Inspiring Words

[Ravenhull]

More of a general thoughts thread, but are there any quotes or words of wisdom that have inspired you in your life?

To kick things off:

"What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.
"Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors. The library connects us with the insights and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds there ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all of our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contributions to the collective knowledge of the human species."

-- Carl Sagan, Cosmos, a Personal Journey

[GermanMerc]

Here, best inspiration if ever found:

“Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can - there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did.”
Sarah Caldwell

[Bear]

Doesn't this fit under Quotetastic?

[midgetshrimp]

It's in discussion between mods at the moment, but carry on and we'll let you know if we decide on merging it with Quote-tastic.

[Ravenhull]

I will admit, for some reason I forgot that Quotastic existed when I created this. Now, as some have commented, this might be just enough different flavor that it might keep it's 'independence'. Personally, I won't feel 'hurt' no matter which path is taken.

[midgetshrimp]

I, for one, think it should be merged, seeing as nothing in Quote-tastic prohibits discussion about one another's posts. However, once other mods are available, they may think differently.

[Don Alexander]

Hmmmm....

Merge.

I don't think I've ever really had any quote which really inspired me. Though I have always like the lyrics "Ignite our minds and let's burn brighter. These are the wonders at your feet." (Dark Tranquillity - The wonders At Your Feet) pretty cool. Used them at the end of my diploma thesis.

Not to mention my sig.

[Pneumonica]

Don't know if this'll be merged or not. I always found the following inspirational. But I'm a very strange person.

"The longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing."
-Marcus Aurelius

EDIT: I would also like to argue that the point of the two threads is different, though they may have some overlap. The Quotastic thread is generally aimed at "awesome" or "funny", and this thread is aimed at "inspirational" or "life-affirming".

[Ravenhull]

I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudo-science and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason more sonorous and attractive. Where have we heard it before? Whenever our ethnic or national prejudices are aroused, in times of scarcity, during challenges to national self-esteem or nerve, when we agonize about our diminished cosmic place and purpose, or when fanaticism is bubbling up around us-then, habits of thought familiar from ages past reach for the controls. The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness gathers. The demons begin to stir. – Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, Chapter 2 "Science and Hope"

Added an "a" at a critical place... The DAMNed

[GermanMerc]

For my part, I think this thread should be given a chance. However, I approve of what my fellow mods decide We work as a democratic team after all

Teach we all know ur the only real girl Mod her, so ur fellow Mods will decide as u want ;)

(We mostlyknow about girly mind controll trickks already )

Edit:

Shouldnt have typed that, there are some black vans coming up the street.

[Some guy]

Does it count if you came up with them?? If it does, this cant really be merged with a quote thread.

Also would cut average sig length in half.

There are no rules in life. Only the expectations of other people. If you fail to meet these expectations, there will be consequences, but some consequences are harsher than others.

[DruffyB]

'Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it'

'A man may feel pain throughout ones life. One acts on pain, are we not animals? But never underestimate the power of the will and tenacity of the human race to conquer such limits much like we have conquered the skies and Earth. Know this therefore-take the pain and acknowledge it then absorb it and through the power of your genome walk along as if nothing has phased. Then whether the pain is emotional or physical one will conquer the world and thus reality!

[GypsyLyric]

I spend much of my time thinking, and asking myself big questions so that one day I may understand them with more depth. Clearly, it only adds fuel to the flame when my roommates get me incredibly high on a regular basis. Check this out:

We have three brains.

The actual brain, is our motor. It's not like a computer, it doesn't remember anything, and it doesn't store little files like most people think. When you remember the feeling of a specific texture, it's because your skin remembers feeling it. When you remember a persons face, it's because your eyes remember that form. All of your senses remember things, your brain just processes it and sends it back to the sense you're using, just like how a motor doesn't actually run the car, it just processes the fuel.

The second brain is our heart, it's what gives us intention, purpose. When we feel a feeling that doesn't have to do with our senses, we feel it in our heart. You may see someone sitting on the cold sidewalk, you feel sympathetic, so you go out and offer them some food. Intent.

The third brain, obviously, is our stomach. Ever heard of gut instinct? Sure you have, but we don't actually think with our stomach the way it's joked about. The gut instinct is your common sense, it's what you use to weigh out the pros and cons of a situation. Do you ever think about going through with something that you know is a bad idea, and it gives you a bit of a belly ache? That's your instinct agreeing with you. It's important in both health and morality to listen to what your body is telling you.

They all work together, without even thinking about it. Some people go their entire lives without ever questioning it, without ever asking themselves why they do the things they do, and why their body reacts the way it does.

Every time you force yourself to do something you absolutely do not want to do, you're hurting your intent. Now, there's a great difference between forcing yourself, and just being courageous. There's a difference between knowing that you're going to hurt people and going through with it anyway regardless of moral standards, instead bucking up to take care of responsibility. The people that hurt their intent more often, are the people who quit listening to what their brains tell them. These are the people that work late nights in the corner office. The corner office that they worked oh so hard to get. So hard, in fact, that in the midst of hurting their true intent, they hurt and stepped on other people enough that they are now alone. They're bitter, and ruled now by raw emotion. They don't even know they're being ruled by it, they just know they've got to keep taking a daily prescription to keep from feeling the dark and empty pit it their chest. In their heart. Their hurt intent.

These are the people that are angry all the time, and don't know why, but it's easier to kick the family dog than talk about it. It's easier than asking for help. Not help with the chemicals in their head, help in asking themselves the big questions. Help in becoming reconnect with the rest of our brains. Help in finding new purpose (or old), and relearning that you shouldn't have to take so many substances to fix the indigestion, all it takes is fixing what was wrong.

And here's the quote: You've got to be the change that you want to see.

This doesn't mean taking a break from your miserable, intent-hurt life to fly to Africa and feed refugees. It could, if that's what you're intent always told you to do. If it's in your heart, and it makes you happy, as long as it isn't hurting anyone, then do it. All it takes is a change within yourself, not a forcible action to try and "fix everything". We all hear the cry of the planet, and the things living on it, and most of the time people shrug it off as "There's something wrong with the world" or "I just don't understand this feeling, why am I so unhappy?" It's because they forget, and over time nobody asks the big question "What IS wrong with the world? Why DO I feel so upset?" Without ever coming to the conclusion, it's true, all you need is love. Everybody's looking for happiness in all the wrong places, happiness is within. We don't need materialistic things, we don't NEED money, and giant houses, and greed. We don't need war, we don't need smothering peace. We need balance, and we need to pay attention. What is common for the spider is chaos for the fly (sneaky second quote).

[Radbaron]

From Commander Chris Hadfield, a response he had to a question got turned into a panel of comics.

And a random painting...



http://zenpencils.com/comic/106-chris-h ... ts-advice/

[MuchachoNL]

To get REALLY corny, my most inspiring quote, or life confirming quote as in "Yeah, that's how *I* live my life as well!" comes from Yoda.

"Do, or do not. There is no try."

Simple, yet effective... don't waste time in TRYing to get through college or whatever you want to do... Just do it. (like the Nike slogan)
TRYing to get somewhere means you're only doing a half-assed job on it, because deep down inside you think you can't do it anyway, so you don't put your heart in it.
My brother threw this at me when I was moping about ripping two jeans because I'm gaining more weight than I wanted to (yes, I'm a man, but my beerbelly is getting in the way of tying my shoes without me wheezing and gasping for breath because I can just *barely* reach them now ) and I was complaining that how much I wanted to try and lose some weight, but was too lazy for it etc.

He'd even go as far as imitating Yoda's voice and his sickeningly cute chuckle.
And he got me to that mindset of "You're right... I shouldn't just TRY and get this weight off, I just have to DO it." and immediately chucked every high-caloric snacks out of my house and got myself cucumbers, carrots, pickles etc. to snack on.
Lost 2 lbs. over one weekend already without even exercising yet.

My goal is to go from the 156 lbs. I weigh now, back to 135-140 lbs.