Cara Achterberg > Cara's Quotes

“That life - whatever else it is - is short. That fate is cruel but maybe not random. That Nature (meaning Death) always wins but that doesn’t mean we have to bow and grovel to it. That maybe even if we’re not always so glad to be here, it’s our task to immerse ourselves anyway: wade straight through it, right through the cesspool, while keeping eyes and hearts open. And in the midst of our dying, as we rise from the organic and sink back ignominiously into the organic, it is a glory and a privilege to love what Death doesn’t touch.”
― Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch

“Well—I have to say I personally have never drawn such a sharp line between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ as you. For me: that line is often false. The two are never disconnected. One can’t exist without the other. As long as I am acting out of love, I feel I am doing best I know how. But you—wrapped up in judgment, always regretting the past, cursing yourself, blaming yourself, asking ‘what if,’ ‘what if.’ ‘Life is cruel.’ ‘I wish I had died instead of.’ Well—think about this. What if all your actions and choices, good or bad, make no difference to God? What if the pattern is pre-set? No no—hang on—this is a question worth struggling with. What if our badness and mistakes are the very thing that set our fate and bring us round to good? What if, for some of us, we can’t get there any other way?”
― Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch

“There are souls in this world who have the gift of finding joy everywhere, and leaving it behind them when they go.”
― Frederick William Faber

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”
― Epicurus

“At the end of the day, let there be no excuses, no explanations, no regrets.”
― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

“If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.”
― Meister Eckhart

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
― John F. Kennedy

“What separates privilege from entitlement is gratitude.”
― Brené Brown

“Some people talk to animals. Not many listen though. That's the problem.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

“Such short little lives our pets have to spend with us, and they spend most of it waiting for us to come home each day.
It is amazing how much love and laughter they bring into our lives and even how much closer we become with each other because of them.”
― John grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog

“Animals don't hate, and we're supposed to be better than them.”
― Elvis Presley

“You know, sometimes the world seems like a pretty mean place.'

'That's why animals are so soft and huggy.”
― Bill Watterson, Scientific Progress Goes "Boink"

“Part of the ache, I know, comes from my own sense of still not being quite up to the job of being me. Not a good enough mother, wife, friend, no matter how much I care or what I do. not a good enough writer, or yoga student, or meditator, no matter how hard I try. Not a good enough public speaker, or checkbook balancer, or wage earner, no matter how much effort I put in.

I know that where I see lack and failure, others may see competence. But I compile my own secret list of insecurities and shortcomings, certain that what seems to come so easily and naturally to others must be harder for me. I want to be better at living my life than I am these days. To feel sufficient, more certain of what I'm meant to do now and how I'm meant to be.”
― Katrina Kennison

“Writing...is the best, the only way I know to investigate myself, to figure out what I think and how I feel and what matters right now.”
― Katrina Kennison

“If we want to own dogs, their teeth come along. It is up to us to learn how and when dogs use them and to keep our dogs out of situations where they feel they need to. Aside”
― Bronwen Dickey, Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon

“Just a generation ago if you went near a dog when he was eating and the dog growled,” she explained, “somebody would say, ‘Don’t go near the dog when he’s eating! What are you, crazy?’ Now the dog gets euthanized. Back then, dogs were allowed to say no. Dogs”
― Bronwen Dickey, Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon

“To use a more accurate car metaphor, the Honda Civic, like the pit bull, is small in size, fairly generic in appearance, inexpensive, and easy to acquire. These four characteristics make it one of the best-selling cars of all time. For those exact same reasons, the Civic is also the leading car bought, sold, and modified for purposes of street drag racing, a highly dangerous and illegal practice that kills approximately one hundred Americans every year (three times as many as are killed by all types of dogs combined). Yet no legislator has ever proposed a ban on the Honda Civic in order to correct errant human behavior by a small number of people. If”
― Bronwen Dickey, Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon

“In nearly every municipality where breed-specific legislation (BSL) has been adopted, it has failed to prevent serious dog bite injuries and hospitalizations. Veterinarians, animal behaviorists, and public health experts, including those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are virtually unanimous in their denunciation of BSL on the grounds that it is both cruel and ineffective.”
― Bronwen Dickey, Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon

“Donaldson believes that we owe it to our companions to respect their boundaries and to remember that some level of aggression is essential for any animal’s survival.”
― Bronwen Dickey, Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon

“It’s not how the dog is “raised” that makes the largest difference in public safety but how the dog is maintained by its owner.”
― Bronwen Dickey, Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon

“My heart is broken, he told himself. It was at that moment he understood the profound meaning of that common phrase: he thought he heard the sound of glass breaking and felt that the essence of his being was pouring out until he was empty, with no memory of the past, no awareness of the present, no hope for the future.”
― Isabel Allende, A Long Petal of the Sea

“Perfection....it functions as a form of myopia, a preoccupation with self-image that can stunt emotional growth.”
― Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith

“If I were God, I'd have the answers at the end of the workbook, so you could check to see if you're on the right track as you go along.”
― Anne Lamott, Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace

“Women become a little dangerous during this time [menopause]..we can no longer keep a lid on it.”
― Stephanie Marston, If Not Now when: Reclaiming Ourselves at Midlife