#life

"Who did she know in Raleigh who took the time off to fix a house? Or read Whitman or Eliot, finding images in the mind, thoughts of the spirit? Or hunted dawn from the bow of a canoe? These weren't the things that drove society, but she felt they shouldn't be treated as unimportant. They made living worthwhile."

"Love will never let you down, if you don't give it up"

"When we set out on the path, we always have a fairly clear idea of what we hope to find. Women are generally seeking their Soul Mate, and men looking for Power. Neither party is really interested in learning. They simply want to reach the thing they have set as their goal."

"The most enjoyable book in the world is the phone book, because think of all the sex that went into creating the content."

"You have the ability to choose your reactions."

"But instead of spending our lives running towards our dreams, we are often running away from a fear of failure or a fear of criticism."

"If I were splat proof, I wouldn’t be afraid of heights. Also, I wish I had a bouncy ball for a heart, so I could love fearlessly."

"The word ‘sin’ is derived from the Indo-European root ‘es-,’ meaning ‘to be.’ When I discovered this etymology, I intuitively understood that for a [person] trapped in patriarchy, which is the religion of the entire planet, ‘to be’ in the fullest sense is ‘to sin'."

"I believe that I am not responsible for the meaningfulness or meaninglessness of life, but that I am responsible for what I do with the life I've got."

"Your life has to consist of more than 'Black people should unite.' You hope they do, but not twenty-four hours a day."

"Don’t try to hog loneliness and keep it all to yourself. Share it with a special someone."

"Figure, Woman, Wife I study the sleeping figure,Stare at her sated curl of lip;Her lids sealed in dreams so pureMy love's secured from tip to tip.I study the sleeping womanHer forehead faint with sweatHer eyes wildly remmingOf adulterous sex, I bet.I study the sleeping wife,Her mouth faintly drawing breath;Her throat pouring pools of blood ~How I loved this woman to death."

"In life, more than in anything else, it isn’t easy to end up alive."

"You’ll only fall if you doubt your balance."

"No one here gets out alive."

"Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity."

"We can no more justify using nonhumans as human resources than we can justify human slavery. Animal use and slavery have at least one important point in common: both institutions treat sentient beings exclusively as resources of others. That cannot be justified with respect to humans; it cannot be justified with respect to nonhumans—however “humanely” we treat them."

"One of the most difficult things everyone has to learn is that for your entire life you must keep fighting and adjusting if you hope to survive. No matter who you are or what your position is you must keep fighting for whatever it is you desire to achieve."

"You can play it safe, and I wouldn't blame you for it. You can continue as you've been doing, and you'll survive, but is that what you want? Is that enough?"

"Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity. The greatest problem with communication is we don’t listen to understand. We listen to reply. When we listen with curiosity, we don’t listen with the intent to reply. We listen for what’s behind the words."