Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar", every "supreme leader", every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known. —Carl Sagan More about this quote Tags: wonder humanity inspiration kindness space vastness Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
What I need is someone who will make me do what I can. —Ralph Waldo Emerson More about this quote Tags: doing inspiration capability Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. —Jack London More about this quote Tags: inspiration work creativity Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. —John Quincy Adams More about this quote Tags: inspiration accomplishment leadership Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Inspiration arrives as a packet of material to be delivered. —John Updike More about this quote Tags: inspiration Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time... The wait is simply too long. —Leonard Bernstein More about this quote Tags: inspiration writing waiting working Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Try not to be a man or woman of success, but rather a man or woman of inspiration. If you're successful, they will flock to you for money or fame, but if you're inspirational, they will flock to you because they love your soul and how you change theirs. —Shannon L. Alder More about this quote Tags: love inspiration success fame soul change money Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
I didn't have to think up so much as a comma or a semicolon; it was all given, straight from the celestial recording room. Weary, I would beg for a break, an intermission, time enough, let's say, to go to the toilet or take a breath of fresh air on the balcony. Nothing doing! —Henry Miller More about this quote Tags: inspiration time writing Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration. —Igor Stravinsky More about this quote Tags: inspiration work eating Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
I don't believe in total freedom for the artist. Left on his own, free to do anything he likes, the artist ends up doing nothing at all. If there's one thing that's dangerous for an artist, it's precisely this question of total freedom, waiting for inspiration and all the rest of it. —Frank Zappa More about this quote Tags: inspiration freedom accomplishment art Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Greatness is more than potential. It is the execution of that potential. Beyond the raw talent. You need the appropriate training. You need the discipline. You need the inspiration. You need the drive. —Eric A. Burns More about this quote Tags: inspiration potential greatness drive Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness - I wouldn't know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self- consciousness. —Aaron Copland More about this quote Tags: inspiration Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action. —Frank Tibolt More about this quote Tags: inspiration Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled [poets] to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean. —Socrates More about this quote Tags: inspiration Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
A good painting to me has always been like a friend. It keeps me company, comforts and inspires. —Hedy Lamarr More about this quote Tags: inspiration art comfort painting Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email