“I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me. ”

— Anaïs Nin

“I keep remembering one of my Guru’s teachings about happiness. She says that people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you’re fortunate enough. But that’s not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don’t you will eat away your innate contentment. It’s easy enough to pray when you’re in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments.”

— Elizabeth Gilbert

“You can have many great ideas in your head, but what makes the difference is the action. Without action upon an idea, there will be no manifestation, no results, and no reward”

— Miguel Ruiz

“The thought manifests the word;
The word manifests the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And habit hardens into character;
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
And let them spring forth from love
Born out of compassion for all beings.
As the shadow follows the body, as we think, so we become.”

— Juan Mascaró

“Capabilities are clearly manifested only when they have been realized.”

— Simone de Beauvoir

“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

Everything’s already been said, but since nobody was listening, we have to start again.

One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

There are many things that seem impossible only so long as one does not attempt them.

He who wants a rose must respect her thorn.

Envying another man’s happiness is madness; you wouldn’t know what to do with it if you had it.

God depends on us. It is through us that God is achieved.

Dare to be yourself”

— André Gide

“we are all alone, born alone, die alone, and — in spite of true romance magazines — we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. i do not say lonely — at least, not all the time — but essentially, and finally, alone. this is what makes your self-respect so important, and i don’t see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness”

— William S. Burroughs