Nat > Nat's Quotes

“When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it is over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.”
― Mary Oliver

“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like there's nobody listening,
And live like it's heaven on earth.”
― William W. Purkey

“May you never be the reason why someone who loved to sing, doesn’t anymore.
Or why someone who dressed so uniquely, now wears plain clothing.
Or why someone who always spoke so excitedly about their dreams, is now silent about them.
May you never be the reason someone gave up on a part of themselves because you were demotivating, non-appreciative, hypercritical, or even worse—sarcastic about it.”
― Sharouk Mustafa Ibrahim

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
― Mary Oliver

“Everything is gestation and then bringing forth. To let each impression and each germ of feeling come to completion wholly in itself, in the dark, in the inexpressible, the unconscious, beyond the reach of one's own intelligence, and await with deep humility and patience the birth-hour of a new clarity: that alone is living the artist's life, in understanding and in creating. There is no measuring in time, no year matters, and ten years are nothing. Being an artist means, not reckoning and counting, but ripening like the tree which does not force its sap and stands confident in the storms of spring without fear that after them may come no summer.”
― Rainer M. Rilke

“When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

“When he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.”
― William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

“That boy was going to make the world turn, and the stars would fall like rain.”
― Twist and Shout

“Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment.”
― Mario Puzo, The Godfather

“Freedom is a length of rope. God wants you to hang yourself with it.”
― Castiel Supernatural

“You know — we've had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being fought by aging men like ourselves. We had forgotten that wars were fought by babies. When I saw those freshly shaved faces, it was a shock. "'My God, my God — ' I said to myself, 'It's the Children's Crusade.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

“And still, after all this time,
The sun never says to the earth,
"You owe Me."

Look what happens with
A love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky.”
― Hafiz

“For what it’s worth... it’s never too late, or in my case too early, to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit. Start whenever you want. You can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you’ve never felt before. I hope you meet people who have a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start over again.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Be kind to yourself, so you can be happy enough to be kind to the world.”
― Misha Collins

“Reading your note, at our table, in my voice,
I heard you were ready to accept my love,
Which, of course, changes everything.”
― Misha Collins, Some Things I Still Can't Tell You: Poems

“For now, though, I want to offer one small reminder, which is that real growth begins with how gladly you’re able to see yourself.”
― Michelle Obama, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times

“You can’t process the challenges of being different all on your own. It’s just too big, too painful, to keep inside. To try to carry it alone can be corrosive, draining.”
― Michelle Obama, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times

“The goal, instead, is to find someone who will do the work with you, not for you, contributing on all fronts and in all ways.”
― Michelle Obama, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times

“We only hurt ourselves when we hide our realness away.”
― Michelle Obama, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times

“Read books by people whose perspective is different from yours, listen to voices you haven’t heard before, look for narratives that are new to you. In them and with them, you might end up finding more room for yourself.”
― Michelle Obama, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times

“The challenge in leading a big life becomes trying to find ways to protect your dreams and your drive, to remain tough without being overly guarded, to stay nimble and open to growth, allowing others to see you for who you are. It’s about learning how to shelter your flame without hiding its light.”
― Michelle Obama, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times

“We can’t know for sure what the future holds, but I do think it’s important to remember that we are also not helpless in the face of our worries.”
― Michelle Obama, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times

“Going high is a commitment, and not a particularly glamorous one, to keep moving forward. It only works when we do the work.”
― Michelle Obama, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times

“What I want to say, then, is stay vigorous and faithful, humble and empathetic. Tell the truth, do your best by others, keep perspective, understand history and context. Stay prudent, stay tough, and stay outraged. But more than anything, don’t forget to do the work.”
― Michelle Obama, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times

“God created war so that Americans would learn geography.”
― Mark Twain

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke

“Let everything happen to you
Beauty and terror
Just keep going
No feeling is final”
― Rainer Maria Rilke

“Therefore, dear Sir, love your solitude and try to sing out with the pain it causes you. For those who are near you are far away... and this shows that the space around you is beginning to grow vast.... be happy about your growth, in which of course you can't take anyone with you, and be gentle with those who stay behind; be confident and calm in front of them and don't torment them with your doubts and don't frighten them with your faith or joy, which they wouldn't be able to comprehend. Seek out some simple and true feeling of what you have in common with them, which doesn't necessarily have to alter when you yourself change again and again; when you see them, love life in a form that is not your own and be indulgent toward those who are growing old, who are afraid of the aloneness that you trust.... and don't expect any understanding; but believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke

“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart.
...live in the question.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet