The Moth Presents: All These Wonders: True Stories About Facing the Unknown

by Catherine Burns

“We all fall, and it matters. But when the fall is all you have left, it matters a great deal.”

the minute you let other people start to define you, you are just giving away your power.”

we imagine that we live in the light. We imagine we can foresee what’s gonna happen. We imagine we can control everything: I’m gonna do this, and I’m gonna do that. But the reality is, almost all of us are just stumbling along in the dark, searching, trying to reach some kind of home, while we’re juggling all these balls and hopefully on most days keeping them afloat.

Brave men are always afraid. Courage isn’t the absence of fear. It’s the willingness—the guts, if you like—to face the fear.

the world is always trying to tell you what you’re not. And it’s really up to you to say what you are.

when you hate, you take poison and you expect the other person to die.

I saw all the glorious things that could happen with music and with joy.