"to love life, to love it even
when you have no stomach for it
and everything you've held dear
crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,
your throat filled with the silt of it.
When grief sits with you, its tropical heat
thickening the air, heavy as water
more fit for gills than lungs;
when grief weights you like your own flesh
only more of it, an obesity of grief,
you think, How can a body withstand this?
Then you hold life like a face
between your palms, a plain face,
no charming smile, no violet eyes,
and you say, yes, I will take you
I will love you, again."
— Ellen Bass

"The man that I named the Giver passed along to the boy knowledge, history, memories, color, pain, laughter, love, and truth. Every time you place a book in the hands of a child, you do the same thing. It is very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere. It gives him choices. It gives him freedom. Those are magnificent, wonderfully unsafe things."
— Lois Lowry

"For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain."
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"My hands tend to be full enough dealing with people who hate me for who I am. Concentrate too hard on the millions of people who hate you for what you are and you're likely to turn into one of those unkempt, sloppy dressers who sag beneath the weight of the two hundred political buttons they wear pinned to their coats and knapsacks."
— David Sedaris

"A boo is a lot louder than a cheer."
— Lance Armstrong

"Whatever gets you through the night"
— John Lennon

"Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like."
— Laozi

"I have never found anybody who could stand to accept the daily demonstrative love I feel in me, and give back as good as I give."
— Sylvia Plath (Journals of Sylvia Plath)

""We only accept the love we think we deserve." 'The Perks of Being A Wallflower"
— Stephen Chbosky

"You're always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company."
— Diane Von Furstenberg

"A weed is but an unloved flower."
— Ella Wheeler Wilcox

"The end of a melody is not its goal: but nonetheless, had the melody not reached its end it would not have reached its goal either. A parable."
— Nietzche

"It was being a runner that mattered, not how fast or how far I could run. The joy was in the act of running and in the journey, not in the destination. We have a better chance of seeing where we are when we stop trying to get somewhere else. We can enjoy every moment of movement, as long as where we are is as good as where we'd like to be. That's not to say that you need to be satisfied forever with where you are today. But you need to honor what you've accomplished, rather than thinking of what's left to be done (p. 159)."
— John Bingham (No Need for Speed: A Beginner's Guide to the Joy of Running)

"If God were our one and only desire we would not be so easily upset when our opinions do not find outside acceptance."
— Thomas à Kempis (The Imitation of Christ)

"My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations."
— Michael J. Fox

"
My choice is what I choose to do,
And if I'm causing no harm, it shouldn't bother you.

Your choice is who you choose to be,
And if you're causin' no harm, then you're alright with me. "
— Ben Harper

"No, the secret is that there's no reward and we have to endure our characters and our natures as best we can, because no amount of experience or insight is going to rectify our deficiencies, our self-regard, or our cupidity. We have to learn that our desires do not find any real echo in the world. We have to accept that the people we love do not love us, or not in the way we hope. We have to accept betrayal and disloyalty, and, hardest of all, that someone is finer than we are in character or intelligence."
— Sándor Márai (Embers)

"“ The moment you become miserly you are closed to the basic phenomenon of life: expansion, sharing. The moment you start clinging to things, you have missed the target--you have missed. Because things are not the target, you, your innermost being, is the target--not a beautiful house, but a beautiful you; not much money, but a rich you; not many things, but an open being, available to millions of things. ”
"
— Osho

"I have a self-made quote: Celebrate diversity, practice acceptance and may we all choose peaceful options to conflict."
— Donzella Michele Malone

"A Gift for You
I send you...

The gift of a letter from your wise self. This is the part of you that sees you with benevolent, loving eyes. You find this letter in a thick envelope with your name on it, and the word YES written boldly above your name.

"My Dear,

I am writing this to remind you of your 'essence beauty.' This is the part of you that has nothing to do with age, occupation, weight, history, or pain. This is the soft, untouched, indelible you. You can love yourself in this moment, no matter what you have, or haven't done or been.

See past any masks, devices, or inventions that obscure your essence.

Remember your true purpose, WHICH is only Love.

If you cannot see or feel love, lie down now and cry; it will cleanse your vision and free your heart.

I love you; I am you.""
— Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy (SARK) (Make Your Creative Dreams Real: A Plan for Procrastinators, Perfectionists, Busy People, and People Who Would Really Rather Sleep All Day)

"The first step to the knowledge of the wonder and mystery of life is the recognition of the monstrous nature of the earthly human realm as well as its glory, the realization that this is just how it is and that it cannot and will not be changed. Those who think they know how the universe could have been had they created it, without pain, without sorrow, without time, without death, are unfit for illumination."
— Joseph Campbell

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.
"
— Dr. Suess

"It took me half my life to begin to know myself and the second half of life to be true to what I know of myself - which is that I'm authentically screwy."
— Carmen Dell'Orifice

""It is a severe cruelty inflicted upon women...that we should be the ones who so desperately need love...affection...acceptance.And yet, we suffer...many of us, for lack of it throughout our entire lives."-Shackles of Honor"
— Marcia Lynn McClure

"For a very long time everybody refuses and then almost without a pause almost everybody accepts."
— Gertrude Stein

" We all find occasion to reject and resist another person. We all like to put up a fight against anything we dislike on the evening news as we spectate the world. But we forget that when we decide we will resist something or somebody, either mentally or physically, we only empower the object of our resistance, either in reality or in our own minds. If you want to enjoy the ability to influence, always start with acceptance. If you want to disarm another begin with acceptance. If you want to encourage and empower another to change, start with acceptance. Don't make it conditional. Otherwise it's just resistance disguised as acceptance, and you are still trying to control them. And we can all smell a controller...can't you? ”
"
— Innerspace

"Humility means accepting reality with no attempt to outsmart it."
— David Richo (The Five Things We Cannot Change: And the Happiness We Find by Embracing Them)

"'When life hands you lemons--'
'Yeah, yeah, I know: make lemon-aid.'
'I was going to say "Smile sweetly and throw them away when life's not looking", but your way works too. Though I've never been particularly fond of lemon-aid. Lemon mig is much more to my --'
'Reggie!'
'Oh, right, sorry.'"
— Captain Whitney

"'When people learn to accept other people, anger and jealously wont exist'"
— Alia

"Because one believes in oneself, one doesn't try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn't need others' approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her."
— Lao Tzu

"She talked about wanting to be a part of something, wanting to be desired, to be 'special', craving to be loved. She talked about experiencing the kind of loneliness so immense it could swallow you up. She called it 'loneliness that crowds couldn't cure'."
— Cupcake Brown

"The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain. "
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Know that everything is in perfect order whether you understand it or not."
— Valery Satterwhite

""At any given moment, we have no idea what is in our best interests.""
— Jay Stott

"At any given moment, we have no idea what is in our best interests."
— via Jay Stott

"Other people are likely not to be aware that those who pursue philosophy aright study nothing but dying and being dead. Now if this is true, it would be absurd to be eager for nothing but this all their lives, and then to be troubled when that came for which they had all along been eagerly practicing."
— Plato (Phaedo)

"Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves - regret for the past and fear of the future."
— Fulton Oursler

"This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that's not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores.

It is that American spirit - that American promise - that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend"
— Barack Obama

"Nothing brings down walls as surely as acceptance."
— Deepak Chopra (The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore)

"The Perfect Way is only difficult for those who pick and choose; do not like, do not dislike: All will then be clear."
— Seng Ts'an

"Maturity Is The Acceptance Of Ones Madness"
— Nicole Stacey-O'Reilly

"Know that everything is in perfect order whether you understand it or not."
— Guy Finley