"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

"Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend."
— Albert Camus

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."
— Abraham Lincoln

"As long as we are children, we have the ability to experience things around us--but then we grow used to the world. To grow up is to get drunk on sensory experience."
— Jostein Gaarder (The Solitaire Mystery)

"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring."
— Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn: Her Life in Her Own Words)

"Sometimes people are beautiful.
Not in looks.
Not in what they say.
Just in what they are."
— Markus Zusak (I Am the Messenger)

"If we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams."
— Yann Martel (Self)

"It takes an athlete to dance, but an artist to be a dancer."
— Shanna LaFleur

"...she wanted to dance with someone who would embrace her in the way she dreamed of since adolescence."
— Paulo Coelho (The Pilgrimage)

"life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one"
— Stella Adler

"There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment."
— Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)

"Sometimes it's a form of love just to talk to somebody that you have nothing in common with and still be fascinated by their presence."
— David Byrne

"Whenever you want to achieve something, keep your eyes open, concentrate and make sure you know exactly what it is you want. No one can hit their target with their eyes closed."
— Paulo Coelho (The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptation)

"Visualize this thing you want. See it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint and begin."
— Robert Collier

"Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence."
— Hal Borland

"Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life."
— Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment)

"Humility is throwing oneself away in complete concentration on something or someone else."
— Madeleine L'Engle

"I felt dumb and subdued. Every time I tried to concentrate, my mind glided off, like a skater, into a large empty space, and pirouetted there, absently."
— Sylvia Plath (The Bell Jar)

"If you spent your life concentrating on what everyone else thought of you, would you forget who you really were? What if the face you showed the world turned out to be a mask... with nothing beneath it?"
— Jodi Picoult

"IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER

I would have talked less and listened more.

I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded.

I would have eaten the popcorn in the "good" living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.

I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather rambling about his youth.

I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.

I would have burned the pink candle sculped like a rose before it melted
in storage.

I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains.

I would have cried and laughed less while watching television, and more
while watching life.

I would have gone to bed when I was sick, instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.

I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment, realising that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.

When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner."

There would have been more "I love you's" and more "I'm sorry's"

. . . but mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute . . .
look at it and really see it . . . and never give it back."
— Erma Bombeck

"Take all of your wasted honor.
Every little past frustration.
Take all of your so called problems,
Better put 'em in quotations.

Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say

Walkin' like a one man army,
Fightin' with the shadows in your head.
Livin' up the same old moment
Knowin' you'd be better off instead

If you could only...Say what you need to say
If you could only...Say what you need to say
If you could only...Say what you need to say
If you could only...Say what you need to say
If you could only...Say what you need to say
If you could only...Say what you need to say
If you could only...Say what you need to say
If you could only...Say what you need to say

Have no fear for givin' in.
Have no fear for giving over.
You better know that in the end
It's better to say too much, than never to say what you need to say again.

Even if your hands are shaking,
And your faith is broken.
Even as the eyes are closin',
Do it with a heart wide open.

(Wide Heart)

Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say

Say what you need to, Say what you need to...

Say what you need to say.


THIS SONG IS GREAT I DONT CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS...PEOPLE SHOULD SAY WHAT THEY SAY BEFORE SOMETHING HAPPENS AND IF WHAT YOU SAY/SAID HURTS SOMEONE THAT YOU LOVE THEN MAYBE IT WASNT LOVE IN THE BEGINNING. "
— John Mayer

"When you feel in your gut what you are and then dynamically pursue it - don't back down and don't give up - then you're going to mystify a lot of folks."
— Bob Dylan

"Fairy tales, are more than true. Not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be defeated."
— G.K. Chesterton

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."
— e.e. cummings

"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me."
— Ayn Rand

"It's the friends you can call up at 4 AM that matter."
— Marlene Dietrich

"A real friend is someone who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."
— Proverb

"In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends."
— John Churton Collins

"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one."
— C.S. Lewis

"Just a small town girl, living in a lonely world, took the midnight train going anywhere...
Just a city boy, borned and raided in South Detroit, took the midnight train going anywhere..."
— Journey (Don't stop Believing)

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"When you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true."
— Paulo Coelho

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."
— Douglas Adams

"We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be."
— May Sarton

"
Some people are settling down, some people are settling and some people refuse to settle for anything less than butterflies."


"
— Carrie (Sex in the City)

"Living with integrity means: Not settling for less than what you know you deserve in your relationships. Asking for what you want and need from others. Speaking your truth, even though it might create conflict or tension. Behaving in ways that are in harmony with your personal values. Making choices based on what you believe, and not what others believe."
— Barbara De Angelis

"The better you learn to take care of yourself, the less you settle for being around people who can't or won't treat you as well as you're accustomed."
— Curtis Sittenfeld

"There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living."
— Nelson Mandela

"After a good-looking boy gives you rabies two, three times, you'll settle down and marry somebody less exciting for the rest of your life"
— Chuck Palahniuk

"The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for. "
— Maureen Dowd

"It may be that you are settled in another place it may be that you are happy but the one who took your heart wields final power."
— Jeanette Winterson (The Passion)

"I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free.
"
— Georgia O'Keeffe

"It was as if hope had appeared out of nowhere to settle beside her and it wasn't going anywhere, it wasn't going to desert her now."
— Alice Hoffman

"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You."
— Dr. Seuss (Happy Birthday to You!)

"I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter, scraped over too much bread.~~
Bilbo Baggins on the occasion of his 111st Birthday"
— J.R.R. Tolkien (The Fellowship of the Ring)

"With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come."
— William Shakespeare

"It's not your birthday that's important but what you do between your birthdays."
— Daniel E. Allen

"Take every birthday with a grain of salt. This works better if the salt accompanies a large margarita."
— Maxine of greeting card fame, on aging

"I have the choice of being constantly active and happy or introspectively passive and sad. Or I can go mad by ricocheting in between."
— Sylvia Plath (The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath)

"The thing that is most hardest to accept about the passage of time is that the people who once mattered the most wind up in parentheses."
— John Irving