If I were God, I would make a world just like this one, where everyone comes raw and naked and dependent into it; where everyone enters bloody between the legs or through the cut belly of a woman; where nothing is for certain and there is so much to learn. I would make the world unfair as this world is unfair, because only in a world like this one is it possible that maybe the rich will take down their fences; maybe the poor will get together and break the fences down; maybe those who know how to read will teach those who don't. Maybe the fed will feed the hungry. Maybe the lion will lie down by the lamb. —Pat Schneider More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
There are no miracles. There are no trumpets, no fanfares, no absolutions.But she sees now that there are brief moments of, if not goodness, then kindness: a thoughtful gesture, a friendly word, an absence of anger now and again. —Christiane Buuck More about this quote Tags: kindness good anger miracles friendliness thoughtfulness Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
We go on, she told me, because we must. We go on because our life is bigger than the grief. We cry when we need to cry, and get angry when we need to get angry. God will forgive us when we curse him. We go on, she said, until we finally have a day when the pain is not so great. —Rosa R. More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
This night I am here: in this bruised self, in this bruised world. —Joe Wilkins More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Walking my woods, I see every tree, every sprig of jewelweed, every salamander, and, yes, every snake trying to hold on in a paved world, and I'm reminded exactly what hard work survival is. —Dana Wildsmith More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
When I think about the fact that a nation has sentenced me to death, all I can do is turn inside myself, to the place in my heart that wants so desperately to feel human, still connected to this world, as if I have a purpose. —Jarvis Jay Masters More about this quote Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
If you open yourself to grace working through you, then grace works on you and in you as well. Grace is what has kept me going. —John Records More about this quote Tags: work grace Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
We're all doing time. The highest compliment in prison is "He knows how to do his own time." How few of us do. —Bo Lozoff More about this quote Tags: time prison Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
I gathered my shoes and wallet on the other side of the metal detector and took a last glance at my father, who was still there, still waving.That mangled finger had always been a symbol of his shortcomings and deformities to me, but now I saw it was also a testament to all that he'd sacrificed for our family.He'd lost that trigger finger building the business that had fed and clothed me. I imagined he was not only waving me goodbye but waving me forward with that symbol of his own woundedness. —Shozan Jack Haubner More about this quote Tags: family sacrifice business fatherhood Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
It's better to go into the world half-cocked than not to go into the world at all. —James Hillman More about this quote Tags: action world better Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Artists who whine because they need a grant and the government doesn't help them — well, tough shit. I had the same problem. I worked in a bookstore for seven years to make money to buy art supplies. And that was fine. I don't think artists should ever expect anything from anybody. For the artist, sacrifice and hardship are a part of the process. —Patti Smith More about this quote Tags: art government sacrifice Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Happy and content one day, / ambition and desire eat you alive the next. / It's always been this way. Back and forth, / back and forth. That's the way it goes. —David Budbill More about this quote Tags: ambition desire Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
There's an African proverb: "When death finds you, may it find you alive." Alive means living your own damn life, not the life that your parents wanted, or the life some cultural group or political party wanted, but the life that your own soul wants to live. —Michael Meade More about this quote Tags: life living parents death desire want Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Our thoughts limit what we're capable of doing. There are external forces arrayed against us, but there are also internal forces that sabotage us before we even get started. Our mind is good at setting us up for failure and getting us to think small. But I have found that we will do for love that which we don't think is possible. So the question to ask ourselves is "What do I love? —Julia Butterfly Hill More about this quote Tags: love mind failure thoughts sabotage Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The worst indictment I ever heard from my father was when he'd say of another man, "He's so lazy he stinks. —Joseph Bathanti More about this quote Tags: laziness insults Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email