Hemingway's Icebergs

"If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water."

-Ernest Hemingway

Girl Power

"As I always tell my daughters, a good education is something no one can take away from you. You always get to keep what you know."

-Michelle Obama

Which is Knowledge

"For it was not knowledge but unity that she desired, not inscriptions tablets, nothing that could be written in any language known to men, but intimacy itself, which is knowledge. "

-Virginia Woolf

To Be Seen

“A silent look of affection and regard when all other eyes are turned coldly away – the consciousness that we possess the sympathy and affection of one being when all others have deserted us – is a hold, a stay, a comfort, in the deepest affliction, which no wealth could purchase, or power bestow. "
— Charles Dickens 

Someday is a Disease

“For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks. Waiting for a good time to quit your job? The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. “Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct course along the way.”

— Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek 

We are Stories

"In the end we all become stories."

-Margret Atwood

Meant to Fight

“You are meant to fight. When you are sick, your body fights for its right to function. When you hold your breath, your body fights for its right to breathe. There are billions of tiny events—from the surface of your skin, down to the very cells of your body—that have to happen in order for you to be simply sitting here today. If your most minuscule parts haven’t given up yet,

Why should you? "
— n.t.

Stars Collapse

“For a star to be born, there is one thing that must happen: a gaseous nebula must collapse.

So collapse.
Crumble.
This is not your destruction.

This is your birth." 
— n.t.  

Sparks

You have to carry the fire.
I don't know how to.
Yes, you do.
Is it real? The fire?
Yes it is.
Where is it? I don't know where it is.
Yes you do. It's inside you. It always was there. I can see it.

- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Written on the body

"Our history is written on the body."

-Vicky Vlachonis, The Body Doesn't Lie

Stuck

"The most dangerous phrase in the language is 'we've always done it this way'."

-Grace Hopper

Wear Out

"My motto in life has been, 'I would rather wear out than rust out,' " 

-Ruth Branum, 104,

Constant Movement

"You have to constantly rush headlong at the things that scare you most. Which means you have to take risk after ever-loving risk. And you have to remember that the reward is in the leap itself, not in what comes of it. Because when you take risks you add value to your life. Or when you ask for what you need and what you want—no matter how hard or painful OR TERRIFYING it may be—you learn about your worth, about your extraordinary value (damn if Tom isn’t always right)."

It’s about movement. It’s about constant movement.

-Meg Fee

Soft and Strong

“Being both soft and strong is a combination very few have mastered.”

- Yasmin Mogahed  

Ain't that the truth

“I will always love the false image I had of you.”

- (via expiry)

So what who cares

“One of my main regrets in life is giving considerable thought to inconsiderate people.”

- Jarod Kintz  

Power Play

“Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don’t.”

- Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free 

Labels

“Call a boy a gentleman and watch his shoulders straighten. Call a girl a lady and watch her spirit turn graceful. Humanity was brought into existence by God speaking words into the void of the universe. We tend to become what we are called.”

- The Medicine of Hope 

False Disappearance

"Don't give yourself away for a false sense of belonging."

-Meredith Walker, co-founder of Amy Poehler's Smart Girls

Fine Then

"Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting."
-Joyce Meyer

Atoms

“There’s as many atoms in a single molecule of your DNA as there are stars in the typical galaxy. We are, each of us, a little universe.”

- (via winterleftmebreathless)

They are Africa

“Someone once told me a story about long term relationships. To think of them as a continent to explore. I could spend a lifetime backpacking through Africa, and I would still never know all there is to know about that continent. To stay the course, to stay intentional, to stay curious and connected – that’s the heart of it. But it’s so easy to lose track of the trail, to get tired, to want to give up, or to want a new adventure. It can be so easy to lose sight of the goodness and mystery within the person sitting right in front of you.”

- Joy Williams 

Well, Crap

“We have a government that says it’s okay to eat Twinkies and Cocoa Puffs and Mountain Dew, but it’s illegal to drink raw milk and eat compost-grown tomatoes and Aunt Matilda’s pickles.”

-

From sustainable farmer Joel Salatin. Quote captured by Amy Eddings on WNYC Culture blog.

Asking increases your chance

“If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place.”

- Nora Roberts

Dirt

“I’m a dirt person. I trust the dirt. I don’t trust diamonds and gold.”

- Eartha Kitt