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.  I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of uncertainty about different things, but I am not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don’t know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we’re here.  I don’t have to know an answer.  I don’t feel frightened not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose, which is the way it really is as far as I can tell.”  (Richard P. Feynman)

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“You are what your creators and experiences have made you, like every other being in this universe.  Accept that and be done; I tire of your whining.”   (N. K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms)

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“Deliver More Than You Promise”

“The best way to get unstuck:

Don’t wait for the right answer and the golden path to present themselves.

This is precisely why you’re stuck.  Starting without seeing the end is difficult, so we often wait until we see the end, scanning relentlessly for the right way, the best way and the perfect way.

The way to get unstuck is to start down the wrong path, right now.

Step by step, page by page, interaction by interaction.  As you start moving, you can’t help but improve, can’t help but incrementally find yourself getting back toward your north star.

You might not end up with perfect, but it’s significantly more valuable than being stuck.

Don’t just start.  Continue.  Ship.  Repeat.”     (Seth Godin, Seth’s Blog)

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“The only limits to the possibilities in your life tomorrow are the ‘buts’ you use today.”   (Les Brown)

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“Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news.  The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be!  How much you can love!  What you can accomplish!  And what your potential is!”   (Anne Frank)

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“Here’s a little workshop to rock the new year and manifest whatever your heart desires:

1)       Ask once.

2)      Give thanks often.

End of little workshop.  Thanks again.   (signed) The Universe.”   (Mike Dooley, Notes from the Universe, January 7, 2014)

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“Do what you love, love what you do, and deliver more than you promise.   (Harvey Mackay)

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“It Is Not What One Does; It’s What one Becomes”

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”    (Plato)

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“There are two ways of spreading light:  to be the candle or the mirror that receives it.”   (Edith Wharton)

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“Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.”   (Goethe)

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“It’s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.”   (W. Somerset Maugham)

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“The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt.”   (Max Lerner)

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“How many slams in an old screen door?  Depends how loud you shut it.  How many slices in a bread?  Depends how thin you cut it.  How much good inside a day?  Depends how good you live ‘em.  How much love inside a friend? Depends how much you give ‘em.”   (Shel Silverstein)

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“I have learned this:  it is not what one does that is wrong, but what one becomes as a consequence of it.”   (Oscar Wilde)

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“Know Yourself”

“It’s dark because you are trying too hard.  Lightly child, lightly.  Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply.  Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.  I was so preposterously serious in those days … Lightly, lightly – it’s the best advice ever given me … So throw away your baggage and go forward.  There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly.  Lightly my darling.”   (Aldous Huxley, Island)

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“You are here to learn something.  Don’t try to figure out what it is.  This can be frustrating and unproductive.”   (Steven L. Peck, A Short Stay in Hell)

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“The precept, ‘Know yourself,’ was not solely intended to obviate the pride of mankind; but likewise that we might understand our own worth.”   (Cicero)

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“The soul creates, the mind reacts.  The soul understands what the mind cannot conceive. The soul speaks to you in feelings.  Listen … follow and honor your feelings.”   (Neale Donald Walsch)

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“You are one thing only.  You are a Divine Being.  An all-powerful Creator.  You are a Deity in jeans and a t-shirt, and within you dwells the infinite wisdom of the ages and the sacred creative force of All that is, will be and ever was.”   (Anthony St. Maarten)

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“Whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy.”   (Brian Tracy)

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“Be The Person”

“Living is the Challenge”

“Living is the challenge.  Not dying.  Dying is so easy.  Sometimes it only takes ten seconds to die. But living?  That can take you eighty years and you do something in that time.”   (Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi)

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“When faced with two equally tough choices, most people choose the third choice: to not choose.”   (Jarod Kintz, This Book Title is Invisible)

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“If we maintain the open-mindedness of children, we challenge fixed ideas and established structures, including our own.  We listen to people in other denominations and religions.  We don’t find demons in those with whom we disagree.  We don’t cozy up to people who mouth our jargon.  If we are open, we rarely resort to either – or:  either creation or evolution, liberty or law, sacred or secular, Beethoven or Madonna.  We focus on both – and, fully aware that God’s truth cannot be imprisoned in a small definition.”   (Brennan Manning)

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“Learning that miracles are little more than simple shifts in how we perceive our lives, other people, and the myriad situations that engage us makes it possible to thoroughly appreciate every moment of a day.”   (Karen Casey, Daily Meditations for Practicing the Course)

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“Life in itself is sufficient, self-explanatory and complete.”   (Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan)

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“Today I Am Blessed / The Greatest Challenge of the Day”

“The ship of my life may or may not be sailing on calm and amiable seas.  The challenging days of my existence may or may not be bright and promising. Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lonely nights, I maintain an attitude of gratitude.  If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow.  Today I am blessed.”    (Maya Angelou)

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“Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure.  You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of competence.”   (Eleanor Roosevelt, The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt)

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“Just because I liked something at one point in time doesn’t mean I’ll always like it, or that I have to go on liking it at all points in time as an unthinking act of loyalty to who I am as a person, based solely on who I was as a person.  To be loyal to myself is to allow myself to grow and change, and challenge who I am and what I think.  The only thing I am for sure is unsure, and this means I’m growing, and not stagnant or shrinking.”   (Jarod Kintz, At even one penny, this book would be overpriced. In fact, free is too expensive, because you’d still waste time by reading it.)

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“I wonder about that place at the end of all our striving … that place where the insatiable need to figure it out is silenced, that place where the need to be ‘right’ is extinguished, that place where the impulse to attain a magic formula dissolves, that place where the drive to be somewhere else or be someone else is quieted, that place where the urge to become dependent upon the latest guru or teacher is eradicated, that place where you no longer feel the need to perpetuate the persona of being a spiritual, awakened or enlightened person, that place where there are no advanced spiritual concepts or practices to master or attain, that place where you realize that what you have been looking for, you have; the person you most hoped to be, you are; and what your heart most desires, you have.  And maybe what you notice some time later is that your seeking has ended, and your suffering has too.”   (Jim Palmer, Notes From (over) The Edge)

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“When you’re following your inner voice, doors tend to eventually open for you, even if they mostly slam at first.”   (Kelly Cutrone, If You Have to Cry, Go Outside: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You)

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“The greatest challenge of the day is:  how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?”   (Dorothy Day)

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“You’ll Find Your Way Again”

“I think we wake up every day with high intentions and by dusk we have routinely fallen short.”   (Helen Simonson, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand)

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“For our homework, as kids, we would sometimes be asked to write, ‘What I did today.’  Now I feel like compiling a list: the things I didn’t do today.  The things I haven’t done in life.”   (Intimacy, Hanif Kureishi)

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“Let the guilt teach you how to behave next time.”   (Insurgent, Veronica Roth)

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“Never confuse your mistakes with your value as a human being.  You’re a perfectly valuable, creative, worthwhile person simply because you exist.  And no amount of triumphs or tribulations can ever change that.  Unconditional self acceptance is the core of a peaceful mind.”   (St. Francis de Sales)

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“If you’re feeling frightened about what comes next, don’t be.  Embrace the uncertainty. Allow it to lead you places.  Be brave as it challenges you to exercise both your heart and your mind as you create your own path toward happiness; don’t waste time with regret.  Spin wildly into your next action.  Enjoy the present, each moment, as it comes, because you’ll never get another one quite like it.  And if you should ever look up and find yourself lost, simply take a breath and start over.  Retrace your steps and go back to the purest place in your heart … where your hope lives.  You’ll find your way again.”   (Everwood)

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