Becoming Inspired

So, part of this is the task of getting myself inspired. I decided that a good way to start this whole thing was by surrounding myself with things that inspire me. So today, I went through the two books and picked out the quotes that most inspire me. I then typed them up, printed them, cut them out, put them on colorful paper, and taped them up all over my room. I also created a playlist of songs that seem to put me in the sort of mood I need for this kind of thing. These weren't in the books, but I felt like these two activities would be a good way to get myself in the right mindset and help me along my journey.

I don't think I'm going to type up all the songs on my list, but here are the quotes:


"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Louis Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein"  -H. Jackson Brown, Jr.


"You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own and you know what you know, and you are the one who'll decide where to go."  -Dr. Seuss

"Because of our routines we forget that life is an on-going adventure."  -Maya Angelou

"Intense feeling too often obscures the truth."  -Harry Truman

"Man is a being with free will; therefore, each man is potentially good or evil, and it's up to him and only him (through his reasoning mind) to decide which he wants to be." - Ayn Rand

"Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen." - Ralph Waldo Emerson


"When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another- and ourselves."  - Jack Kornfield

"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." - Berthold Auerbach

"Art is the act of triggering deep memories of what it means to be fully human." - David Whyte

"Every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it."        -Michaelangelo

"The opposite of creativity is cynicism." - Esa Saarinen

"Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things." -Ray Bradbury

"Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties." - Erich Fromm

"The creative adult is the child who has survived." - Ursula K. Le Guin

"He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed." - Albert Einstein

"Everything can be taken from a man or woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." - Viktor E. Frankl

"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." - Roald Dahl

"Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence." -Aristotle

"Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated." - Coretta Scott King

"Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out." - Frank A. Clark

"Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas" - Marie Curie

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." - e.e. cummings

"It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable." - Moliere

"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." -Albert Einstein

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

"Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do." - Dr. Benjamin Spock

"Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new." - Brian Tracy

"Freethinkers are those who are willing to use thier minds without prejudice and whithout fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential fo rright thinking." -Leo Tolstoy

"The test ofour progress is not whether we add to the abundance of those who have much. It is whether we provide enough to those who have little." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

"One of the secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others." - Lewis Carroll

"Time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time." - Bertrand Russell

"Focusing your life soley on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. And it will leave you unfulfilled." - Barack Obama

"Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter, so that the world will be at least a little bit different for our having passed through it." - Rabbi Harold Kushner

"You  know you are on the road to success if you would do your job and not be paid for it." -Oprah Winfrey

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

And well, that's that! That's all for today, but if you have any quotes or songs you think I should add, let me know in the comments section!

-Beth