I have always felt a strong connection to the past. I’ve recently begun to search for, read about and document the lives of my family members before me. As I’ve learned of them, I’ve discovered an inheritance I never knew I had. If they had not been who they were, I would not be who I am today.
This link is not only one of family, but of all those who have gone before. One of my favorite hobbies is collecting quotes. When I hear or read something that strikes me to the core, I write it down. I’ve gathered them together in one document that grows larger and larger each week.
I’ve discovered strength, I’ve discovered tenderness, I’ve discovered perseverance, I’ve discovered fond memories, I’ve discovered trials, I’ve discovered truth, and throughout it all I’ve discovered myself.
I’ve compiled this inspiration from the past because it means something to me. Many people from many generations shared this knowledge. They all contributed to the whole of what we are today and what I want to be. (Each person quoted is referenced by number)
Inspiration from the past:
Live every day as if it were your last, because one of these days, it will be.1
Live life fully while you’re here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up! You’re going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process. Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. Don’t try to be perfect; just be an excellent example of being human.2
Every man has his own destiny: The only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him.3 Don’t worry about what you will do next. If you take one step with all the knowledge you have, there is usually just enough light shining to show you the next step.4
An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.5 He who never ventures beyond actuality will never win the prize of truth.6 Sometimes you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.7
Give yourself the adventure of doing what you can do, with what you have, even if you have nothing but the adventure of trying. How much better than standing in a corner with your back to the wall.8 Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.9
Be who you are and say what you feel. Those who mind don’t matter, and those that matter don’t mind.10
Liberation is an ever shifting horizon, a total ideology that can never fulfill its promises.11 The force of mind is only as great as its expression; its depth only as deep as its power to expand and lose itself.12 A thought is often original, though you have uttered it a hundred times.13
The true lover of knowledge naturally strives for truth, and is not content with common opinion, but soars with undimmed and unwearied passion till he grasps the essential nature of things.14 Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.15
Every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house a world; and beyond its world, a heaven. Know then, that the world exists for you. For you is the phenomenon perfect. What we are, that only can we see.16 When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about.17
It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.18 The future is made of the same stuff as the present.19 The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.20 There can be no progress if people have no faith in tomorrow.21
In the end, you’re measured not by how much you undertake but by what you finally accomplish.22 Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.23
1-Jeremy Schwartz, 2- Anthony Robbins, 3- Henry Miller, 4- Mardy Murie, 5-G.K. Chesterton, 6- Friedrich von Schiller, 7- Grateful Dead, 8- Mardy Murie, 9- Harvey Fierstein, 10- Dr. Seuss, 11 – Arianna Huffington, 12- G. W. F. Hegel, 13- Oliver Wendell Holmes, 14- Plato, 15- Ralph Waldo Emerson, 16- Ralph Waldo Emerson, 17- Albert Einstein, 18- Simone Weil, 19- Robert Kennedy, 20- William James, 21- John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 22- Donald Trump, 23- Mother Theresa
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Here’s what I got: